What are your thoughts on a mod-able UI?

I want to have as many options as possible.

It's just not possible to create a single UI, even a customizable one, that would satisfy every single player, so a fully moddable user interface is the most sensible way to go. It's simply an essential feature for a modern MMO.

Option 3.

Ideally, what I'd like to see is mods and themes be added to the store much like things created in Landmark. They would have to go through a vetting process by SOE first before being approved. Unlocking them for use would require Station Cash, and they'd be rolled into the official UI as an optional component.

I realize that some of you may balk at that latter part, but there's a reason. Mods have a tendency to get abandoned by the developers, particularly once those developers stop playing. Placing them into the Station store and implementing a royalty system similar to what's been discussed for Landmark goes a long way towards ensuring continued support for the mod even after the developer stops playing.

What I don't ever want to see is another WoW-style addon system. So many addons caused problems - they became required functionality (DBM), they caused conflict and exclusion within the community (GearScore), they turned it into a number crunching game (Recount), etc. Give us a good base UI with flexibility and customization options, and let players create extended views and functionality that doesn't expose anything not already exposed. That limits it a fair amount, but frankly I never want to see another MMO turn into Play The Mod, instead of Play The Game.

I don't mind mods, but dealing with mods is a headache that I'd rather avoid! I'd prefer the game included plenty of built-in options like combining bags into one window, combat parsing, moving ALL UI options around, etc.

It probably has already been mentioned but the mod-ability needs to not convey unfair advantages to players, especially in PvP settings. I know that is a generic comment, but I think you all understand the intent.

For me, the less mods, the better. The UI is very important, however. If EQN has a UI with advanced customization and plenty of options I will be one happy chick. I have actually been pretty content with the EQ2 UI. Being able to add new hotbars, move them around and change their size is pretty much good enough for me. One thing I wish I could do though is to change the number of action buttons on any given hotbar. I really like being able to press F10 to bring up all the bars and move them around that way as well. In EQN, if I were to be dissatisfied with the UI, I would like to at least have the option to install a mod if I wanted. I don't see a reason why mods shouldn't be allowed, as long as they are approved by SOE. It's always nice for players to have different options.

Honestly, you can't stop it, no matter how tricky the developers want to get. Face it, the game runs on a PC, where the user has ultimate control over the program. Even on consoles, with a hardware chip mod the user can control everything.

So if the game server provides information about hidden enemies or health numbers or damage per second, the user CAN see it. And if it is useful enough he WILL.

This is probably the best answer that I could for see from an individual. Whenever I first read the question, I read the answers as 3 voting for mod-able UI and 1 voting for No. Anyway you look at the answers Sony is directly giving only one definite answer and that is the UI will be mod-able.

Each individual player has their own way of thinking and like such, User Interfaces should be an extension of the players own field of vision or way of thinking. If a player wants to have heaps of data on the screen, it should be allowed. If a player wants to have the minimal or no User Interface shown, it should be allowed.

While I do believe in having a strong default UI, no matter what you do with it, it wont please everyone. The default UI should include all the things a new player needs to get in and understandable enough to not get lost in. But having a mod-able UI can be just important or even more so for the longevity of the game.

Once a player moves past the "new" phase, and they nail down their play style, they will know what information is important to them and what isn't. There will be items in the default that wont be necessary for some, and the ability to free that screen space is crucial. Likewise, there are those players that will always feel that default is missing something.

No matter what, there should at the very least be cosmetic changes allowed. Different target rings, changing window layouts and colors and transparencies. And simple choices like showing HP/Power in percentages or numbers. Those always seem to be the most common choices, and regardless of default, there will be players that prefer the unused method.

As for third party add-ons, those are a whole different monster. If allowed, they should be screened and accepted only with SOE permission. Many veteran players can testify to how this game or that was ruined with add-ons. Like others have said, if its a third party tool that gives an advantage it needs to be shut down and bannable. If it comes to that, stick to strictly cosmetic mods.

mods damage game content when the designers can't limit what they can do. i liked the old EQ1 customization positioning but then when we think about what WoW did you see how damaging a mod can be.

in vanilla WoW mods like decursive trivialized game content so badly that most guilds required you to use it. i made the mistake of saying that decursive made players lazy in guild chat and was removed from that guild for saying so. the discussion was that lucifron could not be killed without the mod so they kicked me out and a few weeks later blizzard FINALLY fixed decursive by limiting access it had to the game. i spent more than a few days musing over the panic that must have ensued among the leaders of the guilds like the one that kicked me out.

in later expansions they still had things like DBM that all but did the boss fight for you. no one had to learn a fight because the mod would instruct you what to do in real time: THIS HAPPENED GO HERE - THIS HAPPENED WAIT 5 SECONDS THEN CAST X!

