GUI Stuff

Only lower portion of the screen should be reserved for chat window and "main" buttons, All larger parts of the GUI should be transparent, this applies to pop-up menus too. The need of chat window is free for debate, however, I feel that even if we choose not to show normal speak in the window, it can still offer some information which is not so obvious to players. For example skills like tracking, lockpicking and maybe some indentifying skills could show the information there instead of using message boxes. I also think it is better to repeat the message in chat window WITH name, be it a fake- or a real name, because it is sometimes difficult to identify messages, or the speakers, if there's a lot of crowd. Those who said that in crowded places people might not hear things in irl either should remember that messages still fill the chat window screen quickly. Furthermore rescrolling can be thought as an attempt to remember what person said. Also severe damage which player might not notice (like losing a head ;) could be noted here. 

The menu icons in main GUI should launch pop-up menus which are self closing, that is, as long as person holds mouse cursor on them, they remain open, when the mouse cursor is removed, they automatically close, unless they are locked which happens by double clicking the menu icon which launches the pop-up menu. The benefit in this is that you don't have to shuffle through zillions of windows and/or close them just to find the first one that is located under them. Buttons which close all menus or close menus in order are not good option either, what if you had 7 menus open (they would probably cover the whole screen) and you needed to close all other menus but 1 and 4? You could choose 7,6 and 5 but you wouldn't be able to jump over menu 4 to close 3 and 2. Closing and opening windows may seem to be a small annoyance but when you get used in the game, they suddenly became major irritation; especially in Majik where each container is supposed to have their own inventory (pouches, sacs, chests etc) and easiest way to handle these is to bring a pop-up window with inventory listing.

Moving with numpad (or programmed keys)

	- 4,6 = left,right
	- 2,8 = backward, forward
	- 1,3 = "steering" to left,right
	- +,- = up, down (levitating/flying creatures)

In case of naturally flying creatures, when air, 2 shouldn't indicate backward movement but instead of breaking, for example, a dragon's dive and slower flight and raise the creature upwards. -,+ are used to lower/raise creature when it is flying steadily forward. The length of pressure (or pressure time) determines the moving speed, thus pressing num-pad key 8 longer time increases the speed or double clicking it switches between walking/running mode, perhaps both could be used for quicker switches, afterall, there are situations when you want to steadily increase or decrease your speed and situations when you want suddenly sprint into your maximum speed.

Head moving is handled with switching between "walk" and "watch" modes. This is done by pressing some nearby numpad key (or programmed key), enter for example. The movements of head are control with mouse and naturally you can not turn head more than normal human, however, this should lock your movement only and thus you should be still able to move your upper body (allowing greater reach).

There's many reason why I would like to see the movement system done like this. 1st, it prevents you from accidently "staggering" to unwanted directions if your mouse suddenly gets wild; 2nd, it would be really pain if you stood in the edge of chasm and accidently clicked your mouse button (or something falls on it) and your char would walk into its death; 3rd reason is that I would rather see right-mouse clicking bringing up a pop-up menu from where you can choose your cursor type and various other useful things. I would suggest at least following options available for normal humanoid beings, either as icons or as a list (separated icons are easier to handle):

	- Attack 	- Draws weapon you have chosen as primary weapon (slot1)
	- Get 		- Changes your mouse icon to a hand which allows you to grab things
	- Open/Close 	- Allows you to open/close doors, containers etc
	- Quick skills 	- Allows you to use special skills
	- Quick spells 	- Allows you to choose 1-3 spells in quick spell slots
	- Reaction 	- Concious handshaking, bowing etc
	- Wield/Wear 	- Tries to wield or wear the item you have in your hand (into inventory slot)

 
It's important to have different open/close and get icons (options) because sometimes they may be needed indepently (mainly to help those people with sucky mouses :). Otherwise you really should have "favored cursors"; for example when cursor is over a hostile enemy it automatically suggests current "attack cursor" and when you move the object over something pickable it should automatically suggest "get" icon, similary with item that is defined as container first left-click should be "get" and double-clicking should be "open". I also encourage using a right-click pop-up instead of rotating through icons with repeated right clicks because it would soon became annoyance. Otoh the list seems small now, it is only for humanoids, for example a dragon might have multiple attack types or other icons which are not available for a human. 

Of course you could always add short cuts for these but in this way you can still move while switching between the menus and the cursor can always be above the target which is a benefit in comparsion to for example static screen icons. I also further suggest that these main icons (or list) have sub-icons (list) for different forms of attack, multiple spell slots etc. So in general things would work like this: 

You are standing in front of a chest, holding bloody sword in your hand (you had just defeated a pesky orc warrior) and now you would like to first drag the chest into nearby shallow cave and open it there without need to fear prying eyes or anyone ambushing you in open. You could do it like this:

	- Holding the mouse cursor on chest it turns into "get" cursor and then you left-click the chest once which 
	  makes your character to sheathe his sword and lean forward to grab the chest
	- Now, assuming that your character's strength is enough, he grabs the chest and carries it in his hands
	  (or drags it behind him) to the cave.
	- In cave you click the ground in front of you and your characters drops the chest there.
	- Now you double-click the chest to open it just to find it is locked.
	- You curse and right-click again to bring up the icon menu and left-click "Spells" icon which brings up 	  another smaller menu and list of quick spells.
	- You left-click the opening spell and then chest, after some mumbo-jumbo and sparks you hear an audible 	  click from the lock which indicates that it opened.
	- You double-click the chest again which opens and launches a small pop-up window that opens always when              you move the cursor on open container. You could also lock the container window so that you don't need to 	  move the cursor on container again for it to stay open.
	- You click open your container menu which reveals containers you currently have and click the backbag icon
	- Your char removes the backbag and you double-click it which opens similar pop-up window
	- You move the cursor back on the first container and pick the first item up which you move into your 	  	  backbag
	- There also appears to be a small shield in the chest but when you try to place it into your backbag you 	  notice there's not enough space so you right-click to bring up the pop-up menu and left-click wield/wear 	  icon. After that your character wields the shield.
	- You double-click the backbag to close it and then left-click it to pick it up
	- Then you right-click again and left-click wield/wear icon and your character places the backbag back into 	  its rightful place.

As you seen, in that way things are very quick and efficient. Imho skills like lockpicking should be placed into sub-menus under "open/close" button and weapon switching and/or attack maneuvers under "attack" button. However, these are just meant to be quickslots so they should be customable and have only like 1-3 "slots". Main listings could be still represented as icons or buttons which open a menu. 


My other suggestions (some pretty obvious) are:
	- A Compass appearing in the lower left corner (or similar place) of the screen when someone has one.
	- Some sort of map button if character has a map?
	- Following buttons in lower part: Statistics, Inventory list, Spell list, Skill list
	- Lamps, Lanterns and candles, when lit, should be held in hand