Kelric

This may seem a silly question... but I've been thinking: what specifically makes a Melee UI?

Of course, there may be different answers depending on whether one is a Warrior, Rogue, or Monk, but I think this could a profitable and interesting discussion, and hopefully helpful for developers as they create new windows and UI's.


- In general, what things are absolutely necessary for a Melee UI?

- What things aren't necessary, or get in the way?

- Are there particular windows, arrangements, or features that are important to have in a Melee class UI?

- Are there things specific to Warrior, Rogue, or Monk UI's that maybe the others wouldn't have or need?

- What other comments do you have about UI's for Melee class characters?


I'm looking forward to the discussion!

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Kelric Stormwolf

[ F.A.Q ]

Kelric

Just a little nudge to get the conversation started...


I have a warrior, but he's only level 10... I'm not sure WHAT he needs, yet! Currently I'm using a slightly pared-down version of my hybrids UI (which I use for my ranger, sk, pally, beastlord, and bard - love those hybrids! ), but I'd love to hear from those who have Melee class mains or alts they've played a lot with.. or even just thought a lot about!

What do you think?

Fyste

What makes a melee UI?

Speed.

Everything about it needs to be fast, and clean. That means fast to use, fast to get to things in your inventory, fast to see your current stats, and fast to move in combat.

We switch weapons on the fly durring combat, sometimes we switch gear durring combat depending if we come up against something that can rebuff itself. We swap in clickables, and recast clickable buffs durring combat... and all the time we need to be able to see AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE and be able to click almost anywhere and spin quickly.

The UI I use is the one I based on the SARS UI... and I even have more in my version than some people.

It's stripped down to miniature buff icons, with the names visible floating on a clear background. Buff icons are numbered, so it's easier to remember which ones go down durring combat. Some people remove the buff names, since once you're used to them it's unneccesary, and they take up valuable screen space.

All the stats are embedded in the hotbox, which means they are visible all the time. Which means I can tell at a glance what that nasty spell effect does, and what my hitpoints are, and NUMERICALLY how fast they are dropping.

Also, the cast bar is embedded in the hotbox, which means when I click my clickables, nothing new pops up on my screen.

The inventory window is stripped down to almost nothing, and the main bag slots are brought out to the hotbox, as well as a second bank of "clickables". This means I can click stuff durring combat, I can switch weapons and gear without ever opening the inventory window ( and potentially covering a mob ), and ALL my slots and bags are available ALL the time. Even the bags I use are modded "tradeskill" containers: modified to have no handled or borders so when they are open they are as narrow as possible. Fast and clean.

Last, everything is designed to be minimal. Anything that's on the screen is as small as I can get it, without sacrificing readability. Durring combat I need to be able to see everything that's going on around me, and click almost anywhere... without worrying about what might be hiding behind the cool looking curlyqueues on the chat boxes ( even my chat boxes have no name bars. they're a pain to move, but with transparency set to about 60% they hide nothing ).

That's what I looked for in a Melee UI. Sars came REALLY close.... I never found it exactly. That's why I modded his and that's what I use now.

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( My Interfaces ) ( RETIRED )

dinian

Typically when a UI presents a "caster version" and a "melee version" they author has done the following:

- moved any functionality built into the SpellCast window to another window if the caster version used it for more than just casting spells,
- removed or replaced the mana bar, and
- optionally, cannibalized the pet window for some other purpose

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Marshall Dinian Scalebane
Overlord of Endorean

SauriaSoulfarer

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!!!!)

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-Sauria Soulfarer, Order of Antondwer, Vazaelle

Fyste

hehe

I thought I was the only one that circle-straffed like that. I HATE that little menu!!

I've cleared everything from my UI except the chat windows / hotbox at the bottom and the buff icons at the right. As much as I can, the center area is empty so I can avoid clicking stuff by accident... most of the time. ( What's worse is when you hit F12 by accident... and then you can't figure out why you can't turn anymore! )

I was going to go with bag mods like Sauria, but I do alot of Tradeskills stuff and the tradeskill containers are invaluable. And once I got the doule-tab-box of clickies done up, I found I didn't need the extra bag slots. But they are VERY very cool!

So... fast and small, for Melee UI is key, IMHO.

( and HOW did I get to be a Tundra Mammoth anyway??? )