I totally back you up on everything you said except the DW part. They never said we can't block while dual wielding. So we have to wait and see. Sounds like a sound disadvantage to DWing but it hasn't been confirmed or even hinted at yet. Though it doesn't make since how you would block either now that I think about it hehe, unless power attacks are out hmy:

I did not mention those because I really don't have any real information to work off of. They said it will be a simple, yet great, menu system that is fully customizable.

I imagine it like this:
Each direction contains 4 options (for a total of 16 options if we use 4 directions, since the corners are terrible and hard to press). These 4 options correspond to the face buttons of the 360 controller.

So say I like to use magic. I might put all my most useful destruction spells on the up direction. I press up, then a circle with 4 options, corresponding to A, B, X, and Y show up. I press B and my Fireball is selected. I might press Y and select my lightning bolt spell. Pressing a direction on the direction pad, regardless of whether you already pressed a different direction, will immediately open that direction, allowing the user to not have to worry about opening the wrong menus (EX: I press up, but really meant to press left. I just press left, no pressing back or exiting involved).




This heavily implies that you can not block unless you are using a two handed weapon or a shield. Unless it means you can only block AND bash with Two handers or shields, although I don't think so.

thank you for sharing. um where did they say dual weilding could not block? i completely miss that. well readin that makes it to vague to say for sure
also how did i not think it out? everthin u said that was wrong with had nothin to do with my suggesiton. i kno block and bash will be one button, which frees one up say LB which as stated earlier could be for the shout

My guess is that you have to first sheathe your weapon then activate them to unsheathe.
You would usually sheathe both at once anyway.
Also has the difference between tap and hold, fallout 3 combined reload and sheathe in one key.

I'm interested in seeing how they work out the sheathing when you have two weapons equipped. I do. NOT want to sheathe both weapons EVERY time.

I know, I read it, but it doesn't imply anything. I can infer from it that it means there is no blocking, but that's inference without any conclusive evidence. For all we know, it was just ignored/forgotten about when mentioned. Just like when they mentioned all the combinations you can have of weapons and spells in the combat update, they didn't mention that you can combine spells and weapons into into your dual wielding but I'm not supposed to take that as if you can't. Chances are, you can't block, I am almost certain of it, but you can't just run around with it saying it's fact when it's not really fact.

Its not conclusive, but its better than no evidence, and currently we have NO EVIDENCE that you can block with all weapons, especially with implications like that. I'd rather err on the side of safety and believe the you can only block with a shield or two handed weapon.

Truthfully, it makes sense.

you could always use a gamepad on the pc and set the controls yourself.

why would it be lame to sheathe both weapons every time... I dont see the point of having only one weapon out. the reason to sheathe a weapon is soo that 1- you can run faster and b- people aren't intimidated to talk to you.

I think wasting one button just so you could sheathe one weapon at a time is a total waste.

It seems people are forgetting this part of the menu section of GI:

"Tap the menu button, and a four point, compass-style overlay will appear before your eyes. Skills, Inventory, Magic and Map are the four subsections presented. Push up to Skills [...]"

So, they are not mapped to the D-pad. But rather a single button like in Oblivion but instead of pressing the triggers to shift between them you move the left stick (most likely) to choose which you want to go to.

Here is what I think the layout shall be:

Start = Menu (save, load, options, maybe the Journal is here, etc.)
Back = Wait
Left Stick = Movement
Left Stick toggle = Stealth
Right Stick = Move camera, aim, etc.
Right Stick toggle = Sprint
A = Select
B = Menu Button
X = Sheath weapon(s)/place shield on back (I'd say if you want to have only one weapon when duel wielding just press the appropriate trigger.They mention taking your shield off your back in the Skyrim issue of GI.)
Y = Jump
Left Trigger = Left Hand function. Weapon, spells, etc.
Right Trigger = Right Hand function. Weapon, spells etc.
Left Bumper = Block - Hold for bash. - If Duel wielding you block with both weapons.
Right Bumper = Dragon Shout (confirmed to be it's own button)

Now the D-pad leaves us four more possible commands.

UP = Quick select or Favorites menu. GI mentions this but doesn't say if it's a separate button or part of the inventory screen. But it does say it replaces hot keyes and can be quickly accessed so I don't expect to have to go through all the menu junk to get to it.
DOWN = 1st person - 3rd person. Hold for vanity mode
LEFT = "Dialogue mode" We don't yet know how the player will select his dialogue options. We know NPC's go about doing whatever while talking and you are free to continue browsing their shop for instance. So, pressing LEFT would make it so DOWN and UP can now be used to scroll through dialogue choices, and A would select them. That leaves you free to still walk around using the Left and Right Sticks.
RIGHT = "Grab mode" this is pure hope on my part, but this would change the way you interact with objects. So, instead of picking something up and it going in your inventory when pressing A you would grab it. Then you could use the triggers to rotate it, bring it closer or further away. Almost how the construction set works. Or forge if you've played Halo 3 or Reach. That way we could arrange stuff in our houses much easier.

