I'd like to write an addon to help people get the loremaster achievements.  What I  want the final product to be is fairly complicated, but to start I just want to make something that has a database of all of the quests in the game and is able to check them off as you do them.  I've never written an addon before, but I have written programs in C++, Java, and Matlab.  If anyone would like to help me or could at least point me in the proper direction, I'd be extremely grateful.

Not to burst a bubble early, but such an addon would not only require a fairly massive database (that is updated with each patch, etc) but would also be beneficial only from day 1... If you were to load it now, there is no way for the addon to know what quests you have already completed.

I know.  I was hoping that there'd be a way to hook into wowhead or some other such site.  And as I said, my idea for the final product is fairly complicated.  This is just what I want to have as a 1.0 release.

The only hooks into offline databases are done by uploading your information from gaming to them.. There is (as far as I know), no way to actively access something outside of wow.. Nonetheless, say you could get a list of quests in the game.. The game does not store info that is accessible to you on what quests you have done.. That info is stored solely on blizzard servers, so every time you log on, unless you store (quest xx completed), you will never know what you've done..

If there's no way to access an outside database, then I'll talk to the people behind Carbonite and Quest Helper and see if they'd be willing to tell me how to go about databasing everything that I need.  As far as the other part, I believe that there's an addon called Tourguide that logs what quests you've done.  I could also try to get ahold of the person(s) behind that addon and see if they'd be willing to lend me a hand.  The reason I started here instead of just sending the aforementioned people emails is because I'd rather try to get some volunteers from the community to help me get this project rolling rather than bother people who already have their hands full with their own works.

I know that the plan I have for 1.0 doesn't seem very appealing as it would only be truly useful to someone who has it installed from level one, but the plan I have for the finished product does indeed make it helpful to any player who is looking to complete all of the quests in the game.  I just want to start out with something simple that works perfectly as opposed to something complex that throws errors every five seconds.

Don't listen to these people that give you **** about what you are trying to accomplish.  I would kill for an addon that does what you say.  I currently use carbonite for this, but it is not very elegant at telling you what quest is which zones have been completed.  While this may not be good for my Level 80s, it would be AWESOME for my new alts starting out.  Keep looking for help and don't get discouraged by forum trolls!!!

Actually, I have a plan for how it would also benefit 80's.  I want to have the database not only know each quest, but also who gives them and the requirements for them.  I'd like carbonite to be able to hook into my addon so that people can choose what they want to track.  For example, someone wants to get Loremaster of the Eastern Kingdoms.  They could choose what zone they want to start with.  Carbonite points them to the first quest in its list whose requirements the player meets.  The player goes to the indicated NPC.  If there's no available quest, the addon marks the quest as done and moves on to the next.  While it's not pretty, it at least would give level 80's a way of systematically figuring out what has been done and what has yet to be done.  It would also give the player an option of checking off a quest as done if he knows for sure that he did it. 

I also want to have a feature whereby players can export their completed logs and merge them in game.  For example: Let's say I play at my house on the week days and my friend's house on the weekends.  When I go to my friend's house, I do some quests.  I then export the file and email it to myself.  I go home and download the emailed file and put it in my addon folder.  I go in game and merge the exported file with the in game data.  Voila, the addon knows which quests I did at my friend's house and properly checks them off.

As I said originally, I have lots of plans for the final product.  I just want to start simple so I can produce something that works in a relatively short period of time.

  Quote:

Originally Posted by bizzy401

Don't listen to these people that give you **** about what you are trying to accomplish.  I would kill for an addon that does what you say.  I currently use carbonite for this, but it is not very elegant at telling you what quest is which zones have been completed.  While this may not be good for my Level 80s, it would be AWESOME for my new alts starting out.  Keep looking for help and don't get discouraged by forum trolls!!!

We aren't trying to discourage the OP. Just pointing out the pitfalls. Afterall, if it were possible to create an addon that can backtrack to find out which quests you have done, it would have been made already. However, I have some suggestions, since I like the idea of this.

• talk to the people at wowhead.com to see if they are willing to give you a DB, even broken up. which might be better anyway
• use the achievement APIs to check for storyline quests being complete. example would be Veteran of Wrathgate. if you have the achievement, you have done the quests. same goes with some of the daily quests and World Event quests
• check if the player is Horde or Alliance, which will eliminate lots and lots of quests along with questgivers
• check the player's keyring. if you have Burning Crusade keys, especially Heroic dungeon keys, chances are those quest are done also

What I'm telling you, future addon author, is that while you will not be able to backtrack all quests and questgivers, you should be able to eliminate several quests if you are creative.

What I found is Java and Lua are very similar, so if you know Java, you should be able to get a feel for Lua easily. Some suggestions would be looking at http://wowprogramming.com http://wowwiki.com http://wowace.com (the guys there will help, but demand you post your code if you get stuck) and more than anything else, get the book World of Warcraft Programming by James Whitehead and Matthew Orlando.

