How To: Edit Global Strings

How To: Edit Global Strings
Current Wowcraft build: 4.0.6

You know what I don't like? Spam. You know what is spammy? All this crap:

Your share of the loot is 2 Silver, 14 Copper. (21 Copper deposited to guild bank)
Your share of the loot is 12 Silver, 27 Copper. (1 Silver, 23 Copper deposited to guild bank)
Your share of the loot is 12 Silver, 56 Copper. (1 Silver, 26 Copper deposited to guild bank)
Your share of the loot is 12 Silver, 22 Copper. (1 Silver, 22 Copper deposited to guild bank)
Your share of the loot is 9 Silver, 11 Copper. (91 Copper deposited to guild bank)
Your share of the loot is 13 Silver, 35 Copper. (1 Silver, 33 Copper deposited to guild bank)
Your share of the loot is 9 Silver, 27 Copper. (93 Copper deposited to guild bank)
Your share of the loot is 2 Silver, 92 Copper. (29 Copper deposited to guild bank)
Your share of the loot is 10 Silver, 25 Copper. (1 Silver, 2 Copper deposited to guild bank)
Your share of the loot is 13 Silver, 16 Copper. (1 Silver, 32 Copper deposited to guild bank)
Your share of the loot is 5 Silver, 12 Copper. (51 Copper deposited to guild bank)
Your share of the loot is 6 Silver, 51 Copper. (65 Copper deposited to guild bank)
Your share of the loot is 10 Silver, 92 Copper. (1 Silver, 9 Copper deposited to guild bank)
Your share of the loot is 12 Silver, 16 Copper. (1 Silver, 22 Copper deposited to guild bank)
Your share of the loot is 6 Silver, 93 Copper. (69 Copper deposited to guild bank)
Your share of the loot is 6 Silver, 24 Copper. (62 Copper deposited to guild bank)
Your share of the loot is 7 Silver, 38 Copper. (74 Copper deposited to guild bank)

You know what's not spammy?
Your share: 7 s, 38 c. (74 c to gbank)

Look how much less space that takes up. This is done by editing global strings. At first the task might seem daunting, but just remember you don't have to edit all the strings, only the one you want. Here is a quickie tutorial on editing global strings.

First, somewhere like maybe your desktop, or maybe a small storage folder next to your main Wow folder, make a New Text Document, then rename it to something like EditedGlobalStrings.lua (make sure it does not end in .txt). You will end up with 2 copies of this file, one in a 'safe' place like this where it won't get over-written, and the other will be your 'active' copy. Open up your file in Notepad or your favorite text editor.

Next, go to
http://wowprogramming.com/utils/xmlbrowser/test/FrameXML/GlobalStrings.lua
Do not be afraid of all those strings. You don't need to worry about most of them. Think of something you wish to alter, like "Your share of the loot". Use the find function (in MSIE you still need to use ctrl F, in Firefox you can just start typing /your share, and it will start the search) to look for the text you want to change. You may need to use F3, but you should pretty quickly find these lines:
LOOT_MONEY_SPLIT = "Your share of the loot is %s.";
LOOT_MONEY_SPLIT_GUILD = "Your share of the loot is %s. (%s deposited to guild bank)";

Copy that entire line into your EGS lua. Now, make the non-variable part (the %s part) say whatever you want. Mine look like
LOOT_MONEY_SPLIT = "Your share: %s.";
LOOT_MONEY_SPLIT_GUILD = "Your share: %s. (%s to gbank)";

This line is for when you are not grouped and loot money:
YOU_LOOT_MONEY_GUILD = "You loot %s. (%s to gbank)";

Save your EditedGlobalStrings.lua. Now we need to put it someplace where the game will know how to read it. You do not overwrite the base global strings in the core code of the game; those are always there. What you do is 'fool' the game into using your strings instead of the base strings. Sort of like having an apple on the counter every morning that you eat for breakfast, but one morning someone has put a banana right in front of the apple, and you take the banana instead. Mm, potassium.

The easiest way to do this is to choose an existing addon that you know you will run on every character that you want to be affected by your edited strings. I use Altoholic on every.character.ever. So I save my EGS.lua and close the Notepad, and open up my Interface/Addons/Altoholic folder and just drop it right in the main folder. Now we have to tell Altoholic to load that lua.

Open the Altoholic.toc (or the .toc file of whatever addon you are using). Go down to the very bottom and just add the name of your file, mine being EditedGlobalStrings.lua. Save the .toc, close the Notepad, and fire up Wowcraft. Now, all characters that have that addon enabled will use your banana-strings instead of the default apple-strings.

Just make sure to always edit your safe file and then drop it into the addon that you've told to use it. Whenever you update the addon that uses your active file, it will wipe out your lua and your edited toc, and you'll have to go put it back in and re-edit the toc. This is why you want a safe copy, one that is not in danger of being over-written.

As you play through the game, you can keep an eye out for things you wish would take up less space in the chat box, then search through the list up there, find the string, and play around with how you want it to look. Happy customizing!

