Midnight: Get up to Speed with User Interface Updates

Community General Discussion
21

This to me is unironically one of the most exciting sets of additions coming to Midnight.

I’ve been a UI purist for the last several expansions, and I fall into the category of players whose concerns about feeling forced to play with add-ons (usually due to raid requirements) are being directly addressed by Blizzard.

I was stoked about the UI overhaul in Dragonflight, and am equally if not more excited to see functionality from popular add-ons finally being integrated into the base UI.

I honestly never expected an official damage meter, and likely not any kind of boss/event timers, either. Yet, here we are.

I still have a list of things I’d love to see included, such as:

  • TomTom-like functionality with multiple waypoints
  • Cast bar customization (to include total cast time and color theming–see Voodoo Cast Bar)
  • Improved NPC dialogs (basically DialogUI)
  • QoL improvements inspired by Plumber (by same author as DialogUI, it should be noted)
  • TotalRP 3 functionality that allows extensive roleplay information to be shared, including titles of nobility and surnames (or family names, clans, or what have you)

This list isn’t all-inclusive, and I’m sure everyone can think-up more. My hope isn’t that they over-bloat the base game, and I realize that’s probably a concern out there as they continue to add functionality. I think the key guideline for Blizzard should be (and so far appears to be) that they take the most popular add-ons and integrate similar basic functionality into the UI.

On the topic of features, I think we need to acknowledge that it’s very unlikely that they’ll duplicate all the features of add-ons like Details. That’s okay by me.

Despite a lot of sensationalism and clickbait around the topic, Blizzard isn’t going to be banning add-ons any time soon. At most, they’ll be limiting functionality of certain combat add-ons.

As they’ve repeatedly stated, the main goal here is simply to bring the UI up-to-date with player expectations and requirements (often set by communities and raid groups, not just individuals).

The day in WoW where I can say that I’m neither holding the group back nor crippling my own play because I choose not to run any add-ons is a great day for me.

4 Likes
22

I don’t often say ‘pull the ripcord’ on things because I just don’t like the saying, and I hate rushing things that aren’t finished.

But this? Pull the ripcord on this. These UI changes would be oh-so-welcome. The meters, sure, but bring the Edit Mode and CD Manager changes pronto.

23

Hello all,

I’ve made a slight update to the Cooldown Manager section to make it clear which updates are arriving with the 11.2.5 content update and which are arriving with Midnight.

With the Launch of 11.2.5
You’ll be able to select which auras you want to track.

With Midnight
You’ll be able to add debuff states for your selected target, and even track active external defensives—like Iron Bark—on your teammates. You can save different profiles and set up sound alerts to call things out. It’s a powerful tool, and we’re excited to see how you use it.

We want to make sure we’re setting expectations of what tools will be available when. We’ll continue watching feedback as always and thanks for all the great conversation!

9 Likes
24

Some nice changes, hopefully they will cover most of the features that the mods they intended to replace already do.

25

Having the ability to change cast/mob color on the nameplates would be massive and it’d get me away from plater, setting prio targets or prio casts that stand out more than just a flare would be something that could be a huge addition to the base UI.

2 Likes
26

Would be nice to know if with the UI additions, what is going to be forcefully removed in terms of addon capability for those of us not satisfied with the replacement.

2 Likes
27

So far the nameplate thing is fairly unimpressive compared to plater. Re-coloring different mobs in dungeons based on ones that have important casts that need interrupting or stops via CC is probably the most useful thing it does.

The slightly highlighted cast-bar doesn’t draw your attention as much as things plater currently does. Hopefully there will be more customization options either in the base UI or they’ll let addons visually modify the nameplates further and Blizzards plates will just be the base instead of plater.

They should also change or have an optional tab-target behavior where it will only tab target to mobs casting important casts while they’re casting them so you can easily target/cycle between them to interrupt without having to try to click on the right frame in a short period.

Having a server-side damage meter will save CPU resources and be nice for accuracy.

28

The biggest problem with nameplates is that even if you have stacking nameplates turned on, they clump up at the top of the screen depending on your camera angle and turn into overlapping nameplates.

Especially notable on short races.

It’s hard-coded, too, so addons cannot fix it.

Are you fixing that?

(Assume no. These UI revamps of yours always fail to deliver.)

2 Likes
29

It seems you took the problem of “game is unplayable [at higher difficulties] without addons” and decided to copy a bunch of addon features to base UI.

In some cases, this is a leap in the wrong direction.

  • Boss ability timers / timeline should not be in the game PERIOD. Not from base UI, and not from addons either. It’s basically an immersion-breaking cheat, like a wall hack in an FPS.
  • “Lethal casts” is garbage hand-holding. You’re supposed to learn which casts are important to interrupt in the lower difficulties (before you enter M+).
  • Cooldown Manager sound alerts is too much. The only thing it should do is visually organize your action bar buttons so you can quickly decide which button to press and you don’t forget one of your buttons exists.
30

make it so the cast bars are able to be be resized instead of so tiny under the nameplate!

31

This probably isn’t important to people running high end content but…

I run a nameplate add-on for the sole reason of having quest mobs identified in the nameplate. It is called Threat Plates and shows a yellow exclamation point if a mob is part of a quest. I think this would be a good addition to the Blizzard Nameplate UI. It would make the information easier to read that scanning tooltips.

2 Likes
32

I’m looking forward to experiencing these changes, hopefully they will offer a decent amount of customization. Also: Can we please get map coordinates? And a great vault icon on the character screen.

