While Fallout 3 and Oblivion PC both had a burdensome console UI, hopefully this time the PC version will be navigable as though it were a PC title. Has there been any word on this yet?

The only word on the PC UI so far is that there will be some differences and that it will have hotkeys.

sure hope so

There will be at least four PC UI mods within a week of the game's release. I'm sure of it. :teehee:

It would be much better and sensible to have it ship with a usable PC interface. I updated the OP with a poll. Users shouldn't have to do Bethesda's job for them.

^ Agreed. I get why on Earth they've let so many things get by quality control and left to the PC community to fix. I mean, look at just how many small ten minute fixes are included in the unofficial Oblivion patch.

If there's one trend I've noticed about anything developed by Bethesda it's that the PC port seems to always have crippling bugs and glitches that would have taken ten minutes to fix before they sent it out the door. It's a trend I'm noticing in the whole industry really. Why the hell should the first round of loyal customers who buy the special pre-order editions etc. be reduced to unpaid beta testers?? It's a damn fine way to lose followers.

This.

Seeing as how Bethesda wants to make this game look exactly the same on all three platforms, I'd say the UI is going to look the same as well. It's a darn shame too. But hopefully modders will make it great.

I just added a 3rd poll option for you.

I still don't know why everyone is so butthurt over this, like Oblivion and Fallout 3 had absolutely worthless controls, with no way of changing them, alongside the mouse was totally unusable in the UI.

But I guess scalable windows is a must in every PC game, because so many games used it back in the day...

Look what a UI mod could do.
http://www.oblivionmodwiki.com/images/3/35/Wz_default.jpg

Well, I'm guessing you don't understand the complaints because you think the issue is scalable windows, which it isn't. It's efficient inventory organization and visualization. The amount which can be viewed and managed on the Ob and F3 UIs is ridiculously stingy. It's an impoverished design, to say the least, and it's a chore to navigate.

It doesnt matter to me, there are mods going to be out to change it. But yes, a good UI would really help. I was going to do a vanilla playthrough of Oblivion and I couldnt stand the stock UI. Its....so big.

I doubt Beth will make a decent UI which is a damn shame, I shouldn't need to download a mod to fix someone that of such importance as the UI.

I only play PC games, and I didn't really find much of a problem with the UI of Oblivion, and the only time I modded a game was when it had bugged out on some vampire quest. Not saying your opinion is wrong, just saying that this PC user thought vanilla Oblivon (and it's respective UI) was good enough to put 200+ hours in it.

It's not required to be like it was back in the day, but it sure would be nice. :biggrin:

For me the biggest failing of Oblivion/Fallout compared to Morrowind was the inventory management. It's so nice in Morrowind.

Use the mouse scroll?
I still think hovering over icons take more time...

But yeah, they could just make the font smaller... that's really not much change though...

I actually agree with you on that point. I also think hovering over items to look at their stats is a bad thing. But so is having to click on them to look at their stats.

For me it isn't about the speed, so much as the ability to at a single glance see most everything in your inventory.

Well, you're still not understanding the issue. Scrolling isn't a problem... except when scrolling up/down reveals only one additional item per line.

Also, UIs that use hovering for item stats should have the hover wait time set to instant.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ps64f2nsnst120AMB7vlGXFTC9Fm_PTZXHJGcB66-xE?feat=directlink

vs

http://ui14.gamespot.com/493/screenshot1_2.jpg


It takes way longer to do anything in the UI in Oblivion than it does in Morrowind, or a similar UI-typed game. Who wants to scroll down, down, down, down, down, to find one item to sell, and then down, down, down, down, down, down to find the next item to sell, and then up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up to find an item which you want to compare something you're considering purchasing to, and then down, down, down, down, down, down, to find another item you want to compare to one that's in a store? It's ludicrous, it's just a broken design for PCs which don't deserve that treatment. PCs have, for forever, had the capability to have practically all necessary data on the screen at once to be surmised in one glance. It's only for reasons of consolitis and developer laziness that Oblivion and Fallout 3 did not have an actual PC user interface.

They should add a button for take all, accept, a button for automatically selecting all or selecting only one, they should add a button allowing you to drop all or allow you to drop all but those checked and a checkbox appears to allow you to quickly clean your inventory. They should make it so that your arrow does not move when you select a group of objects, or when dialogue pops up. They should utilize the whole screen. They should make smaller text. They should make the HUD elements smaller. They should allow you to have windows open for each part of the menu as in Morrowind. Being able to minimize, maximize, and change the shape of these windows should also be possible.

Does it now?

It took me longer in Morrowind to slowly hover over every item just to see what their name are, not to mention their price, their damage and their weight.
In Oblivion I can scroll up up up, meanwhile I can see the stats of all the items.

Or even better, just click on those icons on top and order the list accordingly, so I can find the most expensive, the most damaging item...

Icons doesn't show anything other than a... well an icon. It gets even worse when you have multiple items with similar or even same icons.
Can you find a healing potion just by shear glance or amongst your amulets and rings, which one adds ice resistance?

So yeah, lists are hardly non-pc friendly...

Again, I'm going to point out that way back in 1996, http://s.uvlist.net/l/y2009/07/61538.jpg That game ran at a native resolution of 320x200. Maybe Skyrim's interface is the greatest thing ever if you're a console gamer, but I frankly am not seeing the "improvement in technology" here. 2-3 more items and some gradients. That's innovation, Bethesda.


Morrowind only had one potion icon for each quality level from what I could tell. Of course now that we have a higher working resolution, icons could be much more viable - there could be a spell effect icon in the corner of potions and other enchanted items, which would help at least somewhat with finding what you want more quickly. Simply put, there are so many improvements that could be made with the additional screenspace, but Bethesda seems to think that it's best spent on 48 pt fonts for lists. :facepalm:

There's always room for improvement, you know. If I ever suggest a grid-based inventory for Skyrim there's no need to assume I want a direct cut-and-paste of Morrowind's. Bethesda has the resources and manpower to have it done in a far more sophisticated manner than back in 2002. But it seems like they much prefer these easy workarounds and keeping the game looking the same across all ports.

I can't vote. Why should being a console user make me an inconsiderate, apathetic donkey? Yes, the PC version should have its own UI.

I think Todd already said they were doing something different to PC. (Of course that soemthing doesn't neccesarily mean UI)