Addons in Swtor

[Khevar]

I played BM hunter in TBC, I literally had one button spam, 1:1 rotation, only timing my CD's depending on fight

You found that fun?

Edited September 17, 2014 by Khevar

[AshlaBoga]

If they only spent half of their budget they've burned on voice-acting and added basic features like chat bubbles, in game parsing so we can kick people without alt-tabing, and give away API so we can get some real raid frames instead of this joke we have here it would be awesome. ž.

 

I disagree with that statement, the devs have stated that VA is a relatively small part of their budget. If they hadn't spent 2-5 million USD on the Blur trailers (Return, Hope, Decieved), then that money could have gone to the game instead.

[CKNORTH]

No Freaking way, you want an addon get a security key that's an addon... Here is a Homer Simpson for you! ~(_8^(/)

[Jeweledleah]

And? What's the problem with that? I played BM hunter in TBC, I literally had one button spam, 1:1 rotation, only timing my CD's depending on fight, but you could still suck

 

This game is heavily lackluster when it comes to some basic stuff, like chat bubbles, in-game parsing, UI is horibad for healers, you can't even set raid groups horizontally, engine is both bad and highly limited when it comes to performance.

 

If they only spent half of their budget they've burned on voice-acting and added basic features like chat bubbles, in game parsing so we can kick people without alt-tabing, and give away API so we can get some real raid frames instead of this joke we have here it would be awesome. ž

 

But my guess, RP-ers and BW fanbois are against it. Si9mply because they want to keep sucking and be dead weight. Or it costs BW too much. Can't really tell.

 

what a crock of ****.

 

1. parsers you can use with the game right now? allow for overlay. at least torparse and parsec do. but I'm so sorry, that you reccount junky cannot just arbitrarily kick people becasue they actualy have to concede to join the raid group parse before you can see their numbers. booohooo. (this only affects pugs anyways, and GOOD)

2. you haven't done much fiddling around with raid frames, have you. oh they are not perfect, and the biggest issue with them is that you cannot specify precisely which buffs or debuffs you want to be shown (but you can still have larger debuffs, allowing for cleansing etc) if you cannot manage with current frames? YOU are terribad, not the frames.

3. oh lord, you HAD to bring up BC era BM hunters.... you could suck. but you would suck not becasue you weren't spamming a button fast enough, but rather because there was still a pet involved, pet that you had to know how to control for full dps output (that and back in those days, which pet you had and whether it was trained actualy mattered) and even then, the fact that you could macro everything to a single button? was NOT good design and it was NOT good gameplay.

 

improvements can be made without addons. I wonder just how much effort and money Blizzard spends both trying to figure out how just how much of the API to make available in order to prevent crap like original decursive (you know the one that cleansed automatically without you having to do much more than hit the cleanse button) or original healbot (that was literally a bot - you didn't need to know any of your heals or know how to use raid frames - it did everything for you, a little nodding bird could heal successfully with original healbot) ever existing again, and when they don't quite manage - how to stop those things from working.

 

not to mention... have you tried playing WoW without addons? even with glacial updates that they implement, its still nearly unplayable. base UI is awful, there are so many features that I've been taking for granted in SWTOR that you HAVE to have an addon for in WoW. mail addons, selling trash addons, resizing and rearranging cast bars addons, minimap and regular map addons... I cannot even have fading map without having to get an addon. I want to do arenas? I need gladius (or whatever addon that is current nowadays) just to see who is on the other team - something I get in TOR automatically. the problem with relying on addons is that they stop being optional. and promote glacial pace for quality of life improvements. (and don't even get me started again on fickle nature of mod makers and what every patch does to your multitude of mods and you hope to god, that your favorite addon is still being updated, otherwise, your setup is broken and you have to figure out new one. again. and again.)

 

last but not least, your dig at role players makes me laugh - becasue you brought up chat bubbles... which are pretty much ONLY useful to role players.

 

do I miss stuff like Altoholic? hell yes, I do. that addon is the only reason why my anti addon stance is not absolute. but then again... I've played other games that had no addons and still let me acess all the information about my alts without having to toon hop - via web. so, again, its something that developers could potentially implement without having to rely on third party.

 

if the game requires you to have addons in order to not be dead weight as you have put it? either the game has issues and/or YOU are just that bad.

Edited September 18, 2014 by Jeweledleah

[Suromir]

I have a love-hate thing with addons....some addons don't "auto-play" the game for you and are just QoL stuff.....others (like DBM) are ridiculous and takes all skill (what little is needed already) out of the game.

