Are there any alternatives to PerfectTargets/SmartAssist that are actively maintained? I'm still using SmartAssist but it's a huge memory hog and was abandoned just after the 2.0 patch. PerfectTargets seems to have suffered a similar fate.
I don't care about targeting - I used SmartAssist both pre-2.0 and post-2.0, so I know the limitations and have become used to them. I just want a list of mobs being targeted by the raid, accompanied by the following info (i.e. the informational part is what I want):
- Easy way to find out how many and who is targeting what. It really helps to see who is confused or isn't paying attention sometimes.
- Raid target icon and preferably Hunter's Mark and CC indicators of some kind.
- Goes without saying, but indication of whether one of the targets is my current target.
I use MainAssist for easily configuring assist keys on-the-fly. It does do a target display in the fubar tooltip, but it's not really presented in a way that's easy to read when a lot is going on. It also doesn't cover the second point above.
As for PerfectTargets, Thrae has also not touched his fork for about 4 months now, so I don't count it as actively maintained.
I havn't touched may of my mods in longer than 4 months, don't think that's any indication of their status.
That's not a point that I'm interested in debating, other than to say that I do think it's a sign of neglect when an addon author doesn't even bother to bump the TOC after a major patch revision that includes significant addon API changes.
It seems noone knows of anything, so I'll stick with SmartAssist for now.
Many mods work just fine after patches even with an old toc version number...
Just because it hasn't been updated doesn't mean it doesn't work, and doesn't mean that you shouldn't try it :)
(did that last sentence contain quadruple negatives? o.O).
PerfectTargets I don't like as much as SmartAssist because:
- it lacks a list of who specifically is targeting each target (SmartAssist shows this on mouseover tooltips)
- its layout is less customizable (leading to issues with truncated mob names).
SmartAssist has some problems too though:
- it is a memory hog
- it seems to have lost the ability to properly indicate CC'd targets
The concept is ripe for a nice modern Ace2 addon imo; if I had time to work on nontrivial addons, it would be high on my to-do list.
On the general issue of using old addons, I prefer to avoid this because there inevitably will come a time when they cause taint or cascading problems with other addons that are hard to track down, and I just don't see it worth dealing with all that baggage. It's also a lot more advantageous to use an addon that is actively maintained (even if it lacks a feature or two) because there's actually some hope that the author might implement bug fixes or ideas for improvements. I really do think that SmartAssist and PerfectTargets are for all intents and purposes dead and abandoned addons at the moment; as time goes on they will become increasingly dilapidated, and this is a shame because the concept that they implement is a very useful one.
I havn't touched may of my mods in longer than 4 months, don't think that's any indication of their status.
That's not a point that I'm interested in debating, other than to say that I do think it's a sign of neglect when an addon author doesn't even bother to bump the TOC after a major patch revision that includes significant addon API changes.
It seems noone knows of anything, so I'll stick with SmartAssist for now.
I bump the tocs in my SVN, but I don't push out releases unless something changed. It's the "OMG I MUST BUMP MY TOC" mindset that brings down the addon sites every patchday. Only push out an update for a SIGNIFICANT change.
I bump the tocs in my SVN, but I don't push out releases unless something changed. It's the "OMG I MUST BUMP MY TOC" mindset that brings down the addon sites every patchday. Only push out an update for a SIGNIFICANT change.
That's not the point (I also have differing opinions on that but I don't want to derail the topic further). The simple fact is that SmartAssist and PerfectTargets have not been touched in months because they have been abandoned by their respective authors:
Thrae has not posted on ui.worldofwar.net or his GoogleCode site since late February, and his fork or re-write or whatever of PerfectTargets is still labeled as beta. There have been a good number of issues reported on ui.worldofwar.net.
Paranoidi stopped activity on his site and SmartAssist in January, and his site has since been down more often than not. His Trac database also stopped working a long time ago.
Knowing this, I decided to start this thread in hopes that someone else might have been working on a similar type of addon, or even a fork of one of the already existing ones.
*cough* Every single one of my Ace addons is beta and will never be "final" :P PTarg isn't abandoned, I still use it, it does everything I need. If Thrae improves it then so be it. Not being changed does NOT mean abandoned. I try to write addons that I won't have to touch again, and 2.0 aside, Blizzard rarely breaks addons...
*cough* Every single one of my Ace addons is beta and will never be "final" :P PTarg isn't abandoned, I still use it, it does everything I need. If Thrae improves it then so be it. Not being changed does NOT mean abandoned. I try to write addons that I won't have to touch again, and 2.0 aside, Blizzard rarely breaks addons...
Here's what Thrae said about the one beta he released:
For now, please help test. I think I'm finally near release. Note the frame will only show up if you are in a party or raid.
The release was intended but never happened, and if you read the posts on ui.worldofwar.net you will see that it is not because of a lack of issues needing to be addressed.
There are outstanding, unaddressed issues that people have reported. Communication and activity from the authors has ceased quite some time ago. You're splitting hairs trying to claim that they have not been abandoned.
