What are your thoughts on a mod-able UI?

This question flies directly in the face of something I have always respected about SOE - not having mods. This question (like others) speaks to "let's sway in the winds of player whim and fancy"

I'm an old EQ player and I REALLY want EQN to succeed - but they are doing themselves no favors with some of these things... and less favors with the way they decidedly DON'T say things. Potential players (from looking at other sites) are getting annoyed.

Mods not approved by developers are an abomination to MMO's - providing advantages to those who use them over those who do not... For a certainty there will be players who are "afraid" to load mods because they simply don't understand how... or "Afraid" because they think it will open the door to viruses, etc...

Mods also open up the door to abusive behavior. Things like mods that flash your screen red if a player from the other faction (if there is one in game) is in the area for example. Or another fun one - not sure how long it lasted... but there was a PvP oriented one that would put the + sign over enemy factioned healer heads so your side could focus fire healers.

How much time will SOE spend policing these things to make sure they aren't getting abused? Will they 100% certify that created mods WON'T give an advantage?

For me personally - the better path (if they are going to let people mod) is to create some form of "mod submission" program - where they review mods and then add them as options to the default UI once they approve and test them.

Nonsense.

SOE made PlanetSide 2, which is coming to PlayStation 4, as well as DCUO.

It's entirely possible Next will end up on consoles at some point.

I agree with most of the "as long it does not give one player an advantage over another" but end with in application scripts and files. As far as 3rd party applications (I assume this means another .exe file running alongside it), I scream and stomp my foot, NO. NO. NO. NO. This I feel is obvious though...

Also, to what extent will we need 3rd party mods for? Is there no confidence in your UI HUD? I love a game that keeps me on its basic HUD until I absolutely cannot function on overclocked mode (Those of us that mmo and raid know the difference between normal gameplay and overclocked mode). This is a unique demand for a game to have in itself also.

Rather than asking about HUD/UI Modifications is not nearly as important as asking about Occulus Rift and possibly going VR with this game.

Why limit it to just UIs?

We should be able to mod all textures in the game and shaders, as well as particle effects to tone them up or down! Just like Starwars Galaxies.

I would like an appearance/texture override and UI override folder, this would allow us to replace textures in the game with our own.

I want a visually heavy modifiable UI. I want to change everything, add Graphics, buttonstyles, automate visual components (to autohide things for example). Functionality adding mods on the other hand needs to have some controlsystem perhaps even with a QA procedure to make sure they don't break things. One of the things I still enjoyed with WoW during my last hours in the game was tweaking/designing/programming the ui so from a strictly egoistic standpoint I definately want modifiable UI's (including thirdparty ones when my programming/artistic skills fail).

Customization is key.
Fully agree a sandbox world needs a sandbox UI. I may not be the greatest at making my own mods but almost everyone changes their keybindings to fit their individual needs and desires.
Having options to change even more things is great. Arguments might be player A) has more options than player B) because they know how to mod better, while this is a good argument the ability for players to make mods makes it so they can share these options with others.
Imagine different colored UI, transparencies, icon sizes, all of these create a unique feel for each player and eventually could be shared. A UI that is user friendly to be modded would be great also with a nice tutorial on the UI if requested by the player.
A default UI is of course required so players can learn the basics but we advance and it's one of the reasons we play video games is to advance and change in the sandbox.
Sandbox UI for the win.

if you want to make the UI Pink with hello kitties running around the border or whatever .. fine. If the UI gives advantages with tracking or whatever, it should NOT be allowed.

Just skins no game mods.

It needs more then just a UI, all things should be moddable as long as it does not interrupt or give you an advantage. The game needs a texture override folder. This would give the game so much more life and add years on too it like it did SWG.

Textures/some model fixes would allow players to adjust graphics to their own settings as long as its (Client-Side-Only.)

The main problem isn't what a player makes but sometimes it can take a bit of fun away from the game. For example a raid group might not let you in on the group because you don't have a certain UI plug in that tells you what to do during the fight making it super hard to get into a group.

But if SOE we're to approve it first then we could have some really unique UI that might make the game visually better rather than telling scrubs how to play!

Having a static UI is usually a negative for me, what I like is not what someone else may like. I want to be able to import Mods as a whole or in piece, whether they be SOE mod or 3rd party.Also I like to move all the UI around and be able to resize windows, icons, fonts, colors etc. The more one can do with a UI the more people feel at home using it.

