Many action-adventure games rely on the feeling of thrills via bullets, fire, grenade, more bullets, and gigantic booms. The way to enable all these is to offer a massive arsenal, from machetes to assault rifles all the way till bazookas.

许多动作冒险游戏都依靠子弹，火力，手榴弹，更多子弹和巨大的轰鸣声来激发快感。 实现所有这些目的的方法是提供庞大的武器库，从大砍刀到突击步枪，一直到火箭筒。

With game having evolved as a medium, sub genres have evolved within the space. What was considered as action games are now classified under open-world action games, linear action adventure games, cover-shooter game, and much more. Open world games are punctuated by sequences of linear set-pieces, linear games have sprawling sandbox levels in them. The nuances that have developed with the branches and evolution of media are staggering. So how have players adapted to interacting with these games and how have we helped them?

随着游戏作为媒介的发展，子类型也在空间内发展。 所谓的动作游戏现在分为开放式动作游戏，线性动作冒险游戏，掩体射击游戏等。 开放世界游戏是由一系列线性布景打点的，线性游戏中包含庞大的沙箱级别。 随着媒介的分支和发展而发展起来的细微差别令人震惊。 那么玩家如何适应与这些游戏的互动，以及我们如何为他们提供帮助？

If we take an example from the early 2000’s, when the concept of scale was truly growing, we’d look at a game like Grand Theft Auto III. Baseball bats, miniguns, shotguns, rocket launcher were the feature of the arsenal, followed by throwables like grenades and molotov. Each weapon was unique in the way it operated and the carnage it caused, and subsequently, in the spaces it could it be used. A pistol was always better than a baseball bat no matter where you are, but a rocket launcher in the crowded alley was suicide play. Yet the interface did not account for that, there was no way to change between the vast array of weapons that you had. It was exactly that — an array. A player had to go through the entire list to reach what they wanted.

如果我们以2000年代初期为例，当时规模的概念确实在增长，那么我们将看一下《侠盗猎车手III》这样的游戏。 武库的特色是棒球棍，迷你枪，shot弹枪，火箭发射器，其次是手榴弹和莫洛托夫等可抛物。 每件武器的操作方式和造成的屠杀都是独特的，随后在可以使用的空间中也是如此。 无论您身在何处，手枪总是比棒球棒更好，但是拥挤的小巷中的火箭发射器是自杀游戏。 但是界面并不能说明问题，您无法在拥有的各种武器之间进行切换。 就是那个数组。 玩家必须遍历整个列表才能达到他们想要的目标。

There were two whole buttons (out of fourteen) dedicated to accessing the next and the previous buttons. PC players had to scroll through it like they were scrolling through a website. It was tedious, for one had to take so much effort to reach where they wanted. It was clumsy, for one had to press a button so many times and a mistake would be corrected by pressing more button. It was tiring because player needs would change from the space you occupied and the ammo you had for which players had to scroll again and again. Sure, the player was not required to look at the weapon icon in HUD since the weapon would update in real-time on the player character who was always the focus of attention anyway. But it still didn’t effectively inform where in the list you wanted to be to equip what you wanted to use. Every change that wasn’t to an immediate weapon was spent multitasking between a fight and a scroll interaction.

有两个完整的按钮(共14个)专用于访问下一个和上一个按钮。 PC播放器必须像浏览网站一样浏览它。 这很乏味，因为一个人需要付出很多努力才能到达他们想要的地方。 这太笨拙了，因为一个人不得不按下一个按钮那么多次，而通过按下更多按钮可以纠正错误。 这很累，因为玩家的需求会从您所占据的空间和您拥有的弹药中改变，玩家不得不为此反复滚动。 当然，不需要玩家查看HUD中的武器图标，因为武器会实时更新始终是关注焦点的玩家角色。 但是它仍然不能有效地告知您想要在列表中的什么位置装备您想要使用的东西。 并非即时武器的每项更改都需要在战斗和滚动交互之间进行多任务处理。

Yet this was the early era of games where the ways of interaction were yet to catch up with the rapidly scaling systems of game.

然而，这是游戏的早期时代，交互方式尚未赶上快速扩展的游戏系统。

武器轮和视频游戏 (The weapons wheel and video games)

While the wheel has been seen throughout games, from Ratchet & Clank to Dishonored, and has taken multiple iterations to reach the state we know and love. Let us look at how this evolution too has branched and has been dictated by the needs of the game. While there are many games older than the wheel which have resisted it (such as Fallout), there are some that have grown along and evolved it with themselves. Before we look at how that came to be, we will first look at why wheels are a great method of interactions.

从《棘轮与叮当》到《耻辱》，在整个游戏中都可以看到轮子，并且经过了多次迭代才能达到我们认识和喜爱的状态。 让我们看看这种演变是如何分支的，并且是由游戏需求决定的。 尽管有许多比轮子更古老的游戏对此产生了抵触(例如《辐射》)，但也有一些游戏与它自己一起发展并发展。 在我们研究它的产生方式之前，我们将首先研究为什么轮子是一种很好的交互方法。

轮子，为什么这么好 (The wheel and why it’s so good)

This is the Fitt’s Law. It states that the time taken to complete a movement is a function of the start and end points of that movement and an inverse function of the width of the object to which we are reaching. a and b are constants that represent the dexterity of the user and the ergonomic ease of the input device. Many studies prove using this law why pointing with a finger is easier than pointing with a hand. And a device that ergonomically fits well and is represented by a pointer works very well for flat interfaces, hence the mouse. And the mouse has been often studied as a more viable interface to interact with games (especially games that involve shooting) than a controller.

