Combat
Out of Combat

Had a few hours of working on the UI tonight (no raid ftw) and I think I am near completion.

I'm closing in on something I like. I tried maximizing the screenspace I have by hiding a lot of my bars. I also skipped using the huge bars on my Skinner like I usually do, but I still have them, albeit rather small. My unitframes are at the bottom, just above the skinner bottomframe (where also my only action bar showing is located.

I've also kept ElkanoBuffBars, since I just like the bars running out on buffs, rather than just the icon with time under them.
Combat Log is EavesDrop this time, haven't used it before.

I split up healing/damage done and healing inc/damage inc over two frames in SCT and positioned them accordingly above the unitframes.

I've gone with the transparant with white border backgroundframe throughout my whole UI to keep the consistency. I quite like the result.

Not too sure where I'll be putting my raidframes though, but I'm thinking on the right above EavesDrop, Grid ofcourse.

Right. Exactly. I want them very very *dark* red. I don't find the default contrast useful (probably because I only have two, small buttons visible for range.)

Thanks for the link, I'll try that.

Kind of counter productive to say experience has nothing to do with and then respond with empirical knowledge about various mobs and bosses But range checking has never ever been an issue for my class(es) due to the spells range required in order for them to be effective. But really, range has never been an issue after I have experienced a mob once; and I fail to see how it could be any different for anyone else

Actually thats why I stopped using it. I couldn't figure it out at all. Does it go from the center out in a spiral or something? I really liked the mod but I wanted to bind a couple of things in there and it became a chore.

I don't know why, but this quote really rubs me the wrong way. I tried several times to come up with a non offensive reply to it.

For my class at least I feel that it benefits me to see my range. I change specs often and a lot of talents add to range on one school and not the other add to that occasional lag. I'd rather have a small box of spells than have that one time where I fail to start a cast when I want. By the time I make a select bar of spells to tell me range, whether the school is on interrupted cooldown or if I have enough mana and I might as well just put all my base spells on a bar.

As a healer you get range on stuff from whichever raid frame mod you're using so it's never an issue. Maybe one of these days someone will write a comprehensive mod on top of pitbull or something that would color the target frame based on whichever range that's customizable by users so it wouldn't be an issue either. Like if it's in melee range use this color, outside melee but within for example intimidating shout this other color. Outside shout but within shoot this third color. Real far away this fourth color.

As for having enough mana, I don't know I just know what my stuff costs.

I'd like a mod like that as well because blessings and cleanse have different range than heals.

Since it uses spaces from your regular action bars, couldn't you just bind it there?

e: nevermind, I see what you mean there, if you change the number of buttons from 25 it all gets messed up?

e2: Honestly if you feel strong about having buttons visible then keep them. It's like the debate in FPSes wether people have to set their turn sensitivity to max or they're just bad. Plenty of people play very well without having it set to max, in the end it is going to be a handicap, but really this game doesn't take that much skill.

I put my mount in there. Geist was my misc bar now I use bartender3 for my misc bar.

This thread is a goldmine! I've made some really game-altering changes thanks to it:
Old UI: http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/5...7211417or7.jpg
New UI: http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/9...7165814wg7.jpg
Note: Where combat log is showing, my chat usually is.

I spent about two hours on this-- the big change for me is the elimination of non-essential information to better locate other things. After reading Syeren's posts, I've realized that, for me, action bars are a crutch-- I've only got three spell ranges, and three simple range checkers, combined with Geist (which is amazing!) has enabled me to put my party frames in a decent spot. I'd considered doing this before, but strayed away from it-- and I regret not doing it earlier. It's a very useful change. YATA (the four totem icons in the bottom right) is there as I don't want to have too many buttons on my Geist-- I'm not exactly sure what I'll do with that. There's some totems that I want accessible, but I use so rarely to justify hotkeying (i.e. Stoneskin), so that's sort of there as an intermediary until I think of a better solution.

In a raid I'd have Grid replace where my party frames are, but I haven't tested that yet.

What I don't like is the positioning of my Focus Frame, and I'm really unsure where an ideal placement for it is. I like the stacking of target of target, and target of target of target, though. I'm also considering shifting my TotemTimers to where my EBB frame is, switching buff mods, and placing buffs under my minimap. I'm still not sure on optimal placement for buffs/debuffs on me.

I only use the 3 buttons shown, 2 for my important cooldowns and 1 for range check. Focus casting bar is right above the enemy cast bar. Party and raid frames down at bottom center along with damage meters and ktm. I have 4 different chat frames all in tabs, combat, loot, trade/general, guild/yells/creature all at the bottom left as you can see from my macro error. I use bartender for my action bars and just have them fadeout on the right side of the screen. I also use geist for things like trade skills, hearthstone and the like. I'm still not sure I like where the map goes and might play around with that some.

I'm not sure how many of you consider this a worthwhile change, but personally I always install the Confab addon for the sake of "style4" and texture change. Style4, for those who don't know, puts the input text box in a chat window above the window, effectively allowing me to move down the chat window another few pixels without sacrificing anything. The texture I use is the example texture included which is a no-frills black box. No borders to waste screen space. <3

My current UI design problem is that I have TOO MUCH space left over while I'm not in a party or questing. :P

Anyway, I just set up an UI screenshot with descriptions etc for anyone who might be interested. http://dlxmedia.net/wowui.jpg

I used to run this self built UI, but now back to something horrible which uses close to no memory as I want as high fps and as low ping as possible in raids for better dps. :|

Yes, there's about 40 action buttons hidden as I know keybinds for all of them, just the cooldown ones that are important are visible.

