Battle for Azeroth

Balgair · Post by **Balgair** » Sat Nov 04, 2017 4:15 am

Next expansion announced, you'll have fun with this one, SIX new (sub) races

Alliance: Void Elf, Dark Iron Dwarf, Lightforged Draenei.
Horde: Nightborne, Highmountain Tauren, Zandalari Troll.

Some of those should be already covered by what we learned regarding Hunters and Demon Hunters, ie, if the existing race name is in the new name, it'll pick them up already. Of course, assuming the /who system doesn't change!

Oh, and there's a little matter of an announcement of Classic WoW

I can tell you the original Censusplus addon works on private realms with only minor edits, so that side shouldn't be too hard, adding support into the website would presumably take a good bit more effort but would be really cool if it was at all possible! You've got tons of time anyway, the announcement was purely "it's coming", no more, so I don't expect it for at least a year, probably a good bit more.

Post by **bringoutyourdead** » Sat Nov 04, 2017 12:00 pm

Made this a sticky thread.
A request to all and any, If you see any notices of new expansion specifics, please post them with source URL (if any) to this thread.
The sooner I have the needed information the more likely CensusPlus V8.0 will be ready on or shortly after BfA goes live.

Expect to see screenshots of possible addon window modifications to support the new race types.

As far as this sites readiness for BfA.. we will just have to wait and see.. as I am no longer involved at all with that..(it has been mostly Metalbeast's coding anyway since he owns the site.)

In regards to Classic WoW... well I have almost all the CensusPlus versions so we are ready to go..

Ok maybe not.. I expect that we will need to create a new database tree for that version. It all depends on how Blizzard rolls out the Classic version, will it be integrated into the standard client or exist as a totally separate client?... as J. Allen Brack said.. he was nervous about how to implement classic in their current environment.

If separate then we will probably will see CensusPlus and CensusPlus(?Classic?)(?ice_cream?)

If integrated then CensusPlus will probably get code to determine which server type is active and then branch to the appropriate code tree.

I don't see (at this time) having both server types being treated as a single merged data file.

If having the two server types works well for Blizzard then I could see them somewhere down the road having each expansion pack live on different servers types. Not that I expect that ... the cost to support all the various expansions at the same time probably can't be recovered by increased revenue.. and they are in the business of making megabucks per month.

Balgair · Post by **Balgair** » Sat Nov 04, 2017 8:33 pm

Cool, current info on race/class combinations: https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/battl ... lied-races

Alliance:
Lightforged Draenei: Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Warrior
Void Elf: Hunter, Mage, Monk, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior
Dark Iron Dwarf: Unknown

Horde:
Highmountain Tauren: Druid, Hunter, Monk, Shaman, Warrior
Nightborne: Hunter, Mage, Monk, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior
Zandalari Troll: Unknown

Tonight's Q&A said every acount gets 6 more character slots to allow for all these new races

So expect an influx of new characters with 8.0 and especially with the expansion (not confirmed if new races are released with 8.0 or expansion release)

By the lack of detailed info on most systems, I think there's no way they're as far into development as they were on Legion when that was covered at Blizzcon 2 years ago so I'd guess it's not going to be till autumn 2018 or later, plenty of time.

Classic is likely to be even longer, who knows though, info on that is basically nil except it's happening! I love the idea of seeing multiple expansions available, but yeah, costs and splitting what's going to be a niche community to begin with makes it unlikely. For all I love the idea of classic and will play it, the naysayers who say most people who try it won't stay are quite right; it's a huge contrast to modern day WoW and won't suit everyone - I'm just convinced there's still a large enough core interest for it to work out ok

At least you won't have much database size problems with classic, just prune the below lvl 10s regularly

Balgair · Post by **Balgair** » Tue Apr 24, 2018 2:00 pm

https://us.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/20762318007 - might well be that none of this is relevant, but here's a blue post of addon code changes for 8.0

Post by **bringoutyourdead** » Tue Apr 24, 2018 5:04 pm

Interesting... None of these changes will impact CensusPlus at first glance.
But it is good to know Blizzard has gone back to getting the API interface info out to the addon developers again.. like they use to with the initial releases of WoW

Post by **bringoutyourdead** » Wed Jun 06, 2018 4:44 pm

Just finished my (probably last) census upload for the current version.. time to do the last push to prepare the addon for BfA.

