Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Suggestion - Hotbar 2.0 - Bigger, more organized, auto management

Hello,

I kind of like the new hotbar functionalities but to be honnest it is far from being easy and convenient to use.


=> It is time consuming to manage
=> Many things are hidden
=> It requires a lot of interraction to use it properly (move the sliders constantly, look at multiple hotbars)
=> It is only "organized" if the player manage them often

It would be a lot more friendly user if the main hotbar would show much more at first glance and if things were better organized and automated.

The new hotbar add a lot of good things but it also changed a thing that was really good in the previous builds : dedicated area for specific icons (actions and bonus actions).
In my opinion it would be a great idea to couple the new UI with the old one to create a larger but also way more automatically organized hotbar.

Here's what I think the hotbar should look like. See explanations below.
Of course keep in mind that the pictures and icons used are given to explain an idea.







Hotbar is divided in 4 parts with sliders between them.
1 : Common actions and bonus actions
2 : Custom hotbar
3 : Items hotbar
4: Reactions hotbar

- Sliders allow the players to make every parts bigger or shorter. You cannot make a part shorter than 2 icons (one on top of the other). The small stylised lines on the top and sides are scaled accordingly.
- The player can remove and rearrange all icons in all parts of the hotbar.
- The "custom hotbar" works the same as now. You can put everything you want, you can sort, click filters, there can eventually have additionnal sliders,...


1 : /
2 : /

3 : Items hotbar



- 4 new activable icons are on the hotbar (quiver, potion case, scroll case, weapons)
- These 4 icons have a specific and shared layout. We easily understand what is an action (grey icons) and a bonus action (blue icons) due to their visual code. The 4 new "items" icons should have their own visual code.
- When you click on them, the custom hotbar becomes black and all arrows / potions / scrolls or weapons you have in your inventory and can use are visible on the UI.
- It works just like when you click a spell that gives you extra options (E.G hex or chromatic orb, but it shows items we have in our inventory).



- It doesn't prevent the players to have items on their "custom hotbar".
- If you don't have let's say any arrows, the quiver icon is greyed out on the hotbar and the button is unactivable. Same for other items.
- We should be able to find these icons "somewhere" to drag and drop them back in the hotbar if we've removed them.

4 : reactions hotbar
- Showing reactions actively will encourage players to use them which will be very important when there will have more and when the system will be a more active gameplay element.


=> It would automate the hotbar a lot.
=> It would make the hotbar bigger, with more informations and interractions with on the first glance
=> It would make the hotbar more organized and more user friendly
=> It would make the player use an efficient and already well known system (hotbar turning black to allow multiple choices when we click an icon)
=> It would visually increase the visual appeal of the slider system


EDIT

=> It may not prevent to eventually allow to fully custom the 4 parts of the hotbar. Players would just have a larger hotbar in 4 parts rather than a single one divided by redlines.

=> that's how I'd like my hotbars to look like but maybe other players would like to dedicate a division to items spells and features rather than to reactions. If someone would like to have special weapons attacks on what I called the "1 : common actions and bonus actions", it may be able to custom it.

In the end what matter is :
- the size of the hotbar.
- the visual layer that is a lot more appealing than red lines sliders.
- the various icons/buttons for items that are a lot less space consuming than having an icon per scroll/arrows/potions you'd like to use.
- the various icons/buttons that are a lot less time consuming than having to open our inventory to drag n' drop all scrolls/arrows/potions you'd like to use in the hotbar

Thanks for reading

+1

I kinda like this suggestion ... partialy ... but would like it much more with few upgrades:

1) And most importantly ... even this hotbar still have much unused space.
Call me compulsive, maybe i am, dont know, dont care ... but i want my Hotbar to reach from one side of screen to another i want as much usable space as possible!
And i dont even know why really, all i know, and all i need to know, is that i want it.

So possibility to make whole bar wider, or shorted would be much appreciated by myself.

2)
Why not?
If i dont want items/common actions/reactions to take space on my bar, i should be able to hide them completely ... i see no reason for this restriction. What would it bring?

3)
As long as i can throw this shit away and never see it again ... why not.

Look, i understand the urge to have everything sorted in boxes ...
I just dont like it ...

