TSW Addon Spotlight is a weekly series about addons in The Secret World. Every week I will examine an addon and discuss what it brings to the game.
Thus far everything I’ve highlighted has been on the ‘large’ side in terms of additions to the game. Or perhaps major is a better word to use – a dungeon finder, a fix if not improvement to the gear management system, a better team UI, bios for roleplaying characters – but sometime the minor cosmetic annoyances can really pile up the irritation and need to be fixed as well. I am really sensitive to color schemes; the surest way to ensure that I won’t be visiting your website is to give it a black background and put white or red text on it, or some eye blinding combination, and to make it so it can’t be customized.
I am holding my breath hoping someone will release something that lets me change the default colorscheme. But for now, the most welcome cosmetic addon is sammichofdoom’s Improved Notification Window. Click the button below for details on this little visual delight.
It’s fairly minor so far as things go, but one of the things that annoys me the most about The Secret World‘s default UI are the notification icons. It’s kind of nice to begin with when abilities are coming in slowly, but that little thrill of getting APs and SPs rapidly diminishes as I progress through the game and earn them more quickly. It’s like Chinese water torture, each new zone causes that annoyance factor to just multiply. And it’s infinitely more annoying once the ability wheel has been completely filled in, and all weapon skills have been earned – and that little light in the lower corner just keeps on flashing. And why would I want to be notified with more flashing lights when I click on a lore? I mean, I’ve just clicked on it. I know I’ve just clicked on it. I saw the lore window pop up when I clicked on it. Do I really need another flashing light to let me know that I’ve just clicked on something and seen the information pop up? Achievements are kind of nice, a lot of the time I completely miss it when I’ve earned one, but of the things that cause a little blinking glow in the corner of my screen – that is the only one I want to see.
Improved Notification Window (or here if you prefer Curse) allows me to do just that – turn off the notifications that I don’t want to see. On top of that, it replaces the default icons with more muted ones, so it doesn’t constantly nag for attention. sammichofdoom even went one step beyond that – there are quite a few different options you can turn on. Want to know when you get cash? XP? PvP marks? It’s all there, including many other things like petitions. Very useful, this is a top notch quality of life addon that I can’t see myself going without any time soon. It doesn’t seem to be in development, aside from the occasional updates to keep up with new patches, but it doesn’t really need anything further. It does what it does very well. Many thanks, sammichofdoom!
Useful Links:
sammichofdoom’s Improved Notification Window
Official Interface and Addon Forums
TSW Addon Spotlight – Viper’s Deck Manager
