I had this idea too. But e and q restrict your ability to move sideways while changing the items while you can easily use shift or control while pressing a or d.
It also uses a key more.
If you can choose between having a toggle key or two independent keys you need to press why not. More options for the player^^
(And this would only work for this kind of system anyway. Maybe the devs had another idea.)
since I think you can probably choose hotkeys for everything, i’d probably choose something like shift for left hand and c for right hand. Walking sidewards while changing was a good argument.
But with a controller you would have same problem. Think about changing the weapon with left analog stick, then you cannot walk meanwhile. So there they also have no advance.
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That’s true, one of the cases where the keyboard potentially has a slightly better solution than the controller^^
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Seeing as Ben said they will be remappable, I’ll probably end up mapping them to my extra mouse buttons, so I can select and scroll through the options all with one hand (I need to use those extra buttons for something other than navigating backwards and forwards on a browser ^^)
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IMHO it’d be nice to have the option to remove the hotbar completely that way the 1-0 keys are still instantly available , but a hotbar isn’t taking up screen real estate 24/7. But, I like as little HUD as possible at times to make the game more immersive. Hopefully each part will be customizable in the menus.
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Constructive criticisms:
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There are a lot of very similarly sized square blocks on the screen in this version of the HUD. If some of them had rounded corners or some weren’t squares at all, I feel like it would improve the feel of it. An alternative would be to greatly vary the size of those blocks ( I do understand the square-based language, voxels, and general orientation of the game).
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All of the bars look very similar. The colors and sizes don’t vary with one another, which makes it a challenge to quickly ascertain information from brief glances.
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This is a general comment. The text, Compass icons, Crosshair/cursor, item portraits, and the various bars all have sharp, square, kind of “blockish” edges and appearances. This clashes with the much softer beauty of Boundless (versus other sandbox games like minecraft, anyway).
Why do I think these things matter? Because the Boundless world is set in a warm realm where many biomes give an earthy-type feel. The hard edges all over the GUI give the impression of cold technology. To me, this is a disconnect for the user. It also causes a clash between the HUD and the world that is just distracting.
Two things I do have to say is that the sharp edges make for easy visual acquirement when placed on the game graphics itself and I really like what the devs have chosen to give as information through the HUD. Keep up the good work!
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Sorry totally missed your reply.
Only difference being that groups often form spontaneously and get discarded rather quickly.
I can´t recall how often I formed a group/party with some random ppl. but never played with them again after that one occasion.
Or how often I wished for a grouping feature in other survival games like Minecraft/Rust/etc.
I´m ok with not having groups as long as we are provided with some other tool that helps with playing with other players.
E.g. a tool that allows you to slot player tokens and that displays the outline of other players + their location on the minimap within a certain radius.
It´s pretty easy to loose a friend in a voxel forest so I think that a tool/mechanic like this would be quite useful.
I don’t really have anything to add until we get a chance to see the Boundless guilds in action and play around with them. I’m all out of speculation and “what-ifs” at this point, time-wise, with the Legion pre-patch out. 
SAY THIS HUD ISNT GONNA HAPPEN NAO!!! GOD MADE SURE THAT HUDS WERE LARGE AND CLUNKY AND NOT PRETTY TO LOOK AT! THIS IS GONNA MAKE ME COMBUST!!!
On a side-note, never in a million years would I have liked a hud so much. Keep up the purdy workins’