Nauticus

Description
Nauticus addon for World of Warcraft

http://drool.me.uk/naut

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Nauticus tracks the precise location of boats and Zeppelins around
Azeroth and displays them on the Mini-Map & World Map in real-time.

Look up arrival & departure schedules for any transport and know exactly
when you need to be there. Less time waiting on platforms, more time at
the AH or mailbox, less time duelling rogues or shammys who want you to
take a seat while they crit you... 'for fun'...

To track a transport requires that you (or someone else running this
addon) have taken the route sometime earlier.

Nauticus uses hidden addon-addon communications to synchronise and share
up-to-date schedule information between players automatically.

For usage options, type /nauticus or /naut in the command line.

Uses the Ace2 framework (soon Ace3 when it becomes stable).

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UPGRADING

If you're upgrading from previous Nauticus versions, please make sure to
DELETE the old folders before extracting; Nauticus, FuBar_NauticusFu,
TitanNauticus and MapLibrary. MapLibrary is no longer used and FuBar &
Titan plugins are now integrated. You only need the one folder.

If you're upgrading from ZeppelinMaster, please DELETE the old folders;
ZepShipMaster, FuBar_ZepMasterFu and TitanZeppelinMaster, before
extracting this package.

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TO DO

- new icons, rotated in real-time to point in the direction of travel
(cached matrix transformations ftw)
- show multiple transport details in tooltip when mousing-over map icons
which are too close together to pick out due to overlap
- detect closest platform to auto pop-up tooltip and/or sound
arrival/departure alarm when nearby (i.e. Zep horn or boat bell)
- new compact UI window, listing schedules for all transports in the
zone, highlighting closest platform when standing still and nearby
- more compact bar plugin tooltip to show schedules for all transports
in the zone, highlighting closest

Note: Nauticus is in continual development [13th Nov 2007]. You should
always try to keep your version up-to-date - not least because the addon
interacts with other users and they rely on good quality data from you.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q. I just installed Nauticus, why don't I see any timers?

A player with the addon will need to travel on the boat or Zeppelin
before the timers come up. This could be you or someone else who may
have taken the transport earlier - that day, or days ago.

The most recent timers are synchronised between other players who run
the addon, so after a short while the data will most likely be available
to you before you take any transport. So get your guild mates and
friends to install Nauticus too, the more the merrier.

Q. Why are some of my timers wrong?

In rare conditions, timers can become corrupt due to big changes in your
own system clock that may occur between WoW sessions/reboots. This can
be caused by dodgy CMOS batteries and some over-clocked systems.

Also, while the realm servers appear to keep very precise clocks for
running the transports - to generate their positions etc. - from time to
time they may re-synchronise these clocks, sending the data out of wack
slightly. (Note: I can only assume this, since I've only seen it happen
once or twice, but I do know that transports are in sync across all
realms in a particular geographical location - i.e EU, US Eastern).

Nauticus should quickly fix these timers, as it will gather more recent
and better quality data from other users or from your own travels.

Q. How does Nauticus get the times?

There are no Blizzard-provided API methods to directly determine the
transport schedule. Thus we do it indirectly by getting player coords
and comparing them to a known set of coords along the route - usually
far out to sea, where they would otherwise not be seen.

When the player triggers these coords, we know the cycle and can
subsequently work out future cycles at any point in time.

Q. How accurate is it?

Round-trip times have been calculated to one millionth of a second (six
decimal places) over a 4/5 day period, although in reality, accuracy is
probably around ten thousandth or hundred thousandths of a second.

This is significantly better resolution than provided by the API, which
only measures in milliseconds (three decimal places). So baring slight
adjustments in Blizzard's clocks etc., 99.9% of the time there should be
no observable drift of more than a second or two.

You should urge as many of your guild mates and friends to run the addon
as possible - even if just in the background - even if they don't use
transports because they're only ever in Outland. They can help store and
transmit up-to-date timing data to everyone that needs it.

Q. Why does Nauticus have to use a chat channel?

Because Blizzard's SendAddonMessage() API alone - which was really
designed and is effectively limited for guild and raid addon comms - is
insufficient to get the times spread further across your server. This
ultimately affects availability and accuracy of the times.

However, we don't use a chat channel slot if you're in a guild,
preferring the API instead. Thus the chat channel 'NauticSync' is a
backup method for unguilded characters (mains, alts, bank alts etc.) as
a way to spread data.

You shouldn't be concerned if you have the channel slot spare - we're
extra careful not to mess up channel numbers. If you experience issues,
please see http://www.wowwiki.com/Fix_Chat_Channels first.

Q. Can you add the Deeprun Tram?

Unfortunately not, since it's treated like an instance and we can't
track player coords within an instance.

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Nauticus is a rewrite of ZeppelinMaster which was authored and conceived
by Sammysnake - he runs a DKP hosting service online, please support his
work @ dkphosting.net. Dedicated to hosting for guilds in such games as
WoW, Everquest, Everquest II and Dark Age of Camelot.

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The End