Improving raid frames (Grid Style)

[Moonpool]

What i like about Grid is the little "lights" that let me know what is on which toon, so I know at a glance who has my rejuv, lb, etc and who has someone else's and can gauge at a glance where my next heal is best thrown. That is the strength of Grid for me and I can't see myself replacing that functionality with something regardless of its click casting ability or whatever, that doesn't have that visual cue available to me - it is just the most efficient way for me to heal. Again, personal taste and built up "used to it" on my part that has nothing to do with nui and its layouts and your choices for it. Changing "muscle memory" and reflex thinking is NOT easy for me lol and I don't have the time to really retrain myself - four kids and spring = wayyyy too much time on the sports field.

Is the change to dual specs gonna give you a major headache? If so, I'll probably wait to overhaul my entire thing until you get it settled too.

[spiel2001]

You misunderstood my question... I was asking what it was about Grid that I didn't know about that you needed... which you mostly answered.

Core functionality issues like this are what I'm trying to improve in nUI, so when someone is resistant to removing another mod they're using that I'm trying to incorporate into nUI, I ask why.

Can you elaborate for me on the mechanics of what it is that Grid is doing? I'd like to see if I can build some unit frame modules to support that and be able to add it to my own unit frames... the core questions are (a) what is the information you need to know and (b) what' the most effective way to present it? (in your opinion)

Originally Posted by Moonpool What i like about Grid is the little "lights" that let me know what is on which toon, so I know at a glance who has my rejuv, lb, etc and who has someone else's and can gauge at a glance where my next heal is best thrown. That is the strength of Grid for me and I can't see myself replacing that functionality with something regardless of its click casting ability or whatever, that doesn't have that visual cue available to me - it is just the most efficient way for me to heal. Again, personal taste and built up "used to it" on my part that has nothing to do with nui and its layouts and your choices for it. Changing "muscle memory" and reflex thinking is NOT easy for me lol and I don't have the time to really retrain myself - four kids and spring = wayyyy too much time on the sports field. Is the change to dual specs gonna give you a major headache? If so, I'll probably wait to overhaul my entire thing until you get it settled too.

[Moonpool]

Ok, here's what grid does that I need it to that nothing else, to my knowledge, does.

In each person's "box" it has corner "lights" that turn on whenever a particular spell is cast on them, so in the upper right corner I can see at a glance whether a character has someone else's Hot's rolling on them, and in the lower center of the box, how many hots they have. Now, in the upper left I have separated out my rejuv (green light) lifebloom(red,yellow or blue light depending on stack) and regrowth (purple) as well as a timer for when LB runs out in the center left of the frame, so when I look down at my bars, i can see who has rejuv on them, who is just about to lose their lb stack, etc in a tenth of a second glance, no guesses. I also use the grid boxes to click cast my decursives (curse/poison abolish) which I understand can be done with your unit frames. My understanding of grid is that it is organized in layers - so each layer can have different information - it is a horridly complex mod that for all its faults, does work exceptionally well for people like me (gamer virgin with limited fps skills). the only things i click in combat are player unit frames and perhaps the odd potion, everything else I have keybound somewhere. (well on my hunter I do click to change aspects sometimes).

also, i assume without going back to read about it that your unit frames have aggro gain highlighting in some fashion - if not, then that is also a very very useful thing for a healer - I know that stupid mage is gonna need some heals quick when I see his box glow red and can preemptively cast something.

[spiel2001]

Okay... I moved these messages into the suggestion box so we don't intertwine them with the bar discussion and so others can pitch in... also so this old fart programmer I know doesn't forget what we talk about ~grin~

I'm spit-balling here looking for a way to make this work without nUI having to keep a database of spells (something I have been actively trying to avoid because that's the first thing that breaks on patch day -- or you don't know about new spells and it stops working, etc.)

The big problem is this would be a HUGE pita to pre-implement for all classes, so I think it would be something the player would have to enable or set up for themselves on a case by case basis, though I suppose it could be done with plugins for each class. Gonna have to give all of that some thought.

What I'm thinking, for now, is I could add a feature to unit frames where you can choose to add "lights" (for lack of a better word) to the unit frame... I can give you six graphic styles to choose from... upper left corner triangle, upper right corner triangle , lower left corner triangle, lower right corner triangle, a movable square and a movable circle.

This all presumes a GUI config for this feature and it ties to the unit frame skin... so you can use one "config" for all of the raid frames in the panel, another for the player, another for the target, etc.) -- You "add" a light to the unit frame via the GUI and select the graphic style (corner, square, round, etc.) and a color.

Rather than try to keep and maintain a pre-made database of spells, I can build a list of all the spells your characters (combined) have seen in the game, so it will be "self-maintaining" so to speak. Using that list, you could just check off which spells turn the light on.

Then you check an option whether the light is on only for your spells or for anyone's spell and another option whether or not to show a count for how many times matching spells appear on that unit.

The only thing I'd have to figure out is an interface for setting more than one color on a light based on stack count.

This would allow you to fairly easy set up lights on the unit frames to suit your personal taste and need without me having to figure out in advance all of the spells there are and who wants them displayed how.

Any thoughts on that approach?

[Brillynt]

Scott,

In grid terms those are called indicators.

For setting them up each corner of the raid frame is allowed to show different indicators. For example the default setup has one corner with a red indicator for who has aggro. During the setup of grid you can assign what you want to watch for each indicator.

Also grid has a center indicator area that can show other things to be monitored.

Brillynt

[spiel2001]

Hmm...

I already have indicators for agro, curses, etc. I suppose I could actually just tie all of this into the feedback system at large and give you the option of selecting any of the four corners, the border, the background or a free-form square or circle inside the frame (that you could size and move) or a custom texture, then give you a list of things to trigger it... agro, cursed, magiced, diseased, poisoned or any of the spells you have seen in game.

That would actually make the feedback system much more powerful than it already is... and much more flexible for the player.

Originally Posted by Brillynt Scott, In grid terms those are called indicators. For setting them up each corner of the raid frame is allowed to show different indicators. For example the default setup has one corner with a red indicator for who has aggro. During the setup of grid you can assign what you want to watch for each indicator. Also grid has a center indicator area that can show other things to be monitored. Brillynt

[Doomlord]

Originally Posted by spiel2001 Hmm... I already have indicators for agro, curses, etc. I suppose I could actually just tie all of this into the feedback system at large and give you the option of selecting any of the four corners, the border, the background or a free-form square or circle inside the frame (that you could size and move) or a custom texture, then give you a list of things to trigger it... agro, cursed, magiced, diseased, poisoned or any of the spells you have seen in game. That would actually make the feedback system much more powerful than it already is... and much more flexible for the player.

The power of Grid stands in this indicators indeed, but to be more precise, it stands in the flexibility of setting those indicators.

I can add any indicator (Those Colored dots in the unitframe's corners) for virtually any action. Wether it is a buff on the target, or a spell being cast on that specific target.

You mentioned early that you need to add a database with all spells. Why reinvent the wheel? The current Grid configuration does indeed have a list of predefined stuff for different buffs/debuffs mostly but you are also able to input the spellID or the spell name in a "wizard" and create your own indicator.

Grid is pretty complex and it's rather hard to explain it's feature over a forum. I urge you to install it and fiddle with it a bit.



P.S.: Indicators don't only refer to the four colored corners in fact. Indicators can also be text on the unit frame and also icons. Also, you can add more than four "colored squares" indicators.