Why does it seem all the group and extended targets are so far from the hotbars and spell gems. I play amonk as my main but box a shaman and I have my spell gems and hotbars right next to my targets on the shaman and monk. This is due to the philosophy that the majority of lost time in work is going to your tool box to what your working on. Alot of time is saved by putting your tools or hotbars and soell gems next to your job and in this case group window and extended target. With a combination of keybinds and mouse clicks I feel that is the most efficient method. But thats also just my opinion as people need to go with what works best for them as an individual.
I agree with you Sojuu. Multiple times in multiple guilds in the past I did audits of healers' UI's (especially those who might seem to have more opportunity to improve). Most times it's one of 2 things (3 these days) - spell usage choices, activated AA usage choice and UI setup. And in the past, UI setup was almost always the top culprit. (Knew one cleric who had their healer chat window in upper left hand corner, group window upper right, spell bar lower left and AA's middle to right bottom. And then tells were in a separate window somwhere else.) It's one reason I centralize mine in the bottom center of screen. Group window in the center (above it is hott), ext target + hotkeys to it's left, self/player window to the right.
Why do your hotkeys and spell gems need to be close in UI proximity to your group/extended target window?
If the player is a mouse clicker, then proximity is critical. If the player solely works off the keyboard it's less critical - but the quicker someone can look at what they need, the better regardless of the type of player they are.
Was being slightly sarcastic (sorry, its a weakness <3 ), as being lumped into a blanket statement implying I must be slower because my hotbars, spell gems, and extended/group target windows aren't next to each other I don't mouse click, and I know my keybinds for any ability I need.
LOL. Well, at least the explanation is there for others reading this thread. I looked up your UI on page 1 and realize why you were asking (sorry your UI is so close to my own example I shared of a guildie who frankly was held back by her UI until we talked). Every player is different and does what they feel is best for them. I am amazed you have 40+ keybinds memorized for activated AA's and stuff. Much better player than I as I can't remember a darn thing lol with the 50+ hotkeys that I use every raid.
My ui is a hot mess, I'd be embarrassed to show it, but also hesitant to change it. I know where everything is, and a change would lead to fatalities I'm afraid, from my desperate search for buttons. I don't do hot keys, or macros, stuck in my ways I guess, but its effective.
My boyfriend Viciado says it's purely muscle memory at this point. His UI is the default; 5 hotbars visible. But he uses the first hotbar for almost everything, shifting through the pages like one of us moves from one bar to the other. And he's good at it - ask him where something is, and he'll be like "Exodus is Shift 3-3" and there it is, page three, button three. It's disturbing I tell ya! But, it also evolved that way. *Shrug* On my druid, I can't do it like he does; my rogue I can.
Gave up on custom UI's. Too much work constantly updating them. Mine is similar to Fanra's. The proximity thing is interesting. Mines not but it works for me. I'd be all conflustered if I changed it now Hmmm, new member? Menl has been around since Kunark.
Sirene, I hope you see this. I had never heard of Gina before, and it looks awesome. I downloaded it, but have had issues. I have registered at their boards, but haven't gotten an activation email from them, and haven't heard back from them Anyway, here are my two questions: 1 - I set up some triggers, and the Gina window shows that it's matched the log message, but I can't get it to show up in an overlay in EQ. I have configured the overlay, and associated the trigger with the overlay, so I'm not sure what else needs to be done. 2 - For messages that use regular expressions, I'm missing some important detail for the syntax, and can't get the messages to match. Is there a good resource for figuring out the regexp syntax? Thanks, Tat
Make sure EQ is running in windowed mode, otherwise your GINA overlays probably aren't going to work. Make sure the trigger is sending something to GINA to display, like "cure soandso" etc. It's possible to make triggers that don't display or use text to speech etc, and they will still result in a match. I would start with something really basic, just to test it out and see if you can get things working. An overview of the GINA regex shortcuts can be found here. That forum also has a bunch of good questions that have been asked for a few examples/ideas. Whenever you use {} tags in GINA, it will automatically enable regex. If you build your own regular expression, make sure you check the [ ] Use Regular Expressions box on the trigger window. If you don't know regex already, you might find this tutorial useful. For use with GINA, understanding basic characters like the ones in this cheat sheet is more than sufficient. A few examples of regex with GINA: {s} - matches any string Hatchet the Torturer levels his horns at {s} and prepares to charge! This will match for anyone Hatchet charges at. You can have the trigger display {s} (it will replace it with the person's name who is being charged at), warn you to move away, or whatever you feel is appropriate. {s1} {s2} - match multiple unique strings {s1} has been awakened by {s2} This will match for mez breaks. {s1} is the NPC being awoken, and {s2} is the person who broke mez. {c} - matches the name of a character on your PC being monitored by GINA. {c} has fallen to the ground. This will match when my character gets FD'd by something; I have it display "{c} stand!" as a result. {N} matches an exact number. YOU for {N} This will match when I am hit by an NPC. I can also specify a number range; YOU for {N>10000} This will match for hits over 10000. An example of using regex without the supported GINA tags - {s1} {s2} {s3} for {N} points of damage. \(Rampage\) Matches: A Gindan berserker crushes Sirenea for 9086 points of damage. (Rampage){s1} is the name of an enemy NPC. {s2} is any combat action (hit, slash, kick, bash, pierce, etc). {s3} is the person who is on rampage. {N} is the value for which they were hit. (Rampage) uses backslash \ because parenthesis are regex metacharacters. If I want to match a line of text that contains (Rampage) I have to escape the parenthesis and use \(Rampage\). I have this trigger display: {s1} - {s3} - {N} On my screen I will see: A Gindan berserker - Sirenea - 9086 This allows me to tell who is on rampage at a given time. You can also use regex to search your log file (using GINA, a shell, or gamparse). It's a useful way of filtering out things you aren't interested in.
Thanks. Never realized it had to be windowed mode. That's kind of a deal breaker for me And thanks for the other info. I thought I could use my own variable names, didn't realize they were pre-defined.
That's me. I used custom UIs for a long, long, long time, but now it's just a rearrangement of the default to suit me.
