I prefer being able to move my character {controls its lower bosy} with a keyboard and direct the character''s actions {upper body} with a mouse. This would allow for the "click-n-hack" ease of selecting a target as in Diablo, but allow for more complex movement such as backing up, strafing, and the usual moves associated with First Person Shooters. On top of that, it eliminates the need for writing any path-finding code.

Another varaition on the keyboard control is that in Grim Fandago. You would walk the character around {"steer" him, to be more precise} and if there was anything to interact with he would look in it''s direction. All that was required to do anything was a simple keystroke or button press without a cursor onscreen.

As for the different interactions, I admired how the Twinsen games {Little Big Adventures in Europe} grouped similar actions into cattegories. One such grouping would be running and jumping. Only three keys {I beleive} were actually used for performing actions, with a another to "switch modes."

Lastly, I prefer having as little information on screen at one time. Just the nescesaties: Health, Mana, current object, current spell, money {in towns or at dealers only}, and such. Dialog boxes for the NPCs are fine in my book. You''re not likely to have an immediate need to perform an action when talking to an NPC. Just have smaller ones for actuall dialog and larger ones when dialog choices need to be made. It keeps the screen clean and makes it more obvious when a choice is to be made.