Does anyone (outside of Blizzard) know the class options for the 7th and 8th new races
Zandalari Trolls .. Found this info from wowhead
Kul Tiran Humans.. druids.. hmmm

Do they become available (after doing the reputation quest lines) on release of BfA? or will that be something for a later patch?

Balgair · Post by **Balgair** » Thu Jun 07, 2018 10:13 am

Not sure anybody outside Blizzard knows yet! I THINK they're a later patch; the first ones available during the initial "war campaign" questline available on release will be Mag'har orcs and Dark Iron dwarves, the others will I assume be later on. So hopefully not anything to worry about imminently, also hopefully more likely to drop with a major patch rather than completely randomly like the first lot did!

Post by **bringoutyourdead** » Thu Jun 07, 2018 11:26 am

I guess the artwork for the new race icons are not yet in the beta code... at least wowhead has not mined them yet.

Post by **bringoutyourdead** » Thu Jun 07, 2018 12:37 pm

Code seems to be done.. except for the missing artwork.
(Using demon-hunter art as placeholder.)
I may tweak by a pixel or two the left border of the class section.

FuxieDK · Post by **FuxieDK** » Fri Jun 08, 2018 12:11 am

With all the Allied Races comming, wouldn't it be better to have only old races (up to and including Pandaren) in the window, and then have a selector to switch between old/Allied races?

We are at risk, that the race window becomes very wide, how it's currently done.

Post by **bringoutyourdead** » Tue Jul 03, 2018 1:44 pm

The problem with that approach is that you would have to toggle back and forth between standard and allied races to compare numbers.
I don't know about you, but there are some days... where I can't keep those numbers in my head while switching

And as an update:
release candidate code is being testing on both PTR and Beta, it looks good so far.
Translations need to be finalized.
I hope to have the missing artwork before the pre-patch 8.0.1 goes live, if not there will need to be another release when the artwork has been released.

Since I expect Metalbeast will not be able to get the site ready, I have started editing local copies of the files needed to update the site. The databases have already been updated.
Considering I do not have a test environment for the website changes, we might see problems on the site if I don't get all the code changes correct on the first attempt.

Post by **bringoutyourdead** » Tue Jul 03, 2018 1:47 pm

ALSO.. AS A REMINDER

Since I do not play WoW any longer... I do not keep close watch of Blizzards announcements and actions.
I NEED YOUR INPUT...
If there are any release announcements or activity on Blizzards part for the release of Battle for Azeroth.. please let me know here!!!

FuxieDK · Post by **FuxieDK** » Tue Jul 03, 2018 10:58 pm

bringoutyourdead wrote:If there are any release announcements or activity on Blizzards part for the release of Battle for Azeroth.. please let me know here!!!

Release: 18/8-18
Pre-patch: Week 28 or 29

FuxieDK · Post by **FuxieDK** » Sat Jul 07, 2018 3:37 am

bringoutyourdead wrote:The problem with that approach is that you would have to toggle back and forth between standard and allied races to compare numbers.
I don't know about you, but there are some days... where I can't keep those numbers in my head while switching

Then maybe crop the window to a size that match the "true races" and add a slider in the bottom?

Balgair · Post by **Balgair** » Sat Jul 07, 2018 9:03 pm

I like seeing all races including allied together, maybe if BOYD has time for any redesigning (which I suspect will not be right now; he has enough to do to get the addon and website functional in time for launch!), a space saver could be pruning the guilds pane down to a button that opens a popup window or similar.

Maybe others use the guilds list but since you have to select a server to show anything I never even look at it unless I'm testing the addon (and even then I usually forget). So for me at least that bit of the window is wasted space - but others might use it all the time!

And in any case, unless the lvl bars are to be made narrower, there isn't a lot of space that can be saved now, especially allowing for future expansions... lvl 120 is about 90% of the way across the window as it is.