这就是菲特定律。 它指出完成运动所需的时间是该运动的起点和终点的函数，并且是我们要到达的物体的宽度的反函数。 a和b是代表用户的灵活性和输入设备的人体工程学易用性的常数。 许多研究证明使用此定律为什么用手指指向比用手指指向更容易。 符合人体工程学的设备非常适合指针指示的设备，因此对于平面接口(对于鼠标)非常适用。 与鼠标相比，鼠标经常被认为是与游戏(尤其是涉及射击的游戏)进行交互的更可行的界面。

https://www.csse.canterbury.ac.nz/andrew.cockburn/papers/julian_fitts.pdf

https://www.csse.canterbury.ac.nz/andrew.cockburn/papers/julian_fitts.pdf

This is obvious, as constants a and b are a measure of dexterity and ergonomics which perform better with a mouse as coarse motor movements (use of wrist) are well and accurately translated by flat tracking devices. The fine motor movements of a thumb are not as fast or lack the twitchiness of good reflexes and hence result in poorer performance on controllers.

这是显而易见的，因为常数a和b是灵巧性和人体工程学的量度，由于粗略的运动(使用手腕)可以通过平面跟踪设备准确且准确地平移，因此它们在鼠标上的表现更好。 拇指的精细运动不那么快或缺少良好反射的颤动，因此导致控制器的性能较差。

But Fitt’s law also states that more the size of target element, easier to reach it. Before we came to know it as weapon’s wheel, it was and continues to be more popularly known as a pie menu in traditional UI applications. Let’s see why they work so well without controllers and joysticks.

但是菲特定律还指出，目标元素的大小越大，越容易达到。 在我们将其称为“武器之轮”之前，它在传统的UI应用程序中曾经是并且一直被越来越普遍地称为饼菜单。 让我们看看为什么在没有控制器和操纵杆的情况下它们能如此出色地工作。

As we see, the width is infinite because the radius of a circle can house infinite concentric circles. Without getting into complications of mathematics, it’s easy to be quick and accurate when the it’s a circle and the angle of sector is large enough. Studies have shown that humans can accurately navigate an average of 8 sectors (slices) without introducing any substantial cognitive load and reducing accuracy.

如我们所见，宽度是无限的，因为圆的半径可以容纳无限的同心圆。 不必担心数学的复杂性，当它是一个圆并且扇形的角度足够大时，很容易快速而准确地进行。 研究表明，人类可以准确地平均导航8个扇区(切片)，而不会引入任何实质性的认知负担并降低准确性。

互动的姿态 (The gesture of interaction)

Weapon wheels all have a standard gesture when it comes to controllers and mouse, it’s dragging from centre of the wheel in the direction of the option players choose. For a mouse, that’s interacting with and element around which, radially, the menu shows up. For controllers, its usually holding a button down that shows the menu, which then responds to the direction in which one of the joysticks is pushed or pulled. This gesture to open a weapons wheel is also followed by games played with a mouse for standardisation’s sake.

当涉及到控制器和鼠标时，武器轮都具有标准手势，它是从轮的中心向玩家选择的方向拖动。 对于鼠标而言，它与交互，并在其周围沿径向显示菜单。 对于控制器，通常按住按钮不放即可显示菜单，然后该菜单将响应操纵杆之一被推或拉的方向。 为了标准化，在打开武器轮的手势之后还会进行鼠标游戏。

In games, usually when players open a weapons wheel the gameplay stops. With the enhancements in technology, time slows down instead of the gameplay completely stopping. Which means users can still react to the gameplay withut diluting the stress and pacing while in the menu, but the gameplay also doesn’t run ahead. Normally, one of two functions are taken away- the ability to turn the camera or the ability to move. The joystick that control the disabled function is instead used to navigate the wheel, so players are not forced to take their fingers off any of the input they were currently using (unlike a D-pad which requires players to displace their left thumb).

在游戏中，通常当玩家打开武器轮时，游戏停止。 随着技术的增强，时间变慢而不是完全停止游戏。 这意味着用户仍然可以对游戏进行React，而无需在菜单中减轻压力和节奏，但是游戏也无法继续进行。 通常，两个功能之一会被取消-转动相机的能力或移动能力。 相反，控制禁用功能的操纵杆用于导航方向盘，因此不会迫使玩家将手指从当前正在使用的任何输入上移开(不同于D-pad，这需要玩家移开左手的拇指)。

While point and click are the dominant gesture of a mouse, drag works as well and the same features of button and drag can be used for a mouse. The more important thing to notice is that in the case of mouse, the function to disable is always the camera as games on PCs always control the camera via the mouse.

尽管单击和单击是鼠标的主要手势，但是拖动也可以工作，并且按钮和拖动的相同功能也可以用于鼠标。 需要注意的更重要的一点是，在使用鼠标的情况下，禁用功能始终是相机，因为PC上的游戏始终通过鼠标来控制相机。

For a mouse, clicking the option may be viable to end the micro-interaction. But for the sake of standardisation, the wheel system finalises the choice that is chosen when the triggering hold input is let go so it is consistent with controllers.

对于鼠标，单击选项可能可以终止微交互。 但是出于标准化的考虑，车轮系统会在松开触发保持输入时最终确定选择，以使其与控制器一致。

When hold and drag gestures are involved, tactility is a huge factor concerning the hold gesture. While holding and dragging is a one finger function for a mouse, becoming a two finger function for a controller (or tandem of keyboard and mouse) means managing the acute responsiveness of the menu open and close. That has to also correspond into a smooth transition between usually stressful combat gameplay and moments of respite in selecting a weapon without breaking the pacing too much, or at least making making the shift in pace very smooth.

