UI Efficiency Tips, screanies?Follow

My apologies if this has been discussed too much already, but...

Essay below, TL;DR version: The default layout is a bit difficult for me to use well--info is a bit spread out and is for me easy to lose track of, who else has run into this and what have you done to compensate? Tips and screen shots are appreciated.

Edit to add: For PC.

Confession time, that THM in Haukke that nearly ignored your call for an LB? Yeah, that was me. Sorry about that.

You see, for some reason between watching for hit boxes, my threat, and my rotation I completely missed your order in the chat box until the boss fight was very nearly over. You were all-caps, but not in a **** way. Understandable. I'm usually quite good about it when the party leader requests LB on his or her command. I'm not in command of an encyclopedic knowledge of all the fights yet. I suppose knowing when to toss one out on my own is part of my job, but when a skilled party leader says they'll tell me when, I defer to their judgment. Except when I ignore my chatbox.

I didn't have this problem much in WoW, though there were a few simple, light mods that could clean up your interface and center your info in a halo of data goodness where you needed it. It's not completely hopeless in ARR, but I feel like it's a little busy or spread out--chaotic.

I've messed with the UI a bit, but I haven't had scads of time to put anything to the test and I'm nervous about altering my layout too much before a run else I completely ***** up. With FC buds, no biggie, but I feel a certain amount of responsibility to not be a dud in a DF group.

Seeing as I have a chunk of free time this weekend with which to try out some changes, I was hoping some of you might have felt the same way and have some tips or examples of your own UI you could share, set ups that maybe make things more efficient for a DPS who doesn't want to leave a hot, juicy limit break on the shelf when it should be used, etc.

Thanks

Edited, Nov 15th 2013 10:58am by Lysus

1st: 1600x1000 - so I can click on the screen w/o dropping the game UI. The open space I have things like a parser I can see, ventrillio, internet.



2nd: 1920x1080 - Full screen where clicking my second monitor the screen will drop the UI down.



Be mindful I have 2 monitors..... 42" (1080p) main and 32" (720p) tv/monitors hooked up. My UI is based off the smaller of the resolutions so when I want to go out of full screen the elements fit in it. With the larger you will notice there is a bit more room between the elements. I have all the elements resized to the smallest possible size SE will allow us to work with my 1st resolution.


Again at work and will post them this evening when I get home between 6-7pm est

Edit: Added pics

Edited, Nov 15th 2013 6:35pm by SillyHawk

Another thing you can do is go into your chat filters and remove the items you find unecessary. There is a lot of extraneous information that comes through the Battle log. Separating your Battle log and streamlining what it tells you will help.

He can do better than that. Play like the pros play.

@OP
First open your system menu. I don't remember the exact name, but you're looking for something that has the word 'HUD' in it. Click that.

Your screen will have a graph paper overlay(looks like the paper I used in geometry, trig, ect.) and you will see a bunch of box outlines that are labeled. Don't be afraid to adjust settings and play around with things in the configuration. You can restore it to the default if needed. I've found that moving the Party List(maybe) window somewhere more central, you can keep track of health and threat. Having everything where you need it is pretty central to playing effectively in most other games, the same should be true for XIV.

Next, take a look at your chat box.

Just below the cursor there is a bar with several options like 'General', 'Battle' and 'Event'. These are basically chat filters. Each time you click one of them it filters your chat to only display text from certain 'channels'. Now just to the right of those options is a button with a gear on it. Click that to open your chat settings. At the bottom of the window that opens up is a header with the word 'Filters' in it. You'll see the same 'General', 'Battle' and 'Event' listed. Click on the fourth button.

Behold the wonder that is... chat filtering. There are a lot of options for what you are able to see in chat. From here you can name the channel and select what chat will be displayed in that channel. You can also go back and rename the General, Battle and Event channels if you want to make another filter. As an example, I had mine set up for different situations I was in. I kept General chat for what I would read in town while crafting or something. I had a channel for when I was doing FATEs to restrict a lot of the spam. Another channel for instances so I could focus on only important information I needed to see related to the instance.

Real talk... you can move and customize your chat box, but it won't compensate for your inability to read it. From your story, it sounds like you should have already been expecting them to alert you in chat. It was in all caps and you still missed it? The info I gave you will make it easier to be a better player, but it won't do the job for you. You have all the knowledge you need to put the information where you want it. No excuse anymore for not being aware of it

Edited, Nov 15th 2013 10:22pm by FilthMcNasty

Yes, i run at the smaller resolution so I can view other things without dropping the UI down when I need to. There are times when I go full mode, depending on what I have going on and the need click something else from my screens (watching netflix). If I'm taping an encounter I definitely will be full screen and have other things on the 2nd monitor so I can monitor that as well by visual.