I'm not claiming it's not abandoned, I'm flat out telling you it isn't. PTarg is MY addon and I have NOT abandoned it. My version works. Thrae adopted it and is working on improvements, but he hasn't released them... but that doesn't mean the mod is abandoned. When he goes final I'll relinquish control completely to him, but that will likely include a rename (current plan is to name it Dradis last I knew).
I'm not claiming it's not abandoned, I'm flat out telling you it isn't. PTarg is MY addon and I have NOT abandoned it. My version works. Thrae adopted it and is working on improvements, but he hasn't released them... but that doesn't mean the mod is abandoned. When he goes final I'll relinquish control completely to him, but that will likely include a rename (current plan is to name it Dradis last I knew).
Well I just tried using PerfectTargets and it doesn't work because of some kind of Dongle problem - probably because I am using the latest version of PerfectRaid.
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Curse PremiumPerfectTargets I think Tekkub might still have, but he had said it would be informational only when 2.0 hit...
I don't care about targeting - I used SmartAssist both pre-2.0 and post-2.0, so I know the limitations and have become used to them. I just want a list of mobs being targeted by the raid, accompanied by the following info (i.e. the informational part is what I want):
- Easy way to find out how many and who is targeting what. It really helps to see who is confused or isn't paying attention sometimes.
- Raid target icon and preferably Hunter's Mark and CC indicators of some kind.
- Goes without saying, but indication of whether one of the targets is my current target.
I use MainAssist for easily configuring assist keys on-the-fly. It does do a target display in the fubar tooltip, but it's not really presented in a way that's easy to read when a lot is going on. It also doesn't cover the second point above.
As for PerfectTargets, Thrae has also not touched his fork for about 4 months now, so I don't count it as actively maintained.
That's not a point that I'm interested in debating, other than to say that I do think it's a sign of neglect when an addon author doesn't even bother to bump the TOC after a major patch revision that includes significant addon API changes.
It seems noone knows of anything, so I'll stick with SmartAssist for now.
Just because it hasn't been updated doesn't mean it doesn't work, and doesn't mean that you shouldn't try it :)
(did that last sentence contain quadruple negatives? o.O).
PerfectTargets I don't like as much as SmartAssist because:
- it lacks a list of who specifically is targeting each target (SmartAssist shows this on mouseover tooltips)
- its layout is less customizable (leading to issues with truncated mob names).
SmartAssist has some problems too though:
- it is a memory hog
- it seems to have lost the ability to properly indicate CC'd targets
The concept is ripe for a nice modern Ace2 addon imo; if I had time to work on nontrivial addons, it would be high on my to-do list.
On the general issue of using old addons, I prefer to avoid this because there inevitably will come a time when they cause taint or cascading problems with other addons that are hard to track down, and I just don't see it worth dealing with all that baggage. It's also a lot more advantageous to use an addon that is actively maintained (even if it lacks a feature or two) because there's actually some hope that the author might implement bug fixes or ideas for improvements. I really do think that SmartAssist and PerfectTargets are for all intents and purposes dead and abandoned addons at the moment; as time goes on they will become increasingly dilapidated, and this is a shame because the concept that they implement is a very useful one.
I bump the tocs in my SVN, but I don't push out releases unless something changed. It's the "OMG I MUST BUMP MY TOC" mindset that brings down the addon sites every patchday. Only push out an update for a SIGNIFICANT change.
That's not the point (I also have differing opinions on that but I don't want to derail the topic further). The simple fact is that SmartAssist and PerfectTargets have not been touched in months because they have been abandoned by their respective authors:
Thrae has not posted on ui.worldofwar.net or his GoogleCode site since late February, and his fork or re-write or whatever of PerfectTargets is still labeled as beta. There have been a good number of issues reported on ui.worldofwar.net.
Paranoidi stopped activity on his site and SmartAssist in January, and his site has since been down more often than not. His Trac database also stopped working a long time ago.
Knowing this, I decided to start this thread in hopes that someone else might have been working on a similar type of addon, or even a fork of one of the already existing ones.
Here's what Thrae said about the one beta he released:
The release was intended but never happened, and if you read the posts on ui.worldofwar.net you will see that it is not because of a lack of issues needing to be addressed.
There are outstanding, unaddressed issues that people have reported. Communication and activity from the authors has ceased quite some time ago. You're splitting hairs trying to claim that they have not been abandoned.
Well I just tried using PerfectTargets and it doesn't work because of some kind of Dongle problem - probably because I am using the latest version of PerfectRaid.
2 errors listed.
and
Any help on how to get it back would be nice.
Or tips of an working addon with the same functions that being actively updated and more easily acessable for information/updates/bug reports.
I would also like to see this, which is why I started this thread :) The idea is great but noone seems to be running with it atm.
Unfortunately it seems like all Tekkub addons are now aoficially abandoned as stated ibn he's last post on the forum.. :/
Bummer. I wish I had time to work on addons - this would be the first idea I'd work on I think.