当涉及到握持和拖动手势时，触觉是与握持手势有关的重要因素。 按住和拖动是鼠标的单指功能，而成为控制器(或键盘和鼠标的串联)的两指功能则意味着管理菜单打开和关闭的敏锐响应性。 这还必须在通常压力较大的战斗游戏和选择武器的喘息时间之间平稳过渡，而又不要过度破坏节奏，或者至少使步调非常平稳。

随着电子游戏的发展，车轮的演变 (Evolution of the wheel with evolution of video games)

Going back to games that have imbibed and evolved weapon wheels, it would be important to mention the Far Cry series. And the first one to observe would be Far Cry 2, the final game in the series without a weapons wheel.

回到吸收并发展了武器轮盘的游戏，提到《孤岛惊魂》系列很重要。 第一个要观察的是《孤岛惊魂2》，这是该系列中没有武器轮的最后一场比赛。

Without rattling on for hours about what I think is a hallmark of gaming experiences, at it’s core Far Cry 2 is about surviving the jungle. Jamming weapons, vehicles that break down, diegetic maps and radios, roads chock full of guard posts, virtual malaria — the game is a battle for survival. In this game, you had to visit a physical store owner to purchase weapons and a physical armoury to access weapons. Save points and fast travel were skimpy in terms of availability and weapons needed maintenance (or at least replacement). The game was brutal in the sense that everything was hard to acquire, and acquiring was just the first step.

关于《我认为是游戏体验的标志》并没有花上几个小时的时间，《孤岛惊魂2》的核心是在丛林中生存。 干扰性武器，发生故障的车辆，地图残骸和收音机，塞满了岗哨的道路，虚拟疟疾-游戏是一场生存之战。 在此游戏中，您必须拜访实体商店的所有者以购买武器，并拜访实体武器库以获取武器。 节省点数和快速旅行在可用性和所需武器维护(或至少需要更换)方面是轻率的。 从一切都难以获得的意义上说，游戏是残酷的，获得仅仅是第一步。

At any point, a player could carry only 4 weapons. The categories were hard fixed, and so were the quantities. The D-pad was exclusively conserved for the use of changing navigation, and doesn’t it look intuitive? A single tap to access a weapon of specialty, and the game doubled down on this by not allowing players to equip a weapon of another kind in a slot or even carry two weapons of the same type. On PC, the same system was mapped to number button 1, 2, 3, and 4.

在任何时候，一个玩家只能携带4种武器。 类别固定不变，数量也固定。 D-pad专为保存更改导航而保留，它看起来不是很直观吗？ 只需轻按一下即可访问特种武器，并且游戏不允许玩家在插槽中装备另一种武器，甚至不允许携带两种相同类型的武器，从而使这一点倍增。 在PC上，同一系统已映射到数字按钮1、2、3和4。

Was it better than the generation of GTA III? One would argue the merits and demerits, because at any time your could carry less weapons on your person. But it was neither overwhelming to navigate through them nor did it demand you pay attention to a list of scrolling objects on your HUD. And most certainly lent to the part of “bring your own solution” instead of “bring your entire arsenal and choose your solution”.

它比第三代GTA更好吗？ 人们会争论优缺点，因为在任何时候您都可以携带更少的武器。 但是浏览它们既不令人难以理解，也不需要您注意HUD上的滚动对象列表。 而且最肯定的是借给了“带来自己的解决方案”的部分，而不是“带来了整个武器库并选择解决方案”。

军火库的成长和需求，并帮助其沉浸 (Growth and requirements of an arsenal, and helping immersion)

In 2018, we got Far Cry 5. The series had a come a long way, benefiting from the growth of hardware. It’s scope and scale would explode equivalently. There were a ton of weapons, each serving it’s own purpose. There were other tertiary elements like grenades, baits, fishing rods, repair tools for vehicles, other explosives that players could carry around on their person at all times. Most importantly they were back to an age, much of GTA III, where the player character was a mule and a walking armoury at the same time.

在2018年，我们获得了《孤岛惊魂5》(Far Cry 5)，该系列在很大程度上受益于硬件的增长。 它的范围和规模将同等爆炸。 有很多武器，每种武器都有自己的用途。 还有其他第三要素，例如手榴弹，诱饵，钓鱼竿，车辆维修工具以及玩家可随时随身携带的其他炸药。 最重要的是，他们回到了GTA III的时代，玩家角色同时是a子和步行军械库。

Gone were the simplistic requirements of Far Cry 2 when you could only carry 4 interchangeable weapons with you. The interactions of the D-pad would no longer suffice. They had long introduced the weapon wheel, but even the wheel was shaped by the contemporaries that took advantage of it.

当您只能随身携带4种可互换武器时，《孤岛惊魂2》的简单要求就一去不复返了。 D-pad的交互不再足够。 他们很早就引入了武器轮，但即使轮也由利用它的同时代人塑造。

Let’s look at the core loop of Far Cry 5

让我们看一下《孤岛惊魂5》的核心循环

While all of these can be done with ongoing combat due to open world nature of the game and ignoring the nuances, this is the core loop of the game. The player’s objectives would be to refill the ammo they just spent to win a combat encounter, and then they must look for other resources that will help upgrade their base. Slain enemies and ammo caches will dispense most, if not all, ammo. Due to prevalent nature of ammunition and it’s supply, they don’t require you to craft anything. You can purchase ammo from a roaming or a static vendor as well, or get it from looting the open world.

由于游戏的开放世界性质和无视细微差别，尽管可以通过持续的战斗来完成所有这些操作，但这是游戏的核心循环。 玩家的目标是补充他们刚刚用来赢得战斗对抗的弹药，然后他们必须寻找其他资源来帮助升级他们的基地。 被杀死的敌人和弹药储藏室将分配大部分(即使不是全部)弹药。 由于弹药的普遍性质及其供应，它们不需要您制作任何东西。 您也可以从漫游或静态供应商处购买弹药，或者从掠夺开放世界中获得弹药。

On the other hand, what you must forage are the auxiliary resource that are available in the woods and forests. The game requests this as a an invitation to explore, forage, scavenge and then combine these resources to give you some of the best buffs and advantages in the game.

