Very nice. Many of these mindsets I organically discovered while learning to play Bard, and needing to keep an eye on everything in the middle of my screen as a more Support-oriented Damage role, so I'm heartened to see I only need to make minor tweaks.
As a fellow bard, i agree 100%. When playing a class qith support in mind, it really pays to keep informed on as much as you possibly can at all times. Kudos to ya.
It's unfortunate because the one UI you criticized the most is the default UI. Target at top, party on left, enemies on right, gauge on right, (de)buffs at top. This is one thing that frustrated me the most when I first started. Give me a good UI out of the box. Same thing with hot bars. Don't give me one control scheme I can't even fully utilize (1-0). Especially when I start getting 20+ skills.
I was going to say, I'm pretty sure this is the default. Granted, the player added in extra hotbars for class/emote buttons but those are probably the default locations as well. The default UI is pretty messy, I especially don't understand why the buff/debuff bar is up there instead of near your HP.
Not to argue but i disagree, no matter where they put it someone will have to move it around. Starting out its fine but as you get more advanced you learn your comfort.
It happens because the default UI is the most visually pleasing UI that shows the graphics of the game the best. The reason why normal RPGs don't have the player's health bar and buffs in the middle of the screen is because it distracts the player from immersion and the visuals. Difference is Lynx is showing the most effective UI for efficient gameplay, which is completely different vs the casual experience
lol I'm curious if he even remembered this was what the game looked like by default...I kept waiting for him to point that out and criticize the devs for making the default UI so flawed
I'm sorry, but this a 100% subjective topic. You can't make statements like "this is going to make him worse as a player." Not everyone is like you. Some people have the ability to spread their focus and not suffer. My personal setup is very minimalistic. Literally NOTHING is directly in my field of view on screen. My gameplay does not suffer due to this. Not only am I accustomed to it, but I have the ability to concentrate on what's happening on screen while keeping track of the information relevant to my current job. Even in my savage static, on DNC, I'm one of the higher performing members while rarely failing mechanics. All I'm saying is that this is a totally subjective topic that you cannot make blanket statements about.
This actually helped me a lot. My UI was helpful to me, but I always wanted to make a better, and now with these examples I can. But also "have to get used to new UI D:". Great video
Have one for aesthetics and one for raiding. So long as things are in approximately the same place, it works (edit: ffxiv does have multiple ui slots, so it’s very easy to do so)
I will always come from a place of effectiveness and what works for raiding. If raiding is not your main focus / goal then by all means you are free to disagree with my opinion. In fact, even if raiding is your main goal you can still disagree, UI design is all personal preference.
The real masterpiece UIs are the ones that are both super functional and aesthetically pleasing. Would be easier to do if we could have in/out of combat auto toggles, but cest la vi.
@@rinnolk That would be absolutely fantastic. I don't need my job-change hotbars when I'm in a duty, but having to enter the HUD Layout window and switching them off every time I enter a duty is an absolute pain (even though they're out of the way in a corner).
Perhaps. But don't forget you can individually tailor every single HUD/UI element. You can resize it to be smaller among other stuff so it doesn't take up a lot of screen real estate or become a distraction. I'm level 60+ and didn't even know you could have all your bags be one bag when you open inventory until now and have been clicking on the 1/2/3/4 all this time. FML. You learn something new everyday. I haven't touched my UI/HUD yet and have been able to do Extreme Ifrit/Garuda/Titan but after watching this video and seeing that my eyes were all over the place... I don't know how I managed to tank it. My reaction time definitely suffered 100%. It's too bad SE doesn't develop a custom UI for each class (Healer/Tank/DPS) for people to choose as an option.
I had my hud such a mess before but after your video on how to improve inspired me to change my hud into a cleaner design as well as learning how to press buttons instead of clicking my abilities. I personally think I have improved as a player as well as a raider. Granted there's much to still learn but I appreciate the help and tips you give out
I like how you categorized feedback as “need” “want” and “personal preference” I’d love a more focused video on going from starter UI to a tank/dps/healer ui to have the process documented!
The reason some people don't crowd the whole middle of the screen is because they enjoy an uncluttered view of the game. Most people also don't have a 30+" monitor so your eyes don't have to go far to corners and sides brah.
Nice ideas, I switched a few things around on my end because of it. One thing I hope SE puts in is more options for the UI. Things like maybe a toggle for some things in and out of combat like a show/hide or a fade feature so it's less in the way.
This video is exactly what I’ve been looking for! All the tips are so helpful. It hit me when you were talking about where the target bar should be. It’s genius!!
This is interesting, I feel like my UI is solid enough (considering I mostly tend to play dps in my static) but I find too much visual clutter in the middle of my screen to distract rather than help so I still keep party and target bar in their starting places but otherwise keep everything centralized. I did because of this video separate buffs and target debuffs and placed them near my bar so I'm missing out on less. I'm also guilty of the non combat bar for class swapping etc. But have it in the corner of my bar and use macros to keep it as small and out of the way as possible.
I have to say not only was this super helpful and do I have things I can change here but you posed some questions in terms of job UIs differing. I did want to say on a side note that your friend who without to much badgering has the worst UI. That honestly looking at it if your friend has a good understanding of his or her cool downs and button layout or macro setup that honestly I prefer to look beyond my character and what needs focused on. So it looks like your friend who is playing neither healer or tank would want preferably to look to the targets which his or her UI is set up pretty nicely for! You got a like my sub and (idk that I've ever commented on a vid lol) so thank you and your group who allowed this vid to happen!!
I have no issues with my eyes going across the screen, I keep a class gearset hotbar on the right side for swapping when not in dungeons or anything. I keep one tiny hotbar with tele, mount, etc. all those useful commands and then 3 hotbars with gauge around the middle of the screen. Sure, I have buffs and target hp bar at the top, but that doesn't really impact me at all, even when I'm playing tank(was a WAR main in HW and SB)
This definitely helped me realize that moving my Job gauges near my character and buffs right below my character was a good call. I don't have my target bar near my character (its near the top of the screen), but that's mostly because I mainly pay attention to my Focus Target bar for cast information and the like, which I have right next to my character -- the only reason I'd glance at the main target bar is to make sure how much time is left on my DoTs.
In terms of elements position my UI is almost identical to yours lol except for the party list, everything else is exactly at the same place. Specially as a tank I think it works wonders.
Tips for people with “bloat” information. You can put them all on a separate UI preset and use macros to swap between them so 3 bars of icons become one icon
This is pretty similar to how I run my UI. I have it a little more universal because I play multiple roles, but the same concepts are all there, centralized information, important cooldowns isolated, basically as easy access to info as I can manage.
This is pretty cool. Maybe I should post mine, cuz I feel like mine is pretty cluttered, but it works. Edit: Cuz I play fighting games a lot, I usually have my character in my peripherals and my focus is usually the target and the party list. AoEs are usually big, so all I have to do is briefly look at my character, see he's in the clear, then back to the action.
The other thing I've done along the way was that in the beginning, I had auto targeting on. Cuz of that, I get tremendous tunnel vision and miss mechanics that I don't see off-screen (i.e. Eden Ramuh's horse attacks, regular Leviathan's stage slam). Turned that off cuz I got tired of dying all the time to those. The only thing I worry about now is to wiggle so that I don't accidentally start running in the wrong direction.
