Making my own minimal UI

[dowz0r]

Well, after browsing many user made UIs, I realized that using someone's work wasn't going to make me satisfied. I want to try and make my own. Now, I have no idea on how to use the addons that allow you to edit and use LUA codes or anything else that hardcore to make a UI. I could learn, but who knows how that would go. For now, I'm going to make a list and I would like some responses on which addon would be the best choice for that list.

Addons

Chat addon - What's a good addon for this? I'd like to be able to move my chat and still have it look nice.
Map addon - Best map addon?
Buff related addons - Since I plan to move my map into the bottom right, are there any buff addons will work with this?
Spell bar addon - I plan on using bartender, but if there are any better ones, then feel free to suggest
Name plates - I've had trouble finding a good addon for this. I plan on moving this into the mid bottom area. I would prefer a simple look that doesn't have too much info. I really like docsnameplates, but I could get it to change my own name, nor did it have a custom nameplate for my character.
Bag addon - any solid bag addons? I use bagnon without too much complaint, but if there is a better one...
Other - If there are any other helpful addons that maybe display how much gold, fps, and etc somewhere in your UI, I would like to know of them.

[Deleted]

A few suggestions:

Chat: Prat
Buffs: Satrina Buffs Frames
Bag: Bagnon

For Unit frames I highly recommend Stuf. You can do practically anything with it. Bartender is pretty good for any type of UI. Names plates, I'm using Aloft and it works rather well, again you can do whatever you want with it.

Oh and if you feel the need for a cooldown addon I recommend either fort or coolline.

[Deleted]

Chat Addon - Prat or Chatter very usefull
Map addon - dont know if youre talking about both minimap and World Map i use mapster and sexymap
Buff related Addons - Satrina Buff Frames, easy to use and can be enhanced with buttonfacade
ActionBars- using bartender myself some prefer dominos, both do the same more or less. whatever suits you best
Name plates i use tidy plates, find it looking nice and usefull with the threat you can see
Bag addon using bagnon, dont need anything special as long as it works

if you want to make borders and backgrounds you can try kgpanels although if its your first time you might want to look up a totorial.
one of the mods on Mmo-Champion made one, But if that isnt satisfying there's a lot about it on google and youtube

[Deleted]

You should have a look at TukUI. You use Github to make any changes you want to the default package.

[dowz0r]

A few suggestions:

Chat: Prat
Buffs: Satrina Buffs Frames
Bag: Bagnon

For Unit frames I highly recommend Stuf. You can do practically anything with it. Bartender is pretty good for any type of UI. Names plates, I'm using Aloft and it works rather well, again you can do whatever you want with it.

Oh and if you feel the need for a cooldown addon I recommend either fort or coolline.

Thanks for the response. I already have bartender set up nicely. I'll check out the other addons, though
Also, it says that aloft is compatible with 2.2.3? That's a bit behind lol. I can't figure out how to move the nameplate as well.

---------- Post added 2010-12-04 at 12:50 PM ----------

You should have a look at TukUI. You use Github to make any changes you want to the default package.

If making my own won't work out, then I'll do that

[Taryble]

Chat: Chatter - prefer Chatter as it does a couple of things that Prat doesn't do right (it does them, but badly), and those things are mainly what I use a chat addon for.

Map: world map I use Mapster. minimap I use PocketPlot. Both are very good addons.

Buff addons: Satrina Buff Frame 3.2 Beta is the best and most configurable buff/debuff addon available, period. :-)

Actionbar: Bartender and Dominos are both excellent. I personally use Dominos, but there's no functional difference between the two

Nameplates: I use TidyPlates with the default "Neon" theme. The nameplates change on aggro gained/lost, and can show your debuffs on the target. (you say you want to move the nameplates, but they're not really movable).

Bag addons: I'm a huge fan of ArkInventory. If I couldn't use it, I'd probably go back to Combuctor. Both have lots of filtering/sorting options.

Other: I use a Broker Display addon with DataBroker plugins for FPS/Gold/Bags/etc in my UI. ArkInventory actually provides several broker plugins that a Display addon can show - gold, bagspace, number of mounts, number of pets, currency tracking, item tracking. I have it showing Gold, Bagspace, and Currency Tracking (for JP's on my 80s).

I'm also a huge fan of the AI-Art "artwork replacement" package that's available on WoWInterface.

[ComputerNerd]

Chat - Prat and Chatter are pretty much the standard due to the variety of features, but they offer too much for most users and tend to be too resource hungry. While I cannot offer any specific suggestions I would take a look at the appropriate sections on curse and wowinterface to find something meeting your needs. The chat is moveable without the need for an addon also.
Map - if meaning the minimap then Sexymap is largely the "standard", but way too flashy for a minimap UI unless you tone it down somewhat. PocketPlot or Chinchilla are common alternatives, again with the hosting sites containing a large variety of minimal functionality alternatives.
Spell Bar - Action bar handling with Bartender or Dominos being the most common with little to differentiate or to pick fault with. Functionality wise they are trumped by Macaroon, but thats too much for most users.
Name plates - which are actually the bars above the heads, when you mean unitframes. Pitbull tends to be again a common suggestion but Stuf being a more customisable choice or Shadowed Unit Frames being more user friendly.
Buff display - Satrina Buff Frames offers more functionality and features than most, but perhaps Bison or Elkano Buff Bars depending on preference of format.
Bag addon - little experience with bag replacments myself so can offer little in way of useful opinion.