Post by **bringoutyourdead** » Mon Jul 09, 2018 5:42 pm

Release process notes:
CensusPlus V8.0.? Release to both distribution sites.
WarcraftRealms continues to accept V7 and not yet V8 data.

A: Players will install the new CensusPlus and attempt to use it on V7 WoW client.. it will fail

B: Players will wait until Blizzard downloads the final part of the pre-patch and the WoW client updates to V8.0.3(?), then install the new CensusPlus.. this will work.

Blizzard will restart the servers with the new V8.0.? version and ..
I will shut down data acceptance on WarcraftRealms ,
I will then update the upload processing files and verify with a test upload, then release uploads for V8 data.. V7 will no longer be accepted.
This means get your last V7 uploads to the site as soon as possible... or the data will not be shared.

A day or so after V8.0 is up and generating data, I will work the final updates on the Census.php data display and update the output to include the next two races
Dark Iron Dwarf and Mag'har Orc.
Of course there will be no data for those two allied races until BfA goes live.

When Blizzard throws the switch for BfA on 14/8/2018(EU) 8/14/2018(US) CensusPlus and Warcraftrealms will already be ready.

Will there be a typo fix it patch for CensusPlus between now and then... sigh I expect so.

FuxieDK · Post by **FuxieDK** » Thu Jul 12, 2018 10:37 pm

Pre-patch have now been confirmed to land 17-18/7-2018

Post by **bringoutyourdead** » Fri Jul 13, 2018 2:53 pm

Yesterday the next CensusPlus was declared ready for upload.

This version will be uploaded to the distribution sites the day before the pre-patch is released.
Remember do not attempt to use this addon with the existing V7 client.. as the api interface changed and it will fail until the V8 client is active on your system.

Changes:
All new allied races are encoded.. but not all are finalized as Blizzard has still not released some information.
Currently the Dark Iron Dwarf and Mag'har Orc race icons are temporary icons pulled from the PTR client artwork files.
The Zandalari Troll artwork seems to be finalized, the Kul Tiran Human artwork is Missing at this time. ( I have used a copy of the 'Captain Placeholder' art for now.)

EDIT: as I type this my PTR client is being updated, possibly the missing artwork will be in this new update. (Interesting.. the latest patch is dated July 6.. but it didn't get put into the upload queue until July 13.)
EDIT2: artwork of interest did not show up in the newest PTR release.

Where possible and practicable all redundant race sub-queries have been suppressed.
As Balgair has noted Night Elf and Void Elf are still run separately to avoid the requirement to sub-divide the queries as much as possible.

Due to naming choices the German language client includes the sub-query for "Mag'har" race, where the other supported languages do not need that as the race is seen by them as "Mag'har Orc".

I wish to publicly thank Balgair again for her continuing support testing all the various CensusPlus updates.
Without her support these updates would never have been as timely nor as ready to go.

Post by **bringoutyourdead** » Sat Jul 14, 2018 5:38 pm

And today a newer build for the PTR... they finally added max level? build for class testing.
for my account max level is 100... maybe they just have level 100 as a starting point.. instead of starting at level 1.

I am exporting the art again... and in an hour or so.. and thousands of files.. I will start trolling for the icons... which should be there.. as they are in the character creation page.

Post by **bringoutyourdead** » Sun Jul 15, 2018 2:57 pm

Found the artwork...
had to export the game interface code files and read the code.
It is interesting to see how the coding style standards have change over the years.

Where in the past they had individual files for each graphic image... now they have a master file and index the view port for each token they are using (at least on the race selector)

So for each race you see on the character creation screen you see the program uses this image.

Sigh... it appears photobucket has gone corporate rogue... and has earned themselves a failing F grade with the Better Business Bureau.
I need to find some other service to upload images to show on the forum.

I was going to show you an image file extracted from the client code... where a graphics designer was obviously bored.. he/she duplicated a Blood Elf male icon and defaced it with bottom of ear studs, exaggerated lip outlines and bushy eye brows and eye liner lines.

Short story, tomorrow I need to do some graphic editing and extract the missing icons into the .tga format for the addon.