 

I'm only for addons that no guild would "require" you to have...(ie something like carbonite quest thing for WoW I'd be fine with, but nothing like DBM or a dmg meter that guilds/groups would require someone having)

[Deewe]

So devs are not allowed to waste time improving the UI, but they ARE allowed to waste time writing APIs for third-party addons to work?

 

How did you come to that conclusion exactly?

They don't need to write API at all, as long as we don't request new features.

 

Uhhh, my mail already autocompletes names........

Not it doesn't. Try to autocomplete for alts, you can't.

 

Then it does not keep the last emailed names.

 

2. you haven't done much fiddling around with raid frames, have you. oh they are not perfect, and the biggest issue with them is that you cannot specify precisely which buffs or debuffs you want to be shown (but you can still have larger debuffs, allowing for cleansing etc) if you cannot manage with current frames? YOU are terribad, not the frames.

To be totally honest the raid frames sucks, from the buffs/ debuffs we can't enlarge/detach down to the layout we can't customize. Things like managing dots as a healer is a pain. But you said it already

 

improvements can be made without addons. I wonder just how much effort and money Blizzard spends both trying to figure out how just how much of the API to make available in order to prevent crap like original decursive (you know the one that cleansed automatically without you having to do much more than hit the cleanse button) or original healbot (that was literally a bot - you didn't need to know any of your heals or know how to use raid frames - it did everything for you, a little nodding bird could heal successfully with original healbot) ever existing again, and when they don't quite manage - how to stop those things from working.

Everything could be done without addons, but so far experience proved us Bioware does nothing at all to improve the UI. Try managing compagnion skills... can't. How about decent filters for sorting crafting? Not to speak about a functional GTN searches that isn't stuck when you parse names with 2 letters only in the middle of the name.

 

 

 

last but not least, your dig at role players makes me laugh - becasue you brought up chat bubbles... which are pretty much ONLY useful to role players.

Not really, I'd love to see chat bubbles of spammers to tag them

 

Then in some combat ops it' would help seing important messages more easily as not everyone has eyes locked on chat.

 

 

do I miss stuff like Altoholic? hell yes, I do. that addon is the only reason why my anti addon stance is not absolute. but then again... I've played other games that had no addons and still let me acess all the information about my alts without having to toon hop - via web. so, again, its something that developers could potentially implement without having to rely on third party.

^ nuff said

 

if the game requires you to have addons in order to not be dead weight as you have put it? either the game has issues and/or YOU are just that bad.

Totally agree.

[Khevar]

They don't need to write API at all, as long as we don't request new features.

How would a third party developer be able to write an add-on without an API in place from Bioware?

 

Is the idea that the add-on developer would somehow reverse-engineer the client engine, figure out how data gets back and forth and then hack the user interface?

[Deewe]

How would a third party developer be able to write an add-on without an API in place from Bioware?

 

Is the idea that the add-on developer would somehow reverse-engineer the client engine, figure out how data gets back and forth and then hack the user interface?

Because BioWare already have the APIs.

 

Then the question would be what API would be handled to the players.

 

Although I agree for some of them it would mean some tweaking are required as you certainly don't want the players to hack the game. Motto: think WildStar, although it's a bit extreme...

Edited September 18, 2014 by Deewe

[Drockter]

Deewee,

 

Mail will auto complete for Friends and Guildmates, so if sending to an alt that is in the same guild, it will complete. I haven't tried friending an alt to be honest. So you are both partially correct. Since you can't be friends, or guildmates with the other faction, it wouldn't auto complete those names.

 

As for chat bubbles... no thanks. However, there are Ops Announcements /ra that sends up the text to the center of the screen and makes an audible alert. Which I think works well. I could not deal with chat bubbles in Ops (ragers/elitists), the /ra works perfectly well for the Ops leader to get the word out.

[Deewe]

Deewee,

 

Mail will auto complete for Friends and Guildmates, so if sending to an alt that is in the same guild, it will complete. I haven't tried friending an alt to be honest. So you are both partially correct. Since you can't be friends, or guildmates with the other faction, it wouldn't auto complete those names.

 

As for chat bubbles... no thanks. However, there are Ops Announcements /ra that sends up the text to the center of the screen and makes an audible alert. Which I think works well. I could not deal with chat bubbles in Ops (ragers/elitists), the /ra works perfectly well for the Ops leader to get the word out.

That's Deewe cause with one more e feels like a penguin sliding on ice...

 

Can't friend your alts, tis annoying to mail stuff to them.

