While I understand the desire to leave some elements to UI modders for advanced users, I firmly beleive the default UI should and can be agressively competitive without overdoing it. I like the look and feel of the default UI and many mods change that along with whatever useful feature may be added. While some of these have been shot down before, things change and it's always worth a shot to ask. Clicky- cures: The default looks like it was built with them in mind. It looks so natural to the UI that even after years of play and never using the mod, I still found myself wanting to click to cure. I eventually caved and found a mod with the default UI layout but it should be reconsidered for the default UI. Auto-Attack bar: Auto attack is massively important for melee classes. Support already exists for the G-15 but there is no default bar. I went and grabbed the bar posted by samejima on EQ2Interface but the lack of the bar in default leaves many clueless about both its existence and the potential importance of auto-attack damage. Drag and drop group buttons: This may be a bit much however, one or two "blank" buttons in the group window to drag and drop a spell to would be great. Spells like necro hearts, ritual of alacrity, J-Cap etc... require either a third party UI mod or extensive macro making to be used efficiently over a long period of time. More robust search to the crafting ui:Speaking as a crafter across all 9 crafts, it can be a royal pain searching through recipes until you just know where and what everything is. Rather than creating a filter for every possible item, a broker like advanced search would be welcome. Slim crafting UI: The crafting window is huge on its own and all that matters in most crafts is the "pristine" result. I'd personally welcome a crafting window that was just the progress and durability bars. Feel free to add to the list.
Thanks for the feedback. Enhancing the Default UI is definitely something we want to do. There's always a fine line we must walk between exposing lots of features for the advanced user but not overwhelming the new player. A good UI should be simple to use and intuitive for new players. Some of the changes we will be making in the future are aimed at improving the UI for new players as well as making it more functional for advanced players. Please continue to post your ideas in this thread and we'll keep an eye on it.
Honestly I'd be happy if it lost all the wasted buffer space, I like a clean and neat appearence. Other things I would like are a merged friends list, instead of having a sperate file for each toon I'd like to be able to merge them on all my toons. I use a TS recipe filter but I would love to be able to search by slot in the recipe list, especially for my Jeweler. And I am really bored with the gold colors, can we get some silver or maybe a dark green? Choices are good /nod
Eileah wrote: What buffer space do you mean? are you referring to the "letterbox" at the top and bottom of the screen? If so that can be resized or removed.
Rothgar wrote: Try to higher the guy who made profit tbh simple to understand UI many features that the standard doesn't include and its about time you endorsed an outside UI like most MMO do.
While the OP's feedback is interesting, personally I'd love it for you guys to start outright stealing from other games if you could for UI elements. Specifically, steal Vanguard's "range and direction" indicator that they have for whatever you're currently-targeting. I use the "next target" key a lot, especially when harvesting, but frequently it targets something, but I have NO idea where the actual object is. It wouldn't be bad to have both a distance and a direction to work with exactly like they do in that game. It would also make "max range" fights MUCH easier to estimate, as you know if you're at the right range or not, even when the mob starts moving. Another thing you should steal IMO is how Aion does its hotbar switching. If you have 3 hotbars up, and press shift-2 (or whatever for your alternate sets), it not only switches your "first" bar, but ALL of them, and so there's a lot more than EQ2's 120 "slots" to be able to put things in. This may seem overkill, but I know that I like using SIGNIFICANTLY different spells/abilities when soloing versus grouping (especially on my healer), and so being able to change EVERYTHING with a quick change would be great. I encourage stealing. It always makes other games better when one camp figures out what works first. So let's take the best of ALL worlds IMO.
Rothgar wrote: I showed the EQ2 UI to another publisher's developer, and their response was, "Never in our game". It came up as an example what not to do in developing a game UI...when the players want everything but the kitchen sink and actually get it, to the woe of everyone else and their fps (can turn every fluff off in the game, but not those 1001 buttons and windows that must be redrawn over and over and over). Truly we have too many buttons. The spells are variations of a theme, but really offer little else but to take up valuable space. Why 24 spells/CAs, when 12 can do the job (this isn't pen and paper D+D where you could have 50 spells without affecting fps)? Why huge raid windows that take 20% of the screen, the very screen needed to see the mobs through? Why can't I open up a tradeskill window and the guild window and not take up the most of a 1680x1050 view? We can't macro 3 spells/CA due to different reuse timers -- only one not available makes the macro not work -- in hope to remove one hotbar. So many quests require hotbaring icons (shard quests for example), instead of trying to dig through 6 redwood boxes to find it, let alone all the pots. Streamling is truly necessary, not adding more buttons and windows. We're drowning in them as it is.