There was a UI video i watched quite awhile back when i still played WoW, for optimizing my ui. though sadly I cannot find it. It essentially broke down the ui into zones. Almost like a bulls eye on the screen but with 3-4 levels (been a long time i forget), centered on your character. this is a rough estimation 1 - you're core character. and the immediate space around it (feet, sides etc.) as empty space to know where you're standing specifically, to ensure you aren't in AoE's and so on. 2 - any information vital to how you play. for a tank this can be cd's (short ones, TBN etc.), threat charts, health, etc. healer it's usually a bit more space on the screen, as that's normally where party list or raid bar's go. dps it's essentially proc based abilities, debuffs/buffs, target bar, and target cast bar. 3 - information you need to look at occasionally. so invulns, major tank cd's, potentially threat bars here, and likely party menu for utility skills. all classes usually put major cd's around this area. likely also class bar's if you use them. (though my class bar's usually fit in 1 or 2. as I keep hotbars hidden or so far to the side as to be non-distracting. so class bars become vital. it does come down to personal preference as well). and ffxiv's version of DBM/WA (triggernometry) if used as well. 4 - tertiary information that you can mostly ignore. this can be your hotbar with skills, dps tracker if you use it. etc. (having no bar with skills and just having them memorized is best if you can. but not something everyone can pull off.) also I'd look into ua-cam.com/video/LYToDRSELLI/v-deo.html for those of you cluttering a screen to hell with other jobs/roles/emotes. It's a good place to have that as well. almost anything that doesn't really matter to the fight at hand. It's also nice to have excessive amounts of peripheral free space, to look at various area's of the fight without needing to move your camera so much. my own UI is a mix between 3, 4, and 6. my target is near middle, debuffs/buffs around it. but not as centered as lynx. I keep my class bar mid screen more often than not similar to 4 (class dependent, usually simple bar), but much higher on the screen. Similar to how 6 and 3 put their major cd's on their screen, mine is similar. I have hotbars flanking either side of my screen (one left, one right), that carry my cd's or procs. . theirs also a hidden bar directly bellow my character (a little under feet), that will occasionally have a couple things there. My general aim, is to play with as little rotational information as possible. Which does require you to know you're rotation and hotkeys like the back of your hand. think of doing SSS/dungeons with your ui completely turned off levels of comfort with your class (ofc, some that's not particularly viable due to procs. but the idea stands), and then adding in a few core elements back for raids. And then put all core information as close to center, or just bellow my character as i can.
I have two macros for dungeon/raiding. One turns off filler hotbars/ui elements that I use when roaming freeworld, and the other turns it all back on. I did however take something out of this video. I'm planning on reworking my buff icons to be closer to my feet because that is ultimately what I am focused on when looking at my character. Great video.
I know a lot of people move the minimap down to the center below their char, and have the cooldowns and clocked abilities above it with the utility click tiles to the left and right of the map. The view arc from the charachters feet about 90 degrees wide and center third of the screen are the prime viewing areas to keep uncluttered for "Mobile" classes. The emote clicks and other, non-combat stuff, like mounts, travel and job change stuff can go around the far edges.
I barely fixed my UI after learning to play with mouse + keyboard for a few months and the one thing i might recommend is minimize the display size of the non-essential extra hotbars and other stuff. Or better yet, just remove things that will not cause you to mess up by not knowing. For example, I don't ever need to see my experience gauge (especially as at level cap) and if I do, I'll go check the character tab to see it. I'm not going to die if I can't see how far I am from leveling lol. I try to keep things like sprint, mounts and Limit Break buttons on particular keybinds on hidden hotbars. The LB has an audio cue when ready, plus I have the gauge towards the top left corner of the screen, and I have it committed to memory in a way where I won't accidentally activate it. At least, that's the way I prefer, but after seeing this video I feel like my set up has much more room for improvement too.
glad to know my ui is correct by putting everything around my character but the only difference is that i use focus target more than normal target bar since as a tank i dont have dots to keep up with and i can get all the information that i need on it
Y'all who want the fun time ui too, there's an option to have 3 more ui interfaces. I like to have one for battles and other for my daily shenanigans. If you wanna emote easily during battles for examle use chat commands. It's not hard to remember /bow /hug /etc it's pretty straight forward. Changing thing's sizes can help too. But wtv works best for y'all :)
Right. On a technical, factual level, you're points are right and spot on, and I know you did make a small mention of the fact that 'bad' UI can work for certain people. Still, at least for me, and I'm sure others have the same opinion, I dislike cramming everything close to the centre of the screen, it would just distract me more so than if some of my bars where more out of the way. For example while the last UI and to a smaller extent your personal UI are great for you and whomever uses that last showcase, I would get annoyed at the fact that the central part of my screen has everything clustered around it with so much dead space on the outer sections. Basically, what I'm saying in a very protracted, most likely annoying fashion, is that UI is personal preference. It's like people's rooms, some people love having things very organised and can't stand seemingly random clutter, while others have an organised clutter that looks like a massive mess to everyone but them, as they know where everything is just the way it is. Though on further thought, I guess this is somewhat of a outsider's view, FFXIV is the only MMO I've played so I don't know if what I'm saying only makes sense to me, I could be wrong, probably am in a bunch of places, oh well. /shrug I do need to make some improvements to my own UI, mainly emotes, I was big into RP in the past and now I'm nowhere near as much, and I'm lazy so there's a lot of wasted space on my UI. Overall, great video though. Good work.
My best improvement was using a UI for wandering around the map doing quests and a UI for battles. For wandering around in non-duty time, I want a compass and mini map to be present, my journal of quests, and if there is something I can easily reach with a single button press (like inventory) I remove it, and I have class/emote macros for changing on the fly and socialising. Since I'm mostly solo during this time I don't need to care about other peoples' health and as a healer my rotation is basically stone/regen/holy/aero which doesn't require a lot of thought. For duties I use my 2nd UI template. I remove the main quest title, I remove the mini map and have a reduced compass for navigating, I remove the system/menu buttons, the server and time, gil, basically remove anything that is not strictly necessary for fighting. I don't use a lot of hotbars at the moment and I haven't unlocked the Lily just yet, so my primary interest is the party list to keep everyone alive. I assigned the templates with keybinds so that with the press of a button I can switch between them. What a lifesaver it's been for quality of life.
I've been wondering how I can work my UI to look better, and you've answered so many questions I didn't even know I had lol. I'm diggin' my new UI (PS4 player) and can't wait to use it in a raid. Thanks for making your content and being humble enough to promote people to add a dislike for constructive criticism. Cheers!
Big thing that helped me was using a macro to switch between a raid UI with all the bloat info out of the way and another with my day-to-day questing UI. I believe the command is /hudlayout#
Something I feel a lot of people overlook, is overload. I'm one of the few who prefer information be spread out. And, it has never effected my efficiency. But, having everything in a tight ball has, quite negatively. When things are fanned out, my eyes know **exactly** where to go to find the information. When everything is close and right next to each other, I find I need to search harder, because everything is so close there's no real defining border for where certain things are, it's just the center of your screen, and it feels like information overload. Of course, I am the outlier, and don't expect others to understand what I'm saying. But, we exist, and I support your friend in the first UI! Cheers on the video.
I understand you likely value end game raiding. But you seem to forget not everyone creates their UI specifically for it. You're right that it's good to have all valuable information condensed around your character for that. But that's not how most people play (for end game raiding). A lot of people like to keep the game looking good rather than cluttered. The space around their character in this case should be kept open and clear. I appreciate you're coming from the perspective of how you play the game, but I'd say for future videos like this, consider other people's perspective also and acknowledge reasons why they might have chosen the positions they have for their UI elements.
Different strokes for different folks, I guess. The more spread-out UIs probably work well for a lot of players because it's similar to the layouts of other popular games and MMOs. Plus, if you've played a lot of party-heavy or raid-heavy games like this before, then your brain is kind of already trained to look to a certain area and grab info quickly. There's also some of the roleplayers and more social players of the game. I realize some of the extra emotes and whatnot might feel unnecessary to others, but it's honestly more annoying to have to constantly open menus to grab what you want lol. I definitely see where you're coming from though, in terms of a cluttered UI. Like I said, different things work for different people.
As always when talking about subjective topics such as design there will be an aspect of "whatever works for you." I will always try to give my perspective and provide reasoning, but at the end of the day, it is just my opinion.
