Ashiya

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.

 

◊ Kyth

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.

 

• syeren

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

 

• bekayoh

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.

Show me on the paper doll where the devs nerfed you.

 

• bekayoh

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.

Show me on the paper doll where the devs nerfed you.

 

levk

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.

 

• Valoran

I really don't know why you would use Geist if you wanted to keybind these things. I only use Geist for things I want to put out of the way and click. For me this is things like tradeskills, portals, furblog rod and random crap that just doesn't warrant a keybinding yet I don't want to fish about in my inventory/spellbook for.

Anything I want hidden and keybound, I bind on a hidden bartender3 bar. You could just as easily use spellbinder or the dozen other mods also available for such things.

 

• bekayoh

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

Show me on the paper doll where the devs nerfed you.

 

Adiar

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.

 

Erhnam

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.

 

grimman

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

 

Osse

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.

 

baghwan2

One thing I never understood is why so many people have their characters Name, Level, Race, Class around their HP bar on mains, I can understand for alts, but when your playing your main you already know all that stuff, well you should I guess, but it just adds to all the clutter around your HP bar.

 

Randor

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.

http://homepage.mac.com/randmiranda/...er/randman.jpg
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grimman

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.

 

Randor

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.

http://homepage.mac.com/randmiranda/...er/randman.jpg
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• Chicken

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.

buff /bʌf/ Pronunciation[buhf]
–verb (used with object)
- to reduce or deaden the force of

 

◊ Kalman

Prat supports editbox relocation.

http://mmorchive.net

The WoW forums, explained:

 

grimman

I looked a bit closer at that, and as it turns out it IS Blizzard's North indicator, and it does spin with the minimap if that is enabled. Annoying!

 

Randor

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.

http://homepage.mac.com/randmiranda/...er/randman.jpg
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Miaxi

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.

 

Randor