Bizzard to launch Quest Helper UI in 3.3
Posted on November 20th, 2009 by Gustava under Addons, World of Warcraft
- Say Hello to our newest Author here at DominateYourServer.com. He is known by many names, Gustava amongst them, we sent him out into the field (PTR) and he’s come back with quite a bit of info to share with you. Blizzard has announced some really big changes to the game in the coming patch: most classes are getting buffed, cooldowns are getting reduced, new dungeons are being added, not to mention the loot, but this is rather special.
Blizzard has decided to give us something most players use to help them level, only, Better! I have tested it and find it easy to use for new and returning players alike and a welcome addition to the existing features of the current interface. Below, I’ve put togehter a list of the some options Blizz has stated in various blue posts since patch 3.3 was announced:
Quest Log
We added a new “Show Map” button on the Quest Log. The “Show Map” feature highlights any quest in the log and will pull up the map for the zone in which the corresponding quest objectives are located.
Map
When viewing the large zone map (’M’ key), players will notice that all quests they have for that zone will be automatically tracked. In addition, this large map is now separated into four separate interface panes.To the right of the map, all active quests for that zone will be listed by name and be represented with a number. These numbers will be placed on the map highlighting areas of interest for each quest.A third panel below the zone map will give players the full quest text for any highlighted quest, while the fourth pane will display the quest reward. The quest map tracking feature is enabled by default. Players can disable this feature and restore the map to its original state by un-checking the “Show Quest Objectives” box in the lower right corner.
Areas of Interest
All areas of interest in a zone will be represented with a number corresponding to the number assigned to each active quest in that particular zone. When highlighting a specific quest, the corresponding number on the zone map will be highlighted as well.If the area of interest is large, for example, and a player needs to kill a number of quest creatures or collect quest items found within a large area on the map, the entire questing area of interest around the number on the map will be shaded blue.If quest objectives can be accomplished in multiple areas of the zone; for example, certain creatures need to be killed for a quest and have several different locations, the map will automatically display the nearest area of interest in proximity to the player.
Shrunken Map and Objectives Tracking
When viewing the large zone map (’M’ key), players can click the arrow in the top right corner to bring the zone map out of full-screen mode.The map will show all areas of interest for the zone; however the other three interface panes will be removed so players can still view their character, spells, and abilities with the map open. The standard quest objectives window has been improved and will now show numbers next to each quest displayed, or a gold question mark if the quest has been completed.The objectives window is now docked below the mini-map, next to the right two action bars and can display up to ten active quests in the zone. Players can toggle between minimizing and maximizing this quest objectives window at any time by clicking on the red arrow in the top right corner of the objectives frame.
Quest Difficulty Tracking: no more being lost now
This feature is turned off by default and players can choose “Color Quest Difficulty” under Objectives in the Interface Options menu to enable it. Enabling this option will color-code all quest names in the new map interface according to the player’s level (grey, green, yellow, orange, and red).This new feature has been built to work with nearly every quest in World of Warcraft with only a few exceptions. For example, if a quest requires that a player turns in some sort of cloth or other trade goods that can be purchased from other players, the map will not display an area of interest for where these items can be found.
All other quests, whether they require players to slay groups of creatures, gather some type of quest object, or hunt down a single specific target, will be tracked on the map, provided that the player is viewing the map of the zone in which these objectives can be completed.
Quote from: Blizzard (Source)
””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””’
The conclusion
After quite a bit of field testing on the Public Test Realm, I have to say that I really like this interface. It’s everything Blizz is making it out to be. I won’t even be sorry to see my quest and map mods go, this does most of what they do just as well if not better and won’t cause nearly as many bugs. It’s about time Blizz made this part of the game.
No more alt-tabing out of the game to find information on a quest giver or the exact location (coordinates) of a quest items. No more wondering if you’re in the right zone. No more downloading super complex mods that take up the whole screen and are so hard to configure that you just rather use the default UI than mess with the countless pages of options.
This is an Orientation Revolution! The only thing better than this little wonder would be someone doing the quest for you … and that would take all the fun out of it.
This new interface should make it significantly easier for the newer players to find what they are looking for in-game and the old timers will welcome the change as well. Regardless if this is your first run through Azeroth or your 22nd DK, the new Quest Helper User Interface will help you Dominate and level faster then ever before.
Thanks Blizz!
Bravo! Great Article. I can’t wait to see this in action. (off the ptr that is) Next thing Blizzard needs to do is add a gatherer mod.
Great article!