Just finding out your channel, grats on the content! One quick observation regarding your own UI, if I may: I know you mentioned you play a tank and that limit break may not the most useful button for you to press, but it's good for awareness to know where your group is on the scale, so I would dislodge it to underneath your bars (so, bottom center). It's a non-intrusive spot already close to your awareness radius and can give you that information at a glance. Keep up the good work!
Took me so long to get my UI perfect. My UI is sort of mirrored reading from right to left. (I wish I could make bars empty from right to left but it doesn't matter) I try to keep everything that's important in the middle of the screen. Same concepts from when I played wow. It's gotten to the point where if I try to improve it, it would be very difficult to get everything perfect. Back up my settings to multiple places because oh gosh reconfigurations are the worst.
As a healer main (but I play all roles), I must have my target hp at the top. For obvious reasons, though, it is down several notches from the top edge of the screen. Party list, focus target, chat, and enemy list all are consolidated at the left and upper areas and generally sit near my target elements (except for the chat snug in the top left corner, the rest are away from the edge of the screen). My action hotbars, job gauges, hp, buffs/debuffs, and limit break are below my character, but again, to compensate for being far from the target hp, they're also raised several notches from the bottom of the screen. My "big" map is up at all times on the bottom left corner because I do open world content frequently, but it has moderate transparency so that it's always see-through. The minimap isn't as useful, but it's up at all times just above the big map, hugging the left edge. At 1440p, I have the screen space luxury to put a lot of less important UI elements to the upper and lower right of the screen, and they hug the edge/corner.
Maybe I'm special, but I don't have any issues moving my eyes 1/1000th of a millimeter to look at my "worst possible UI layout". The only time I can see needing your stuff scrunched into 1 spot is if you're playing on a 50" screen.
I've been playing this game for more than 4 years and I think I might spend around more than 48 hours in total just messing/adjusting ui on both ps4 and pc.
Oh good I'm glad I'm not crazy by moving everything inwards to my character My UI is exactly the same as yours except party is on the left (as a healer main I focus on ally buffs), and I have a 140% size hotbar in between the target bar and health bar with important cooldowns
That was excellent ! I saw another video about keybinds which helped me a lot to improve, but I still wasn’t to sure how to set up the ui properly, the only thing I did right in my ui as a dps is put the gauge pretty big and the closest thing to my character 😂
The buff bar thing is what's throwing my UI off the most. I'm new to the game, never raided yet, WoW refugee: my buff bar in WoW was irrelevant, all I needed to know was bloodlust, which was obvious bc fights typically called for its use at specific points and that was the only raid CD that was relevant. But pugging trials and such means I'm gonna have to find a way to make it easy to find. Which sucks bc I'm maining DNC and have all my proc based spells (a lot) hotbars under my characters feet, along with my HP bar, enemy HP bar etc,, and I don't have much room for it in that area.
I think one thing that a lot of people can use to improve their UI is hidden/collapsible macro that hides or copies bars over to new bars. Using those for things like Job changes or Emotes can significantly cut down on the amount of screen space covered by random fluff hotbars. If you haven't see something like this done before I suggest looking up "ffxiv hotbar menu" on your favorite search engine (we all know its google). Aside from that I am surprise you didn't mention having your aggro meter in an easy to stop location for tanks since its pretty important for tank swaps to know when your co-tank uses Provoke.
I pretty quickly gave up on not looking at my hotbar... because I mostly play jobs that either have a shit ton of CDs (like SCH ^^) or rng (DNC)... and to be frank, while there are buffs on your character to indicate the readied rng... it is way easier to track a glowing button. I also switch classes quite often since I am still more focused on leveling rather than raiding and easily distracted. So not looking at the hotbar is a futile effort for now.
ha you should watch streams of people who just started playing, if they figured out that they can change their UI they make it look like the biggest clusterfuck there is xD
I made a macro and then keybound it onto a hidden bar as my x button. This macro makes it alternate the party (and alliance) and the quest/msq/duty on and off with ＊/hud "etc"＊. I have a small laptop screen, so this allows me to briefly look at the field while i'm doing stuff while i'm in group content (since duty info is very small while inside group content) but also allows me to run around with a clean screen in the open world (since i usually only group with my chocobo currently if that). I also use a different HUD layout for DPS and Healing (and specifically lvl 50 content on red mage), where everything is nearly the same except for which hotbars are visible, where the party list is located, and whether my HP/MP is visible. As a DPS, my party list is way in the default upper left corner. My job gauges are next to my HP/MP bar. As a healer, it is much closer to the center, with the eighth slot nearly touching the upper right corner of a slightly shorter default chat box. The hud toggle is definitely essential for me especially as a healer since my party is near the center of my screen but I have a small screen (and resizing any of the HUD elements would make me unable to read). I keep my HP/MP invisible on my healer because I am spending all my time staring at the party list anyway, which tells me my own HP and MP. Peripheral is very important. Idk if it helps anyone else, but being intimate with typing ＊/hudlayout #＊ and ＊/hotbar display #＊ definitely lets me switch back and forth easily without hassle :) The only 'weird' thing about my set up is that for SOME reason, i really like putting my skill bar in the right-middle. I've done it in other games that let me customize. But i've also played really well with the skillbar on the bottom too in other-other games. idk xD
ALL of these UI's look messy... You can collapse the Hotbars with macros for each thing and your UI gets super clean and compact, I personally do so with my classes (separated by roles) and items
Which camera type do you use? I like that I don’t shuffle slowly while moving backwards with legacy, but I don’t like having to move the camera all the time.
I'm personally very picky about functional, but organized and clean, and then of course catering to how your own vision might work. My skills are all organized by combo and like-skills, with buff and debuff bars right ontop of my skill bars so theyre close to keep track of, my party end enmity lists are in (basically) their default position 'cause for me personally having them closer to the center makes them feel in the way and cluttered, and it's never proved an issue for me on any role (though I main AST), while I try and keep stuff away from the right side of my screen (I'm blind in one eye so my gaze naturally shifts left). While I agree you absolutely should have your stuff that tends to shift your focus near your character (buffs, debuffs, RNG proc based skills, boss bar, focus target, and meter) but a lot of other stuff kinda boils down to the individual and how it works for them
Having the party list right of center has always been helpful for me: you can see the players' health bars in your periphery since they are aligned left of their mana and buffs.
>Laughs in Collapsible UI for unnecessary hotbars. Now if only I could buy a keyboard without a windows button in the left of the keyboard so I could use Alt as well!
As a long time FF fan, I try to make the UI look as close as to other FF games as I can I like to keep a lot of info on the bottom, and the party list on the far bottom-right corner my hot bars are closest to the left as it can go, with the limit gauge right underneath, and my job gauge on the right of the hot bars I play DPS so I don't have my Status effect windows up (Red Mage to be specific) I don't utilize a lot of the UI tbh, I think paying attention to the mechanics and AOEs is a lot more important for me cause if I'm looking at a bunch of shit on the screen I get distracted and die to mechanics I only want to see what I need to, and I want it on the bottom, closest to my characters feet, where all the AOE's are gonna be lol
"I never have to move my center of attention". But you literally said you dont need to look at any of your UI in the first place, why's it matter to have it centered if you can do without looking at it xD
On top of the points you made, I also think of my (healer) UI as being read left to right, top to bottom, in order from most important to least. There's tweaks and exceptions and caveats, but generally its been a helpful guideline when you sometimes don't know where to start reorganizing.
One thing I will say about having the gauges spread out, is if you are coming from single player games, are used to ones that have a party, and real time battles, you get used to looking everywhere on the screen, so setting things up that way, is actually playing to your individual strengths. It might not seem optimal for someone used to MMOs, but for some people it works, because they are playing to their strengths. Aside from this you have very helpful advice.
For me I don't care if I'm doing the most important thing in the game you can do, if its getting in the way of what's on the screen I'm not a fan. I'll have some things that only pop up at certain points closer to my character but I'm not about to clutter everything into the middle of my screen and actually have it get in the way of the game.
