Master Plan in 6.2: Where art thou? – Updated

Update (6/24): Master Plan on Curse has been updated. It works with 6.2 with all of the original functionality intact. Users are reporting a conflict with Garrison Mission Commander, so if you are currently using that addon, you may wish to disable it before reactivating Master Plan.

Original Story:

Since its inception, World of Warcraft has allowed addons – player created modifications – within the game. These addons can be something as simple as a set of coordinates on the player’s minimap to show them where they are in the world, or as complex as an entirely new user interface, from graphics to functionality. The possibilities of addons in World of Warcraft are endless – and so are the problems.

On June 23rd, 2015, Blizzard launched patch 6.2 for World of Warcraft. This major content patch added an entirely new zone, quest line, and raid area, and changed a great deal of the backend functionality of the user interface. This in turn caused many addons to quit functioning correctly.

This is a common woe of the WoW player – patch day hits, and it generally takes a few days for addons to update. There’s often quite a bit of grousing about this addon or that not working, but the actual impact on the game is fairly limited. Alternatives are found, the base UI is used, and in a few days, all is back to normal.

And then something went terribly wrong…

However, with the advent of 6.2, one addon was rendered unusable that created an outcry far beyond anything seen in any previous patch. This addon only modified a single interface panel – the Garrison Mission frame – but it changed it in such a profound manner that many players have insisted that they find themselves unable to do Garrison missions without it.

Holding a candlelight vigil for #MasterPlan in the hopes it will be updated soon. RIP #Garrison #missions in the meantime. #Warcraft

— Zanbon (@Zanbons) June 24, 2015

The base Garrison Mission frame is very simple – it contains two tabs; one for missions, which lists the mission, the item level requirement of the mission, and the reward of the mission, and one for followers, which simply gives a list and a brief detail of each follower the player has recruited. Master Plan is an addon written by Foxlit that modifies the Garrison Mission frame to expedite the creation and completion of missions, as well as helping the player to monitor their followers, track for redundant or useless followers, and discover which combinations of followers work best for most of the more lucrative missions.

I don’t even want to play without #MasterPlan. #Warcraft

— Zarrek Draenor (@ZarrekDraenor) June 23, 2015

Master Plan expands on the base frame in such a way to have become indispensable to a large portion of the player base. Master Plan’s Curse page is flooded with anxious users wanting to know when an update will be available, chat channels in game have been flooded with plaints and complaints, and some are even attempting to take advantage of the situation by soliciting donations while claiming to be Foxlit, garnering almost $500 in donations in the brief window before being reported to PayPal and shut down.

Sometimes it’s a sign…

Perhaps Blizzard might take note of this particular hullabaloo surrounding a single addon. In the past, the MMO giant has incorporated the functionality of certain addons into its base UI – most recently, the group finder functionality of the incredibly popular oQueue was added as the Premade Groups finder. When one addon affects so many and has so many willing to forego an important part of their game until its functionality is returned, perhaps Blizzard might consider that its base UI is just a bit lacking.

A new day will come

Like many other World of Warcraft players, I eagerly await the update of Foxlit’s Master Plan. With five level 100 characters, I have found that trying to do the math of exactly which followers are best for which mission is a time-consuming chore, especially in the wake of all the other activities that 6.2 has brought to the table. Foxlit has acknowledged that he is working on the addon, so the best that we can do now is wait patiently and give him our support.

And keep refreshing the Curse client.