What are your thoughts on a mod-able UI?

I like mod-able UI's, but I don't like the ability for those UI's to be manipulated in a way that allows people to have an advantage over those using the stock UI.

If SOE allows people to mod the UI, I would prefer that it be approved before being allowed.

Mod-able UIs are absolutely IMPERATIVE in MMOs today.

Yes, a streamlined and intuitive DEFAULT UI is also very important to ensure new players are able to learn "tricks of the trade". So under no circumstances should the results of this RT impact the development of the Default UI.

Customizable UIs, which allow intermediate players to add, remove, move, and resize, our windows is just as important as an intuitive default UI, IMO. This grants players the ability to "season the pot" a bit and potentially evolve new ideas based on what they start with. Everyone wants to be able to "readjust their grip" from time to time.

Mod-able UIs, (what I am calling 3rd Party UIs) that provide savvy and seasoned players with the ability to pick and chose the tools they view and interact with is generally required fare by Veteran Players. Being able to fine tune our User Interface based on our own personal specific playing needs and styles will ensure EQ:N's staying power.

I always liked having a UI that could be modded, but I prefer in game changeable mods only, nothing that is downloaded.

However, I do not want to see a WoW system that there are millions of options that you can go to a website and download addons/ui's that may or may not be permitted.

If players are able to make addons/UI I would like for them to be illegal until approved and added as in game options by SOE.

I would personally rather see anything that is approved be easily changed in game. There is nothing worse than every time the game gets an update that you have to see all sorts of error messages until the UI or addon is updated.

So in essence, anything that can be modded should be easily accessible by players in the game. Players can create their own customizations but if they are approved SOE should implement this in the game so all players have access to this without having to research if something is permitted or not.

I like to have options within the SOE UI. I thought EQ2 had very good options. I like most of it transparent. I hate when a game has so much on the screen, you can't really see what your doing. It takes away from the game your trying to play. I don't want a mini map. There should be just one map, maybe crafted by the players.. or you can buy one in a shop off a map maker NPC. Maybe give the players the ability to create a map as they explore the world. They can add their own icons and text.. etc.. Maybe in first person view, you could see your characters hand pull out a compass, so you know which way your facing. I am looking forward to exploring this new world, and don't want that experience cheapen.. by traveling Norrath through the mini-map! And it's just ugly on the screen! Back in the day when you had no maps, you had more communication between the players. You asked another person if they had seen a cave in the area. You asked which path leads to Freeport. I want to be lost again. And I don't want an option to just hide the mini-map. If there is an option to show/hide, people will still use it. Communication should be important again in a game like EverQuest Next.

I like default UIs, and I like HIGHLY customizable default UIs.. all within the game itself. I don't like third party tools, UIs or whatever, because invariably you end up with information or abilities that are required for raiding and such. Threat meters, parses, whatever. Even worse are the ones that walk you through things step by step, or have a ton of information on a map. I think all of that should be locked away. Give us the default UI, let us customize it, mod the look of it and such.. but when it comes to giving players extra information for modding, where it gives people a disadvantage NOT to use them like in EQII? Yeah, bad form. Let's avoid that.

I'd like to have the option to hide all UI...So pure and clean rawr

I like the idea of using SOE and Community mods, but only Community mods that SOE approves or regulates. Maybe this would cut down on hacking.

Well, sure, it should be heavily modifiable to fit everyone's personal needs, third-party applications would be fine, but they shouldn't allow for mods that give an edge over vanilla UIs.

Giving the player the greatest number of options is often the best course, in my book. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

I'd like the UI itself to be fully customizable in terms of size and position of each individual piece of UI and the information it displays in each piece. I'd also like to see an option to make various windows able to stay open if we want, so that pressing ESC won't close them like it normally would for other windows.

I would like to see third party UI mods be possible, as players will have different preferences in how they want their UI to look and allowing players to be able to make their own UI will make more players happy, even if the default UI is extremely customizable. I'd like to be able to use my own art and sounds (if we get sound triggers like in EQ) to give my game a more unique look as well.

