[Suggestion] - Customizable UI / Layout / Addons

Well, i read something about this late december 2010 i think and well...
its hard to explain what id like to see so i did alot of cut & paste / redsigns etc in photoshop. (all copyrights of SE ofc) so i think the picture speaks better than words.

UI Suggestion: Skinnable UI, option to re-design UI using templates. :p

Link:

Example 1: http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/4...suggestion.jpg

Updated: 2011.03.26.
Example 2: http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/3...uggesition.jpg

Note:
I didnt spend as much time on this as i wanted, because its not real or even guranteed
to be an option soon or ever, but if there were an option to re-design the UI to my liking...
i would have spent alot more time making them perfect.


Well as you can see on the image, there's 2 bars, 1 top-bar & 1 bottom-bar.
These bars contains "folder" buttons, that when clicked drops down/up a menu.
Easy to access & close.

And well, this idea comes from one of the many WoW addons, think it was called "Titan Panel" or something. (was long ago i played it)

But as you can see it has alot of potential.
And well... i like to paint / design etc... just imagine what other people could do. ^^

Anywayz, its not a real UI... just some copy & paste thing as a suggestion / feedback to SE.

So...

I'd like to see some kind of Addons, options to re-design the UI completly maybe by using templates (provided by SE ofc) option to update / add new Addons etc.

These addons / features could be uploaded to a site, checked by Mods (validate etc)
and then post them for people to download / use as an addon to the game.

Sorry but no.. I don't like it.
Nice idea being able to close/hide the windows you don't want,
but I'm not a fan of Visible bars, top or bottom.

well, the option is obviously to keep the default UI layout,
or change skin-design / color / transparancy / font size, etc.

The purpose of the Addons serves as option UI layout's to choose from,
this is just an example of many diffrent styles.

So a Skinable UI?
Interesting idea.

If I had any ability with photo shop (Apart from drawing horrible red and green boxes with text every where)
I'd make a mock up of what I'd like to see for a proposed UI.

Correct me if I am wrong, and I may be, but isn't a large portion of the UI server side? I was under the impression (possibly mistaken) that this was done to increase security v. unauthorized mods and botting tools. If that is in fact the case (and if it is, I do happen to agree with it) and mods would have to be server side as well and require a public API to even make. I'm not sure that I can see SE doing that. I know Yoshi-P has mentioned mods in the past, but it is a very tricky slope for SE to walk down. I'm sure the first concern they have is how to ensure that the mods being used are secure, safe, bot free, and don't provide an unfair advantage to some players. Re-arranging the UI is fine as far as I'm concerned, but I for one don't want see what I see in WoW - You can't join our guild unless you have Mod X.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by origamikitsune

Correct me if I am wrong, and I may be, but isn't a large portion of the UI server side? I was under the impression (possibly mistaken) that this was done to increase security v. unauthorized mods and botting tools. If that is in fact the case (and if it is, I do happen to agree with it) and mods would have to be server side as well and require a public API to even make. I'm not sure that I can see SE doing that. I know Yoshi-P has mentioned mods in the past, but it is a very tricky slope for SE to walk down. I'm sure the first concern they have is how to ensure that the mods being used are secure, safe, bot free, and don't provide an unfair advantage to some players. Re-arranging the UI is fine as far as I'm concerned, but I for one don't want see what I see in WoW - You can't join our guild unless you have Mod X.

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Totally agree with you on the unfair advantages much like in WoW and unwanted addons.

Gearscore addons killed WoW fun... so ya i see your point. (besides i think we can manage without that)

Therefore my suggestion that people can download templates to re-design,
upload to a site (owned by SE maybe, just for addons)
and then checked & vaildated by the mods there.

Or... a subsection for addons on the Lodestone website. :P

If the addons are okay, they can let the players download them etc from that website.

While I can appreciate the concerns of players regarding unauthorised mods/ bots etc.
If SE gave us the option to select from a few different UI skins produced "In House" so to speak.
Where would the problem be? Sure it would be diverting development time and skills away from other key areas that need improving first.
I would be fine with waiting some time to see the implementation of UI Skins.

Higher on the list of UI improvements should be Player Assignable Hot Keys.
Seriously I want to Assign I,K,J,L to
I = Inventory
K = Skill Window
J = Quest Journal
L = Linkshell
Not some dodgy camera controls.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Laughlyn

Totally agree with you on the unfair advantages much like in WoW and unwanted addons.

