Possible to get Plugin for Original UI(or close)?
 

Alrighty...now that I've found the right forum (again, big sorry to those making the rounds in the other requests room), I'm searching as hard as I can for a way to go back to the LotRO UI as it was before the f2p switch, or at least something close. The new crafting panel started to annoy me a good bit, and the new character screen really pushed me over the edge. So far I have come up with nothing, which could be either the fact that my search-fu skills aren't as good as they could be, or that it hasn't been done. Now, I know pretty much nothing about programming in general, so a few questions:
1) Is it possible to make a plugin that would change one's UI to the setup and functionality of pre-f2p, or at least something close?
2) If it is possible, has it been done, and, if so, where could I find it?
3) If it's possible and has not been done, would anybody be willing to take a swing at it, or at least give pointers to a programming know-nothing on how to do it?

Thanks!

for some of that it's not possible and others would need updated information from turbine to make it work. Nothing we can do about the new character screen ATM.

For the craft panel I put together one that is as close to the old one as the API allows us. you can find it here.
Edit: If you want I could cut the list down by about 100 pixels but you would only see 4 things in the list at that point.

I'm going to assume that you mean you want to go back to the LotRO UI skin as it was before the F2P switch. (Using the word "plugin" implies you want to do something with LUA scripting.) Of course the answer isn't a simple yes or no. So here goes...

Yes, it is technically possible to revert parts of the UI to the way it was before Vol 3 Book 2 (F2P). You would start with the Book 9 skin art pack in LotRO Tools & Utilities for Developers as compared to the V3B2 skin art pack. However, Updates 1 and 2 changed several parts of the UI. We don't have an art pack for those changes so nothing from those updates can be re-skinned (unless you're really good at guessing/haxoring). Probably most of the changes you want to undo are from Updates 1 and 2. :( Feel free to beg on the Turbine forums.

As far as I know, no one has made a skin like you want. Personally I wouldn't even try without the Update 2 skin art pack but hopefully someone can help you. Good luck!

Don't forget that some of the functions have changed and the skinning system does not let us change those functions back and the lua plugin system cannot replace most of the functions.
Ex. The craft panel no longer has tabbed recipe and mastery and we can not remake the tabs so the new recipe+mastery up at the same time is required.

For the character panel we can not make it "Tabbed" but if we had the new IDs we could lay it out like the old character panel and have the new panels open from buttons that match the location and size of the old tabs for them.

Oh right! I forgot to add the "no" part to my post.

No, some updates in V3B2, Update 1 and Update 2 are forever changed. The biggest one is the character panel. Even if we had the skin art pack, it's unlikely we'll ever be able to reconnect all the sub-tabs or reformat the stats list. The changes to the crafting panel are also restricted (like The Old One mentioned). Legendary items, the new bank, and others I'm not remembering can't ever fully be returned to the way they were before.

A belated thank-you for the responses. I've been out-of-game for some time now(yeah...intuitive UIs are vitally important for my ability to play a game. Partly the same reason Macs render computers unusable for me; I don't get the UI), but I had an idea that may make the setup perfect for me again. Although maybe I'm misunderstanding the details of what y'all are saying. :(

My thought was this: I read elsewhere that Plugins and the sort can only add new UI elements, not make sweeping changes to old ones. Makes sense, although I wish it wasn't the case...
Now...would it be possible to create a new button on the UI that, when pressed, opens a menu with the appearance and functionality of the old character screen? Or is the premise of these "UI elements" things that are constantly displayed? Or that some of the required information cannot be added to said elements? Or even that tabbed "browsing" is impossible to set up given the materials?

Sadly, there is very little the Lua plugin system can "replace" currently. Although the future may change this, right now we're limited to player vitals and bags.

As someone who also appreciates a well designed UI, I'm looking forward to the day when it's possible to effectively make a completely custom UI, by accessing the data itself, instead of just simple layout/skin changes. In my opinion, while the post-update UI was certainly a step backward, even the original left much to be desired.