The principles you discuss make a lot of sense, and I think I can apply some of them to make my battle UI a bit better. I play at 3440x1440, and with all that real estate to use, I get tempted to clear center screen so I can enjoy the scenery! One of the really good things about FFXIV is our ability to design and quickly swap among four different UI designs, so we can have designs optimized for the different things we do. I've been working on getting these different UIs right ever since we got the four-design option, and I'm still not satisfied. Maybe nobody is.
my UI is pretty good, at least for me. But ppl who see, are baffled. I remove as much as I can, including party and raid frames and only have Tank frames. I play DPS and Tank only. I have it in a figure 8 around my character at 60% size and 4 more in the center covering the character. It takes 6 hotbars to make. Then I have 2 hot bars on the bottom, enemy hp below my figure 8, my hp/mp above the figure 8, all scaled down. I use shift 1-8 and alt 1-8 for the bottom 2 hot bars. The center 4 are not binded, I keep my mouse in the middle of all 4 and click, they are for larger CDs, or if im not raiding, i switch them into mounts and other things. I only stare at my the center, and use my peripherals for the enemy, and floor. EDIT; Oh buff timers above my hp/mp, and debuff below the enemy hp bar. Every thing is centered, in middle screen, but I also have it re-positioned to the right, and bottom. When it possitions bottom, incase I need my clarity for the center of the screen, the 2 bottom hot bars move to the left and right. I also have a macro hotkey, that changes it on command. So I can swap it inbetween phases if need be. Edit 2: Oh i actually don't use 1-8, i use 1-4, and Z,X,C, and r. It lets me move while being able to hit any hotkey combination quickly using shift and alt.
Hmm.. if I were to grade mine on based on your guideline: * Target bar: fail (Partly because for the longest time, I've been playing classes that don't have dots - RDM/DNC being my primaries. Something I should move) * Action Bar: pass? kinda (I have 3 bars where I set my normal buttons, but they're hidden, I have my keys memorized, but I have important cooldowns at the bottom) * Gauge, HP/MP, Buffs/Debuffs, Focus target: pass (just above my cooldown bars) * Party window: fail (On the far right, I don't generally pay too much attention to the party window, I do use ACT which calls out raid buffs and debuffs outgoing though, I can generally tie boss mechanics to when those effects go out) * Enemy list: fail (far left - definitely need to move it, this does get me killed as a result of not watching it) Mostly built for DPS bars.. also if it matters I play two handed on my keyboard generally, mouse is for camera adjustment (I do also have a few mouse buttons but that's generally resource replenishment or ranged attack on a melee, and sprint) - Probably a solid 6 overall I do have class change hotbars, but HUD swap buttons take care of that
My hotbars look like a hot mess of buttons in weird places, all alone in empty space in some cases. But that's all because of muscle memory. If I put a skill somewhere, and my fingers constantly want to go somewhere else when I want to use that, I'll move it. Muscle memory will always win in a split-second decision situation. ALWAYS.
My friend has a Hotbar arround the upper right of the circle at size 200% with the Lali-ho emote and Limit break,(healer main) always makes me laugh when he sends a screenshot X')
I use controller on PC and all of the UI options for controller are amazing. I have it all set up to switch my "active" hotbars (cross hotbars actually) when my weapon is out or shethed. So I can have functional stuff (like class changes, mounts, etc) and emote stuff on the same spot as my full damage rotation stuff. Really makes the UI smaller and compact and dependent on the situation. I've also removed my hp/mp bar in favor or just using the hp/mp in the part list. Then I have the part list always on. This way I'm conditioned to look at my party list more often and pay attention to my team more. (And when I'm a dps I don't need to look at my own info or party members has much. Thus frees up space/clutter a bit. and, of course, everything is around my character. :D
What's up with people clustering half their screen with buttons for different jobs, emotes, etc.? You can just set a macro to show/hide hotbars with a single button press. All these buttons are hidden and a single button brings them back on the screen.
I like the centralised advice. That came naturally to me just these days and there was immediate improvement. Def got some good advice from this! Turns out I can't have the lists too close tho (healer) or when I'm rotating the camera to change direction I accidentally click on someone, it's trial and error hahah
I cant wait until we get more hotbars, having a BIG hotbar with all relevant cooldowns on just to see them seems nice but 10 hotbars just isnt enough for that.
I'm still trying to figure out what is best for me over all but I spent 6 hours simplifying my bars and consolidating them to a good spot for me and then also making macros for hiding quick hotbars for the rest. I'm more of a casual player but some friends wanted to try raid content so we're figuring it out together lol
New player here thinking about focusing Tank/Healer, because they're my favorite classes/jobs in most MMORPGs, but ngl, seeing this video it's really intimidating on how many things i'll need keep track off because of endgame stuff... But i'm really glad i found this video, some amazing advices that i'll take to heart and overcome a part of this tank/healer ansiety with a good hud! Thx :)
I'll probably get flamed fopr this but, I miss my WoW UI addons so much. One of the only complaints I have with the game. The UI customisation is pretty robust, but it doesn't come close to the freedom you have with some of the addons in WoW. I'm still struggling with a clean setup.
My UI is kinda okay, but cluttered at the same time. I have pretty bad eyesight, so I keep my UI size large, but that means the clickable area isn't as good as it should be.
I can't handle the chaotic UI's these people have. Mine is a work of art, albeit modded. Tank player, have everything that matters within view, but no need to clutter my screen up
An interesting video with a lot of things to learn. I'm mostly casual so I've set-up my UI in a way that I've found aesthetically pleasing to me. However, being a fighting game players for years now, I've also set it up in a way that I can get a bunch of informations with just a glance, akin to looking at my health bars/super gauges.
Been reworking my UI a bit recently. I still have to set something that works but I actually learned some things I can do to make it better for me as a tank main as ive found im starting to struggle with mechanics recently.
:o [Immediately logs in to fix UI]
"This first UI is the worst you can have"
I uuuuuh gotta log into FF real quick"
LOL
@@WindflowPattern Obviously I wouldn't make the changes if I didn't find the information useful lmao
I’m uhhhh gonna be right back
Some of these UIs really make me have an actual "Bitch, you live like this?" moment.
mine is all localized so that my eyes dont dart around. and its made a world of difference in my play since i changed it like, 6 months ago.
Very nice. Many of these mindsets I organically discovered while learning to play Bard, and needing to keep an eye on everything in the middle of my screen as a more Support-oriented Damage role, so I'm heartened to see I only need to make minor tweaks.
As a fellow bard, i agree 100%. When playing a class qith support in mind, it really pays to keep informed on as much as you possibly can at all times. Kudos to ya.
It's unfortunate because the one UI you criticized the most is the default UI. Target at top, party on left, enemies on right, gauge on right, (de)buffs at top.
This is one thing that frustrated me the most when I first started. Give me a good UI out of the box. Same thing with hot bars. Don't give me one control scheme I can't even fully utilize (1-0). Especially when I start getting 20+ skills.
I was going to say, I'm pretty sure this is the default. Granted, the player added in extra hotbars for class/emote buttons but those are probably the default locations as well. The default UI is pretty messy, I especially don't understand why the buff/debuff bar is up there instead of near your HP.
Also pretty mandatory to move the party list if you gonna play anything other than dps
Not to argue but i disagree, no matter where they put it someone will have to move it around. Starting out its fine but as you get more advanced you learn your comfort.
It happens because the default UI is the most visually pleasing UI that shows the graphics of the game the best. The reason why normal RPGs don't have the player's health bar and buffs in the middle of the screen is because it distracts the player from immersion and the visuals. Difference is Lynx is showing the most effective UI for efficient gameplay, which is completely different vs the casual experience
lol I'm curious if he even remembered this was what the game looked like by default...I kept waiting for him to point that out and criticize the devs for making the default UI so flawed
I started doing EX trails today and IMMEDIATELY noticed how hard it was to keep up with attacks. Moved everything to the middle then and there.
