User Interface Improvements: Action Bar for Gamepads

[Betelgeuzah]

G'day.

I touched upon this subject in the auto-attack thread but this discussion doesn't belong in there.

Current problems with the action bar for gamepads:

Most importantly, it is not pad-friendly but designed to be used with a keyboard instead. For example, you need to scroll between the different abilities to get to the one you want to use. Since even the basic attack has it's own place in the bar, you need to constantly switch between the abilities. Since the bar is one straight line with 10 different skills, it is very cumbersome to scroll. To improve on this, here is my humble suggestion:

Make the bar into a 3x3 grid-style layout:

XXX
XXX
XXX

and make it so the default place of the cursor is in the middle. This would improve the usability of the bar considerably for gamepad users, as the amount of user input would go down by a wide margin. At most, you would have to press the directional button twice to get to the skill you want to use.

However, one skill is missing from the list. That being the basic attack. To solve this, basic attack (assigned by the player) would have it's own button on the pad. If you change the action bar from #1 to #2 or #3, the 10th skill of each of these bars would be triggered with the same button as the basic attack. This way you lose nothing by making the bar behave like this, but it would make playing a lot less of a hassle. Obviously keyboard users could keep the layout as-is.

Lastly, another suggestion regarding the grid: the right analog stick could be used to select the skills by tilting it towards the direction of the skill. This is quite widely used mechanic in other console games with lots of skills to use, and I think it would work here too. The amount of button presses would go down even further.

Thank you for listening. Further improvements or criticism of my feedback regarding the action bar (and party/battle-UI as the whole) for the gamepads is most welcome.

[viion]

I dont think there is anything wrong with it on gamepad and think it works well. if they added in auto attack it will work even better as you wont need to go back to 1 every time.

[Dreamer]

I dont think there is anything wrong with it on gamepad and think it works well. if they added in auto attack it will work even better as you wont need to go back to 1 every time.

Stop with the autoattack nonsense already please. They're not going to revamp the entire combat system when half the playerbase is against it. There's already an entire thread devoted to it, so there's no need to clutter another with it.

As far as a radial action bar for gamepads, the idea has some merit, especially if we could map it to whichever analog stick we want. Being able to move, hold down a button and then use my camera control to move to whichever attack I'd like has the potential to be nifty. I don't have any problems with the action bar as it is now, however.

[Betelgeuzah]

I'm not saying there's something wrong with it, it is functional, but I think it can be done better. Let's discuss how this could be done, and leave the auto-attack for a different thread.

[Impulse]

It's a nice idea and would definitely help reduce the wear on the already craptastic D-Pad on the 360 controller, but I don't think it's too necessary. I've had no issues going back/forth (same goes for LS mates who use a pad) on the bars aside from the occasional game hiccup where Up/Down won't switch bar levels.
If I need to pull off an ability ASAP, I just move one of my fingers about 2 inches from the trigger on the gamepad to the number key on my keyboard. Though this is a very rare thing for me to do seeing as combat isn't quite as fast-paced as some people make it out to be.

[Laperouge]

May i ask here? Can someone tell me HOW exactly i can use item with pad? (Like eating Tuna Miqabob)

[Fieros]

Make the bar into a 3x3 grid-style layout:

XXX
XXX
XXX

As a gamepad user I currently use a set up as you describe. The bar is already a 10x10 gride-style. Only difference is two are hidden. To illustrate your point, and mine a little more clearly take my rank 30 pugilist bar set up:

[Pummel][CncBlowII][AuraPulse][RageStk][HawkI][Bbath][Ferocity][--][CureII][SacII]
[LightStrike][FeathrFoot][2ndWind][HvyStkLOL][----][----][----][----][----][Taunt]
[Haymaker][Victimize][Feint][Stoneskin][----][----][----][----][----][Accomplice]

Something like that anyways. As you can see I use a 3x3 grid for the most common skills. Bold skills are used constantly, Underlined skills when needed, and the Italic skills when they are off cooldowns. It works for me, have you tried something to this effect OP? I got tired of moving left to right so much it made me organize my bars with up/down usage more.

[raseol]

If you do it like that, then you only have 9 slots compared to the 30 we have now. For me, your layout is a bit limiting for when i want to look around during battle and how do you see yourself move around the target during battle? I mean, we only have 2 thumbsticks. And what about the flow of battle, does inputting a command going to pause the game or something? I don't mind pausing once or twice but to do it everytime you have to do an attack is quitte bothersome. Lastly, where is this grid going to be on the screen and how big is it?

Its a nice idea, but the actionbar seems to be more functional in both options and looks.

[Kurokikaze]

May i ask here? Can someone tell me HOW exactly i can use item with pad? (Like eating Tuna Miqabob)

I haven't been able to find a way. There doesn't seem to be an way to access the bottom right menu with the gamepad. Have to resort to click it open with the mouse THEN using the gamepad. Thats such an inherent flaw with their keymapping on the controller.

To the person that said using the camera analog to select abilities... Think about what you suggested and come up with a logical reason as to why that would give people a headache.

[GabbaGabba]

i use a gamepad and im thinking of using this 3x3 layout. right now i have a lot of my main spells on my first bar and it is a pain to keep going left to right all the time. one thing that i notice that i do sometimes is when i switch bars, i sometimes mistakenly do it when the bar is hidden and then that will switch my targetting mode which screws me up even more. i have yet to party so i dont how easy or hard it is to heal party members while trying to dps