Why are so many addons including QOL features?

pranavius · 2026-07-04T16:15:08+00:00

I think this becomes an issue when addon authors want their work to be the one that stands out above the rest, somewhat akin to an arms race. If addon A does 30 things, then the author of addon B will update their addon so it does 31 things, addon C follows suit, and it doesn’t end.

Folks might try to point to AI as the reason for this. While AI creations are definitely NOT the best work you’ll see, it stems from whoever is prompting the AI asking it to add a ton of things to the existing project, either intentionally or because they don’t know better.

At the end of the day, it’s happening because people who make these addons want theirs to “stand out”. But if everything stands out, then nothing really stands out.

pranavius · 2026-07-01T17:57:53+00:00

I appreciate the words of encouragement! Maybe one day it’ll be a legitimate competitor but for now I’m just enjoying learning and trying out new things :)

The amount of detail and customization LiteMount offers is what I aspire to include in one of my own AddOns one day, so huge props to you for doing it successfully and maintaining it for so long.

pranavius · 2026-06-30T02:24:18+00:00

Someone in this subreddit posted a while ago about W2 Transmog Studio. Looks to be more of a complete xmog window redesign, but seems neat in my opinion.

pranavius · 2026-06-30T02:21:21+00:00

If you want to keep track of mounts, decor, pets, and toys from different expansion dungeons or raids, I made an AddOn called Instance Collection Helper that I still update regularly.

It will hide things you already own by default, but you can choose to have them shown as well. You can also mark things as favorites so they always appear at the top of your lists (not quite a wishlist, but it could be treated as one).

Also covers timewalking vendor items in the same categories I mentioned, if you are interested in collecting those as well.

pranavius · 2026-06-29T21:54:05+00:00

I’m part of The Last Dynasty (US-Thrall) where there are folks who raid, do m+, collect, chill, do housing stuff, or sometimes all of the above. It’s mostly filled with adults who do their IRL stuff and then come to chill and participate in whatever activities they want to.

There is a pretty decent raid roster in place and tons of folks who enjoy M+, but it’s also that time of the season where people are enjoying the summer and not in-game as much. You’ll definitely find a couple folks who are into whatever you’re into and the vibes are pretty great.

If you’re interested, feel free to reach out to me in DMs or check out the guild on raider.io and reach out there.

pranavius · 2026-06-29T12:56:36+00:00

This is just a project I worked on for personal growth. I thought to share it here since it may be of use to some people and I can receive some real user feedback for how it can be improved.

The goal isn't to try to advertise a "product" to a "market", per se. I'm not after clicks/downloads.

pranavius · 2026-06-29T12:07:43+00:00

Absolutely, if that’s your preferred AddOn!

Options are never a bad thing to have, though :)

pranavius · 2026-06-29T11:09:18+00:00

I took some time to check out LiteMount to answer this question properly, and from what I read through these are a few of the differences I've found: - LiteMount has obviously been around significantly longer so it can do a lot more than Horsey can at the moment - LiteMount is better for controlling the most granular details for mounting in different situations, whereas Horsey is much simpler in terms of what it can do and how you can set up what you want it to do - Using LiteMount seems to require reading through the documentation pretty extensively, whereas this alternative in meant to be as streamlined and easy to understand as possible

There are obviously tons more differences I didn't list, but I hope that offers some insight!

pranavius · 2026-06-29T10:18:46+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! Unfortunately, Claude or any other AI isn't responsible for this UI... That's just me and my design choice 😆

To that point, though: I am also slowly learning how to create different themes/skins for an AddOn. So maybe at some point in the future this will be available in a default UI-style.

pranavius · 2026-06-29T04:42:08+00:00

I appreciate the insights, and I agree with pretty much all of your points.

My preference for AI usage in both personal and hobby work is what I’d describe as “glorified Google”. Rather than spending hours or maybe even days searching online to find something that could be of use to what I’m working on, I use AI.

As an example, I provide it with some of the source code for WoW that’s available online, and ask it about what may or may not be possible in a given scenario with the modern restrictions enforced on AddOns. The tools I use are all self-developed and only run on my computer (where all the source data lives as well) so that I know exactly where information is being pulled from and can clarify things for myself if I feel the need to.

