DealsOnTheWeb Daily Deal: OneCall's Weekend Sale - 20 Great Items at Great Prices All Weekend Long
 |
by Chris Barylick
August 12th, 2005
They caught up with me south of Auberdine, a rescue/escort quest blown by a scripted attack after I'd found the non-player character I was looking for. Like professionals, they flanked us, healing their melee attackers when necessary and kept the pressure on. And, like rank amateurs, we died quickly, my Night Elf's bear form doing little to absorb the damage being dished out.
I began to find other games to play for the next few weeks.
Welcome to World of Warcraft, one of the most stunning, addictive and potentially discouraging games available provided things don't go your way. Like anything, there are moments of frustration and up until three weeks ago, I had completely hit a wall with my character. Log on and die or at least advance so minimally I wondered if it was worth my time in the first place.
With each new update, I began to wonder if the elements of the game that made leveling up or successfully completing a quest had been removed, as that might be the only thing that would improve the situation.
On a long enough time line, things do work out for the best. In my situation, the right girl and her perspective were able to completely change what could be considered a stagnant situation where World of Warcraft was concerned. Also vying for the title of Geekiest Human Being on the planet via a master's in computer science, affinity with the Hackers on Planet Earth conventions, heartfelt interest in running OS X on a PC laptop via VMWare and currently running a small server farm out of her basement, Laura knew the game inside and out. Currently running a level 56 character and having played since November, she began to take me under her wing and show me the potential of the game.
Chief among her ideas surrounding the game and her affinity for it was the concept that mods and workarounds should be at least experimented with, even if you're wary of the notion. Simply put, mods are small programs designed by avid World of Warcraft players that act as shortcuts, workarounds or a way of customizing the game's interface. These programs, often available for free and having been tested by their user base (which feeds bug reports back to the developers), serve a variety of purposes and allow for a finer customization of the game experience.
Oh, and interface mods are completely "legal," as far as Blizzard is concerned. The company has even gone so far as to make the interface APIs available for the mod community work with.
Leading the pack at the moment is CTMod, a mod pack that acts as a bundled collection of small fixes and extensions for the game. Despite its comparatively small download size (less than 200K), even after a week of play, I feel as if I've barely skimmed the surface of what this program can do.
Direct coordinates for objects can be easily found via the game map, notes can be written regarding locations, items, friends and tool bars can be customized as well as placed anywhere on the screen. Need to fire a quick note to a friend but don't have time to return to town, find a mail box, write the note and send it? Just pull up a menu, write the letter from the CTMod interface, send it along and get back to your quest. Other options such as auto-looting and full-looting (where a player is programmed to take every possible item from a fallen opponent) take away some of the chores of the game and party-based features help keep a group together and focused on their task.
To install CTMod, simply head to the download page, select the Core package, click "Download Selected" and let the file arrive. Unfortunately, the developers have encoded the file in a zip format Mac OS X's native decompression engine doesn't handle cleanly, which will cause the attempt to fail. Download Aladdin's StuffIt Expander utility via MacUpdate, install it, then be sure to drag CTMod's saved zip file to the StuffIt Expander icon to cleanly open the archive.
From here, drag the folders in the CT_Core Folder into your World of Warcraft/Interface/AddOns folder. Close the folders, start the game and you'll be able to cleanly access CTMod's options by clicking the "CT" icon located by your mini map.
Just play with what's there and see what you make of it. CTMod functions as a grab bag of small mods, some more useful than others to your individual needs that can be enabled or disabled at any time. See what's there, what you like and ask around on the World of Warcraft forums if you have any questions.
 A Night Elf druid under World of Warcraft's standard interface |
 CTMod's control panel after installation and launch |
|---|
Frequently updated, responsive to both the needs of its user base as well as Blizzard's frequent changes and completely functional on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms without any changes to the installation process, CTMod deserves its place among the more popular World of Warcraft mods. True, it may not radically advance your character or make the game experience everything you wanted at all times, but with an extended set of tools, the game and the veritable universe within become that much more controllable.
