Tidy up the action menu

[Deadfast 43]

Hello all.

I was playing ArmA for a few hours today.

I came into that "thinking mood" after driving around in a car for some time and using the action menu.

My though was: Do I really need that many options there?

Let's analyze some of the default vehicle's action menu options:

Get out *

Eject *

To the x seat

Lights on *

3 of those options (marked with asterisk) have the possibility to assign a hotkey to.

All 3 of them have one assigned on my configuration.

We could do the same with infantry actions as well:

Get in x

Reload x *

Gear *

Again, 2 of those most common options already have (and this time it's default) key assigned.

Reload should be only displayed when you have multiple magazine types to select.

Instead of the gear option a simple gear image indicating that pressing the gear button right now will make you put the stuff in the vehicle you're standing next to.

All of the actions I'm talking about should not be displayed unless you do not have a hotkey assigned (or should have an option to disable them).

With regards,

Deadfast

[Praelium 0]

Yes, please. I cannot tell you how many times I accidently pulled out my binoculars when trying to enter a vehicle. We should be able to customize the action menu in the control options, to choose what's in and what's out.

[Deadfast 43]

Ah yeah, totally forgot about the binos.

Veeery annoying, maybe even more than the gear...

Pistol/Rifle selection should be possible to remove as well.

I'm more and more sided to a menu customization screen.

[.kju 3245]

For new ppl the action menu entries are probably helpful (even if

the overall system is very user unfriendly).

So my say would be add a filter option "filter all action menu entries

which have a key assigned".

[Commando84 0]

Totally agree the action menu is way to messy especially when playing multiplayer its most sticking it to you when you least expect it.

Like get in warefare mode and capturing camps and jumping in and out of your car sometimes you hit the wrong action menu in the heat of battle and bullets fly around you.

The binocular should not be in action menu at all cause it has a hotkey and the gear and eject should be visisible only while flying aircraft and helicopters imo.

[.kju 3245]

The overall suggestion aside - you can remove the entries from

the action menu for most hardcoded actions.

Are you interested in a small addon where you can hide each

individually via a text file?

[Deadfast 43]

Yes sure, send me a PM.

Even though it won't be signed by default so I'll have to see what I can do about it .

Anyway, if it's really that simple makes me believe it wouldn't be such a fantasy to see this implemented in default.

[.kju 3245]

You can influence these items:

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE"> class AutoHover

class AutoHoverCancel

class CancelAction

class CancelLand

class CancelTakeFlag

class Deactivate

class DeactivateMine

class Diary

class DropMagazine

class DropWeapon

class Eject

class EngineOff

class EngineOn

class FireInflame

class FirePutDown

class FlapsDown

class FlapsUp

class Gear

class GetInCargo

class GetInCommander

class GetInDriver

class GetInGunner

class GetInPilot

class GetInTurret

class GetOut

class HandGunOff

class HandGunOffStand

class HandGunOn

class HandGunOnStand

class Heal

class HideBody

class HideWeapon

class IngameMenu

class LadderDown

class LadderOff

class LadderOnDown

class LadderOnUp

class LadderUp

class Land

class LandGear

class LandGearUp

class LightOff

class LightOn

class LoadEmptyMagazine

class LoadMagazine

class LoadOtherMagazine

class ManualFire

class ManualFireCancel

class MarkEntity

class MarkWeapon

class MoveToCargo

class MoveToCommander

class MoveToDriver

class MoveToGunner

class MoveToPilot

class MoveToTurret

class NVGoggles

class NVGogglesOff

class PutMagazine

class PutWeapon

class Rearm

class Refuel

class Repair

class ReturnFlag

class Salute

class ScudCancel

class ScudLaunch

class ScudStart

class SetTimer

class SitDown

class StartTimer

class StrokeFist

class StrokeGun

class SwitchMagazine

class SwitchWeapon

class TakeDropMagazine

class TakeDropWeapon

class TakeFlag

class TakeMagazine

class TakeMine

class TakeWeapon

class Talk

class TeamSwitch

class TouchOff

class TurnIn

class TurnOut

class UseMagazine

class User

class UserType

class UseWeapon

class WeaponInHand

class WeaponOnBack

Stuff like Binocular or AT launcher entry need heavy tweaking in

configs and scripted addition from what I can tell.

Well maybe these two are actually switchWeapon..

[Deadfast 43]

Sounds good enough to me (I can live with the binos)

Do you have any link for that?

[[aps]gnat 28]

Already easy to add "grouping" menus to vehicle addons.

VEHICLEX (main menu)

Afterburner (sub menu)

Drop Tanks (sub menu)

Gear Up (sub menu)

etc (sub menu)

- Selecting VehicleX makes that disappear and the sub menu items appear.

- After 5 secs the submenu items disappear and the single main menu item re-appears.

Very Tidy

[.kju 3245]

here you go mate:

PROPER_CfgActions_Show_Settings

I did only a few brief tests if it works at all - it does.

However I didnt check binoc or weapon change actions.

Read the post and tell me how it works out for you please.

Actually if you make more entries visible at a time is already an

improvement. Now if you use addons that make certain userActions

available at longer distance to avoid the quick

appearing-disappearing of user actions, it is already a lot better.

[norsu 180]

This seems to be the newest thread about action menu so instead of starting a new thread I'll use this.

I think BIS should really ditch the whole action menu altogether. It's painfully slow to use when there are lot of options as even the simplest task must go through the action menu like entering vehicle, opening door, using ammo crate etc. I don't really see any reason at all for this kind of implementation. All these actions could be done with simple point & click system.

Currently in ArmA the first action will pop up with a icon. This is a small step towards more fluid interactivity with the game world but it fails when you have for example many ammo crates close to each other. All crates use the same object name and you have pretty much no idea which ammo crate will be selected when you hit the action button. So first step would be to change the icon into brackets that surround the selected object, Deus Ex and System Shock 2 are good examples of this.

Next step would be to remove the action menu and use only the point & click system and hotkeys. The two games I mentioned are perfect examples again how fluid and elegant the system is. This system could also be extended to vehicles too to give every vehicle easily accessed new functions that would otherwise clutter the action menu. Basic vehicle functions like eject or gears down should have hotkeys by default but extras like open windshield armor in BRDM-2 or change seat should go through point & click system.

Since this is more an UI matter I will make a more detailed post about my idea there with screenshots.

[dentist guba 0]

forget accidentally gettin out binocs, what about setting of 20 satchels while standing next to them

[max power 21]

I agree that the action menu is really messy but they did reduce your dependence on it by making hotkeys for most things.

Hotkeys aside though, I think it would be faster if you could hold down a button that would give you a larger, centred, clickable menu that's semi transparent.. then you could simply hold the button down and click the option your wanted instead of scrolling through many options, especially when you can't see them all at once so you may scroll past the one you're looking for.

[Lou Montana 101]

Yes plaintiff, but the problem with that would be the impossibility to run & turn head to check for danger...

I believe a full editable action-menu (like keyboard controls) could do well :

checkbox to allow or not action to be displayed during game, or list with "show only when needed" (reload, etc) or "never show on menu".

[{SAS}Silentkiller 0]

I think BF2 has got the best UI that I've used, uses what Plaintiff1 talks about, being able to spot things & for that to come up on the map was great! But it is a simplified command rose compared to ARMA.

But... why have eject & get out? Surely these and many other commands can be imalgamated?

Weapon selection should be assigned to easy to reach buttons like numbers, & reloading should be interuptable, so if you accidently try reloading your rocket laucher out in the open with a tank or BDRM looking at you you can get into cover!!