Well.... If your crouched, close, and nobody notices you I would assume I'm sneaking but I get where your coming from. To me it seems like w/o the HUD you have to teach yourself some things. One being when or when you are not hidden, you have to gauge your health, magicka, and stamina, and check your map for direction.

I have an excuse: I play my game how I want.
This said, yeah, playing without HUD is pretty cool, but still I like to see the health, magicka, stamina, I don't wanna count the seconds to replenish or stuff like that and i play on the 360 so I can't just disable the crosshair and the navigation bar

It's not the things you say, it's the way you say them.

It's kinda hard to know how much magicka you got though. You don't get any indications without the HUD.

I think I would know when my spell wont cast and theres a sound that plays when you don't have enough magicka.

But in a tight spot with no room for mistakes you want to refill your magicka before it runs out. Also when you use a healing spell, how do you know if you've healed yourself enough? In my mind, no HUD isn't very beneficial when you're a mage.

I usually drain my magicka and then drink potions. I could see how maybe some fill it back up half way, so good point.

With healing you have a point because the spell just keeps casting even after your healed.

I mean really, it would be nice if the game had better options all round. For the HUD, difficulty, etc. I find it kinda crazy that I can untoggle my crosshair but I have to keep my quest markers. I turn them off everytime I get a new one and they pop back up everytime. I like the compass but not the icons for places.

guys this is a great mod i use skyrim compass tuner http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=912 if you still want your compass you can customise it with this and even customise your map!

i always turn the normal crosshair off in every game especially fps's as it gives that extra level of challenge. also with this mod you can turn off enemy health bars and the stealth crosshair

They should put this in a patch or DLC. I don't care which one. On PS3 you can only adjust the slider for the HUD. So that basically gives you two options: 1) HUD off. 2) HUD on.
That's not good enough. I want to decide if I want the HUD, health, magicka, crosshair, compass, icons on compass (other than N,S, E, W and all that) on or off, individually .

We should riot....

But no seriously I 100% agrre with you. If they want a hand in the console market they should put out that little extra effort that us LOWLY console players can't just mod in.

Seems as they forgot that consoles don't have mods. I can't believe that they made it that way. This is the best game I've ever played but what were they thinking?

Exactly. I put the HUD on its very lowest setting so I can barely see health, magic, and stamina. This is important with dead-is-dead style gameplay...to know where your stats are at. The compass in my game is virtually invisible. I never notice it.

I'm not sure why the health and stamina bars are a big deal anyway. They only appear when used and disappear when full. To me they are helpful and not intrusive in the least.

I have been playing in 1st person for over 400 hours now, this is the first time I have ever played in 3rd person ( that includes morrowind-skyrim) and you just get a bigger picture of your surroundings in 3rd person is all I meant. But try playing 3rd person with no HUD, it's suicide!!! Now I'm not saying there is anything wrong with 1st,3rd, or playing without a HUD it's just how you want to play, the OP could have made a better presentation of his idea/thought and took into account that "different strokes for different folks" and that no HUD only works when playing in 1st person. There are all kinds of really great ideas for making you game experience that much better but when sharing your idea/thought one must keep in mind that what works for you might not work for me.
TO ME, this is a list of what makes the game more immersive: turn off the music, play on master, no fast travel, only carry what I need and if I run out then I'm out until I get to a town, no HUD ( in first person), and I try to not get rich fast(even though it is really hard not to), most time I will choose clothing or light armor and I prefer to play with out magic.
The funny thing is that most of these ideas have come from you folks and I just implement them into my "rules" or I alter my "rules" to fit a good idea in, the point is, don't make it out that your play style is better then mine, keep an open mind and adjust your ideas or share your idea(s) and not cram em down others throats and the end result will be someone like me who likes to try new play styles and is willing to if asked the right way.

Well TBH I know that a PC is better and that these games are intended for PC but I don't think they were thinking about it. Cross our fingers for some more options in a DLC soon.

