Polestar 0.3.7

0.3.7 brings the fixes from your reports since 0.3.6, quieter play (less work in the background, no stutter indoors), new helpers for training, quest loot and timed quests, a Lookup button, Browse all steps, profession guides rebuilt on Forever's trainers, and an update notice. Polestar is in beta (0.x).

New

• Polestar tells you when a newer version is out: at login a card on the guide window says which version is out, which one you're on and how to update (Polestar Client can do it for you), and a line stays in the guide window until you update. The newest version comes from Polestar Client, else from party and guild members running Polestar and players of your faction you target or mouse over outside cities. Never in combat or in dungeons; the option is under Options > Guide > Window.
• Browse all steps: a click on the step number in the guide window lists every step of the guide, done ones ticked and the live step marked; click a step to look at it (thanks TTik3r; built by aalejandrofer, #1678).
• The guide window has a Lookup button that opens search with the box ready to type in (thanks fekz; built by MattMer, #1615).
• Train All: a button in the class trainer window learns every available skill in one click and prints what it spent and anything it couldn't afford (Quality of Life > Vendors > Trainers, on by default); the auto-learn option is now called Auto-learn new spells. And /rl reloads the UI (thanks RikyZ90, #1503).
• When you level up, a quiet card shows the class spells you can now train, what they cost together and where to train (your guide's own training stop when it's a few steps away), with a button for the arrow. Never in combat or in dungeons.
• After training, Polestar lists the spells on your action bars that are a lower rank than your spellbook's, and Upgrade puts the highest rank in those same buttons, out of combat. Macros and items are never touched; right-click a spell to keep it at its rank.
• A timed quest your guide doesn't hand in gets its own row at the top of the guide window: its time left, where it goes and about how long the trip takes. Click it for the arrow, right-click to hide it until the timer ends. Timed quests no guide picks up now count down too when the game shows no timer.
• A quest you work in one guide but hand in only in a later one says so under its goal ("Keep this: you hand it in later in Badlands & Desolace (37–38)"), and the guide's end window lists such quests under "Carried to later guides" so you don't abandon them. Clean up quest log no longer calls them unneeded.
• An item you loot that starts a quest you can take shows on the quest item button with a glow until you click it or take the quest (option: Show quest-starting loot, on by default).
• Inside a dungeon or raid, the quest tracker shows only that instance's quests, and the quests you were tracking come back when you leave (option: Track only dungeon quests in dungeons, on by default).
• A click on the minimap button hides everything Polestar shows (the windows, the arrow, the buttons, the lines and pins on the maps, the marks on tooltips and nameplates, its sounds); click again and it all comes back, with your guide kept up meanwhile. A "Hide/show Polestar" key binding and /polestar hide do the same, and the button's right-click menu can keep the arrow when hidden.
• A line under the XP line says how long your campfire Boosted Rest lasts and whether your Cozy Sleeping Bag is ready; party members running Polestar show theirs in the party panel (Options > Quality of Life > Trackers).
• Take the marked flight (Quality of Life > Travel > Flight masters, off by default): when the flight map opens, it flies you to the destination the guide marked. Hold Shift at the flight master to choose yourself (#1621; thanks muffe, #1646).
• Dynamic Questing tells you about flight paths you pass: "Learn the flight path at Thelsamar", with a click for the arrow, and learning it ticks the guide's later step for it (option: Flight paths you pass).
• Detour captions (Options > Guide > Arrow & routes, off by default): a walk that goes round a town of the other faction says so under its step, for example "Detour around Southshore" (thanks shatteredeagle, #1501).
• Polestar's Target, quest item, Hearthstone, rare, bag and travel buttons can be bound from the game's Quick Keybind Mode, and Polestar's key bindings have their own section in Options > Keybindings.
• Gear advice: a quest you're about to accept shows "Reward: +N% · at turn-in" when its best reward is an upgrade for you (idea by IgorMagals, built by shatteredeagle, #1494).
• The bag button has its own place on screen: drag it on its own, like the target button; Reset button positions puts it back.

