Mission System:

The mission system sits on the top right hand corner of the screen. The system is pretty much a quest tracker where you can see what quests you are doing at the moment in an easy to see way without having to constantly go to your quest log screen. It is likely it will be limited to how many will appear on this mission system as you wouldn’t want to have your screen completely taken up with quests. The tracker appears to allow the tracking of 5 quests maybe more.

Mini Map:

The mini map like the chat box is in an unusual location. The mini map is normally located in the top right of the screen in the majority of mmos out at the moment, but SWTOR UI artists decided to put it in the bottom right hand corner of the UI. Of course this will take some getting used to like the chat box. The mini map looks pretty standard, you can zoom in and out, land marks appear to viewable on the mini map and you can open a larger map.

In all while the mini map is in an unfamiliar place like the chat box it will of course take time to get used to and be annoying at first, but I am sure people will get used to it quickly.

Combat systems:

This is the most important part of any user interface your players health, your enemies health and your abilities and it is located in the bottom middle of the screen. The UI artists in SWTOR in my opinion did this nicely by drawing on used elements like the action bar set up. The major visible difference is the character (left side) and target (right side) portraits which show the health and energy of the both, the portraits are commonly put in the top left but the UI artist has opted to put them over the action bar which is better because you can see straight away how you or your targeted character is doing health wise and since it is near your action bar you don’t have to look up as far so reaction time can be increased on attacks can be increased.

In all the combat systems is looking pretty good and when I first looked it at I had reservations but looking at the picture again I can see where the UI artists are coming from in their idea and it looks like the idea could work well and would reduce players input as they would be able to focus on the middle part of the screen as not have to look up at the top left to constantly see their characters/targets health.

Party/Companion System:

The party/companion system is on the bottom left side of the user interface and shows of your companions health which will be with all players and if you are in a group all members of the group will appear. From the screenshot we can see there is more than enough room to show a full party on the screen and doesn’t seem to create clutter on the screen. There isn’t much to say about this system as it is pretty standard and doesn’t change from the standard mmo UI as it shows your party members/companions health, energy and their buffs/debuffs on them.

In all there is nothing new here and just reinforces the standard way to see members in your party.

Conclusion:

In conclusion the UI is mix of what we know from past mmo user interfaces and some new look design. The UI at first glance seems to be a bit annoying with the main announce being the chat box been place on the top left of the screen.

What I hope to see for the UI is the allowance of modifications to the layout either through addons or ingame where you can unlock the key parts and move them and re size them.

Also I would like to say I do like the light blue colour and and gives it a science fiction feel.

I also hope this is the final version because looking at the previous UI they had this is a great version.

Thanks for taking the time to read the first my opinion article.

You can read the article about the SWTOR UI on the official SWTOR website