I'm sorry, but this a 100% subjective topic. You can't make statements like "this is going to make him worse as a player." Not everyone is like you. Some people have the ability to spread their focus and not suffer. My personal setup is very minimalistic. Literally NOTHING is directly in my field of view on screen. My gameplay does not suffer due to this. Not only am I accustomed to it, but I have the ability to concentrate on what's happening on screen while keeping track of the information relevant to my current job. Even in my savage static, on DNC, I'm one of the higher performing members while rarely failing mechanics. All I'm saying is that this is a totally subjective topic that you cannot make blanket statements about.
This actually helped me a lot. My UI was helpful to me, but I always wanted to make a better, and now with these examples I can. But also "have to get used to new UI D:". Great video
Glad it helped!
It may be effective but it's equally ugly when you get everything in the same place
Have one for aesthetics and one for raiding. So long as things are in approximately the same place, it works
(edit: ffxiv does have multiple ui slots, so it’s very easy to do so)
I will always come from a place of effectiveness and what works for raiding. If raiding is not your main focus / goal then by all means you are free to disagree with my opinion. In fact, even if raiding is your main goal you can still disagree, UI design is all personal preference.
The real masterpiece UIs are the ones that are both super functional and aesthetically pleasing. Would be easier to do if we could have in/out of combat auto toggles, but cest la vi.
@@rinnolk That would be absolutely fantastic. I don't need my job-change hotbars when I'm in a duty, but having to enter the HUD Layout window and switching them off every time I enter a duty is an absolute pain (even though they're out of the way in a corner).
Perhaps. But don't forget you can individually tailor every single HUD/UI element. You can resize it to be smaller among other stuff so it doesn't take up a lot of screen real estate or become a distraction. I'm level 60+ and didn't even know you could have all your bags be one bag when you open inventory until now and have been clicking on the 1/2/3/4 all this time. FML. You learn something new everyday.
I haven't touched my UI/HUD yet and have been able to do Extreme Ifrit/Garuda/Titan but after watching this video and seeing that my eyes were all over the place... I don't know how I managed to tank it. My reaction time definitely suffered 100%. It's too bad SE doesn't develop a custom UI for each class (Healer/Tank/DPS) for people to choose as an option.
I had my hud such a mess before but after your video on how to improve inspired me to change my hud into a cleaner design as well as learning how to press buttons instead of clicking my abilities. I personally think I have improved as a player as well as a raider. Granted there's much to still learn but I appreciate the help and tips you give out
By these standards i have a great ui. I just tried to make my old wow setup. Problem is im still trash at the game lmao
I like how you categorized feedback as “need” “want” and “personal preference”
I’d love a more focused video on going from starter UI to a tank/dps/healer ui to have the process documented!
The reason some people don't crowd the whole middle of the screen is because they enjoy an uncluttered view of the game.
Most people also don't have a 30+" monitor so your eyes don't have to go far to corners and sides brah.
Nice ideas, I switched a few things around on my end because of it. One thing I hope SE puts in is more options for the UI. Things like maybe a toggle for some things in and out of combat like a show/hide or a fade feature so it's less in the way.
The UI always depends on what are you doing. If you Raid, keep it clean but if you just play around etc i dont mind havind a bit chaos in it^^"
I'm curious to see you make a video about macros: More specifically what macros should be used for and what makes a good and useful macro.
This video is exactly what I’ve been looking for! All the tips are so helpful. It hit me when you were talking about where the target bar should be. It’s genius!!
Glad I could help :)
Lynx Kameli dude these haters in your comments don’t know wtf they’re talking about LOL you’re freaking awesome man.
Haha thanks, most people are super nice and I'm really appreciative of that!
This is interesting, I feel like my UI is solid enough (considering I mostly tend to play dps in my static) but I find too much visual clutter in the middle of my screen to distract rather than help so I still keep party and target bar in their starting places but otherwise keep everything centralized. I did because of this video separate buffs and target debuffs and placed them near my bar so I'm missing out on less.
I'm also guilty of the non combat bar for class swapping etc. But have it in the corner of my bar and use macros to keep it as small and out of the way as possible.
Really enjoyed the video thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I have to say not only was this super helpful and do I have things I can change here but you posed some questions in terms of job UIs differing. I did want to say on a side note that your friend who without to much badgering has the worst UI. That honestly looking at it if your friend has a good understanding of his or her cool downs and button layout or macro setup that honestly I prefer to look beyond my character and what needs focused on. So it looks like your friend who is playing neither healer or tank would want preferably to look to the targets which his or her UI is set up pretty nicely for! You got a like my sub and (idk that I've ever commented on a vid lol) so thank you and your group who allowed this vid to happen!!
I have no issues with my eyes going across the screen, I keep a class gearset hotbar on the right side for swapping when not in dungeons or anything. I keep one tiny hotbar with tele, mount, etc. all those useful commands and then 3 hotbars with gauge around the middle of the screen. Sure, I have buffs and target hp bar at the top, but that doesn't really impact me at all, even when I'm playing tank(was a WAR main in HW and SB)
This definitely helped me realize that moving my Job gauges near my character and buffs right below my character was a good call.
I don't have my target bar near my character (its near the top of the screen), but that's mostly because I mainly pay attention to my Focus Target bar for cast information and the like, which I have right next to my character -- the only reason I'd glance at the main target bar is to make sure how much time is left on my DoTs.
This is so helpful thank you for doing this. Heading off to correct my UI!
In terms of elements position my UI is almost identical to yours lol except for the party list, everything else is exactly at the same place. Specially as a tank I think it works wonders.
Tips for people with “bloat” information. You can put them all on a separate UI preset and use macros to swap between them so 3 bars of icons become one icon
This is pretty similar to how I run my UI. I have it a little more universal because I play multiple roles, but the same concepts are all there, centralized information, important cooldowns isolated, basically as easy access to info as I can manage.
Damn our UI is pretty similar in structure, except I keep it even more cramped in the center and my HP is below the hotbar
Great gotta fix my UI yet again
This is me too 😂
I was hoping to see a controller UI layout but your basic information has given me new insight and I've been playing for a year now.
This is pretty cool. Maybe I should post mine, cuz I feel like mine is pretty cluttered, but it works.
Edit: Cuz I play fighting games a lot, I usually have my character in my peripherals and my focus is usually the target and the party list.
AoEs are usually big, so all I have to do is briefly look at my character, see he's in the clear, then back to the action.
The other thing I've done along the way was that in the beginning, I had auto targeting on. Cuz of that, I get tremendous tunnel vision and miss mechanics that I don't see off-screen (i.e. Eden Ramuh's horse attacks, regular Leviathan's stage slam). Turned that off cuz I got tired of dying all the time to those. The only thing I worry about now is to wiggle so that I don't accidentally start running in the wrong direction.
There was a UI video i watched quite awhile back when i still played WoW, for optimizing my ui. though sadly I cannot find it. It essentially broke down the ui into zones. Almost like a bulls eye on the screen but with 3-4 levels (been a long time i forget), centered on your character.
this is a rough estimation
1 - you're core character. and the immediate space around it (feet, sides etc.) as empty space to know where you're standing specifically, to ensure you aren't in AoE's and so on.
2 - any information vital to how you play. for a tank this can be cd's (short ones, TBN etc.), threat charts, health, etc. healer it's usually a bit more space on the screen, as that's normally where party list or raid bar's go. dps it's essentially proc based abilities, debuffs/buffs, target bar, and target cast bar.
3 - information you need to look at occasionally. so invulns, major tank cd's, potentially threat bars here, and likely party menu for utility skills. all classes usually put major cd's around this area. likely also class bar's if you use them. (though my class bar's usually fit in 1 or 2. as I keep hotbars hidden or so far to the side as to be non-distracting. so class bars become vital. it does come down to personal preference as well). and ffxiv's version of DBM/WA (triggernometry) if used as well.
