Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Patch6, recuding hotbar real-estate

The title of the thread might not be my finest work, but I thought the first post made it clear that I complain about patch6 reducing size of the hotbar creating problems that I worried about since I played the beta for the first time. Honestly, after my first playthrough I refunded the game, because how terrible controls in D:OS2 and BG3 were. Decided to return seeing how promising patch5 was, but UI is still horrific. Making hotbar bigger is a must, but I don't consider it to be good enough of a solution.

The boon of UI like BG1&2, Solasta, or PoE (and to lesser extend Pathfinder) is that I don't have to manually set it up with every new character, with every levelup and after every long rest - that bit is very important to me. More playtime I can spend having good time, and less time I have to spend doing tedious management the better. Look at PoE1&2 for what I consider the finest UI to date- spell folders open when hovered over, making it easy to "scroll" through available spells.

In BG3 upcasting is the only issue, as indicating what resources it consumes, or what spells it might prevent you from casting is tricky - that however is a problem that currect UI doesn't resolve either.



EDIT: One thing that PoE UI doesn't do well is item management. Many items, few slots - the end result was that outside some exceptions, I barely used items in PoE1&2 - it was just too tedious to use them.

In BG3 item "folders" (show all arrows/scrolls/potions/granades in that person inventory) would help in cutting inventory management in half. At the moment:
1) I have to decide who will have this item for use by picking it up with that character or sending it to that character
2) then I have to manually assign this item to their hotbar, or I will forget about it.

A nice expandable "folder" for items would erase the need for 2) maybe except the regularly commonly used items like healing potions that I would like to have on my hotbar regardless.

So, thinking from two sides:

Improving current Hotbar system

1) it needs to be bigger then it is
2) has to allow to switch to any hotbar I want without a need to scroll through them using a tiny button
3) Block "-/+" for shortening/expanding hotbar when the hotbar is "locked".
4) I think, that upcasting "folder" should expend upon hovering, not after clicking on the icon (like PoE spell levels folders). Clicking on the icon should cast the base spell. If we want to "upcast it" we can use the "folder" to pick the upcasted version.

My prefered solution: new, better UI - more information, less magement

A better UI all together, inspired by other DnD and DnD-like games - BG1&2, PoE, Pathfinder, Solasta, as imagined by far more talented then me @Lastman

Couple further suggestions:
1) With lowere level cap, there will be lower amount of available spell levels, so item folders (for scrolls/arrows/potions) would preferably be on the same bar, rather then below. I also think that "folders" should open up by hovering over them, to make "scrolling" thorugh actions/spells/items easier, and reduce unneeded clicks. Things like weapon actions, martial skills etc. shoud be sorted that way as well, and ideally have clear, automatic division between full and bonus actions.

2) Item folders should show all items of that type in that character's inventory

3) Spell folder icons, should also show resources available (like in PoE UI) rather then be in a seperate place.

4) perhaps when scrolling through "upcast" option it could open below relevant spell level folder to draw attention to how much resource in that spell level we have left, and what other spells we could cast (or won't be able to cast if it is our last resource) at the cost of upcasting.

5) please, don't be Owlcat games, and hide handy spell UI, behind clickable, expandable thing that we need to expand and hide with every spell cast.

6) No one wants "hotbar" removed. It should however, be a hotbar, and not have to carry the weight of all skills and items on our disposal.