This game badly needs mods and macros.

[SentinelDranoel]

Not badly. It needs more story, legacy features and activities from the SW universe.

[Jawstheshark]

Signed

UI Mods and built in Macros

 

The macros do not have to be anything fancy, no ability to loop or call other macros.

 

Just a way you can assign a / command or two into a single button.

 

Like /target MOB; /use Rocket Jump

 

that short of thing would be awesome.

 

If BW does not want to allow UI mods, then they need to take a Loooooong hard look at other options that are out there for other games with similar MMO content. There are many amazing concepts that are 100% absent from SWTOR

[LTArnas]

Wow... so many posts. Has the thread(s) brought any real information/change in regard to the future of the UI situation? I just found this thread and hoping someone that has been following this could help me out, because who has time to read all the posts (especially if you count from the original thread).

 

From what I've read, there is a lot of debate about addons and macros, but I'm not looking to go into a debating session about them.... I would just like to know, seeing how popular this discussion has been, if we found out any concrete/official information regarding UI custimization, addons, and macros.

 

Besides that, I would like to point out something regarding this discussion so that we're clear... I think there are three distinct areas of discussion here that should be kept in mind; UI customization, addons, and macros.

 

'UI customization' (or whatever you want to call it).basically means, changing the current UI elements to look, and kind of behave, differently; without adding any new functionality that means 'less skill'. This is what I am looking for; although I like it when my life is made easier with addons. In other words, just vanilla customization of the UI so the layout, look and feel, best suites to what you like. Simplest examples would be to 'reskin' the UI so instead of having general blue tech theme, you can have a specific Imperial Sith theme. Mainly, I'm just talking about flexibility of current UI elements.

 

Addons would be the things that add extra features to the UI, that the current one doesn't provide and can be considered as creating an uneven playing field. Just off the top of my head from what I can think of in other MMOs, allowing you to see how much aggro, or damage, each person is making in an encounter (something the current UI doesn't allow you to do, AFAIK). Or placing markers on the map for all possible locations of resource nodes.

 

Just wanted to try and make that distinction just in case this discussion turns devs off of the idea to allow users more UI customization, because even though the interface editor setup is nice improvement (don't remember it being there in the beginning), there is still plenty to add for UI customization and I don't want that to be thrown out with addons. In other words, if the devs don't want to allow for addons, that's fine by me, but they should still go for opening up the UI customization more because as it comes down to it, I currently can't make the UI look the way I'd prefer.

 

Sorry for the long post.

[Kendaric]

Not badly. It needs more story, legacy features and activities from the SW universe.

 

^ This. The last thing SWTOR needs now are addons.

 

That's a ridiculous argument, you DON'T HAVE TO USE ADDONS if you don't want to. So saying point blanc that they shouldn't be in the game is just a selfish argument.

 

Once introduced, certain addons will quickly become mandatory and people who don't use them will find themselves in trouble if they want to get into groups. It would only serve to segregate parts of the playerbase.

Edited November 25, 2012 by Kendaric

[benjizh]

Just saying, i would love to mods or addons, i mean, to have a healing macro or addons, for either raids, pve or pvp is extremely usefull. Since i play a sorcerer, people directly think i will be the healer, and in some cases i need to be, altho i wanna play it as dps.

 

Keybindings just isnt enough to do the job perfectly. Ive been a healer in WoW and other games, and when i heal, i heal perfectly, giving the group almost godmode like.

 

But in this game without mods and all that, healing has become alot harder to do, because sometimes when tank is in a fight and i try to select him, i end up selecting the boss and healing myself instead of the tank.

 

I vote for addons and mods most def.

[benjizh]

^ This. The last thing SWTOR needs now are addons.

 

 

 

Once introduced, certain addons will quickly become mandatory and people who don't use them will find themselves in trouble if they want to get into groups. It would only serve to segregate parts of the playerbase.

 

Even if ur right, the people without the mods would let the raiding team down. So its well served if they dont get into a group then. Its nice u wanna think about them not havin mods, but basicly in terms of a good succesfull raiding and all that, they would need to have it. If they dont, it might screw up the entire raid etc.

[SuperGrunt]

Signed

UI Mods and built in Macros

 

The macros do not have to be anything fancy, no ability to loop or call other macros.

 

Just a way you can assign a / command or two into a single button.

 

Like /target MOB; /use Rocket Jump

 

that short of thing would be awesome.

