We need healer,tank addons!

[EricJS]

I've played MMORPGs in games with and without addons, and frankly, with a few more features, I wouldn't feel much of a need for addons in combat in SWTOR. Here's what I think is important:

 

1) Mouse over casting. Not just for heals, but for CC, cleansing, guard, etc.

 

2) a better way to see what buffs and debuffs are important to me. Filtering would be a step in the right direction, but I don't think it's the best way to go, as sometimes I do want to know what buffs/debuffs someone else has put on a target. Having my buffs/debuffs larger or having them sort before other ones (preferably both) would be a good way to go, though I will admit I seriously miss the WoW addon Inline Auras. Having the targets debuffs highlighted on my action bars eliminates not just finding which buffs are mine, but make it quite obvious which buffs correspond to which ability so that if I haven't played a certain toon for a while, I don't have those momentary brain farts where I'm going "which debuff is that again?"

 

Things I'd like to see, but don't find critical:

 

3) Tidy Plates functionality.

 

4) Target of Focus.

 

5) General addons that don't make decisions for the players. WoW addons were bad back in vanilla when you could script DPS rotations that were reactive, arbitrarily compex for any DPS class, and then add HealBot on top of that.

 

I miss a lot of non-combat utility addons. Every time I mouse over a crafting material, there' s still a small shock that I don't get a listing of how many of those I have on that toon and my alts. For stuff like that, you'll never create enough options for the default UI to please everyone. Fortunately, I can live without most of that stuff, but I would like to see it.

[Cameirus]

I think bioware must allow using interface addons, like Curse.com site. Healer, tank addons. is a difficult heal proper some times. its rise progress of many people.

nah, all we need is a mouseover function to make healing less clunky.

[TigoBeratix]

Keep it primitive. Keep it caveman. Keep it challenging.

If you want to know how much dps you are doing, record yourself with Fraps, go back and watch the video, add up all the numbers and divide by the amount of seconds in the video.

 

Sound ridiculous? Yeah, so do threat meters in the place of LEARNING HOW TO PLAY.

 

 

The arguments for buffs/debuffs being too jumbled and confusing is legit, all else are unnecessary replacements for learning to play.

 

 

THis!

 

These are the people I want to play with.

 

My first MMO. Sawbones since launch.

 

I'm having a blast learning to play and am pulling my weight in gear appropriate ops

 

The challenge is the driving force to keep me logging in

[Felioats]

No scripts allowed in addons, in my opinion. Once you allow addons that make combat easier, Bioware starts balancing content with those addons in mind and the addons stop being optional.

[nolocalreality]

Things I want while healing:

 

Mouseover casting

 

Ability to target people by clicking on their nameplate. I am stunned that this does not work.

 

Target forwarding - if I have the tank targeted and use an attack ability, it should hit whatever he has targeted.

 

 

 

Things I want while tanking:

 

More control over flytext. I'd like to be able to tell incoming damage by source (melee/force, etc) and by type (energy/internal, etc). Would help me decide which cooldowns to use on assassin. Having everything as red is not so helpful.

[Karasuko]

My suggestions...

-macro's please. I don't mind having multiple abilities to use, I dont mind complex (lol ) rotatons, I do mind wasted bar space.I don't use a fancy mouse or keyboard that i can pre-program and im only comfortable with my 20 or so binds. Remove the ability to make cast sequence macros but a ismple macro like the following would be nice.

/cast force potency

/cast battle readiness

/use relic of forgotten secrets

/use rakata power adrenal

-Reactive aura's as an option. I want to be watching whats going on around me not my bar to see procs and debuffs. Missing procs cause im concentrating on running out of candy or having to stare at my debuff bar when in a danger phase of combat is no fun. I'm not asking for "your unload is ready" i'm asking for "you have gained shadow strikes" or "you have gained hunters guile"

-Failing that. A power aura's type set up so we can get a visual queue next to my toon when I get procs etc.

-Resizeable debuffs on the boss or some indicator that specific debuffs are yours. More important for dot/debuff style classes. Would cry if i was in a 16 man ops guild running 2-3 balance sages/shadows.Failing that the ability to exclude other peoples debuffs from showing .