I play with the compass disabled such that it only shows NSEW. That is a major immersion boost. I think that I would miss the health bar. It is true that there are visual cues when you get very low, but it's that in-between state where there is no feedback. How does one know when to stop healing? What I would like is a major reduction in the size of the health bar, and placing it out of the way.

Problem with hudless is trying to pick up an item from a cluttered table or something.

I took your advice, created a new character, and I'm trying to play without the HUD right now. I'm trying to make it as realistic as possible, so I'm also playing without music. I'm around 2 hours in, obviously not a lot, but I kinda like the way it plays out for now. It takes some getting used to, but it seems to work quite well. Since I play on Apprentice (at least for now, since I'm still getting used to playing without the health-bar) I have not run into much trouble, the only thing is that Archery and pickig up items is somewhat difficult. I'm getting used to it now, and I like it. HUD-less might be my new way to play.

You could just get iHUD...
...(I've never used it though - I use Compass Tuner instead, which is great).

I am sorry, but with respect, this is just plain wrong. The only people who can customize the HUD are those playing on a PC. I don't mean to pick on you here but your post encapsulated the issue so well -- too many PC players forget that the majority of people in the world who play Skyrim are playing on a console. You cannot customize the HUD on a console. All you can do is turn it off.

This thread got sidetracked by the OP's "no excuse" comment and his statement that you don't need the health/magicka/stamina bars. That was not meant as an insult or challenge to PC players. It was meant as an eye opener for console players who must live with no health/magicka/stamina bars if they want an "immersive" HUD.

Of course if you are on a PC use your immersive HUD mod and keep your health bars. But console players cannot do that and if they want to enjoy a more immersive HUD, one without red dots broadcasting the enemies location and without compass icons telling them what type of cave/ruin/fort is over the next horizon, the ONLY choice is to go without health/magicka/stamina bars.

The OP is telling people that game can be played without the health/magicka/stamina bars and for console players wanting a more "immersive" HUD that is the only choice available.

A lot of people are complaining that the OP is being elitist. They just did not understand what he was saying.

There is a compass that has red dots broadcasting enemies locations.

There is a compass that has icons on it for locations you have not found yet.

There is a sneak crosshair that lets you know you enemies state of mind from a distance and through walls by telling you whether your enemies know where you are or not.

There are words on the screen telling you whether that NPC standing next to you is freind or for and if a foe, how good a swordsman the NPC is.

There is a health bar for enemies letting you know exactly how much health they have left.

There is a crosshair that lets you know where to point your bow.

Immersion is aided by not having information at your disposal that your character would not have. The magical GPS compass with enemy radar detecter, the sneak crosshair that magically lets you know whether enemies have spotted you, the magical crosshair that floats in the air letting you know where to point your bow -- these are all things that interfere with immersion because they give you the player information that your character does not have.

Turn them off and you can get better immersion. But on a console, you have to sacrifice your health/stamina/magicka bars because the only thing you can turn off is the crosshair. Your only other choice is to turn off the entire HUD.

You have to pay attention to what the NPC's are doing. Are they milling about, are they actively searching for you, or are they coming straight at you. You also have to listen to what they are saying. If they say "I think I heard something," you know they are alerted but have not discovered you yet. If they say "I guess it was just a mudcrab" you know you are hidden.

This is why playing no HUD is more immersive. You have to pay attention to clues from the game world, instead of just looking at an artificial icon in the middle of your screen.

If you are on a PC, just use an immersive HUD mod, but you cannot do that on a console so no HUD is your only choice if you want a more immersive experience.

THIS. The title of this thread is absolutely vile--I have no excuse not to? So I have to do it because you think it's more fun?

Shut up, OP. I'll play how I want.

Definately a challenge. I have successfully stolen a few items with no HUD by just looking around and making sure no one was watching me. It is more difficult without a sneak crosshari, but its not impossible. It is more immersive to play no HUD thief, because if you think about it, a thief would never really know for sure if someone was watching him or not. Immersion comes from putting yourself into the shoes of your character.