I had planned on having the addon check the player's race and class.  It would then use that information to eliminate all unavailable quests.  I hadn't thought of using achievements to eliminate quests as well.  I will definitely add that in!  I won't use the keyring to assume that quests are done, but since some keys require quests, I can definitely use it do determine whether or not those quests are done.  Thank you very much for the support and I really appreciate the ideas!

No addon is capable of determining what quests you did before the addon was installed.  There are a number of existing mods currently that can track quests in a zone and tell you how close you are to hitting 100%.  For old timer 80s, it would be real hard for them to use a "check off" style addon since I for one have no clue what quests I completed 4 years ago in a zone.

I never claimed that I wanted the addon to determine what quests the user had done before installing it.  And for the old timer 80's who completed their Azeroth quests four years ago, how else are they to figure out what it is they need to do in order to get Loremaster?  I've been playing since about six months after launch and I'm in the same boat.  I remember what zones I went through, but I have no idea what I skipped or what I missed.  The 'check off system' that you're referring to is only meant for quests that you KNOW you've done.  For example, I know that I did the quests to get attuned to MC, BWL, and Ony.  I know that because I raided them pre-BC.  Because I know that, I can just go in and check off those quests.

If you go back and re read my post about how I want the final product to operate, you'll see that I want Carbonite to be able to hook into my addon and lead you to quest givers.  If you meet the requirements for a quest that the giver should have and it isn't available, the addon checks it off as unavailable.  This is the only systematic way for old timer 80s to figure out what 10 quests they still need to do in order to get Loremaster.  Otherwise we'll all be stuck running all over Azeroth hoping for ghostly exclamation points to pop up.

LiquidMetal: check the WoW 3.3 Patch notes:

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You can now query for a list of completed quests with “QueryQuestsCompleted()” then wait for the “QUEST_QUERY_COMPLETE” event, and call “GetQuestsCompleted(<luatable>)”.

Awesome!  That sure makes my job simpler!  Now if only I could find the quests in the .dbc files so I could put together the database...

Soon with an updates api function that is available on the PTR, this will be more feasible.. Talk is though that many people are working on such an addon already and testing it on the PTR.. I believe the person for QuestHelper is working on it but would be nice to see stand-alone versions as well..

I'm going to be getting the book that was suggested by myrrodin and will definitely be writing this addon if for no other reason than for my own experience and to give back to the addon community.  As soon as I figure out how I'm going to get the database I need I'll be good to go.

For what it's worth, QuestHelper (and I imagine a number of other addons) has every intention of taking advantage of the new command in 3.3 to allow people to see available quest givers.  Your milage will vary, but good luck to you.  Please keep in mind, though, that the people who have already generated history-tracking or quest-tracking addons are usually busy with their own addons and won't be likely to want to take time developing yours as well.

I believe I read someplace that blizzard is adding in a function to call up your completed quest history in 3.3

Yes! Myrroddin pointed that out.  It definitely simplifies what needs to be done.

  Quote:

Originally Posted by Crazyman99

I believe I read someplace that blizzard is adding in a function to call up your completed quest history in 3.3

See my quote above.

I have written an addon that does something similar to what you are proposing. It's called Loremaster and it's on Curse.

I thought Loremaster only tracked what you've done.  I want to write something that tells you what you have left to do.  I'll take a look at it, though.

I'm having a lot of trouble trying to figure out how to get the database.  I talked to the guys at Wowhead and they told me that there is a quest database somewhere in the .dbc files that I should be able to extract.  I've found programs that let me look through the .mpq and the .dbc files, but I have yet to find anything that resembles a quest database.  I also asked if they'd be willing to give me a one time export of their database and tell me how to go about finding what's changed in the patch, but I never got a response to that query.  I wanted to talk to the Wowdb guys, but the 'contact us' link isn't functional yet.  I suppose I could try allakhazam and thottbot.  I'm more than willing to do the work myself, but I can't seem to find what I need anywhere.

Part of me wants to write the addon without a full database.  Just make a small file with a few quests in it so that I can be sure that everything else works.  The reason I haven't is that I don't want to do all of that work only to never actually figure out how to get the database that's needed to really make the addon worthwhile.

I stumbled up on EveryQuest when I was looking at your addon.  The combination of the two does seem to provide nearly all of the functionality of the addon that I wanted to write.  The only thing missing is that I wanted the addon to know the reputation gains of quests as well.  That way players could simply choose the faction that they want to grind and it could tell them where they need to go.  Unfortunately, there's no way to have that without the database.

I can't make add-ons but I am deffinatly cheering you on to make this. I would love to go do Loremaster and this addon would be the ticket for me to do it.  Good luck!

Thank you!  I truly appreciate the support!