What i expect from my hotbar is to have there things prepared ...
I click healing potion > my character drinks ... and thats it!
I click flame arrow > my character shoots it ... and thats it!

I know that some of you wish to open bag > pick arrow pocket > pick arrow > and shoot ... that is HORRIBLE image for me. :-/
(That is by the way also reason why i keep fighting for option to have particular spells on hotbar, level included ... i just want my Wizard to have Mage Armor level 1 prepared at single click (okey 2 with targeting) bcs i would never use higher level for that, why would i, it gives no benefit ... it only bothers me with yet another unnecesary picking.)

And before you said it, yes im aware you said that i would be still able to put my Healing Potion to my custom hotbar ... but that have 2 small problems:
A) It takes space from custom hotbar that is allready quite full for some classes.
B) It completely negates any reason to have items bar ... for people who dont want to use items by this.

Wich takes us to the last point...
4)
Hard NO from me ...
Sory ... i know that i must see compulsive by now, and maybe i even am, but i just NEED to have ALL my bars sorted the way I want them.
(for the record, i know (even tho i dont do that) that in english you write "i" allways in capital letters, but here it is done to emphasize the word)

And i believe its my business ... if i want to have Dancing Lights right next to Torch on items bar, i should be able to do that ... again, there is no reason to restrict this, no nebefit.

---

The rest i kinda like.

=> It may not prevent to eventually allow to fully custom the 4 parts of the hotbar. Players would just have a larger hotbar in 4 parts rather than a single one divided by redlines.

=> that's how I'd like my hotbars to look like but maybe other players would like to dedicate a division to items spells and features rather than to reactions. If someone would like to have special weapons attacks on what I called the "1 : common actions and bonus actions", it may be able to custom it.

In the end what matter is :
- the size of the hotbar.
- the visual layer that is a lot more appealing than red lines sliders.
- the various icons/buttons for items that are a lot less space consuming than having an icon per scroll/arrows/potions wem'd like to use.
- the various icons/buttons that are a lot less time consuming than having to open our inventory to drag n' drop all scrolls/arrows/potions we'd like to use in the hotbar.

Hmm. Apologies for the off topic remark, but...



That's interesting. I didn't know that.

Honestly, I am pretty happy with where the hotbar is at. I can find all stuff that I need through drop-down menus (be it weapons arts through weapon icon, or spells/skills through resource icons) while keeping hotbar for free skills that I am likely to use a lot, or stuff I want visible so I won't forget about them. My current set up looks like that for anyone interested:
I wish UI was a bit slicker to use (less clicking, easier closing of opened tabs) but overall it's very usable. Unlike original hotbar, I also find it easy to create an initial set up (which in most case is erase all, but cantrip/class skills) and I can go from there and add/modify stuff as I play.

The only issue I have are items, which just feels like a dirty space under a bed or couch that I am afraid to open.

I would love to have feature like that. Because:


Agree! The problem I have is that I find that there is too much crap to keep track of. So I make sure to have healing potions visible on my hotbar - and the rest just stays disorganized, unlikely to be ever used unless I try to face Gythianky and need to pull all the stops. Benefit of "folders" isn't to make it easy to find things that you know you want to use (that's what hotbar is for) but to make it easy to glance through things you could be using instead. I can tell you that unless I am using an archer as my main, I tend to not use special arrows - it would be just too tedious to organise them and keep a track of what I have.

Perhaps, your brain works differently then mine, but I find that I am making a far better use of my memorized spells now when I can use spell dropdown menus to see what I have. Previously, I would give a handful of spells premium spots on my hotbar and for the most part only those would be used.

And I barely ever use any potions aside from healing potions - making it easier to see what I have, I think would only help in utilizing more stuff that I pick up.


Well, Mage Armor is a bad example, as spells default to their lowest level. So if you put Mage Armor on your hotbar it should default to level one - you only need to do an extra click if you want to upcast it. That being said, I think that lack of ability to put on the hotbar an upcasted version is a potential downgrade. It is not something that I used much myself though.

The hotbar you use looks a lot like the one I suggested, Wormerine.

You just don't have red lines anymore but the visually more appealing stylised gold lines, you have 4 divisions rather than 3, the hotbar as a whole is longer and items are 4 icons on it rather than 6 to 12.

