Hotbar and Selection Overhaul (Updated July 25/16)

Seeing your original next to the current stable hotbar really makes me think no one would have a problem with it. It doesn't even go any lower than stable's MM slots. Even though the extra slots run the whole width, I don't think it'd ever seem like some big curtain blocking the view.

Here's what you need homie, some before and after:

 

Ah! Thank you, this will be very useful.
It really isn't as oversized as I imagined... However - correct me if I'm wrong - isn't the UI is influenced by resolution? Which means it could potentially be a problem for the (admittedly low) number of people who still use very low resolution screens. Might still make both it and the alternate Long skin options if it isn't too hard to do; after all, options are always good!

 

I really don't think it's significantly worse than the current one at all. If your resolution is so low that this hotbar is a problem, the regular one is going to be a problem, as well.

 

Not a problem at all, playing (trying) with 1366x768 quite fine with both old and new hotbars, any of your modifications (if they'll ever be considered by devs) will be just fine for mostly everyone (though i still hate the new hotbar, it's sad that for now, i guess, it'll stay that way for long, as long as no one keeps bringing that up)

 

'nother update.
This time I just added the alternate Long Style to the main post, and also added Lazer's comparison shots for my bar and the old bar to the OP.
Didn't include the "collapsed" bar because after seeing the actual size of my bar on-screen, I don't think it's really nessessary. (I will leave it in the post it originated in, however. Could still be good to add at some point.)

--- Update ---

Good news, everyone! And by good news, I mean the worst possible news in multiple ways! Psyche! It isn't good at all!
-The new hotbar is here to stay. No changes have been made at all.
-Unless something miraculously changes in Stable 1.0, the UI is nigh-unmoddable. So this idea is dead and we're stuck with it, apparently.

The End.

 

Well, that sucks. Played a bit with unstable recently and I really didn't like the new hotbar. Yours seems much better.

 

Maybe i'd better be silent about it, but:
1.0.
No miracles happened.
"Not final version" of hotbar became the only available at the release, and i doubt someone'll be looking into it since as i can see 1.0 start went not as perfect as it could be, fps drops, that kind of stuff.
That's why I can't make myself start playing stable right now, it's just pointless. And i doubt i'm alone with such thoughts.

 

Pretty much, I'm playing but a lot of my enjoyment is ruined by the, to me bothersome, 'better' quickbar which makes me wish all the time I could use the old one.
I'd so take the proposed 10slot "new" one as that'd be actually an improvement for me, but the current one is just a step back.

As someone who primarily uses 2h items is the current one a loss, swapping by accident (which is happening extremely often thanks to X having been my panic-weapon button) is just as annoying as having lost 4 slots. (actually 5 considering the X slot)
I seriously want the old back or that 'new' 10slot one, even if that one is still one slot less for me than but still 4 more than I currently are able to use.

While I can see the appeal of being able to have a dedicated slot for sword + shield (which is useless to me as I'm not using it, but I understand the idea) can I not understand how that's awesome over having been able to select a 1h and then another 1h for the other hand on the fly without having to use the mouse to arrange them into a slot pair first.

I had my 2h sword/spear in the L slot and a 1h weapon in the R slot so when I needed my flashlight I just pressed shift+5 and had light AND a weapon selected, and I could easily swap either sword or light for bandages. Not doable with this 'better' quickbar. Atleast not without setting it up before hand and 'wasting' slots for combinations.
Here's hoping we get the option to switch back to the old bar, otherwise am I not gonna have a good time with SB ever again : (

 

Someone on reddit already discussed this, about the switch... Since this hotbar was built, ahem, "on the burning remains" of the previous one and not as the additional one, we'll possibly never receive the possibility to switch between hotbars. That's just too much time-consuming for the devs to build second bar without interrupting the "new perfect" one. So... we wait, or we complain, what else? It can't be even modded since all hotbar is, as i read somewhere, "hardcoded into the .exe itself and can't be changed by current modding possibilities". So... that's a story with a sad ending.

 

The worst part is that I expected this already when nightly hit and the 'promised' option to change between them did not even back then exist : (

 

Never did they say they would allow switching, much less promise it. In fact, they said they weren't going to add the option to switch between the two, if I recall correctly.
Honestly not sure why people are still replying here. The suggestion is dead since they aren't going to change the hotbar back, and the mod idea is dead since it's hardcoded. If we're going to continue complaining about it, I reccommend using the "Do you like the new hotbar" poll thread, where most of the recent complaints have gone.