 World of Warcraft with CTMod installed and altering some of the game's interface." |
|---|
Stay tuned to the Slacker's Guide for more Mac, gaming and mod news and if there's anything cool you've seen or found, please let me know. Finally, if you wish to ping me online, I can be found as PoingFerret on the Gilneas server. True, I may be only level 22 at the moment and lack the cool extras that my SO has significantly garnered for herself, but at this juncture it's more about enjoying the experience of creating the character. And if she lends me any of the jaw-dropping 90 gold pieces I need to obtain a mount if and when I reach level 40, she'll never lack for roses again.
Chris Barylick covers games for The Mac Observer, and has written for Inside Mac Games, MacGamer, UPI, the Washington Post, and other publications.
Send polite comments to , or post your comments below.
Most Recent Columns From The Slacker's Guide
- Tetris Brought Up to Speed: Quinn - September 15th
- Something Cool For the Nerds: GLTron - September 11th
- Open Source Meets Soul Train: StepMania - September 1st
The Slacker's Guide Archives
Observer Comments
Mon Aug 15, 2005 10:51 am Subject: Worth giving a try!
Mon Aug 22, 2005 9:18 pm Subject: Re: where is the addons folder
QuoteAnonymous wrote:QuoteAnonymous wrote:
I couldn't find an addons folder in that location. I created one and placed the unzipped folder there but the mod didn't work. Any help?
The instructions kind of confuzled me, too.You actually have to take the individual mod folders out of the unzipped folder, and place them in the AddOns (spelled and capitalized just like that) folder. Then, start the game, and you should see the little (ct) emblem attached to your minimap.
Good luck!
BTW, that was me. I could have sworn I logged in.
Sun May 27, 2007 4:52 pm Subject:
On the Mac, it's /Applications/World of Warcraft/Interface/Addons. And if I'm not mistaken, it's already there.
Why are Mac plays at an extreme disadvantage? All addons that I know of, including Decursive, are written in Lua, so they're machine-independent. I have dozens of mods on my Macs, and they work perfectly well (until Blizzard update the game, and the writers have to update them to work again!)
I don't personally have Decursive running, but I have several other Ace2 mods, and they work fine.
Sat Jun 09, 2007 1:32 am Subject:
I hadn't tried SpartanUI before, but I tracked it down, downloaded it and expanded it. I then moved *all* the contents of the folder (lots and lots of Titan stuff, which is what SpartanUI is dependent on) into my Addons folder. With quite a bit of configuration, I got all the Titan stuff to work, but it was conflicting too much with my Cosmos addons. I think it's these conflicts that are causing you trouble, rather than the addons being on a Mac. It certainly needs a bit of tracking down, at least.
I think if you were to park all your addons into another directory, copy the SpartanUI directory contents into addons and try again, you might, just might, have some better luck.
Fri Aug 24, 2007 9:48 am Subject: Don't Use This...And your Site doesn't work with Firefox...
Created acct, tried logging in, kept getting the submit the words as they are typed thing at the bottom, and it would just go to the next page and say I hadn't entered the correct guest code? I tried several times...you have a problem with Firefox...not unusual though, more and more I'm seeing FF not work and it's usually an issue similar to this. Safari works. On to the complaint....
============================================
I tried using the mail part of this in world of warcraft. I clicked on Open all and I got a confirmation box, and nothing opened. Then I selected the check box next to each of the emails in my list. Only 3 were there. I clicked Open Selected. AND ALL THE EMAILS VANISHED, DELETED, GONE, NOT THERE ANY MORE.
NOTHING to like about an app that DELETES YOUR MAIL WITH NO WARNING. DO NOT USE THIS.
You cannot click on any contact link at the CTMod site, it does NOTHING. You cannot CONTACT the authors because it does NOTHING clicking the link. There was NO read me included with the files. That alone should put up BIG Red Flags to any user!
