This module (repo) was created for OrinWoW, but can be used on any azerothcore-wotlk server.
This module gives all newly-created players with the ability to use wands a custom starter wand.
Given the terms of AzerothCore's APGL licence, this module is unfortunately obligated to adopt the same. As such, this project is likewise licensed under APGL.
I had the idea that spellcasters should start off with a wand, similar to how hunters start off with a gun, bow, or crossbow. Getting this implemented though has been a 'fun' journey.
Starter outfits are determined by the charstartoutfit_dbc table within acore_world, except that it's empty. I'm not entirely sure why. But modifying the starter outfits means populating this table with the defaults.
AzerothCore recommends using node-dbc-reader to extract data from the dbc files into SQL queries. If you don't already have the dbc files, you can download them here. Problem is that it doesn't tell you where to clone it, so I immediately ran into issues where it could not find the dbc files. That meant editing file paths within the source code.
It worked at first, allowing me to modify Paladin blessings to last 30 minutes, but this didn't work for CharStartOutfit due to an out-of-bounds error, sigh.
It turns out that the dbc file's schema defines the race, class, gender, and outfit-id values as bytes (u8), whereas node-dbc-reader defines these as uints (u32). No wonder it was overflowing! A little more editing to the source code fixed this, producing a working SQL query. The charstartoutfit_dbc is now populated!
So I look at the charstartoutfit_dbc table, thinking I can find the "ranged weapon" slot by seeing what column hunters use for their ranged weapons. I assumed that it'd match the SLOT_RANGED enum (17), so the weapon would be in ItemID_18 (since the database columns are 1-based indexed). NOPE. I Ctrl-F'd for 2508 (Old Blunderbuss) and not only do I not find it in ItemID_18, but in multiple different columns.
As it turns out, each row in charstartoutfit_dbc is essentially a list of items, not a slot-to-item map. Putting an item into a particular column means nothing. In fact, putting anything in any of the DisplayItemID_* or InventoryType_* columns means nothing (they are not used by the server). This makes editing starter outfits extremely obnoxious.
If charstartoutfit_dbc worked as expected, where each column corresponds to the CharacterSlot enum, then you could trivially update starter outfits, eg:
-- 3 = Hunter
UPDATE charstartoutfit_dbc SET `ItemID_18` = 2508 WHERE `ClassID` = 3;This would then set ALL hunter starter-outfits to have an Old Blunderbuss, and it'd safely override any previous custom ranged weapon for hunters.
Instead, you are required to know where each ranged-weapon lies for each race-class-gender combo. Usually the gender doesn't matter but the possibility is there. Here is the equivalent SQL:
-- Orcs, Dwarves, Blood Elves, and Draenei
UPDATE charstartoutfit_dbc SET `ItemID_8` = 2508 WHERE `ClassID` = 3 AND `RaceID` IN (2, 3, 10, 11);
-- Night Elves and Tauren
UPDATE charstartoutfit_dbc SET `ItemID_6` = 2508 WHERE `ClassID` = 3 AND `RaceID` IN (4, 6);
-- Trolls
UPDATE charstartoutfit_dbc SET `ItemID_5` = 2508 WHERE `ClassID` = 3 AND `RaceID` = 8;This is absurd and extremely bug-prone.
For example, this module is giving wands to classes that don't start out with them. Presumably, it would be best to put it wand in the first-empty column, right? Except... HOW?!
At this point, I abandoned the idea of using the database to modify starter outfits. It's mod time! The most obvious solution was to create a PlayerScript, override OnPlayerCreate, and assign the item there, right? Haha, right? NOPE! Turns out that despite the method giving you a Player instance, you're not really supposed to do anything with it. Is this documented anywhere? Haha, no.
Luckily there's OnPlayerFirstLogin, which does work, thank goodness: I was 🤏 close to committing seppuku. Giving players the starter wand in-script also means not limiting the starter wand to just priests, mages, and warlocks, but to anyone who has the wand skill at time of character creation. Feel free to give druids the wand-skill :)