Basic UI has minimal functionality

I have met the developers and they are truly the coolest, nicest people on the planet.
Thank you.
This game is by far the best and most intriguing game... ever!
Thank you.
19 years of playing, still enjoy it a lot, so thank you for that.

For years, people have come up with custom options to make the game play better, including map icons, ability to do a lot with the UI, so my question is why does the game still have minimal functionality knowing how much people who truly play the game well and tank/heal with special windows? Some will say they still play on the basic UI, and it will take some adjusting, but I am completely missing some good stuff.
So I am just curious why after these many years, the UI is very basic. Thanks.

Hello

Your points are well said i am with you game is old and Customers implemented many usefull things, functions thier own , so were is sthe problem to implemet some or all of them to the standart.
Maybe we will have a better UI than the UI Chaos we have atm and if from one hand made less issuses with all the things.

Helfren

"So I am just curious why after these many years, the UI is very basic. Thanks."

The simple answer to that is because custom UIs exist. They haven't had to improve the default UI since anyone who cares is already using a custom UI.

They don't have to design a better UI if most folks are using something someone else did better already, it gives them time to focus on things that are important, like what the next sale will be in the marketplace so they can buy new shoes.

I have wondered the same thing at times. For example, in EQ1 the standard UI has an Audio Trigger tool. You assign sounds to play depending on what text shows up. It was easy to use and you could create and use your own sounds. In this game if you want to do that you need a third party program. Also, in EQ1 you have the ability to label your macro buttons. I had a macro labeled 'Epic' which equipped my Epic weapon when I wanted it. Easier to look at a hotbar and see a label than trying to remember what icon goes with what. This UI doesn't have that. EQ1 also has a 'Note' tool; in a window you type /note and a blank text screen appears. Whatever you enter stays there until you delete it. Great for taking quick notes in-game. I don't understand why they didn't include those useful things in this game's UI.

I'm sure its not as simple as doing a code 'copy/paste' from one games UI to another, that some changes would probably need to be made, but the main work has already been done.

Just an general FYI, for notes you can make those in your character window in the "biography" tab. That's what I use it for lol.

Yeah, but everyone can see that when they look at your character through something like EQ2U. I think the Notes that Neranya is talking about would be completely private, and would be easier to access.

Sounds like a good idea. I use spreadsheets for everything (including notes), so would not have thought of something like that. But it does sound useful.

Yes, but I'm just pointing out something that can be used if needed without having to wait for Daybreak to change something about the default UI. Player made books can also be used (but take up inventory space).

I'm not saying it wouldn't be useful to have, just UI changes that aren't directly related to game changes don't seem to be something Daybreak (or SOE before them) had as a priority. As we all get to play with the default UI this week, you can see all the easily fixed annoying things that have been wrong with it for many years are still there. There's a reason almost no one plays with the default UI.

Do you have numbers to back up that assertion? I for one play with the default EQ2 UI, have done so since the start, and I have no problems with its functionality. In fact, if The Makers were to make changes to the default UI, it would probably upset all the various tweaks I've made over the years.

Well, I've met few people who only play with the default personally. And given the uproar on the forums about this week (hopefully only this week's) disabling of custom UIs, it's a fair assumption that many people use some sort of custom UI, even if it is just EQ2Maps.

I don't use one of the fancy ones myself, just my personal correction of things I saw as a problem( dead space, giant icons that couldn't be resized, return to the old xp bar rather than the WoWesque one they put in in the Smokejumper years of fixing things that weren't broken) + Eq2maps & a tradeskill window mod. Plus that red is awful, so I have used the default blue background since it was added. And currently we can't even use the default blue color scheme it seems.

There are some easy, quality-of-life UI tweaks that I have suggested directly that they should consider for the default UI. The first of which is setting a default button for most pop-up windows that allows you to hit Enter from the keyboard instead of using your mouse. (yes, I wrote a mod for that, and many custom UIs do the same).

ProfitUI's Night Vision would be another good one.

Most of the custom UIs allow you to strip all the extra space and ornamental fol-de-rol from various windows, and I wish that were an option in the Default UI. Ditto more compact pet and merc windows.

For the rest, different people have such different tastes about what they want in the UI, it's really hard for me to say what would be most helpful to introduce to the Default UI from the various custom UIs out there. The thing I have seen requested most often is a few more hotbars, which has been met with an Absolute No. Some custom UIs can give you functionality that's not exactly a toolbar, but which can free up toolbar slots, and that's what a lot of folks use instead, I suspect.

Buy a blank player made book and keep it in your bag as a notebook.

That only works for a single character, not if you're keeping track of multiples.

I think it's good that the default UI is pretty basic. It provides a template for others to build on, and doesn't overwhelm new players with features they probably don't need or won't ever use. Now, if they decide to disable custom UIs permanently, my opinion would obviously change.

But since it's so easy to install custom UIs, I can't see the need for the basic UI to do anything other than provide basic access to the game features. Then, once a player gets comfortable enough, they can choose to move to something more advanced if they so wish. Quality of life with a decent custom UI is drastically improved in so many ways, but it's not impossible to play on default.

SOE encouraged players to make the Custom UIs and submit them for approval. They encouraged everything that is available in the dropdown on the Home page under Community Links. They wanted players to make fan sites, all of the things like that was free advertising, money they did not have to spend.

The EQ/EQ2 Community has a great passion and love for the game and they want it to continue. We do not always agree with every decision that comes down the pipes and we squabble amongst ourselves about what is the best direction or the better way to do things but its not out of malice, its because we all love the game and just want everybody else to love it just as much.

Excel for the win. I use it all the time. different sheet name for each character, multiple items on each sheet to track. Love it.

I have met the people behind the great curtain, excellent folks.
To the point, we did submit and yet the basic UI is still very vanilla.
I am on Kaladim right now doing quests at level 60 and I can't believe how bare the map function is without EQ2 maps.
I also can't believe how basic the group window is. SO kudos to those at EQ2 maps and DarqUI, for making my 12 years of serious game play most enjoyable.
Thanks for the comments.

So much so that the install included the UIBuilder.exe tool.

I am totally lost without Enter to Accept, 'Drifa. Thanks so much for creating that mod!

DarqUI also has night vision.

Don't know about the others, but the night vision for DarqUI, looking at the file (darqui_custom_navbar.xml):

ON => /r_flat_ambient true
OFF => /r_flat_ambient false

Suppose you would then need to create two macros for it