 

What I don't want to see....

-Boss mods. I hate them, they take alot out of gameplay and turn it into timer watching while doing your rotation/healing/tanking.

-Cast sequence type macro's. Reducing your rotation to 1 button isn't somethign i enjoyed seeing in that other game, don't want to see it here.

 

Thats about all I can think of at the moment.... probably will think of more later.

[Malifor]

The only thing I would say is actually needed is the ability to change/resize the debuffs in ops frame. Even if they just moved them to the left side of the bar instead of the right it would make a world of difference, as it is right now it is sometimes hard to differentiate between buffs and debuffs. And with the microscopic debuffs on the ops frame it is impossible for healers to tell what their target is effected by, at the moment the only way for a healer to effectively dispell things is for people to call it out on vent.

[Hett]

Though we don't have any news about allowing third-party interface addons, we'd definitely be interested to hear what functionality you feel is important to add to the current UI. Others have offered a few suggestions (thanks!), and it's helpful to us if you describe what you think is missing and let us know what we can do to improve the UI!

 

I'd like to be able to globally set my role (tank dd heal) so that it shows on the ops frame for everyone I group with, even in wz or without group finder.

[oleost]

Dont need addons! Learn to play the game, without someone telling you when to do that and that...

 

 

1+ for the quote below, missing that aswell, nice to have as DPS aswell, Example when there is two bosses. (Like Zoth and Torn.)

 

What I would like to see is a health % + value and range indicator on the focused target UI. As a healer, I'm always looking at a player, but I also need to know the status of the boss and my distance in some cases.

[Calebzor]

Though we don't have any news about allowing third-party interface addons, we'd definitely be interested to hear what functionality you feel is important to add to the current UI. Others have offered a few suggestions (thanks!), and it's helpful to us if you describe what you think is missing and let us know what we can do to improve the UI!

 

Have you guys not gotten enough input from this ( UI Feature Feedback Request ) thread already?

 

If I'm not mistaken the only UI improvement that has happened since that thread was opened (2 month+ ago) is some GTN improvements. So I feel that asking again, without any significant UI changes since then, and no update regarding to what is already in the works, well it just does not really feel right, does it?

 

Even if that 55 pages of suggestion is not enough, as some people already mentioned in this thread, you can always just head over to the suggestion box and find suggestions there.

[Clamwacker]

I didn't read the whole thread but the features I would love would be an agro indicator, have a players frame border in red or something like that.

 

Target of Focus would also be nice for fights like Bonetrasher.

 

Macros in general would be nice, being able to macro in trinket usage and clearing error text and *MOUSEOVER* healing.

 

I miss the set up for Grid I had in wow, with indicator dots in each corner for different situations. Top left was agro, top right was green if my bubble was on them or blue if they had the debuff preventing me from putting the bubble on them, bottom left was if I had a HoT on, and bottom right was a dispellable debuff.

[alrun]

i would like to see:

• macros - "ccing %target": cast force lift -- use relic cast ... --
  
• wardrobe - configurable item sets for pvp and pve
  
• selectable (de)buff size
  
• difference between own and other (de)buffs -- which of the 3x sage dots is mine? -- e.g. extra bar
  
• dispellable debuff coloring of frames - coloring based on out of guard range -
  
• grid based ops frame - colored dots in certain locations - icons in certain locations - color changing - selectable text (in/out of combat)
  
• unit frame configuration - size/show portrait - size of HP/ressource bar - location of (de)buffs
  
• display of legacy characters gear/bags/bank/schematics
  
• click2cast on unit frames
  
• incomming healing spell / incomming healing amount
  

[alrun]

you can always just head over to the suggestion box and find suggestions there.

Nah.

Suggestion Box is just a pile of threads, that don´t belong in another forum or have an inconvenient point of view.

 

Those threads get moved in the suggestion box to catch some dust. While other forums get "policed" with moderators and double posts get locked and people directed towards other existing threads - the suggestion box can easily be polluted with the n-th re-suggestion.

