Forever Combat Text

Version 0.4.1 · WoW Forever beta 1.60.1 · Interface 16001

A simple combat-text addon for WoW Forever beta, adding a little more flexibility than the built-in display: floating numbers on visible nameplates, damage-school colors, and a few useful options.

The goal is to keep combat text easy to use and configure. Damage is the main focus; friendly nameplate healing is experimental.

Changes in 0.4.1

• Lower default positions: damage and healing both use -30 UI units relative to the nameplate anchor, displayed as 0 in the settings.
• Separate Nameplate damage offset and Nameplate healing offset sliders adjust each type independently, with a displayed range of -30 to 70.
• Readable critical damage/healing events use 50% larger text with a quick grow/shrink pulse. Preview now includes normal damage, critical damage, and healing.
• Existing saved offsets are preserved; their displayed values increase by 30. Upgrades from 0.4.0 introduce the new damage default because that version had no saved damage offset. New installations and Reset settings use the lower defaults.
• Smaller 256×256 addon icon.

Features

• Damage on all visible enemy nameplates, with an optional current-target-only mode.
• Includes opening hits and any periodic damage events delivered by the client.
• Larger, pulsing critical damage/healing numbers when the client supplies a readable critical flag.
• School colors: Fire orange, Frost cyan, Nature green, Shadow purple, Arcane pink, Holy gold, and Physical pale yellow. Multi-school damage blends colors.
• Optional healing text on accessible friendly player nameplates.
• Configurable fallback damage color, healing color, font size, and separate nameplate damage/healing offsets.
• Optional suppression of Blizzard's outgoing damage text to avoid duplicate numbers.
• Automatic Blizzard damage-text fallback when the enemy-nameplate setting is off.
• Scrollable options under Settings → AddOns → Forever Combat Text, with preview, diagnostics, and reset.

Blizzard's healing numbers are left alone. The experimental 2D healing stream has been removed.

Compatibility and saved settings

Forever Combat Text targets WoW Forever beta 1.60.1, interface 16001. It displays numbers on accessible visible nameplates; enemy nameplate visibility controls damage coverage, and accessible friendly player nameplates are required for addon healing numbers.

Settings are stored separately by WoW and preserved across updates. Obsolete experimental 2D healing settings are automatically removed.

The installable archive contains a single ForeverCombatText/ folder for the Forever beta client's Interface/AddOns/ directory. Its .toc, Lua files, and icon sit directly inside that folder. Updates replace the addon files while WoW's separately stored settings remain intact.

Controls

Reset settings restores defaults, including colors, font size, both offsets, and damage scope.

• Nameplate damage offset moves damage text on both targeted and unselected enemies.
• Nameplate healing offset moves only healing text on friendly player nameplates.

Both sliders display adjustments relative to a baseline 30 UI units below the nameplate anchor. Damage and healing both default to 0 (actual offset -30). The displayed range is -30 to 70, covering the same actual positions as the previous -60 to 40 range. Lower values move that type of text down; higher values move it up. Each setting affects newly displayed numbers and is saved across /reload. Preview nameplate displays sample damage and healing at the selected positions. The upward movement remains unchanged.

Existing saved positions are retained rather than reset. For example, a previously saved offset of -30 now displays as 0, with no change in its on-screen position; -40 displays as -10. Reset settings applies the new defaults to both offsets and all other options.

Critical numbers

Critical damage and healing use text 50% larger than the selected text size. A short pulse grows it a further 20% over 0.1 seconds, then settles back over 0.2 seconds before the usual fade. Colors and damage/healing offsets still apply.

This is inspired by Blizzard's larger critical feedback and floating-text grow/shrink effect; it is not an exact reproduction of the game's outgoing world-space animation. Live emphasis requires a readable CRITICAL flag from UNIT_COMBAT. Secret or unavailable flags use normal styling; the addon does not infer critical hits from their amounts. /fct preview provides a synthetic critical sample to judge the appearance independently of live flag availability.

Blizzard damage text

Hide Blizzard outgoing damage numbers is enabled by default. It uses floatingCombatTextCombatDamage_v2, with the legacy setting as a fallback. Disabling this option, the addon display, or the damage toggle restores the previous value. Logout/reload also attempts restoration.

Show Blizzard damage when enemy plates are off is enabled by default. While suppression is enabled, turning off enemy nameplates enables Blizzard damage text; turning nameplates back on hides it again. This follows the enemy-nameplate setting, not the visibility of an individual mob's nameplate.

The addon checks the setting after changing it and retries on world entry and after combat. /fct status reports its value: 0 is hidden and 1 is enabled.

Beta limitations

• UNIT_COMBAT does not identify the attacker/healer. Damage from everyone is combined; there is no “Only me” source filter or separate other-player color.
• The event does not distinguish direct damage from DoT ticks. Periodic coverage depends on what the client delivers.
• Nameplate healing is experimental. Tests so far did not establish reliable outgoing healing to other players; no outgoing-healing stream is advertised.
• Friendly nameplates may be inaccessible in instances. Numbers require an accessible visible nameplate.
• All-enemy mode includes nearby enemies damaged by other players, not a proven list of enemies fighting you specifically.
• Unknown/inaccessible schools use the fallback color. Inaccessible event types or filtering results are skipped.
• Critical-event coverage depends on readable client flags and has not yet been established in-game. A working preview does not confirm live critical detection.
• The addon uses supported unit events rather than restricted combat-log events. Beta API behavior may change.

API references

• Forever unit event documentation
• Forever nameplate API
• Forever combat-log restrictions
• Forever critical combat feedback
• Forever floating-text critical animation

Copyright and license

Copyright © 2026 Morpster. All rights reserved.

Forever Combat Text is free to download and use. Its Lua source is publicly accessible and unobfuscated. Redistribution, publication of modified versions, and reuse of the project's code or artwork require Morpster's permission, except where permitted by applicable law or the distribution permissions in LICENSE.txt.

The addon implementation and logo design were created for this project. No third-party addon libraries, font files, or extracted Blizzard artwork/audio are bundled. Blizzard's UI templates and game font are referenced through the installed client, not redistributed. API documentation links are references, not included source implementations.

World of Warcraft and Blizzard's assets belong to their respective owners. This is an independent community addon, not affiliated with or endorsed by Blizzard Entertainment.