Shapeshifter

ShapeshifterTrailer_small.mp4

Ever wanted to stomp through Elwynn Forest as Ragnaros? Terrorize Durotar as Hogger? Tank a raid as the Lich King? Shapeshifter turns you into the real thing: the boss's own model, name, size, abilities, gear and talents, on its own action bar, and back to yourself with one click.

A GM tool for AzerothCore (WotLK 3.3.5a) servers, built and tested on Conquest of Azeroth.

• 569 Forms, about 475 characters to become: 159 classic dungeon bosses, 50 classic raid bosses, 59 from The Burning Crusade, 83 from Wrath of the Lich King, 34 faction leaders, 26 rare elites and 65 creature types, from gnolls and murlocs to frost wyrms.
• Actually become the character: its own spells with player cast bars, cooldowns and tooltips, its own resource (rage, energy or mana), its own gear on your character sheet, and a talent panel.
• Their voices: forms whose creature really speaks get a board of its lines (203 forms); click one and everyone near hears it.
• Shapeshifts and stances: dragons switch between their mortal and dragon forms, bosses that transform do it on your stance bar (Zul'jin's five aspects), and weapon-swapping bosses swap too (Mr. Smite's scimitar, twin axes and hammer).
• a 3D catalogue to browse and preview every form, favorites, search, and a size slider from pocket-sized to towering.
• Balanced to your level, or Unleashed at the creature's full power.

Install

1. Download Shapeshifter-<version>.zip from the Releases page and unzip it anywhere.
2. Double-click Shapeshifter Setup.exe (if Windows SmartScreen appears: More info, then Run anyway).
3. If build tools are missing, a Build tools needed first window lists them: tick the ones Setup should install (or install them from their links and click Check again), then Continue.
4. Check what it found, tick Install for CoA-Bots Server if that is your server (it ticks itself when the server it finds is the CoA-Bots one, CoA-Repack\CoA-Bots\Core\worldserver.exe), and click Install.

That's it. Setup does the rest, and tells you when it is done. Then log in on a GM account and click the minimap button (or type /ss) to open the catalogue. The menu button or /ss revert turns you back; death and logout do too.

What Setup does for you

• Finds your server, its source code, your game client and the database login by itself (Browse buttons for anything it misses).
• First checks that the PC has the tools for building a server. Any that are missing come up in their own window with a link each; tick the ones Setup should download and install for you (or install them yourself and click Check again). It only looks for your server, and Install only turns on, once they are all there.
• If your server is newer than any source on the PC (a fresh repack, or a repack update), it prepares the repack's own source, and for the CoA-Bots server fetches the exact mod-playerbots it was built with; it adds Shapeshifter to the source and builds a new server, and puts the DLLs that server needs beside it. A CoA repack's server is built against the exact MySQL client the repack ships, even when your PC has another MySQL (Setup installs that one into C:\local, next to yours).
• Stops your running server, swaps the new one in, sets up the database, installs the class data and the addon, and starts your server again.
• Keeps a copy of everything it replaces in backups/, and carries your settings over from older versions.

You need: Windows 10 or 11 and an internet connection. The build tools (Git, CMake, Visual Studio Build Tools with C++, Boost, OpenSSL and the MySQL client library, for a CoA repack the exact version it ships) are checked for first, and Setup can install the missing ones for you. On a PC that never built a server, that is a one-time download of several GB (mostly Visual Studio) that can take an hour, plus the first build. If you have built your server before, you already have most of them.

Uninstall: open Setup and click Uninstall. Everything is put back the way it was, and what it takes out is kept in backups/.

If something goes wrong: Setup keeps the whole log of its last run in setup.log, next to Shapeshifter Setup.exe. Send that file along with your report.

Why it needs a server build

An addon can only type chat commands, and no server can turn a player into a creature out of the box: the transforming, the spells and the clean change back all happen inside the worldserver. So Shapeshifter comes with a server module, and adding a module means building the server. Setup does that part for you.

When your repack updates

• Just run Setup again. It notices the new server, prepares the matching source and rebuilds.
• The addon keeps working unless the update changes the game client's interface or the creatures and items its forms are made of.
• The class data (spells, gear and talents for every form) is made for the Conquest of Azeroth client of its release. On a newer client it puts that release's spell table back, so newer spells can go missing until a Shapeshifter release made for that client is out.

What's inside

Folder	What
Shapeshifter Setup.exe	The installer.
addon/Shapeshifter/	The in-game catalogue, action bar, character sheet and talent panel.
module/mod-shapeshifter/	The worldserver module (GM command .shapeshifter). Details in its own README.
patches/	Three small core patches the module uses (names, weapons, speed).
classgrade/	The class data for every form, made for the Conquest of Azeroth client.
install.py	Setup without the window, for the console (needs Python 3.8+; --help lists its options).

Disclaimer

• Back up first: your server, its databases and your client's AddOns folder. Setup keeps copies of what it replaces, but your own backup is the real safety net.
• A GM tool: every server command checks GM level; players without it cannot use it.
• Built and tested only on the Conquest of Azeroth repack (an Ascension client on AzerothCore). The module uses stock AzerothCore, and the addon the stock 3.3.5a interface, so other servers may work too.
• Provided as is, without warranty of any kind (see sections 15 and 16 of the LICENSE).
• A fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Blizzard Entertainment or the AzerothCore project. World of Warcraft is a trademark of Blizzard Entertainment.
• Please feel free to submit a PR if you happen to fix some bugs or add characters :D

License

GNU AGPL v3 (see LICENSE). The files in patches/ change AzerothCore's own source, which is GPL-2.0-or-later, and those changes follow the core's license.