Battle Pet UI Tweaks

[Jerebear]

Gello,

First of all, I love this addon, especially the mapping of the swap keys, so thank you! Makes my squirt kills that much faster (got down to 1m10s-1m11s on my fastest using it). I didn't realize until recently it had enemy frames as well (they were disabled by default). I know I should have read the page more thoroughly, but I was just doing a lot of addon updates that day.

Did you have plans to extend the enemy ability frames? I ask because I currently use Derangements Pet Battle Cooldowns, but it has been abandoned for over a year. I really like being able to see the backline pets abilities (and when they are on cooldown) as it it helpful on fights where the enemies swap around or I force swap them. I think for PvP it just auto adjusts them as the enemy uses them (and they get seen in the combat log). I'm more interested in the PvE side honestly.

Have you ever thought about keeping track of the backline enemy abilities and cooldowns?

Here's a picture of derangement's setup (Note, I am not asking for this specific setup, but wanted to illustrate what I have currently for examples sake):

[Gello]

I like the functionality of Derangement Pet Battle Cooldowns, but the top part of the battle UI was so crowded that I often don't notice stuff happening or pay attention to it. It could be my preference to having cooldowns at the bottom.

An initial though is something like this:


How important is it that the backline pets' abilities be visible at all times? And the backline pet's strong/weak hints badge be visible? (this information would be on a tooltip)

I realize this may be useful to monitor cooldowns; but I'm curious if peeking now and then would be sufficient. I worry this may be a bit too much UI floating out there in the playing field. (Someone already requested I take out the name "titlebar" bit and I was inclined to do that since it's repeating info already available elsewhere on the screen.) But if it's something that only needs checked on periodically, I could make the "titlebar" and backline pets fade in when you mouseover the frame and fade out when the mouse leaves.

A little pin button to make the backline pets always stay up is possible, but I'm trying to avoid starting down the road of options beyond turning whole tweaks on or off. (Rematch broke 100 options in the last update which is frightening lol)

[Gello]

Actually, names aren't really needed maybe:

[Jerebear]

Yeah I certainly do not want it to end up with a ton of options...I know that is rough for you to have to manage as it is.

In your first picture, are you concerned about showing small cooldown numbers and strong/weak indicators? I feel like that might be ok. You could still have the tooltips or whatever give a more visible on hover or something.

I don't think the names are needed as long as it is somehow easy to tell which abilities go with which pet, like with deebs in the middle, it would be hard to tell which of the two others is Tyri and Puzzle unless you just know their abilities visually (I do in this case, but not for all battles). But there may be ways to spatially indicate which is which without names.

I'd say the cooldowns are more important for me than the strong/weak markings (but I do use those). I watch the cooldowns to know when to swap enemy pets around, but I generally already plan out the strengths / weaknesses so they aren't as important. On random battles, I'd say the strengths and weaknesses are more important as I am less likely able to plan that out, but I still overall prioritize the cooldowns if I had to choose. Note that others may have different opinions.

Hmm..The more I think about it, I definitely don't want to bloat up your addon. It might be best to leave it be as is. I was just curious if you had ever had some plans down that road.

[Gello]

I'll think on this a bit more.

If it can be a wholly contained option to turn off/on then it's a very low-effort option. When options get icky is when they depend on other behavior.

If the primary goal is to track cooldowns when the pet isn't frontline (where cooldowns are visible), maybe little icons can display a count for a number of rounds remaining and then disappear entirely when off cooldown. Kind of like how debuffs work on the buff frame. These might be fine to display in the top part of the UI since they wouldn't sit up there full time.

[Jerebear]

I wouldn't worry too much on it. After we talked it through, I don't think what I would want from it would be good for the UI tweaks addon as a whole. The last thing you want to have to do is maintain a random option for like 1 or 2 peeps. I like your approach to addons and the last thing I would want for you is deviate from makes you such a good author. I still get a lot of use just out of the keybinds from pet switching. The more I thought about it, I just like the layout of derangements and I know that isn't your favorite (and that's OK!). I wouldn't want to transform UI tweaks from what it is. It's a great addon on its own. I'd say leave it as is.

If anything, maybe I'll dig into the code for Derangements and try to see if I can locally maintain it. I need to knock off the LUA rust and look at making an addon anyways since those locked bag slots show up and I don't have SMS available on my landline to get rid of them.

[Quintessence]

Testing this addon, and I have nothing useful to add other than I think it's great! I especially love the ability to show health ticks on enemy pets. No more guessing or using bad math to figure out when "less than X% hp" is. Thank you for this addon!