4 - tertiary information that you can mostly ignore. this can be your hotbar with skills, dps tracker if you use it. etc. (having no bar with skills and just having them memorized is best if you can. but not something everyone can pull off.) also I'd look into ua-cam.com/video/LYToDRSELLI/v-deo.html for those of you cluttering a screen to hell with other jobs/roles/emotes. It's a good place to have that as well. almost anything that doesn't really matter to the fight at hand. It's also nice to have excessive amounts of peripheral free space, to look at various area's of the fight without needing to move your camera so much.
my own UI is a mix between 3, 4, and 6.
my target is near middle, debuffs/buffs around it. but not as centered as lynx. I keep my class bar mid screen more often than not similar to 4 (class dependent, usually simple bar), but much higher on the screen. Similar to how 6 and 3 put their major cd's on their screen, mine is similar. I have hotbars flanking either side of my screen (one left, one right), that carry my cd's or procs. . theirs also a hidden bar directly bellow my character (a little under feet), that will occasionally have a couple things there.
My general aim, is to play with as little rotational information as possible. Which does require you to know you're rotation and hotkeys like the back of your hand. think of doing SSS/dungeons with your ui completely turned off levels of comfort with your class (ofc, some that's not particularly viable due to procs. but the idea stands), and then adding in a few core elements back for raids. And then put all core information as close to center, or just bellow my character as i can.
I have two macros for dungeon/raiding. One turns off filler hotbars/ui elements that I use when roaming freeworld, and the other turns it all back on. I did however take something out of this video. I'm planning on reworking my buff icons to be closer to my feet because that is ultimately what I am focused on when looking at my character. Great video.
Thank you!
Wait wait wait how did you do that, if I may ask? :o what are the commands?
@@Sky-de7oy ua-cam.com/video/LYToDRSELLI/v-deo.html
Something like that. Google macro to hide ui elements ffxiv.
I know a lot of people move the minimap down to the center below their char, and have the cooldowns and clocked abilities above it with the utility click tiles to the left and right of the map. The view arc from the charachters feet about 90 degrees wide and center third of the screen are the prime viewing areas to keep uncluttered for "Mobile" classes. The emote clicks and other, non-combat stuff, like mounts, travel and job change stuff can go around the far edges.
I barely fixed my UI after learning to play with mouse + keyboard for a few months and the one thing i might recommend is minimize the display size of the non-essential extra hotbars and other stuff.
Or better yet, just remove things that will not cause you to mess up by not knowing. For example, I don't ever need to see my experience gauge (especially as at level cap) and if I do, I'll go check the character tab to see it. I'm not going to die if I can't see how far I am from leveling lol.
I try to keep things like sprint, mounts and Limit Break buttons on particular keybinds on hidden hotbars. The LB has an audio cue when ready, plus I have the gauge towards the top left corner of the screen, and I have it committed to memory in a way where I won't accidentally activate it.
At least, that's the way I prefer, but after seeing this video I feel like my set up has much more room for improvement too.
glad to know my ui is correct by putting everything around my character but the only difference is that i use focus target more than normal target bar since as a tank i dont have dots to keep up with and i can get all the information that i need on it
Y'all who want the fun time ui too, there's an option to have 3 more ui interfaces. I like to have one for battles and other for my daily shenanigans. If you wanna emote easily during battles for examle use chat commands. It's not hard to remember /bow /hug /etc it's pretty straight forward. Changing thing's sizes can help too. But wtv works best for y'all :)
I'm curious, what's the purpose of looking at the target bar? Everyone seems to put it in an easy to see spit but I NEVER look at it in game.
Right. On a technical, factual level, you're points are right and spot on, and I know you did make a small mention of the fact that 'bad' UI can work for certain people. Still, at least for me, and I'm sure others have the same opinion, I dislike cramming everything close to the centre of the screen, it would just distract me more so than if some of my bars where more out of the way. For example while the last UI and to a smaller extent your personal UI are great for you and whomever uses that last showcase, I would get annoyed at the fact that the central part of my screen has everything clustered around it with so much dead space on the outer sections.
Basically, what I'm saying in a very protracted, most likely annoying fashion, is that UI is personal preference. It's like people's rooms, some people love having things very organised and can't stand seemingly random clutter, while others have an organised clutter that looks like a massive mess to everyone but them, as they know where everything is just the way it is. Though on further thought, I guess this is somewhat of a outsider's view, FFXIV is the only MMO I've played so I don't know if what I'm saying only makes sense to me, I could be wrong, probably am in a bunch of places, oh well. /shrug
I do need to make some improvements to my own UI, mainly emotes, I was big into RP in the past and now I'm nowhere near as much, and I'm lazy so there's a lot of wasted space on my UI.
Overall, great video though. Good work.
My best improvement was using a UI for wandering around the map doing quests and a UI for battles. For wandering around in non-duty time, I want a compass and mini map to be present, my journal of quests, and if there is something I can easily reach with a single button press (like inventory) I remove it, and I have class/emote macros for changing on the fly and socialising. Since I'm mostly solo during this time I don't need to care about other peoples' health and as a healer my rotation is basically stone/regen/holy/aero which doesn't require a lot of thought. For duties I use my 2nd UI template. I remove the main quest title, I remove the mini map and have a reduced compass for navigating, I remove the system/menu buttons, the server and time, gil, basically remove anything that is not strictly necessary for fighting. I don't use a lot of hotbars at the moment and I haven't unlocked the Lily just yet, so my primary interest is the party list to keep everyone alive.
I assigned the templates with keybinds so that with the press of a button I can switch between them. What a lifesaver it's been for quality of life.
I've been wondering how I can work my UI to look better, and you've answered so many questions I didn't even know I had lol. I'm diggin' my new UI (PS4 player) and can't wait to use it in a raid. Thanks for making your content and being humble enough to promote people to add a dislike for constructive criticism. Cheers!
Glad I could help!
Big thing that helped me was using a macro to switch between a raid UI with all the bloat info out of the way and another with my day-to-day questing UI. I believe the command is /hudlayout#
Im actually lost on how i can improve my UI, but your video gave me an idea on how to improve it, thanks :D
Something I feel a lot of people overlook, is overload. I'm one of the few who prefer information be spread out. And, it has never effected my efficiency. But, having everything in a tight ball has, quite negatively. When things are fanned out, my eyes know **exactly** where to go to find the information. When everything is close and right next to each other, I find I need to search harder, because everything is so close there's no real defining border for where certain things are, it's just the center of your screen, and it feels like information overload. Of course, I am the outlier, and don't expect others to understand what I'm saying. But, we exist, and I support your friend in the first UI! Cheers on the video.
Touched up my UI while watching this video. No major changes, but things like moving my buff bar more centrally were things I hadn't thought about.
I understand you likely value end game raiding. But you seem to forget not everyone creates their UI specifically for it. You're right that it's good to have all valuable information condensed around your character for that. But that's not how most people play (for end game raiding). A lot of people like to keep the game looking good rather than cluttered. The space around their character in this case should be kept open and clear. I appreciate you're coming from the perspective of how you play the game, but I'd say for future videos like this, consider other people's perspective also and acknowledge reasons why they might have chosen the positions they have for their UI elements.
Different strokes for different folks, I guess. The more spread-out UIs probably work well for a lot of players because it's similar to the layouts of other popular games and MMOs. Plus, if you've played a lot of party-heavy or raid-heavy games like this before, then your brain is kind of already trained to look to a certain area and grab info quickly.
There's also some of the roleplayers and more social players of the game. I realize some of the extra emotes and whatnot might feel unnecessary to others, but it's honestly more annoying to have to constantly open menus to grab what you want lol. I definitely see where you're coming from though, in terms of a cluttered UI. Like I said, different things work for different people.
As always when talking about subjective topics such as design there will be an aspect of "whatever works for you." I will always try to give my perspective and provide reasoning, but at the end of the day, it is just my opinion.
It's worth noting that most of the layouts he criticizes are the ones that use the default settings
This
Just hit 54 yesterday and made some changes to my UI yesterday. I'll move the enemy health bar to where you've suggested, thanks Lynx!