另一方面，您必须觅食的是森林和森林中可用的辅助资源。 游戏要求以此作为邀请进行探索，觅食，清理然后结合这些资源的邀请，从而为您提供游戏中一些最好的增益和优势。

Notice how the instruction to craft is in the menu, but not in the actual function? Is this not poor accessibility? No, this is the developers’ demands that we use the intended tool for this function so we learn what to expect from the game which enhances immersion. These buffs require the players to forage the world and then craft them at a time of need, inciting these on-the-spot feelings of “scavenger” and “resourceful”.

请注意菜单中的操作说明如何，但实际功能中却没有？ 这不是可访问性差吗？ 不，这是开发人员的要求，我们需要使用预期的工具来实现此功能，以便我们了解可以增强游戏沉浸感的游戏内容。 这些增益要求玩家在世界各地觅食，然后在需要时制作它们，从而激发了现场的“清道夫”和“资源丰富”的感觉。

The interface surfaces the fantasy. The weapons wheel is a quick tool to use, and hence it elicits the feeling of “quickly crafting my solution” when players react to the challenge and craft the appropriate buff.

界面浮现了幻想。 武器滚轮是一种快速使用的工具，因此当玩家对挑战做出React并制作适当的增益时，它会引起“快速制定我的解决方案”的感觉。

Obviously, conclusions are no good without research. I gathered 4 people I knew who have never played Far Cry 5, and dropped them in the middle of a firefight on normal difficulty. These people have been playing shooting games for a long time, but had never actively divulged in the Far Cry series. Next step was to understand what fantasy they most related to when they perused the weapons wheel to craft and consume a buff, which would be considered as a solution in uneven combat scenarios. The fantasies were pre-selected and presented in a manner that most of us relate to — fictional characters from movies.

显然，没有研究就不能得出结论。 我召集了4个我认识的从未玩过《孤岛惊魂5》的人，然后以正常难度将他们扔在了一场交火中。 这些人玩射击游戏已有很长时间了，但是他们从未积极参与过《孤岛惊魂》系列。 下一步是了解当他们仔细阅读武器轮来制作和消耗抛光效果时，他们最想得到的幻想是什么，这将被视为不平衡战斗场景中的解决方案。 幻想是预先选定的，并且以我们大多数人都与电影中的虚构人物有关的方式呈现。

Click here for the complete research

点击这里进行完整的研究

让我们看看其他例子 (Let’s look at other examples)

Weapon wheels are abundant, but the games they are found in are very different. Another long standing franchise that has only recently incorporated a weapons wheel is Doom. Unlike Far Cry, Doom as a franchise kick started first person games and was copied by many. Released in 1993, it was a game that allowed the doom guy to carry 8 unique weapons which were again mapped to number keys on a keyboard. Almost 2 decades later, the doom slayer carries forward the tradition of packing a mammoth arsenal at all times. The core loop of the game is much different from Far Cry, and hence the solutions it implements.

武器轮很丰富，但发现的游戏却大不相同。 直到最近才加入武器轮盘的另一个长期特许经营权是Doom。 与《孤岛惊魂》不同，《毁灭战士》作为专营权踢开始了第一人称游戏，并被许多人模仿。 该游戏于1993年发行，允许厄运者携带8种独特的武器，这些武器又被映射到键盘上的数字键。 将近20年后，厄运屠宰者一直保持着包装庞大的武库的传统。 游戏的核心循环与《孤岛惊魂》有很大不同，因此实现了解决方案。

With such an emphasis on fluid and easy to commit violence, it would’t fit the game to create the downtime by foraging and scavenging for resources. Especially in a linear game. Instead it makes the players search for keys to exit the current level, and offers smalls detours to look for resources that would upgrade your arsenal. So how’s the weapon wheel for such a game look like?

如此强调流动性和易于实施的暴力，不适合通过觅食和清理资源来造成停机时间的游戏。 尤其是在线性游戏中。 取而代之的是，它使玩家搜索退出当前关卡的钥匙，并绕行小弯路以寻找可升级军械库的资源。 那么，这种游戏的武器轮是什么样的呢？

While Far Cry 5’s weapon wheel has many layers, arrows, functions, and other kinds of gestures, Doom’s is pretty simple. It shows the player all the weapons that are available and how much ammo they have. That’s all the game deems needful to be shown at this point. Doom slayer isn’t a “nifty” and “resourceful” character, he’s a murder machine. This hasn’t caused the designers to forget accessibility though. The wheel is colour coded to show what ammo it uses. The R1/RB button is multi gesture, tap once to switch to previous weapon and hold to open the weapons wheel. This multi gesture allows the game to facilitate even faster change between weapons that are used in tandem, thereby enabling the murder machine to murder more efficiently. Yes, there are weapon mods in the game. But they are facilitated by a button the D-pad and not in the weapons wheel. The entire focus on the game is to be quick, so the adding and removing mods is a toggle function. Hence they don’t need to be offered by an on-screen interface, and instead use a button. The interface surfaces the fantasy.