ONCE AGAIN DO NOT USE THIS BUGGY PROGRAM UNLESS YOU WANT TO LOSE EMAIL UNEXPECTEDLY!!
Mon Nov 19, 2007 12:21 am Subject:
You have to be careful with non-Cosmos add-ons, and Auctioneer is certainly one that I rely on. If you're using the Cosmos Patcher (and I assume that you are), either leave the "Keep Interface Directory Clean" box unchecked, or in the "Manage AddOns" selections, select "Protect All non-Cosmos".
That will stop them being deleted (or moved into the Disabled folder) every time you run the patcher.
Recent Headlines - Updated Friday, August 29th, 2008
- Fri., 7:05 PM
- Podcast - Mac Geek Gab #166: Dot-Underscore Files, Cool Stuff Found, Kernel_task, and Listener Tips!
- 5:45 PM
- iPO Free on iTunes - Dinos, U.S. Music, Sci & Tech TV, Rock N Roll TV and More
- 5:25 PM
- Macworld Expo Hotel Deal - Use TMO's Discount at The Hotel Milano
- 4:45 PM
- iPodObserver - Rumor: China Mobile May Subsidize iPhone 3G
- 4:30 PM
- User Friendly Blog by Ted Landau - My iPhone Goes on Vacation
- 4:25 PM
- ChangeWave: Apple Leads Competition in Consumer Buying Plans
- 3:05 PM
- Solver is Back for MS Excel 2008
- 2:25 PM
- CW: SSDs in Laptops Won't Make Real Sense until 2010
- 2:10 PM
- TinyBooks 6 Improves Custom Invoices, Tax Support
- 1:00 PM
- TMO Reports - Psystar's Official Response: Apple Abusing Copyright, Tying OS X to Hardware
- 11:05 AM
- iPodObserver - Rumor: Official iPhone Tethering in the Works
- 10:15 AM
- Hot Forum Topic - Reader Reactions: Bloomberg's Accidental Steve Jobs Obituary
- 9:45 AM
- iPodObserver - iPhone Hack: Changing the Camera Focus
- 9:15 AM
- Comcast to Cap Broadband Use Starting in October
- 8:25 AM
- Final Cut Express 4.0.1 Improves AVCHD Support
- 8:05 AM
- Apple Intros ProRes QuickTime Decoder
- 7:30 AM
- iPO Quick Tip - iTunes: More Info About What's on Your iPod
The Mac Observer Reader Specials
- Download Typestyler, still the Ultimate Styling Tool for Internet, Print and Video Graphics. Works great in Classic with a Native OS X Version on the way. Free Tryout: www.typestyler.com
- OWC: Burn DVDs, DVD-DL, CDs, DVD-Ram - FAST! Superdrive upgrades from OWC starting from $31.99 with options for nearly every Mac. Models with Lightscribe, Blu-Ray too!
MacPro Memory 667Mhz With Apple Spec Heat Sink 2GB $ 82 / 4GB $128 / 8GB $256 - Click to Maximize your Macs...
Mac observers can now play Party Poker for Mac as well as Mac casino games by going to MacPokerOnline.com.
RamJet Memory: Mac Pro FB-DIMMs: 2Gig kit $115, 4Gig kit $179, 8Gig kit for $355! 500G Seagate Hard Drive $129! Click hereFor the latest Apple products use Ciao a comparison website to find laptops like MacBook Air. Then find the best prices on MP3 players and use our comparison tool to evaluate cell phones.
Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.
Flip Video Ultra Series 30-Minute Camcorder: $69.99 Delivered 
Computer Geeks' Labor Day Sale - Save Up to 80% 
It's Friday, time for the Amazon Friday Sale! 
J&R ComputerWorld's Weekend Sale - Save on TVs, Digital Cameras, Games & Tons More 
OneCall's Weekend Sale - 20 Great Items at Great Prices All Weekend Long 