Addons: GuildXP

Addons: GuildXP
Current Wowcraft build: 4.0.3

Whoops! Almost-kinda-maybe breaking my NYR already... to make one post per week. Mayyybeee if I count it as 'per raid week' I'm still good? It's only Monday night. (*shifty eyes*)

I like tracking things. This is why I like Overachiever and Altoholic and Ara Broker Reputations (which I call FactionsFu in my head half the time) and QuestGuru's tracking box. I like the new guild xp system. I wanted a way to easily see how much guild xp has already been gotten and will be gotten and... you know. Stuff. The whole point of LDB is to easily see whatever you want.

GuildXP (Curse|Wowi)is a tiny little thing that shows you some pretty handy stuff.


What you see in the LDB display (actually a feature I requested on his Curse page) is the Daily percentage remaining, which counts down from 100%, and the current level and percentage of the guild as a whole, which counts up from 0%. At first this was a little backwards to me, and I guess if I knew how to edit lua stuff I might change that, but after a while you get used to it. When you mouse over, the display drops down and spells stuff out for you. With the default guild interface, yeah you see the blue bar and you can mouse over for a bit of information, but it's so... general. GuildXP feels much more precise.

I really love the 'days till next level' feature, but I should point out that it continually calculates that number throughout the day. So, if your guild is has 22% remaining for the day but it's only 4pm and you're pretty sure you're going to get daycapped, GuildXP doesn't take that into account. It treats the moment you look as assuming that the day is 'over'. So really, the only time you can 'trust' the 'days till next level' is if no xp has been gotten that day, or if your guild is daycapped. On the other hand, it will never be off by more than one day. And if you're that paranoid about knowing exactly when your guild is going to ding the next level, please check out Wowpedia.org/Guild_advancement for the very large chart about halfway down the page.

I've noticed that often, GuildXP doesn't update unless you throw your mouse over it to get the dropdown to pop up for a second. But you know, that's ok. I'm sure the servers don't mind yet another addon pinging every 5 seconds anyway.

If you like more accurate percentages than the default ui can offer you, or if you like to be able to predict when the next level will come, check out GuildXP.

(No, this addon does not tell you when you will be rep-capped for the week. If you want to know, go to Roster tab, Weekly XP dropdown, find your name. If the number says 1575002, you are capped for guild rep this week. The internet needs to stop freaking out, like it's hard to figure out when you're going to be rep-capped. It's not. L2read, internet.)

Addons: Minimal Archaeology

Addons: Minimal Archaeology
Current Wowcraft build: 4.0.3

When I first ran into the Archaeology profession in the beta, I was very excited. You dug things up and put them together and got stuff! And there was lore! And it was fun! But when it went in on live, I realized there were a few... I might call them 'flaws' but I know they're really just design elements... that, in my opinion, seriously detract from the enjoyment.

First of all, you're going to spend the next couple of years of your life on griffons, flying between zones, just so you can go dig up three things and get back on a griffon and go to the next one. Wow. Can we say boring? At least there's old-world flying now, so you can just sit down where you need to go without fighting through loads of grey mobs.

Secondly, I will never ever do this on a character that does not have old-world flying, because I would spend all my time riding to the place, killing tons and tons of mobs just to get to one dig, then do that twice more, and then griff my little butt to an entirely different zone to do it all again. No thank you.

Thirdly, since there is no way to control or even really know what area will pop next for you, you constantly have a dilimma: do I fly next door to get that troll/fossil site that just popped up, just so I can clean it out and hopefully get a site I want to pop; or do I fly all the way across the continent for the dig site I want and hope that I didn't just spend ten minutes on a griffon for three digs?

Fourth, there is no way in-game (and there probably wouldn't be, it's not within the scope of the in-game tools to tell you things you don't know) to see a list of all available projects and compare them to the ones you've already done, to know if you should still bother digging up troll and fossil sites. Oh wait!

That's what addons are for.

Meet Minimal Archaeology (Curse | Wowi).



No, it's not Archy. I know everyone is all up in the Archy and I won't tell you to not use Archy, unless you just feel that Archy is the equivalent of the professional painter's 300-color oil paint set when all you want to do is draw a smiley face now and then.

Minimal Archaeology does two things.
1. Shows you in the main window how many fragments for each race you have (with the option of auto-including available keystones), and gives you a Solve button that lights up when ready, as displayed in the upper half of the screenshot.
2. Gives you a list of All Possible Artifacts and tells you what you have and haven't completed, as displayed in the second half of the screenshot.

There's a few more options such as 'play a sound when something is ready to be solved', but generally? Minimal Archaeology is really... minimal. And that's kinda nice.

It probably won't make me do archaeology any more often than I already don't... but I know that whenever I do get the bug to pop in a movie and watch it while flying around from zone to zone... to zone... to zone... that this handy-dandy polite little addon will be there, ready to tell me at a glance all the important stuff with no extra fluff.

Addons: Ara Broker Reputations

Addons: Ara Broker Reputations
Current Wowcraft build: 4.0.3

Let us all observe a moment of silence for FactionsFu.

FactionsFu was introduced to me by my friend Greta. She was all, "You like grinding rep! You'll love this addon!" And I was all, "ehhh, more addons." (This was back in the day, you can tell.) We were in Nagrand, I recall, working on the Nesingwary quests, so my main was all of... 64, 65 or so. And Greta pressured me to get it, so I said 'ok'.