Quieter play

• No more stutter while the arrow guides you indoors (the Undercity, buildings, caves): reading which floor you're on took up to 40 ms several times a second there, and now takes a fraction of a millisecond (#1682; thanks filthy and Noxis).
• Less work in the background, so fewer hitches: item data for items gear advice never looked at no longer makes the guide recheck everything, a party member's XP gain repaints only the party panel, and the first tooltip or quest accept of a session no longer stalls while the quest database builds its indexes.
• Step changes do less work: the done steps of your tabs are counted only when you hover a tab or open the guide list, and the pace line no longer works the route out again from the start in a long guide.
• Lookups, the pace line and quest details find their entries faster, and world map objectives drawn as areas cost much less while you zoom or pan (OpenMap's map too).
• The walking router uses far less CPU while you follow the arrow round an objective (thanks AlverezYari).

Updating and your place

• Updating mid-guide keeps your place when the new version changes a step you'd already passed; updating again no longer brings back steps an earlier update had passed, and a guide the update didn't change keeps everything you checked off or skipped.
• After an update adds a step behind you for a quest you carry, the quest shows under "Still to do" even when its hand-in is still ahead (thanks creazy231, #1595).
• Reset guide progress keeps the guide where your quests put you, instead of sending you back to a step you skipped long ago (#1764).

Leveling guides

• Horde Hillsbrad & Arathi (29-33): if you skipped the 22-25 Hillsbrad guide, it starts with Darthalia's first Battle of Hillsbrad quests and The Rescue from Tarren Mill (#1660, thanks creazy231). Henchman Valik and the Syndicate missive come on the way back from Southshore at about 31-32 (#1466), the guide list says why most of its quests are 32-34, and the Flame of Uzel step warns about the yetis around it and Frostmaw (thanks Tincho).
• Horde Hillsbrad: Helcular's Rod points at the Foothill Caverns' level 30-32 yetis instead of the 32-34 cave further north (thanks Kolbi, #1695).
• The Barrens (Horde 15-21): Tonga's seed test goes with Verog at the Stagnant Oasis and the snapjaws with Hezrul at Lushwater Oasis, with no more crossing back and forth (#1644). Apothecary Zamah is left with Helbrim (Druids take it for their Thunder Bluff trip), the last flight to Ratchet shows only while you carry its quests (#1676), and Ratchet's flight path is learned on your first stop there. Tauren learn Camp Taurajo's on the way out of Mulgore.
• Mulgore: Seer Graytongue and the shrine come during the Mountain Cougar hunt, instead of walking up to Grull and back.
• Horde Ashenvale: Ashenvale Outrunners waits for the second visit at 26, and the Galak centaurs step no longer waits for the Galak Messenger (his quest stays optional).
• Horde Skyborne Shamans get Storm, Earth, and Fire (Call of Air) among their available quests and follow-ups.
• Zephras Isle: after Lorthuna, the arrow takes the Portal to Valanaar instead of telling you to hearth (#1674).
• Alliance Desolace (30-40): Carved Centaur Totems comes with Centaur Bounty on the first visit (thanks rockzors), and Vahlarriel's Vengeance is asked for only once she offers it (#1579).
• Alliance Stranglethorn Vale: Private Thorsen's Jungle Secrets is optional, and the arrow leads to where he's ambushed (#1752, thanks mutaka). Un'Goro Crater (49-50) and Stranglethorn Vale (35-36) say in the guide list why most of their quests are above the guide's range.
• Alliance Arathi Highlands & Swamp of Sorrows (36-38): the Shadowy Assassin and Noboru the Cudgel are optional, so their steps no longer wait for them (thanks Fyurie).
• Alliance Tanaris (40-50): the Mirage Raceway step no longer asks for Zamek's Distraction, which the Alliance route never gets.
• Steps where players died among elites now warn about them (the Jasperlode and Fargodeep mines, Thunder Ridge, the Razormane camp, the Tower of Althalaxx), and Yeti Fur and the Burning of Spirits' gems point at mobs at your level.
• Class guides wait for the right level before sending you after mobs well above you (Whirlwind Weapon, Celestial Orb, Brutal Armor, Fire Hardened Armor, Shard of the Green Flame, Call of Air and more), and Enchanted Gold Bloodrobe no longer sends Warlocks to the Burning Exiles at 31 (thanks devanpy, #1667).
• Quests the game hands in straight from the giver's window are no longer "Accept" steps that never tick: Essence of the Exile (reported by Fenn), the capitals' cloth donations, the Scourgestones, the Timbermaw feathers and more.
• Gelkis and Magram Centaur Reputation sends you to the right clan's half of the guide, with the Carved Centaur Totems first.
• A quest giver who keeps a quest behind a chat option says to try it, instead of "Not offered? Report it" (Sovik's Chief Engineer Scooty, #1762), and a quest offered only while you carry another one moves on once that quest is out of reach (Henchman Valik, #1661).
• The guide no longer sends you to a town or camp where nothing is left for you (#1596, reported by Redrett).
• Steps with several field objectives plan the rest of the trip to cut backtracking, leaving quests above your level for later (thanks Emlembow).
• Twenty quests show the experience they really give on Forever, from players' recorded hand-ins, so the level estimates are closer.
• Prison Break In's four Dalaran traitors are marked at their camp, lookups know that The Great Outdoors comes after The Adventurer, and Alliance Blacksmithing no longer sends new smiths to Ironus Coldsteel.

