After playing around with the ability bar since both the beta and live versions of the EoC, I feel it needs some improvements. Below will contain a lot of technical terms and basic explanations for those who do not understand certain aspects.

 

For Jagex: I know your current engine will need updates to make the upcomming suggestions work, but they would be trivial to implement. The only thing you would need to add is XML file loading and parsing via DOM or some other built-in library.

 

Suggestion 1: Increase Bar Count

I feel 5 ability bars is not enough for high-end gameplay. I have a normal melee, normal range, normal magic, mining/crafting, and dungoneering melee bar setup now. I could probably name 10 other setups I would use on a common basis. For example, dungoneering magic, dungoneering range, slayer range, slayer melee, fishing, boss melee, boss mage, pvp melee, pvp mage, etc.

 

I feel 10-15 bars would be an adaquet amount. Now since bars are currently stored server-side, this will require additional resources on Jagex's part. This also brings me into suggestion number 2.

 

Suggestion 2: Client-Side Ability Bars Via XML

 

As previously mentioned, ability bars are stored on Jagex's servers with our character profiles. This is great for players who use different machines, but it also takes up space on Jagex's servers. What I would love to see is a client-side folder where you could drop an XML or some sort of definition file where you could design your own ability bars without being in-game. For those who do not understand XML, just skip to suggestion three.

 

Here is an example of an XML format which can be used.

 

 

Within the abilities tag, you will see a bar element, with a slot sub-element.

A bar would have attributes such as an ID number for which bar it is, a locked boolean value for whether it is locked or not, and, something which I will explain in the next suggestion, modifier keys. Each slot element will have an ID number representing which position it is on the bar, the key used to activate it, and the associated action with sub-action, which will be explained in suggestion 3. This is both an efficient format for reading into an application as well as a readable format for custom modification.

 

This will also open up the ability for fan sites to host ability bar designer front-end interfaces and then exporting the XML file or providing the code for copy pasting.

 

Suggestion 3 - Modifier Keys and Sub-Action Customibility

 

In this portion, I will cover what modifier keys and sub-actions are as well as explain why they should be added.

 

A modifier key will be either no key, the Shift key, the Alt key, or the Ctrl key on your keyboard. The purpose of the modifier key would be to allow more than one action per key per action bar. If you scroll back up to the XML image I posted above, you will notice I added a modifier attribute as well as provided the same ID number for both bars. This was intentional. By pressing the specified modifier, it will allow you to quickly switch between set actions on a single action bar. This could be used to create a dungoneering bar which gives me 4 possibilities of actions per slot (No modifier, shift modifier, alt modifier, and ctrl modifier). Using the above XML file as an example, if I press "1" on my keyboard, it would use the momentum ability if possible. If I press "Shift+1", it would cast the high alchemy spell.

 

A sub-action is any menu action which is not default when you left-click on something. For example, the default option on a maple log is "craft", when right clicking the log, I get several other options. These are what I am referring to.

 

I believe you should be able to customize what sub-action you wish to toggle for an item on the ability bar. To set the sub-action in game, you would simply shift+right click on the item and then click the desired sub-action. In the XML file, I denote this by using a colon( :) seperator between the action.

 

This is a WIP post. I plan on doing a video with modified screenshots to better demonstrate what I am talking about. I also have a couple of more ideas which will be appended later on. I just want to get feedback on these suggestions first as the may relate to the 4th. The next two ideas are expandable bars (more than one visible at a time if you have modifier keys set) and ability sequences (Pressing a key multiple times to do various abilities).

 

-GreenXen

Nerdy :D

 

I like it

Support, there should be more activity bars.