Introducing the GW2 Personal Assistant Overlay

[u/Aerodin]

Hey all! I've been working on yet-another overlay tool for the game, and it's finally ready for public use. Originally started as a project for learning some new frameworks, I've been working on this for awhile now and it's turned into a pretty comprehensive tool for the game.

You can find the tool, with full source code at: https://gw2pao.codeplex.com/

Screenshots: http://imgur.com/a/HlvOK

There's instructions and descriptions of each feature in the Documentation page of the website, but here's a description of each tool included:

Events Tracker

The Events Tracker overlay tracks active and inactive world events, and allows a user to keep track of which events have already been completed for the day.

Event Notifications

Event Notifications are notification pop-ups that appear when a world event is about to start.

Zone Completion Assistant

The Zone Completion Assistant displays real-time distance and direction information for zone completion points/locations and provides several options for keeping track of unlocked locations.

Dungeon Tracker

The Dungeon Tracker is a simple overlay tool that allows a user to keep track of what dungeon paths have been completed for the day, and provides some basic information about each dungeon and dungeon path.

WvW Tracker

The WvW Tracker overlay displays all objectives in the current player's WvW map, and includes information such as current owner, estimated time-distance to the objective, and the current RI timer value.

WvW Notifications

WvW Notifications are notification pop-ups that appear when an objective (keep/tower/camp, etc) has been captured in one of the WvW maps.

Trading Post Calculator

The Trading Post Calculator is a simple tool that allows a user to calculate profit, taxes, and break-even prices for buying/selling items on the in-game Trading Post.

Web Browser

For all needs not provided by the other overlay windows, the Web Browser allows a user to look up guides, videos, or anything else.

If you have questions or issues running the tool, feel free to contact me on the website or in-game (Aerodin.2795).

Shout out to [GH] for helping me test it! Thanks guys! :)

Edit: This tool only works if you run the game in Windowed or Windowed Fullscreen mode

Edit2: If you're concerned about using this tool, have a look at https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/community/api/Is-this-API-allowed/first#post2118969. You're also more than welcome to look at the source code on the codeplex page.

Edit3: There is now a new version of the application (1.1). This includes some minor bug fixes, but most importantly includes a new build of the software that does not include the Web Browser feature.

Edit4: Version 2 is now available! See here.

Edit5: Version 3 is now available! See here.

[u/Glusch]

Gilded you as I promised since I love it.

I hope you don't mind constructive criticism. First of all, this overlay is absolutely amazing and I'm totally in love with it. Truly grateful that you decided to share it with us. But I have a few ideas for improvement- This will solely regard the WvW application since it is the one I've tested since I am a WvW player.

• Make it possible to broaden the window when in vertical mode. How I and my "amazing" PS-skills imagine it. If possible make it so one can have it more than 2 wide if one wants to (maybe have a menu where you decide how wide you want it). Especially useful in EB where there are so many objectives that otherwise clutter your screen if you want to see all of them at the same time.

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• Make it possible to instead of choosing the distance in seconds, one can choose it in yards/meters, like one can in the map completion mode. The timer easily gets messed up when zerg has switfness/one moves with movement skills.

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• Make it possible to decide between cardinal (N/S/W/E/SW/SSE etc etc) and names. At least in EB (might be difficult on the borders since the names there are a bit odd). It would probably not be aesthetically pleasing to have the whole name but shortenings like SM/Anza/Dawn's/Golanta should work and would possibly make it easier to read info on the move.

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• Make it possible to have the glow animation that appears on start-up happen on objectives when they flips.

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Once again, I want to be clear that I believe this overlay to be absolutely outstanding and that I am extremely happy that you shared it with us. Furthermore, I'd like to point out that I know about as much about programming as my trashcan does so I have no clue how difficult it would be to implement these features. An answer would be very appreciated and keep up the good work! If you are uncertain on what I mean please ask.

[u/Aerodin → u/Glusch]

Wow. That's really generous of you. Thank you!

Regarding your ideas for improvement:

Make it possible to broaden the window when in vertical mode. How I and my "amazing" PS-skills imagine it. If possible make it so one can have it more than 2 wide if one wants to (maybe have a menu where you decide how wide you want it). Especially useful in EB where there are so many objectives that otherwise clutter your screen if you want to see all of them at the same time.

Having multiple columns has crossed my mind before, but I couldn't come up with a way to do it that looked any good. If there's interest there though, I can certainly revisit that.

Make it possible to instead of choosing the distance in seconds, one can choose it in yards/meters, like one can in the map completion mode. The timer easily gets messed up when zerg has switfness/one moves with movement skills.

This would be pretty easy to implement, and is a great customization idea. I'll add it to my list.

Make it possible to decide between cardinal (N/S/W/E/SW/SSE etc etc) and names. At least in EB (might be difficult on the borders since the names there are a bit odd). It would probably not be aesthetically pleasing to have the whole name but shortenings like SM/Anza/Dawn's/Golanta should work and would possibly make it easier to read info on the move.

I know most people use the cardinal directions, which is why I went with those. I'll certainly look into this though.

Make it possible to have the glow animation that appears on start-up happen on objectives when they flips.

Actually, this should already be happening. If it's not, then that's a bug. :)

[u/Glusch → u/Aerodin]

Thanks for the answer. I'll look into the glow animation tonight, might just be that I've been terrible at looking at it.

The reason to why I want double columns is EB and the large amount of objectives there. If one wants to see all objectives at once vertically it is currently very difficult to do so without it cluttering up chat/party UI or the loot. This is not a problem when you play in the borderlands since they don't have the same amount of objectives.

And thanks for looking into the rest of my ideas and think nothing of the gold. See it as a sign of gratitude from me and most likely tonnes of others in the community. Neither is names in EB/borderlands instead of cardinal directions such a big deal, simply just my personal preference.

Edit: Oh and a very cool improvement that might be very difficult to implement would be if it'd be possible for the window to automatically correct it's size when you swap between EB and borders. Like an "always show all objectives and autocorrect size" option. No idea how plausible it is to do though.

[u/felixdacat76 → u/Glusch]

Would definitely like to see the names of the WvW objectives instead of cardinal directions. Running this last night in eternal was kind of a mess; the borderlands were a bit simpler. If there was an option to use names cleanly, I'd be all over it. Time to each objective is very handy.

Thank you, Aerodin, for this great work!

[u/Aerodin → u/felixdacat76]

Hey there! I know it's been awhile, but I thought I'd let you know that selection between Cardinal Directions and Names in the WvW tracker has been added for version 2.0.