 

For chat bubbles I was giving one example other than RP. Your solution is nice still it doesn't at all tells where the tell comes from.

 

So say someone needs heals or an intercept or whatnot it'd better announced with a chat bubble over his head, especially in pugs. And /ra only works for raid leader and if I remember well officers.

[Ratajack]

That's Deewe cause with one more e feels like a penguin sliding on ice...

 

Can't friend your alts, tis annoying to mail stuff to them.

 

For chat bubbles I was giving one example other than RP. Your solution is nice still it doesn't at all tells where the tell comes from.

 

So say someone needs heals or an intercept or whatnot it'd better announced with a chat bubble over his head, especially in pugs. And /ra only works for raid leader and if I remember well officers.

 

You cannot friend your alts on the opposite faction, but you can friend your alts on the same faction. All of my characters have all the same faction alts as friends.

[Deewe]

You cannot friend your alts on the opposite faction, but you can friend your alts on the same faction. All of my characters have all the same faction alts as friends.

Might be new for alts on the same side, I do appreciate the insight will do it.

 

Still usually alts on the same faction are in the same guild so not that really helpful

[Jeweledleah]

 

 

To be totally honest the raid frames sucks, from the buffs/ debuffs we can't enlarge/detach down to the layout we can't customize. Things like managing dots as a healer is a pain. But you said it already

 

 

Everything could be done without addons, but so far experience proved us Bioware does nothing at all to improve the UI. Try managing compagnion skills... can't. How about decent filters for sorting crafting? Not to speak about a functional GTN searches that isn't stuck when you parse names with 2 letters only in the middle of the name.

 

 

 

 

Not really, I'd love to see chat bubbles of spammers to tag them

 

Then in some combat ops it' would help seing important messages more easily as not everyone has eyes locked on chat.

 

 

layout of the raid frames is customizable enough in my opinion. other than buff/debuff situation - it does everything that I used to do with Grid.

 

what do you mean you cannot control companion skills? expand their bar - right click on individual skills to activate or deactivate them - when skills deactivated - click them (or use keybinds, since they ARE keybound as well as can be rebound) to use abilities at will. you can put them on passive vs active and you can command them to attack whatever you need them to attack. you can make them interrupt on command via deactivated ability+ keybind to use it when needed.

 

as for sorting - bioware changed search function to accept only 3 letter words + a while ago. I don't exactly remember the reason any more, but I do know that if I delete that "of" or whatever out of my paste - it searches up just fine.

 

decent filters to sort through crafting would be nice. that said - your claim that bioware does nothing to improve UI is patently false. we didn't used to be able to enlarge buffs/debuffs at all. we didn't used to be able to fiddle around with action bars. we didn't used to be able to copy/paste items into GTN search or sort by total price/unit price. it didn't used to remember the last price you used when listing multiple listings of the same item. bioware may not write improvements at the pace you may want, but they do make them. faster than BLizzard does, since they cannot just hide behind addon makers

 

as for tagging spammers - right click on name in chat. I'm still not sure how chat bubbles will make that easier rather then just right clicking their name in chat.

 

and speaking of chat - just move it closer to where your eyes usually rest on screen. or better yet - use raid lead announcements (they flash across the middle of the screen) or voice chat. I don't know about you, but when I heal - I select based on raid frames, not based on physical location of the person. literally, what if I'm facing away? (which happens) RA announcements I will see regardless of where I'm facing and you can type name of the person in them. or better yet - don't get it to the point where you have to yell for heals?

 

I have resubbed to WoW for couple of months (various reasons) and the 2 days I've been playing I'm already missing so many of the features I take for granted in TOR... especially since I already had to replace a few addons that I've been using last I played WoW... seeing as they are no longer updated and keep giving me error spam as well as not working right. why do you use addons if you don't like them so much you ask? becasue in WoW its no longer an option. base UI is horrific. and that's actualy one of the main reasons why I'm against addons in SWTOR> without - bioware will still work on improvements, they have to. with addons? not as much. and now that I have a new computer - I can run a bunch of stuff along with the game, but I still remember having to play WoW on lowest setting, because multitude of addons that I would end up running (none of them frivolous mind you) - slowed down the game to a crawl. and I couldn't do anything about it. (the other being - addons breaking with pretty much every major patch)

 

I like functionality of certain addons. but... it doesn't need to be implemented via addons. in fact - I'd rather it was not.

Edited September 19, 2014 by Jeweledleah

[Deewe]

layout of the raid frames is customizable enough in my opinion. other than buff/debuff situation - it does everything that I used to do with Grid.

