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Introduction to Plugins

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2021-11-28 01:32:46
Introduction to Plugins

What Are They And Why Should I Use Them?

Plugins are add-ons for games that give modified functionality to your interface. Turbine added the ability to write these plugins for Lord of the Rings Online in 2010. As they control what aspects of information plugins can read from the game, they are able to prevent any potential cheating from any of these plugins, meaning any plugin is completely legal to use.

As to why you should use them, it's really quite simple: they make the game's interface work how you want it to work. Don't like how your vitals are shown? There's a plugin that can simplify them so you see only what you need to. Having problems seeing how long your buffs have left? There's a plugin that can show a countdown for each buff in an easy to read manner. There are plugins for almost anything you'd want to change in the interface.

Where And How Do I Get Plugins?

There are several places to get plugins, but I would recommend getting them from one of the following three:

The LotRO forums have a LUA scripting section[www.lotro.com] . This is a good place to read up on Lua and see some discussions about it.

The MMOUI community has a LotRO Interface[www.lotrointerface.com] website. This is usually my first stop for plugins. The communication isn't as high as the LotRO forums, but it's a decently-organized database of most of the plugins in existance.

Lunarwtr has created a program that installs (and updates) plugins called LotRO Plugin Compendium[www.lotrointerface.com] . (A Mac/Linux compatible version can be found here[www.lotrointerface.com] .) The plugins need to include a certain file and be organized in a specific manner, so while the program makes it easier to install, it won't have access to all plugins. I highly recommend getting it though, as it does make updating significantly easier and does include most plugins.

Once you've found a plugin you want, you'll need to get it on your machine. If you use the Plugin Compendium, it should be pretty self-explanatory, but if you don't want to use that program or the Plugin Compendium doesn't offer the plugin you want, you'll have to install it manually.

Plugins need to be located in a specific spot, and the folder order needs to be correct for the game to be able to pick up that they exist. Most plugin creators do make this pretty simple, but make sure you keep an eye out for the occasional one that doesn't package their plugin exactly right. Combining the following instructions and information with any instructions listed on those plugin pages should enable you to correctly install even oddball plugins.

The first step is to find the correct directory. The exact location will vary from machine to machine, but it will always be in your main user folder. For Windows 8 users, this is found at C:\Users\YourLoginName\Documents\The Lord of the Rings Online. Inside this folder you need to have a Plugins folder. If one does not already exist, create it. (If you create it, make sure it's exactly like that. "plugins" or "Plug-ins" or "Plugin" may not work.)

Inside of this folder you'll be placing your plugins. In most cases, the folder will either be named after the plugin creator (if they have several plugins, they'll usually do this) or named after the plugin itself (usually done if the author only has one plugin, or has a very popular one). Within this folder you'll see other folders and the .plugin file.

The important thing to note is that each plugin will have a "pluginname.plugin" file and that needs to be within whatever this last folder is. For Windows 8 users, your .plugin file will always be found in C:\Users\YourLoginName\Documents\The Lord of the Rings Online\Plugins\PluginNameOrCreator\. If the .plugin file is out of that directory, the game will not be able to find the plugin.

How Do I Use Them?


Introduction to Plugins image 14

Once in the game, plugins have to be loaded. This can be done in one of three ways: through the in-game plugin manager, through another plugin, or manually.

Official Plugin ManagerWith Update 5, Turbine integrated a plugin manager with the game. As it is the official way to load plugins, this is probably the best way to use plugins. The Plugin Manager can be accessed from the Character Selection screen or from the System Menu once in the game. (Typing [b/plugins manager[/b] in the chat window will also bring it up.)

1: Plugin name and version number

2: Load. Press this to load a plugin for your current session.

3: Unload All. Due to a limitation in the system, to unload one plugin you must unload all of them. Press this if you wish to do so.

4: Refresh button. Press this button if you've installed plugins on your machine since you opened your client.

5: About tab. Shows a bit of information about your plugin.

6: Options tab. For most plugins, this will be where you change the plugin settings to fit your needs. Options will be saved from session to session.

7: Automatically load section. Here you're able to selectively choose characters you wish to have load the plugin automatically, or choose the top option to have it load automatically for every character, even those that may not exist yet.

ManuallyPlugins can be controlled through a series of text commands in the chat window. I'll explain each one here, but if you forget any of them, simply typing /plugins with no commands will bring up a list of all applicable commands. All of the commands are prefaced with the /plugins, so the full thing to type for each command will be /plugins command.

list - Prints a list of all available plugins to the chat window.

refresh Refreshes the list of plugins. This loads in any plugins that may have been installed since you logged in, and removes any that have been uninstalled.

load pluginname - Loads the plugin.

unload Unloads all plugins. Due to the limitation mentioned earlier, you'll need to unload all plugins if you want to unload any of them.

