Guild Wars 2

With the expansion just around the corner, I was wondering if Anet will support UI addons or any addons for that matter in their upcoming title. It would be nice to have some degree of control over our interface, seeing as how it doesn’t give an unfair advantage.

I sincerely hope NOT
Keep the UI clean, beautiful and unified a.net.

In my opinion, the interface is far from clean. Maybe it suits you, and I’m glad it does, but there are many who do not share your enthusiasm. And even if by some miracle addons will be supported, there’s no reason for you to use them.
I think GW1 had a feature that allowed you to reposition your UI (essentially an UI Addon), making the current situation look like a step backwards.

Re-positioning wasn’t an add-on, but part of the UI’s features.

if nothing changed, ANets opinion on addons is no, because they want the exact same conditions for everyone, they want you to play the game, not addons

I’d love some UI customization such as the ability to hide specific UI components (map, chat, skill bar etc.) individually, or even a feature to auto-hide the UI out of combat. But I’m a bit weary of addons that go beyond UI tweaking.

CureForLiving.5360:

I’d love some UI customization such as the ability to hide specific UI components (map, chat, skill bar etc.) individually, or even a feature to auto-hide the UI out of combat. But I’m a bit weary of addons that go beyond UI tweaking.

For chat, you can uncheck “map” in the chat list.

I’m pretty sure there’s a built-in hotkey to hide your entire UI (chat, skill bar, map, quests). I’m not at my gaming computer right now, so I couldn’t tell you, but there is a way to do it.

MiniEquine.6014:

CureForLiving.5360:

I’d love some UI customization such as the ability to hide specific UI components (map, chat, skill bar etc.) individually, or even a feature to auto-hide the UI out of combat. But I’m a bit weary of addons that go beyond UI tweaking.

For chat, you can uncheck “map” in the chat list.

I’m pretty sure there’s a built-in hotkey to hide your entire UI (chat, skill bar, map, quests). I’m not at my gaming computer right now, so I couldn’t tell you, but there is a way to do it.

But I’m lazy, I want the game to automatically do stuff :P

CureForLiving.5360:

MiniEquine.6014:

CureForLiving.5360:

I’d love some UI customization such as the ability to hide specific UI components (map, chat, skill bar etc.) individually, or even a feature to auto-hide the UI out of combat. But I’m a bit weary of addons that go beyond UI tweaking.

For chat, you can uncheck “map” in the chat list.

I’m pretty sure there’s a built-in hotkey to hide your entire UI (chat, skill bar, map, quests). I’m not at my gaming computer right now, so I couldn’t tell you, but there is a way to do it.

But I’m lazy, I want the game to automatically do stuff :P

No hot key, it’s Ctrl+Shft+H…that hides the entire UI and is what people use for screen shots usually…and when I say entire UI, I mean entire…it’s a completely clean screen, so if you know your commands by heart or have them specifically laid out for your personal use…then by all means, turn the UI off with that command.

MaXi.3642:

if nothing changed, ANets opinion on addons is no, because they want the exact same conditions for everyone, they want you to play the game, not addons

Which is not fair, because not everyone is comfortable with the same things.

It would be the same as giving all students the same desk no matter which hand they write with.

RabbitUp.8294:

MaXi.3642:

if nothing changed, ANets opinion on addons is no, because they want the exact same conditions for everyone, they want you to play the game, not addons

Which is not fair, because not everyone is comfortable with the same things.

It would be the same as giving all students the same desk no matter which hand they write with.

no it wouldn’t… it would be the same like giving all students the same book to learn from and the same software to work in… oh wait!

MaXi.3642:

RabbitUp.8294:

MaXi.3642:

if nothing changed, ANets opinion on addons is no, because they want the exact same conditions for everyone, they want you to play the game, not addons

Which is not fair, because not everyone is comfortable with the same things.

It would be the same as giving all students the same desk no matter which hand they write with.

no it wouldn’t… it would be the same like giving all students the same book to learn from and the same software to work in… oh wait!

No, it’s not. You are not absorbing information, you are also interacting with the game. Do you think it would be fair if the game didn’t allow you to change hotkeys and somehow we all used the same mouse? Then, no matter what you are comfortable with, how long your fingers are, you have to get used to it.

There are not several ways to read a book, that’s why there are no books with special features. While, in games that allow that, there are people that change the UI to something that suits them.

RabbitUp.8294:

MaXi.3642:

RabbitUp.8294:

MaXi.3642:

if nothing changed, ANets opinion on addons is no, because they want the exact same conditions for everyone, they want you to play the game, not addons

Which is not fair, because not everyone is comfortable with the same things.

It would be the same as giving all students the same desk no matter which hand they write with.

no it wouldn’t… it would be the same like giving all students the same book to learn from and the same software to work in… oh wait!

No, it’s not. You are not absorbing information, you are also interacting with the game. Do you think it would be fair if the game didn’t allow you to change hotkeys and somehow we all used the same mouse? Then, no matter what you are comfortable with, how long your fingers are, you have to get used to it.

