Access Button

The first thing to notice after the successful installation of the questFlux addon is a new button at the border of the minimap. This is the central element when it comes to the controlling of questFlux - the Access Button!

The Access Button may change between two different looks. The black base color combined with a question mark represents the normal state, whereas a red colored Access Button showing an exclamation mark indicates an activated Quest Recorder . You can toggle the Quest Recorder at any time by hitting the button with a CTRL keystroke and a Mouseclick. Move the Access Button arround by dragging it with the mouse - it will automatically snap to the minimap border if it comes close to it.

The tooltip of the Access Button shows detailed information about the state of the questFlux addon. The upper part of the tooltip tells what version of questFlux you are running and which guide is actually selected for replay.

Below that base part you can see a line showing you whether your Quest Recorder is active or not. Furthermore the last recorded task will be shown. At the bottom of the tooltip some mouse + keyboard shortcuts will be listed to help players with the usage of questFlux.

Control Panel

Whether you are running questFlux in Record Mode or not, a Right Mouseclick on the Access Button will bring up the Control Panel. The control options are divided into three parts, represented by the three tab buttons at the top of the Control Panel as seen below.

Among all three subpanels the Control Panel is structured in the same way. On the left you will find a list view. Depending on which panel you have choosen this list shows the content of your guide database, the tasks of your actual selected guide, or all tasks you have recorded so far. On the right side of the Control Panel you can see a detail view of the guide or quest that is selected in the list.

Take a look at the top part of the figure above - on the left you can see the tab button for the Guide Selection Panel. The main purpose of the Guide Selection Panel is, you guessed it, the import and administration of your downloaded guides. As you are allowed to have multiple guides in your guide database, you can use the Guide Selection Panel to switch between them or to delete guides you have already finished.

The middle tab button opens the Replay Control panel as it is shown by the figure above. This panel gives you full control over the replay of your currently selected guide - skip quests you may have already done before starting the guide, reactivate accidentally skipped quests or simply review previous and upcoming tasks.

And finally, the last tab 'Quest Recorder' allows the player to watch over all the quests recorded during gaming sessions, and to delete quests the player don't want to upload or use for a guide template.

Guide Replay

Once you have selected a guide for replay you can open the Guide Replay Window by clicking the Access Button with a Left Mouseclick. The Guide Replay Window shows the actual task and usually a short text that gives information about what to do next.

If the description text is to long and therefore the window covers too much of the screen, you have the option to fade out additional information like title and description by using a Right Mouseclick on the Guide Replay Window. Thus the window will be collapsed to its minimal size only showing the status of the actual task. As soon as the guide proceeds the information text will be faded in again so you won't miss any instructions.

There is also an option for players who like the Blizzard UI quest tracker style - to make the Guide Replay Window background transparent hold down the CTRL Key and hit the Guide Replay Window with a simple Mouseclick. The window background will disappear, but the window still remains move- and clickable so the same keyboard-mouse shortcut will make the background visible again.

Needless to say you can combine both of these style options to your liking.

Map Stuff

Of course questFlux will not send anybody blindly into the adventure. If the actual guide step provides some coordinate data the addon will display map markings to help the player finding the right way.

The first map marking type can be found on the minimap as long as the player resides in the right map zone. This marking works similar to the ingame marking of the next located town - if the target gets out of sight the mark becomes an arrow moving alongside the minimap border indicating the direction to move.

Beside this minimap marking questFlux is able to display an arrow on the screen directing towards the location of your next task. By default this direction hint is located at the center of the screen, but you can drag it around and place it wherever you want. The color of that arrow indicates the distance between the player and its target location - short distances result in a green tone whereas far away targets will color the arrow yellow to orange. You can toggle this Direction Arrow by clicking the Guide Replay Window with a SHIFT + Mouseclick.

The third cartographic assistance can be found on the worldmap - small dots marking one or more target locations. Their tooltip reveals the name of the task to be done and the target's coordinate values. One or more markings? Yes. questFlux is capable of handling more than one target location. The orange marking is your currently active one that the minimap marking and the on-screen direction arrow are guiding you towards, whereas the blue dots represent alternative coordinates that can be selected as active target by a simple mouseclick.

Note: As long as the Online Guide Editor isn't released there are no options for guide authors to edit their map markings. Thus there will only be one marking type available - point markings. No paths, no areas! All tasks that involve killing creatures or finding items will have some 'senseless' alternative coordinates. This will change as soon as area and path markings are available through the Online Guide Editor!