[Skullflower]

Chat addon - bChat. Extremely lightweight with basic functions. http://www.wowinterface.com/download...818-bChat.html. Chatter is a nice alternative if you want more.

Map addon - qMinimap. Again, lightweight, you won't need anything more. http://www.wowinterface.com/download...-qMinimap.html

Buff related addons - bBuffs or SBF. bBuffs is more lightweight, but requires knowledge of lua to config (outside of it's /movebuffs function). SBF is more user-friendly and provides you with a lot more customization but is extremely buggy in it's beta version that allows you to click off buffs (bBuffs allows this no problem). One of the major bugs I found with SBF's interactive frames is that it has these ghost frames in place of non-active buffs for interactive frames. This causes issues when clicking around that area where a buff would normally be.
http://www.wowinterface.com/download...88-bBuffs.html
http://www.wowinterface.com/download...BF3.2Beta.html

Spell bar addon - There's many choices for action bars. I'm a big fan of Dominos because of how it's so easy to manage as well as the keybind setting function. Make sure you download Buttonfacade with a nice button skin if you get an action bar mod.

Name plates - I use dNameplates. It's pretty simple and looks nice with my texture. SS: http://s.wowinterface.com/preview/pvw46738.png
You can download the files at http://www.wowinterface.com/download...flowersUI.html

Bag addon - Stuffing is pretty neat. Easy customization, lightweight, looks nice, all-in-one, no problems at all.
http://www.wowinterface.com/download...ingUpdate.html

Other - As a minimalist, I try to grab the most light-weight addons, make sure they work well enough, and customize them to look pretty. It's important not to add unnecessary addon memory to your UI with mods that can more or less do the same thing as a lighter one. Besides the addons listed above, I use FreebTip for my tooltip -http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info12912-FreebTip.html, Quartz for the cast bars (PB's is too ugly), and MSBT for the SCT.

[dowz0r]

For dnameplates, can someone tell me how I get my own nameplate that displays my health and mana to look like that along with my targets?

[ant1pathy]

Skullflower, that's a nice looking UI. Might steal some of the ideas for my own.

[dowz0r]

uuhhh how do you move qminimap? I tried doing it in the lua settings and it just disappeared..

nvm I got it.

Still would like some help with dnameplates...

[SensenmanN]

Addons

Chat addon - Prat or Chatter, I've used both, Prat has more options.
Map addon - Mapster, I'm a Metamap fan, but it hasn't worked for me in a while.
Buff related addons - Satrina buff Frames, they are the best I've found. Warning, I am pretty sure no addon lets you right click to remove a buff. Blizzard broke / made this function very hard to do.
Spell bar addon - Quartz, I am not a fan of bartender, or using the simple cast bars that come with bar frames.
Name plates - kNameplates I believe is the one I use.
Bag addon - Bagnon, hands down. I don't like how the other ones sort things by type. If you do, go for it.
Other - Dominos over Bartender. I used Bartender for like a day, went back to Dominos.
I love TinyDPS for a dps tracker.
Xloot is nice for loot.
Snowfall key press, for faster button pressing.
Pitbull 4 for unit frames.
Mail Opener + Postal for mail.
Chinchilla for minimap.

[dowz0r]

Help with dnameplates.. please? This is the only thing keeping me from finishing my ui.... The top left nameplate where it displays my health and mana is still the default blizz ui. When I press v everything seems to work fine.

[Yooya]

Dowz0r dNameplates -only- changes nameplates, the things above peoples heads. If you want to change the player/target frames use one of these oUFs below (both by Dawn, the same author of dNameplates and Minimap). Alternatively you could use something like Pitbull, Stuf, or Shadow Unit Frames, but I do suggesting these two unit frames, because anything by Dawn, I would say, is superb.

http://www.wowinterface.com/download...oUF_Nivea.html
http://www.wowinterface.com/download...-oUF_Slim.html

A few:

rChat
rActionButtonStyler
rBuffFrameStyler
dNameplates
dMinimap

[dowz0r]

Dowz0r dNameplates -only- changes nameplates, the things above peoples heads. If you want to change the player/target frames use one of these oUFs below (both by Dawn, the same author of dNameplates and Minimap). Alternatively you could use something like Pitbull, Stuf, or Shadow Unit Frames, but I do suggesting these two unit frames, because anything by Dawn, I would say, is superb.

http://www.wowinterface.com/download...oUF_Nivea.html
http://www.wowinterface.com/download...-oUF_Slim.html


A few:

rChat
rActionButtonStyler
rBuffFrameStyler
dNameplates
dMinimap

Thanks for clearing that up! Thanks for all the suggestions, my new ui is almost complete