Change radial menu to dropdown list/floating quickbar?

Voidflakes

Hi all,

Not quite sure if General Discussions is the best place to ask this, but I was wondering if it would be possible to swap the radial menu out for a dropdown 'Actions' list, as well as a 'Quickcasting' floating bar, as seen in NWN2? Personally I found that the radial menu of NWN1 was extremely slow and cumbersome especially for spellcasters, while in NWN2 things were much smoother and easier to access.

If it's possible to add this QoL adjustment as an in-game option, or even as a file change/edit, that would be fantastic!

Many thanks,
Void

FreshLemonBun

I disagree NWN2 worked much worse except for the quickcast menu which was a grid of tiny icons in rows and not a drop down menu, it was more like a miniature spellbook page. The action drop down menu in NWN2 works much worse and when you add a lot of custom content it is impossible to use effectively because you have too many items in the list. In comparison the radial menu is very quick and reliable and allows you to save an option quickly to your hotbars.

Xorina

A major reason of two why I invested in NWN all the way back in 2001:

1. It's the first fully accessible game of it's kind suitable for a significant number of disabled players like me with Hemiplegia. In other words, mouse based games where use of the kb simultaneously is not required.

2. It's D&D

I find the bar at the bottom good for quick access, plus there's always pause. It is an RPG after all that mimics the relaxing pencil & paper D&D experience, not an FPS. 80-90% of videogames are unusable to gamers like me due to the simple fact that we cannot use controller peripherals with any degree of effectiveness. The advantage though is gaming is very cheap as you don't bother with consoles (except the N64) and you can buy 10-25 yo AD&D titles for a few pounds each.

I suppose the radial menu could always be toggleable for something else later on...

JFK

I love the radial menu. So powerful and quick and consistent. From the original manual (for some reason, it seems a lot of players overlook how to use the Radial Menu effectively, and simply click down to where they want to get. THAT is a slower way.):

If you want an advanced method of using the radial menu, hold
the right mouse button and simply move through the radial using
directional movements of the mouse. Another advanced method
for radial control is the use of the numeric keypad. Each number
key on the keypad corresponds to a location in the radial menu
(i.e. 8 is to the top, 2 is down, 7 is to the top left).

-JFK

Xorina

JFK said:

If you want an advanced method of using the radial menu, hold
the right mouse button and simply move through the radial using
directional movements of the mouse.

Yep, that's what I do, plus in the heat of battle or encountering something alarming or dangerous I pause and 'look around' with the pointer, right clicking on monsters to get an idea of toughness and weakpoints of them

helmo1977

I think the NWN 2 solution was better than the radial menu. It took you longer to do the things you wanted. At least me.

JFK

I think the QuickCast menu from NWN2 was a stroke of genius. Other than that one thing, I greatly prefer NWN UI. It always felt like I was fighting the game with NWN2, which kept me from getting fully into the story or play itself. This might not be fair entirely to NWN2, though. I've heard from many who really liked 2's UI and gameplay.

-JFK

jglvz256

I'll balance things out by saying I absolutely loathe the radial menu. It's like an interface designed for a console/gamepad, but in a PC game. I can see that people probably have gotten used to it though.