RP UI

[ghaskan]

So, the other day I heard some talk (think it was on Skype) about creating minimal UIs. I decided to try my hand at making a simple one and this is the report of what I've got so far! Sadly I don't know how to share UIs, and due to different screen resolutions I believe it's best not to, even. At any rate, this is fairly simple, without delving too deep into the settings of the addons, so it's easy to replicate, and, to boot, the main idea of this thread is to give you some ideas, not give away a premade UI.

The concept for this one was basically: REMOVE EVERYTHING!! While that's certainly a bit extreme, hopefully it gives you folks some ideas.

Addons used (linkage TBA)

Really necessary for this UI

Spoiler:

BasicMinimap - As the name suggests, it keeps the minimap as basic as possible!

Chatter - Very handy modular addon that allows you to give an extreme makeover to your chat windows. In this example, I barely scratched its surface, really.

Dominos - Or some other action bar addon of your choice, y'know, to hide the bars and such (a must if you want to hide many of the UI elements).

HidesBuffs - ...hides buffs. A bit extreme, but if you don't ever look at buffs it's nice to have one less element taking space in your screen. Besides, if you want IC buffs you can just use TRP2's buff system.

RemoveRaidFrameManager - Removes the raid frame manager, which is a big element and by using the raid pane via "O" you should have all your raid managing needs met anyway. However, I've noticed that sometimes the effect stops working and this addon only resumes its function upon relog. All addons of the kind that I've tried suffer from this issue, however.

TotalRP2 - Duh.

WIM - Lovely, to say the least. There is no better way to manage your whispers in WoW, I tell you!

Nice, optional stuff

Spoiler:

Elephant - Do I need say more?

Gryphonheart Items - Get it! It's awesome and way better than TRP2's custom item function.

Mapster - Lightweight, and allows you to see all areas of the map without exploring. However, unlike Carbonite (which is... quite a heavy beast, frankly) it DOES trigger the map animation.

NoUIScreenshot - Get it, love it. No more screenshots will be cluttered by your UI! You can easily configure hotkeys, too.

Outfitter - Very easy to create, manage and use outfits. Recommended for any outfitholics.

So, now, for some examples of the UI! In both examples, there's two windows: a larger one for general chat, combat log, and a RP-only chat pane, and the smaller one for all your OOC needs (channels, Guild chat, Raid, Party...).
Suggestion: If you don't keep forgetting about pane-switching (like me) make a pane for each of those OOC channels!
By the way, tooltip does show over the OOC window, but since I trust you won't be using it too much *wink, wink* it shouldn't be a problem. Besides, who is always hovering people and NPCs?

Spoiler:

I call this "EXTREME TO THE CORE". I removed everything I could, the chat panes are transparent for max visibility (but not readability... try sending raid messages in Durotar!). Heck, the outfitter icon is even over the level of the character, if you pay attention! Mostly because that button looked like a third wheel by the minimap, though.

Spoiler:

This keeps things less extreme by having a (scaled down and moved) action bar for the sake of keeping abilities that you use/want to use in RP accessible and organized, as well as normal actions you might perform (ideal for those who suck at memorizing keybinds!). Plus, the chat window, while uglier, is very readable. Has more buttons by the minimap because I didn't bother with hiding them this time around. :P

Ok, so enough about my lame attempts! Any suggestions you have for keeping a RP-friendly UI? What do YOU use?

[Loxmardin]

... This looks really neat. I will have to look into these addons. Being the kind of player who always plays in Windowed Mode, any minimalizing features for the UI are useful.

(Also, Elephant forever. <3)