Discussion: User Created UI Addons?

[Laraul]

WOW's default UI has steadily evolved over the years and "kept up" with addons, precisely for the reason that the developers didn't want let addons feel required. For all it's problems, UI development is the one thing that you cannot fault WOW on, because it's been getting it right since day one.

The purpose of user interface addons is to allow users to find ways of improving the UI rather than leave it up solely to the development team. Rather the development team simply would spot useful interface improvements and include them in future updates.

No one else allows this type of customization of the UI. And for one very good reason. It's a very stupid idea. What you get is a small few addons that do noticeably improve the game in some way or another. The vast majority are trivial improvements, copies and variations of other addons, or just plain bad user interface additions. Blizzard has never offered documentation, let alone any type of guidance to what makes a good interface addon.

The problem with UI customization with FFXIV is that the development team would have to spend a large amount of time developing the infrastructure to allow users to extend or replace the current UI. While presently the game does use lua for client side UI, it's not designed to be extended.

[TimonLoon]

The problem with UI customization with FFXIV is that the development team would have to spend a large amount of time developing the infrastructure to allow users to extend or replace the current UI. While presently the game does use lua for client side UI, it's not designed to be extended.

That would be why they're completely remaking the UI and server structure... Hello? 2.0?

Also, the new UI is made using Scaleform which is also used in RIFT iirc.

[Hulan]

Also, the new UI is made using Scaleform which is also used in RIFT iirc.

Is this confirmed? Or rather, can you link a source for this? If so, I am officially extremely excited. Scaleform is a substantially slower than Lua, but for UI development I'd much rather work in Flash than in Lua. Not to mention that as an API architecture, it's a much simpler environment to work in.

[TimonLoon]

Is this confirmed? Or rather, can you link a source for this? If so, I am officially extremely excited. Scaleform is a substantially slower than Lua, but for UI development I'd much rather work in Flash than in Lua. Not to mention that as an API architecture, it's a much simpler environment to work in.

It was mentioned very briefly in one of the French articles from Gamescom. Can't find the quote anymore though. But yeah looking at the addons available for RIFT gets me excited about what stuff we'll see in FFXIV 2.0.

Edit: Found it. Hmm doesn't outright confirm it but after looking at the presentation demo... when they were moving stuff around is the part where it looks the most like that platform. Btw it also pans out since in the BG interview when 2.0 was initially announced, Yoshi said that the UI will be flash-based. So it makes sense that they use this.

l'interface utilisateur PC. Cette interface PC semble être faite avec Scaleform, un standard dans le genre qui a fait ses preuves (notamment sur Rift par exemple, ou Starwars : The Old republic).

Um, I would like to see Linkshell related addons. o.o/

I would particularly like a calendar of events and Linkshell news, if that's not already part of the game client. I feel like Linkshells should be run from the game itself and not from a website (though websites can still be useful.)

This, so bad.

[Antipika]

Is this confirmed? Or rather, can you link a source for this? If so, I am officially extremely excited. Scaleform is a substantially slower than Lua, but for UI development I'd much rather work in Flash than in Lua. Not to mention that as an API architecture, it's a much simpler environment to work in.

You just check the UI screenshot and video when Yoshida is playing around with UI element. Obviously scaleform. Exactly the same as in Rift.

XIV ARR:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM6bi...utu.be&t=3m35s
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/1838/reb11.jpg

Rift UI (Scaleform): http://imageshack.us/a/img42/8971/20120829214940.jpg

[Hulan]

You just check the UI screenshot and video when Yoshida is playing around with UI element. Obviously scaleform. Exactly the same as in Rift.

XIV ARR:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM6bi...utu.be&t=3m35s
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/1838/reb11.jpg

Rift UI (Scaleform): http://imageshack.us/a/img42/8971/20120829214940.jpg

You can't really tell what middleware an API is using just by how it "looks". I could reproduce that UI in any number of environments with any number of APIs. Only way to know for sure is to see the documentation (or have them tell us). That being said, sounds like we are getting this in Scaleform, so... Yay.

[tou]

You just check the UI screenshot and video when Yoshida is playing around with UI element. Obviously scaleform. Exactly the same as in Rift.

XIV ARR:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM6bi...utu.be&t=3m35s
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/1838/reb11.jpg

Rift UI (Scaleform): http://imageshack.us/a/img42/8971/20120829214940.jpg

You are making an assumption from two screenshots. There are WoW mods that use lua that look the same.

Then again I am on FFXIV General forums, where nothing but assumptions are made. I really shouldn't be surprised.

[Antipika]

You are making an assumption from two screenshots. There are WoW mods that use lua that look the same.

Then again I am on FFXIV General forums, where nothing but assumptions are made. I really shouldn't be surprised.

I will just bump this again when we'll get confirmation and you'll see who is right Also for a MMO that will be on PS3, using scaleform makes sense as well.

(And these aren't mods so your statement isn't even related, that's native UI.)

[Promethevs]

It's a very stupid idea. What you get is a small few addons that do noticeably improve the game in some way or another. The vast majority are trivial improvements, copies and variations of other addons, or just plain bad user interface additions.

I don't understand how you're justifying that crowd-sourcing UI design is a "very stupid idea." Even if the vast majority of addons are trivial or bad, it's the good ones that are popular, and there's nothing stupid about improving your user interface beyond what your dev team finds worthwhile devoting resources to. Bad ones don't get used, and come at no cost beyond the developer's time input. There's a reason why WoW has such a high reputation when it comes to user interface (because it's extremely flexible and personalizable, and people like that).

Customization through "trivial" addons is also never a bad thing - logging in to play on an aesthetically pleasing UI still improves the gaming experience over playing with an ugly UI with the same functionality.

As for whether the devs think they have enough time to set up a system for customization and find that worthwhile... well, that's up to them. I wouldn't be calling them "very stupid" if they undertook such a project, though.

[Laraul]

I don't understand how you're justifying that crowd-sourcing UI design is a "very stupid idea." Even if the vast majority of addons are trivial or bad, it's the good ones that are popular, and there's nothing stupid about improving your user interface beyond what your dev team finds worthwhile devoting resources to. Bad ones don't get used, and come at no cost beyond the developer's time input. There's a reason why WoW has such a high reputation when it comes to user interface (because it's extremely flexible and personalizable, and people like that).

WoW has a reputation for user interface customizability, not a high reputation for it's actual user interface. And plenty of people play WoW with out user interface addons. And even among Blizzard's titles, what other games allow you access to UI APIs for standard customization? Why is D3 lacking a way to allow the same interface customization that WoW does? Hmmm?

What people want in a UI are three things...

• Effecient to use and work with
• Easy to learn (intuitive)
• More Satisfying to use

If an interface does well with all three of these, you quickly find that people don't bother to personalize it because they see no need. But when one or two of these are lacking, well that's when you start seeing people demand "I wanna customize my interface with all this stuff that sounds real cool if I don't think about it."