Will the new UI be released in our lifetime?

[Vivivivi]

There was talk about user generated plugins/themes when Tanaka originally showed the conceptual demo. Haven't heard anything about that since then.

[Byrth]

Why? The game and it's HUD on all platforms could use a facelift.

The last time I checked, there were three feature SE is adding:
1) A second chat log (most useful feature)
2) Letting us drag around the UI boxes and rearrange them as we wish. (Some boxes are also removable, which would be the most useful part of this feature)
3) Macros will have a color bar indicating whether a contained ability is on recast or not. (pretty useless, unless you spend a lot of time with your macro menu open)
Everything else is just re-skinning (with the default skin from the UI they implemented). The dragging/locking was buggy and reskin was ugly, so I'm in no hurry to push them to release this.

If they aren't going to genuinely change the UI and actually add useful features (which they won't, because that would put console players at a disadvantage), then the minor changes that they do make are a waste of time that won't improve the user experience. As such, I hope they don't prioritize them over addressing real issues with the game.

[Dragoy]

Something like this was indeed announced back when.

I remember it, too:

• User Customization Features
  The window scheme and GUI scripts for FFXI will be released so users can design their own interface features.

Whether or not something was lost in translation or onto the floor of the development room is probably a different story.

In it's current state, I'm not too big of a fan of the new interface, but it does show promise, and I don't doubt a lot of it to be changed yet. It looks and feels like a very early 'frame' for a 'thing'.

That said, I, too, would like that project to have more time and dedication put to it. I think it should be playing a large'ish part in moving the game forward. Perhaps even more so than anything else.

If being stuck to an interface “in the year 2000” is not a real issue, then I probably don't know what is. ^^;

[Selindrile]

User designed plugins sound awesome to me.

[Dragoy]

User designed plugins sound awesome to me.

Indeed.

I was quite careful with accepting the plans for that when I first read it, and I guess I was right in doing that. I still do have some faith for them to pull this through, but it sure is taking a while!

Priorities... priorities, of course.

It would be cool to have at least some sort of an update on this, if the project has been cancelled or not, or still being slowly worked upon. I'd hope for the latter. ^^

[Edyth]

The "New UI" is a remnant of a dark, misguided time that the dev team had for a while. I'm not insterested.