尽管《孤岛惊魂5》的武器轮有许多层，箭头，功能和其他各种手势，但《毁灭战士》却很简单。 它向玩家显示所有可用武器以及它们拥有多少弹药。 这是目前为止需要显示的所有游戏。 末日杀手不是一个“聪明”和“机智”的人物，他是一个谋杀机器。 但这并没有导致设计人员忘记可访问性。 车轮采用颜色编码，以显示其使用的弹药。 R1 / RB按钮是多手势，点击一次即可切换到上一个武器，并按住以打开武器轮。 这种多手势功能使游戏可以促进串联使用的武器之间更快的转换，从而使谋杀机器能够更有效地谋杀。 是的，游戏中有武器改装。 但是它们是通过D-pad上的按钮而不是武器轮来实现的。 整个游戏的重点是快速，因此添加和删除mod是切换功能。 因此，它们不需要由屏幕界面提供，而只需使用按钮即可。 界面浮现了幻想。

In 2017, a (then) PS4 exclusive game gained a lot of attention for unique open world gameplay. That was Horizon Zero Dawn, a game about a young girl finding her way through untamed wilderness and making the best of everything the natural and artificial environment has to offer. Aloy, too, has a huge arsenal of weapons that she can carry with her all times. The challenges here are different though, such that unlike Far Cry 5 and much like Doom, Aloy carries her entire arsenal with her all the time. But unlike Doom and much like Far Cry 5, she is a very human character who is quite vulnerable. In Far Cry 5, players have to visit a store or the HQ to swap weapons in and out of the weapons wheel. Aloy can do that from her back pack in the main menu. Yet her weapon wheel only allows her to carry 4 weapons. Let’s try to understand why.

在2017年，一款(当时)PS4独家游戏因其独特的开放世界游戏而备受关注。 那就是《地平线零黎明》(Horizo​​n Zero Dawn)，这是一个游戏，讲述一个小女孩在不受限制的荒野中找到自己的路，并充分利用自然和人工环境所提供的一切。 阿洛伊(Aloy)也拥有庞大的武器库，可以随时随身携带。 然而，这里的挑战是不同的，以至于与《孤岛惊魂5》不同，就像《毁灭战士》一样，阿洛伊始终带着她的整个武器库。 但是与《毁灭战士》不同，与《孤岛惊魂5》很像，她是一个非常人性化的人物，非常脆弱。 在《孤岛惊魂5》中，玩家必须访问商店或总部才能将武器交换进出武器轮。 Aloy可以从主菜单的背包中做到这一点。 但是她的武器轮只允许她携带4种武器。 让我们尝试了解原因。

The loop, while similar to Far Cry 5, has a nuances. There is no clear demarcation of things that are craftable and things which must be purchased, and there is no clear HQ that the game sends Aloy back to. Both these reasons are why Far Cry 5’s protagonist needs to frequently revisit the HQ, but Aloy can survive in the wilderness and rely on nothing but her environment. Ammo can be entirely created from salvaged material from killing enemies, making it a positive feedback loop. Constant weaving in and out of stealth is facilitated by the AI of robo dinosaurs, thereby allowing to puncture times of intense combat with opportunity to instantly utilise scavenged resources. Aloy is more tuned towards the “resourceful” and “self sufficient” trope than the the protagonist of Far Cry 5, where the narrative theme is to build a community in Hope County by bringing back resources. While Aloy only carries 4 weapons on wheel, she carries a huge amount of specialised ammo that is the core focus of the combat. The weapon firing this ammo is merely a multiplier on the damage and effects of this ammo.

该循环与《孤岛惊魂5》类似，但有细微差别。 没有明确界定可制造的东西和必须购买的东西，也没有明确的总部将游戏送回Aloy的总部。 这两个原因都是为什么《孤岛惊魂5》的主人公需要经常重访总部，但阿洛伊只能在野外生存，除了她的环境外，什么也没有。 弹药可以完全由杀死敌人的救助材料制成，使其成为一个积极的反馈回路。 机器人恐龙的AI有助于不断地进出隐身，从而使穿刺时间缩短，并有机会立即利用被清除的资源。 与《孤岛惊魂5》的主人公相比，阿洛伊更偏向“资源丰富”和“自我充实”的叙事，其叙述主题是通过带回资源在希望县建立社区。 虽然Aloy只能携带4种武器，但她携带的大量专业弹药是战斗的重点。 发射该弹药的武器仅仅是该弹药的伤害和效果的乘数。

Hence crafting is a very core function of the weapons wheel, and so is accommodating it all in a single layer. Far Cry 5 has a multi layered wheel due to clear separation of things that can be crafted vs can’t (or primary and secondary). But Aloy’s character is about wits and management, and the players have to exercise equal wits when choosing to prioritise what ammo type to quickly craft during combat.

因此，制作Craft.io是武器轮盘的核心功能，因此将其全部容纳在一个单独的层中。 Far Cry 5具有多层轮子，因为可以清楚地区分可以制作和不能制作的东西(或主要和次要)。 但是阿洛伊(Aloy)的性格在于机智和管理能力，玩家在选择优先选择哪种弹药类型以在战斗中快速制作时必须表现出同等的机智。

Another game in a similar vein, albeit the lack of a true open world, is Tomb Raider.

尽管缺少真正的开放世界，另一个类似的游戏是《古墓丽影》。

And doesn’t it look very similar to HZD’s weapons wheel?

而且看起来与HZD的武器轮盘非常相似吗？

The accessibility and usability functions are very similar as well. They both indicate the ammo quantity you are currently possessing, but HZD show’s the upper capacity when a player highlights it as crafting is possible in the wheel. This is important to know when crafting so players could how many they will end up holding and how many resources will be consumed to top up. Why isn’t the same feature in Tomb Raider? Because crafting isn’t a function in the wheel. In Tomb Raider, players can simply hold R2/ RT/ RMB during gameplay and Lara will craft her arrows. And that is where players would need the information of ammo caps and resources more than here.

可访问性和可用性功能也非常相似。 它们都指示您当前拥有的弹药数量，但是当玩家突出显示它时，HZD显示最大容量，因为可以在方向盘上进行制作。 重要的是要知道在制作游戏时，玩家可以最终持有多少，消耗多少资源来充值。 为什么《古墓丽影》没有相同的功能？ 因为Craft.io不是方向盘上的功能。 在古墓丽影(Tomb Raider)中，玩家只需在游戏过程中手持R2 / RT / RMB，Lara就会制作箭头。 这就是玩家比这里需要更多弹药上限和资源信息的地方。

武器轮到底是不是全部？ (Are Weapon Wheels the end all, be all?)

