Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback "Cancel Action" doesn't need this many clicks

It would be really nice if the game could automatically Cancel Action when the player attempts to select a new Action using their Left Mouse click from the UI, without requiring an intermediate separate click from another key.

For example, if I have my sword drawn or a spell selected, but then wish to select my bow or a different spell instead, I must first Right Click to "Cancel Action," before the game will register that I'm trying to select a different/new action from the interface. This causes unnecessary double clicks or re-clicks, and increases the likelihood of misclicks or accidentally causing an action to trigger or cancel when the goal is simply to switch from one action icon to another. I'd imagine some frustration here from players who are used to games where this sort of thing happens more automatically without the extra layer of input.

The default to Cancel Action is currently ESC/Right Mouse click, which is required in order to select a new Action if you've already got one selected. This feels rather redundant and kind of unnecessary though, especially if the same could be achieved simply by Left Mouse clicking on a different action/ability/spell etc on the UI. If that was the case, the need to use Cancel Action all the time would be significantly reduced, whereas now it's one of the most common extraneous clicks and delays in the game.

Also regarding keybinds... Right Mouse click is bound to the Context Menu as well as the second Cancel Action field by default right now, however when this bind is changed from the default, the same key (or combo of keys) cannot be used for both functions for some reason. For example, if I want to assign Ctrl+Right Mouse click to both Cancel Action and Context Menu, in place of the default Right Mouse, I can't do that. The keybind settings will tell me I need to assign them to separate keys, even though Right Mouse click can handle both initially if I don't alter the defaults. Not sure why this should be? It makes it very hard to reassign Right Mouse click to a different function, which would be my goal if cancelling the currently selected Action when clicking another Action icon on the UI could be more automated.

A knock-on benefit of allowing a Left Mouse click to auto cancel the previously selection Action when reselecting a new Action from the UI, is that this frees up more potential keybinds for the Right Mouse click. I think the most popular would be to use Right Mouse click for Toggle Camera Rotation rather then Center Mouse click. Or that's certainly what I want. Right now the best option for players who want to use Right Mouse click for Toggle Camera Rotation, is to leave the second field in Cancel Action blank, and simply use the ESC key for that, but it's a little inconvenient, and also causes issues when it comes to reassigning the Context Menu keybind. Whatever one's preference for Camera Rotation though, it seems like it would be a nice QoL feature if the game could recognize that when I Left Mouse click a different icon on the UI that I want the current action to cancel.

The most common example I can think of would be having to constantly Cancel Action in between switching from a basic Melee Attack to a basic Ranged Attack. Or when switching between spells.

When I Left Mouse click from one Action icon on the UI to another Action icon on the UI, I'd prefer the game to just know what I'm trying to do there, rather than forcing a double confirmation for the cancellation. Double confirmation makes sense for the Action, sure, but not for the cancellation. Anyone else feel this way? I think it would definitely improve the experience and perhaps eliminate some of that impression which others have mentioned about the UI not feeling quite responsive enough. This would at least remove that tiny stall which happens anytime you want to switch from one action to another, which is quite often.

Follow up hehe, cause I honestly think this might be one of the most expedient ways to create the impression of a more responsive UI for the largest possible number of players.

Cancel Action via Right Mouse click before we're allowed to reselect another Action has to be one of the most common UI clicks in the game right now. But is it really needed? Especially when double confirmation is already built into the Action anyway?

We have to use the intermediate Cancel Action constantly, just to switch between the most basic commands: like Melee Attack to Ranged Attack, Action, Bonus Action, Cast Spell or to reselect anything on our main UI/Hotbar. Next to Left Mouse click to walk the PC around, Right Click to cancel action has to be the most common click in BG3. So any improvement here would be dramatically time saving, and likely cut the number of Action related clicks in half if it could be more automatic and less manual input intensive.

I hope this is something with some broad based agreement here, but it's hard to know without asking. Does anyone prefer having to Cancel Action with an additional separate key/command every time they want to switch or reselect a new Action from the Interface or Hotbar? Are there any merits to the intermediate cancel click that I'm not seeing? Is this how it worked in Divinity? What is the rationale? Or is this simply because the interface is in a state of flux, so the left click to switch selected is unreliable due to that?

I'm very curious, because I've had this same impression since day one, and I think it's been mentioned elsewhere, but perhaps not with an independent focus. I changed the title from '"settings and keybinds" to "doesn't need this many clicks," since without a slightly provocative title, these nuts and bolts type threads seem to sink like lead balloons without much discussion lol. But I really want to discuss it. I think it merits its own thread because it is so very common.

This issue overlaps with the click "threshold" feedback some people expressed previously, where the game's Left Mouse click to Select doesn't feel quite responsive enough in general. I think having an intermediate double confirmation click to Cancel Action compounds this impression, so this may help with that as well if it was addressed.

There is so may issues in this game related to the UI and party control in general that I think Larian need to dedicate an entire patch to improving it. If not an entire overhaul.

So Larian if you are listening to all the negative feedback regarding UI and controls (lol who am I kidding). If you could just deticate patch 7 to fixing the UI and party controls in general. That'd be great.

I agree it's counterintuitive and defiantly not needed, same with a action like dash, i press the button and then have to select my character ? like i could selct another character for my dash? theres a lot of issues like theese.
UI i general is a mess, as a minimum we need more control and some scaling options on this UI.

I also found double confirmation to be oddly unreliable. It seems I need to say to the character to get into position before confirming otherwise the skill won’t fire up.

Don't forget "slightly annoying". I don't get why spells/and skills that target self need to be confirmed, they manage it with items so why not there?

Thank goodness I'm not totally alone on this one.

Yeah absolutely the hoops we have to jump through target self on spells or abilities that only work on self is rough.

I truly think a dedicated UI update would be heralded with all the plaudits if it arrived sooner rather than later.

+1 to a complete UI/UX overhaul or, at a minimum, a dedicated patch

My guess, is that they want to unify skills - someone might not diffirenciate targatable vs non targatable skill on sight and trigger an ability more or less by mistake. I know, I don't always remember if "can I cast it on someone else or not?".

So in general I don't mind a need to "confirm" the cast, like in XCOM. But as of right now it's a bit too sluggish.

I don't like having to click to cancel action or click to target self for something that can only target self. I am dreading playing a spellcaster at higher levels with all this clicking as well. Will require clicking to open the correct hot bar multiple times to get to the spell then clicking on the spell then clicking on the level to cast it. Not sure if this last part belongs in this thread as it is an interface issue, but it is about unnecessary clicking. It seems Larian wants the title Slayer of Mice.