MobMap development blog

Some people have pointed me to a strange thing that has happened with the MobMap database: most of the herbs and mining positions seem to have vanished completely from the database.

Actually that observation is true, and I just found the reason for this. I made a mistake while extending the database builder tool for WotLK which resulted in most of the herbs (and even most of the quest pickups!) being excluded from the final databases. There was however no data lost at any time, so now that I've corrected this tiny little bugger, all database builds from now on should include the herbs and mining nodes and quest pickups as intended.

Then there was another tiny mistake that broke the manual MobMap addon downloads (the manual database downloads were never affected, just as the download of the installer package or the downloads offered via the MobMapUpdater) that got fixed, too. Thanks to the people reporting this error (and keeping reporting it even when I thought everything was fine because I just checked the database and installer downloads).

I'm sorry for those mistakes, they were all not caused by anything Blizzard or someone else has done but by me forgetting about some important things.

Oh, and there still seems to be something wrong in MobMap itself with the functionality to display multiple mob positions at the same time. I'll take a look at this soon and will fix it in a new MobMap version to be released before Northrend opens its gates.

Okay, so there had to be another bugfix update. This new version doesn't fix anything you actually see (okay, except that error that potentially could cause your trade skill window to misbehave), but it fixes several things in the data collection routines. Therefore, if you are one of those great people out there who regularly upload collected data, please update to the newest version as soon as possible! And if not - just update, too ;-) Bugfixes are always a good thing!

My belly keeps telling me that this version will probably turn out to be pretty stable - I hope he's right on this matter. Otherwise - well, please leave me a comment if you find a bug.

Oh, and three more answers to questions I have read multiple times in the comments:

- Yes, Inscription was added to the recipe database now! The list is already quite complete, so if you'd like to have the inscription recipe list available in MobMap just fetch a fresh database copy.

- The MobMapDatabaseStub addon names in the addon screen being written in red letters does not mean that they are "out of date"! This is a common misconception, and if I was Blizzard, I would've probably chosen different colors (like a light yellow or something) to mark "load-on-demand"-addons in the list - that is the meaning of the red color! A "load-on-demand"-addon is a special kind of addon that is not being loaded when you enter the game, but it can be loaded while you're playing by any running addon. I use this feature to speed up the process of entering the world: MobMap's databases are pretty big for an addon, and if all 14 database parts would be loaded when you enter the game, the startup time of WoW would probably be way longer (maybe like 5 to 30 seconds longer, depending on your machine). Plus, the databases would always occupy addon memory - even if you're not actually using MobMap at all in a gaming session. Being load-on-demand, the core MobMap addon can load the databases at the time they're actually required to satisfy a search query, and it can load just those parts it needs and leave the others untouched, which is a huge memory saver.

- No, MobMap 3.0 does NOT work with WoW patch 2.4.x! There is absolutely no reason for me to spend time for such a compatibility, as you have to play with a 3.0 client anyway - at least on the official servers, and I do not support private server crap in any way.


Last but not least - the patch notes (though there's nothing special in there):

v3.02:
- fixed: an error that could cause unintended interference with the tradeskill window in certain conditions
- fixed: several internal errors concerning the data collection mechanisms

Here is the first (and hopefully last) bugfix release for MobMap 3.0, which has been released just yesterday when WoW patch 3.0 went live. It fixes all bugs I currently know of; if you still encounter a bug in this new version, please report it here.

You can download the new version right now using the MobMapUpdater or manually from the website (though it will still take a few hours until the manual download package is being updated to v3.01, as this process is automated and can't be started at any time).

Concerning databases: you won't have to update your MobMap database when updating from version 3.0 to 3.01. But if you are upgrading from any pre-3.0 version, you will have to grab a fresh database build in order for MobMap to work.

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v3.01:
- fixed: a bug introduced with v3.0 that caused an error when displaying mob entries in the drop chance window and rendered the window useless
- fixed: an error on the pickup database window (caused a wrong size of a dropdown window but did not impact any functionality)
- fixed: merchant filtering by zone works correctly now, as well as the zone display in the merchant window

The big patch-day rush has caused some unexcepted problems on my server which currently prevent you from downloading any database updates. I am working on the problem right now, expect the whole thing to work again in less than one hour.

Besides that I have already fixed the first bugs in MobMap v3.0 (thanks to the people who've reported them!). I think it's gonna be time for a v3.01 bugfix release some time very soon (probably in a few hours). If you encounter any bugs, lua error messages etc. please report those here in the comments so I can take a look at the issues.

[edit] The database downloads are back to normal, sorry for the inconvenience.

So here it is - MobMap 3.0 for WoW 3.0.x!

I hope the transition is as smooth as possible, and that there aren't too many new bugs in this version. It doesn't add any new features, but there have been numerous mostly internal changes in order to maintain and extend MobMap in anticipation of WotLK.

Some of those changes also happened in the database format, which is the reason why you will have to download a new MobMap database after you've upgraded to v3.0! A fresh database in this new format is being built right now and should be online for download in a few minutes.

[edit] Okay, the new database is up for download!

All right, so today is the day - patch day!

The US WoW servers should go down in a few hours, the European servers will go down in <24 hours. A new MobMap version is ready and tested on the WotLK beta servers and will go online for download tonight (that should be just in time when the US servers are online again, with plenty of time left until the European servers are back up).