EQInterface Forums - View Single Post - What makes a Melee UI?

I got a lot of good times with my one and only main, Sauria the monk.

I haven't gone for any of the big unified UIs out there because they are often rigid, and sound like they are prone to breaking (frequently radically altering the use of panels.) Instead I have picked and chosen bits here and there that do what I need....and by defining in that way "what I need" I suppose I could answer your question, at least to me as a monk. What do I need as a monk?

My UI is mostly ghosted or transparent...the less on my screen the better. Practically everything on my screen is invisible or very nearly so until moused over. The following are things I love...(note I have only downloaded not written mods. I try sometimes to tinker with them but I really don't know what I'm doing, scares me)

1...Bag mods

I have a bag mod that puts primary, secondary, range and ammo at the top of every bag. This is great for a monk on a raid or pulling, who has most things in weight reducing bags...I can open a bag and leave it on the edge of the screen, and swap ammo out for my goranga idol...or when pulling a nasty caster mob, swap my resist shield (shield of rainbow hues) out for my secondary weapon when I get back to the raid. For a pulling raiding monk, things are flying in and out of my hands all the time. Bag mods are thx.

2...Athee's-style hotkey/inventory slot/clickies mods

I got one now that has hotkeys, with adjacent tabbed inventory/clickies. Saves me a lot of screen obstruction and hassle being able to open a bag without bringing up the inventory screen...especially since I leave it locked up in the corner so merchants, bank and mob loot always butt up against it. Don't have a lot of clickies but someday they will be important on raids. Having the inventory down there works well with the bag mods. I also use stat food and drink all the time while fighting...and keep normal and stat stuff in different bags. If I'm not going to be fighting for a while, this style of mod makes it easier to move a bag from slot to slot so the stat food won't get eaten if I forget to stuff around it.

3...player/target window mods

I do like the little mods I got that put the name of the mob and percent on the target...and my name, hps, hp percent, exp and aa exp in a little panel. Nothing huuuge that has all the stats from the normal inventory window on it, they can get so cluttered. I mean, how often during a fight do you check your ATK?

4...UI slider timers

Well at first I wondered what all the fuss was but boy are these nice. I got 3, set up for soloing, with 6 minutes for my Mend, 12 minutes for my Thurg booties and 45 minutes for my Stave of Shielding (which I swap in till it procs then put away till it is ready to wear off.) If I needed a respawn timer for a raid I could go to the site and add another. God I love my timers. Before I had these I had 2 Farberware kitchen digital timers on my desk.

Things I don't like....

1...Inventory window mods

I've been looking at the same basic layout of the inventory window for so long, that the mods that condense it down to a tiny rectangle leave me cold. With the mini-inventory down on my hotkeys, about the only time I need my main one is at the bank or shopping. Same logic goes for mods that drastically change layout of anything familiar for years...like hotkeys in 1 horizontal row.

Things I long for...

1...map window mods

Didn't even know they existed until I saw the post about Forry's UI...I hate that you can't resize the map window! I always end up shoving half of it off the side of my screen so it isn't so huge (I run at 1024x768 so the map takes up a quarter of my screen!)

Summing up, I like little but powerful mods that are more useful than flashy....that are inconspicuous but instantly available. Some of the big UIs are like the cockpit of a jet...I couldn't see where I was going with all that stuffage.

(EDIT...Yeah, Fyste hit the nail on the head, I use mouse steering...and in combat or on a raid, I am frequently circle-strafing and darting around looking for adds or positioning mobs with my push...and one thing I *really hate* is trying to turn and getting the pop up window tree for locking, changing tint and stuff. I wish there was a switch or command in the ini or something that would disable that menu on windows, it has almost gotten me killed when my mouse gets stuck on the little panel options and I have to click out of them before I can mouse steer again!!!!)

06-13-2003, 07:36 PM	#5
SauriaSoulfarer A Gray Wolf Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 8	Melee UI I got a lot of good times with my one and only main, Sauria the monk. I haven't gone for any of the big unified UIs out there because they are often rigid, and sound like they are prone to breaking (frequently radically altering the use of panels.) Instead I have picked and chosen bits here and there that do what I need....and by defining in that way "what I need" I suppose I could answer your question, at least to me as a monk. What do I need as a monk? My UI is mostly ghosted or transparent...the less on my screen the better. Practically everything on my screen is invisible or very nearly so until moused over. The following are things I love...(note I have only downloaded not written mods. I try sometimes to tinker with them but I really don't know what I'm doing, scares me) 1...Bag mods I have a bag mod that puts primary, secondary, range and ammo at the top of every bag. This is great for a monk on a raid or pulling, who has most things in weight reducing bags...I can open a bag and leave it on the edge of the screen, and swap ammo out for my goranga idol...or when pulling a nasty caster mob, swap my resist shield (shield of rainbow hues) out for my secondary weapon when I get back to the raid. For a pulling raiding monk, things are flying in and out of my hands all the time. Bag mods are thx. 2...Athee's-style hotkey/inventory slot/clickies mods I got one now that has hotkeys, with adjacent tabbed inventory/clickies. Saves me a lot of screen obstruction and hassle being able to open a bag without bringing up the inventory screen...especially since I leave it locked up in the corner so merchants, bank and mob loot always butt up against it. Don't have a lot of clickies but someday they will be important on raids. Having the inventory down there works well with the bag mods. I also use stat food and drink all the time while fighting...and keep normal and stat stuff in different bags. If I'm not going to be fighting for a while, this style of mod makes it easier to move a bag from slot to slot so the stat food won't get eaten if I forget to stuff around it. 3...player/target window mods I do like the little mods I got that put the name of the mob and percent on the target...and my name, hps, hp percent, exp and aa exp in a little panel. Nothing huuuge that has all the stats from the normal inventory window on it, they can get so cluttered. I mean, how often during a fight do you check your ATK? 4...UI slider timers Well at first I wondered what all the fuss was but boy are these nice. I got 3, set up for soloing, with 6 minutes for my Mend, 12 minutes for my Thurg booties and 45 minutes for my Stave of Shielding (which I swap in till it procs then put away till it is ready to wear off.) If I needed a respawn timer for a raid I could go to the site and add another. God I love my timers. Before I had these I had 2 Farberware kitchen digital timers on my desk. Things I don't like.... 1...Inventory window mods I've been looking at the same basic layout of the inventory window for so long, that the mods that condense it down to a tiny rectangle leave me cold. With the mini-inventory down on my hotkeys, about the only time I need my main one is at the bank or shopping. Same logic goes for mods that drastically change layout of anything familiar for years...like hotkeys in 1 horizontal row. Things I long for... 1...map window mods Didn't even know they existed until I saw the post about Forry's UI...I hate that you can't resize the map window! I always end up shoving half of it off the side of my screen so it isn't so huge (I run at 1024x768 so the map takes up a quarter of my screen!) Summing up, I like little but powerful mods that are more useful than flashy....that are inconspicuous but instantly available. Some of the big UIs are like the cockpit of a jet...I couldn't see where I was going with all that stuffage. (EDIT...Yeah, Fyste hit the nail on the head, I use mouse steering...and in combat or on a raid, I am frequently circle-strafing and darting around looking for adds or positioning mobs with my push...and one thing I really hate is trying to turn and getting the pop up window tree for locking, changing tint and stuff. I wish there was a switch or command in the ini or something that would disable that menu on windows, it has almost gotten me killed when my mouse gets stuck on the little panel options and I have to click out of them before I can mouse steer again!!!!) __________________ -Sauria Soulfarer, Order of Antondwer, Vazaelle