Classic CensusPlus

[bringoutyourdead]

Started looking at how I would implement a Classic version of CensusPlus.

First question I have for members.

What is the lowest character level you would like to see tracked.

I want to eliminate very low level characters... bank alts and throw away character names.
So I am thinking either level FIVE (5) or maybe TEN (10)

What are your thoughts on this?

[Balgair]

Five represents an hour or so's play to the average non-speedrunner, enough to eliminate many throwaways, but I believe some bankers lvl that high so they can learn enchanting, so it may still get a few.

Ten is probably ideal; I certainly wouldn't want it to start any higher than that, as even lvl 10 takes a bit of effort to reach, but starting that high would probably be the best compromise between overloading the database with throwaways, while still collecting most characters which have some effort put into them.

With that said, I'd personally like the addon to do all lvls like in the old days; it's interesting to see the full range of characters, especially in the early days of launch (ok, we probably won't have it released for the first few days but hey!), so the above is really for the website, if a website database becomes possible.

[bringoutyourdead]

One of the nice things that Blizzard has done, is that they seem to have learn from their mistake.. all realms have unique names.

[bringoutyourdead]

Second question:

Do you like the options window as it is now in live..
or would you like the addon to revert to the way it was back in vanilla days?

[bringoutyourdead]

Oh we might be able to add back in the automatic mouse-over & focus tracking of other faction characters.
I had spent so much time.. only to have cross realms come along and break it right after I had gotten the code working correctly all the time.

[Balgair]

Yep! The only crossrealm will be in battlegrounds; as I recall, back in TBC Censusplus had to disable that feature in battlegrounds as it made the client crash lol. I'd hope modern WoW code wouldn't make it that bad, but maybe worth reinstating that feature as a safeguard if the mouseover tracking returns

As to the options window I quite like that; can't remember fully back to vanilla but I rather think it was command line only? If so, then keep the window please

[bringoutyourdead]

I went with options window due to the fact that I expanded the options to the point that commandline would be just way to klutzy.

Just realized.. I want to also get rid of the double level line.. as we won't need it.. until Blizzard releases.

World of Warcraft - A Burning we go again.

World of Warcraft - Lich King Lich King, who needs a King
(Shortly after Disney buys the company and demands they incorporate references to Disney movies... care to name the movie this references?)

and last but not least (as least as long as they can rake in the money)

World of Warcraft - When Worlds Collide.

[bringoutyourdead]

To unconfuse the last post...
I was very tired and mixed up the display that is on Warcraftrealms.com to the display on CensusPlus.

However ...
At this time, I am finished with first pass editing for the new REDACTED addon.
Will this work on first try.. almost certainly not, but I expect few typo bugs.
The larger problem will actually be entering into a realm, considering my real life work schedule and predicted wait times.
I may not be able to get in until late Saturday morning.

I am keeping the disable on entering Battleground trigger, not that I think the addon will crash.. but I don't want to take away any cpu cycles for those players.

I thought about ending at display level REDACTED but decided to end with level 10. But that could go back to level REDACTED after further discussion.
I am bumping that up the line.. so the addon may run all the way down to level 1 or not.

This is due to level REDACTED again not being that major for leveling Production & Fishing professions.
Gathering professions won't be impacted.. as all nodes will be camped by chinese farmers.

The only change or non-change still to be determined is how the main addon window structure is modified.
If WoWClassic was going to be the only official variant of World of Warcraft, I would just revert and shrink the window.
But even though I was kidding about the naming of other variants.. Blizzard has already said effectively that yes they considered and prepared for other reboots.

[bringoutyourdead]

Good news, Bad news

Due to my work schedule, I was able to get logged in over night and before local sunrise..
but I discovered that I have a bit more unraveling to do with the connected realms code.

I was able to do a lot tonight... but that is only due to the fact I am at home and feeling 'under the weather'.

My family lied when they said I shouldn't notice, too much, the weather change between Silicon Valley and Central Texas.
For the last two months our local 'Heat Index' (how hot it feels {Actual temp + humidity impact}) has been well over 100 nearly every day.
Thank God for Willis Carrier (the inventor of modern air conditioning.)

