As to the small hack I have mentioned before...
I moved the square indicators around to a more useful positions, again, imo.
Instead of: This made And I'd love to have done something like this,
more sense: but I had trouble trying to add squares:
----------- ----------- -----------
|X X X| |XX XX| |XXX XXX|
| | | | -|X X|
|X X| | | || |
| | | | ||X X|
|X X X| |XX XX| ||XXX XXX|
----------- ----------- ------------
With a mana bar -
being discussed in a different post.
I found this useful because I could group functions better, each corner fit into a different conceptual category of what they displayed.
Upper left: Mana information
Upper right: Raid buffs, with mine prioritized on highest layer.
Lower left: Healing info, what HoTs are applied, my own prioritized.
Lower right: Bleed effects, and then debuff types, prioritized by what I can cure.
Ideally, I think it would make sense to give the user options to add additional custom squares, just as you can add custom auras, and place them anywhere they want.
Even better would be the ability to indicate multiple instances.
For instance, the lower right corner represented bleed/DoTs. But if there were multiple DoTs the display looked the same. Either a number, or brightness based on number of applications, would be helpful. Or even the ability to add squares and line them up to a certain maximum. The latter is probably asking a lot.
The brightness could be solved by allowing transparency on the indicators. As more are stacked, the square becomes less and less transparent, and therefore brighter.
Personally, I never wanted Grid to be terribly complex. When designing it's basic UI, I wasn't even sure if 4 indicators are too much. Now we have up to 3 lines of text, 8 side/corner indicators, additional bars, etc (I'm not even mentioning all the layout options that never were planned) - and I think before any new feature is added to Grid, it's configuration UI would need to be redone first. Unfortunately, no one seems to be interested in reworking the configuration, all I'm seeing is a ton of new options being added.
If you ask someone to try Grid for the first time and 20min later you get tells with "how the hell do I configure that? I have no idea what to do with this beast" you know it's time to rethink the concept.
I think half the reason configuring is a pain, is because everything has to be done via "infinitely nested menus"
This makes it hard for a new (and even seasoned) user to know where everything is, and what options there are without going through every nested menu.
When I used Grid, I fairly quickly "got" the implications of the options, and how I could use them. But I can easily understand how someone else might not get it right off the bat. And I would venture to say that most people don't see it quickly.
I think a few presets that showcase some of the options might be somewhat helpful here.
But I think the fundamental issue, comes down to the fact that most people don't have the time/ability to sit down and really analyze what they would like for a display, what info is important. This is necessary for Grid because it has a number of abstracted displays, and gives the user many many options to set them up. Without taking the time to think about what you want, it can be a bit overwhelming.
Maybe some brief introductory screens could give the user a few starter ideas of how things could get displayed, get the ol' thinking juices flowing. Maybe even a wizard? A tutorial perhaps?
Anyway, I still maintain that two squares per corner is inherently more orderly and useful, than corners and sides as is current.
Well, there are many ideas for a better config UI - but the general problem that all Ace addons share is that noone has come up with a library yet (other than dewdrop and waterfall). Coding frames in lua simply isn't fun, and lots of work.
I moved the square indicators around to a more useful positions, again, imo.
Instead of: This made And I'd love to have done something like this, more sense: but I had trouble trying to add squares: ----------- ----------- ----------- |X X X| |XX XX| |XXX XXX| | | | | -|X X| |X X| | | || | | | | | ||X X| |X X X| |XX XX| ||XXX XXX| ----------- ----------- ------------ With a mana bar - being discussed in a different post.I found this useful because I could group functions better, each corner fit into a different conceptual category of what they displayed.
Upper left: Mana information
Upper right: Raid buffs, with mine prioritized on highest layer.
Lower left: Healing info, what HoTs are applied, my own prioritized.
Lower right: Bleed effects, and then debuff types, prioritized by what I can cure.
Ideally, I think it would make sense to give the user options to add additional custom squares, just as you can add custom auras, and place them anywhere they want.
Even better would be the ability to indicate multiple instances.
For instance, the lower right corner represented bleed/DoTs. But if there were multiple DoTs the display looked the same. Either a number, or brightness based on number of applications, would be helpful. Or even the ability to add squares and line them up to a certain maximum. The latter is probably asking a lot.
The brightness could be solved by allowing transparency on the indicators. As more are stacked, the square becomes less and less transparent, and therefore brighter.
What do you think?
If you ask someone to try Grid for the first time and 20min later you get tells with "how the hell do I configure that? I have no idea what to do with this beast" you know it's time to rethink the concept.
I think half the reason configuring is a pain, is because everything has to be done via "infinitely nested menus"
This makes it hard for a new (and even seasoned) user to know where everything is, and what options there are without going through every nested menu.
When I used Grid, I fairly quickly "got" the implications of the options, and how I could use them. But I can easily understand how someone else might not get it right off the bat. And I would venture to say that most people don't see it quickly.
I think a few presets that showcase some of the options might be somewhat helpful here.
But I think the fundamental issue, comes down to the fact that most people don't have the time/ability to sit down and really analyze what they would like for a display, what info is important. This is necessary for Grid because it has a number of abstracted displays, and gives the user many many options to set them up. Without taking the time to think about what you want, it can be a bit overwhelming.
Maybe some brief introductory screens could give the user a few starter ideas of how things could get displayed, get the ol' thinking juices flowing. Maybe even a wizard? A tutorial perhaps?
Anyway, I still maintain that two squares per corner is inherently more orderly and useful, than corners and sides as is current.