Addon Spotlight: Aloft
by David Bowers 
Jun 24th 2007 at 3:08PM
The main problem I experienced with the default nameplates was that they kept jumping about as characters moved in a tight space, and there just wasn't room for all the entities' names and healthbars floating above their heads. Some nameplates inevitably got pushed off to the side, far away from the characters they were supposed to represent only to bounce up to the top or the right or the middle unpredictably as the character ran along. Furthermore, the default nameplates are largely the same and it was difficult to tell which ones belonged to whom.
Aloft, though, lets you modify the nameplates and their presentation of the information you need. You can, for example, make the nameplates relatively small to fit more nicely together in crowds, and then assign different health bar colors to various types of characters, from hostile, neutral, or friendly NPCs -- to players (friendly or hostile) of different classes -- or even to distinctions as fine as pets within your group or not if you want. You can set up all sorts of textual information too, such as name, health or guild affiliation, and make everything appear just as you want it so that it means the most to you at a glance. You can even make the nameplates of friends who are being attacked appear in a special warning color for as long as they are under attack, or add combat text to health bars just like that which normally appears scrolling up above characters' heads or over their portrait on the unit frame.
Aloft is the addon that makes nameplates actually usable for me, and I highly recommend giving it a try if you have any interest in nameplates at all. You can get it at Curse, or download the frequently updated version directly from wowace.com
Filed under: AddOns, AddOn Spotlight
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Lori Jun 24th 2007 3:41PM
I have found that, when grouped, any player nameplates are a distraction and clutter my view so I turn them off via the UI interface. This has the added advantage of turning ON a targeted players nameplate so it is easier to find the mage with water to trade with in a group of 40 scattered about.
I do use the "V" key to see a where a bunch of mob are to AoE.
I can't imagine playing with 40 + mob nameplates like the addon generates, on my screen.
Prester John Jun 24th 2007 4:27PM
Wow. Judging by that screenshot, this mod really clutters things up. Don't get me wrong, de gustibus non disputandum, but I prefer my mods to lighten my visual load rather than adding to it.
Kimkong Jun 24th 2007 5:21PM
I just found out this addon today, I think the "V key" is rather helpful, especially for aoe. Like the default UI, you can turn Aloft on or off with V key for enemy players, and with less space, you can have a lot more information...
@Prester, the default UI takes a lot more visual space, if you ever tried the V key, and is not configurable. But if you don't use it, you won't need this addon either...
liothe Jun 24th 2007 5:45PM
Ah, I've been looking for something like this..!
shift+V is useful for healing in BGs.. until, like mentioned, everyone gets to close and the bars start jumping around..
Junzim Jun 24th 2007 6:43PM
THIS IS THE GREATEST WOW MOD YOU HAVE EVER POSTED!
Ok, Hyperbole out of the way.
I'm a priest, always have been. From Beta to Release to 2.0 to present day. My one fundamental objection with WoW was that healing was the most godawfullly boring task in the game for all the wrong reasons.
The act of healing people is invigorating and extremely fun. Staring at infinite healthbars on the top left corner of your screen is not. I believe it was during BWL when I realized I had no idea what some of the bosses even looked like or what the hell was really going on graphically with the fight.
I couldn't even walk around instances my guild had had on farm for months because I rarely actually took in the instance, most of my screen was UI.
I always had a soft spot for the enemy healthbars in WoW and had campaigned on suggestion forums for the old Beta friendly HP bars to be returned. When I finally got my wish I was ecstatic (sad priest here!).
There was only one missing element to making healing as fun as it should have been and that was green numbers for my healing where others saw damage - over their target's heads. 2.1 delivered and I have been a very, very contented priest (particularly as nowadays my gameplay is very PvP healing centric where seeing a healthbar over everyone's head is the only way to remain visually aware of your surroundings.)
However, the Healthbars have always had a stacking issue and suffered from a total lack of customisability (the original nameplates were actually hardcoded and not displayed using LUA at all, so you couldn't alter them in any way). I reckon with a lot of tweaking I can turn this mod into the WoW experience I always wanted: an extremely refined, minimalistic view that puts me right in the centre of the action.
Thank you WoW Insider!
Incendo Jun 24th 2007 7:19PM
To each there own but this much clutter on my screen makes me twitchy and unstable.
Hanz Jun 25th 2007 10:01AM
thank you for posting it, as tank i use enemy nameplates all the time and if this addon will stops them from jumping around this will make my day.
Madokachan Jul 3rd 2007 10:22PM
This is one of the Add-On I have been seeking,
I'm runing dual screen WoW and the name plate is one of the thing that not scale well when you expand to 2560X1024 pixels,(2 monitors sit side by side)
this add-on fixed the problem!
and as Junzim said, healing is much more easier (a priest here too) can't wait to try it on Void Reaver fight when i died coz watching too much health bars and got in to those arcane bombs >.<
Thank you very much for introducing :)