Glad for you, not in the same boat.

 

what do you mean you cannot control companion skills?

You can't sort out companions skill the way you want them nor parse them in others quicklsot bars.

 

So it either doesnt't display the buttons you need (in shrinked mode), or takes too much room and display the ones you don't use.

And finally you can't rearrange them in a convenient way

 

 

as for sorting - bioware changed search function to accept only 3 letter words + a while ago. I don't exactly remember the reason any more, but I do know that if I delete that "of" or whatever out of my paste - it searches up just fine.

2 letters are still annoying, as I wrote in another tread maybe you don't have that much 2 letters in English, like "of", but for example in French the majority of description have them. Exemple: Pack Forteresse de gardien de la porte

 

decent filters to sort through crafting would be nice. that said - your claim that bioware does nothing to improve UI is patently false. we didn't used to be able to enlarge buffs/debuffs at all. we didn't used to be able to fiddle around with action bars. we didn't used to be able to copy/paste items into GTN search or sort by total price/unit price. it didn't used to remember the last price you used when listing multiple listings of the same item. bioware may not write improvements at the pace you may want, but they do make them. faster than BLizzard does, since they cannot just hide behind addon makers

A 2 legged turtle would go faster, and speaking of search and parsing names it's not even well made nor convenient: 2 letters issue, no wildcards.

 

 

as for tagging spammers - right click on name in chat. I'm still not sure how chat bubbles will make that easier rather then just right clicking their name in chat.

 

And managing spammers is a shame in that game. Not only reporting does not ignore the character, but ignoring isn't shared between alts and then we have to regularly empty our full ignore list.

 

 

and speaking of chat - just move it closer to where your eyes usually rest on screen. or better yet - use raid lead announcements (they flash across the middle of the screen) or voice chat. I don't know about you, but when I heal - I select based on raid frames, not based on physical location of the person. literally, what if I'm facing away? (which happens) RA announcements I will see regardless of where I'm facing and you can type name of the person in them. or better yet - don't get it to the point where you have to yell for heals?

It's not about healing only, same goes for tanking or DPSing, having an indication of where is standing the player speaking would help.

 

 

I have resubbed to WoW for couple of months (various reasons) and the 2 days I've been playing I'm already missing so many of the features I take for granted in TOR... especially since I already had to replace a few addons that I've been using last I played WoW... seeing as they are no longer updated and keep giving me error spam as well as not working right. why do you use addons if you don't like them so much you ask? becasue in WoW its no longer an option. base UI is horrific. and that's actualy one of the main reasons why I'm against addons in SWTOR> without - bioware will still work on improvements, they have to. with addons? not as much. and now that I have a new computer - I can run a bunch of stuff along with the game, but I still remember having to play WoW on lowest setting, because multitude of addons that I would end up running (none of them frivolous mind you) - slowed down the game to a crawl. and I couldn't do anything about it. (the other being - addons breaking with pretty much every major patch)

 

I like functionality of certain addons. but... it doesn't need to be implemented via addons. in fact - I'd rather it was not.

You mention WoW, but contrary to what you're saying wow core UI is better than SWTOR in mostly every aspect.

 

 

Then I don't mind improvement being made by the devs versus the players, and I'm not looking for cheats or one button smashing addons.

 

Although without addons the game doesn't live to its full potential and for now quite a few features in SWTOR makes playing the game tedious instead of a smooth experience.

 

I'll just leave with the following: we don't have a mouse look toggle.

 

For some people (like me) I could not play the game (carpal tunnel) would I not hack it with a 3rd party software to have a mouse look toggle as I keep steering with the mouse.

 

We've been asking for this very simple and easy to add feature since launch not to avail. With addons we'd already have it by now.

 

Want another example: color blind people.

[Jeweledleah]

I'm sorry. WoW core UI is better in almost every aspect? what?

 

you cannot POSSIBLY be serious.

 

you cannot move or rearrange action bars. you cannot sell trash with one click, you cannot pick up mail with one click, or mass delete, and I'm not entirely convinced it auto completes names either (I tried playing it without addons for about 10 minutes, and couldn't stand it anymore) cannot repair with one click. cannot do anything to a map other that make it take up part of the screen instead of all - no fading and it doesn't automatically update. no cooldown timers - need addon for that.

 

and I can keep going.

 

I don't know if its rose colored glasses speaking or what, but dude... literally what addons did to WoW and its glacial UI updates is THE main reason why I don't ever, EVER want addons in SWTOR.

