Greedy Goblin

Monday, September 13, 2010

Stolenlegacy's addon

Treeston from our guild is writing an addon under the name Stolenlegacy. The addon is available on curse.com. It is a gold bid addon and it contains practically everything I could ask for (especially since he put in the stuff I asked for).

The addon behaves differently on the client and the master looter side. Let's see the client side first. After installation, an ugly blue box appears that can be pulled to any locations where you want your bid windows. Then you type "/gdkp config" and check "lock". The blue window disappears. After a boss dies, little windows will jump up:
You can remove any of them by clicking on their top right corner. You can mouseover the item icon and see what it is and you can bid by minimum amount pressing the bid button, by exact amount typed in the window and by pressing auto-bid. That case a little window jumps up asking for your maximum price. The addon will automatically press bid for you until this price is reached. You can see the time left by a cooldown spiral on the item link. If the time is up, the item is won by the top bidder.

The bidding happens on the /raid chat, people without addon can bid by typing "[itemlink] gold" and can see other bids. You can hide this spam by "/gdkp config", appearance options.

Now let's see the loot master side! You access these options by being loot master in a raid. At first you can manually auction anything by "/gdkp auction [itemlink]", but that's mostly for testing. By typing "/gdkp vercheck" you get the window below.
Actually the names are missing, you must get the list first by pressing "request version data". By the "notify" button you can also whisper everyone in the raid with outdated version.

If you open a loot window, your loot master window will allows you to auction all items by pressing "announce and auto-auction":
When you press it, the mentioned loot windows open for everyone, including yourself. The auction parameters like minimal bid, increment, time until end, second bidder compensation and much more can be set in the "behavior options" of the configuration screen.

If you mouseover the "Auction history" button, you see a history of all items and manual adjustments. You can manually adjust with the + and - buttons, they are needed if you fine someone for screwing up, or you pay to an early leaver or to someone who gave the fish:

When the auction ends, the balance window will show how much one shall pay. So if X wins an item with 1000G bid, "-1000" will be next to his name. As soon as he trades the gold, his balance fixes. The toggle button allows you to hide 0 balance people.


When the raid ends, you can press the Distribute button and it divides the pot equally, set everyone's balance. You can change it to give out booster's gold. As you trade them, their balance fixes.

I will update this post as the addon evolves. It's still beta but I would recommend it to anyone.
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Energybomb from the guild had a little problem with someone wanting a portal:

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not so sure people expecting free portals are complete morons. I suspect they DO get free portals and without too much effort, suggesting there is a sea of free portal giving mages out there. Those are the real morons. Looking for a lower price and finding it is good business sense.

You could argue that the time spent by paying 5g is the better choice, but the lost time is an opportunity cost, not an actual cost.

Kurt said...

@anonymous#1

An opportunity cost is an actual cost, but that's a side point.

You are right in that trying to get something for free is not in itself necessarily moronic, although it is disrespectful. However, this person was going about that the wrong way, he wasn't trying to appeal to socials, he was being aggressive and argumentative. Thus, he's a moron.

Anonymous said...

The guy wanting a free portal is a moron. He is the same person who thinks "I farmed the mats therefore it is free", just with a different face.

Treeston said...

You forgot to mention that it remembers how much you already distributed and doesn't distribute that again (useful for distributing in break, you don't have to reset after anymore) and that you can auto-hide the ML window in combat.

Very recent changes, don't think you've updated yet.

Anonymous said...

I didn't mean to imply that this guy isn't a moron. Just that he isn't a moron because he wants a free portal. He is a moron because he appears to think he is entitled to a free portal.

Being aggressive and argumentative with someone who clearly isn't going to give him a free portal anyway doesn't make him a moron either. At worst it makes him an asshole. It is perfectly possible to be both a goblin and an asshole.

Anonymous said...

Perfectly possible and almost hand in hand. ( in the eyes of socials) everyone seems to forget that while opportunity cost is actual cost, you do not see gold leaving your bag if your not making x gold per hour, so it isn't clearly visible and most people would argue that in a video game it doesn't exist as all the time spent playing is designated "free time"

Anonymous said...

Yes, that is the distinction which I was trying to make between opportunity and 'actual' cost. The opportunity cost to this guy was probably just 5 minutes of bunny hopping around Dalaran on his rainbow pony. That probably isn't worth 5g even to him.

Armond said...

I started demanding 20g of anyone who randomly whispered me for a portal. Perhaps I didn't get as many sales as I might with a lower price, but it was damn nice being left alone.

Derrek said...

@the first anonymous, commenting the below quote

"Just that he isn't a moron because he wants a free portal. He is a moron because he appears to think he is entitled to a free portal.

Being aggressive and argumentative with someone who clearly isn't going to give him a free portal anyway doesn't make him a moron either. At worst it makes him an asshole. It is perfectly possible to be both a goblin and an asshole."


You should've inserted an "I think that" at the beginning of each sentence. The guy is a moron for expecting free portals. A true goblin doesn't expect mercy nor kindness, he always assumes that his competitors are just as smart as he is.

