Hi devs. Since the 'rona has been making the rounds and everyone is locked behind their front doors, I've seen something I didn't expect to. New players. No, not "new" players that played from 99-02 then quit, I mean new players. People that have never played EQ before. This represents an opportunity, and highlights an existing problem. The default UI setup is trash The default layout is ungainly and unsightly, and the chat filters are horrible. Invest a bit of time, or solicit community assistance in creating a better default UI/chat filter layout that is both more visually engaging, and easier to use for new players. One of the rites of passage that any EQ player knows well is fixing the default UI, and unscrambling the chat filters, and getting everything just right. Or so the bags don't all open on top of each other or randomly across the screen, etc. I think this investment in cleaning up the game's initial presentation to new players would be a wise use of resources. Even for returning players, Live EQ/Heroic characters are confusing Even for returnees making the jump from "back in the day" to live, or to a heroic character is intimidating. The sheer number of buttons, abilities, spells, additional features, bits, bobbles, and twists are dizzying. The games basic features are sort of documented in a bunch of different places, but there isn't a good official guide to get new players off the ground for live EQ. Also starting from Level 1 is vastly different from starting with a heroic character, with the added burden of a bunch of abilities no one is sure what to do with. I'd suggest soliciting community assistance with, and then pinning/posting semi-official general play and class guides for new players to work through. And a second set for Heroic characters. I'd also suggest a default UI template for heroic characters that is class appropriate, and already has some of the workhorse AA/abilities of the class on the bar.
can only agree here, having just "returned" after a "short" break and returning without my old ini files made this a huge undertaking to get everything setup decently but it still looks like a cluttery MESS with 4 chat windows (6 if you count the tabs) 7 hotbars, combat abilities, actions, spellbar, window selector, compass, aura window, effects window, songs window, mercenary, group, targets target, extended target, player window(your name hp mana), target window, and the quest window oh and the two annoying buttons with a HUGE DB/EQ buttons.... for starters you could make a small "menu" line/bar at the top of the screen (think Ubuntu Linux) it's small, thin... then make "two defaults" with either hotbars/chatwindows at the bottom of the screen OR to the sides of the screen... bags/banks could maybe learn from one of the custom UI's with "tabs" for bags in bank or just all slots in one so get a bag with more slots = just see more slots up to the max (40 slot bags or whatever is max multiplied with the max amount of bags) hotbars with lower but wider buttons would also be nice as an option (think half heigh, 50% wider than they are now) possibly merging playerwindow with group window and have them in a "bar" on the left side of the screen (moveable) but think "tall, narrow" window... and the extended target on the right side of screen... then a "thinner bar" on top of the chat windows in the bottom with target + targets target make stuff "sticky" so they stick together = easy grid sticking (turn off for those that want that) and make it straight edges so there isn't so much wasted space and drop some of the CLUNKY crappola.... chat windows now with "title bar" + "tab bar" takes up a HUGE amount of space which is not needed and the edges keep them THIN... hotbutton background/text color = changeable (the text color is changeable right now easily) maybe merge pet/merc windows and combat abilities/action windows and for god sake make everything "similar" sizes so it fits togethe easily right now nothing really fits together please thanks
I returned recently, logged into my lvl110 Pally and saw the 100000 hotbuttons (slight exaggeration) and just couldn't be bothered to remember what ever button does again. I re-rolled a new toon which is easier, but then I suppose me re-rolling doesn't really help the community as everyone is max level
i wouldn't count on getting the UI re-programmed. although that would be a nice, I think a great start would be adding an assist /main key, making the attack key red, disabling auto-zoom on the map, making chat separate window(s) than combat spam, etc. That is all pretty reasonable.
Wasn't asking for it to be re-programmed. I want a better default. The UI is easily customized, but the base UI is pretty awful. Make a better base UI.
Why waste the time or resources when as you stated the UI is easily customizable by the players? In fact there is a central site which hosts all UIs (both individual components as well as full sets) that players have made? eqinterface.com is a fine site, easy to use and anyone can sign up to share their UIs. The only thing that the Dev's really need to do is to recode some of the windows to allow for more customization, looking at you Item Display Window. But any massive changes to the the look and layout of the UI would be far too much work for very little return.
Try reading the post. Brand new players to the game are off put by the default UI setup which looks like garbage. We're actually getting a few of those into the community. So they don't know about eqinterface. Because.... they're new. Hence the post in the newbie forum... Spend some time on curb appeal. We might actually keep some of the newbs walking in the door.
The UI illustrates the weird "feature creep" that makes EQ a mess. There are simply too many "almost" identical features, that somehow got their own individual UI-windows, or are not arranged together with other elements of the same type. 3 examples: The don-crystals and plat are for some reason not in the currency tab, where they conceptually belong. We have too many different types of "quest"-windows: task, adventure, quest, expedition etc, all meaning more or less the same thing to the player. Also kinda weird: we have lots of different keyrings, but none of them hold keys...we have a text-cmd for that... not really intuitive... An intuitive rearrangement of the UI would make the game much easier to grasp for newbies. A good newbie friendly UI, should show things where an uninformed newbie would guess they were... And please make a better raid-tool, I would love to be able to "drag and drop" players into their groups...(each raider is represented by an icon, you can just drag into a group with your mouse, like you "drag and drop" items into a bag, preferable without UI-lag). maybe even ctrl-click on multiple raiders and drag them "together", like dragging multiple files in windows explore. And have them "autojoin" the expeditions as they get added to the raid. Oh, and make the UI scale-able, so it fit better on hi-res monitors...
It's okay to buy a Ford Pinto. Just find someone who owns one who has made an anti-exploding gas tank device. It may be a high quality device, and great for people who have a pinto, but the availability of the device wouldn't have convinced people to buy a new exploding death car. The direct costs to Ford were probably a lot less than the opportunity costs from the impact of the poor car design to the brand. The only people who have been able to figure out how to make and sell complete trash for people to modify aftermarket is Jeep. EverQuest is not a jeep. It's more like an El Camino. A few niche people love it, but ya aint selling more. EQ needs to be a Chevelle. Everyone wants a Chevelle. It's prefect the way it is, but it's old. The dashboard just needs a little restoration.
I say scrap the idea of a newer UI. Go back to Classic. That'll make you appreciate what we have now! ^^! I am not sure what needs to be fixed to be honest with you. It all looks pretty sleek to me. You get to change the sizes of the windows/boxes. Move them around to your preference. They are transparent. You can set up hot keys and any manner of other things. You can stack the windows/boxes. You can make them disappear and reappear. I'll be honest and say I am not familiar with the latest and greatest MMORPGs of today, but EQ already wounded a lot of people who preferred Classic when they went with the "new kids on the block" faster and sleeker play style. I hate to see them lose even more fans, even if they were to gain a few new in the process. As far as the extras confusing new and even returning players, yes it is confusing. But you have to learn the game or even relearn it. It is part of the fun I suppose.
The default ui needs an hour or 2 to fix. See a new player's impression below. Honestly, this issue has been neglected for far too long Hire an intern or a co-worker's teenager to fix it. This is a weekend project at the most.