 

and what exactly is it that you need from raid frames (other than buff/debuff management) and possibly incoming heals), that you cannot do right now?

 

I'm still not seeing how chat bubbles could be helpful. genuinely not seeing. if you need to keep track of specific people? put markers over their heads. if you are not facing the person, chat bubbles do NOTHING. but they sure block crap. never did understand what people see in those things.

 

as for sorting GTN - the three letter limit is not an addon issue. deleting two letter words was a suggestion to get around it, but it was implemented I think to allow people to narrow down searches better. but it WAS deliberate change a while ago.

 

as for mouse look toggle, can you do that by pressing one of the mouse buttons? I know our tanks spin their cameras without changing where they are facing all the time, especially in fights where it's required to align your body properly. unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean by mouse look? (I steer with a mouse too)

Edited September 19, 2014 by Jeweledleah

[Deewe]

**snip**

 

as for mouse look toggle, can you do that by pressing one of the mouse buttons? I know our tanks spin their cameras without changing where they are facing all the time, especially in fights where it's required to align your body properly. unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean by mouse look? (I steer with a mouse too)

You can indeed mouse steer but you have to keep down a mouse button for that.

 

For people with carpal tunnel syndrome it's painful for the hand keeping doing so as it put unwanted pressure on your hand.

[Khevar]

Because BioWare already have the APIs.

 

Then the question would be what API would be handled to the players.

First of all, any such APIs would have to be coded into the client engine itself. Someone writing a third-party addon would involve code that is installed on the customer's computer, and either directly communicates to the game client, replaces part of the game client, etc.

 

The developers of the client engine would need to have designed the client software to allow this to happen. That is what I'm referring to when I say, "APIs for third party developers"

 

Were Bioware to allow third party addon integration, development time would need to be spent modifying the client engine to allow hooks into it. You are claiming this is all coded out, and all the developers would need to do is decide how much to "hand to the players".

 

I don't believe you. I suspect you don't actually know the technical details of how this sort of thing would work, and are making stuff up.

Edited September 19, 2014 by Khevar

[Deewe]

First of all, any such APIs would have to be coded into the client engine itself. Someone writing a third-party addon would involve code that is installed on the customer's computer, and either directly communicates to the game client, replaces part of the game client, etc.

 

The developers of the client engine would need to have designed the client software to allow this to happen. That is what I'm referring to when I say, "APIs for third party developers"

 

Were Bioware to allow third party addon integration, development time would need to be spent modifying the client engine to allow hooks into it. You are claiming this is all coded out, and all the developers would need to do is decide how much to "hand to the players".

 

I don't believe you. I suspect you don't actually know the technical details of how this sort of thing would work, and are making stuff up.

Allow me to rephrase: not saying it would not require development at all. But way less that some are saying. It all depends how far they want to go with UI addons/mods from skin changes down to automated events.

 

BTW don't want the last part but maybe for RP macros., equipping gear, doing emotes while saying something and so on.

[Khevar]

Allow me to rephrase: not saying it would not require development at all. But way less that some are saying. It all depends how far they want to go with UI addons/mods from skin changes down to automated events.

You may be right about this.

 

I just mainly objected to this statement:

Difference being the devs aren`t allowed to "waste" time improving the UI, whereas players would love to for FREE.

If it is true that devs aren't allowed to "waste" time improving the UI, you surely cannot expect them to "waste" time modifying the engine to allow third party addons.

Edited September 19, 2014 by Khevar

[Deewe]

If it is true that devs aren't allowed to "waste" time improving the UI, you surely cannot expect them to "waste" time modifying the engine to allow third party addons.

Well the difference here being, for a relatively low investment, the outcome would totally compensate the cost.

 

As with opening, some, valves to the players, the game play would be dramatically improved.

 

Versus when they do some (rare) UI tweaking the impact is very limited and too often not what players where looking for, or should I say not in the way they needed it.

[Bienenwolf]

If it is true that devs aren't allowed to "waste" time improving the UI, you surely cannot expect them to "waste" time modifying the engine to allow third party addons.

 

Would be nice if they would waste some time to overhaul the clunky animations for movement and some combat maybe.... btt I like it without addons and macros. Its crappy hard to get all procs etc, but well..... thats the way we all play the game.