Other PluginsThis is the method I personally use. Some plugins don't play well with the automatic loading feature that the game implements, so I will manually load a single plugin that will in turn load all of the other plugins I wish to use. Due to the fact that it is a plugin, you'll need to use one of the first two methods to load the "manager" plugin. (You should probably load it manually, as otherwise you may as well use the in-game manager.)

I personally use PluginManager[www.lotrointerface.com] , and this guide will go into how to use that plugin specifically. Another popular manager is Bootstrap Plugin Manager[www.lotrointerface.com] , but again, since I use the first one, I'm unfamiliar with Bootstrap, so I will not be giving instructions for it.

Install your manager.

Type /plugins load manager

Type /manager

A small window listing your plugins will pop up. Check any plugins you wish to load and hit Apply. The plugins will load.Any time you load the Manager plugin, whatever plugins you have checked will load. It will remember checks across sessions, so if you only want to load a plugin once, either uncheck it when you're done or use one of the other methods to load it. Hitting "Reload" will unload all of your plugins and then reload whatever plugins are checked.

Which Ones Should I Use?

Below are a few of the plugins I use regularly. If you want any more details on them or run into problems with them, leave a comment and I'll include some extra information here.

Alt Inventory[www.lotrointerface.com] - This plugin keeps track of your inventories across all your alts. It's very useful for finding craft items, recipes, or really any other items that may be on one of several alts. It's also handy to see if you need to resupply an alt.

BuffBars[www.lotrointerface.com] - This plugin has a lot of features, but the most commonly used one is a list of all buffs currently on yourself with countdown timers. The information can also be presented as a slider.

Combat Analysis[www.lotrointerface.com] - This is essentially a DPS meter. It watches your combat log and presents the information in an easy to read format.

DailyTasks[www.lotrointerface.com] - This plugin is an easy way to keep track of your task items. No more grabbing all the tasks until you complete one, or collecting every item just in case! It'll tell you what tasks can be completed and what items you can throw away.

Legendary Item Planner[www.lotrointerface.com] - This plugin allows you to build virtual LIs, which allows you to test if a setup will work properly before you invest the resources in a real one.

Palantir[www.lotrointerface.com] (and Palantir II[www.lotrointerface.com] ) - A new set of vitals. This brings the morale and power bars to the center of the screen in a much better looking way than the traditional vitals. The original plugin is no longer being worked on. Palantir II is an addon for the original with a new author who continues to add features.

PvMP+[www.lotrointerface.com] - A PvP plugin, this presents useful information such as current renown, recent KBs, etc.

TitanBar[www.lotrointerface.com] - This plugin gives you a customizable bar for the top (or bottom) of your screen that can include a plethora of information, to include all currencies, reputation, renown, current time on your machine, current time in the game, etc.

TonicBars[www.lotrointerface.com] - This plugin allows you to create custom hotslots. Rules can be added to make the hotslots show at only a certain time, to make them show more hotslots when moused over, etc.

Tulkas[www.lotrointerface.com] - A plugin that allows you to compare either single pieces of gear or an entire set (armour and jewelry). It will let you know what you gain or lose by switching. Some of the stats are based on the class you're currently on, so make sure you do the comparison on the character that will actually be wearing the gear.

Bonus: UI Skinning

You may notice that my in-game plugin manager looks different than yours. This is because I'm using a custom UI skin. Skins are relatively simple to obtain and install especially if you're familiar with plugins, as I hope you are by now.

The best place to obtain skins is LotRO Interface[lotrointerface.com] , just as it is with plugins. You can also check the User Interface[www.lotro.com] section of the forums but they're a bit rarer than plugins are.

To install a skin, download the file (usually a .zip). You will extract it into a similar place as your plugins, but not the exact place. Find the same The Lord of the Rings folder as you found for plugins, but instead of going into the Plugins folder, you need to enter or create the ui folder, and within the ui folder, another folder named skins. On Windows 8, this should look like C:\Users\YourLoginName\Documents\The Lord of the Rings Online\ui\skins. Proper format for skins folders is a bit looser than plugins, but usually you'll just extract whatever the top level folder is in the .zip file (usually a folder with the name of the skin) directly into the skins folder.

I highly recommend JRR Azure Glass[www.lotrointerface.com] as a skin to use. Unlike most skins that usually just change the color scheme and general appearance, Azure Glass rearranges the actual bars at the bottom to fit better with your screen. Instead of having four bars high, I use the 2x2 layout. There are plenty out there though, so give them a try!

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=169800201

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