The UI.

[Fiestainabox]

How do you guys feel the User Interface is going to work in TOR?

 

The UI, or lack thereof, could make or break a game.

 

I've noticed that Bioware sticks to a similar style interface throughout (most) of their games. They work, but I've never really liked there "THIS IS CONTEXT SENSITIVE" labels that appeared whenever I found a box or something in Mass Effect.

 

I'm hoping for a UI that is:

 

Transparent.

 

I know this sounds gimmicky, but I'm a big fan of Transparency. Being able to perceive threats even with your inventory open is a big thing for me. (I had a bad habit of leaving crap open in WoW.)

 

Tard Proof.

 

Someday, I run low on intelligence. Spending hours trying to figure out where one of my lightsabers is just isn't fun.

 

I'd like to see a system similar to Questhelper. However, this is all dependent on how questing is done, or how well the dialogue is done.

 

Hot key....able.

 

I quit wow about 2 or 3 months ago, and strangely enough I still remember every single Hotkey I regularly used. I always hated clicking, adding the ability to open everything you need by pressing a different key.

 

Extendable.

 

Being able to extend the UI through community created modifications would be great. I doubt I could have played WoW for so long without Questhelper.

 

Any other ideas for the UI?

[Jeff]

Addon support is a must. In WoW I replace almost all the default UI modules with custom ones. Hopefully the default UI will be good enough at first but I am guessing people will come along and make addons that are much better.

 

I think keybinding is obvious and will definitely be a part of it, I don't click anything in WoW I am so used to using the keys, in fact I do not even have the menu on my UI, I use the keys to bring up the different screens (character, quest log, etc).

 

I doubt we will see something like questhelper built in to the game, because some people would not want that kind of thing in the first place. I use it in WoW because I do not level because I enjoy it (I am only 77, not 80 yet), I level because I want to get to 80. I think leveling and questing will be enjoyable in TOR though and I'll want to experience it on my own and actually figure out what I'm supposed to do for different quests.

 

Overall I think the UI will be much different from their RPGs just because this game will be in real time instead of allowing for pausing, so for example I do not think the ability selector will be in a scroll through menu when you select an enemy like in KotOR, I think all your abilities will be in a bar like we see in most MMOs.

[jrrtoken]

The UI should be entirely customizable right out of the game. By that, I mean, every windows and item should be able to be placed anywhere around the screen, and should support multiple third-party themes. Additionally, there should be an in-game web browser plug-in, much like in the Steam Overlay.

[Miltiades]

Customizable, sure, I agree, but that doesn't mean they can skip corners, so to speak, on the standard UI. I'd rather not be faced with a bad UI, which I then need to customize.

 

In any case, I'd like it to be simple, though have everything you need in there. From my experience with Guild Wars, hot keys are very useful and should be able to keep the amount of windows in the screen to a minimum.

[Web Rider]

Well, we know that you can't pause and play, so that's out the window. Personally, I'm hoping for a shorter list of abilities. Perhaps something along the lines of TFU, where you can simul-cast two abilities, such as force push and lightning, like WoW's macro system, only with the global cooldown setup differently.

 

I agree that we must have addons, though I would love some way to include mods as well, but I know that's not possible. I think WoW pretty much has the ground floor on how to do a user-interface.

[Jeff]

The UI should be entirely customizable right out of the game. By that, I mean, every windows and item should be able to be placed anywhere around the screen, and should support multiple third-party themes. Additionally, there should be an in-game web browser plug-in, much like in the Steam Overlay.

I'd love to see that. This is a completely different game but in the upcoming game for Wii The Conduit, the hud is completely customizable, you can move each piece individually anywhere on the screen you want, and you can also set the opacity of the hud, all the way to completely invisible. That kind of customization in a game is what I'd love to see.

[jrrtoken]

I'd love to see that. This is a completely different game but in the upcoming game for Wii The Conduit, the hud is completely customizable, you can move each piece individually anywhere on the screen you want, and you can also set the opacity of the hud, all the way to completely invisible. That kind of customization in a game is what I'd love to see.

