Since we are getting closer to a new release, I wanted to give you guys a little overview of all things that will be fixed, and maybe the new features that will be in the next version.
General
- We are thinking about using another system for the version number. The goal is to have our version number correspond with the WoW version number. So, the next release might have a version number of 1.6.X.Y. The first two digits will match the WoW Version number, the last two will be used internally for Bug Fixes and stuff.
- We finally resolved the issue with the Multi Byte characters. Probably this won't say much to you, but it was a big issue for us. What it does mean for you guys is that Character names with special characters like àáâãäåæçèéêëìíîïðñòóôõöùúûüý and a few others will now upload correctly and be displayed the way they should be.
LUA ( WoW Mod )
- The mod will now correctly keep track of Mob Kills.
- The mod will now correctly keep track of Item Drop counts.
- When a mob drops a stack of 3 items ( eg. 3 Silk Cloth ) it will now be counted as 3 drops instead of 1.
- Fixed the bug where you receive an error message when looting a Mob you didn't kill.
- Fixed the bug where you receive an error message when selling loot to an NPC while you don't have the NPC targetted.
- Added some new information logging to the Mod. I can't give you too much detail on this yet, since we still need to implement the necessary changes in the WebPages and searches. But I can say that I like it and other Gatherers will love it too :-)
Client ( Upload Application )
- The client will now correctly upload Mob Kills.
- The client will now correctly upload Item Drop counts.
- Fixed some more BDY Parser Errors. I wish to thank the community here for their patience and sending in their saved variables file so I can track down the reasone why our parser fails. Special thanks to Toader for showing us that there was a serious issue with Multi Byte characters. Though he probably doesn't realise it, he helped us track down the issue and ( hopefully ) fix it.
- Apparently if the ClientLocale identifier was the first WNE related line of data in your SavedVariables file, then it wasn't read in, causing you to receive the Client Locale not supported, even though it was 100% correct. This bug should now be fixed.
- The client will already upload the new info ( see LUA topic )
- The client will now correctly send an EMail to us when you receive a parser error. You will be presented with a little dialog in which you can supply your EMail address ( se we can contact you if necessary ) and write a little Message Body.
Web Pages
- First Seen By no longer displays your WWNData profile name, it will now display the name of the preferred character for your profile. This was requested by quite some users. You can see a sample of what I mean here : ( http://wwndatatest.worldofwar.net/item.php?id=19127 )
- Drop rates on the Web Pages will now be calculated correctly ( we will have to reset the DropCount and MobKills prior to launching the new version though. But now the numbers in those fields are incorrect ).
- We have added some additional numbers to the Drop rate displays. Those pages will now also include the number of times the Mob was killed and the number of times the Item dropped. This was done in the first place to allow us to see if the actual Drop Rate was correct. Depending on the Community we will remove those additional numbers or leave them in.
You can see a sample of what I mean here : http://wwndatatest.worldofwar.net/item.php?id=4306
- World Objects have made their appearance on the WebSite ( Read Further for more Info ).
- We have added a feature to the Mob / NPC / Object Search ( Previously Mob Search ) which allows you to search on a specific World Object Type ( Mob, Plant, Mineral, Treasure, Other ).
So, what is this new stuff you guys keep hinting about
WWNData is proud to finally present one of its new additions which we named World Objects
Yeah the new thingie we added got a new Name and we had to rework some of our internal structures to make everything fit into this schema.
Eeum, World Objects ? What are those supposed to be ?
Well, now that I have everyone's attetion and everyone is thinking what are those WWNData guys talking about, I'll try to explain it a bit in detail. In the World of Warcraft world most of the Objects you encounter and can interact with are so called World Objects. A World Object is actually something that can be found at some Location(s) in the World of Warcraft world.
So you guys decided to give Mobs a new name, and that's it ?
Well, the answer to this question is both Yes and No. Yes, every mob is in fact a World Object, since a Mob can be found at one or more locations in the World of Warcraft world. But it doesn't end there. There are many other things which are considered World Objects.
Ok, now you have my atention, but WHAT other things are you talking about
Well with this concept we can actually do a lot of things. First of all our Mobs fit into the World Object category. But of course this wouldn't be enough to change our whole Database Structure. In the future we will also be able to use the same structure for other things like Herbs, Mineral Veins, Quest Objects, Treasure Chests, ...
Sounds interesting, can you give us some more info ?
Well now that our intial internal testing is done, I can give you a little more info on this. Since Mobs, Herbs, Mineral Veins, Treasure Chests, ... are now all treated as World Objects, all those things will offer us the same functionality as mobs including :
- Store loot information
- Store Location information
- Display maps where the World Objects were found
- ...
That is all nice and stuff, but we want to see the real deal :-P
Well, since you insist
Remember these are just some pages on our Test server. The contents and layout might change and we havn't finished the pages completely.
Ok, here we go. Lets take the example of the Briarthorn plant :
http://wwndatatest.worldofwar.net/mo...ame=Briarthorn
As you can see, it is treaded like mobs and it will be treated like all World Objects. You can clearly see what items were yielded by picking the plant. As I already mentioned this page hasn't been finalised yet, we will still change some things around. But if you have a look at it, you will see that not only it shows what items I got from picking Briarthorn, but it also displays the Maps where I have been picking Briarthorn. This will be very useful if you are a resource gatherer.
Remember the same thing will be available for Plants / Mineral Veins / Treasure Chests.
Ok, if we take a look at it from the Briarthorn item, you will have a better idea of what we are thinking about. This page has already gone through some changes, and it still isn't final yet. But it should give you a clear indication of what I mean.
This is the Item page for Goldthorn :
http://wwndatatest.worldofwar.net/item.php?id=3821
You notice you have the same Item Information as you used to have before ( some numbers were added and the Drop Rate got corrected ). But you will also see a Block of Information called 'Picked From' which will display all Plant types we collected Goldthorn from. If Goldthorn would also drop from a Mob, there would be a similat block called 'Dropped From'. If it was also received from Mining some Mineral, or from a Treasure Chests you would see a similar block called 'Mined From' or 'Obtained From'.
We still have to decide if we will seperate the maps in the same blocks or leave one set of maps with all locations where we received Goldthorn due to a Mob Drop, Treasure Chest, Picking Flowers, ...
So that is again a question to you guys. Do you want seperate maps for each of those ( maps displaying where you picked plants yielding Goldthorn seperate to maps where you received Goldthorn as a drop, ... ), or should we leave them combined just like now on the test server.
Oh, this is nice, when will that be available
Well so far the new LUA is logging everything correctly, the new client seems to be uploading it as expected. The new WebPages are still under heavy construction. I had a little talk with Rushter and we think it might be a good idea to update the LUA and Client so it already starts collecting all that information and uploads it to the server.
It might take some time before the Web Pages are finished and working the way we want them to work, but meanwhile we could already start uploading the information we want.
Hey didn't you forget something ?
No we didn't forget anything, there are two options missing because they arn't working perfectly yet :-P It is our goal to offer something similar for Skinning Loot and loot received by Disenchanting items, but we still have quite some work to do there.
So, that's it for today. If you have any comments, suggestions or remarks on this, feel free to post them in this thread so we can at least have a look at what our users think and maybe change a few things around.
Regards,
Annunaki
Linear Mode