 

If BW does not want to allow UI mods, then they need to take a Loooooong hard look at other options that are out there for other games with similar MMO content. There are many amazing concepts that are 100% absent from SWTOR

 

There is nothing keeping you from getting a keyboard and or mouse that support macros, and as the official SWTOR Keyboard and Mouse both have this feature it would not be against EULA/TOS.

 

I have seen far too many games where you could use looping macros to enable combat while not at the keyboard, so not I don't want SWTOR to enable /commands for abilities. There are ways around this as mentioned but the use of third party apps to allow the use of automated macros to perform combat operations while not at the keys would be wrong though and should never be allowed.

 

As for addons/mods, I don't think that we need any combat related addons, but I would not be opposed to a Auctioneer like addon for our GTN, or a OneBag/OneBank like addon to make all the tabs in our cargo hold show up on screen at one time. I think that there really should be 2 rules when allowing for addons;

Rule 1: Improves quality of life for the player but does not give an unfair advantage to someone who uses it.

Rule 2: Does not improve or impare combat in any way shape or form.

[SuperGrunt]

Even if ur right, the people without the mods would let the raiding team down. So its well served if they dont get into a group then. Its nice u wanna think about them not havin mods, but basicly in terms of a good succesfull raiding and all that, they would need to have it. If they dont, it might screw up the entire raid etc.

 

I was able to heal on my Paladin in WoW without the aid of any healing addons. Combat was designed to be very specific, not to be custom designed by the user or someone else.

[Jawstheshark]

There is nothing keeping you from getting a keyboard and or mouse that support macros, and as the official SWTOR Keyboard and Mouse both have this feature it would not be against EULA/TOS.

 

I have seen far too many games where you could use looping macros to enable combat while not at the keyboard, so not I don't want SWTOR to enable /commands for abilities. There are ways around this as mentioned but the use of third party apps to allow the use of automated macros to perform combat operations while not at the keys would be wrong though and should never be allowed.

 

As for addons/mods, I don't think that we need any combat related addons, but I would not be opposed to a Auctioneer like addon for our GTN, or a OneBag/OneBank like addon to make all the tabs in our cargo hold show up on screen at one time. I think that there really should be 2 rules when allowing for addons;

Rule 1: Improves quality of life for the player but does not give an unfair advantage to someone who uses it.

Rule 2: Does not improve or impare combat in any way shape or form.

 

Sorry if I do not want to but an additional piece of hardware to enable a feature that imho should be in the game by default.

[RazielHex]

Macros are needed IMO. Not the rift style 1 button wonder macros, more like the WoW style with sensible restrictions and conditional statements to test for reasonable states.

 

"I don't want things that allow you to automate commands, but I want things that will allow me to automate commands."

[NRN_Hawk]

"SWTOR is too easy, we need mods and macros". *cough*

 

Didn't miss those yet, they were just annoying in WoW and ruined the whole game.

[BasketCased]

I'd just like to make an observation about macros and addons.

They're not necessary. I've read several posts where people express that it would make the game too easy for them and one person was even talking about falling asleep using addons/macros in World of Warcraft. That means he was using addons/macros. His gaming experience would be made more challenging and perhaps more to his liking if he uninstalled or disabled the addons he voluntarily installed and either deleted or stopped using the macros he voluntarily made.

[GeckoOBac]

"SWTOR is too easy, we need mods and macros". *cough*

 

Didn't miss those yet, they were just annoying in WoW and ruined the whole game.

 

This.

 

No thanks. The UI can use some adjustments but that's it, no mods or macros required.

[Taban]

I'm not sure why so many people are against something that they don't have to use. I for one miss having addons, just for quality of life improvements. Addon makers can customize things much more effectively than bioware can because they dont have to take into account how the entire community feels about a change. I like having all of my debuffs and buffs listed with big bars in the middle of my screen, someone else may not want them to show up at all because it ruins Immersion. Mods can make us both happy, but for bioware to add internal support for every option players might want would take up way too much development time and use up too many resources.

[drfirewater]

I sorely underestimated just how poor the UI would turn out. It is so uncustomizable it isn't funny. Health bars, buffs, debuffs, and the power bar are all WAY too small. You can't move or resize anything, I HATE having the chat box up the top.

 

Not having a damage meter or even a freaking combat log is ridiculous. Why shouldn't we even know how much damage we're doing? I want to know what the best rotation is for my character and I have absolutely no way of working that out.

 

Macros are a staple in every MMO, how can you just not have them? There's a nice focus target but it's practically useless without focus macros.

 

These should be top priority for the next patch.

