In the recent Paragon update Epic added further depth to their chat menu. For anyone unfamiliar with it, you hold down [C] when in game and a list of options appears. You navigate these with your mouse and when you find the option you're looking for, you simply select it with the left mouse button. As one example, if I wanted to inform my team that my Ultimate ability was ready I would undertake the following.

(C > Move the mouse to "Notify" > Left click > Move the mouse to "Tactics" > Left click > Move the mouse to "Ultimate Ready" > Left click).

While I wouldn't say this process is laborious, it's neither intuative or accessible. To use the chat menu effectively you have to learn where notifications are buried and under which route. During combat or if they're ever changed (such as the case with this patch) you need to learn those routes again. What's also frustrating about this system is that some of the most important things you'll regularly wish to convey (such as when your Ultimate is ready) aren't surface level. I think this is at odds with ensuring you can communicate easily and quickly.

As someone who adores radial wheels ever since Battlefield and with the excellent version Overwatch also uses, I think Paragon could benefit massively from a similar implementation. With that in mind, I've set about designing a radial wheel concept for Paragon that attempts to do the follow:

1. Provide instant, surface level access to the most important chat messages.

2. Increase the time at which you can relay information without diving too deeply through menus.

3. Try to retain all the most important messages you would need during a match.

4. To try to position messages on the radial wheel that are intuative.

5. To add greater depth of options by pressing a single key, to then reverse what's available to the player.

6. To allow players to utilise one or two message commands in tandem to create an overall message (without resorting to further menus).

On the basis of the above, I've come up with a radial wheel that has two options that you can instantly flip between by using the existing (F) key command.

The first presents the most common options that you use throughout the course of a match and consists of notifications such as "Help Me", "Ultimate Status", "Good Job" and "Group". To trigger any of these messages you would simply hold down [C] move your mouse into the appropriate area and release.

The default radial wheel would look like the above.

By implementing 10 options to the player by default, with clear symbols (and text) that are easily identifiable, it already removes a significant amount of layering. In addition, commands such as "Attack left Lane", "Attack Mid lane" and "Attack Right Lane" have all be placed where you'd expect them (to the left, middle and right of the wheel). In addition to this, the "Retreat" option, once again, is placed at the bottom - a natural mouse movement when you want to encourage your team to backwards.

To access More Options, players would press [F] which would instantly flip the radial wheel to present a similar set of commands, in locations similar to that before (but often with a reserve or alternative message).

Pressing "[F] More Options" the radial wheel would shift to this second set of commands. Pressing [F] again would take you back.

As you can see from the picture above, the commands for "Attack X Lane" have switched to "Defend X Lane" while other commands such as "Enemy Missing" becomes "Jungle Missing" and "Attack River Buff" becomes "Attack Orb Prime".

Additional commands were also rotated out:

"Good Job" becomes "We Need Wards"

becomes "Help Me" becomes "Be Right Back"

becomes "Ultimate Status" becomes "Emote"

becomes "Group" becomes "Take Care"

All these commands are only ever one click away (regardless of which radial wheel you access) and convey, I feel, the most important things we all need to say. While there are some commands that are missing such as "Careful X Lane" or general chat, these were often conveyed through multiple messaging prior to any changes Epic implemented. For example, if someone wished to say "careful right lane enemy missing" you'd simply say "Defend Right Lane" > "Jungle Missing" or "Jungle Missing" > "Take Care". It's down to the player to then interpret those commands and the mini-map, as well as their own positioning, to understand the message. Typically however, most people regardless of situtation often utilise "Enemies Missing" > "Retreat" and the same applies here.

I'm not suggesting this concept is perfect, but I do feel it's vastly superior to what we have now and at the very least it would be clearer and quicker to use. For new players and even experienced ones, that can only be a good thing.

What do you think of our radial wheel concept? Would you change anything? Do you think it would help your Paragon play?