I had it exactly the same ...
With this new hotbar tho, i find out that as long as i keep my "inventory" bar hidden, showing only first 2 slots ... i actualy dont really care how that bar looks, since i dont have it on my eyes permanently.

So i activated automatic adding of arrows, scrolls, consumables, etc ... and now when i want something of it, i just use "items" filter and switch to that bar.

Basicaly it does exactly that what Maximuuus is suggesting with those dedicated icons ... except i can hide it.

Agree! Perhaps the red lines are a bit garish, but it doesn't bother me - one also wants to clearly communicate that those can be moved, which while clean looking, your design doesn't. As I said, I am overall quite happy with the functionality.


Well, except for the item tab still being a chaotic mess, rather then being trasparent and easily readable.

On a side note, I just noticed that arrows appear in the ranged weapon drop down menu - which is definitely a way I will be using them in the future.

I might start exploring full/bonus action drop down menus for scrolls/potions - though without proper organisation I suspect to run into the usual issue of chaotic icons overload.

I feel like the hotbar needs to stop getting wider.

When I play a Sorcerer, why can't Metamagic be at the top next to my action economy?

Why can't Reactions have their own tab? I want to be able to customize it way more and shrink it or have it disappear when I don't need it.

I honestly think Solasta's is still superior. Simple. Easy to understand. Everything is pretty much laid out for you each round, showing you what you can do as an action and bonus withouthavingtoswitch tabs and such. BG3 UI is fancier looking, but it isn't as easy to use and understand. I'm still always hovering over things and looking for things. I think it’s better than it was, but I feel like they keep overcomplicating it.

And I still think they could cut down a lot on buttons. 1 Trip attack button is all we need. Whatever weapon you have out is the one you use.

Yea something has to replace the red lines/arrows I've drawn on the first image but it has to be shown that you can custom your hotbars parts size.

I was thinking about something like 2 small arrows in a circle (<>) but that's just an idea.

Why should it stop to be wider ? I don't like hotbars a lot but we'll have to deal with it.

If things are organized I'd rather have 1 big organized hotbar than multiples small ones.

Switching a lot + moving sliders a lot + create new items icons + rearrange hotbar(s) to organize them is time consuming.
Managing my hotbars for 20 minutes (5 minutes * 4 characters) every 2-4 hours is not what I have in mind when I lauch the game to play Baldur's Gate 3.
This constant hotbar management is a major drawback of the system.

Just let us do it once with a big hotbar that allow us to really sort a lot of things ONCE and that allow us to always see the most important things.
Currently you have to care about it most of the time, especially for items but not only... you also often have to move the sliders or switch from a tab to another because you don't have enough "free icons slots".

If you're a Sorcerer you have to have more space because of Metamagic. Why? Just make the icons much smaller and put them in the same horizontal as the Action, Bonus Action, etc. symbols.

Then, Reactions take up another portion. You can't even show all of them because the space is already too narrow. Why?

The entire hotbar can take up the whole bottom of the screen and you can't even have it disappear when you're not on combat. It's not pleasant and the UI is still ugly.

I appreciate what they tried to do with the photo and the class symbol, but that could be put elsewhere.

Why is the end turn button SO big? The movement per turn is still in an awkward spot as is the resting.

On the other hand, why not if that is what people desire ...
I believe that option to adjust hotbar size in anyway between from one side of screen to another (my prefference), to just single button that you have to unwrap every time you wish to use it (dunno whom prefference ) should ba basic function of any hotbar in any game.

Just to show what I did with my limited skills.
The suggestion, even as is, make the hotbar so much more elegant.

The cursor is still changing when you hover the 2 vertical bars and you still have small red arrows when some icons are hidden... Which may be enough to make players understand that it is sliders. An additionnal small visual element could work too.

Honestly, those Reaction tooltips don't need to be visible at all. The camp/rest option should be part of the map.

Those actions JUMP/SHOVE/THROW etc. should just be usable by the keybind WITHOUT having to be on the bar. And so many other changes.

I like them on bar ...
Wouldnt mind keybind too tho.

As for the suggestion ... call my crazy, but i like Larian version more. :-/