FR: Give spell menu the same treatment as the ability one

[nordetsa]

Pretty much what the title says: when you press a, your ability menu comes right up. This was a bit confusing at first cause I was used to press a twice, but it feels more convenient now that you can just press one key to see which abilities you wanna use. And wouldn't spell menu benefit more as generally there are more spells one memorizes than abilities? Having to press z? seems redundant when you could just make pressing z appear spell screen.

[dpeg]

I think this feature is a mixed blessing. Whereas the current behaviour is good for new players, it slows gameplay down for everyone who knows her ability keys. Also, showing the ability list removes the visual focus (away from the main screen).

Then again, you have a point in that the spell and ability screens should have the same behaviour.

In the end, the best solution is an in-game toggle (much easier for most players to change than an option). Plus an option.

[jejorda2]

Z already shows the spell list. Much of the time that's equivalent to z? with one keypress.

[nordetsa]

  Code:

Z already shows the spell list

Does it? When I press Z I still get the message '...press ? or * to list all skills.

And if it slows down gameplay, I think having an on/off option for both ability and skill menu would be fine.

[neil]

The person who implemented the straight-to-menu behaviour for a hates options, but I would gladly take a pull request to make this behaviour optional for both the ability and spell menus. Preferably independently.

[Siegurt]

On point though, whatever the behavior, it should be the same for spells and abilities.

(Is the objection to immediate menu the lag created to redraw the screen? It seems like it is just as many keypresses to use an ability as before)

[WalrusKing]

I would not like such a change to the UI if it caused problems for the existing functionality of z + enter for last spell. I can't speak for anyone else, but for me any spellcaster type who uses z enter a lot for their basic damage spell would probably become extremely uncomfortable to play if the spell list flashed onto the screen with every press of z. It also seems to me like most of the characters who would like the easy spell list would also probably be spellcasters who have the above issue, which raises the question of this could be done in a non problematic way.

[Moose]

+1 to not doing this.

I find the abilities popup super annoying right now, and with spells, it would be even more ridiculous.

If users feel they need this, make it an option, but please don't foist it on the rest of us!

[dpeg]

(Is the objection to immediate menu the lag created to redraw the screen? It seems like it is just as many keypresses to use an ability as before)

For me, it's not about lag. It is what I tried to indicate by "visual focus" above: if I know perfectly well what ability/spell letter I want, then the menu display, however, quick, is a distraction. I want to see the battlefield and nothing else.