I've just seen in a posting
on EQ2Wire that Rothgar has released some of the details of the changes being made to the interface for GU57, a lot of window changes there (but no LUA to be implemented yet, its apparently still something that they would want to do).
He also posted up
this picture on EQ2Interface of the new character window, showing how some windows have been combined along with the curved edges they've added in.
Along with that there are a lot of other changes there, here are the main points (there's a lot of fluff there that's either tweaking, or just of interest to mod programmers).
RothgarQuote:
All icon sheets and icon frames have gotten rounded edges which really softens up the UI and looks nice.
RothgarQuote:The XP window has been overhauled and now acts as a navigation bar in addition to displaying XP. It can be snapped to the top or bottom of your screen or can remain floating.
We've merged the clock into the mini-map and removed the separate clock window. The map also displays compass directions and the compass window will no longer be visible by default for new users.
RothgarQuote:The tutorial triggers (purple question marks) now display the tooltip next to the icon so you can see what its about. All of the text in these have been shortened and revamped.
There's a new tutorial system that shows for new users. It works like the purple question marks by popping when you need to know something, but these new windows are 800x600 and give you more information about what you need to learn. These can be disabled but should be pretty helpful to new players coming in, especially if they are new to MMO's. They explain things like movement, combat, grouping, inventory, broker, etc.
RothgarQuote:The equipment slots and character stats are on the same page in the new Character Window. This will allow you to swap gear around and see how it affects your stats without having to jump around between tabs. However, we did change the window so that you only get 1 column of stats instead of two otherwise the window would have just been too wide. However, I think we made good use of that space.
But the biggest change is this, and I suspect this has taken up a heck of a lot of time if they've been putting 8000 or so quests worth into it
RothgarQuote:
We hope that the mini-map will be useful enough that players will start wanting to have it up all the time. Now that it will display quest POI's and regions, you may want to make this a permanent part of your UI unless you don't do much raiding.
The POI and Region information will happen automatically. If the quest is in your Active Quest list, the data will appear on the map.
I have mixed feelings on this change myself as I fear too much automation kills the storyline a quest tries to tell (WARs are a perfect example), but I also do find myself resorting to wiki and /waypoints at times to find places (I think sometimes the quest designer assumes you have knowledge of the surrounding area). So I guess it depends how much detail they put into the map, will have to see.