Profession guides

• Rebuilt on Forever's trainers and recipes: Leatherworking takes 150-225 on the patterns Forever's trainers teach (thanks Syrio86, #1553), cloth is counted in your bags instead of farm trips, Night Elf miners start on Teldrassil's Amber, and each guide's header names the trainers for each rank.
• A profession guide starts where your skill is: each skill range is a heading over its steps, and the materials ask only for what the range still needs.
• Training steps point only at trainers who teach that rank at your skill on Forever: no more Expert Leatherworking at Journeyman trainers (thanks mutaka, #1608), Journeyman Alchemy at Doctor Herbert Halsey (#1708) or Linen Belt at Josephine Lister (#1498). The arrow knows more of Forever's trainers (Kamari, Dan Golthas, Cook Torka and others), and Herbalism, Mining and Skinning ranks ask no character level.
• Tailoring: Night Elves are sent to Trianna or Grondal Moonbreeze, not to trainers who don't teach it (thanks Critical Thinker and mjebalidev, #1577).
• Herbalism and Mining loops lead through each zone's common nodes again.
• Lookup shows the skill at which Forever's trainers teach each recipe (about 300 were off) and which trainers teach each profession.

Dungeons

• Pick-up and hand-in guides name the mobs that drop a quest item, say to click through an NPC's dialogue, list the quests already in your log in one line and take a giver right beside you first (#1589, #1590, #1591, #1593); each quest out in the world says why it's there ("Needed for …"), with a warning for elites.
• A dungeon's entrance step says "Need a group? Press I for the group finder", with your own key.
• The Dungeons pages say who a quest is for ("Warlock only", "Tauren only") and grey out the ones you can't take (thanks danagar, #1730).
• "Guide me to the entrance" ends once you're through the portal, and the arrow is back on your guide (thanks Silverina, #1686).
• Razorfen Kraul: Elemental Aid comes from Prate Cloudseer and goes back to Rau Cliffrunner (#1760, thanks gabriel pasternak).
• Class quest cards and dungeon heads-ups come one level before the quest's level, not as early as the game allows.

Arrow and travel

• The arrow no longer gets stuck on a point of the path behind you after you cut a corner or run down a slope (thanks Megabite and Paolo).
• Stepping off a ledge or a dam no longer sends the arrow the long way round (the Stonewrought Dam: thanks, Rheuz, #1650).
• The arrow and Nearby services no longer lead you through a zone crossing you don't take: Kargath's flight master is reached without the Searing Gorge gate (reported by LaboredGuineaPig, #1694).
• Nearby services no longer walks you out of a capital and back in, and leads to the right floor in stacked towns, such as Thomas Mordan in the Undercity (#1639).
• The arrow no longer picks a walk over a faster flight, boat or Hearthstone, or a flight master to save a few seconds (#1603). A far flight master's landing walk is measured, so the route no longer flies you back the way you came (reported by PSYzera), and a walk passed for a flight stays passed when you land (thanks Etienne, #1768).
• Flights and walks between hubs say what they're for ("For Feegly the Exiled's quests"), and the journey lists a crossing once: "Walk to Durotar".
• A click on the step's header, or on a goal on the map, leads the arrow there, and a click on the arrow moves on to the goal's next spot (#1653, thanks Rheuz).
• The Hearthstone and quest item buttons leave the screen during a flight and come back when you land.
• Clicking a party member for the arrow chimes once when you reach them, then the arrow is back on your guide.
• The text under the arrow is wider, so a long step stays on one line (#1581).

