This page describes fan-made scripting using the World of Warcraft API which has had notable impact on the game's development/history.
The QuestHelper in game and in the minimap
The QuestHelper in the map
QuestHelper is one of the most popular AddOns, available at http://www.questhelp.us. It shows you the shortest way to go to finish the quests you have. It considers how much time it takes to go from one place to another; and tells you if you should fly, take a ship, etc. Also, it will only tell you to go flying to some place if you already know the flight path.
Usage[]
Minimap[]
The task QuestHelper thinks you should do first is displayed on your minimap, which you can mouse over for a description. If the task isn't in your current zone, then it will point towards where QuestHelper thinks you should go to get there, such as a flight master or the zone border.
World Map[]
All the tasks QuestHelper wants you to do are displayed on the World Map. There are 'marching ants' connecting the objectives, showing you the order QuestHelper thinks you should complete them in.
You can right-click on an objective to get a list of options for it.
Menus[]
Using the menus should, hopefully, be obvious. The only catch might be that they don't automatically disappear if you click on something else.
You can right-click anywhere on a menu to hide it.
Priorities[]
There are 5 different priority levels an objective can have: Highest, High, Normal, Low, and Lowest.
Most objectives default to Normal. Objectives for timed quests default to High. User created objectives default to Highest.
QuestHelper will try to arrange the objectives so that higher priority objectives get done first. The only time this won't happen is when an objective with a higher priority depends on an objective with a lower priority, in which case QuestHelper will pretend it had the higher priority. You will notice a green arrow in the priority menu when QuestHelper isn't using the priority you assigned.
You can use priorities as hints to get the objectives in an order you'd prefer, without the need to micro-manage the route list.
Filters[]
There are 3 filters you can use to automatically ignore quests, which you can turn on and off using the slash command /qh filter.
The first filter is level, which by default is on. It will cause QuestHelper to ignore any objectives that your current party probably isn't high enough to complete. You can adjust the level offset used by this filter with the command /qh level offset.
The next filter is zone, which by default is off. It will cause QuestHelper to ignore any objectives that aren't in your current zone. Note that this filter might not do the right thing for objectives that can be completed in multiple zones.
The last filter is done, which by default is off. It will hide objectives for any quests that aren't complete. You can use this if you don't want to quest and just want to turn your completed quests in.
You can force QuestHelper to show an objective that otherwise would have been filtered by typing /qh hidden and selecting Show from its entry in the menu.
Sharing[]
Sharing allows you to share your objectives with other party members, allowing you to combine your routes and work together effectively.
Note that sharing only tells your peers what objectives you have, your completion progress for them, and the priorities you have assigned to them. Information such as item drops and monster locations are not shared.
Each peer will take this information and calculate their own route from it. Assuming you stay together and work cooperatively, which was the whole idea behind this feature, your routes should end up being almost completely identical, and you can follow it and rest assured that nobody is getting left behind. Objectives shared by multiple users won't be removed until everybody has completed it.
User objectives, by default, aren't shared. If there is somebody available to share with, an option will appear in the right-click menu for that objective to allow you to share it manually.
Objective priorities are shared globally. If one user changes the priority of an objective, that change will be reflected in all peers. This, again, was done to ensure that everybody's routes end up being roughly identical, and so that peers would have the correct priorities for timed quests.
Slash Commands[]
- /questhelper:Alias for /qh.
- /qh help: Lists all the QuestHelper slash commands.
- /qh help command: Tells you about a specific command.
- /qh hidden: Displays a list of all the hidden objectives, why they are hidden, and, depending on the reason, will allow you to un-hide them.
- /qh ftime: Toggles the display of the flight time estimates.
- /qh locale locale: Sets the locale to use for displayed text, or lists possible locales if no argument is given. Defaults to your client's locale the first time you run QuestHelper. The only locale that is complete right now is enUS. Missing translations will be marked with red text.
- /qh share: Toggles objective sharing on and off. When on, will share quest objectives and progress with other party members that are using QuestHelper 0.17 or higher, and also have sharing enabled.
- /qh solo: Will disable quest sharing and ignore anyone you might be partied with. Basically assume you will receive no aid from your party members.
- /qh comm: Toggles the display of the data sent between peers. I use this for debugging, but some people just love to stare at streams of meaningless data. It's really quite hypnotic...
- /qh hide: Hides QuestHelper's minimap arrow and World Map icons and paths, and suspends the calculation of routes.
- /qh cartwp: Toggles using Cartographer Waypoints to display your current objective.
- /qh level offset: Sets the level offset used by the level filter. Can be positive or negative. Invoke with no arguments to see the current offset and your effective level at various party sizes.