No interface is the end all, be all. It simply exists to facilitate the fantasy that the players are expecting.

没有接口是全部，就是全部。 它的存在只是为了促进玩家期望的幻想。

Yet another game that sells the fantasy of quick-wittedness and crafting quick solutions during tense encounters is the first Last of Us. While the loop of that game is also similar to these, the feel of the game is much, much different. It’s narrative about an apocalyptic zombie outbreak and a story of a two people traversing the desolate ruins of civilisation. The resources are far limited and even harder to acquire, the atmosphere is dark and uncertain, the ambiance is tense. Crafting from a common pool of rare resources means prioritising and choosing quickly is important. The game implements a quick menu instead of a weapons wheel, where the menu forms a plus sign. The weapons are along the horizontal prong and and throwables (along with health packs) are on the vertical prong. Even “quick crafting” is slower than rest of the games, navigating the quick menu is done by buttons instead of the stick and there is no hold to open the menu. This requires more dexterity and precision as mistakes mean more clicks and more time spent not being aware of surrounding dangers. The quick menu auto-directs to the full crafting menu and the player character gets on their knees to craft. The auto shift to a menu that covers the screen and the character taking a vulnerable pose with an unfavourable camera zoom-in creates a real sense of dread and urgency in the players while they are crafting. This tension and dread would be the case if we are handling small objects in highly anxious and immobile states where dangers surround us and mobility is the only way to save ourselves. Without using a wheel, the game offers a convenient way to access weapons from a rather hefty arsenal (4 weapons, throwables, health packs) and not breaking the immersion or the pacing.

另一个在紧张的遭遇中出售机灵幻想和精心设计快速解决方案的游戏是《 Last of Us》。 尽管该游戏的循环也与此类似，但游戏的感觉却大不相同。 这是关于世界末日僵尸爆发和两个人穿越荒凉的文明废墟的故事的叙述。 资源非常有限，甚至更难获得，气氛昏暗而不确定，氛围紧张。 从公共的稀有资源库中进行制作意味着优先级和快速选择非常重要。 该游戏实现了一个快速菜单，而不是一个武器轮，该菜单在其中形成了加号。 武器沿着水平的叉尖，可抛物(连同医疗包)放在垂直的叉尖上。 甚至“快速制作”也比其他游戏慢，导航快捷菜单是通过按钮而不是操纵杆完成的，无需按住即可打开菜单。 这需要更高的灵活性和精确度，因为错误意味着更多的点击次数和更多的时间不了解周围的危险。 快速菜单会自动转到完整的制作菜单，玩家角色会屈膝进行制作。 自动切换到覆盖屏幕的菜单，并且角色在不利的相机放大下摆出易受伤害的姿势，会在玩家制作游戏时给他们带来真正的恐惧感和紧迫感。 如果我们在高度焦虑和动荡的状态下搬运小物体，这种危险和恐惧就属于这种情况，在这些状态中危险环绕着我们，而机动性是拯救自己的唯一途径。 无需使用轮子，该游戏提供了一种便捷的方式来从沉重的军火库(4种武器，可抛物，医疗包)中获取武器，并且不会破坏沉浸感或步调。

Halo, a game about a soldier’s mission to save the world and win a galactic war, has never featured weapons wheels. It has always been about Master Chief and his ability to carry exactly 2 weapons, and the players’ ability to strike a balance between their tactics and the offered weapons. The narrative facilitates the abilities and heart of a hero facing against the odds, unlike Doom which puts a spotlight on a literal superhuman force of carnage and destruction. Carrying every weapon at all times is a characteristic of the violent nature of the Doom Slayer.

《光晕》是一款有关士兵拯救世界并赢得银河战争的任务的游戏，从未使用过武器轮子。 一直以来，都是关于酋长长和他携带2种武器的能力，以及球员在战术和所提供武器之间取得平衡的能力。 与《毁灭战士》不同的是，叙事促进了英雄面对困境的能力和内心，《毁灭战士》则将焦点放在了真正的屠杀和破坏超人力量上。 随时携带每种武器是《末日杀手》暴力性质的特征。

Fallout, a series about a technological standstill, features a very cumbersome interface that resembles what it represents. Analog computers were bulky and, most importantly, required a lot of input to achieve very little. Many tiny switches, manual input for every repetitive task, a terrible UX were hallmarks of that technological era (just attend a electronics engineering class with me, I’ll show you). Doesn’t the fact that switching weapons requires players to access the pip-boy, navigating the old-fashioned menu to find the weapon manually, equip it, and then return to gameplay sound equally cumbersome? Even though it may be low on usability and breaks the pacing of the encounter, does it not encapsulate the sense of tediousness of the thing it represents?

《辐射》(Fallout)系列涉及技术停滞，其界面非常笨拙，类似于它所代表的内容。 模拟计算机体积庞大，最重要的是，它需要大量输入才能达到很小的效果。 许多微小的开关，用于每项重复性任务的手动输入，糟糕的UX是该技术时代的标志(只要和我一起参加电子工程课程，我就会告诉你)。 切换武器是否需要玩家访问“ pip-boy”，浏览老式菜单以手动找到武器，为其配备设备，然后返回游戏玩法听起来同样麻烦呢？ 即使它可能会降低可用性并打断相遇的节奏，但它是否不包含它所代表的事物的乏味感？

Then comes an important question — could Fallout, Halo or Last of Us include a weapons wheel? For Halo, the two weapon system is the great pillar of gameplay. So a UI element to facilitate choice when owning a huge arsenal is redundant. For Last of Us, it would objectively create a disconnection with the immersion carefully crafted by the designers.As Fallout continues to transition into an action-adventure genre while disowning it’s RPG pillars slowly and methodically, this may be the natural conclusion. Fallout’s scavenger style fantasy of scrounging for resources to bring back to base to craft ingenious contraptions may be replaced by a weapons wheel and in-inventory crafting to quicken the pace. How would Fallout feel with a in-wheel creation and consumption of stimpaks, drugs and food instead of going into the pip-boy to eat a hundred carrots? How would a wheel resonate with other pace-breaking mechanic like CRITS, for better or for worse? Before we ask “is this good or bad”, we must ask “does it help sell the fantasy promised by the game”.