I had a long term love affair with the old Vert UI mod back in the day, and I feel that the modding community should be able to do similar things in EQN I'm fine. That being said, I really don't like things like gear score, or mods that alert you to when a boss is going to do something...basically any add-on that provides info not available in the original UI should not be allowed.

Edit: The choices were not very we written, but I chose #1.

I like to have the ability to arrange my UI as I like it.

BUT I don't like to see anything in third-party mods that would provide an actual advantage. There shouldn't be any third party convenience-tools that make certain tasks easier or provide information that wouldn't be available otherwise. I especially don't like anything that is called "...-finder" or "...-helper".
The problem is that players tend to optimize the game towards the most boredom. For example: If there was an UI-tool that would provide information on the most effective way to mine minerals it would make the process of mining terribly grindy. Everybody would be forced to use it, because he would **** himself otherwise.
Or just look at all the quest-helpers and dungeon-finders tools that WoW has, they ruin the whole gameplay. Most of them started as 3rd party tools and where later implemented into the main UI.

So 3rd-party mods should only be usable if they where approved by SOE and they shouldn't change the gameplay in any way.
If the question is to either open EQN to all third-party mods or to have none at all, I would prefer to exclude them altogether.

From what I understand, SCE (Sony Computer Entertainment) is responsible for bringing those games to the PS4. SOE handles production of PC titles and maintaining the PSN Network.

If it ends up on a console, it will be only on the PS4 (in addition to the PC.)

If you mean being able to record chat conversations I don't see a reason to disallow it when you can already make screenshots of conversations or if it is voice record it without being some kind of hack.

I prefer UI mod approval as well but I absolutely doubt it will happen unless SoE gets paid to check each modification by selling the mods to us. A mod-able UI sounds great but WoW shows how bad this actually be. Mods practically play the game for you. If you want to play the most challenging content no mod should be able to tell you how to best approach it. Not only elite guilds should actively play the game. I much rather have no mod-able UI than having another DBM, Recount, Questhelper, etc.

Even a simple mod that answers a question asked in a quest for you is something I abhor. There is something like that for the Timeless Isle content in WoW currently. It is a harmless mod but it shows to me that so many players don't give a hoot about lore or RPG which in turn has made developers remove too many elements from what makes something an RPG.

MMOs have become such a bore because of many different reasons and one of the reasons is the type of mods which are allowed. There are times I wish WoW had never entered the scene because I feel MMOs would have been in a far better state instead of becoming more convenient each year. I guess I am jaded and maybe it is just time for me to quit MMOs all together if developers keep refusing to take a hard look at what has happened to the genre.

I really think that a lot of people have a confusion on the term, "UI". Damage Meters are not a UI element if the game didn't have a damage meter available. That is a game mod, not a UI mod.

And again, if the information is available on the client, they will exists regardless of UI mod-ability. Personally, I don't understand the upset with "damage meters" or combat log parsers. It is just information on your damage out-put and the only advantage it gives is whether or not what you are doing is working.

But having said that, not a single answer on this poll will affect whether or not damage meters become available in EQN. If there is a combat log, they will exists. Period, end of story. If there is not a combat log, well, it might be a while, but they will exist eventually if the game has any popularity because someone will hack the client and make one since the client has to have the data on the logged-in character's damage output.

A modible UI in no way whatsoever affects the eventual existence of such tools. Frankly, only the popularity of the game and therefore the number of coders in the community capable of hacking the client. The only choice that would even slow down the eventual creation of such tools would be regarding the availability of combat logs.

I've never liked client-side texture packs. In a multiplayer setting, they create a distinct advantage.

Imagine being able to turn stone invisible so that you can see all of the rare resources underground. That would be game breaking.

All texture / model mods should be allowed as long as they are client-side. I want override folders please. So many MMOs lack these. EQ2 was made to be completely un-modable for textures, I don't understand why the older games are but the new games are not.

No, its client side. Turning a stone invisible would just be a texture thing. The stone would still block your path.

You can still turn the texture invisible. That does not mean you can't see through it. The shader would just make it a black box. And if you edited the shader/texture it would just be an invisible wall and you would see into nothing.

Mos def, all for skinning. Simple, easy to put on player studio, etc.

Imagine being able to turn stone invisible so that you can see all of the rare resources underground. That would be game breaking.