1 Like
33

I’ll just parrot what numerous others have stated, as succinctly as possible:

If you don’t implement nameplates with color-coding based upon their specific behavior (i.e. lethal spellcaster, lethal tankbuster, etc.), or at least give players an avenue to make these changes themselves based on NPC names, people won’t switch away from Plater.

So, please, if you’re serious about getting add-ons out of the equation in combat… let’s do it right.

2 Likes
34

These changes look amazing! Thank you for making this effort. It is no exaggeration to say that this is my most anticipated update. The updated nameplates look great. The DPS meters are great for players who just want to see DPS. And the Personal Resource Bar/Cooldown Manager are SO CLOSE to being GREAT. Here are some of my suggestions so far:

  • For the nameplates, there are a few ways you can implement this suggestion to make Mob Buffs clearer. One option is to add a border that shows what kind of buff it is, like a purple border for a “Magic” Buff or a red border for an “Enrage” buff. Another option, you add an option/filter to make only dispellable/specific types of Mob Buffs present on the nameplates. For Example, I want to know if my Demon Hunter can use Consume Magic or if I can tell my Hunter to Soothe.
  • For the Damage Meters, can we add the option to hover/click a player to see the breakdown of their damage? I don’t expect the depth of features of Details, I’m not asking for graphs or uptime %s, just the damage number and % per damage event. For example, I want to know what % of my damage my new trinket is dealing.
  • For the Personal Resource Display, can you separate the checkbox option to hide Health and Power Bars into separate checkboxes? For example, I want to have my Power Bar visible and not my Health Bar.
  • For the Cast Bar, Personal Resource Display, Special Resource Bar, and all the elements of the Cooldown Manager, can you please provide greater options to stretch the bars? For example, in your screenshot for the Damage Meters, there are sliders for width and height. I would like the ability to stretch the Power Bar, Cast Bar, and Cooldown Manager to the same width and control their height exclusively. Currently in-game, and if the screenshots provided are how these updates go live, we can only use one slider for “Size”, which leads to the frustrating inability to have all your UI elements centered and organized.

I don’t want these UI features to fall flat, like the first release of the Cooldown Manager did, due to a lack of customization and options. We cannot expect this to be released with the features we have on Plater(like color-coding mobs for frontals, prio interrupts, must CC, etc) or WeakAuras(like glowing icons or spell icons changing when certain buffs/circumstances are met). However, with a few minor changes and options added, I know these updates could actually replace add-ons, at least for me.
Does anyone else have any suggestions or ideas for improvements before it goes live?

11 Likes
35

Sounds like a lot of things that I’ll need to disable to avoid overlapping information/conflicts with addons that will still do it better.

36

A few thoughts on improvements I’d like to see for Nameplates in the future, and the UI in general:

Nameplates - Apply the same type of filters being developed for the Cooldown Manager to the nameplates as well. Set up a few different filter categories:

  • Maintenance DeBuffs - Specific Buffs for your character that you maintain on as many enemies as possible (Corruption/Wither, Agony, Shadow Word: Pain, etc.).
  • Priority DeBuffs - Specific Buffs that you can only apply to a single Enemy at a time

Now, the somewhat backwards part that I’d like to see (at least as an option) in the future. Allow us to apply reverse logic to our Buffs/Debuffs. Show DeBuff icons on EVERY eligible enemy that I (or my group mates) are in combat with. Then, once I apply that debuff to an enemy, hide that debuff icon until it expires (or better yet, is in the pandemic window), then have it show up again.
Similarly with the Priority DeBuff…Show the potential buff on every eligible enemy currently in combat with me. When I apply the Priority DeBuff, hide the icon and highlight that enemy so I can easily keep track of which one my priority DeBuff is applied to while tab-targeting to continue to spread/re-apply my other DeBuffs.

The same system and logic could potentially be applied to Buffs for healers (who may want to monitor Friendly Nameplates instead of enemies). HOTs could be tracked and maintained in a similar way.

The Idea here is to reward good play with a cleaner, less cluttered view of the field of combat. When you’re doing what you are supposed to do, your screen gets less busy…less distracting. Instead of every DeBuff adding another icon for you to keep track of and pay attention to (as they blend ever together the more you spread your DOTs to more & more enemies), start the fight with what may look like a bit of a cluttered mess, and clear those icons off the screen as you apply your DOTs or Curses or whatever else you want to make sure you are spreading to every enemy you encounter.

Watching a modern Retail WoW Streamer in a raid is like watching an out of control rave from an 80s D.A.R.E. commercial. There is so much going on. I think designing the UI in a way that gives us the opportunity to clear some of that off the screen if we are playing well will allow us to enjoy more of what’s actually going on in the game…not to mention clearing some of the distractions that others have mentioned above, allowing us to more easily distinguish some of the other UI Features (like different cast bars for different spells) without it all just blending into a fireworks explosion of colors & icons.

1 Like
37

Will new nameplates have the option to display class colors for PvP like Plater? Sorry if it was mentioned but TL;DR.

38

The personal resource display is shown to have the option to hide both the HP and power bars, but specs that need to see both the power and resource bars need a separate Hide HP only option so we can see at a glance what the current state of both types of bars is at any given moment. I’m not sure hiw this keeps getting overlooked after all the iterations thus far.

1 Like
39

Not long to go 'til that console release.

40

THAT isn’t what should make you nervous. What should make you nervous is that this is either the next step towards deploying WoW to consoles, banning user addons, or both.

I’m highly disinterested in both of those things. Even in the unlikely event that they currently intend neither, it paves the path and someone in the future will make it happen.