That said, I'm going to update the main post here a little...

 

Yeah ok, I've mixed that up, it were the hopes that came since the first reveal that we'd get the choice, which says quite something on it's own, but were ignored. Well whatever.

 

The new hotbar is a damn sight better than the old one, that's for sure.

 

Are you referring to my proposed one or the new one in 1.0?
If it's the latter, you're posting about it in the wrong thread. I doubt you'll find any sympathy for that statement here, since this suggestion is literally about removing the new hotbar and replacing it with a lot of the functionality of the old one.

 

I think your hotbar pretty much does what the current one does without being a mess to use. It is a complete upgrade that basically puts back the versatility of the old one while still allowing players to switch between pairs of items quickly.

 

He's got my sympathy.

You have listed as a pro for your bar that it isn't needlessly complicated, but I hate to break it to you. At first glance it is complicated, you can't tell why there are so many slots. The in-game would have that as a pro on my list, because it visually pairs items to make it abundantly clear to the user what is going on. Even two handed items are better on it, because it doesn't just disable the other hand it shows that the item takes up that hand as well by showing up in a darker form.

However your bar has an unlisted con, it spans the entire number set. It is difficult to get the right number on the first try, without looking, after a certain point. Or so I find, so that may be personal opinion.

I don't believe it is possible to swap hands anymore, iirc that was a thing. Personally, however, there was only one use for it, which has become moot with better exploration lighting options (+cave detectors).

If they can improve the hotbar more, that is friggin awesome. I don't think hotkeys 1-0 is an improvement though, I voted no. Without knowing the dates of the poll result figures though, it is of little relevance what the figures say anymore. This thread probably is what caused the new hotbar to be spawned.

 

It still baffles me that people have trouble with 1-0, since to many games use at least 1-9 that I thought everyone would be used to it. I certainly never had issue with it in the plethora of games that use it. That's why I didn't have it listed - as of the time of the last update to the post, I wasn't even aware it was a legitimate problem for people. It still surprises me. Although I suppose that's why one-handed keyboards exist.
IMO it's better than needing to press a hotkey to access the other half of the bar, especially if using the scroll wheel to select, anyway.

That said, that's the wonder. This went from a suggestion to a mod concept, in essence. And that opened up so many more possibilities. In a mod, I could have had 20 different versions, each with their own setup. Different appearances, layouts, different number of slots, any number of switchable bars, etc. Even if I didn't make a particular version, someone else could have. We would already have probably 10 different mods changing the whole UI up in different ways to make different people happy, but that can't happen because for [aggravating reasons here], the UI is mostly unalterable by mods.

So in the long run it doesn't matter how little either of us agrees with the other, since nothing can be done about it. 1.0 has come and gone. The hotbar won't change enough for it to be redeemed to me. If you like the new hotbar, good for you. Glad you're happy, because it was built on the charred remains of us who loved the hotbar we had for the years the game was in development for. If the bloody thing could be modded everyone could have what they want. But NOPE. Suggestion is dead mod idea is dead I don't understand why people from either side of the debate still post here I don't even understand why I still post here.

Also FYI, this thread had 1 post and like... 2-3 votes in the poll before the new hotbar came out. If my thread somehow inspired the devs to make the new hotbar, then I'm mortified that it somehow had the exact opposite effect I'd hoped for.

I just hope the devs can alter it enough to keep the likers happy and make the dislikers accepting. That's really all any of us can hope for at this point.

 

It truly is a shame that you can't mod it. Also, my bad for not having checked the middle posts, clearly a lot of people came to the forum with a dislike of the new hotbar.

Honestly in the plethora of games that use it, I am used to it. That doesn't mean I am good at it though. This hotbar is like a breath of fresh air after a decade of being told the polluted city air of Hong Kong was 'fresh'.
I hope for you and the others CF creates a nice UI framework that can be used to mod all the parts disliked. The only thing I'd be upset about is if they get rid of the two bars.

 

I posted this one in the ongoing hotbar discussion thread, but it's better fit to be here, I think.

 

A lot of other games use 1-0 and it's a problem in every game. We've always just worked around it by putting quickly-accessible items on 1-5 and the rest we'd just use the mouse wheel to access.