Eh, I was basing it off of The Conduit right when I was writing it.

[Jeff]

Haha nice. That is definitely one of the aspects of that game that makes it so attractive and one I wish more developers would implement.

[Mav]

I want a hotkey that will do all of the "Kill 30 Gizkas" quests for me.

[stoffe]

How do you guys feel the User Interface is going to work in TOR?

 

The UI, or lack thereof, could make or break a game.

 

Something along the lines of what they use in Guild Wars would be nice, where you can move around, resize and reshape all the interface elements in-game to suit your needs.

 

Preferably taking it one step further, allowing you to save multiple GUI configurations as profiles that you can switch easily between. I prefer having the UI set up differently when playing a healer than when playing a melee fighter, for example.

[Fiestainabox]

I doubt we will see something like questhelper built in to the game, because some people would not want that kind of thing in the first place.

 

Yeah, a lot of people get all worked up about knowing where their supposed to go. Games like Fable II, Oblivion, and to a lesser extent, Fallout 3 do it quite well.

 

I'm hoping that a Questhelper for TOR will be unnecessary. Grinding through the repetitive Outland and Old World style quests again would probably kill me. Northrend isn't as bad, but it's still VERY boring.

 

The UI should be entirely customizable right out of the game. By that, I mean, every windows and item should be able to be placed anywhere around the screen, and should support multiple third-party themes.

 

Great idea, one of my favorite features from X-Perl interface from WoW.

 

Before I used that particular addon, I used to die all the time in raids because I was way to busy watching my Cooldowns then my health bar, which are on polar opposite sides of the screen. Nothing like trying to figure out why you DPS is so low, only to find out your dead...

 

Additionally, there should be an in-game web browser plug-in, much like in the Steam Overlay.

 

I think that would be a great idea. However, if it isn't implemented, there's still alternatives, like XFire (My personal Favorite) and PlayExpert.

 

Perhaps something along the lines of TFU, where you can simul-cast two abilities, such as force push and lightning, like WoW's macro system, only with the global cooldown setup differently.

That would be great too, however, I think it may tip the balance towards Jedi.

 

But a Grip followed by a Lightning would just be so cool.

 

I agree that we must have addons, though I would love some way to include mods as well, but I know that's not possible. I think WoW pretty much has the ground floor on how to do a user-interface.

 

Agreed. However, I've seen way to many "Free 2 Play" mmo's that are basically copy + pasta of the WoW ui, right down to the dragons on the unit frames.

 

I want a hotkey that will do all of the "Kill 30 Gizkas" quests for me.

 

Well, if theirs macro support, I wouldn't be surprised if there was one, at least off the start. Before WoW protected most of it's combat related functions, you could create a bot just using the in game macro editor.

 

Preferably taking it one step further, allowing you to save multiple GUI configurations as profiles that you can switch easily between. I prefer having the UI set up differently when playing a healer than when playing a melee fighter, for example.

 

Agreed, another one of those oh so needed features.

 

I figure healing should be done through a Point-To-Heal style interface similar to Healbot. And even if it's not, I'm willing to bed it would be one of the first addons created for TOR. Installing healbot increases your healing effectiveness by at least 15% alone.

[Web Rider]

That would be great too, however, I think it may tip the balance towards Jedi.

I'm sure you could make mixed attacks for non-jedi as well. bomb throw+gunshot to blow up bomb in mid air or something.

 

Agreed. However, I've seen way to many "Free 2 Play" mmo's that are basically copy + pasta of the WoW ui, right down to the dragons on the unit frames.

Actually, I was just referring to the setup of bars where you can drag+drop abilities.

[Tommycat]

As for the built in browser, there's one built in to SWG now. I think it's a great idea. Might even eliminate a need for the "Quest Helper" as if you get stuck, you can pull up the answer in a web browser relatively easily. Or heck they could impliment the helper into a web page.

 

another combo shot for non Jedi...

Quick draw + critical strike = defense ignoring shot.

Power blast + burst fire = disarm shot. (now that would be Highlarious. imagine a jedi performing saberblock and you pull that off... no saber... no saber block... there would be much whining)