Hmmmmm, maybe I should stop just doing the good ol’ “ooo that colour matches that one, you can go there.”
I like how you started using a Facecam ! Keep up the good content!
Thanks! Glad you're enjoying it :)
I must say, I've actually finally joined your Discord Channel only because you pointed to it in this video. lol
Just finding out your channel, grats on the content! One quick observation regarding your own UI, if I may: I know you mentioned you play a tank and that limit break may not the most useful button for you to press, but it's good for awareness to know where your group is on the scale, so I would dislodge it to underneath your bars (so, bottom center). It's a non-intrusive spot already close to your awareness radius and can give you that information at a glance. Keep up the good work!
Thank you :) It actually gave me some ideas to tweak, toggle and hide some hotbars while in raid-dungeons to make it feel better ^^
Took me so long to get my UI perfect. My UI is sort of mirrored reading from right to left. (I wish I could make bars empty from right to left but it doesn't matter) I try to keep everything that's important in the middle of the screen. Same concepts from when I played wow.
It's gotten to the point where if I try to improve it, it would be very difficult to get everything perfect. Back up my settings to multiple places because oh gosh reconfigurations are the worst.
As a healer main (but I play all roles), I must have my target hp at the top. For obvious reasons, though, it is down several notches from the top edge of the screen.
Party list, focus target, chat, and enemy list all are consolidated at the left and upper areas and generally sit near my target elements (except for the chat snug in the top left corner, the rest are away from the edge of the screen).
My action hotbars, job gauges, hp, buffs/debuffs, and limit break are below my character, but again, to compensate for being far from the target hp, they're also raised several notches from the bottom of the screen.
My "big" map is up at all times on the bottom left corner because I do open world content frequently, but it has moderate transparency so that it's always see-through. The minimap isn't as useful, but it's up at all times just above the big map, hugging the left edge.
At 1440p, I have the screen space luxury to put a lot of less important UI elements to the upper and lower right of the screen, and they hug the edge/corner.
Maybe I'm special, but I don't have any issues moving my eyes 1/1000th of a millimeter to look at my "worst possible UI layout". The only time I can see needing your stuff scrunched into 1 spot is if you're playing on a 50" screen.
I've been playing this game for more than 4 years and I think I might spend around more than 48 hours in total just messing/adjusting ui on both ps4 and pc.
I only recently started playing, but I spent one evening fixing the UI once I got frustrated of the default UI.
It’s the biggest time sink!
Oh good I'm glad I'm not crazy by moving everything inwards to my character
My UI is exactly the same as yours except party is on the left (as a healer main I focus on ally buffs), and I have a 140% size hotbar in between the target bar and health bar with important cooldowns
That was excellent ! I saw another video about keybinds which helped me a lot to improve, but I still wasn’t to sure how to set up the ui properly, the only thing I did right in my ui as a dps is put the gauge pretty big and the closest thing to my character 😂
The buff bar thing is what's throwing my UI off the most. I'm new to the game, never raided yet, WoW refugee: my buff bar in WoW was irrelevant, all I needed to know was bloodlust, which was obvious bc fights typically called for its use at specific points and that was the only raid CD that was relevant. But pugging trials and such means I'm gonna have to find a way to make it easy to find. Which sucks bc I'm maining DNC and have all my proc based spells (a lot) hotbars under my characters feet, along with my HP bar, enemy HP bar etc,, and I don't have much room for it in that area.
I think one thing that a lot of people can use to improve their UI is hidden/collapsible macro that hides or copies bars over to new bars. Using those for things like Job changes or Emotes can significantly cut down on the amount of screen space covered by random fluff hotbars.
If you haven't see something like this done before I suggest looking up "ffxiv hotbar menu" on your favorite search engine (we all know its google). Aside from that I am surprise you didn't mention having your aggro meter in an easy to stop location for tanks since its pretty important for tank swaps to know when your co-tank uses Provoke.
I pretty quickly gave up on not looking at my hotbar... because I mostly play jobs that either have a shit ton of CDs (like SCH ^^) or rng (DNC)... and to be frank, while there are buffs on your character to indicate the readied rng... it is way easier to track a glowing button.
I also switch classes quite often since I am still more focused on leveling rather than raiding and easily distracted.
So not looking at the hotbar is a futile effort for now.
ha you should watch streams of people who just started playing, if they figured out that they can change their UI they make it look like the biggest clusterfuck there is xD
I made a macro and then keybound it onto a hidden bar as my x button. This macro makes it alternate the party (and alliance) and the quest/msq/duty on and off with ＊/hud "etc"＊. I have a small laptop screen, so this allows me to briefly look at the field while i'm doing stuff while i'm in group content (since duty info is very small while inside group content) but also allows me to run around with a clean screen in the open world (since i usually only group with my chocobo currently if that).
I also use a different HUD layout for DPS and Healing (and specifically lvl 50 content on red mage), where everything is nearly the same except for which hotbars are visible, where the party list is located, and whether my HP/MP is visible.
As a DPS, my party list is way in the default upper left corner. My job gauges are next to my HP/MP bar.
As a healer, it is much closer to the center, with the eighth slot nearly touching the upper right corner of a slightly shorter default chat box. The hud toggle is definitely essential for me especially as a healer since my party is near the center of my screen but I have a small screen (and resizing any of the HUD elements would make me unable to read). I keep my HP/MP invisible on my healer because I am spending all my time staring at the party list anyway, which tells me my own HP and MP. Peripheral is very important.
Idk if it helps anyone else, but being intimate with typing ＊/hudlayout #＊ and ＊/hotbar display #＊ definitely lets me switch back and forth easily without hassle :)
The only 'weird' thing about my set up is that for SOME reason, i really like putting my skill bar in the right-middle. I've done it in other games that let me customize. But i've also played really well with the skillbar on the bottom too in other-other games. idk xD
ALL of these UI's look messy... You can collapse the Hotbars with macros for each thing and your UI gets super clean and compact, I personally do so with my classes (separated by roles) and items
This is super advanced but like this:
imgur.com/a/Xauu9L8
Which camera type do you use? I like that I don’t shuffle slowly while moving backwards with legacy, but I don’t like having to move the camera all the time.
I'm personally very picky about functional, but organized and clean, and then of course catering to how your own vision might work. My skills are all organized by combo and like-skills, with buff and debuff bars right ontop of my skill bars so theyre close to keep track of, my party end enmity lists are in (basically) their default position 'cause for me personally having them closer to the center makes them feel in the way and cluttered, and it's never proved an issue for me on any role (though I main AST), while I try and keep stuff away from the right side of my screen (I'm blind in one eye so my gaze naturally shifts left).
While I agree you absolutely should have your stuff that tends to shift your focus near your character (buffs, debuffs, RNG proc based skills, boss bar, focus target, and meter) but a lot of other stuff kinda boils down to the individual and how it works for them
Having the party list right of center has always been helpful for me: you can see the players' health bars in your periphery since they are aligned left of their mana and buffs.
>Laughs in Collapsible UI for unnecessary hotbars.
Now if only I could buy a keyboard without a windows button in the left of the keyboard so I could use Alt as well!
You guys would think I was in the air force with how well my UI is set up. This is something anyone who raids has most likely thought of themselves.
Lol this is funny cause I'm in the Air Force
As a long time FF fan, I try to make the UI look as close as to other FF games as I can
I like to keep a lot of info on the bottom, and the party list on the far bottom-right corner
my hot bars are closest to the left as it can go, with the limit gauge right underneath, and my job gauge on the right of the hot bars
I play DPS so I don't have my Status effect windows up
(Red Mage to be specific)
I don't utilize a lot of the UI tbh, I think paying attention to the mechanics and AOEs is a lot more important for me
cause if I'm looking at a bunch of shit on the screen I get distracted and die to mechanics
I only want to see what I need to, and I want it on the bottom, closest to my characters feet, where all the AOE's are gonna be lol
"I never have to move my center of attention". But you literally said you dont need to look at any of your UI in the first place, why's it matter to have it centered if you can do without looking at it xD
Efficiency > Tidiness
For some people efficiency doesn't work without tidiness. But as long as it's functional without eating your eyes out, anything goes
On top of the points you made, I also think of my (healer) UI as being read left to right, top to bottom, in order from most important to least.