 

So far I cannot remember a yellow post in the suggestion box apart the lonely customer support sticky. It´s hidden down in the cellar far away from the public crowd, the cantina or the coffee kitchen.

[Calebzor]

The suggestion box can easily be polluted with the n-th re-suggestion.

 

True enough. However this thread is really just turning into a repost of that other thread I linked earlier. My point was that this is an unnecessary thread, a lot of feedback and suggestion can plentifully be found at other places already.

[SFC-Lawndart]

Though we don't have any news about allowing third-party interface addons, we'd definitely be interested to hear what functionality you feel is important to add to the current UI. Others have offered a few suggestions (thanks!), and it's helpful to us if you describe what you think is missing and let us know what we can do to improve the UI!

 

Assist/Heals through target's target please!

 

IE, I target a mob, I can cast a heal and heal whomever the mob has targeted. Same goes for DPS.

[uniz]

a feature like profit ui has for click heal/cleanse and etc on each toon in the ops and group window. the ui is different/specialized depending on each class. much better than any mouse over which requires 3 hands or a special mouse to use efficiently and cant be used during movement.

[InnerPieces]

Odd. I'm quite successful with both my healer and tank without a single addon. I'm especially good with my healer because healing is so easy in this game (at least with merc/commando).

 

I think folks don't realize one simple fact. Addons really only make current content easier. The more addons that enter the game the more the developers have to develop for the addons instead of the players. WoW acknowledged as much years ago and it got to the point to where normal gameplay required addons. Whether you used 3rd party addons or not eventually became a discriminating factor (and I mean before the ludicrous miss-use of Recount and any use of Gear Score).

 

I whole-heartidly wish BioWare does not allow game play affecting addons. Convenience addons, sure. I miss my one bag. I miss Cartographer. I miss my WoWHead (in this case TORHead) quest helper, etc. (I realize we don't need QuestHelper or OneBag... they're just examples of convenience addons). What we don't need are game-play cheats (like HealBot and Omen) that encourage the developers to develop future content assuming everyone uses 3rd party cheats. Let's stop sugar-coating it. That's exactly what they are: cheats.

 

For all the complaints about how much like WoW SWTOR really is, it seems odd how much more like WoW some folks wish this game was.

 

Edit: I hope you can understand when it comes to opinion topics, such as this, I tend to offer my opinion before reading everyone else's because I present my viewpoint before being swayed by the opinions of others. That having been said, I'm most pleased with the majority of responses in this thread so far. You guys surprised me.

 

And...

 

the only REAL change they need to make, is the ability to size/filter buff/debuffs.

 

as is, the system is HORRIBLE for tracking that.

 

Absolutely. While I cannot think of a detailed description of how I would like to see buffs and debuffs improved, I do agree that is one of the more difficult issues with the UI. If I think of something to add, I'll post it.

 

Edit Again: Oh, and for the love of everything competitive, please do not let players use macros to automate any game play features. Being able to perform multiple gameplay effects (like activating skills, on use items, etc) by pressing one button should be considered iniquitous, especially in a game where PvP has become such a dominating factor. Macros should be for chat, emotes, and things that do not hasten or otherwise alter the actual mechanics (or player speed). Otherwise, they should all be pre-programmed and automatically set-up for everyone. Success should not depend on someone's clever ability to program. Rather, we shouldn't have to take extra steps above and beyond what the game provides (from a technical standpoint) to be successful.

Edited July 12, 2012 by InnerPieces

[Qaoz]

• "PowerAuras"
  

 

It would really help a lot of classes enjoy the scenery if they didn't have to look at buffs/debuffs the entire fight to make sure procs and such are handled.

 

"What are PowerAuras?"

Originating in World of Warcraft (to my knowledge) as an addon, Blizzard later implemented it into the game as a core feature. PowerAuras creates a visual and audible alert when a proc occurs. Most importantly, the visual alert appears in the center of the screen, meaning you can see it without looking away from the action. This allows the player to memorize what alerts are for what procs and respond to the sound or the visuals without having to look at the action bar or buffs/debuffs on the player portrait.