On the second paragraph, sometimes being aggressive and argumentative is bad (maybe even moronic). WoW is not a place where you discuss philosophy or a proper code of conduct. Goblins can be assholes, but this might also be bad. Deteriorating your reputation can have negative consequences on your future business.

Squishalot said...

Well, other than the immediate question about whether 'Energybomb' is a legitimate name, I do wonder why he didn't point out the actual cost of creating a portal - having to purchase the requisite materials. That would represent a much more obvious "it costs money" than "I wasted time leveling a mage".

After all, presumably, he didn't level a mage purely for the ability to make portals, so he's not expecting a return on that time spent. What he's actually expecting a return on is the time spent to make the portal, and the cost of the materials required.

To be honest, it almost sounded like a rant - "I did all this work to get to where I am, and you want to leech off me, waah waah waah." There was no education of the 'moron' about the actual cost of creating a portal. Badtobaco appears not to know that there is a material cost to portals. There was an education opportunity available, and Energybomb didn't take it.

(No, he's not required to either. But to complain about the M&S without attempting to help them move on from being M&S is irrational and moronic in itself.)

Squishalot said...

By the way, Gevlon, I just noticed your comment that you didn't think 'Onemanzoo' was wrong at all.

'Onemanzoo' is a druid. The name refers to the fact that the druid can transform into several different animals that you would find in a zoo - a seal, a panther/lion, a bear, a moonkin (which could be in a WoW zoo, perhaps).

In my mind, it's clearly no different from labelling a character 'Ispammutilate' or anything else that is purely a reference to in-game abilities, and nothing more.

It is not an RP name in the sense that it is the combination of three separate words with a very specific meaning, and does not fit in with any lore in the way that 'Whisperwind' or even 'Stabsalot' does.

Just FYI.

Anonymous said...

I am a gnome stabsalot, energybomb is just fine as an rp name, especially considering I am an engineer.

As for the cost: I also demand a fee when I craft something. I can assure you I didn't level another gathering proffesion purely for the perks. Yet, I don't craft for free, because as with being a mage, I used time and money to reach the level were you require my skills.

Except if you actually craft for free, thus not interesred in talking with you anymor.

Anonymous said...

Inserting 'I think that' in front of every sentence is a waste of space. Of course it is what I think. I am the one writing, not you, not Gevlon.

Expectations aren't based on what a 'true goblin' would give you. To paraphrase something Gevlon has said repeatedly, if everyone was a goblin then there wouldn't be any economic profit: the profitability of everything would approach the profitability of doing dailies. It is precisely the recognition (and exploitation) of the fact that not everyone is a goblin that makes a good goblin.

ardoRic said...

"You can remove any of them by clicking on their top right corner."

There should be a visual cue that the top right corner is clickable. For that functionality a little "x" there is pretty standard.

Anonymous said...

what happens in the case of identical items dropping from a boss?

two marks for example.

is there one auction and the 1st and 2nd bidder get one each?

is there two simultaneous auctions so one person could bid for both at the same time and possibly win both?

is there one auction carried out then a second one started? this possibility could allow the second item to go for a much lower price.

Squishalot said...

@ Anonymous (stabsalot):

None of what you said has addressed my points in any way, shape or form.

If I can summarise what you said:

1) "Energybomb" is ok because you're an engineer.

Well, no, it's not, in the same way that Arthasdk isn't ok.

2) You ask for a fee when you're crafting because you didn't level the profession for the 'perks'.

Firstly - you level a mage so you can perform as a mage, not so you can sell portals. If you do the latter, then you've successfully accomplished perhaps the worst gold-to-time investment ratio that I've ever seen out of a profit-making idea.

Alternatively, if what you're saying is that you'll profit out of a crafting profession, even though you leveled it for other reasons, then you haven't explained your reasoning for anything. You've simply stated "I do this" and expect it to be taken as an explanation for why I'm wrong.

And in any event, that doesn't go any way to address the moronic fact that Energybomb didn't attempt to teach the pleb that there is a material and opportunity cost to making a portal for him.

3) If I craft for free, then you think that I'm not worth talking to.

I don't craft for free. I didn't level a mage for the sake of portal-making either. But I explain clearly to freeloaders why I'm not giving them a free ride. I'm saying Energybomb is the moron for expecting uninformed people to be informed when he himself doesn't make an effort to teach them.

Anonymous said...

Paying for portals covers the inconvenience factor you face.
The end to end interaction to make someone a portal is 30seconds. Usually it occurs when I'm checking my mail, crafting or scanning the AH.
5g is expected on my server. Quite often they give 20g without asking.
In trade people commonly offer 20-30g begging for a port to Dal.
It didn't level a raiding/crafting mage to be a taxi service. If you interupt me, 5g (600g/hr) and a bit of courtesy is the least I expect.
If people complain about the price I suggest they check the cost/time to walk/ride/fly to Dal from IF.
Flight Path from Valgarde to Dal is about 2g50 I think.