Another good thing is no more need to constantly update your quest mods!
Can’t wait to try this!
Great article!
Well…looks like a quest helper ripoff to me..but in a way thats a very good thing, since I have personaly used quest helper for over 2 years now and its always been the standard as far as I am concerned. So yes, Blizzard was very smart to emulate such a popular, stable and effective addon.
World of Weirdcraft.net your source or all things WOW
I am not sure if it works this way, but I wonder if things might be smoother for everyone…we gotta assume that the majority of veteran players know about Q-helper and thus use the mod, as well as mods that add POI etc.; this stuff is bulky….I know it slows my WG fps so much that I have an almost “mod-less” PVP setting (Khaos is great for that). Hopefully it will coded in a more sparing way as part of the game (we know they shoot for lowest common denominator) thus making all of our frame rates improve. I could be way off on that, I am not a programmer and have never messed with .lui stuff other than popping them in my WoW addon folder. And as Advantus points out, Qhelper was always partially wacko every new patch and would require multiple (often daily) updates. I reserve judgment until the 20th, but if I can pare down a couple more mods off my overburdened list, I assume that will be a good thing. Ultimately it does take a little bit of the story-line focus away, but those who want to take it slow can always toggle it off until they actually need it for help.
Now if they could just include FloTotem and Auctioneer….
whoops…today is the 20th…i misread the opening, thought they were launching patch on 20th… doh!
Will your horde leveling guide (Gavin’s Horde levling guide) be updated to interface with this? Will it still be necessary? I’m not trying to put words in your mouth – how will this new feature affect your guide?
-Matt
I personally use QuestGuru, Light-headed, and Tom Tom for questing, etc. If the ingame quest log does what they do, then I am going to be really impressed. If not, I’ll use my mods thank you very much
I have found that the in-game “mods” that Blizz provides do not always work nearly as well as the mods I use. I would love it if my fps and latency issues would be fixed, but that’s just not going to happen as long as I have mods and Blizz has server issues. My latency and fps, for the most part, are manageable. It’s only when Blizz is doing something in the background that causes mine to blow up.
I love your quote at the end of the article… No clue where is comes from, but it was fun to try to figure out just what exactly you intended to say… :
This is an Orientation Revolution! The only this better then this little wonder is someone doing the quest for you … and that would take all the fun out of it.
My best guess is that it was intended to say “The only THING better THAN this WOULD BE …”
hahaha
Yes, Sorry, I missed that one on the spell checker …
This quote is so good I had to correct the article. Thanks for pointing it out.
Well, I have to say I am a happy camper with this news. I run as few mods as I can get away with. I know that sounds silly but that is just the way I roll online.
I hate forgetting to shut off my mods and slagging out in WG. It does make a difference. On this computer I can stream a movie for me AND a different one for the kids on the big screen at the same time BUT slag out in big WG fights if my mods are running.
I am sure there are people out there far more talented in computers than I am and could run WoW in full graphics on a 486 and still not slag out in WG with every mod in the world running, I am just not one of them. So for me, Quest Helper, as wonderful as it has been, is a non-essential mod and will be uninstalled as of patch day.
I do however fell that Blizzard should give a tip of the hat in some way or another to the original creators of the mods they incorporate into the game, but that is just my opinion.
Sigh… remember you had to work at WoW?
I am all for making it easier on a player once they hit 80. If they roll an alt in the same faction, then they should get a break. But if this is your first run through, I think it should go back to the old way.
It kills me now that I can get an alt up to 80 in less than a month… with a full time job and two kids.
I am totally in accord here. First time should not be with anything like QH. I even found the intro of the “sparkles’ for quest items, herbs, etc. a cop out. I like a game to be challange – it’s part of the fun.
One of my all time favourite games was Baldur’s Gate – but unless you could play it full time and explore every move point on every map, not to mention the time to explore the different ways to defeat a boss – it was virtually impossible to finish without occassional glances at a walkthrough. But I am against “walkthroughs” in principle for playing a game myself.
However, after saying that, I bow to QH for leveling alts – I don’t think I could level alts without QH – it would be too much of a grind. So if Blizz’s new QH like interface does the same job as QH – then it’s goodbye to QH and I hope Blizz has done the right thing here and rewarded the QH dev team.
great artical well done rots and wamome i hear yuh but thats why we have dominate on fenris to help all those that rushed to 80 on there 1st toon
You didn’t mention if it has a built in “gps” arrow. I use Cartographer for the arrow. Does it have an arrow to point me in the right direction or do i have to keep looking at the map??