 

As a Sith Darkness Assassin, I'd like the following "Auras":

 

• When Dark Ward runs out
  
• When Duplicity procs (current visual effect is very easy to miss)
  
• When you reach 3 stacks of Harnessed Darkness (current visual effect is pretty good, though)
  
• When Energize procs
  

 

This would allow me to respond to those things without taking my eyes off the important things (the fight). It would also allow me to move my focus from the buffs/debuffs line to the fight itself.

 

I'm sure Madness Assassins would like Auras for their procs as well, such as Raze and Unearthed Knowledge. I'm not sure what Deception Assassins would want as I haven't played that skill tree yet, but I imagine they'd want Auras for Induction, Duplicity and perhaps Static Charges.

 

Addendum: It would be awesome if you could have the corresponding ability "light up" on the action bar when the PowerAura procs. I'm not talking about anything fancy, just something that indicates that this ability is receiving an additional benefit from a proc. Example: You get to three stacks of Harnessed Darkness and so your Force Lightning ability on the action bar lights up. Perhaps a red/blue (Imperial/Republic) outline that shines bright until the proc goes away.

Edited July 12, 2012 by Qaoz

[TrevNYC]

Add-ons are for lazy people and scrubs. If you want the loot, WORK FOR IT.

 

And generalizations are for people who can't make good arguments!

 

All kidding aside, "addons" are just UI elements/mods that aren't included by default, so that players can customize things to suit their needs. This doesn't mean they have to be things that play the game for you (which is exaggerated anyway, but I digress). If addons only take information that the game already gives you and let you change it into a different form, then I don't see why anyone should complain about a lack of "work".

 

Colorblind people can't "work" at seeing certain colors, so if they want to change the color of certain icons, I don't think they are lazy. I don't think a lack of work ethic motivates those people who may want a "free ability" proc icon to show up someplace they actually can see it, with some shape/color/icon combination that makes sense to them. Maybe the default UI will one day contain enough customization to satisfy everyone, but I doubt that's even possible, much less worth developer time.

 

For example, debuff filtering is a popular request (and I agree 100%), but a default version is likely to be pretty binary -- either show every debuff from everyone, or only show my own. But there are legit reasons why people may want to see some debuffs from other people but not others. You might want to know if a boss has armor debuffs, even if they aren't your own, but you might not want to see every bleed/dot/whatever put up by the rest of the group. If the default UI doesn't give you enough customization, an addon can fill the gap.

 

Anyway, enough of that. Consider this another vote for filtering debuffs so that I can keep track of my own, and for buff icons that I can resize and move independently of my healthbar. What I would *really* like is a "short duration buff window" where I could track procs, adrenals, etc.separately from long duration buffs like class buffs and stims. WoW has a pretty good option for this (in the default UI, no less).

[TrevNYC]

• "PowerAuras"
  

 

It would really help a lot of classes enjoy the scenery if they didn't have to look at buffs/debuffs the entire fight to make sure procs and such are handled.

 

"What are PowerAuras?"

Originating in World of Warcraft (to my knowledge) as an addon, Blizzard later implemented it into the game as a core feature. PowerAuras creates a visual and audible alert when a proc occurs. Most importantly, the visual alert appears in the center of the screen, meaning you can see it without looking away from the action. This allows the player to memorize what alerts are for what procs and respond to the sound or the visuals without having to look at the action bar or buffs/debuffs on the player portrait.

 

As a Sith Darkness Assassin, I'd like the following "Auras":

 

• When Dark Ward runs out
  
• When Duplicity procs (current visual effect is very easy to miss)
  
• When you reach 3 stacks of Harnessed Darkness (current visual effect is pretty good, though)
  
• When Energize procs
  

 

This would allow me to respond to those things without taking my eyes off the important things (the fight). It would also allow me to move my focus from the buffs/debuffs line to the fight itself.

 

I'm sure Madness Assassins would like Auras for their procs as well, such as Raze and Unearthed Knowledge. I'm not sure what Deception Assassins would want as I haven't played that skill tree yet, but I imagine they'd want Auras for Induction, Duplicity and perhaps Static Charges.

