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[Rhomagus]

I would like to adapt the philosophy of "let me turn it off" to the entire UI. While it's off topic it's still related. I'm all for giving people new to the game in-depth tutorials or "hand holding" them through the process. The inclusion of pop up tooltips is a neat suggestion that I've seen implemented in other MMOs.

I'll use an example from XI as a lot of the players here have played it. In XI, when you started out as a new player, you had this giant question mark above your head. This feature would last for either a preset amount of time, when you reached level ten, or until you turned it off in the configuration menu, whichever was first. Nonetheless, I remember asking some very naive questions to random people by the AH in Bastok and they were able to see that I was a new player and reacted accordingly. It really helped me when I first started out, and I made some really decent friends that lasted quite a long time.

If a veteran player had created a new character, they knew how to turn the question mark off from the get go. By making features toggleable in this manner it's a win-win situation. Make the game easy to pick up and play, then once you are used to it, give us (the players) the freedom to suit it to our tastes. Put a toggle UI feature lock/unlock button in the configuration menu so rookies couldn't accidentally get rid of certain aspects of the interface on accident and not know how to get them back. Better yet, implement it so that when you do figure out where you want everything, you aren't worried about moving certain parts of the UI by accident so you can choose to lock it back down after you have it set.

In my rookie days it was incredibly frustrating when I'd get attacked by aggressive monsters. Over time I learned to adapt, but honestly, if it weren't a Final Fantasy game and I hadn't made some good friends, I may not have spent seven years on the game.

There are a lot of UI things I never use in certain situations:

Mini-Map: Is it useful? Definitely. Do I need it when I don't mind using the larger map? No, toggle it.
SP/Exp bar: Is it useful? Sure. Do I need to know that I'm physical level 50 for the rest of my game life? No, toggle it.
The 4 quick access buttons: Useful? Mouse users, maybe. Controller users? Absolutely useless, toggle it.
Moon Phase: Necessary? Could be for some. Me? No, toggle it.
Send/Receive: Necessary? I could see it being nice to have. Doesn't change the fact that I'm D/Cing, so toggle it.
Aggro icon: Useful when exploring new areas? Yes. Eyesore when you know what's aggressive? Yes, toggle it.
Levequest mob count: Useful? Sure. Can you finish almost all leves without it? Yes, toggle it.
Chat log: Useful? Almost a necessity. During CS's or playing solo? Could make do without it, toggle it.
HP/MP bar: Useful? Same as ^. When synthing? Who gives a hoot, toggle it.
3D battle text on screen: Useful? Same as ^. When one-shotting easy mobs for materials? Not so much, so toggle it.
All the empty slots on my action bar: Good to know? Sure. Necessary? Not entirely, toggle it, why not?
Sidequest indicator on NPCs: Useful? Okay. Could do without it? {Yes, please}, toggle it.
New targeting system: DD's love it? fine. Healers and FFXI vets with controllers? Give it back, and toggle it.


Unimplemented features:
Party member TP bar: Useful? I'd love to see it as an option. Necessary? We've been gettin' along without it, toggle it.
Rookie indicator: Would be nice to see? Aye. Useful for vets with a secondary character? No, toggle it.
Mentor program: Useful? Could be if used as intended. Unnecessary e-peen +10? Most of the time, toggle it.
Distance indicator: "You are too far away from the target" spam? Not so fun. Necessary? Not absolutely, toggle it.

No need to reply to everything listed but in general I would like it if they started building and implementing UI features with a toggle philosophy in mind from the ground up. I thought that's what they were doing from the get go from early dev interviews pre-alpha but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm assuming there is some coding or resource allocation problems when including something like this but I'd imagine that it would be a tremendous boon to help streamline the game for veteran players without leaving newer players to fend for themselves.

Sorry for being off topic, but I think the aggro icon really is a cog that is part of a larger more encompassing problem with the design in general.