^ This too. The UI editor makes it so easy to save and have multiple layouts. I really wish keybindings worked in a similar fashion.

Hopefully coming with dual specs for sure.

Why does everyone seem to want to use all their abilities these days??....Perhaps I missed something, but you don't have to use all of them.

Sorcerers only need two bindings: force speed and lightning. On the opposite, my gunslinger has a lot of powers compared to my sage and my commando, and while those two can have the main combat abilities on two bars, my gunslinger definetely needs an additonnal bar.

Indeed, classes are different - I found that my merc healer has a serious lack of quickbar slots, whereas my powertech is more or less able to put all useful abilites on the bars.

Sniper is a downright nightmare due to the way the quickbar changes when you enter cover - for me it means I need to make those two sets of abilities identical as I mostly rely on muscle memory to play, and I can't properly differetiate between cover/non-cover bindings when combat is going. That means wasting 12 non-cover slots essentially, but the game mechanic just doesn't support how the human body works, so...

Inquisitor has it easy, I haven't even really filled up yet.

i know they wont so theres no point really saying this but i will anyway

best way to fix the ui is to open it up to the modders they will pump out loads of diffrent ui's thats will please almost everyone and as a extra bonusthey do your job for you and you dont have to pay them cha ching

Oh great. More visual clutter. That should make casuals flock to this game like in droves.

Smart move, Bioware. What's next on the agenda, dual-spec?

whats this i dont even....

random elitism about everything and anything is the hipster thing to do these days it seems...

Sorcerers only need two bindings: force speed and lightning. On the opposite, my gunslinger has a lot of powers compared to my sage and my commando, and while those two can have the main combat abilities on two bars, my gunslinger definetely needs an additonnal bar.

Though it seems too late in the development process the many abilities that every class needs should have been refined in such a way that the ability would do condition A under one situation, condition B under another, and perhaps condition C under yet a third. For example and without having a tooltip to work from, my IA could stab and stun an enemy in close proximity, then I had to switch to another keybind to stab that enemy in an exploited state. Under my ideal solution, the action to stab would by default roll over to the next ability with the use of the same keybind--exploiting the conditional state would be built into the original action, though perhaps this could be a specialized skill trait only accessed at a particular level and purchased from the trainer. As with your gunslinger, my IA either needs another 12 space bar Or needs its abilities pared down to a managable amount.

Since we are on the topic of UI...

Is it possible, one day, we can change the color of our UI?

I've always wanted to change my UI to red to match most of my Sith Warriors attacks. c:

Though it seems too late in the development process the many abilities that every class needs should have been refined in such a way that the ability would do condition A under one situation, condition B under another, and perhaps condition C under yet a third. For example and without having a tooltip to work from, my IA could stab and stun an enemy in close proximity, then I had to switch to another keybind to stab that enemy in an exploited state. Under my ideal solution, the action to stab would by default roll over to the next ability with the use of the same keybind--exploiting the conditional state would be built into the original action, though perhaps this could be a specialized skill trait only accessed at a particular level and purchased from the trainer. As with your gunslinger, my IA either needs another 12 space bar Or needs its abilities pared down to a managable amount.

Now this is worth discussing.

The reason game developers avoid doing this (aside from the extra work) is because it's generally accepted that these are critical decisions that players should make - that separate the truly competent players from say, those who only bind Force Speed and Lightning...

Certain other games allow you to macro abilities together to get this kind of functionality - I've always been puzzled by this direction because there's quite a bit of work in creating and maintaining the macro framework and ultimately you don't end up with professionally crafted abilities but a hodgepodge of things that players try to mash together.

In its own way, it's something of a surprise (importantly, a good surprise) which makes the player feel rewarded and opens up a new opportunity. The value of that can't be understated (though like anything, it can of course be over used).

I put it to the devs that dynamic abilities are by far the better option - players still need to realise they're available, act upon the availability and optimise their tactics to get the most out of them. It's the embodiment of "easy to learn, difficult to master" as they're instantly available when conditions are met but player skill is critical in using them to best benefit. The dynamism inherent in such abilities is itself exciting and rewarding, it helps the player feel like he's working with his character rather than just piloting a camera with a weapon.

By contrast adding more keys to press means there's a great deal more mental processing and physical action (let alone finding the right button to press). Far from being a test of tactics and in-game competence, it becomes a test of who better knows all the possible keys to press - "hard to learn, hard to master"

Long story short - ideally we shouldn't need four or more sets of 12 buttons.

Rationalising the huge number of abilities would be a mammoth task, there are lots of reasons for including them and I highly doubt that those reasons are documented anywhere.

Arsenal Spec Bounty Hunters for example are given an array of missile abilities, chiefly because the 'feel' of the spec is greatly about using missiles - functionally though they really don't offer great bang for their bucks.

You could easily take Fusion Missile off your bars entirely and never miss it, every other AoE ability blasts it out of the water and functionally it's very similar to Missile Blast which is also massively impractical to use... but they add to the flavour and fill out the quota of number of abilities available.

Being additional options to use is of very low value though, they serve an underwhelming and uncommon purpose (damaging several opponents in very close proximity at high Heat cost). Missile Blast's knock back may even have been the reason for not granting them an interrupt - even I have never used it as an interrupt though and I'm keenly aware of looking for opportunities to use it.

Tracer Missile and Heat Seeker Missiles tie in together as iconic abilities, Heat Signatures aren't a very exciting way of linking them though and the practicality of using them without stacks of heat signatures is minimal (by design, though they still hit pretty hard).

These are prime candidates for both rationalisation and for making dynamic - having Fusion Missile or Heat Seeker Missiles available on some kind of proc (rather than on a separate button); You could for example make Tracer Missiles (button) become Heat Seeker Missiles on proc (say 1:5 chance) or allow Death from Above to sometimes (button to become and allow use of) Fusion Missile - they're still nearly identical decisions and opportunities but the player feels like he's rewarded with 'something extra' and it doesn't just sit around taking up space.

edit: yes, I fully realise this makes the math of balancing abilities individually and in the context of various encounters more difficult - that doesn't make the proposal any less valuable, unless you really are totally strapped or coded into a corner... in which case, we've got much bigger problems.