接下来是一个重要的问题-辐射，光晕或我们最后的一生会包括武器轮吗？ 对于《光晕》来说，两种武器系统是游戏玩法的重要Struts。 因此，拥有大量兵工厂时方便选择的UI元素是多余的。 对于《 Last of Us》，它会客观地与设计师精心打造的沉浸感产生脱节。随着《 Fallout》继续过渡为动作冒险类型，同时又缓慢又有条理地放弃了RPGStruts，这可能是自然的结论。 Fallout的拾荒者风格幻想着寻找资源以重新带回制作精巧的装置，可以用武器轮和库存制作来代替，以加快步伐。 轮流创造和食用卷心菜，毒品和食物，而不是让小男孩吃一百根胡萝卜，后果如何？ 车轮会如何与CRITS等其他具有节奏感的机械装置产生共鸣，无论是好是坏？ 在我们问“这是好事还是坏事”之前，我们必须问“这是否有助于销售游戏所承诺的幻想”。

When it comes to gestures and accessibility though, we can see in Far Cry 5 itself that they implemented a weapons wheel and a weapons grid. A grid with clickable buttons works better for a mouse as the mouse is clearly meant for point and click, while grids don’t work so well with controllers where the gesture emulated is a drag.

但是，在手势和可访问性方面，我们可以在《孤岛惊魂5》本身中看到它们实现了武器轮和武器网格。 带有可单击按钮的网格对鼠标更有效，因为鼠标显然是用于点和单击的，而网格在模拟手势为拖动的控制器上效果不佳。

Ubisoft was considerate enough to give an option to switch between either since familiarity with an interface is also important, causing players to choose something familiar over something ergonomically more efficient. But this shows that even for the same game and experience, a weapons wheel is not end all be all.

由于对界面的熟悉也很重要，因此育碧足够周到，可以在两者之间进行切换，这使玩家选择了熟悉的东西而不是符合人体工程学的更有效的东西。 但这表明即使对于相同的游戏和经验，武器轮也不是全部。

如果存在该方法和技术，《孤岛惊魂2》是否也应该拥有一个武器轮？ 如何设计？ (If the method and technology existed, should and could Far Cry 2 have a weapons wheel? How would it be designed?)

The Far Cry series after the second is about a sandbox to have fun in, where the world is littered with tools to facilitate your fun. The map is abundant with checkpoints and safe zones to restock ammo, and fast travel makes them even easier to access.

第二部分之后的《孤岛惊魂》系列讲述了一个充满乐趣的沙盒，世界上到处都是工具，可以促进您的娱乐。 该地图上充斥着检查站和安全区，可补充弹药，而且快速旅行使他们更容易进入。

Far Cry 2, on the other hand, is about survival. It focuses on tension and looming mortality. The console version does not even have quicksave, fast travel can only occur to and from specific points, and the protagonist suffers random health attacks from malaria. Weapons wear down and start jamming which is a huge inconvenience during tense firefights.

另一方面，《孤岛惊魂2》与生存有关。 它着重于紧张和迫在眉睫的死亡率。 控制台版本甚至没有快速保存功能，只能往返于特定地点快速旅行，而主角会遭受疟疾的随机性健康攻击。 武器磨损并开始卡塞，这在紧张的战斗中给您带来极大的不便。

Naturally, a weapons wheel would mean the pace and immersion of combat will be broken every time it is accessed. The D-pad based weapon switching of Far Cry 2 is very good for the same reasons of not breaking out of the combat, and the state of a weapon is very diegetic in the sense that as it wears down, it’s physical shine disappears and is replaces by scratches and rust. While the game may not objectively improve with a weapons wheel, this is how I would design it with “tension” and “unreliability” being the keywords if I had to.

自然，武器轮意味着每次进入时都会破坏战斗的节奏和沉浸感。 出于不中断战斗的相同原因，基于D-pad的Far Cry 2武器切换非常好，并且武器的状态非常消沉，因为它的磨损会消失，其物理光泽会消失，并且替换为划痕和生锈。 尽管使用武器轮可能无法客观地改善游戏，但是如果需要的话，这就是我将“张力”和“不可靠”作为关键词进行设计的方式。

Without changing any game systems or even the existing control scheme, it made no sense to add throwables (grenades and molotovs) and syrettes (health packs) to the weapons wheel as they already have their own dedicated buttons. While there are only two types of throwables which operate in a toggle manner, the concept includes a reminder to players about the actual button used to switch between them.

在不更改任何游戏系统或什至不存在现有控制方案的情况下，在武器轮上添加可投掷物(手榴弹和燃烧弹)和枪械(健康包)是没有意义的，因为它们已经具有自己的专用按钮。 虽然只有两种类型的可投掷物品以切换方式操作，但该概念包括提醒玩家有关在它们之间进行切换的实际按钮。

The major theme of weapons in Far Cry 2 is that weapons wear out after use. The more their condition erodes, the more unreliable they become. Worn out weapons may jam more frequently during combat, which is a huge looming sense of tension when the player hasn’t replaced their worn out weapon in a long time. This UI concept takes advantage of that, as the encroaching red fill in a slot shows how much the weapon is worn out. Use of indefinite colour instead of a definitive bar fill lends into the unknowable nature of when exactly and how often it will jam, but whenever players may access the weapons wheel they will be reminded of the weapon’s unreliable nature. The unknown is what creates the original sense of unreliability and using a UI element denoting known quantity will negatively affect the fantasy. Surely it could have taken on an artistic touch. Using themes of cracks, scratches, and rust in the UI to depict wear and tear with the passage of time would be much better suited. But the concept still remains the same to surface a fantasy.

