Suggestion: Multi-Purpose ability wheel

[Voldjaw]

Due to the Wisp ability showcase featuring a new ability that requires tedious cycling through its functions, the other Frames being Vauban, Ivara and Khora (Sorry if I've missed any), I'd love to present a small but effective way to use said abilities faster, without any hazzle. Similar to the (old) gear wheel, those abilities could use a wheel to select the ability to use. Hold+drag chooses and casts the type. Tapping the ability button quick-casts the currently selected ability. I've created a small mockup how this would look like ingame:

[peterc3]

5 minutes ago, Voldjaw said:

I'd love to present a small but effective way to use said abilities faster

For Ivara, maybe. While your mouse is engaged with the UI, though, you can't shoot. Cycling by tapping a key means you are free to swing your mouse around and shoot enemies in this game featuring shooting things.

[Voldjaw]

vor 2 Minuten schrieb peterc3:

While your mouse is engaged with the UI, though, you can't shoot.

While tapping to cycle you can't move freely though, since your fingers are occupied selecting the right ability. Usually your eyes focus on the cycling element in the lower right corner as well, whcih prevents you from aiming at your target. A short hold+drag motion is way faster than pressing a button 1-3 times and then holding it for a short amount of time.

[peterc3]

2 minutes ago, Voldjaw said:

A short hold+drag motion is way faster than pressing a button 1-3 times and then holding it for a short amount of time.

If you know this to be a fact, then show evidence.

I can move and hit other buttons on the keyboard perfectly fine. It is, however, a fact that you can't both point to a UI element with your mouse and also click to fire your weapon.

[taiiat]

that's a valid point, that while rotating Abilities is pretty garbo in Warframe, having your ability to pan the Camera or attack hindered is a much worse situation than having an extra button to mash while moving around.

you can compensate for having an extra button to manage (i have like, what, 140 buttons in front of me), you can't compensate from having basically half the game disabled.

[BlindStalker]

Potentially, I might be able to get used to this?

After playing with Ivara for so long, I made a change a while back in my options where I switched to the 'invert tap/hold abilities' to being on. So now I can actually spam many quiver arrows of one type very quickly, without having to resort to pulling out Artemis bow and alt-firing. However, this has resulted in me being very slow to select the correct arrow that I need during mission combat critical situations. Sort of a trade off that I was willing to put up with, because I absolutely hated accidentally "rolling over" the quiver arrow that I wanted and had to quickly rotate again.

So, I might be able to get used to your Multi-Purpose ability wheel idea. Though that still causes me to have to pause and select in the middle of combat the arrow type, but I might be used to it already, given the current option I have turned on. I think it's clear consensus that switching to the desired thing on 4in1 or 3in1 abilities is a pain in the butt in Warframe. I do want a smoother 'on the fly' ability switch.

[F8ted]

I believe they could just add more ability hotkeys to the game and let us map it ourselves. Either as current or in OP's suggestion there is a critical "decision making" window taking up time. All other abilities can be used by simply pressing the button, and anything beyond that is too much if based on only a few skill sets. Gear even got new hotkeys so it is assets already included in game. Though to be fair, the OP's suggestion also has assets in the game. 

Edited April 10, 2019 by F8ted
Grammar

[Veridian]

I agree that cycling not only takes up time, but also makes me stare at a relatively small icon.

I do like the wheel idea, but a lot seem not to, so another solution might be -  holding down lets you choose effect by using 1,2,3....
Or better yet, create key binds for those, but that would screw with controllers.

Heck, #PSMR go with the key binds.

[F8ted]

1 hour ago, Ver1dian said:

I agree that cycling not only takes up time, but also makes me stare at a relatively small icon.

I do like the wheel idea, but a lot seem not to, so another solution might be -  holding down lets you choose effect by using 1,2,3....
Or better yet, create key binds for those, but that would screw with controllers.

Heck, #PSMR go with the key binds.

Oh yeah I forgot about that. Haha, well at least we could use keybinds. Though it wasn't as much a fix all for the issue as I had thought. I guess in that case yeah, the OP's suggestion might as well be an option for controllers, I am not sure which could possibly be more ergonomic. 

[(XBOX)AlingsasArrende]

I think it is a brilliant idea, especially for us that don't have a whole keyboard full of buttons. If the wheel is deemed to be in the way, it could actually be down in the corner, where we currently need to stare now anyway when switching sub-ability.

[SordidDreams]

On 2019-04-06 at 12:52 AM, Voldjaw said:

While tapping to cycle you can't move freely though, since your fingers are occupied selecting the right ability.

Depends on your controls setup. I can do it just fine on my Steam Controller.

On 2019-04-06 at 12:52 AM, Voldjaw said:

Usually your eyes focus on the cycling element in the lower right corner as well, whcih prevents you from aiming at your target.

Valid point, which is why that should be moved close to the center of the screen.

[Oreades]

They both seem to have pros and cons. 

Cycling works while not really interfering with the flow of combat. 

However if you miss your target you need to cycle through everything again to get back to your target. The wheel would avoid that since you would be able to just drop directly to your desired ability. 

[Genesix6]

10 hours ago, F8ted said:

I believe they could just add more ability hotkeys to the game and let us map it ourselves. Either as current or in OP's suggestion there is a critical "decision making" window taking up time. All other abilities can be used by simply pressing the button, and anything beyond that is too much if based on only a few skill sets. Gear even got new hotkeys so it is assets already included in game. Though to be fair, the OP's suggestion also has assets in the game. 

That won't really work with console player since the buttons in the controller is already limited