 

Addendum: It would be awesome if you could have the corresponding ability "light up" on the action bar when the PowerAura procs. I'm not talking about anything fancy, just something that indicates that this ability is receiving an additional benefit from a proc. Example: You get to three stacks of Harnessed Darkness and so your Force Lightning ability on the action bar lights up. Perhaps a red/blue (Imperial/Republic) outline that shines bright until the proc goes away.

 

Also, what this guy said.

[oredith]

What I would *really* like is a "short duration buff window" where I could track procs, adrenals, etc.separately from long duration buffs like class buffs and stims. WoW has a pretty good option for this (in the default UI, no less).

lets be fair, WoW did not have it in vanilla WoW UI.

 

the difference was, Blizzard was smart and crowdsourced their development. They let the players do all the leg work, developed a TON of UI mods. Blizzard then looked at the mods that just about everyone used, and then cherry picked from it "hey guys, check out this awesome idea we implemented! we call it scrolling combat text!"

 

there hasn't been a single UI advancedment in WoW that didn't generate directly from the player base.

 

i'm not sure why bioware is reluctant to tap into that resource, but nevertheless, that seems to be the position they have taken. Probably to retain control over all aspect of the game. I wouldn't be surprised if it was some crazy part of the deal with Lucas Art, that any UI modifications would have to be approved by them, which makes player UI mods impossible.

[b-morgan]

there's technically a self-cast modifier, but it doesn't seem to work.

 

I'd like to see the self-cast modifier fixed and add a companion-cast modifier. Add to this a beneficial spells pass through (i.e. heal enemy target heals target of enemy) and damage spells pass through (i.e. damage friendly target damages target of friendly) and a lot of my "target dancing" goes away.

 

Some of my characters could use another row (or two) of buttons, preferably implemented as 4 sets of 6 instead of 2 sets of 12 to increase the customization possibilities.

[alrun]

i'm not sure why bioware is reluctant to tap into that resource, but nevertheless, that seems to be the position they have taken. Probably to retain control over all aspect of the game. I wouldn't be surprised if it was some crazy part of the deal with Lucas Art, that any UI modifications would have to be approved by them, which makes player UI mods impossible.

One reason they said, they don't want people to automate, they want action / thus no auto attack / facing in pvp, but not PvE,...

 

They said it would make people equal. I do disagree. While a color-blind person and a normal sight person see the same UI - the color blind is at a disadvantage. Same for people with attention deficit / while normal people might filter the information well enough / others need different approaches to reach the same result.

 

One-size never fits all in a sufficient complex environment. Even phones, TV, web-browser bring a certain ability to extend their functionality.

 

I belief their reluctance was based on the sole fact, that they needed to test their client / server engine and extensions would have made that even harder. Does the FPS drop, lag spike, ... come from an addon or ... Even WoW GM's first hint on problems is "reset your UI disable all addons". And there are usually bugs people detect from using the LUA engine or exploits.

 

Now after 6 months of game play and a lot of engine optimization they can look forward to add another resource.

[allexj]

yah i dont need a add on to heal i do just fine as is

[Elfindreams]

To everyone suggesting Target of Focus hotkey, they added that Monday. Since there are some posts about it from yesterday, i can only assume people didn't read the patch notes.

Players can now bind the "Acquire Focus Target's Target" to a key of their choice.

 

Seriously, read patch notes... please

 

I would also like to see a UI element that shows your focus target's target visually which would be nice.

 

Personally I would like to see threat meters of some sort only because I have to deal a lot with tanks that don't know how to hold threat (I am a healer and even purging threat periodically, I end up getting room aggro every time... grr) But I can see how that is unfair to the tanks that have taken the time to learn their class and can hold threat.

 

Mouse over heal seems... kinda pointless.... click on person in ops frame, press heal hotkey, click on second person it ops frame, press hotkey... not sure how this is difficult.

 

Please oh god please do the debuff/buff stuff mentioned, visual auras sound cool (I never played WoW) but at least let us resize/move buff/debuff info... the Ops frame sucks at showing them at all... I can never tell what is on there... ever.