There are not several ways to read a book, that’s why there are no books with special features. While, in games that allow that, there are people that change the UI to something that suits them.

but you can read the book where you want, you can sit on the chair, you can lay in the bed, you also choose how far from your eyes will book be, what light will be in the room… that’s similar to the mouse and shortcuts… they are just tools… but the book (or game) and information you get from it are always the same…. that wouldn’t be true with addons, because addons can really change how the game plays and make it much easier and that’s what they don’t want… this is also the reason why they don’t allow macros…

PS: I’m not sure why you started to argue with me when I just said what I remember was last stated opinion about addons from ANet… I’m not the one you should argue with

It would be nice to be able to hide those annoying ads they started to put in to the UI. ESL now, this and that tourny now.. I don’t care! send me an ingame mail if they are so desperate to let me know, but stop cluttering my screen. based on my very infrequent pvp visits they should know I have absolutely no interest in watching those games (and if I did, I’d do it on youtube where I can fast forward and not live).

personal story pointer. yeah right, the personal story they explicitly recommended to NOT play until they released the bugfixes/new ordering etc. unexplored stuff? I don’t care, I’m just in snowden drifts because it’s a daily event map every few days (and still, nearly no events there anyway), but I won’t see any events on my alts because they don’t have it on 100%. thanks, I can find the missing stuff myself, I want to know where the events are, then I’ll go and do some map completion around that area while waiting for the next event. but no, they force me to take one of my 100% chars into that area because if I can’t see an event within 10 seconds of it starting I have no chance at all at catching it anyway.

the ui wasn’t clean when the game launched and it’s only getting more and more cluttered. addons would be great, but if they’re not capable to add those then at least the option to individually turn on/off stuff and personalize it would help a lot.

Anet has said on numerous occasions that they didn’t want add-ons in their game. They want every player to have the same UI. It’s their stance on the matter, and it’s not going to change.

Sorel.4870:

Anet has said on numerous occasions that they didn’t want add-ons in their game. They want every player to have the same UI. It’s their stance on the matter, and it’s not going to change.

they actually said that in context of addons cluttering the view, they wanted players to experience their game without incessant overlays. which is exactly what they’re doing right now with their advertisements. they already failed to deliver their ‘clean vision’ of the ui by adding unnecessary stuff that just clutters more and more screenspace.

Oranisagu.3706:

Sorel.4870:

Anet has said on numerous occasions that they didn’t want add-ons in their game. They want every player to have the same UI. It’s their stance on the matter, and it’s not going to change.

they actually said that in context of addons cluttering the view, they wanted players to experience their game without incessant overlays. which is exactly what they’re doing right now with their advertisements. they already failed to deliver their ‘clean vision’ of the ui by adding unnecessary stuff that just clutters more and more screenspace.

I agree that we should have an option to hide these overlays. I think it’s great to notify players when stuff happens in the community (and I get angry when they don’t), but once it was seen, you should be able to mask it. Same goes for my personal story: I never play it: why should I see my progression in the corner of my screen? The achievement list should have this option as well.

Other than that, I think their UI is as clean as it can be. That’s actually a great strength of GW2: very few skills, organized in a very logical way. Compare that to even the best looking add-ons for WoW.

Sorel.4870:

I agree that we should have an option to hide these overlays. I think it’s great to notify players when stuff happens in the community (and I get angry when they don’t), but once it was seen, you should be able to mask it. Same goes for my personal story: I never play it: why should I see my progression in the corner of my screen? The achievement list should have this option as well.

Other than that, I think their UI is as clean as it can be. That’s actually a great strength of GW2: very few skills, organized in a very logical way. Compare that to even the best looking add-ons for WoW.

saying another game a worse UI doesn’t mean GW2 is good – it’s just less bad. and it’s not even because of the UI design itself, but simply a result of the game design which limits the number of skills. other games with few skills look very similar in that regard. especially the sci-fi one by the same publisher – which in addition has great modding capabilities on top of a cleaner UI.

ANet has great designers when it comes to art, but so far the user experience (UX) has always been very bad in gw2 (the everslow TP, the Hero panel, lacking consume all, switching between 1h/2h weapons and general gear changes, lack of build templates and so on). as they very obviously don’t like to invest time into UX – new features always seem to take precedence over polishing existing ones – they should let people who know what they’re doing have a go at it. it doesn’t even need full modding support, for a start a simple layout engine which can be configured (i.e. via xml) would be enough to alleviate the worst UI problems until they add some more interaction capabilities (don’t show this notification again and stuff like that).

What I’d give to be able to hide story stuff, holiday events and PvP tournament information from the top right corner. Oh, and achievements too. I know that by completing my dailies and having nothing in my watch list, it goes away… but keeping all the achievements I’m working on in one panel is handy – I just don’t need it to be outside of the achievements tab.

I’d love a reconfigurable UI, but I don’t want addons.

I mean, I say this despite using dozens of add-ons in WoW and other games, having developed add-ons and so on.

I can see places in GW2 that add-ons would fit, but in most cases they’d just serve to make the game more mindless (in a bad way) and less involving, either that or they’d be better off dealt with by Anet improving the UI for everyone.

I’d like to move the enemy healthbar further up. I’ve got the FoV at max and the UI size on small and it’s still gets in the way of clicking on enemies. Auto-target messes up and picks the wrong person and I have to start moving my camera up so I can click on them, then move it back down so I can actually see what I’m doing.

The only other changes I’d like to make is removing clutter. The menus in the top left, dailies, the order to kill Zhaitan, “you should play PvP!”, “stop having fun and WvW!”, “Did you know there’s a holiday event going on right now that you’re participating in?” and the meaningless yellow bar pushing the rest of the UI upward.

I don’t know why they are so eager to keep the UI for every player. Why can’t we customize it? I mean I don’t even ask for UI addons (I always hated those in WoW), but let us add additional skill/side bars for convenience: bufffood, gadgets, tonics etc. It’s so annoying to always open the inventory and looking for the stuff you want to use.

HotHit.6783:

“stop having fun and WvW!”

Dude, you sound like my guild.