UI discussion (addons etc)

[Lipzi]

What are everybody's thoughts on this? i haven't seen so many threads about the UI (point me to the right thread if i missed it)

 

I would love some addon support for the UI, not talking about meters or whatever here

i dont really care on that subject.

 

i myself would love to be able to move bars around, for example 'relics' and 'stims' (and the huttball aswell) i want them close to the center of my screen so i can access them and see cooldowns fast,

 

My two main bars at the bottom are filled and i swap items in and out all the time and it is starting to get annoying (only level 37 atm bet there will be ALOT more items at 50)

 

so, my suggestion is: make so we can put bars where ever we want and how many buttons

we want on those bars.

[keijim]

Two things really bothered me with UI.

 

1) It's not resizable; no matter what is your screen resulution, the UI wastes half of the screen.

 

2) Some UI parts should be moveable; well, all parts should be but lets start with basics, inv. crafting window, character panel etc.

 

Right now UI doesn't bother me other than this two issues.

 

PS:Am I the only one that UI resets itself every login?

[Ultima_]

ui customization is one thing that really make me love WoW.

on lvl'in right now its not a must have but later @ 50....

 

At least Meters.... We... Need... Them....

[Kunitsukami]

There are 5 million threads about the UI, mods, add ons, macros, customisation etc.

 

UI should be resizable and you should be able to add more bars, apart from that add ons should be a definite no, as should macros which allow anything outside of social effects.

[Innocentone]

UI add ons are fine . But no dps meters or crap like boss mods. It brings to much drama to gameplay.

[Beolyn]

UI customization is already being planned by devs for post launch.

[adamgoon]

One thing i miss from my WoW UI is the ability to add spacers between different groups of abilities. e.g. i would have melee abilities in one group, stun abilities in another, buffs etc... Using an entire slot as a spacer has proven a bit wasteful.

 

I hope this gets added, but its not a game-breaker.

[Orizuru]

I look at it from a need-based perspective.

 

In WoW UI Mods were flat out needed because the default UI was terrible in ways you can only understand if you played during Vanilla and early BC. Certain aspects of the game simply were not feasibly possible using a default UI.

 

In this game though, I haven't found anything that I myself can't do with the default UI. I'm sure there are others who have found it difficult to do something with the default UI because I know my needs are not quite the same as everyone else, but at the same time I haven't seen anything on these forums that tells me there are things that people are finding challenging simply because of the way the UI was designed.

 

All that said, I would love to be able to at least reskin and resize parts of the UI. I think there is way too much blue in the default UI.

[Buur]

Been discussed to death. A lot of people really want them, and people who fear "elitists and epeens" don't.

[KanderRennik]

I don't particularly want add-ons such as GearScore, but I do believe that UI customization is necessary. I personally hate the mouse cursor setup that TOR uses. Give me the option of the fixed target method that was used in SWG, and allow simply hitting TAB to switch to the mouse-over style. One of my only two complaints about the game right now is that there is no option in regards to the mouse-over UI scheme.

I don't want to see mods and add-ons start getting over the top, but allowing some customization will enhance the overall game experience. That said, any add-ons that result in players being alienated or excluded in any way should not be allowed.

Edited December 25, 2011 by KanderRennik

[Skullkids]

At least Meters.... We... Need... Them....

 

No we don't.

[Raijinvince]

I honestly would not desire a 3rd party UI addon if they just allowed the slightest bit of customization within their own UI. Let me move and resize any window, and let me drag and rotate action bars.

 

The GTN sucks right now and everyone knows it. For this reason I'd desire a mod for that, but really Bioware could simply stop making it such a pain to use, and I wouldn't need it. My two main gripes with the GTN:

 

1. Why must I select two categories and hit search before I'm allowed to enter any text into the search bar?

 

2. Why can I not search by price per unit. Search by price is a good way to have 1000 single over priced units up for sale to bury all the good deals of stacks of units.

[Temujim]

UI Customization is a must have.

 

The locked down bars that we have now looks just clunky.

I would change a lot of things on the current basic UI.

 

Idc about meters, all i want is to be able to customize my action bars, raid/party frames.

 

The PVP group raid as it is stays on top of the right action bar.

 

Its just messed up.

 

PLZ developers take a look at this ASAP!

[Yeahberndt]

All I want is an easier way to track Dots and an easier way to track proc buffs. It is hard catching them with this ui. On a mob i see everyones debuffs and it is hard tracking mine.

 

Those are the only Addons I would need.

 

Furthermore addons, like them or not, add to the games community. People create websites and people get more in depth with the game if they are min maxing. It helps the community, like it or not.

Edited December 25, 2011 by Yeahberndt

[DireWolfalpha]

As a former wow player that needed UI customization (dual class dps/heals) I can see the need for it with TOR.

 

Personally IDC for dps meters they just take up screen space.

 

But being able to resize the control bars, move them around and even change the color of them is a must!

 

Giving the player that small ability to customize their display to their play style will keep players playing this game.

 

For example Tabula Rasa had a UI that was just horrible to use and look at, the same could be said of Hellgate London also. Those two games are dead and gone from the MMO life on the internet now.

 

Games that allow the player to change the UI to suit the player have a longer lifespan than others, this is a proven fact. A badly designed UI just makes the player NOT want to play the game.

 

Laters

[kingsab]

More action bars that aren't on the side of the screen.

