Minion Minimap Tracking

Problem: your minions are herbalists or miners, and can track those nodes. Unfortunately, the minimap on their screen is too small to catch a glimpse of mining nodes, unless you're watching it directly.

Solution:
1. Download SimpleMinimap (http://wow.curse.com/downloads/details/7806/)
2. Change line 5 of bindings.xml to: <Binding name="smmEXPAND" header="smmTITLE">
3. Change line 6 of bindings.xml to: simpleMinimap:ExpandMinimap()
4. Change line 341 of simpleminimap.lua to: function simpleMinimap:ExpandMinimap()
5. Change line 349 of simpleminimap.lua to: f:SetHeight(UIParent:GetHeight() * 1.0)
6. Change line 358 of simpleminimap.lua to: if (not self.expandedFrame:IsShown()) then

Now, start WoW, make sure the addon is enabled, and go into keybindings. Scroll to the bottom (simpleminimap section) and bind a key to 'expand minimap'. I have mine set to the numpad star key. Now, whenever you hit that key, your minions' minimap will be blown up to fill the entire height of the screen. This makes it much easier to see mining nodes out of the corner of your eye while running around watching the main's screen. It also helps to configure some of the other settings, like removing/repositioning the buttons around the minimap, and setting it to the 'square' skin instead of default.

To be honest most of us just use gatherer with all the nodes already shown....... Alot easier then using your clones to find new nodes.

Using gatherer means going around checking whether every node is there. It's great when you're purposely farming for something, because you can just do a loop through the known nodes. I'm more interested in getting nodes that actually exist as I'm going past, while doing something else.

Ideally the minimap dots would just show up on my main's minimap, but unfortunately WoW's API doesn't allow that. Even this blown-up minimap trick isn't great, since the dots will remain the same (small) size. But it's at least a little closer to what I want, so maybe someone else will find it useful too.

I dont think you understood what I wrote.... I have 99.9% of all the mining nodes and herb nodes on my gatherer database, this is all I need to run on my main, then just by simple looking as I run past I can see if theres a herb or mine there, if there is I swap windows and mine it etc....

So to close this topic - Get Gatherer, Download a complete database, enjoy not having to swap windows unless theres actually a mine or herb there :)

Yes, I have Gatherer. Gatherer displays all possible mine/herb nodes, not just the ones that actually exist. The WoW API makes it impossible to see what nodes actually exist unless you are tracking them yourself. So yes, I could see if there might be a herb/mine node somewhere, but then I still have to squint over at a tiny minimap on the opposite corner of my other monitor. Which is what I'm trying to make easier.

If you have a version of Gatherer that displays actual existing nodes of a tracking type you do not possess, I would love to get a copy of that!

I get what you're saying Aether, and agree. Thanks for the tip, maybe it should go in the wow addon area in wiki.

After using it for a couple of days, it still doesn't work too well :( Blowing up the minimap makes it a bit easier, but with the dots still at the normal size, it isn't great. I'm going to see if I can modify the addon some more to do what I want.

falkor would it be possible to share your gathering node database?

I'm having to power through my mining from about 250+ on my main character and its a nightmare!

Use cartographer, you can get the databases for all nodes and can selectively have them displayed

combined with Cartographer Routes, it will define the optimum route for gathering them all!