Kigneer wrote: I found this paragraph to be very interesting. I can guarantee that when a new player joins this other game that one of the very first things they will do is to download a third party UI. The default UI that this developer is working on will not contain the necessary add-ons, doodads and widgets necessary to make playing a smooth experience. So, really, the people playing that game will end up with just as much cluttering their screen and they will happily take the fps hit for it just so that the UI will have real functionality. If the developer has that attitude, then why develop a UI at all? Just let the players make one because they will anyway. EQ2 has the absolute best default UI that I have ever seen in an online game. It is the only game where I have never outright replaced the UI. I am not fond of the default beginner layout (that really needs work), but it is very customizable and highly functional without ever needing to download any additional changes. There are only a few really necessary addons and they are pretty well covered by the OP. How many other online games actually ship with a highly functional and customizable UI?
Kigneer wrote: I like my six hotbars. I like all the buttons. While certainly some elements like the raid window can be made smaller(like the merged group/raid window I saw from samejima), some perma-buffs can stand to be merged and even some AA abilities switched to mods/innates ( looking at you most class line AA abilities) the overall feel of EQ2 button mashing appeals to me. It might not work for those other games but it works here and it's part of why I'm playing EQ2 and not another game. Ballads wrote: I know they fully support EQ2Maps, what's to be gained from officially supporting a 3rd party UI though when they work cooperatively with folks on EQ2 Interface? Eriol wrote: Agreed and I thought it standard practice heh. Like the idea of different hotkey layouts Add: Merged bonuses in the persona window: I play many classes including an SK. It's irritating flipping window to window to find what each bonus is when it seems it can be handled in its own tab or the current one can be to scroll. Background returned to the inventory picture: We used to have it, it wasn't much but I found it a much nicer touch than the current emptiness. Also liked that it used to mirror player actions. AA not to be spent as points are placed: There is no official AA calculator and some AA are difficult to figure out from wording/base math. Would be nice to be able to place points to figure out how they look without spending it; a setup that allows you to place all the points,see what they do/how they add up then requires you to confirm before it's set. Not so much new elements but: Any chance at a tab for tradeskill gear?
Melina@Splitpaw wrote: I think they mean, like, the extra space around all the windows in the UI. Like, you have the hotkey bars, which all have a large border around them (made evident in the image by hitting F10 once) that gets in the way if you want multiple hotkey bars placed very close to each other. They really don't need to have that thick of borders around them... And, well, if that's not what Eileah meant, it still seems wasteful to me.
Rothgar wrote: Honestly "Profit Reborn" rules. Single click cures and hot buttons for common tasks. Profit IS what the default should have been.
Eriol wrote: In the interim, while its not as quick or painless as the shift-2 example you gave... /savehotkeys toonname_purpose.dat /loadhotkeys toonname_purpose.dat ie, setup your solo hotkeys and /savehotkeys tooname_solo.dat setup your group hotkeys and /savehotkeys toonname_group.dat setup your raid hotkeys and /savehotkeys tooname_raid.dat then, /loadhotkeys toonname_solo.dat when you are soloing /loadhotkeys toonname_group.dat when you are grouping /loadhotkeys toonname_raid.dat when you are raiding (I imagine the loads can be done in macros once setup, though I haven't tried myself)
Click to cure Merge the player, group and raid windows (windows with duplicate information is redundant) Add two configurable hot bar buttons next to each group/raid member Display group health/power with a percentage Display target health/power with a percentage Sort out buff windows into four seperate windows 1. Personal buffs (all the stuff you cast for your or your groups benefit e.g HP buff, group stat buff, poisons, temp potions etc.) 2. Group buffs (all the crap cast on you by others e.g. IA, Rapidity etc.) 3. Your spell effects (This is the non static stuff that fires off in combat, outside of combat this window should be empty e.g. DOTs, heals, debuffs, item procs, poison procs etc.) 4. Detrimental effects (negative effects placed on you by mobs) Any buffs/debuffs or detrimental effects should be overlayed with a time remaining and trigger count plus the standard fade effect we see on out hot bars now Allow ALL icons to be resized independently Add an option for 'Decline LON invitations' to the persona window Make the Quest journal fully searchable with a text field i.e. completed and current quests Ability to create your own command aliases with tab completion e.g. /tell Lucan_dLere.reallyobscurename = /tell weirdo1 One friends list Add a button to the broker window so you can set all items in a box to match current lowest broker price Give the option to remove the load screen so as we can continue text conversations while we zone - Roldy
Roldor wrote: If they add percentages I'd like to be able to turn them off.Part of why I don't like many mods is the obvious percentages. Decline LoN is already in the persona options, stretch the window. Add: Option to add all items off a type to the broker;Add all items in a container: I craft a lot, individual drag and drop gets old fast.