孤岛惊魂2中武器的主要主题是武器使用后会磨损。 他们的病情侵蚀越多，他们就越不可靠。 磨损的武器在战斗中可能会更频繁地卡住，这在玩家很长一段时间没有更换旧的武器时是一种迫在眉睫的紧张感。 这个UI概念利用了这一点，因为插槽中的红色标记显示了武器的磨损程度。 使用不确定的颜色代替确定的条形填充会导致无法准确识别卡纸的确切时间和频率，但是无论何时玩家进入武器轮，都会提醒他们武器的不可靠特性。 未知是造成原始不可靠感的原因，使用表示已知数量的UI元素会对幻想产生负面影响。 当然，它可能具有艺术气息。 在UI中使用裂缝，刮擦和生锈的主题来描绘随着时间的流逝的磨损会更适合。 但是这个概念仍然相同，以浮出水面。

The game also has a mechanic that induces an incapacitated state in the player character who is suffering from Malaria. With such mechanic striking randomly (even just after tense combat) with no scripted event to warn about it, the game has no problems prioritising continuity of combat over gameplay stopping mechanics. With such an inference, this UI concept also does not include any slow motion or background blurring to remain consistent with the immersion. The opaque UI also borrows from the examples where reduced/ covered viewport create a sense of dread and the possibility of danger when players are distracted. It is even placed near the cursor area to purposefully create a nuisance value while in the middle of shooting but not in the centre to create a disconnection from ongoing events.

该游戏还具有一种机制，可以在患有疟疾的玩家角色中造成丧失能力的状态。 有了这样的技工随机击打(即使是在紧张的战斗之后)，也没有脚本事件来警告它，因此游戏在优先考虑战斗连续性而不是阻止游戏玩法机制方面没有问题。 通过这种推断，此UI概念也不包含任何慢动作或背景模糊以保持与沉浸感一致。 不透明的UI还借鉴了以下示例：缩小/覆盖的视口会产生恐惧感，并在玩家分心时会产生危险。 它甚至被放置在光标区域附近，以便在拍摄过程中有目的地创建一个讨厌的值，但不在中心以与正在发生的事件断开连接。

拿走资源 (Take Away resource)

While making the prototype in the above section, I ended up making a document where I could chart down the pillars of just the weapons wheel to analyse why certain decisions were being made. I hope that this can also be a helpful resource to others

在上一节中制作原型时，我最终制作了一个文档，可以在其中绘制武器轮的Struts，以分析做出某些决定的原因。 我希望这对其他人也是有用的资源

Weapons Wheel design document

武器轮设计文件

结论 (Conclusion)

Weapon wheels have transformed from a way to make a choice between finite selections to now containing their own standardised and familiar micro-interactions. In-wheel crafting, customisation, menu navigation have been successfully integrated in weapons wheels. Wheels have gone from being simple solutions to multi-layered and multi-faceted tools. Every game that has integrated them has added their own nuances and design tweaks born from their individual requirements. Yet, a weapons wheel is not a checkbox to mark when it comes to using it in our own games as it is a very deep and complex tool with many implications on immersion, feel, fantasy, usability and pacing.

武器轮已经从在有限选择之间做出选择的方式转变为现在包含其自己的标准化和熟悉的微交互方式。 轮内制作，定制，菜单导航已成功集成到武器轮中。 车轮已经从简单的解决方案变成了多层和多面的工具。 整合了它们的每款游戏都增加了自己的细微差别，并根据各自的需求进行了设计调整。 然而，在我们自己的游戏中使用武器轮时，并不是一个复选框即可标记，因为它是一种非常深入和复杂的工具，对沉浸感，感觉，幻想，可用性和步调有许多影响。

Unlike traditional applications like a pizza ordering app for Domino’s, the UX of a game is not dependent on the lowest barrier of entry. While we must empathise without players, we must focus on why we are doing things rather than how to best suffice an entry into our UIs. If players are attracted to the experiences because of fantasy and immersion, then why contest them? Wouldn’t a cumbersome gameplay UI that replicates old military interfaces help with immersion for a WW1 game, even if the usability aspect was slightly compromised? Obviously this is not a license to design terrible UX , as components like a matchmaking lobby is universal and should be designed for minimum frustration since it is not a place where players seek immersion.

与传统的应用程序(例如用于Domino的披萨订购应用程序)不同，游戏的用户体验并不取决于最低的进入门槛。 尽管我们必须在没有参与者的情况下产生同情心，但我们必须专注于我们做事的原因，而不是如何最好地满足进入UI的需求。 如果玩家因为幻想和沉浸而被游戏吸引，那么为什么要比赛呢？ 即使可用性方面稍有妥协，复制旧军事界面的繁琐游戏界面也不会有助于沉浸于WW1游戏中吗？ 显然，这并不是设计糟糕的UX的许可，因为像婚介大厅这样的组件是通用的，并且应该设计成将挫败感降到最低，因为它不是玩家寻求沉浸感的地方。

But while we empathise with players, we must also realise that they are seeking to empathise with an immersive experience. Wouldn’t the best way to facilitate that is to imbibe the nuances and structured frustration of whatever experience they are expecting?

但是，在我们同情玩家的同时，我们还必须意识到，他们正在寻求沉浸式体验的同情。 促进这种发展的最好方法不是让他们期望的任何体验都变得微妙和结构化吗？

The prototype was made using Adobe XD.

原型是使用Adobe XD制作的。