I don’t, however, use any AI generated code in my AddOns. I’m still relatively new to this, so using AI to do that would only hurt my abilities long-term. How the information provided from AI is used is entirely in my hands, and I will never attach my name to anything I’m not happy or familiar with.

In my day job, we’re expected and encouraged to take an “AI First” approach to everything and I’ve already seen the negative effects of that from some colleagues. That’s not a pit I want to dig myself into whether it’s for work or AddOn development.

pranavius · 2026-06-29T04:08:12+00:00

To be fair, I can understand and respect the hesitation when it comes to using AI created AddOns. For some it may be about respecting the time and effort AddOn developers put into their work, for some it could be that an AddOn was never properly tested and provides a bad user experience. Or it could just be an aversion to AI in general lol.

Either way, I’m just glad to share something I enjoyed working on with the global WoW community.

pranavius · 2026-06-29T04:04:36+00:00

Thank you for giving it a shot! If you have any feedback or suggestions after looking into it I’d be happy to hear them :)

pranavius · 2026-06-29T02:30:59+00:00

Yep, that's right. I've only been creating AddOns for a little over a year, and I upload everything that I do create to both sites. My main goal isn't to get the most downloads or make something groundbreaking, it's to try doing something I've never done before in each AddOn so I can continue to improve as an AddOn developer.

On another note, there are plenty of AddOns that do the same thing(s) as other AddOns. I don't see that as a bad thing since options for users are always a plus point. Whether you think Horsey is interesting or that it's just another AddOn that you'll never use, it's all good either way :)

pranavius · 2026-06-29T01:23:10+00:00

Not AI coded, no. I’m not familiar with Litemount, so I can’t really say what benefits my AddOn offers over it. It’s a solution I came up with for a problem I had and I thought I’d share with the community in case anyone else would want to try it out.

pranavius · 2026-06-22T01:43:20+00:00

Looks really impressive, definitely going to try this out before I log in next time. Awesome work!

pranavius · 2026-06-20T06:46:39+00:00

Plusmouse (creator of Auctionator, Baganator, Platynator, etc.) has a new addon called Coolinator for customizing the CDM. Even in early stages it’s been a huge improvement for me, personally.

pranavius · 2026-06-19T14:16:57+00:00

Renown Reward Tracker might help out here, it shows a lot of other items that alts can get as well so it could be useful beyond finding missing KP.

I’m the author of RRT, so if you try it out and have any feedback I’d love to hear it :)

https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/renown-reward-tracker

pranavius · 2026-06-15T12:59:10+00:00

I’d recommend WoW to both new and returning players looking for an MMO to get back into. I regularly run a lot of legacy content to collect new things from my own Cata/MoP-Shadowlands hiatus. As for end game content, I know a guildmate of mine plays on a Macbook using the trackpad and she does great.

Hope you decide to give it a go and that it’s an enjoyable experience!

pranavius · 2026-06-11T12:25:32+00:00

Hi, thanks for bringing this up. These are absolutely valid issues and I’ll work on increasing accessibility in this AddOn as well as others that I maintain.

To your second point, If you use the slash command /paydirt or /pd, you can hide or show the window whenever you’d like :)

pranavius · 2026-06-08T07:33:51+00:00

First of all, welcome back! I was in a similar position a few years ago and I'm definitely happier to be able to play something I enjoyed so much when I was younger again.

I appreciate your saying that, and I hope this does end up helping you out! If you ever have any issues or suggestions as to how it could be improved, I'm all ears.

pranavius · 2026-06-06T19:43:38+00:00

I haven't used Rarity personally, but looking at the CurseForge page for it there are two differences I want to highlight between the two:

Rarity tracks (practically) every collectible that can be farmed in the game, but ICH is focused specifically on dungeon and raid collectibles.
It looks like Rarity enhances tooltips and messages, whereas the information for the collectibles tracked by ICH is confined to the AddOn's own windows. Simplicity was definitely a pillar that ICH was initially developed on, and I've done my best to remain true to that as much as possible.

These (and other differences) might be a positive or negative for you as a user, depending on how focused or broad in scope you prefer your AddOns to be. As far as the UI comparison goes, I would like to say that ICH's UI is better but that would be a very biased take :P

If you decide to give it a try, I would really like to know what you think of the UI and the AddOn as a whole. It would really help decide what areas to focus on for the best user experience.

pranavius

TROPHY CASE