Greta, did I ever properly say thank you? Thank you. FactionsFu lasted me all throughout my vanilla, BC, and Wrath rep grinds. It was there with me while I went Insane. It doggedly survived the Cataclysm impact.

Now I can finally lay it to rest. Sleep well, dear FactionsFu. You might truly have been my favorite.



Fortunately, the legacy lives on. Aranarth has given us Ara Broker Reputations.


Ara Broker Reputations works 99% the same as FactionsFu. The only difference I've seen is that you can't link factions to zones. If that feature were available, I'd use it, but I barely miss it not being there.

Ara Broker Reputations is a native LDB plugin, so it works perfectly with your ChocolateBar! By default, it uses the Blizzard color scheme, where everything Honored and above is the same shade of green, but there's an option in the right-click menu to change that.

If you liked FactionsFu but find it doesn't work anymore, get Ara Broker Reputations. But drink a draught to its spiritual father, because ABR wouldn't be here had not FactionsFu been here first.

Gear List: Warrior Tank, 85 pre-raid

Gear List: Warrior Tank, 85 Pre-raid
Current Wowcraft build: 4.0.3.

Pysche! This isn't even my list. The entire point of this post is to say go check out Kadomi's awesome Cata pre-raiding gear list for warrior tanks! At least 3 choices for every slot (except our poor neglected range slots, come on Blizz, not even a 325?), organized and prettified and everything!

Check it out! What are you waiting for? For me to post again? Well if you insist.

Addons: CompanionClone

Addons: CompanionClone
Current Wowcraft build: 4.0.1

Are you in a raid and see someone has their Spring Rabbit out, and you want yours out too? Don't poke through ten pages of un-searchable non-combat pet icons; CompanionClone it!

Are you in an RDF and someone has their Stinker out? Don't waste valuable time searching for one of your Black Cats; CompanionClone will choose the purr-fect playmate!

See someone boasting that they have a SuperRarePet? Take their epeen down a notch by instantly pulling yours out for comparison. Your pet, I mean. CompanionClone works as fast as you can target a non-combat pet and click a macro or an LDB icon.

COMPANIONCLONE (Curse), now available at Curse-dot-com, for all your noncombat-pet-cloning needs!

CompanionClone has recently been upgraded to include MountClone support, and comes with a free LDB plugin to fit snugly into your ChocolateBar. Don't delay! Download today!

Warning: CompanionClone is only able to clone companions and mounts already owned by the cloner any attempt to clone an un-owned companion or mount will result in an unobtrusive error message only for use by licensed individuals do not attempt without the appropriate training the maker of CompanionClone LuaCayenne is not responsible for any cloned mount which lasts longer than four hours use as directed.

Addons: Long Live wMarker

Addons: wMarker
Current Wowcraft build: 4.0.1

LuckyCharms2 is dead. Long live wMarker!

I am sad beyond words that I did not find this addon months ago (although to be fair, it appears to have been uploaded the first time on Aug 20, so... two months?).

Nearly a year ago, I made a post in the WowInterface forums, asking for recs for a good LDB raid-icon marking addon. I got six replies, but sadly, none of them worked out. One was flat-out broken, one was not a click-to-assign-icons at all, and 3 appeared to do exactly what LuckyCharms2 did, only less well. The sixth was an addon called OPie, the coolest-looking addon that does not fit my playstyle in any way I could think of. And I tried so hard to make myself find a reason to keep it, but for me, it was more of a hassle than a help.

I really just need to click a mob, and click a skull, and the mob will have a skull. Click a mob, click the x. And ideally, this dream addon would fit into my ChocoBar.

When 401 hit and LuckyCharms2 became Do Not Resuscitate, I wondered how long I could last without a raid icon marking addon. The answer: about three minutes of combat. So I dug up my old thread and prepared to edit/bump it with a new impassioned cry of "help!" But something in the back of my head said, 'go check out those old recs.' So I did.

They still didn't look like they were going to work for me. But then the little voice went, 'well, before you post, look through the Raid Mods category. maybe you'll get lucky."

I got lucky. Ecstatically lucky.

Meet wMarker (Wowi).

wMarker frame locked from moving.

wMarker frame unlocked and ready to move.

wMarker by itself doesn't plug into an LDB frame. In fact, I had to go into ChocoBar's settings and reassign it's strata to be 'Background' (or 'Low' or something like that). Once I did that, wMarker 'rides over' my ChocoBar, and kinda pretends it's an LDB addon. Kinda.

wMarker with no border, top and center of my screen, with ChocoBar strata set to Background.

If you DL wMarker from Wowi but you don't have 'load out of date addons' checked, you will need to toc-cheat it to make it work. Don't worry, it won't break anything. And wMarker does not appear in your Interface Addons list, you will need to use the '/wm options' command to open the options box.

I could break into all-caps right now and start exulting about how freakin' happy I am that this addon exists, and that I found it and it works and YAY. But you can just imagine me over here, squeeing over a simple raid marking addon. I'm happy ^__^.