My expected time to finish may still be nearly the same, but it won't be done until it is done.

[bringoutyourdead]

The classic version of CensusPlus is correctly gathering census data.

However I am not yet pleased with the display in game for that data, so work continues.

[BuGsY]

Nice to hear you're making progress, can't wait to replace the makeshift one with yours.

[bringoutyourdead]

As soon as I am happy with how things are going, I will be sending copies of the code to both Metalbeast and Rollie.
The former so he can have real data to better plan the aggregation of Classic data,
and the later so he can retain ownership in the addon.
While I remain as the active maintainer.

Too many addons over the years have died on the vine, due to the owner losing interest in the game.

[bringoutyourdead]

Nearly there... more testing in progress

Here is the screenshot... oh wait.. the service I used no long allows links

sigh

You just have to take my word for it, for now.

[Kanegasi]

Upload the screenshot to imgur then post the link: https://i.imgur.com/l5eWZbD.png

[bringoutyourdead]

Thank you.
I had hoped someone would again post that site link.
Balgair had some at least one time in the past.. but memory is fallible.

https://imgur.com/a/g0vrje5

[bringoutyourdead]

OK.. the release candidate has been sent to our wonderful beta tester.

She has only one instruction..
BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF IT!
oh and report anything that doesn't seem right.

Rollie also has a copy to reserve the addon name as under his control.

If you should happen to find it published.. note it is just a testing version..
this site (or a newer site) may, or may not, be able to handle the output currently coming from this addon.

There are two debug statements left visible for performance tracking.
The total number of queries created and sent to Blizzard.
The average time to process a query in seconds.

Opening the main window is much slower.. there is a noticeable delay on my notebook computer
while it processes all the characters to generate the guild lists for the current logged in realm.

But then the one realm I have been testing on: Atiesh has contributed over 32K characters in the last three days of very off peak testing.

This is not the final ready to go release:
I need to go back and verify Blizzard hasn't added more realms to the NA/EU/Oceanic regions that Classic has launched under.
And I am sure bugs will be found, as I got the code working not but fully tested.

*** Note this is still the standard language limited version... Sorry to our Asian and Russian players, as the site just can't handle the character set changes to allow your languages.

[FuxieDK]

First question I have for members.

What is the lowest character level you would like to see tracked.

Not playing Classic and have no intention of it, I HATE HATE HATE that retail doesn't support /who for 1-19.. Personally, I want all toons to be trackable from level 1.

But not sure if my opinion counts here.

[BuGsY]

First question I have for members.

What is the lowest character level you would like to see tracked.

Not playing Classic and have no intention of it, I HATE HATE HATE that retail doesn't support /who for 1-19.. Personally, I want all toons to be trackable from level 1.

But not sure if my opinion counts here.

I would like an option to exclude brackets, 1-30, I don't need to know if someone is "trying" a class, if they make it past 30, they I consider them part of population and they can be counted.

Can both options be done with just a check box in config?

[bringoutyourdead]

Confirmed.. New versions or expansions of World of Warcraft is a leading cause of sleep deprivation.


Sorry guys.. Blizzard said NO to FuxieDK
and I say no to BuGsY... but..
If you use a standard text editor like Notepad
you can change this line in the addon file CensusPlus.lua
local MIN_CHARACTER_LEVEL = 10;

(currently it is the 78th line in the file.. but that may change slightly)

[bringoutyourdead]

I have confirmed that a user accidentally trying to run the classic version addon on the live client will not damage CensusPlus data.. unlike the CensusPlusClassic fork.

As the coder doing the testing.. I am not seeing anything that fails what I expect.
We will see what our beta tester finds.

I was not able to re-enable the Unit_focus or Unit_mouse_over as I had removed the hooks out of the code right after I had released that version of the addon due to Cross Realms going active.

Does anyone still have CensusPlus V6.0.0 laying around? I can't find my copy of that one.
It was the initial Mists of Pandaria release.