I like using a custom UI, not because I want something to simplify gameplay, but something to simplify my view of the UI. I like clean crisp corners that can be fit tightly together on my screen where I want them. I played eq with custom UI, one made up of pieces that removed scroll work on the corners of the various pieces and allowed for minimal mouse movement between the various frequently used hot buttons/bars, so I guess it comes down to a case of ... allow UI mods for crispness and location, but as many have said, don't allow mods that change the game beyond that of someone using a vanilla ui... or create a UI that is clean crisp and movable, but not modifiable, ie provide a default UI with a switch between fancy(scrollwork edges etc) and plain (squared corners, close fitting pieces)

I see a lot of "only if it doesn't give an advantage to those using the custom UI" answers.

The problem with that is that customized UIs always give the user it was customized for an advantage as they will have less reaction time. Once you allow UI customization, that becomes part of the game. Live with it.

Of course, game hacks that allow one to see named mobs and teleport, etc., etc. are not cool but that isn't UI. That's hacking. Being able to change the XML and CSS of the UI isn't going to give that kind of advantage unless the information was already available to any player anyway in some manner.

And if the user is getting such hacked information, then they didn't need a customized UI to get it either. They already hacked it and probably created a separate UI to display it.

A mod-able UI would be fantastic. Either by having enough development within the released UI that we can create what we want ourselves, or third party. However, I very much do NOT want a lot of add-ons. I think a lot of people consider these two things to go hand-in-hand. SOE approved/developed ones would be dandy, but things like an agro meter just make me gag. But yay to mod-able UI!

The only way I could see not allowing 3rd Party UIs would be if there is some desired strategy in the game having to do with UI / abilities. As a casual player I don't typically use any modifications but I don't see why others should be stopped.

For me, the greatest factor is choice and over time the player community will provide greater choice over the look and feel of the UI compared to the limited number of resources that SOE could throw at creating custom UI options.

Also an option to simply opening the UI to be creatable from the get go is a delayed unlocking to the UI, so when the game launches it can't be edited then several months down the road when people start to become board or find the launch UI is lacking in some manner then open it up to public created UIs.

Plus, Cool looking UIs in my opinion enhance the feeling of enjoyment when playing the game.

Out of all the games I have played, and there is a lot, the Everquest mod-able UI, even if we did use third party programs to attain some of the things to make ascetics pleasing, was the reason I played Everquest the longest of any game I have ever played. The only other gaming experience to come close was Warhammer.

Allow a mod-able UI for those of us who like to tinker, and create a basic UI for those who do not want to tinker. Give us all options.

Well, keep in mind that's it an MMORPG , and depending on the main UI , how it works (looks and feels), then some permission to change it around would be really nice, as it is an MMORPG , and having control over interface,etc is great... And with control over it the UI it may expand it to more availability/features/etc ??

Mod-able UI for sure. I mean that from a graphic elements perspective. Allow all windows to be movable wherever the user wants, scalable for any resolution and create a robust toolkit for modders/skinners to create great interfaces using custom graphics and such. One of the best things about EQ/EQ2 were the custom UIs and it allowed for so much freedom for the users, and creativity from the community.

As for "mods" that perform actions in the game automatically. That to me is a whole other discussion and I am much less for that as a whole.

Yes, I definitely want a moddable UI. That being said, I'd like to be able to move the default UI and shuffle it around and modify it, too. If I'm on a different computer, or if there's been a patch, or etc... I don't want to feel frustrated and stuck until I get the updated version.

I think that making the UI moddable is very important because some things work better for one person than another.

To release a game with a locked down UI today is probably not a good idea. In that game we shall not speak too much about, the modding community is probably in large part responsible for the high degree of retention that the game has had, through adding asset management and navigation tools to the game.

For a game like EQN, with its focus on voxel building and emergent gameplay, SOE should consider that even with their well-educated, imaginative UI designers, the likelyhood of the playerbase coming up with modifications that will make large groups of players drool extensively, is large.

Requiring an approval process for UI modifications is probably not a good idea. The security layer should be in the UI API, not in checking every mod offered that it doesn't do something SOE doesn't want. A reactive approach would probably be better - if a mod adversely affects gameplay, use a heuristic approach towards blocking it, much like antivirus programs deal with morphing viral code.

If we can avoid a DBM, Recount, Omen, Healbot situation I'm all for it. I think that comes down to game design though.
Maybe player designed UI mods/skins could be something for the Player Studio?