I've seen a number of different ways for menus to be implemented... select an object in the world, spells/shouts, food that's auto-replenished, readied equipment.

In each case, they all bring up the dedicated menu screen (it's kind of a modal IMO) which has limitations both in function (limit on number of visible entries) and UI (formatting options, choices move around, etc)

I'm contemplating and researching my own mod and I was thinking about some potential alternatives for a menu system. Keep in mind I have exactly ONE percent experience with papyrus (IOW very little), but I do have some programmatic experience (web tech mostly) so my questions are pretty broad here... from the basic "is it possible in papyrus" all the way up to "what do you think of this"

Dialogue screen: Have a "guy" that you talk to. Each speech choice would be a menu item for programmed action or a submenu. "Back" at the top of each Sub menu would give simple UI consistency.

This probably has the most potential as, based on what i've seen, it's got the most existing infrastructure. Would this be as controllable (to the modder) as the standard menu screen?

Read a book: Open a book, turn it to the right page to make the choice, close the book.

I'll bet the vanilla game isn't aware of it, but can it be made aware of what page you're on in a book? If so, this could be a 1-layer menu that has documentation right in the menu. I also like the spellbook kinda feel of it.

Storage: Menu choices are items in a chest. When the chest is closed, items are then returned to the chest and actions are performed based on items in the players inventory.

This seems kinda like food, where you have to actively manage the inventory and make sure that it's in shape. I'm also dubious of whether or not you can queue actions. I suppose you could list certain items in the players inventory and 'while' thru them... placing them back in the chest, performing the action, then going to the next item. The best thing is that It would create a tightly controlled situation: the player would be guaranteed to be in a specific place when actions are performed. UI wise, this would be great with books or notes as it could contain the documentation for the action right there.

I realize that spells and shouts are probably the most reliable if not the most documented (plenty of examples to look at) but I've never been a fan of that mechanic which is why I'm thinking of this.

At this point I'm talking about menu concepts. I'm not yet concerned about the gameplay implications of, for example, having an extra guy following you around or extra copies of the same book.

this post made so the forum stats work.