thanks for responding. I played the update a little and I think the UI makes quite a bit more sense now. (though, it's probably better to see a new player comment on this since a new player would lack the context I already had.)
when I said combat should be more interactive at the start it was mainly just a side idea I had because of the fact early game might shake some players off due to being more passive but it doesn't really matter that much. at the time I just put it in and didn't have any ideas on how it could theoretically be implemented.
however, I did figure out two ways to make combat more interactive just now but neither of them seem super good to me:
1, piety shields.
maybe there could be a cooldown ability where you can summon a shield to block hits or parry them from a certain direction.
2, select targets.
choose what the character locks onto. might work best on ranged builds.
misc stuff:
I also still really think the encyclopedia is a good idea since it fixes most issues.
maybe have some text during the tutorial tell you about the pause button in the bottom right. from what I remember, the tutorial doesn't tell you this and some people might end up never seeing it and wasting their run.