There's tweaks and exceptions and caveats, but generally its been a helpful guideline when you sometimes don't know where to start reorganizing.
One thing I will say about having the gauges spread out, is if you are coming from single player games, are used to ones that have a party, and real time battles, you get used to looking everywhere on the screen, so setting things up that way, is actually playing to your individual strengths. It might not seem optimal for someone used to MMOs, but for some people it works, because they are playing to their strengths. Aside from this you have very helpful advice.
For me I don't care if I'm doing the most important thing in the game you can do, if its getting in the way of what's on the screen I'm not a fan. I'll have some things that only pop up at certain points closer to my character but I'm not about to clutter everything into the middle of my screen and actually have it get in the way of the game.
The principles you discuss make a lot of sense, and I think I can apply some of them to make my battle UI a bit better. I play at 3440x1440, and with all that real estate to use, I get tempted to clear center screen so I can enjoy the scenery! One of the really good things about FFXIV is our ability to design and quickly swap among four different UI designs, so we can have designs optimized for the different things we do. I've been working on getting these different UIs right ever since we got the four-design option, and I'm still not satisfied. Maybe nobody is.
my UI is pretty good, at least for me. But ppl who see, are baffled. I remove as much as I can, including party and raid frames and only have Tank frames. I play DPS and Tank only. I have it in a figure 8 around my character at 60% size and 4 more in the center covering the character. It takes 6 hotbars to make. Then I have 2 hot bars on the bottom, enemy hp below my figure 8, my hp/mp above the figure 8, all scaled down. I use shift 1-8 and alt 1-8 for the bottom 2 hot bars. The center 4 are not binded, I keep my mouse in the middle of all 4 and click, they are for larger CDs, or if im not raiding, i switch them into mounts and other things. I only stare at my the center, and use my peripherals for the enemy, and floor.
EDIT; Oh buff timers above my hp/mp, and debuff below the enemy hp bar. Every thing is centered, in middle screen, but I also have it re-positioned to the right, and bottom. When it possitions bottom, incase I need my clarity for the center of the screen, the 2 bottom hot bars move to the left and right. I also have a macro hotkey, that changes it on command. So I can swap it inbetween phases if need be.
Edit 2: Oh i actually don't use 1-8, i use 1-4, and Z,X,C, and r. It lets me move while being able to hit any hotkey combination quickly using shift and alt.
I was doing p1s and I realized I can’t seem to see the chains debuff timer well, changed my UI now
Hmm.. if I were to grade mine on based on your guideline:
* Target bar: fail (Partly because for the longest time, I've been playing classes that don't have dots - RDM/DNC being my primaries. Something I should move)
* Action Bar: pass? kinda (I have 3 bars where I set my normal buttons, but they're hidden, I have my keys memorized, but I have important cooldowns at the bottom)
* Gauge, HP/MP, Buffs/Debuffs, Focus target: pass (just above my cooldown bars)
* Party window: fail (On the far right, I don't generally pay too much attention to the party window, I do use ACT which calls out raid buffs and debuffs outgoing though, I can generally tie boss mechanics to when those effects go out)
* Enemy list: fail (far left - definitely need to move it, this does get me killed as a result of not watching it)
Mostly built for DPS bars.. also if it matters I play two handed on my keyboard generally, mouse is for camera adjustment (I do also have a few mouse buttons but that's generally resource replenishment or ranged attack on a melee, and sprint) - Probably a solid 6 overall
I do have class change hotbars, but HUD swap buttons take care of that
My hotbars look like a hot mess of buttons in weird places, all alone in empty space in some cases. But that's all because of muscle memory. If I put a skill somewhere, and my fingers constantly want to go somewhere else when I want to use that, I'll move it. Muscle memory will always win in a split-second decision situation. ALWAYS.
Dummy practice pretty much helps forming new muscle memories though. It can help you better the asethetics, but yeah not 100% needed
My friend has a Hotbar arround the upper right of the circle at size 200% with the Lali-ho emote and Limit break,(healer main) always makes me laugh when he sends a screenshot X')
I use controller on PC and all of the UI options for controller are amazing.
I have it all set up to switch my "active" hotbars (cross hotbars actually) when my weapon is out or shethed. So I can have functional stuff (like class changes, mounts, etc) and emote stuff on the same spot as my full damage rotation stuff. Really makes the UI smaller and compact and dependent on the situation.
I've also removed my hp/mp bar in favor or just using the hp/mp in the part list. Then I have the part list always on. This way I'm conditioned to look at my party list more often and pay attention to my team more. (And when I'm a dps I don't need to look at my own info or party members has much. Thus frees up space/clutter a bit.
and, of course, everything is around my character. :D
What's up with people clustering half their screen with buttons for different jobs, emotes, etc.? You can just set a macro to show/hide hotbars with a single button press. All these buttons are hidden and a single button brings them back on the screen.
You would drop dead seeing my UI from 2 years ago :)
Subbed! Will fix my UI!
I like the centralised advice. That came naturally to me just these days and there was immediate improvement. Def got some good advice from this! Turns out I can't have the lists too close tho (healer) or when I'm rotating the camera to change direction I accidentally click on someone, it's trial and error hahah
Not even gonna lie, i went to go fix mine lmao
I cant wait until we get more hotbars, having a BIG hotbar with all relevant cooldowns on just to see them seems nice but 10 hotbars just isnt enough for that.
They should limit it to 3 hotbars to protect people from themselves IMO. You don't need 10 hotbars.
I'm still trying to figure out what is best for me over all but I spent 6 hours simplifying my bars and consolidating them to a good spot for me and then also making macros for hiding quick hotbars for the rest.
I'm more of a casual player but some friends wanted to try raid content so we're figuring it out together lol
I use the default UI, its basically the same as the first and worst, I love it!
🤮
New player here thinking about focusing Tank/Healer, because they're my favorite classes/jobs in most MMORPGs, but ngl, seeing this video it's really intimidating on how many things i'll need keep track off because of endgame stuff...
But i'm really glad i found this video, some amazing advices that i'll take to heart and overcome a part of this tank/healer ansiety with a good hud! Thx :)
Gee, thanks, nice to know that the DEFAULT UI setup that I’ve also been using forever is the worst possible :^)
I'll probably get flamed fopr this but, I miss my WoW UI addons so much. One of the only complaints I have with the game.
The UI customisation is pretty robust, but it doesn't come close to the freedom you have with some of the addons in WoW.
I'm still struggling with a clean setup.
Why would you get flamed for wanting a decent UI? FF14 does some things well, but UI is not one of them.
Steve FFXIV players love to lose their minds over people suggesting that the game does anything wrong.
My UI is kinda okay, but cluttered at the same time. I have pretty bad eyesight, so I keep my UI size large, but that means the clickable area isn't as good as it should be.
I can't handle the chaotic UI's these people have. Mine is a work of art, albeit modded. Tank player, have everything that matters within view, but no need to clutter my screen up
An interesting video with a lot of things to learn. I'm mostly casual so I've set-up my UI in a way that I've found aesthetically pleasing to me. However, being a fighting game players for years now, I've also set it up in a way that I can get a bunch of informations with just a glance, akin to looking at my health bars/super gauges.
I was watching this while running Mt. Gulg while watching this and I was adjusting my UI between encounters.
Been reworking my UI a bit recently. I still have to set something that works but I actually learned some things I can do to make it better for me as a tank main as ive found im starting to struggle with mechanics recently.
could you put a picture of the actual HUD Layout settings page and not in battle, if you know what i mean