Proper Action Bar for PC players

[Felicia]

I'd like to see active mode = action bar always visible, passive mode = action bar the way it is now.

[Jinko]

Agree with this would also like to see all 3 action bars on screen, allow us to turn 2 and 3 on via the configuration menu like other MMO's and drag and drop icons would be great aswell.

Edit:-

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...

Problem is that SE have to give out api code for players to beable to program for the game, I really don't see them doing that because they are so scared of unfair play and hacking.

No offense to SE but I really don't think they have the development skills that Blizzard (lets not beat around the bush) have either.

[Tonka]

There is no question that if your weapon is drawn, the action bars should be visible. I am so annoyed by the vanishing bar. Especially since so many encounters are multiple creatures. Nobody wants to fiddle with bringing their action bar back up in the middle of a hectic fight where every second counts. I wonder if anyone at SE has a reason behind having the action bar disappear while in combat. I'd be quite interested in hearing it. I can't figure it out, personally.

And yes, having 3 available at one time would be rather nice instead of having to scroll through them.

[Soda]

I am totally signing this. Honestly, one of the reasons I can't stand playing the game is the UI for battle. We need:

* The option to have all three bars up at all times.
* Drag and drop skills.
* PLAYER CUSTOMIZED hot keys.

Do that, and this game will be /so/ much better.

[Heaven]

The original development team had planned to create an entirely new UI just for pc users including drag and drop, and keep the current UI for ps3 only.

What happened to this plan? was it scapped?

I would REALLY like to known what the new dev. team is planing for pc users.

[Quincey]

The original development team had planned to create an entirely new UI just for pc users including drag and drop, and keep the current UI for ps3 only.

What happened to this plan? was it scapped?

I would REALLY like to known what the new dev. team is planing for pc users.

i was wondering about the same thing...
this game has been out for the PC first but all the controls are meant for consoles. i mean, no drag n' drop, multitude menus, keyboard movement is like moving using a joystick, etc. i am using the keyboard and a gamepad while playing.
keyboard mouse for battles, gamepads for crafting. the PC-Only UI was indeed mentioned before and it is one on my Wish-List for this game.
hope they bring this up again to let us know that this hasn't been forgotten.

.quincey

[Smokie23]

I find that the biggest problem with FFXIV has always been the UI. It was not made at all for pc (keyboard/mouse).

Give us a new Action bar for pc players! All 3 bars should be on screen at same time and should never disapear (while in Active mode). Having to "flip" thru 3 bars is horrible for most pc players. Why have cooldown timers when you can't see them cause there's only 1 bar on screen?

To show what i mean please see this picture:
<----- Example of a proper Action Bar

I find the biggest problem with the battle system is not the system itself but the controls for it...

Simply being able to have all 3 bars showing at the same time would make a huge difference.


---------

Yes, I agree. I've died many times because of fidgeting with the controls trying to find a bar. Its a really awkward setup and feeling. You push ALT or CTRL to bring up macro and you push 1 to bring up another set of macros?? Its like two systems in one that always disappears making it even more frustrating.

Would be better if they just used one permanent action bar with 3 rows. Have a button located on the main bar to toggle on or off extra rows. Click once to toggle 2 bars, click again to toggle 3 bars, click again to go back to default 1 bar.
Macro window is added to Actions & Traits window. All macros, actions, traits and abilities are set from one window.

EDIT:
[SUGGESTION TWO]
Why not have a button that 'undocked' that row and you then can move it anywhere on the screen and have a button to toggle vertical row or a horizontal row, a button to delete the row and a button to toggle hide/unhide (hide/unhide boxes, only title bar visible when hiding). This way we can undock many rows for sophisticated players (players can click and drag row along top, bottom, left or right of screen if wanted...anywhere) and the players that don't really use it still can have your basic CRTL-ALT action bar.
- When you Right-Click on a box you get option to
-- Clear
-- Macro (which then opens macro window)
-- Swap (click on another box and they switch places)
-- Close
- Undocked bars can be re-sizable. Player can click and drag increasing or decreasing the amount of boxes (amount of rows and columns). Players can make a 1x1 to a max of 5x10 per undocked bar.
- Undocked bars can align itself with another bar by dragging one bar onto another bar
- Player's can name or give a custom title to each undocked bar, displaying a small title. To change title just click on it.
- Implement drag-n-drop (traits, actions, abilities) and you got yourself a pretty customizable, unique UI.
Keep your basic permanent CRTL-ALT action bar and then any bars undocked you just click on the box to activate.

[Mykro360]

Ok, so SE gave us the option to always show the ability bar, BUT it still goes inactive if you are not locked on the target. So now when it goes inactive you don't even know it, AWESOME! >.> WTF when we said we want the action bar to always be present we meant to say was (present AND active) at all times, unless the menu is up. I am still randomly changing target modes mid battle with the up and down arrows, so I can't use the "show action bar" setting cause I have to know when it is going to randomly go inactive.

You may ask me why don't I just use target lock? Well I don't because I am a Con, a Taru Con at that, so when I target lock the camera gets smashed onto the ground or in the damn trees and I can't see anything. I want an always active action bar, target lock WITHOUT the camera being effected, and why do we move at a snails pace when target locked? That is annoying as hell.

[Perrin_Aybarra]

Ok, so SE gave us the option to always show the ability bar, BUT it still goes inactive if you are not locked on the target. So now when it goes inactive you don't even know it, AWESOME! >.> WTF when we said we want the action bar to always be present we meant to say was (present AND active) at all times, unless the menu is up. I am still randomly changing target modes mid battle with the up and down arrows, so I can't use the "show action bar" setting cause I have to know when it is going to randomly go inactive.

You may ask me why don't I just use target lock? Well I don't because I am a Con, a Taru Con at that, so when I target lock the camera gets smashed onto the ground or in the damn trees and I can't see anything. I want an always active action bar, target lock WITHOUT the camera being effected, and why do we move at a snails pace when target locked? That is annoying as hell.

Maybe you didn't select the right option in the config for the bar to be always there? I am pretty sure mine is always active unless I am crafting. One thing for sure it never randomly disappear mid combat.

[zaviermhigo]

I would never log in this game every again if it had a crappy action bar from any other mmo on the market. That is the ugliest thing I've ever seen, go play that game if you like it.

I'm okay with drag n drop, but I wouldn't use it. I play on keyboard, but using only keyboard, using a mouse is uncomfortable to me and makes my wrist hurt to all hell even with a kushy ergonomic glove for it, and a mousepad for carpal tunnel. But for the clickers *shudders* its ok. But always on, i hate this, how would i change my targetingmode if my action bar was always on? That's the most annoying thing ever to me having it always on since people obviously didn't pay attention or remember where they paced there actions. LAME. Even in xi man I didn't take all day to look at macros to see what i had, i knew which crtl or alt key was which spell, if you can't be bothered to learn what you put on your action bar, SE shouldn't have to coddle you by keeping it on always. If they toggle it, where toggle A is old way, toggle B is always on, then that's fine, because then we can choose which we like. But SE did say they're going to change UI to have action bar always on and I didn't think it was needed.