 

??? i am completely confused by this statement. You can completely customize every aspect of your UI with the exception of color at this moment.

 

If you want a damage meter there are third party programs that are easily available and are used by almost every end game raid focused guild. I suggest mox arser myself. Cant remember the link to the site think its memoriesofxendor.com ... and there is an extensive combat log that is saved on your harddrive so you can go through it with a fine tooth comb if you want .. but you have to TURN IT ON.

 

So on top of the fact that everything you have asked for is already available and nearly every person playing the game has the information you seek ??? hmmmm.... i dont know what you want ?

 

As far as macros are concerned the reason they are NEVER going to allow marcos (which FYI there are some devices that you can buy that will allow marco use in SWTOR as well) is because they dont want BOTTING. which is when you dont actually play the game you simply macro the game to play itself.

 

if they allowed macros you could easily program an all day crafting macro where you set differnt macros over time keeping the same roation of crafting going over and over. You could set Champion mob farm up easily by simply allowing the macro to initiate the second your hit using the same rotation plan for you and a companion knowing that it will lead to your success in the fight 99% of the time easy enough.

 

This game is already too easy for some ... the only challenge this game offers is in mechanics which become trivial if you can just plug a rotation into a macro and just mvoe when needed hitting the same one button every 20 seconds.

 

I pray that they do MORE to prevent macro use.

[drfirewater]

I'm not sure why so many people are against something that they don't have to use. I for one miss having addons, just for quality of life improvements. Addon makers can customize things much more effectively than bioware can because they dont have to take into account how the entire community feels about a change. I like having all of my debuffs and buffs listed with big bars in the middle of my screen, someone else may not want them to show up at all because it ruins Immersion. Mods can make us both happy, but for bioware to add internal support for every option players might want would take up way too much development time and use up too many resources.

 

The problem isnt about makign one person happy vs one person upset. Its about game balancing. Part of the challenge of this game is having to pay attention to whats going on around you.... you have to see the red circles move out of red circles pay attention to debuffs and call out for cleanse.

 

these things already pop up a majority of the time in big red text across your screen "Dathomiri has been targeted for deletion", "Tallfat's mind has been clouded" ... these things already happen in game.

 

If they allow mods that make the debuffs and buffs more visible then they become REQUIRED for end game play. How many guilds do you know that REQUIRE mox parser atm for all end game HM raids? personally i know more that do then dont. I even know ones that suggest pugs do these things.

 

Voice chats are already required third party (which was there biggest mistake there should have been in game chat built into this game and ventrillo and mumble should have been optional alternatives.) Also it would be super easy using combat log alone to already detail these things on your own... the truth is no one wants to program them.

 

I am a software engineer myself .... if the debuff shows up in combat log i could easily create a program that puts text accross your screen in big bold letters that tells you that as an overlay program (a program that acts like a new skin on top of SWTOR like mox does). So all they have to do is want to create the program and include debuffs in the combat log ... then someone who wants to make it can. But it would still be up to you to download it and run it.

[Philastra]

No to mods , No to macros...this game works fine w/o them.

[LegendaryBlade]

I feel like the game is for the worse without having macros, especially near high level play. I've never seen so much hate for macros before, and I really don't understand it. It doesn't give you an unfair advantage, it just makes gameplay more comfortable.

[RazielHex]

I feel like the game is for the worse without having macros, especially near high level play. I've never seen so much hate for macros before, and I really don't understand it. It doesn't give you an unfair advantage, it just makes gameplay more comfortable.

 

If you're not comfortable, get a better deskchair.

[LegendaryBlade]

If you're not comfortable, get a better deskchair.

 

You're so witty and clever

[Petnil]

Badly needs mods and macros ? definedtly not

 

Needs them, not realy, not imo anyways, Not that i wouldn´t like some mods like a wardrobe mode and and atlasloot ex. but that´s nowhere near the main reason swtor is bleeding subs.

 

Random dc´s, loads of lag, minor bugs, ability delays, and bad bad CS. Those are major concerns. Mods and macros realy are way longer down the list in my book.

[dipstik]

i just wanna spam mouse 1 and win... sign me up.

[BananaFish]

Combat mods would be nice, sure, But I would put time into developing a mod for the GTN myself if the API was available.

 

Maybe a middle ground would be nice. Access to simple things like Inventory management and stat tracking for instance.

[MastaKorgy]

This thread needs to be closed since the GUI Customization has already been released.

[LyulfLykaios]

Yeah, Macros would be cool.