A new interface for Wrath?
by Matthew Rossi 
Sep 11th 2007 at 1:32PM
Courtesy of the excellent Daily Blue feature of World of Raids comes this tidbit about possible changes to the user interface for Wrath of the Lich King, posted originally on the European forums, where a lot of the good blue responses seem to reside.
Blizzard poster Salthem cautions, as is often the case, that it's too soon to expect much in the way of details but that there's not likely to be a radical change in the UI. "I doubt we'll see a dramatic completely new User Interface, generally we prefer to implement more gradual changes or options to the existing interface." While this sounds like a safe and generally correct way to go, it does leave us with some wiggle room for speculation. What gradual changes should they be working on for WoTLK? I'm personally pretty content with the UI as it stands, I don't fiddle much with it or use a lot of addons, but I'm sure more advanced modders have ideas. A built-in threat meter would be kind of cool, or the long-promised shaman totem UI.
What changes would you like to see?
Filed under: Add-Ons
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Matthew Sep 11th 2007 1:40PM
Make the windows dynamically resizable. Why in the age of 1680x1050 screens do I have to scroll through a tiny list of recipes to find what I'm looking for? Let me make them as big as I want.
Are there any addons that do this?
Baluki Sep 11th 2007 1:49PM
I'm pretty sure that Blizz has said that they're going to be adding a threat meter and even their own Boss Timers.
And fer crissake, they had BETTER add a Totem UI by then. Just think...when WLK is released, we'll be able to say that the Totem UI was THREE YEARS in the making.
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@1: Try FramesResized (Ace). It does what you want. It even gives you a bigger loot window when applicable.
Also, I HIGHLY recommend Advanced Tradeskill Window (ATSW) for that sort of thing.
I use both.
Lummox Sep 11th 2007 1:57PM
The Totem UI would be cool. I couldn't stand playing a shaman with the stock UI. Waaaay too many spells to fit on those bars, and boy did it get cluttered.
Seeing as the Death Knight will introduce the whole Rune mechanic, I could easily foresee a couple of class-specific UI tools.
Tim Sep 11th 2007 2:02PM
I'd love a better way to manage add-ons, maybe along the lines of Firefox extensions, that would include an auto-update feature. I'm not a big add-on person mainly because it's such a pain to manage them.
Steve Sep 11th 2007 2:12PM
The interface is mediocre at best. Why can’t any window, text, or unitframe be resized? I never used to use addons until I tried Pitbull, now I don’t think I could go back to the original interface. It just gives you so much more control.
Even something as simple ad displaying health in negative numbers, this tells me exactly which spell to heal with or when to heal. And agro indicators, when I play a healer I can usually just watch whose life bar goes red to determine who has aggro
SK Sep 11th 2007 2:22PM
Movable Party frame. Ya I use an addon for it, but come on.
Braz Sep 11th 2007 3:00PM
I would appreciate some additions similar to Titan Panel; in other words, something that isn't a major change, but that provides a lot of useful information. I want to see coordinates, empty bag slots, item durability, gold, threat, etc. without a mod.
Delta Sep 11th 2007 3:08PM
Threat meter is definately a plus. I use Omen for threat meters now and while that works for the people I play with that have Omen, I group with a lot of people who don't, and that slightly messes up my rythmn when dps'ing (rogue) cause i don't know who stands where.
Personally I think they should of worked movable action bars and resizable frames into the original UI from the beginning. Part of the reason I use XPerl + Trinitybars is because I like having small movable light frames that allow me more open screen space. But the number of addons I have is pretty bad. It'd be nice to be able to get more of the common features in the original UI as to cut down on the addons i use. Course I could go out and find better addons maybe, but I rather like the ones I got.
Also agree with #4, an addon system that can auto-update would be cool, but would that be an issue for updating addons not supported by blizzard through the main wow client?
Ryan Sep 11th 2007 3:40PM
How about some guesses as to the artwork on the WoTLK login screen. My guess is a reprise of the WC3:TFT menu screen, with Arthas sitting on the throne.
Angus Sep 11th 2007 4:23PM
I use mazzle.
I won't go back to the stock UI unless something horrible happens.
Totem UI should have been done a while ago. How many other classes have 4 spell slots filled with around 30 spells? You could easily put them all in a single mechanic and free up tons of bars. As it is, the useless ones are no longer on any bars for me.
blkmasta Sep 11th 2007 4:39PM
@10 Mazzle? Hell yes. Been using it ever since it was linked here. None of my friends (online or IRL) can understand this. "Mazzle? That's crap, whats wrong the the standard interface?" Nothing's wrong with it, but it could be so much more than it is.
PeeWee Sep 11th 2007 4:43PM
For totems, I use Totem Manager (http://downloads.curse.com/details/5809/). Unless a new totem UI would have all the functions of that addon, I'll stick to it.
Fletch Sep 11th 2007 6:52PM
I personally feel that threat meters take a lot of the skill out of raiding as a DPS class and that Blizzard shouldn't make an official version.
Dave Sep 11th 2007 7:00PM
I currently use mazzle too. I would love a built in threat meter as well as some small changes to item interactions.
I should be able to use mats that are in my bank without having to move those mats to my Inventory when my bank is open. Any created items automatically go to the Inventory and then can be moved to the bank.
Also,I would like a way to interact with materials while the bank is open; such as learning a recipe or turning a stack of Motes into a Primal. I should not have to close the bank to do that.
Lastly, I would streamline Mail so that I can send multiple items at once, send broadcast email to guildmates and have a Sent Items list that can't be erased so if I get hacked, I can track down those responsible.
Memzer Sep 11th 2007 7:35PM
Most of the suggestions above have been implemented through third party UI mods; but to this date I haven't seen a mod that allows me to move the position of my characters in the list on the character selection screen... this frustrates me to no end ;)
Venkman90 Sep 12th 2007 3:33AM
@15
/nod
Same here
Juliah Sep 24th 2007 6:02PM
I'd like to be able to search for "netherweave" without getting back stacks, imbued stacks, regular bags, netherweave bags, and so on. I know there are add-ons that can do this, but I'd like to have it built in.