Edit* As Riddike116 points out I left out Sprint because I forget to re-add it once figuring it all out :facepalm: now that has been fixed.

ah thank you for findin that quote thats why i wasnt sure about the d-pad or not. and ur set up looks good, but ur missing the sprint button

Alas! I had it as the Left Bumper and forgot block originally. I'll edit my original post with a possible alternative.

I think sprinting should be clicking the left stick because thats the one thats controlling your movement and that's how it normally is in games. The right stick controls looking around, so it'd feel weird clicking it to sprint. Also, I think there needs to be a button for magic because you can still use magic if you're using a two handed weapon or a shield and a weapon or dual wielded weapons. Hotkeys are an important part of not breaking the immersion of combat by going through menus to change something, so they will definitely be in. I like Orzorn's idea of the hotkey system. With all these new control additions I think it's safe to say that 3rd person mode will be a toggle option from the start button menu. Here's a list of the controls that I think will need dedicated buttons/thumbsticks/triggers:

Movement
Look/aim
Crouch/sneak
Sprint
Right hand attack/block/magic
Left hand attack/block/magic
Block
General magic
Dragon shout
Sheath weapons
Activate/select/action
Jump
Character menu
Start menu
Wait
Hotkeys (D-pad)

I know I listed more functions than there are input devices on the controller, but some of these could be combined (start menu and character/journal menu) or activated via holding down a button or a combination of buttons.

Not really interested in control set up, it will be what it will be. Much more interested in the HUD. I know it makes sense, but for some reason a reddening of the screen when low on health is enough to put me off a game altogether, what is the point of all the pretty pictures and cool monster animations if half the screen goes red every five minutes, and what if you are low on magicka, are you supposed to guess. One thing I hope they do however, is add more laboured character breathing as stamina falls, that imho is a better way to add the immersion factor.

yeah thats why im wonderin what theyll do with the hudless hud (i hate when the screen turns all red in rpgs). for magic, weve seen a screen shot of a guy with fire in his hand, maybe when u run low on magic the fire will slowly get smaller in ur hand. and yeah hopefully stamina will be as u said

I really hope my screen doesn't go red like in every freaking game these days. That's a whole lot more "immersion breaking" or "in the way'' then a health bar in my opinion. I mean c'mon, when i'm about to die I think it's important to be able to see what's killing me! :flame: /rant.

yeah i kno right? lol i remember when they showed off the red-screen effect for mass effect 2 and it jus put me off in that game (it was still fun but i hated that).

Yeah, I just wasn't a fan of the whole cover shooter-afication of Mass Effect 2. But whatever, it's BioWare. They love fixing what isn't broken. *Looks warily at a Dragon Age II gameplay demo* :unsure:

I can't wait for the next hubdate so we will know how all this will work!

yeah im not thrilled with the way their goin with DA2 (also hate that pre-orderin is givin u half the game)

and is the next hubdate about the hud?

It's about the User Interface. And since the HUD is a interface the user interacts with I hope so. I know they will be covering the new menu's an all that jazz.

The new hotkey system could work like Mass Effect or Dragon Age - you hold down a button (preferably one of the bumpers) and a radial menu pops up, allowing far more than the 8 choices on the directional pad.

That would be interestin i never thought of that. and yeah that could give us alot of choices, but if i remember right hotkeys now has ur set of weapons meanin even mages wont need to have that many hotkeys cause u can have a spell per hand and havin 4 hotkeys could let u wield 8 spells. i lik ur idea tho

on a side note, i actually hope they use an idea from 2 worlds 2 and have it where hotkeys also equips armor with the weapons

@Outlander, ah sounds good. hopefully theyll clear up the hud rumors/questions then

You have a really nice setup here but I think your dpad options are way off. The "dialogue mode" sounds weird and while npcs can still move around during dialogue we CAN'T. The pc is still locled in place (frozen).

I find the white controllers work better than the black ones for this.

in reference to the ability to sheathe individual weapons while duel wielding, couldn't they just make it so tapping x would sheathe one, while holding it would sheathe both? It would still leave the problem of which one would sheathe first (right hand or left hand).

Idea 2 (i think is better). To sheathe a weapon you press x, then either left or right trigger. This way you control what you sheathe. If we truly can put shields on our back, this would be one way this could work. I don't know if Beth would think it would be complicated, but it would solve the problems.