Target frame was just below the area where +46 mana is in that picture.

Along the same lines, I have been tweaking my action bars. I do like having a few action bars with items I use regularly and I have enough screen space that it doesn't take up that much space. I also prefer using Skinner to give it contrast from the "game" screen.




This is how I had it.




This is how I have it now. Buffs and debuffs are on right side of the screen, KTM would go on left above chat bar. I have 3 Bartender bars ...



shown here which are active on mouseover otherwise hidden. I'm debating the Skinner box on the far right side. I like the sort-of uniformity at the bottom and having no box there seems to be a little more distracting than with it.

The rest of the UI is pretty much the same and can be seen in the interface thread.

A bit of nitpicking, but it seems to me that you have your minimap set to rotate instead of the arrow... and since the NSWE-indicators are anchored to the border rather than the map itself (and as such don't rotate), doesn't that make them pretty much pointless except for when you actually ARE facing north?

And on that note, does anyone know how to remove the North-indicator on SimpleMinimap? The S, W & E indicators are easily hidden through the settings, but I can't seem to get rid of the N one.

Yes, I was planning to remove the directional ones, but hadn't gotten around it yet.

But now that you said it, I went and disabled them and N did disappear.

Unsure if SimpleMinimap has been updated recently, but I'm pretty sure the North-indicator is a Blizzard added feature; so that people can always see which direction is north even if they have the rotating mini-map option enabled.

Prat supports editbox relocation.

Posted my latest on the interface thread. About the same look but tried to clean it up, and balance the white space (or black on the Skinner panels). I used Align to grid the page and balance everything out, which is a nice mod for UI tweaking.

I would hide that last minimap button, you already have a FuBar plugin showing the same information. Also Prat can move your chat edit box on top of the frame, allowing for more space underneath it, and hide the chat scroll buttons.

Do you REALLY need to have your professions both keybound and on your screen? :P I know the bar only shows on mouseover, but it is still dead space.

I agree and have already done that (that one is a few days old). I haven't tried Prat yet but will probably give it a go soon.





With the faded-out Bartender panels (still weaning myself from these).

is what it looks more like atm but it's a work in progress still. How is the learning curve on Prat?

http://www.wowace.com/wiki/Prat

The modules ChatButtons (to hide the buttons), Scroll (mouse wheel scrolling) and Editbox (moved the edit box) should be enabled by default. Nice additions are TellTarget (/tt to whisper the player you are targeting) and URLCopy (copy URLs from the chat to your clipboard). It's an addon that I don't think I could play without anymore.

So far seems I'm the only one with their unitframes in the bottom left corner. I R ORIGINAL!

Seriously though, I'm quite pleased with my current UI. Clean, informative and a lot of "clean" space.



Taken some time ago, it's a bit tweaked now, but nothing big. (Minimap moved a bit, SWS and KTM swapped) I'll try to get a up to date screenshot.

- Left Corner: Unitframe - Target - ToT - ToToT
- Above targets: Raid chat, class channels.
- Right chat box: Guild chat, say, emotes, basically all "casual" chat.
- bottom center action bars. To the right of it KTM and SWS.
- Grid top left corner, buffs and debuffs top right.
- A ARCHud (not shown) in the center in combat with as little text as possible.

This is an awesome thread. I have just finished reading the entire thing, well mostly, some glancing was done. I really enjoy UI design, with WoW and other things like creating UI's for programs.

There have been allot of good ideas thrown around this thread. I think one of the big factors for so much discussion and arguments is that Blizz has created a game that plays very different depending on which class you play. Allot of people's posts here sound very generic and wonder why other people do it very different when the 2 people are probably playing different classes. Maybe a suggestion of what class you were thinking of when you post a design idea and why you think it would help that class would help allot.

There are, I think, a few ideas that are common across all classes when it comes to creating a UI. I think one of the most important things about playing WoW is situational awareness. No matter if you Soloing, 5 Manning, Raiding, your a Rogue or Paladin, knowing what is going on around you is one of the most important traits of a good player. Being able to react appropriately when something happens is a must. Each class needs specific information and tools in order to react. Having a big screen, while it is nice, is not that important. The center of the screen is your character which should be your focal point. Reaction time in a game like this is very important. So having the appropriate information at a glance is a must. So you want the information and tools as close to the center of the screen as possible, but this needs to be balanced with situational awareness. You can get very confused with too much information around one area causing you too loose the plot. The area around the character should be kept for information and tools that you absolutely have to know at all times during an encounter. In order for you to react to the information as quick as possible it needs to be visually distinctive and unique from the other information. This can be done in or by combination of 2 ways. Having quadrants around the character for specific information and by colour coding the information. This will allow you to recognize what the information is relevant to before you actually read the info (i.e. Some green text pops up on the right of my character, I know I just got heald, then I read the text to see how much for. Or some red text just poped up on the left of my character, I know I just got damaged, I'm already reacting by getting ready to hit a health pot before I know exactly how much I got damaged by.) Keeping these things in your mind while creating your UI, I think, will help allot.

Then there is the non essential information/tools that you need. Each players play style is different. Keeping your UI as clean and appealing as possible is sometimes a hard thing to accomplish. The non essential stuff should follow the same ideas as the essential stuff in where you position and display it, just make sure its outside your focus area so that it doesn't get confused with the essential stuff.