[Coell]

After reading a large number of posts in this thread, I can see that many here enjoy the add-on free world that did make certain communities within WoW and certain Content just plain unenjoyable...because people (kids and immature adults) suck. The only add-on I miss from WoW is Auctioneer. Because the in game auction house interface was so clunky as to be unusable without the patience of the dead. Of course that is as I recall from back in 2010 when I quit playing all together because I was at the time a severly depressed WoW junkie who played 60-70hrs per week and that was ruining my marriage. Now I am here as a very casual player and subbed for the benefits of more than 2 Auction slots and such... But I can recall that Auctioneer was the best market app by far, and frankly never understood why Blizzard with its hordes of cash never hired that guy to manage the ingame auction tool. Their in house tool was junk back then. I find the in game tool here a little clunky but, have managed to streamline its use once I learned the shft and ctrl keys to use.

 

So add-on freedom, I get it, and that actually makes the game more casual, more relaxed, more potentially social and more fun, like someone said somewhere in these posts, no numbers nazis;)

[wjrasmussen]

While there is truth to this... what comes with it however is the darker side of the coin......a never ending series of player declared "must have" addons if you are going to raid, or pick your nose in group, or <insert any pet elitest adventure here>.

 

I prefer we keep the burden on the developers for QoL improvements, and leave addons for other MMOs to deal with....because in the end...it is the darker side of addons that ends up impacting game play more so then QoL shinies.

 

More QOL bs imo.

[Ghisallo]

While there is truth to this... what comes with it however is the darker side of the coin......a never ending series of player declared "must have" addons if you are going to raid, or pick your nose in group, or <insert any pet elitest adventure here>.

 

Sorry but this is really little more than a cop-out. Inanimate objects do NOT have dark-sides... people do.

 

You don't make mechanical decisions because of a "people" issue and what you note here is a people issue. You correct people issues by choosing who you play with etc. Sorry, I have just never been a big fan of what my friends across the Atlantic call "the nanny state." I don't need to be protected by Bioware, I can protect myself from people that will be jerks about add-ons by not playing with them.

 

I prefer we keep the burden on the developers for QoL improvements, and leave addons for other MMOs to deal with....because in the end...it is the darker side of addons that ends up impacting game play more so then QoL shinies.

 

And since they have refused to pick up that burden in any measurable way since launch I think your idea of the burden being on the developers is ridiculous. They left that burden lying on the floor while the deal with what they see as the real priorities.

 

This is actually why I want add-ons. Before I could care less... however Bioware has proven they feel other burdens are priorities. I would rather have them allow for add-on implementation, let the community deal with the QoL issues they can, and leave them to actually working on the game, new content etc.

 

Would this mean I would have to deal with some guild saying "so and so add on required?" Yep, I have even been a member of such guilds in the past. However I don't care that much anymore. What guild did I thus chose here... one that specifically says "want to run a parser to measure yourself cool we want you too but there will be NO raid wide parsing because we feel it is toxic." <<<<<<<THIS is how you deal with the "darkside" of add-ons not by having a game create a nanny state and then doesn't shoulder the burden you seem to think they will miraculously start addressing.

[Ghisallo]

First of all, any such APIs would have to be coded into the client engine itself. Someone writing a third-party addon would involve code that is installed on the customer's computer, and either directly communicates to the game client, replaces part of the game client, etc.

 

The developers of the client engine would need to have designed the client software to allow this to happen. That is what I'm referring to when I say, "APIs for third party developers"

 

Were Bioware to allow third party addon integration, development time would need to be spent modifying the client engine to allow hooks into it. You are claiming this is all coded out, and all the developers would need to do is decide how much to "hand to the players".

 

I don't believe you. I suspect you don't actually know the technical details of how this sort of thing would work, and are making stuff up.

 

First you are making it sound A LOT more complicated than it really is. Example, some add-ons are as simple as just reading the Combatlog file and then applying an overlay on the client. It is a LITTLE more complicated than that but not by much.

 

Second from reading about the hero engine and it's development the main things that made the hero engine attractive and win awards in the mid 2000s were things that would lend itself to add-on implementation. Looking at the game there really is not reason Bioware CAN'T do it they simply choose not to. We even have statements from Bioware indicating it is doable,,,

 

What we’ve said is, regarding the question ‘Will there be addons at launch’ is “no, not at launch”.

This statement indicates nothing more than that there will not be addons at launch. Nothing more, nothing less.”

 

Zoeller's statement there clearly indicates that they could do it if they chose, they simply chose not to. Why? Because figuring out what of the API you will release and will not takes time. You then basically need an employee (employees) to ride herd over the add-on community, looking to see what is being done and what isn't... if something is being done you don't like changing somethings so that it can't be done (without breaking the game) making sure changes that come incidentally with updates get passed on to the add on community etc.