- /qh level 0: Only show quests at or below your own level.
- /qh level +2: Show quests up to two levels above your own level. This is the default.
- /qh nag: Prints counts of all the new or updated quests, objectives, etc, that you have found that aren't in the supplied database.
Note: To reduce memory usage, QuestHelper deletes static quest data that doesn't belong to your faction. So, if you play both sides, it will always think the quests you did for the opposite faction are new.- /qh nag verbose: Displays the specific differences between your data and the static data.
- /qh find category query: Allows you to create custom objectives by searching for known items, NPCs, and locations. The queries allow fuzzy string matching, and so should happily accept typos and partial matches.
Note that if you attempt to create an objective twice, it will instead hide it.- /qh find item item-name: Search for items.
- /qh find npc npc-name: Search for NPCs or monsters.
- /qh find monster: Alias for /qh find npc.
- /qh find loc zone-name x y: Search for a location in a zone. You may also use a comma, should you feel the need to.
- /qh find loc x y: Search for a location in your current zone.
- /qh find location: Alias for /qh find loc.
- /qh find search-string: Searches in all categories.
- /qh find: Invoking the find command without any arguments will instead display all your current user-created objectives, allowing you to easily turn them off.
- /find, /qhfind: Alias for /qh find.
- /qh filter filter-name: Toggles objective filters on or off.
- /qh filter level: Shows or hides objective that you probably can't do. Note that this considers the levels of everyone in your party, not just you. If you're partied with somebody higher than you, it might not hide a quest that it otherwise would have.
- /qh filter zone: Shows or hides objective that aren't in your current zone.
- /qh filter done: Shows or hides quests that aren't complete.
- /qh scale value: Scales the map icons by this amount of their default size. Will accept a number or a percentage, in the range of 50-300%.
- /qh recalc: Recreates the world graph and location and distance information for the active objectives. You probably don't need to worry about this.
- /qh purge: Deletes all your collected data. The addon's author would prefer if you avoided using this any time other than immediately after sharing your collected data.
Requires that you to enter a randomly generated 8 character case sensitive alphanumeric password, to hopefully ensure that people read the message that gets displayed. - /qh perf: Adjusts performance. Default value is 1. This value has been known to affect FPS.
- /qh radar: Triangulates the position of your target and displays possible locations on your minimap.
- /qh incomplete: Shows or hides quest-givers on your zone map who give quests that you haven’t completed.
FAQ[]
Why aren't my quests showing up?
/qh hidden will list everything that isn't being shown, along with the reason for it being hidden.
How can I get rid of that arrow over my character's head?
/qh cartwp will hide the arrow. If you'd rather move it instead, you can drag it around by left-clicking; unless it's been locked, in which case right-click on it and unlock it first.
How do get that 3D arrow pointing where to go?
That arrow is part of Cartographer Waypoints. It should appear automatically as long as Cartographer is installed and running, and you haven't turned off that feature.
The Icons on my map are huge! How can anyone see anything?
If you find the icons are too big for you, you may enter /qh scale X%, replacing X with some reasonable scale. I'd start with 80%, depending on how that looks you can try bigger or smaller numbers.
My FPS dropped after installing QH
You can adjust the performance of QH by using the perf command. The default perf is 1.
You can adjust the performance incrementally until you find the right blalance of FPS and QH performance.
I recommend starting with 50% and adjusting by +/- .05 until you find the right balance.
/qh perf 0.5
Bugs[]
This addon has been causing Assertion Failed! errors for many players. This will cause errors when exiting [World of Warcraft], including:
- Causing World of Warcraft to freeze
- Causing "Assertion Failed!" issues when you quit out of World of Warcraft.
- Sound and speaker issues during game
These have been confirmed by the [Blizzard Poster] Radoslawn, on the official WoW forums. [1]
This addon has also caused a lot of problems for players who log off in Dalaran and try to log in with QuestHelper on while being in Dalaran.
A common solution to this problem is to just turn QuestHelper off, go to another major city and log out and turn it back on if the addon is still needed.
Solution[]
To fix the Assertion Failed error follow these steps:
- Exit out of World of Warcraft.
- Navigate to your World of Warcraft folder.
- Delete your CACHE folder.
- Move your WTF and INTERACE folders out of your World of Warcraft directory.
- Start the game, then close it. If there are no more "Assertion Failed!" errors, then it is fixed.
Note: Deleting your WTF and INTERFACE folders will cause you to lose most of your WoW and Addon settings. You can place these folders back into their proper spot in your WoW directory if the problem stops.
If this problem persists, your best bet is to make a post on the World of Warcraft Forums or just remove QuestHelper.
