r/wowaddons • u/CardboardCoward_ • 9h ago
General Discussion Request for Addon Developers
I'm seeing many cool new addons for WoW Forever that I would have loved to have years ago when Classic launched. I can't thank you all enough for your efforts.
However I have noticed a large majority of them do not work for Classic Era. I'm not sure what the reasoning is here, maybe something legit difficult to do or just lack of demand.
I and many others who still play Era would be very grateful if you could make them work with Era if it's not too much trouble.
Thank You. :)
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u/LTinS 7h ago
The biggest issues are the API differences. A command that works in ERA doesn't work in Forever and vice versa. Additionally, various assets are different. Not all versions have access to the same icon IDs and item links. And for equipment addons, retail has different gear slots (no more wands, eg).
Since Forever is coming out soon, people are rushing to meet that deadline. Once that comes and goes, and the creators have played Forever enough to get settled, then I would expect some of them to make them compatible with other versions. If you have a specific one that you like, your best bet is to message the creator directly and show them there is an interest in other versions.
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u/dalorrian 8h ago
My plan for my addons is to get them settled on forever since that’s where I’ll be playin the most. Then back uploading to classic era and retail. The games are all just so different. So it takes a lot of consideration on all of my addons anyways.
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u/BreenzyENL 8h ago
We have no desire to play/test in other versions.
Speaking for myself, I quit just after Cataclysm, I have no desire to play retail or classic, Forever is what has me hooked, and I suspect many others are the same.
I think it would be ideal if people in the same boat as me put the projects on GitHub and encouraged a fork for other versions.
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u/-WhateverDude 6h ago
it's simply api and asset difference, which means more testing and more workarounds, don't have the time to test for a version i don't personally play
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u/Whiteshovel66 5h ago
Different addon api for era right? But you should just get a claude 20 dollar month and port them all over. I'm sure it would be easy enough. But some just won't work. Like the one that makes the herbs super easy to see is because of the interact key. That doesn't exist in era does it?
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u/troikatryne 1h ago
There are differences in API among others. But maybe AI would be able to port it over
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u/Bl4ut0 5h ago
Half of the work is getting the add-on to work in the 1st place. If it's operational on forever as long as the API layers can be translated any add-on will work on other versions (assuming access similarities) porting stuff to forever was new cause it was retail + classic. So most add-ons that work should be able to be back ported. I was able to update itemrack and keep era and sod and HC support while also supporting forever. But some of my other add-ons I finished in forever then back ported the rest and filled in the gaps for what was missing. :). Any addons you find the developers won't support on era. There's more than enough people willing to spend a few hours making it work on other versions. Agentic tools are great for that. And blizzards APIs are so limiting its hard to vibe code security issues into wow add-ons lol.
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u/Squirrel09 9h ago
Most of these addons are ai built. If you like one, and it's not supported just give whatever ai you prefer the link to that addon and tell it to "recreate for era, make no mistakes"
(Obviously more work than that... But still...)
0
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u/skepticalbrain 8h ago edited 8h ago
Forever uses the retail/midnight client that is much different than the classic era client. They added a lot of changes, new APIs and a lot of restrictions for addons in midnight&forever, so a lot of addons are not compatible anymore with classic era. Before midnight most addons could work in all wow versions with minimal changes, but this is not true anymore.