As much customization as possible. At the very least, resizing/repositioning all elements is necessary. I would LOVE an open API so that people can create addons.
As someone who often plays healers, the default style and position of party UIs in MMOs is usually absolutely horrible for healing. My ideal unitframe style for healing is something similar to Grid (from WoW or WildStar), where it can take up very little screen real estate and I can position it down and center on my screen.
On a tangent, MACROS! Mouseover macros are a must.
Naunet said:As much customization as possible. At the very least, resizing/repositioning all elements is necessary. I would LOVE an open API so that people can create addons.
Indeed.
I wanna be able to rebind any mouse and/or key input to literally any other mouse/key input. Also, in terms of visual UI, I wanna be able to tweak it as much as possible. Essentially, the more options the better.
There should be costumization of the UI, resizing, different skins, changing shapes, using new art, moving things around etc, but don't allow it to reach wow level of UI, where the UI addons show extra information not present on the base UI modifications, because when it reaches that point it kind of becomes "mandatory" to have it. But in terms of allowing the players to create funky astethics, and designing their UI completetly from teh ground up, I say go for it as long as it only contains the same info as the standard UI.
Also on the topic of the standard UI it should be really clean and intuitive, to not turn off new players, my suggestion would be to use the WoW base UI from 2004, it's a tried and true model, the current UI already looks like it so it's on a good track, just needs some extra polish and some fancy artwork, the current UI elements displayed are more than enough to play the game properly and keep a minimalist UI that shows all the info you'll need.
Naunet said:The thing is, "done right" is different for everyone, which makes customization critical.
I can see where you might think this. Plenty of games have had UI addons made to help games. I know a lot of gamers have grown accustomed to using various gui tools to make all kinds of them for games. Some of them very useful, but most of them are very redundant. If the UI is designed concise and operational without the need of any more functionality other than what is in there, there should never be a reason to customization it, outside of appearance.
It will be our jobs as testers in Alpha and then Beta to tell the dev's what is wrong with the UI prior to release so nothing should be so critical to change after launch. Maybe some could be useful, I'm just saying I hope they aren't needed. Specially if it gives players an advantage in the game.
Btw, If you're talking about moving the customing the final UI by allowing players to around it where ever you like on your screen. I'm totally fine with that. Thats seems pretty normal.
Addons I don't want to see
Mini Maps or Maps
Addons I wouldn't mind
dps counters, or art swaps
Bronsun said:Naunet said:The thing is, "done right" is different for everyone, which makes customization critical.
Addons I don't want to see
Mini Maps or Maps
Addons I wouldn't mind
dps counters, or art swaps
I could stand not to have a map/mini map. It's a bit inconvenient at first but makes comitting the areas to memory quite valuable.
Now, art swaps - there's a good idea! And it has me wondering... are we ever going to see any form of system that allows user-created content into the game? For example, 'design an item with a story behind it' contests that VR puts the winner of in the game somewhere (and we have to go hunting for it initially), or perhaps even a sanctioned system that has alternate cosmetic goodies from the community available? I imagine policing such a system could be a bit taxing resource wise, but I think it would be really cool to get the community involved on yet another level.
A preset standard UI is always a good starter.
With the option to reset/shift most boxes and tabs.
Make sure to allow for resizing as not every still has the eyes of a hawk or wants to open up an inventory bag and block his entire view of their surroundings.
I'll not go into the add-ons since that has it's own threadtopic.
I am a fan of costum UI, a proper suggested UI with the option to adjust is a good start.
During 'downtime' moments, I tend to mix and match options within UI to see what I enjoy most. So yeah, the more the merrier.
Especially since I usually set up my UI differently per class I play in a game.
Its great to have the ability to have your own custom UI but ill be very honest, its always broken, or gets broken.
Everytime we get some game Dev's trying to add in the ability to mod the game in some way or another, it gets broken constantly, to the point you dont bother anymore. Complex, at times too.
Game devs have been known to change coding, at the worst time, unable to break down what changes where made, so half of the UIs sit on a Website and are broken.
Just look at what Arma 3 did to the game, half of the good devs that mod, walked away.