While you're here and targeting

• While you're here shows an objective once, however many steps hold it. It waits for the item a click needs (Marla's Grave: thanks Malifax and mjebalidev, #1578), no longer suggests taking an escort early (#1618, thanks MattMer), and leaves a hand-in to the guide only when the guide walks you there about now.
• The target button names every creature a quest item works on and every one a kill counts (Kodo Roundup: thanks rockzors, #1614), the mobs of the camp the arrow leads to (Centaur Bounty: thanks rockzors, #1616), and reaches the While you're here mobs on a step that sends you to an NPC (thanks Emil, #1623).
• A collect line names the mobs that drop the item when one or two kinds drop it at least one time in five (thanks collincusce).

Guide window

• "Set your home at the guide's inn" binds your Hearthstone on the first visit (#1652, first reported by Emil in #1298; thanks muffe and Emil, #1654).
• Training lines say what they mean ("Learn new spells from "), and the training reminder no longer sends you to another trainer when your guide trains you within 10 steps.
• A buy or collect line ticked off without the items says how many to get ("Buy 3 Soothing Spices", #1631).
• When the route passes a group quest you chose to skip, the guide window says so (thanks Optimistic Teammate).
• With Polestar Guides unticked in the AddOns list, Polestar says so and offers a button to turn it back on.
• The "If you finish this guide" card no longer counts thousands of kills for a stray drop (thanks Mateo, #1697).
• Transparent style: the shade behind each line is light again, and a count like 0/6 never splits across two lines (#1684). At its maximum height the goals list ends on a whole goal, and after a theme change confirm dialogs dim the screen instead of turning it black.

Playing together

• A party member on another Polestar version gets one line in chat per session; a member who already handed a quest in reads "already done", and one who can't take it isn't listed.
• The card that says the Polestar founder is nearby comes at most once a day per account.

Reporting a problem

• The report box takes up to 1,000 characters and Copy report keeps your words whole. The report window no longer draws over itself after a UI scale change, and a long report scrolls inside its box (#1753). From an older Polestar, the report window asks you to update first.

Discord

• When we answer a Discord bug report on GitHub, the answer appears in your #bugs thread too; #known-issues lists the problems we know about, with what to do meanwhile; and a report fixed in an update that's already out says "the fix is out".

Fixed Lua errors

• "Engine.lua: table index is nil" when the guide moved past a quest that starts from an item (reported by Fyurie), "attempt to compare nil with number" after picking another spot of a goal by hand (reported by doctor-house), and "attempt to index local 'was'" in the walking line.

Translations

• Simplified Chinese: the Loch Modan, Redridge & Westfall guide (19-21) has a native speaker's review, checked by playing through the route; names follow Forever's own Chinese data, not retail's (thanks 山猫, #1803).

For guide authors

• A class guide's own spells are name tokens even where an NPC, object or item has the same name (#1504, thanks Tom; built by FlexusDev, #1519), and learn of a class spell no longer warns that it's missing from the data (#1505, thanks Tom; built by FlexusDev, #1520).
• New: section <Profession> <from>-<to> headings for profession guides, collect <item> xN anywhere, and the compiler's carriedTo, parent and fromNpcs (GUIDE_FORMAT.md, PACK_FORMAT.md).
• Item corrections can add droppers every source missed (addDrops, first used for the Carved Centaur Totem, #1602), and the data build reads the community quest database's player-trace quest XP.

If you're mid-guide: update, and the guide picks up where you are.

Update with the Polestar Client, the CurseForge app, or the zip below.

Thanks to this release's contributors, aalejandrofer, AlverezYari, Emlembow, FlexusDev (also for the guide-format docs, #1584), MattMer, mjebalidev, muffe, RikyZ90 and shatteredeagle; to our new Ko-fi supporters Magic, Phoque and Silverina, and everyone on the Guiding Stars page; and to everyone who reported a bug.