The idea is:
Open Radial, Move cursor to entry, maximum of 8 entries, some entries change the radial when the cursor touches them (including the entry that was touched), cancel always stays in the middle
“Radial Grouping” or “Multi Stage Radials” would allow easy navigation even with a 8 way HAT (or even dpads). Speed on the second and further “stages” will be slower but still can be fast by flicking the input twice instead of just once before letting the “bring up radial menu” button go or pressing it again.
Stuff that are currently on the radials or would be nice to be on the radials would be grouped with one entry of that group being the “default”. A group would have a max of 8 entries. The default would be the entry under which the cursor lies when the group is “steped into”.
I want to emphasise though that this is optional! If some function are needed all the time they can stay on the first stage. You’ll see that having multi stage radials will allow for so much more space on the radial menus that even just 2 of the 8 available slots being “groups” would be more then enough for the current functions.
Systems Menu could look like this:
- Keep 4 Overcharge Entries as is the sameisch positions.
- Group all “Controls” with “warp” being the default. 4 free entries left in that group.
- Group all “Ship Systems” into one droup with “power” being the default". 5 free entries left in that group.
- Group all “Modules” into one group with “Offensive Module 1 (e. g.: Mines)” being the default. Currently 7 free entries in that group.
- 1 entry still free on the main radial wheel.
Weapons Menu could look like this:
- Group “Formation” modes with “Free” being default. 3 entries left in that group.
- Put safety lock on its own entry.
- Create groups based on weapon type or size. With the default being maybe a global “switch”
(I heard that weapons might be exclusive in the future, which would change this a lot or maybe mayybe even making this radial obsolete)
Comms menu in the same vein.
With this you could even do away with one of the radials.
A two stage radial could hold up to 64 entries with 8 of them being default functions and faster to use.
Three stage ones could hold an additional 384 functions on top of two staged ones.
Once you “step into” a group the only way back is to cancel and reopen the radial. This is to allow for “defaults”. The speed increase is worth it I think and it makes things easier.
I don’t know how 8 way hats or dpads work and if they send the directional signal as a single input or two at the same time or one after the other. Depending on these there would either need to be a small delay until going to the next “stage” of a radial or restriction on where to put radial sections that lead to a next stage.
I would have loved to do some mockups and tried, but kind of failed at all of them. Hope imagination is sufficient here.