Party health/mana bars?

[BossOfEarth]

Yesterday I was in a party but someone clicked normal instead of elite so we disbanded and reformed the party. That scrambled the party health/mana bars -- they were in to a completely different order which confused me and caused many "clerical" orders.

Anyway, is there is any way to change that part of the UI? I'd like to be able to change the ordering and see the numbers for hp/sp but but it seems impervious to customization.

Also, it's kinda hard to see whos bar is highlighted. Is it possible to make the highlighted bar more vividly highlighted?

Thanks in advance!

(Also: I'm a new player so go easy on me!)

[MissErres]

Yesterday I was in a party but someone clicked normal instead of elite so we disbanded and reformed the party. That scrambled the party health/mana bars -- they were in to a completely different order which confused me and caused many "clerical" orders.

Anyway, is there is any way to change that part of the UI? I'd like to be able to change the ordering and see the numbers for hp/sp but but it seems impervious to customization.

Also, it's kinda hard to see whos bar is highlighted. Is it possible to make the highlighted bar more vividly highlighted?

Thanks in advance!

(Also: I'm a new player so go easy on me!)

Unfortunately we cannot rearrange the party members in the list. I wish we could sometimes for various reasons. A more vivid highlight would be nice as well. Try using your F-keys to target party members instead of clicking their name in the group, that may help some. (F1=you, F2=next on list and so forth.)

But showing someone's health/spell point numbers is a bad idea. Some people with bad numbers would be kicked out of groups. (among other various forms of torment.) It just takes some time to get to know "roughly" how many HP/SP someone should have. Barbarians have a ton of HP, Sorcs and Wizzy's not so much. And usually if you just ask someone they will tell you.

[sugarsmack]

Also, it's kinda hard to see whos bar is highlighted. Is it possible to make the highlighted bar more vividly highlighted?

While you can't make the highlighted player bar more highlighted, this is what I do to help see who is highlighted:

I have the party bar located right next to the target reticle (the UI element that contains your friendly or hostile target's name, and, unless minimized, your target's face). A quick glance at the target's name in the target reticle will show me who I have clearly targeted in the party bar.

I don't think the numerical display of party member's HP/SP is totally a bad idea. As said, it's bad because PUG groups may give those with less HP a hard time, however, there are benefits to seeing numbers, such as, 1) Healers will be able to keep more of an eye on non-caster DPS that don't have much HP (normally healers may just suspect casters are squishy, and that's all), 2) Healers will have a better idea of which spell to top off a player who is near full health (e.g. make the choice between Cure Light Wounds and Cure Moderate Wounds) so as to not to overheal. Displaying numerical HP/SP has its benefits as well as its drawbacks.

[sephiroth1084]

But showing someone's health/spell point numbers is a bad idea. Some people with bad numbers would be kicked out of groups. (among other various forms of torment.)

I know that every time I throw a 90-point CSW on a caster from my ranger, and see their HP jump by 50% or more, I groan.

[BossOfEarth]

Good to know. I hadn't thought about booting people for having low HP. So far almost everyone I've met has been really friendly.

Thanks for the tips about the portrait window and the <fn> keys. I'm already using both of those but I still feel like what I really need is a way to make the party bars UI more visualy useful. Any chance a custom skin could enhance the highlight?

[MissErres]

Good to know. I hadn't thought about booting people for having low HP. So far almost everyone I've met has been really friendly.

Thanks for the tips about the portrait window and the <fn> keys. I'm already using both of those but I still feel like what I really need is a way to make the party bars UI more visualy useful. Any chance a custom skin could enhance the highlight?

There are a few really kewl custom skins out there, but I've lost the links to 'em. The only one I ever used was the ddolite one, and actually don't recall if it made highlighting any more pronounced.