What's the deal with addons?

Electroflux

Most of the addons for this game are outdated and some essential ones like Research Assistant are broken, as in, creating frame rate drops and with a mixture of other addons, it actually freezes up your game every 5 sec, like a momentarily lockup.

I can't play the game without addons; I find that most of them are too beneficial not to use but it's very frustrating using them because if they're outdated, they just constantly interrupt you with GUI errors.

Luigi_Vampa

Contact the add-on authors or make your own.

Sparr0w

Luigi_Vampa wrote: »

Contact the add-on authors or make your own.

Basically, addon creaters dont get paid at all for making them, if they leave or take a break from the game theres a 0.1% chance they'll continue to update.

However new addons are always being released, look for similar ones.

Nestor

There are enough new or updated addons. For one Craftstore replaced Research Assistant and several other crafting addons.

Also, most out of date addons just need a header change to the current game version.

I lament some older addons that are not being developed or updated anymore that cant be used, but there are almost always some new version to replace them.

If the addon author has moved on, then take over the addon and update it. Just give credit where credit is due.

qbit

Most still work when out of date. The ones that don't are open source by their nature and can be updated yourself (don't publish without original dev permission). Regarding slowness, these are Lua scripts running, and some require a lot of CPU. Master Merchant, for example, uses tons of CPU when it does its initial guild sales scan when you load the UI.

I recall seeing some API changes on PTS notes that will make profiling of these scripts more robust. That means the developers will be able to see what parts of their addon use the most CPU if they are concerned about optimization.

And a big game-changer for add-ons: The SavedVariables are going to be written during game play if disk IO allows or at next load screen. Mods can request priority for the writes, etc. This is a huge deal for people that use the TTC client to upload listings (because that client checks for changes to its SavedVariables and reads and uploads them when they happen).

Mods that need to store data (like MM and many others) will be way less likely to lose that data upon a game crash. And you also now have good options to run your own scripts that backup these SavedVariables to external storage at regular time intervals. Basically, no more /reloadui and then alt-tab to Minion to make a backup.

Minion should now overhaul their backup features to schedule them at intervals and write to any storage available to Windows (which could include cloud storage, network shares, etc.). That would be nice. That data is extremely important to me. I'd die if I lost my addons and settings. Happened once. Will not happen again even if house burns to the ground.

Well, sorry to go off the rails. But yeah... When an addon author loses interest in the game, they'll probably quit developing for it. You have to hope someone else takes over development or an alternative comes out.

Donny_Vito

Electroflux wrote: »

I can't play the game without addons; I find that most of them are too beneficial not to use but it's very frustrating using them because if they're outdated, they just constantly interrupt you with GUI errors.

The bolded part is the real issue. Hope you get it worked out.

Luigi_Vampa

Sparr0w wrote: »

Luigi_Vampa wrote: »

Contact the add-on authors or make your own.

Basically, addon creaters dont get paid at all for making them, if they leave or take a break from the game theres a 0.1% chance they'll continue to update.

However new addons are always being released, look for similar ones.

Right, but a lot of times they hand over the add-on to someone or someone else picks it up.

bongtokin420insd16

try console, we don't even get them lol

Stratloc

Donny_Vito wrote: »

Electroflux wrote: »

I can't play the game without addons; I find that most of them are too beneficial not to use but it's very frustrating using them because if they're outdated, they just constantly interrupt you with GUI errors.

The bolded part is the real issue. Hope you get it worked out.

You can play without, sure, but I for one find the original ui really lackluster.

qbit

Stratloc wrote: »

Donny_Vito wrote: »

Electroflux wrote: »

I can't play the game without addons; I find that most of them are too beneficial not to use but it's very frustrating using them because if they're outdated, they just constantly interrupt you with GUI errors.

The bolded part is the real issue. Hope you get it worked out.

You can play without, sure, but I for one find the original ui really lackluster.

Yeah game wouldn’t be enjoyable for me. I enjoy playing with the markets and am in the minority on liking the disjointed trade kiosk system. Makes things much more interesting. But I couldn’t enjoy that part of the game without addons. Because the system is so disjointed and inefficient. I like the volatility of the eso trading system but not the inneficienfy. Kind of a catch-22, I guess.

Other UI addons are a must. I never found that one that tells you mechanics all that useful. But last time I tried it I was like level 15. It was information overload. But I tamed the beast that is S’rrendar after watching a video, so maybe that one needs the same treatment.