Addon Spotlight: 4.0.1 UI improvements
by Mathew McCurley 
Oct 28th 2010 at 5:00PM
Each week, WoW Insider brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. This week, we discuss some of the UI changes in Patch 4.0.1.
Did you all have a fun time watching the BlizzCon coverage over the weekend? Exciting times, yes? Surprisingly, there was a pretty big user interface announcement amidst the hectic lore discussions, log-in screens and worgen cinematics. We'll get to that in time, of course.
Patch 4.0.1 brought some awesome new features to World of Warcraft that many people have emailed me asking about. What's the deal with built-in Power Auras? Have you seen the new raid UI and raid frames? Was there something about Atlasloot? All of these things will get answered today, as we take a look at some of the new stock addon and UI features in the WoW stock user interface. I'll even give my own little review of things. Sound good? It better, because this ship is setting sail right ... now.
Let's start off with a differentiation -- Blizzard has not included Power Auras into World of Warcraft. Blizzard has implemented, however, a very capable and gorgeous ability notification system with patch 4.0.1, with original art and sounds, that let players know in a very Power Auras-esque fashion when certain abilities are ready to be used or a trigger has gone off. Power Auras has a level of complexity that this system does not, but for most p
eople, what the wonderful interface guys over at Blizzard have included is about 95 percent of what Power Auras was being used for.What this illustrates, for me at least, is that the core functionality of Power Auras really appealed to the designers' gameplay philosophy going forward with Cataclysm -- simple, easy-to-understand, clear-as-day reminders that abilities are ready to use or some new benefit is being bestowed upon your character, without the need to install or setup an addon for such a simple notification. Power Auras isn't going away, however. Like I said before, there is a level of complexity in Power Auras that allows you to use some amazing rules and conditions to show the information that you want.
A new raid frames and UI
The WoW stock UI raid frames and UI has always been lackluster. Perhaps the game just took a different direction than the interface team could anticipate. Who knows? Raid frames have been the domain of addon creators since Cosmos. Blizzard has decided to give raid frames another go, as well as attach a new raid interface, in the new patch.
We can see that the new stock UI raid frames are inspired by the Grid/Vuhdo/Healbot genre of raid interfaces, with configurable blocks for player information. For the player who does not want to use addons or wants a simple Grid-type raid interface, the new WoW stock frames are getting closer to what we should expect.
One specific option, however, is available to turn your regular WoW party frames into something resembling the raid frames, much like how many people use Grid to show their party as well as raid. This is perhaps the most important customization option, since it allows you to completely remove the old party style interface if you so choose.
The new raid user interface, however, is a nice little control panel offering raid leaders a quick way to offer ready checks, role checks (people can set their own roles as tank, DPS or healer), mark targets and plant the new raid flares. Raid flares are probably my favorite new feature; you no longer need an engineer to craft marker flares to show people where to stand. It works wonders on Festergut, let me tell you.
Built-in Atlasloot and abilities coming in Cataclysm
In a surprising move at the Raids and Dungeons panel at BlizzCon, Blizzard has said that in the new Cataclysm instance map interface, a boss' loot table, abilities and lore profile will be available to the player. Finally, we do not have to run into a boss and die horribly to see what he does, and explaining boss abilities will be much easier when everyone has the descriptions right in front of them.
What does this mean for addons like Atlasloot? To be honest, not much. Atlasloot, as well as other addons that replicate or enhance default UI functionality, will add things that you cannot get in the basic setup. Wish lists and loot browsing in Atlasloot is awesome, and from what we hear about the Blizzard version, it will still be a basic configuration. Personally, I love my item wish lists. Addons that do more than the default will continue to do more, giving you resources in game you might have otherwise not had access to.
So, there's your look into some of the new UI functionality for 4.0.1. For some of you, some of your addons have become obsolete or less intriguing. Others will remain committed to their custom experiences. Despite how you feel about the new additions, it's nice to know that Blizzard's UI team is clued in to what players want and how to create their own brand of addon-like community inspired additions while still keeping things simple, allowing the addon creators to control customization.
Addons are what we do on Addon Spotlight. If you're new to mods, Addons 101 will walk you through the basics; see what other players are doing at Reader UI of the Week. If there's a mod you think Addon Spotlight should take a look at, email mat@wow.com.Filed under: Add-Ons, AddOn Spotlight
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Nyold Oct 28th 2010 5:06PM
The new party frame thing is amazing. The less addons I have to use, the better (especially during patch days). One thing bugs me though: it's HUGE and it's not resizable. Well it is, but the smallest option is still huge.
There is a workaround: you can go to Video options and reduce the scale of ALL UI elements (that means everything, including your action bars will be smaller), and then use bartender to make your action bars bigger again. But what did I say about not using too many addons?
Lizzia620 Oct 28th 2010 5:29PM
You can resize the raid unit frames from the Interface > Raid Frames options. There's sliders available, but you have to be in a raid to see the changes (or be in a party and have your party frames set to be like raid frames). :)
Paultab Oct 28th 2010 5:36PM
Here's a workaround until Blizz adds a scale option. While you can scale them using the slider in the video options they're still giant.
Enjoy.
/script InterfaceOptionsRaidFramePanelRaidFrameHeightSlider:SetValue(25)
/script InterfaceOptionsRaidFramePanelRaidFrameWidthSlider:SetValue(50)
KPB Oct 28th 2010 6:30PM
My thoughts exactly. The Default raid frames seemed usable but were much bigger than i wanted them to be. Much to my surprise they were already at the smallest size in the options. Makes sense that there is a script to set them to something even smaller. Gonna try that at home tonight.
