Originally Posted by Black_Elk
the design philosophy behind the sort of hotbar which Larian has adopted comes out of the Real-Time tradition. Specifically real-time massively multiplayer games, where the player cannot pause the game state (because that would be putting the good of the one ahead of the many.)
This is false asumption ...
I get that you people know hotbars mostly from MMO ... but to claim that is the only possible source is just nonsence. -_-

Dragon Age series ... both pause, and hotbar ... no conflict detected:
You could ofcourse say that this is actualy real time game, and not turn based ... not sure how much it matters, if you can pause every second.

Heroes of Might and Magic 8 (possibly even 7 & 6 ... not quite sure about them tho)
I Failed to find any screenshot, but since i played it im totally sure that at least 8 certainly had hotbar, since even Ubisoft understanded eventualy its so much easier and covenient to simply click and cast ... instead serach in quite nice made, yet (especialy on high level) kinda crowded spellbook. :-/
And yes im aware that will be problem for BG-3 too ... that is why i keep saying that we would need at least twice as big hotbar. :P

Even Pathfinder have something quite simmilar to hotbar
[Linked Image from pcinvasion.com]
Yes i know, its actualy closer to popup window in matter of game mechanics, since you need to open it manualy ... but still, in the end you get what? Bar with spells.

And ofcourse there is divinity ... yet another turn based game with hotbar.

I obviously dont know where Larian take this idea originaly ... but neither do you, unless you are Larian employee in discuise, but in such case you would never admit it, so ... the point stands.

What im trying to say is that no matter where this idea originaly gets from, they obviously have seen that its working in this kind of games quite well, when done properly.
That is why they stick with it ... the only problem here is that its not done properly (yet) ...

But to scrap whole design before its finished, when its working as intended and just need a little tuning ... and start to create something entirely new instead, just bcs some other studio created entirely different desing in their not so entirely, yet still quite different game (Solasta) and *SOME* people are exited about it and want it now everywhere ... that dont seem like good decision to me at all. :-/

Originally Posted by Black_Elk
In that context
Its wrong context, for reasons i explained abowe ...
So, im gonna skip the rest on this matter.

Originally Posted by Black_Elk
Instead the emphasis was on pre-organizing everything in a set position within the main interface. So if you wanted to cast a spell, you click that little icon with the crescent moon and 3 stars, and it would bring up a horizontal tab that showed all the prepared spells listed in a set order.
Heard, seen, still dont like it ...
Hotbar is still much more covenient for my taste ... and i still believe that to set "spells" icon to hotbar should fill your desires, while keeping mine intact ...

I dont see any point here.

Originally Posted by Black_Elk
but it was obviously very limited.
That is my point.

Originally Posted by Black_Elk
The benefit there, was that it didn't require the player to organize everything for themselves
But some people DO WANT to organize things by themselves ... and i believe (read as: Hope) Larian undersrands that.
That is whole reason for this bar. -_-

Originally Posted by Black_Elk
also that it didn't take up a whole ton of screen real estate.
That could easily be once again done by:
1) Icons causing popup windows with specific content ... spells, scrolls, arrows, etc.
2) Options in settins to adjust transparency of unused slots on hotbar ...

Voila!
Everyone happy. :P

Originally Posted by Black_Elk
The downside was that if you didn't like how the spells or whatever were laid out in the default scheme you couldn't really do anything about it.
That is my point.

Originally Posted by Black_Elk
The ideal compromise would be a default layout that prioritizes the new first time player and which does a lot of the busy work for them, so they can concentrate on playing rather than building their own version of the UI, but then also allows for exactly that (building the UI layout) if the player so chooses.
Agreed.

Originally Posted by Black_Elk
MMOs adopted this approach, with SWTOR being a good example.
As the matter of facts, Dragon Age: Origins did something quite simmilar.

Originally Posted by Black_Elk
For my part, I think a better approach would be to have several options available.
Problem here is that it all costs money ...
So i gues they just do what they feel its best and keep the rest for moders ...

After all, if you search for WoW UI ... you can quite fast find out that every player have different idea about what is effective UI.

I still dont understand why cant we change Race for our hirelings. frown
Lets us play Githyanki as racist as they trully are! frown