Limited Hot Bars (poll)

Eronakis

I remember when playing Everquest and you only had 8-12 spells/skills you could mem on your hot bar. You could make different hot bar sets based off your play style or for the situation at hand. (I do realize that EQ had hot bars and spell bars, I am just using the hot bar term as it's universal for that UI portion now) I found it more strategic and thoughtful for what sort of spells/skills you had access for the battle. You somewhat had to be a tactician and understand what was needed for certain dungeons and mobs. I personally welcome mmo's with a limited hot bar. On the other hand you have mmo's like World of Warcraft where you have access to at least 5 hot bars via default UI. You can put all of your spells/skills and then some on there. I find this to make the UI feel like its cluttered and somewhat can slightly take away from the immersion level of the game. That is my thoughts, what are yours?

khanstruct

I hate all forms of hotbars. I play WildStar, and I hate that I constantly have to look down to see if a skill is available or if it has cooled down. Then, you either have to click on it, or look down at your keyboard to make sure you're hitting the correct number key.

This is ten times worse in frantic PvP battles. Unless you have a 50 button macro-ed mouse, there's really not much point.

Quirhid

Limits to what people can bring to battle adds a certain amount of strategy and planning to the game. You have to anticipate what your opponent is going to bring and try to counter that with your picks. And if you pick poorly, you have to make do with what you have. Its fun.

I don't want to be prepared for everything. I like to plan, improvise and adapt.

Abuz0r

I like hotbars, limited hotbars frustrate me.  However, I think limited hotbars certainly create more diversity.  If everyone can use every skill that they've acquired, you actually end up knowing what to expect better.

filmoret

It depends on the type of combat for me.  If its a game like GW2,ESO,Tera then I don't want many skills to deal with.  If its a game like WOW,RIFT,SWTOR,Archeage then I like having unlimited hotbars.

geremady

I would like a reasonable amount of skills available to use at any time: 5 seems too small. Maybe 10-20?

The downside to GW2 is you cannot pick your skills: you pick your weapons and get 5 skills of which you might not like a couple.

So it s not like you can really pick your skills.

Phry

unlimited, like to have complete control over hotbars including rebinding the associated keys for them. Limited hotbars help nobody imo.

Eronakis

I think 15-20 Spell/Skill Slots is a good number for ones who like limited hot bars.

khanstruct

I'm more of a fan of activating skills by actually performing actions in the game. I don't want to "click stealth", I want to be stealthy. I don't want to "click uber attack", I want to actually perform an uber attack.

nariusseldon

works fine in Diablo 3.

In fact, the limitation forces people to pick and choose from a large set, and create variations of play styles.

Flyte27

I'm in favor of limited hot bars.

I'm finding games are starting to go overboard in a lot of the GUI elements.

Keep the GUI simple, but make the game itself more varied and interesting IMO.

I'm not sure what is fun about scrolling through multiple hot bars.  We also have to accept that humans are fairly limited in brain power.  We can only process one thing at a time.  I saw a TV show recently that proved people can't multi task.  They can only switch between tasks.  Our brain is actually so weak that it has to take shortcuts and omit lots of things.  For instance we can't see everything that is actually right in front of us. 

With that in mind I'd say there is probably a certain amount of abilities most humans can handle at one time comfortably.  Comfortably being at a point where there wouldn't be feel stressed or make mistakes.

Quirhid

Eronakis said:

I think 15-20 Spell/Skill Slots is a good number for ones who like limited hot bars.

Too much. 12 at most.

Octagon7711

Please just give me the option to decide for myself how many skills I want showing at a given time.  Nothing frustrates me more then trying to decide which skills to exclude from a limited hotbar.  

Flyte27

Octagon7711 said:

Please just give me the option to decide for myself how many skills I want showing at a given time.  Nothing frustrates me more then trying to decide which skills to exclude from a limited hotbar.  

Most games have some sort of rules to keep things even for every player.  This sounds like it would be one of those things where one would be forced into using a certain setup that is deemed optimal instead of just having everyone play with a limited hotbar.

mmoguy43

I thought EQ and WoW hotbars were similar. Something like 4-6 hotbars for your 40-60 abilities.

I prefer having a limited set that I can comfortably press the keybind for. Much rather not have all 50+ abilities all over the screen and have to click them. It generally makes for boring combat.

8 abilities that can combine, chain, or interact with other abilities makes for fun combat.

khanstruct

I do not understand the appeal of this...

MrMelGibson

I like many abilities if it's tab target.  If it's action, I prefer more limited abilities like the way Blade and soul does it. 

mgilbrtsn

A tough one.  My initial reaction is that I want all the hotbars I can get to trick them out with all of my skills.  However, I do like the mechanic of having to choose your skills carefully.  So I like both, although I don't like the GW2 mechanic where you are incredibly limited in skills.

Howbadisbad

khanstruct said:

I do not understand the appeal of this...

This is an example of a trash UI from wow. Dont worry, the person modified it to look this bad.

Eronakis

Quirhid said:

Eronakis said:

I think 15-20 Spell/Skill Slots is a good number for ones who like limited hot bars.

Too much. 12 at most.

It really depends on the combat mechanics and how the players interact with the encounters in the world. 12 is a good standard number but for me personally with the core game play I have envision 15-20 works so far.

Eronakis

mmoguy43 said:

I thought EQ and WoW hotbars were similar. Something like 4-6 hotbars for your 40-60 abilities.

I prefer having a limited set that I can comfortably press the keybind for. Much rather not have all 50+ abilities all over the screen and have to click them. It generally makes for boring combat.

8 abilities that can combine, chain, or interact with other abilities makes for fun combat.

EQ had hot bars and Spell bar. For simplicity I just said that spell bar is the hot bar since many may have not played EQ. The only difference was that the hot bar was 1 button push whereas the spell bar as Alt + # key.

nariusseldon

Flyte27 said:

With that in mind I'd say there is probably a certain amount of abilities most humans can handle at one time comfortably.  Comfortably being at a point where there wouldn't be feel stressed or make mistakes.

and have more skills at the same time does not necessarily make combat more fun. In fact, have to choose what to "carry" from a large set create a fun meta build game.

And even just a few skills can be fun, if you have to manage combination use, timing and things like that.

Velifax

I don't have a preference. I can do either, limited selection was great how EQ did it, and hugely cluttered cluster#### worked for WoW. Really depends more on how those skills are used.

anemo

Limited hotbar.  Small enough that a party can't prepare for every possible encounter, and that players are purposefully choosing trade offs.

Game mechanic punishments for getting too many people in one area.  (reduced damage, friendly fire, AOE friendly game mechanics, players tripping over each other, or similar)

Very little burst healing.

filmoret

Howbadisbad said:

khanstruct said:

I do not understand the appeal of this...

This is an example of a trash UI from wow. Dont worry, the person modified it to look this bad.

Its all about the blinky bling.  Woo look the big numbers flashing everything makes me sleep better at night.  I can even get my skills to flash in big pictures to boot.  Can even get a strobe light next to my computer for added effects.  Wearing the 3d glasses the screen can be harmonized to bunnies and fluffy things too.

Eronakis

Here is something that can further along this discussion. 

Right now in most mmo's hot bars are rather open and you can select any spell/skill into that hot bar slot. How would you feel if certain number of slots in your hot bar was dedicated to certain class abilities? For instance, a Wizard class. 

15 total slots

- 3 of the slots are for epic spells
- 2 of the slots are for utility/self buffs 
- 10 slots are for your damage 

Of course you can chose what spells you want in those dedicate slots but it makes the hot bar more categorized. 

Would you like this format? Yes or No? And Why?