Hey, you! YOU! Listen to this idea I have! I attached a picture of the blueprint below so our little discussion can have some focus.
Now, now, I know what you’re thinking; it’s just a circle. But you’re wrong! It’s more than a circle, and I’ll prove it! Consider the possibilities below:
GUESSWORK BE GONE! Imagine, for those of us who enjoy ground targeted attacks with the 1-click targeting system, a persistent, smaller ring that will show exactly where your attacks will be targeted at all times.
*The color can turn from green to yellow as your mouse approaches its maximum range, then to red as the maximum range is reached.
*What’s that, you say? Different ground targeted attacks have different ranges? There are several ways to approach this problem. The simplest solution is to just set the ring to track a single attack (i.e. track grenades, rather than thrown elixirs), or just track the attack with the longest range. A more complex solution involves groups of concentric rings with different colors, or icons surrounding the cursor that change based on what attack are in/out of range. I don’t favor this solution, but it’s always a possibility for the micromanagers among us. BOOM!
LOST CURSORS NO MORE! I don’t know about you, but when I’m chucking grenades about, it’s easy for me to lose track of my cursor in a crowd. An easy solution to this will be a glowing ring that appears at the click of a button, or every few seconds, or if you click the button a certain number of times in rapid succession. The ring will start out large in size, and get smaller over time, eventually centering on the current position of your mouse cursor. ZING!
KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ACTION! Sometimes, in the heat of the moment, I don’t got a whole lot of time to be maneuvering about and selecting hotkeys and buttons. For this, I imagine a ring menu, triggered by a keystroke or mouse button (or a click drag motion), that opens around your cursor that you can use to select utility skills or other hard to reach buttons. BANG!
NOT CIRCLE-BASED, BUT WHATEVER! Why not have the swap weapon key swap between engineer weapons and their kit of choice? It can be set in the inventory menu just like any normal weapon. If the system architecture doesn’t allow for this, which I doubt, then just have the key swap between the weapon and the last kit used. POW!
THE HUDSUCKER PROXY! Seriously, watch that movie. It’s great. WHAMMO!
Well, that’s my presentation. Great, isn’t it? It has economy, simplicity, low production cost, potential for mass appeal , and all that spells out great profitability!