Gearscore addons killed WoW fun... so ya i see your point. (besides i think we can manage without that)

Therefore my suggestion that people can download templates to re-design,
upload to a site (owned by SE maybe, just for addons)
and then checked & vaildated by the mods there.

Or... a subsection for addons on the Lodestone website. :P

If the addons are okay, they can let the players download them etc from that website.

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I could get behind that, as long as the only thing the "mods" add is relocation, formatting, and such.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ceska_Zbrojovka

While I can appreciate the concerns of players regarding unauthorised mods/ bots etc.
If SE gave us the option to select from a few different UI skins produced "In House" so to speak.
Where would the problem be? Sure it would be diverting development time and skills away from other key areas that need improving first.
I would be fine with waiting some time to see the implementation of UI Skins.

Higher on the list of UI improvements should be Player Assignable Hot Keys.
Seriously I want to Assign I,K,J,L to
I = Inventory
K = Skill Window
J = Quest Journal
L = Linkshell
Not some dodgy camera controls.

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I would like to re-map my arrow keys to camera control, like they were in 11. That was the best keyboard layout I've come across (but I have long fingers, so using the number pad to move and the arrows with my thumb for camera control was extremely easy)

Coming from several years of PC FPS's I've become accustomed to Mouse Look/Keyboard Shortcut controls.
And have adapted quite well to Keyboard/Mouse Click menu controls of some MMO's.

Also based on my FPS's experiences, I have a great dislike for cluttered screens with icons and windows open everywhere.
These people who complain about the skill bar disappearing and having to press 1 to have it come up to see what skills they have.
I simply ask "Can't you remember what skills you have assigned in 1 through to = ?"

The recent implementation of the toggle-able NPC/Enemy/Party/Friendly/All targeting was a great help.
Now if only that worked in conjunction with [tab] select closest target to cursor.
(Again FPS habit of clicking things in the middle of the chest instead of the name over their head)

I guess what I'm getting at is, if we had the ability in the current UI to resize/hide all windows, and it was more streamlined
(One click open/close menu's, Toggle on/off skill bar, player assigned hot keys, etc)
It would be a better gaming experience for all.. Including Console/Game pad players

As always will put a massive drama label on the multi-platform situation. That's why the middle ground was chosen by SE. They wanted a "fair" experience.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ceska_Zbrojovka

Sorry but no.. I don't like it.
Nice idea being able to close/hide the windows you don't want,
but I'm not a fan of Visible bars, top or bottom.

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the key word is "Customizable"

I really hope that we get something like this. I like that the UI is more customizable than FFXI, but I could really use more customization. It would really make me enjoy this game much more.

I love this idea and wish SE would allow for this, we all know they won't tho :(

Quote:

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As always will put a massive drama label on the multi-platform situation. That's why the middle ground was chosen by SE. They wanted a "fair" experience.

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In doing so they are basically killing the adaptability of their game, if SE are so concerned about this then perhaps they need to rethink their cross platform strategy before its too late.

Make a mock up of a FF3/7 styled one :P

Really would like customizable or skinnable UI. Yours are ok looking but open it up to the community and we would see some amazing UIs.

I like what you did with that UI, looks like it takes away some of the sifting though endless slow loading windows with some needless timer on them just to check how much gil you have.

Nice mockup.

/sign

I would love to be able to customise the layout of my UI better than it is already.

I hate having to go into the main menu to access anything.. it should be available at my finger tips.

Though digressing slightly, why can Aetherite crystals not be clicked on like chests?

Why when clicking an action icon in my notification area does it just open the main menu.. why not just open the action directly?

/endrant

Customizable UI would be good to have and it's fairly easy to avoid it being used for unfair advantages. There are a lot of custom UI systems out there to use as examples.
The only negative side is that it would take a bit of work to implement and consoles wouldn't benefit from them. However, in a year or two...

This is definitely something I could get behind. Really liking those mock-ups. This is exactly what I wanted to see on this section of the boards.

Liked the second one the most since I tend to like the more minimalistic approach. But where would you put the party members? Along the left edge like in other games?

These examples are just amazing, I really hope they allow something like this to be done to the UI. Admittedly some of the WoW addons went abit overboard, but something like this just grabs your attention and it will feel alot better. I remember when the Brandson UI was released for XI, it just made the game awhole lot better looking than that plain old blue chatlog background etc.

I'm defo in favor for this, goodjob OP for those examples really hope they take them into consideration!

The PS3 and the 360 both have access to downloadable content... SE would just need to find a way to make UI skins (especially user created ones) automatically get added to the DLC on those consoles.

Or, better yet, allow the console players to add skins to their console game using a USB drive.