[Idea] Sub menu for selecting some common use actions

Talk about the mods you'd like to see in Daggerfall Unity. Give mod creators some ideas!
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hfc2x
Posts: 25
Joined: Mon May 03, 2021 3:57 am

[Idea] Sub menu for selecting some common use actions

Post by hfc2x »

So, I was trying out playing Daggerfall the other day with a controller, and created a button mapping which was similar to the default button mapping of Skyrim on Xbox One. In case you don't know what the default button mapping for Skyrim is, it's the following:

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A - Action
B - Inventory/Magic/Map/Skills prompt
X - Ready weapon
Y - Jump
Start - Journal/System tab
Select - Wait
RB - Use ability/shout
RT - Use right hand
LB - Sprint
LT - Use left hand
Right stick press - Third person camera
Left stick press - Sneak
D-pad up - Shortcuts menu
Naturally, you'll notice that those are far less controls that you would need in Daggerfall. Mapping all the buttons in my controller to the same or similar actions inevitably left out important stuff that are just absolutely necessary for Daggerfall, such as local map, fast travel map, transport, etc.

This is why I thought that some sort of small menu with a couple options would be really useful for people who would prefer to play with a controller (yes, I know it sounds dumb, but bear with me). Maybe an extra option with these actions could be added to the game, or a mod could be made with a small prompt which could contain such actions. Such a menu could also be of use to people who play with Mouse and Keyboard as sort of a "quick action menu" of sorts, which they could map to any key/button of their choosing, so it's basically a win-win.

This is essentially why pressing B in console Skyrim brings up a prompt with the options to see your inventory, magic, skills and map is brought up, because there's not enough buttons in a controller to use for an Elder Scrolls game, even for one as simplistic as Skyrim.

In the end, because I mapped some buttons differently (due to some actions not being the same, obviously), I ended up mapping everything as such:

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A - Action
B - Inventory
X - Ready weapon
Y - Jump
Start - Pause menu
Select - Wait
RB - Cast Spell
RT - Attack
LB - Sprint
LT - Change weapon hand
Right stick press - Crouch
Left stick press - Sneak
D-pad up - Transport
D-pad left - Grab interaction mode
D-pad down - Steal interaction mode
D-pad right - Look interaction mode
Of course the game was unplayable this way anyways :lol:, but the idea is to have a simple menu box that opens with the options of Inventory, Status, Local Map, Travel Map, Cast Spell, Journal, Character Sheet, and possibly one or two other things that could be mapped to a single button (or keyboard key) for convenience. The list box could be modeled in the same style as the Transport option box. Having an option to Cast Spell there could free up a button to map to Cast Last Spell directly instead. Same with any other option that goes into the hypothetical list box.

Thoughts?

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Macadaynu
Posts: 261
Joined: Sun Mar 07, 2021 1:18 pm

Re: [Idea] Sub menu for selecting some common use actions

Post by Macadaynu »

Do you have a Steam Controller by any chance?

I made a config that works surprisingly well with it. I use this in conjunction with the Hotkeys mod, and that eliminates the need for a few keys (eg. Z and Q)

https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/202

I recently made a change to the Hotkeys mod so you can switch banks of Hotkeys, I personally use 2 hotkeys per row, and use RB and LB to switch between them (but that can be configured)

I do plan to extend the Hotkey item types soon, so you could put things like a horse, wagon, torch etc on there.

Here's the config, the Radial Menu consists of: F9, L, F5, F and I
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hfc2x
Posts: 25
Joined: Mon May 03, 2021 3:57 am

Re: [Idea] Sub menu for selecting some common use actions

Post by hfc2x »

No, I don't have a Steam controller, and I've seen mods like these. Quite honestly, mods like these are the reason I was thinking of requesting such a thing, because such mods feel like a contrived workaround for something that could be far more straightforward and implemented into the game in a more seamless way.

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Hazelnut
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Joined: Sat Aug 26, 2017 2:46 pm
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Re: [Idea] Sub menu for selecting some common use actions

Post by Hazelnut »

It's my understanding that the hotkeys mod is not specifically intended for controllers, though it obviously can be very useful for such use cases. I really don't think it's fair to refer to the mod as a "contrived workaround" and that's misrepresenting a very good mod IMO.
See my mod code for examples of how to change various aspects of DFU: https://github.com/ajrb/dfunity-mods

hfc2x
Posts: 25
Joined: Mon May 03, 2021 3:57 am

Re: [Idea] Sub menu for selecting some common use actions

Post by hfc2x »

Well, I may not have expressed myself as clearly as I would have liked so, sorry about that.

I'm not dismissing the hotkey mod on itself. That's perfectly fine. What I mean is that the fact that you having to map keyboard keys and mouse actions to a controller configuration through the Steam overlay in addition to using this mod just to have an approximation to what I have in mind is kind pretty much a workaround IMO, especially considering DFU actually natively supports most of the things required, including allowing mouse pointer to be controlled with XInput (and yes, this includes holding a button/trigger to attack and then moving the stick allows for classic attack patterns).

In any case, I think it's more productive for everyone to give it a go myself, so I decided to start reading the documentation. I don't think it should be too difficult to pull off.

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