Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Controller Radial Menu Is Hot Garbage!

I think the radial menu is perhaps the most annoying, frustrating and garbage thing I've ever experienced in a game. The concept is sound enough but the execution is pure garbage. Let's start with the most annoying thing ... it never saves/stays the way I want it ... it is constantly resetting and moving everything around. It is enough to make me want to smash my controller. You get a weapon that you can throw like the Legendary trident and you set up all your things exactly as you want them on your radials and then you throw the weapon (you know as it was designed to do) and viola ... your radials get reset to whatever garbage Larian thinks is best because you I guess unequipped the weapon. How about you let me set up the radial and then f**king keep it how I set it and you let me worry about if i've changed weapons and the features i have on it aren't good anymore ... guess what i will figure that out and fix it and save it anew the way i want it. same goes for spells i prepare or don't prepare or new things i learn/gain ability wise. I know what and how i want it set up better than you do so stop changing what i've painstakingly setup so i have to redo it every 10 min.

another thing, i don't know how they do things in europe but when i want to add a new radial and i am on the last radial i want it added to the end, not before the last one i am on ... do they read right to left in europe or are all of you just daft f**ks? when i want a new radial i want it added to the right of the one i am on you know like any normal person who reads roman character languages left to right would assume would be done.

That's an issue in m&K as well. There is no way for the game to remember or not assign spells:

1) change weapons: things get messed up
2) remove add new spells: things get messed up
3) equip/unequip items: things get messed up
4) shapeshift into an animal and back - every bloody spell I removed previously gets shoved back into the hotbar.

From little I played with the controller, I imagine the problem is even greater there, as radial hotbar is the only thing there, and removing/assigning skills is slower and more clunkier.

On my end the radial setups are always the same, healing on the last one, potions and arrows on the third, scrolls on the second and abillitys on the first. I have no issiue with it resetting.

Also way to insult europeans, im pretty sure anyone is willing to help you with that attitude.

The radial menu and the sheer amount of micromanagement is what bothers me the most and really is my only knock on the game itself.

I'm not going to get into a K&M vs Controller argument but RPGs like this tend to be better suited to the former and games like Jedi Survivor etc. the latter. It's just an unfortunate truth because of just the depth of options, add in that Larian has never had good UI/Item management and the problem just becomes even more apparent.

I'm sorry I can't suggest anything for the OP but just know you're not alone but if you do get a chance to play the game on PC you'll find item management a little less frustrating, just a little :P

This is true but there is definetley a better alternative to those radial menu's and sub menu on top of sub menu...

I was really hoping the feedback of PC controller players would have gotten implemented before the PS5 release, but it feel like our recommendations either fell on deaf ears, or hasn't been implemented yet.

At the very least, there should be ways to setup a common schema across characters. It's taken me literally hours upon hours to enforce some level of standardization -- and it often gets fouled up when a weapon is thrown, or you level-up and suddenly additional wheels get added or the game "fills-in" blank spaces.

The way weapon-specific attacks, and mode-based abilities have to get re-pinned all the time is equally problematic. Like the OP notes, if you throw a weapon, or swap from a sword to a warhammer, you've suddenly lost your wheel pins for all the special attacks. Similarly, for a Barbarian with WIld Mage Rage, the special ability you get upon raging has to be re-mapped EACH TIME! In both cases, these extra/modal abilities should simply be sub-menus when you select that weapon or ability.

Lastly, spell selection remains terrible. Having to manually pin every single spell takes forever. I'd much rather select a spell-level, then have sub-wheel appear showing what spells I have prepared, and then see an up-cast subwheel (or reaction-style prompt), if that's a valid option.

And yes, we need a way to move wheels' positions to address the same issue the OP is angry about.

I find the main menu radial quite annoying that you also have to click X to select. Most games I’ve played with radials (especially ones on triggers) let you select the option on release of the trigger

I can't even enjoy playing a Druid because of how bad the radial menus are. Every time I shapeshift and come back out of the form, I get this useless menu being recreated. And even worse, it's always the default radial that opens up when you press R1/L1. It sucks feeling like you have no real control over your UI customizations.

I managed to playthrough the game using controller but yeah, don't bother trying to customise it.

It wouldn't be so bad if the radials were more usefully categorised; for example, LB should call up "mundane" actions (anything not related to spellcasting or item use), RB for magic and LB + RB for items. Once a radial is open it'd be LB/RB to cycle through as normal, but with three categories it would hopefully be a lot easier to find what we want quickly.

Could maybe offer some alternative schemes, e.g- LB for bonus actions, RB for actions and LB + RB for everything else (free actions, toggles etc.).

Spells should appear in the radials in level order then name order, and ideally shouldn't be mixed with non-spell entries when not using categories, as it's just super confusing when everything is muddled together.

Uh...maybe easier if you play with a mouse and keyboard for such (UI systems) complex game?
Surely the powerhouse of a PS5 can do it? Or is it a Larian problem?

Its like trying to ride your sedan car with 4x4 truck tiers. Sure it can be done with some tweaking. Sure you'll get to your destination. But is it really worth the effort ?

Every time I level I re-sort the wheels... the main spells and skills on the first two and the rest basically takes care of themselves. It's no more of a hassle than the inventory.

Larian doesn't support KBM on PS5 and the only info we have is "Its too difficult to implement" from before release, so I don't have much hope about it.

I'm a psychopath, apparently --- I leave my Radial menus to their own devices; however they decide they want to arrange themselves when I change my equipment or spells; that's how I just deal with it and I don't mess with adding anything custom or rearranging anything -- except Recast Speak with the Dead, since the patch broke it automatically adding itself to the wheels.