BigWigs is a boss encounter AddOn, that provides alert messages and timer bars for specific raid bosses and other raid and instance events. BigWigs consists of many individual "scripts" and "modules", which generally are activated when an encounter starts or is specifically triggered by user, and run until an event is complete.
General Features
Specifics as of 12/28/2013.[1] See infobox 'host' links for more.
Plug-ins
- Messages: Can be moved, colored, locked, outputted to all kinds of different text areas.
- Bars: Can be moved, skinned to different textures (SharedMedia compatible), resized & also have an 'emphasis' feature to flash and move to a different anchor when they are about to expire.
- Raid icons: Target painting (put an icon over a player that has been singled out by the boss).
- Boss Block: Suppress Blizzard boss emotes.
- Sound: Plays various sounds on different events (SharedMedia compatible).
- LibDataBroker/Minimap: Button for easy access to the configuration menu, resetting running modules, and seeing what modules are active.
Extras
- Proximity: For displaying players within a certain range on certain boss encounters.
- Test: Test and preview your bars and warnings configuration, and move them around.
- CustomBar: For 'pizza timers', create your own custom bars.
- Flash: Flash the screen blue when something important happens that directly affects you, such as a debuff.
- Clickable bars: Lets you define left/middle/right click actions for your timer bars.
- Super Emphasise: Any encounter ability you want to be extra vigilant of, you can enable Super Emphasise to get a voiced countdown and more.
Origins
Add'l. page edit and author history [2].
The creation
BigWigs was originally created as a boss timer and warning mod. User:Tekkub, the original BigWigs for Ace (AddOn) author, was inspired to write this after his very first raid run. He was horrified by the massive amount of spam his raid leader was creating with his boss mod. He was getting messages all over the place for things he didn't care about (Hunters can't dispel a curse or interrupt a heal). He also found that the "60 seconds until painful doom" timer messages were such a waste. Why not use a nice simple timer-bar to show this?
The aim
BigWigs aims to be as efficient as possible (creating a lower memory per second footprint and using a lower amount of CPU than any other boss mod), as effectively as possible. When modules are written every aspect of the encounter is revised. Is syncing required? Is target scanning required? What events are really to be warned for. It also aims to have the latest boss modules out asap, that means that not long after the first few attempts of a brand new boss, it usually has a working boss mod.
Unique Features
BigWigs was originally designed with an 'Emphasis' feature that allows certain bars to be more prominent than others, so your attention is in the right place. SharedMedia support allows you to customize the look of your bars and choose different sounds for warnings. BigWigs can identify when you have wiped on a boss and reset the bars and timers automatically. It loads only the boss logic you need for the boss you're currently facing, rather load up the logic for the whole instance.
Credits
- Current Developers: Ammo, Rabbit, Funkydude
- Boss Modules: Tekkub (BigWigs 1), Ammo, Rabbit, Funkydude, Shyva, Wiebbe, Lucen, Moonsorrow, Tsigo
- Translations: ckknight (Babble), Pettigrow (frFR), Neriak (deDE), Gamefaq (deDE), sayclub (koKR), fenlis (koKR), handdol (koKR), cwdg (zhCN), hk2717 (zhCN) and many others
- General Help: Daemona, Saroz & everyone else submitting logs!