Proper Action Bar for PC players

[PeppinoTuna]

<quick reply>

I dislike how I have to press 1 to bring up the skill tray. Then when I kill a monster, it disappears and when I try to go from skill tray 1 to skill tray 2 by pressing up or down arrow, it toggles my targeting from All or Enemy to Friendly. Now I can't target attacking monsters with the tab key because I can only target friendly targets. WTF?? I've died because of this multiple times already in situations I'd be able to survive in otherwise. Also, the times when I've press 1 to bring up the skill tray so that I can buff up before a fight and I end up attacking the target because 1 is an attack skill...

*I'd rather be able to see the skill tray 24/7.
*If the above happens, I'd like to see it resizing so that I can fit it to my screen instead of seeing a gigantic skill tray on a small screen or small skill tray on a gigantic screen.
*I'd like to see an option where I can make it disappear off the screen for screenshots.
*I'd really like to not have to press 1 to bring up the skill trays.
*I'd like to not press Up/Down to change between skill trays during battle and instead change target settings from All or Enemy to Friendly, causing me to be unable to target attacking mobs with the Tab key.

I have a sort of big monitor (to my standards and past monitors) and I run FFXIV at 1920x1080. I have lots of room for a skill tray. For someone who doesn't have room, perhaps offering an option to each player in the options menu so we can have a choice on the reoccuring problemed skill tray and the revised see-all skill tray. Just because I want a skill tray does not mean that it has to take up the entire screen. Three lines stacked on top of each other is all I ask for.

It is severely displeasing how it currently exists. I run in to these problems every single time I play the game.

[Rentahamster]

Like we're going to see with the targeting option for patch 1.16a, just make it so that I can toggle it on or off if I want. Full customization. If I want a clear and unobstructed UI, let me do that. If I want a whole bunch of stuff on my screen, let me do that too.

[Rhianu]

I agree with this topic. Basically we just need three configuration options:

Hide all Action Bars when in Passive mode? [Yes/No]
Display Action Bar 2? [Yes/No]
Display Action Bar 3? [Yes/No]

Might want to consider adding a couple more Action Bars as well, just to have room for more macros.

[Abraxai]

I think they should remove the action bar and bring back menu's with all abilities accessible, ala FFXI.

[Nipa]

I just want to be able to scale the whole interface to half its current size.

... and 3 or 4 more optional permanent actions bars.

Let the players play as they want, it doesn't cost much.

Because they don't want an eyesore of hundreds of icons on screen, they want you to see more of the environment.

They should really stop to force players in some mindset. The thing we want the most here is choice. Some want to have 7 actions bars filling half their screen and play in text mode, some want to see nothing at all but their Lala's butt. Let the player chose. Really.

[Rhianu]

I think they should remove the action bar and bring back menu's with all abilities accessible, ala FFXI.

Oh hell no, that long-ass list was all but impossible to use with a mouse. Besides, FFXI did have a Macro Palette, which is essentially the same thing as an Action Bar, anyway.

[RyoFujo]

Fully agree that making the "active mode" interface fully customizable would be highly desirable.

Their customization tool would need to include the following to fully support controllers:

1. Ability to indicate current action/location.
2. Ability to navigate to other actions/locations using directional input.
3. Ability to toggle layout, layer, or icon group when a button is held down.
4. Ability to change layout, layer, or icon group when a button is pressed.
5. Ability to navigate multiple layouts, layers, or groups of icons simultaneously using the same controls.

Many of these capabilities would also greatly enhance keyboard and mouse play as well, but it isn't as simple as just having an invisible grid which allows actions to be placed anywhere on the screen.

Does the interface customization for other games allow for all of this?

[Souljacker]

Fully agree that making the "active mode" interface fully customizable would be highly desirable.

Their customization tool would need to include the following to fully support controllers:

1. Ability to indicate current action/location.
2. Ability to navigate to other actions/locations using directional input.
3. Ability to toggle layout, layer, or icon group when a button is held down.
4. Ability to change layout, layer, or icon group when a button is pressed.
5. Ability to navigate multiple layouts, layers, or groups of icons simultaneously using the same controls.

Many of these capabilities would also greatly enhance keyboard and mouse play as well, but it isn't as simple as just having an invisible grid which allows actions to be placed anywhere on the screen.

Does the interface customization for other games allow for all of this?

Yes and no. For other games the default UI is customizable in that you can activate and deactivate action bars that are placed in specific areas by default, but the true beauty is in player-designed mods such as my personal favorite - Bartender. With it, you can literally move the action bars wherever you want, change the size and shape (not all across, some down, bigger, smaller), cause them to have a percentage of "fade" on all or some and when you mouse over it will brighten...

To illustrate my point here is a screen shot of my current UI in a popular game.

UserInterface

Now this may be "clutter" to another user, but to me it's perfect and maximizes my performance. My chat window is in the corner, my "most used" abilities are in the "numberpad" format for me to be able to mentally match up with my Naga's number pad, some lesser used abilities along the right hand side and on the very bottom my bags, general menu and stance menu all fades to a nice 20% transparency so it's out of my face unless I mouse over it. (I moused over the stance bar so you have some perspective on the difference)

That kind of customization really makes one game stand out versus another, and 1 size does not fit all when it comes to the user interface. Best way to handle it is to either implement a customization feature with this level of flexibility (which would be hard) or let players create mods themselves to take care of the problem.

[Demacia]

I'd just like macros to be a little more streamlined. I don't like having a ton of icons cluttering my screen.

[MysteryG]

I use macros more than I poke commands at the hotbar, but you're right. It would be incredibly nice to be able to see my abilities more clearly; maybe even the ability to set various macros to the bar would be nice.

At the end of the day though, I prefer to play with a controller, so macros will be my mainstay over clicking a hotbar. If I could swap my hotbars for the "macrobars".... Oh jeez, now I'm gettin all hot and steamy.