John Oct 28th 2010 5:10PM
As a healer, I have to point out that the in-game raid frames also include an "estimated incoming heals" bar on players' health similar to what vuhdo and other raid frames have. It doesn't seem to include HoTs (I may be wrong). It's pretty good overall.
One thing I'd like is a legend for the debuffs in these frames.
The disease marker is a little brown bug-looking thing:
O
/|\
The mark for a curse is a purple star: *
The mark for magic debuff is a blue circle.
Not sure about the mark for poison.
The fact that the role-check by the raid leader puts a role icon on people's raidframe is also nice. No more asking "who's the tank?" Well, not as much...
MikeLive Oct 28th 2010 5:17PM
If you enable the option to only display debuffs on friendly players you can dispel, then you don't really need to translate the symbol. The one you can't dispel won't show up.
Vogie Oct 28th 2010 5:36PM
I'd still put the debuffs I can't dispel in there because Debuffs are often bad.
As a Resto shaman who used to do tens with... another resto shaman... knowing that one DPS was cursed was a huge boon instead of a "@#$%^ why is he taking damage?!". Unless it was a Mage, who I often let die to curses as a form of teaching.
Ray V Oct 28th 2010 6:30PM
Poison is a little green droplet.
Asaron Oct 29th 2010 5:04AM
The debuff highlighting is the one and only thing that may force me into using a raid frames add-on still. I really would prefer to use the stock options where possible, but I am so used to targets I can dispel glowing blue or purple or whatever represents the debuff type. Those little symbols just don' catch my attention, which can often be crucial.
The other minor issue I have is that I can't get the raid-style party frame to sit horizontally.
spamofchaz Nov 1st 2010 4:59PM
Trying to teach a mage is like trying to drive an automatic transmission up a steep, icy hill.
With bald tires.
And a worn clutch.
And no first gear.
Things I WISH my actions could teach classes -
Not decursing a mage so they do it themselves
Not taunting off a hunter so they learn to Feign Death before they pull aggro, not after. (This could apply to rogues, but vanish has a longer CD).
Not healing up a warlock who life-taps out of combat so they learn to bandage/eat themselves. Or at least ask if its ok at the beginning of a run. I'll say 'yes!' Honestly!
biglou Oct 28th 2010 5:14PM
It would be nice if you guys would make a list of what class/build proc is represented by the spell notifications...or is that customizable? With all the changes in the last patch and all the alts I play I still havent figured what abilities are proccing at any given time =(
Aris Oct 28th 2010 6:31PM
If you put your abilities on your bars while you relearn stuff, I noticed that the items which proc their auras also get highlighted on your action bars. For example, when the free Pyroblast for a fire mage procs (forgive if I am using the wrong spell name, I just spec'd fire the first time ever last nite after living as Frost/Arcane), you get the graphical notification near your character and a glance down shows the Pyroblast spell with a glowing gold border. Really nice for new to spec (or just new!) players trying to learn what does what.
MikeLive Oct 28th 2010 5:15PM
I've actually abandoned the glitchy-at-the-best-of-times Healbot for default frames and the vastly improved Clique. It's made me a much happier healer. My only gripe is that you can't reorient the frames in party mode. I like to have my bars horizontal (5 wide by 2 high in raids, for example), but in party mode they're stuck vertically. It's not a game-breaker to be sure, still way better than Healbot, but it's a minor annoyance.
Elrandir Oct 28th 2010 5:17PM
I only get nine of the new blizz raid frames in a column maximum any idea why this is? I'd prefer ten.
Shrikesnest Oct 28th 2010 7:56PM
Just a shot in the dark here, but what's your screen resolution/game resolution set to?
Donhorn Oct 28th 2010 8:33PM
If you open the popout raid interface box and "Unlock" the frames you can grab the little box near the bottom of the frame to resize. The one at the top allows moving. I moved mine to a lower right location where they are less in the way.
frosstbyte Oct 28th 2010 5:20PM
I've still been using Grid as my raid frame since I like how much smaller I can make it, but I have noticed that using Grid screens off the little pull out raid options window with the smoke marker and role checker and etc. Has anyone figured out how to make that show if your raidframe addon is screening the rest of the default raid frames? Or is that just sad collateral damage of not using the default?
Clarence Rubin Oct 28th 2010 6:04PM
I use PitBull, but I expect a similar fix will work for Grid and any other unit frame addons people might use.
First, I told PitBull not to hide the default raid frames.
Then I opened up the panel that has the Role Check and Ready Check buttons and all that, including the markers, and clicked Hide. This hides the frames while leaving this control panel available.
You can click the little arrow on the right of the control panel to collapse it again so that it takes up minimal screen real estate when you're not using it. Though I do wish I could move it.
sanjay Oct 28th 2010 5:30PM
I agree that the raid frames are huge even set to their smallest size. I will stick to x-perl until blizzard fixes that.
Luis Alluren Oct 29th 2010 12:49AM
as soon as i saw GridClickSets working with the built in raid frames i deleted both Grid and GridCustomLayouts add-ons... they work great and it's less add-ons i've to use...
one thing i would like to see is the size we allow for the frame to be fixed and have all the units resize according to what size of party we're in...
apart from that, it is really well done