If you allow us to make our own UI mods, I would like to stress that I do not want to see things that give any advantage to players using third party UIs over the default UI. Let us display the same types of things that you decide to let players display with the in game tools, just let us change the appearance for those who prefer a different style of UI appearance.

Ehhh doesn't matter players are going to do what they are going to do no matter the out come of this poll.

I recommend a totally awesome question for the next round table discussion that themes around mechanics!!!!

Who's with me?!?!?

I like a good mix of UI mods and Sony UI, because modding opens the door to creativity and often provides mods that eventually end up becoming part of the default UI because they are so popular.

Here's the key - I recall patch days in "other games" when literally EVERY single UI mod I had stopped working.

I would have to spend 2-3 hours downloading and installing, and re-configuring all my mods to work before I could play. Many of those mods were REQUIRED by the guild to participate in raids.

The UI should absolutely be able to be modded, but I'd like to see an official "App Store" for UI mods, allowing the updates to be automatically downloaded and applied after patches, etc.

The UI should be fully customizable out of the box, but there should be scope for UI modders.

However, no mod for the game should be able to access combat data during an encounter - whether this means no combat logs at all (bad idea imo) or simply a dump of a full encounter when combat ends (my preference).

Giving modders of any kind real time access to combat data will only lead to DBM type mods, and that is a bad thing for any MMO.

Impossible to answer, as you need to supply more info!

Is the game exclusive to PC's? This one factor impacts every answer you get here.

The UX on consoles and mobile devices is so different to PC's, the controls, the way that people utilize the screen real estate. Could you update us on what we are talking about here, and I think the answers you get back will be a lot more useful?

I don't care how you do it, but please.... make player customization be something that has to be submitted and approved like the studio stuff. No third party crap either... you get people yelling at you for not having the appropriate mods and get booted from events for not being in the mold. That falls under the realm of cookie cutter expectations and while I love cookies... I don't want to be forced into a mold.

I almost always play with a default UI. My reasoning is that, the developers thought it was good enough for me, why should I want to change it?

Another thing that I'm not fond of is intricate coded macros that make it so you pretty much only have to worry about 1 or 2 buttons. Waste of a perfectly good game... trivializes everything, your keyboard keys, your mouse buttons, game pad...whatever you use... and makes games so very boring and gives those who know how to code an unfair advantage to those who don't. (I know I'll probably get torched for this, but eh... why not.. it's getting cold outside anyway...)

I really would love to have Option 1 and Option 3 together. Having a mod-able UI which allows for players to create add-ons is definitely something I would appreciate having, and mod creators being able to get sanctioning for their specific add-on(s) would, in my mind, ease the minds of a lot of the people who don't normally use 3rd party mods. This way if I want to use a map mod which changes the layout from a circle to a square I can, even if it isn't sanctioned; and if I want to use a more complex mod that changes most of the layout of the UI I can find one that is sanctioned so I know it won't cause issues with my account being flagged for 3rd party software use that might be suspect.

I don't know a lot about creating mods, so I don't know if heavy alteration of the UI could potentially cause the server to detect me as using a program to exploit the game when I'm just using a heavily altered UI.

Having played EQ1 for quite some time now, I trust SOE to provide us with quality default UIs. That said, I have used custom UIs in the past for aesthetic purposes. I would like to continue that, if possible.

I love seeing what the modding community can come up with but it should be about aesthetics only - that being said some UI set ups can make you react faster than others. If the built in UI feels like a lump around your legs, is improving your reaction speed with a modded UI really a cheat? I don't think so.

Personally I want relevant information available but not constantly visible. Remember the tiny bar with tons of info and info plugins we could get for WoW back in the day? I can't recall its name though. Something -Meter? Help me out, guys.

Anyways, I liked that! Provided it could be hidden until called upon.

I'd rather not have to download extra crap to play the game, so I'd just like to be able to set things up how I want from within and go from there.