I'd never need a third party UI if default added these two features. 1: Click to cure 2: Quickcast macros in group/raid window. What i think would be awesome is if there was essentially a mini-hotbar next to each group members/raid members name where we could place an ability which would automatically target that member as is done in profit UI -- though its much more difficult than dragging and dropping an ability/macro if you want to change from the default quickbuttons.
So long as we're making suggestions... You know what would be really handy (and nifty) in a UI in my opinion? The ability to separate the UI elements from the main game window. Kinda like palettes in Photoshop or Flash. It'd be really handy for multi-monitor users, or for users who like to play in windowed mode. Everybody has a few windows they would like to shove out of the way, but needs to keep open. For example, the raid window. It's REALLY clunky, it's REALLY in the way, but it's not a window you can afford to close.
Roldor wrote: First bullet: That already sort of exists. It only lasts for a single session, but you can use the /alias command. Eg /alias tell Server.Someguy weirdo That would then translate into /weirdo being the same as typing /tell Server.Someguy (That might not be the proper order for the arguments, I'm doing it off memory and I don't really use the command) Second bullet: No. Manage your prices yourself. We don't need anything to make it even easier for folks to undercut on the broker. Third bullet: Already available in Custom UIs. The reason it is NOT available in the default UI is something you may have noticed -- while zoning, you're not always able to chat. At some points in zoning, if you sent chat out it goes nowhere. The inconsistency of trying to chat while zoning is the reason they have the default UI's zoning screen cover everything.
Kigneer wrote: And that attitude is exactly why myself and MANY others out there absolutely loathe the UIs in most other games. Eq2's UI has it's issues, it's customizablity is NOT one of them. I think the number of buttons is fine personally. I use 8 hotbars all at once. Gives me plenty of choice. If I wanted to spam the same 6 buttons over and over again I'd be playing one of the more simplistic games that don't give the players as much choice in what they are doing in a particular situation. If you don't like the number of buttons and bars on your screen, reduce the number and use the spinner to get to abilities not immediately visible. Digging through your bags isn't particularly difficult if you've bothered to sort the bags in any manner. I know I keep my potions in one area, tinkered things in another, spare gear and quest items also all in their own area. I can pretty quickly find just about anything I want in my bags due to just spending a little bit of time organizing them. As for large windows, I can see how those would bother some people (I like a lot of my stuff itty bitty and have modded my ui to fix that personally). Adding a button (haha) on the window to shrink it or minimize it (like you can do with the map) would be acceptable I think for most people. I do have just one thing more to say, Kigneer. You seem to spend most of your time on these boards going on about what other games are doing and how EQ2 should do those things too. "X MMO lets players be all crafters, EQ2 should too!" "X MMO only has 12 abilites you need to use, EQ2 should do that too!" "XMMO has a much smaller, less customizable UI, EQ2 should have that TOO!" Really, if you don't like the game and want to change pretty much everything about it, why not find a game that you actually enjoy for what it is? To the OP, there are some click to cure mods out there that use the default group window. I personally rather like the Default UI myself. I use a slightly modded version of it. (mostly just made things smaller and killed some of the dead space). My own suggestion to the devs would be to make sure they minimize dead space around the hotbars in all configurations even down to the smallest size (where the huge amount of dead space becomes really evident).
I want a window I can put 6-10 things in and mute them all at once. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please.
Ballads wrote: When GM9 (the maker of ProfitUI Reborn) decided to retire, Rothgar valiantly offered to take over maintaining it in the interim (thread) but it was taken up by another member of the eq2interface community. Other devs have mentioned using ProfitUI as well, and EQ2Maps was even featured on the EQ2 launcher for awhile, so clearly they support the modding community. At the same time, I think they want to make a game where that level of control is optional, not required. While I'm here, I'll mention a UI suggestion(pet peeve) that recently surfaced for me; when claiming house items in a guild hall, it would be really nice if teleporter pads could show their labels in the tooltips, so if a pad gets lost in geometry you don't have to uproot the entire guildhall's teleport system. It would also be lovely if teleport pads had a set, persistent window order(perhaps unique names in order of purchase, pad 1, pad 2, etc?) so you could make the most used destination the persistent default. (I'll also feedback this as I know that's your preferred channel )
