[App Release] Ascent Console Announcer by Twist3d (global announcer)

[Twisted7]

Ascent Console Announcer 1.0.4
Automatic server-wide message announcer, by Twist3d.

Last Updated: 8/29/2008

This release is an application I wrote today that sends randomly picked, user-defined server-wide announcements via the Ascent console at a user specified interval. It's fairly simple at the moment since I just wanted it to get the job done but if you submit feature requests and/or feedback I'll try to implement it if at all possible.


How do I use Ascent Console Announcer?
The application is fairly simple and straightforward to use. There is no installation required, you can basically just download it and save it to your desktop/realm folder/whatever (if you want to use it with multiple realms, stick a copy of the file in each realm and execute each copy for each realm, just make sure to set up the parameters right).

After you've saved it in the right place (anywhere), open the application and fill out the More Settings section with the proper information.

Ascent Executable Name: This is the name of your ascent world executable. For example, ascent-world (Aspire) or arcemu-world (ArcEmu). You do not include the .exe extension.

EXACT Ascent Window Title: This is the title of the ascent world console window. The value you enter here must be EXACT, and it IS case sensitive (meaning C:\ASCENT is not the same as c:\ascent). An example window title would be C:\server\ascent-world.exe.
This is really very simple, just launch your server and type whatever the title bar of the black screen with the gray letters says.


Setting up multiple realms
No special changes are needed to set up the application to work with multiple realms. Just make a copy of the application in the folder for each of your realms, and then set the Window Title accordingly.
For example, one realm might have the window title C:\funserver\ascent-world.exe and another realm might have the window title C:\blizzlike\arcemu-world.exe.


Announcer's Features

-Allows for an unlimited number of messages to be broadcast to the server at an interval of anywhere from 30 seconds to 10 minutes.

-Randomly picks the message it will send, though it will never send the same message twice in a row.

-Works with an unlimited number of realms.

-Will send the announcement to the Ascent console even if it is the background or minimized.

-Can be sent to the system tray to reduce screen clutter and taskbar button usage.

-Automatically checks for updates and will quickly and painlessly update when one becomes available, you just hit yes to accept the update and it takes care of the rest with no installer/webbrowser required.

-Compatible with all flavors of Ascent, and maybe even MaNGOS if it uses the "announce" command to send a global message.

-And mo-- well not really, that's it. Post if you want me to add something to it.


Screenshots

The main window.


The tray icon.



Download
Executable:
http://leetsoft.net/updates/aca/AscentConsoleAnn.exe

Virusscan.jotti.org Results
File: AscentConsoleAnn.exe
Status: OK
MD5: 7c0417958acbd14bc99dbacdb7a7626e
Packers detected: -

Scanner results
Scan taken on 30 Aug 2008 02:20:22 (GMT)
A-Squared
Found nothing
AntiVir
Found nothing
ArcaVir
Found nothing
Avast
Found nothing
AVG Antivirus
Found nothing
BitDefender
Found nothing
ClamAV
Found nothing
CPsecure
Found nothing
Dr.Web
Found nothing
F-Prot Antivirus
Found nothing
F-Secure Anti-Virus
Found nothing
Fortinet
Found nothing
Ikarus
Found nothing
Kaspersky Anti-Virus
Found nothing
NOD32
Found nothing
Norman Virus Control
Found nothing
Panda Antivirus
Found nothing
Sophos Antivirus
Found nothing
VirusBuster
Found nothing
VBA32
Found nothing


Feedback
Please let me know if you love it, like it, hate it, whatever. Just if you hate it, please give me suggestions as to how it can be improved. Even if you don't hate it, I would still like comments and suggestions for new features or improvements, I love hearing from users and I will try my best to implement your requests.

VB.Net source code is available upon request. Yes it's in Visual Basic, blah blah vbsucksass blah blah, whatever. It's still faster for me to write a VB.Net app than it is for me to write a C# one, so there.

[_DEFiANT]

This is great! I will try it out +Rep

[Clain]

Good job once again! May you pm me the source =)
Also - I don't have any other suggestions, everything I'd need is pretty much there. (Mainly I want it for learning <3)

[dragonowner]

SICK! +rep

[datastream]

Zomg, I was looking everywhere for this! Great Job on Swift Discipline too!

Thanks again!