How About UI Modding?

captainzhei

I haven't seen a single mod for Star Trek Online, and I suspect that has something to do with either the developer or the publisher not wanting anyone's hands in the code. Now, I can tell that the gamemakers put effort into offering some customization in the UI. You can move things around and change the colours and even remove UI items you don't need or want.

But I would so love to see a mod with a streamlined display. The current options all point to "bulky" and "in the way". Borders and buttons that I've never used in my life clutter up my screen. Now, others may disagree. Though, with the rate at which this forum piles up with griping, I'm sure a few people will agree with my minor grievance.

Don't get me wrong. I still think all the b*tching on the forums is absurd, but let's move on.

I haven't gotten to a point where I can post an image of my concept, but to streamline the UI, I started with space, since the ground UI was just a case of trimming borders and one other thing I'll get to further down the page.

The shields and hull monitor could literally be simplified to a quartered circle with a crescent moon on one side representing shields and hull respectively. Below that could be the skill progress to the next level.

Line that bundle up on the bottom left, with the skill tray directly to its right, followed by the power meter, and then the chat window on the far right, and you can devote the rest of the screen to the game world and the mini map. Move the buttons surrounding the mini map to the space between the chat window and the power meter and you have a clean interface with function below and visuals up top.

I might even suggest removing the 3D models from the character dialogue to improve space further, but I feel that would remove something the devs put quite a fair amount of effort to create, so I'll let that stand for its own sake.

Once I have a visual reference, I'll see if I can put it up for consideration. Cheers!

mightybobcnc

Sometimes I wish that we had UI API access so we could make UI mods. Then I remember the sobering reality that things in STO break more often than than the bones of someone with Osteogenesis imperfecta and I calm down and go back to what I was doing.

It would be cool, but the API would probably break our mods every third or fourth patch and it would take months or years to fix.

bobbydazlers

cryptic strictly forbids the use of any mods for STO.