 

It inexcusable to only have two "real" action bars.

[Infrasound]

I look at it from a need-based perspective.

 

In WoW UI Mods were flat out needed because the default UI was terrible in ways you can only understand if you played during Vanilla and early BC

 

Disagree, the default UI has one massive advantage, its optimised to be quick. Watch any 2500+ arena stream and they ALL use default ui.

 

Only mod you needed at launch to raid was KLH. You have NEVER once required DBM or bigwigs to do boss encounters all info you need is displayed in RED test across the top middle of your screen and via sound. Mods like that are crutches for the masses.

 

I do however agree with you on resizing. Needs to be done.

[Infrasound]

UI Customization is a must have.

 

The PVP group raid as it is stays on top of the right action bar.

!

 

Right click the little group of people top right you can unlock and move it and make it two columns of 4 as opposed to a tall 8 grouping. then relock it.

[Ronamo]

Disagree, the default UI has one massive advantage, its optimised to be quick. Watch any 2500+ arena stream and they ALL use default ui.

 

Only mod you needed at launch to raid was KLH. You have NEVER once required DBM or bigwigs to do boss encounters all info you need is displayed in RED test across the top middle of your screen and via sound. Mods like that are crutches for the masses.

 

I do however agree with you on resizing. Needs to be done.

 

Can you offer any empirical data or metrics which show that the default UI is optimized, or that it is in fact "quick?"

[PhantomKnight]

People who are crying that meters ruin games:

 

Congrats on sucking.... Really, if you can't take seeing a performance indicator, please don't ever venture out into real life. There are lots of them everywhere. Also, I'd recommend you not to play any other game out there. They have scoreboards that will show performance as well.

 

Really, you should pitch that. Halo without scoreboards. BUT GUYS ITS MORE FUN WHEN YOU CAN HIDE THAT YOU SUCK. No meters = no way to tell who's holding you back = all content will become easy mode.

 

No meters = community will not be able to give proper feedback for class balance. Most balance will occur around PvP viability.

 

Yea, cool, this game has crap for PvP so far if you haven't noticed, so keep crusading that there should be no meters and ruin its endgame too. You can't put in any challenging DPS race at all, you can't put anything with difficult aggro management. Every fight will be a gimmick execution fight and will get old real fast.

 

You guys who can't stand to see a performance indicator should go back to single player games please (just don't play sports games, they have a performance indicator too).

[Flain]

Right now I wouldn't mind just an extra actionbar in the middle of the screen, I have more spells than I can fit in two bars and putting them on the right hand bar isn't working out for me at all. The ability to resize the bars would be a big plus as well. I can't believe at least some basic UI customization wasn't put into the game before release.

 

I think addons should be allowed, threat meters in particular. These peoples moaning about addons being included into the game are the same people that would moan when you pull a mob because you can't check your threat level. Some addons are very valuable and useful not just eye candy.

[Zironic]

Disagree, the default UI has one massive advantage, its optimised to be quick. Watch any 2500+ arena stream and they ALL use default ui.

 

Only mod you needed at launch to raid was KLH. You have NEVER once required DBM or bigwigs to do boss encounters all info you need is displayed in RED test across the top middle of your screen and via sound. Mods like that are crutches for the masses.

 

I do however agree with you on resizing. Needs to be done.

 

Note that he was talking about Vanilla/Early TBC. The Core UI of World of Warcraft is -lightyears- better now then it was back then.

 

At launch, World of Warcraft DIDN'T HAVE RAID FRAMES!, for real. The only way to actually heal anything in a raid was by using an addon. I don't think it supported having more then 1 visible bar at a time either.

 

The ingame boss-warnings are also very new and while it's sort of possible to kill bosses without them, having the relevant timers visible and automatic announcements/markings makes life a lot nicer.

[Mooby]

If they just made the UI elements movable and resizeable I'd be happy. Some other things would be nice like visual indicitors when something proc'd, like as Sorc Healing I'd like to know on screen when Innervate crits rather than a tiny little icon in my buff bar or actually manually looking for healing crits on the game screen.

[Zerpentile]

I have a problem when it comes to reading the texts all over the UI. I constantly have to lean forward to be able to read it since the font size is just to small. Personally i have this problem because of a bad eye sight which might be rare. But there are more people who are having problems with the small font sizes. One example is the monitor type. People with different monitors and TV:s are having the same issue when it comes to reading the text.

I tried to solve this by changing resolution but the font size does not change, text text only turns blurry.

 

We need to be able to customize the font sizes all over the UI so that all can play the game properly.

 

You who agree with this, please spread this message. I have contacted Bioware and i try to see how/when/if they will solve this. More people here should send them mails about this so that they wake up. The UI needs improvements.

 

Personally I will have to drop the game and have probably wasted hundreds of dollars/euros on this game if this issue will not be fixed.

Edited December 28, 2011 by Zerpentile

[Votum]

I am pretty frustrated with the fact that I can only have 2 windows open at once. I mean why should I have to put all of my and my companions gear into my bags just to do comparisons in the GTN? I'm fine with the bars and everything else, but I play with three monitors, and it is a huge pain in the *** when one window opens on my right monitor and the other is on the left, and when I close one the other auto moves to the left, frustrates me every time. Hopefully they will allow customization of the ui only, I'm fine with no meters and crazy macro codes, but just let the ui be open source so we can make it better...