Except the game will often get confused between what you had previous selected with a mouse (or what option your mouse was just vaguely near when the conversation started) and what you are selecting with the keyboard.



If you think you can get through a series of fights against different enemies using only eight spells then you've not tried playing as a pure spell caster. Eight is enough for a warrior, but as there is a occasional bug where switching between hotkeyed items loses the hotkey binding on the item you are switching from you still ahve to go favourites far more often then you should have. Even when it is working perfectly the ability to hotkey weapons and spell sets (bind both hands to a single key) would of been a far more sensible system, but there is very little sensible about the UI it's all graphics over function exactly as I expected after hearing about the new system. Apple might be able to make a good looking and functional UI but Bethesda were never going to manage it, for one thing it would require masses of testing :wink_smile:.

I'm not sure comments like this are hyperbole.

The User Interface is impressively bad. I still hold that it isn't great on consoles (though i don't speak with any experience there) but on PC's its genuinly terrible IMO.

Deal breaker? No i don't think so. Worst? Yes quite possible, certainly in a long time.

When i exit the game after a playing session its often because of my frustration with the UI.

Title of thread says 'Interface is a deal-breaker on PC'...

What the frak does that have to do with consoles?

/facepalm.

Lol statements like the bolded, above, make me laugh.

Level 35, pure mage. No armor. No melee weapons. No Bows. Just magika and a companion.

If you need more than 8 spells and a shout during an encounter, you aren't that good of a mage.

Interface isnt a deal breaker as the rest of the game more than makes up for it. But its still terrible and the worst thing about the game. Im sure there'll fix the bugs which PC users are having atm, but I doubt they will change the interface altogether. Maybe in a expansion..maybe, but its just a waiting game atm for modders to fix it.

I see it the other way around.

If you don't use more than 8 spells/potions/shouts in a large and difficult encounter, you aren't that good of a mage. Either that or you play on Adept level difficulty.

My only real complaint about the interface is that it shows lists with the first item starting in the middle of the screen, thus requiring scrolling to see the whole list, even if the whole list would have fit on the screen.

That's probably because you aren't very good at it.

A calm, some destro, a conjure, an alt spell, a resto. That is all you need.

Sadly this thread is going to be drowned by fan boys blindly praising every aspect of the game even if it is blatantly crap.

Reading through it I can already see it's been derailed into a Mage thread.

Maybe that's all you NEED to be successful. But its not all I WANT.

You likely don't play mage on master difficulty. Or are about to say that you do when you obviously don't. There are many situations where I wish I had more hotkeys. IF you don't understand the simple idea that there a wide variety of things you can do as a mage to improve your chances of success besides calm. destro, conjure, armor spell and resto, then you are bad. Its made obvious all the time that there needs to at least be an alt/ctrl modifier for the number keys.

The UI is mostly fine.

They need to fix the de-synchronization with the mouse-over that occurs when the UI requires a "click" to finish a selection, but moves the mouse to another one instead.

That and some minor resizing to make a little better use of screen real-estate and it would be perfect.

The favorites menu is about as good as you can get when you can wield 1h and magic in either hand.

The UI is the most important aspect when it comes to allowing you to play the game, so to say it's a deal breaker is spot on.

The fact that after several years in development and Beth couldn't (or just couldn't be bothered) to get this right the first time round is extremely annoying.

There is a quick solution, I've stopped playing until there's a patch.

The good news is, there will be a patch and it can be (and hopefully will be) fixed.

The UI is an unintuitive mess. There's not way to sugarcoat it and yes, you can get used to it (one can get used to anything) but that doesn't change the fact its still a mess. Go back to some game you can play well without even thinking. Its like comparing driving a new BMW to some 30 year old hoopty. Yeah, the hoopy gets you down the road but it sure as hell isn't as enjoyable. Oblivion's inventory/spell/stat menu wasn't the greatest but once you had all the skills/items assigned to the hotbar with their visual cues it was much, much better in heated combat. Plus important information was always on the screen (buffs/debuffs with timers). A new game should be a step forward. In this regard Bethesda failed miserably with Skyrim's UI.

I hate the Zombie Fan-b-o-y Elite [ZFE], but the op is just off base here. The hot key binding could use a bit more work, but that is all.

Because I was pointing out it's a del breaker on consoles too.

ui for the pc is totally fine. whizzing through menus to find the exact item/spell i want is a breeze, i only have trouble navigating the skills tree which is a little imprecise but you get used to it in time. Methinks the problem is with the player

also, the favourites system i find great for pausing the combat and assessing the situation to think about the perfect tool/strategy for the job.

Could you stop posting until then too?

Honestly. The UI isn't that bad. I hated Oblivion's. WIth a passion. The less I see in my field of vision, the better.

Its not a deal breaker at all for me. It could be better, but now that I'm used to it, its a pretty smooth overall experience.

Yes, it could and will be better (specifically on PC). So I'm not worried even the slightest bit about it.

agreed, the experience is even worse on console, we can't just click around options (or even use WASD) its all manipulating the sticks.

i know we have gone beyond the horse and now I'm punching glue but I like this game less the more I play it - primarily because of the interface and how it breaks up the gameplay

I have never completely disagreed with someone so much. Have you played a PC game in the last 5 years? The fact I can simply hit "Enter" already makes it "PC optimized" in this day and age. I don't know why people expect things to be optimized for PC. THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN. Go back to playing WoW or any other MMO that is PC only (Rift has the best UI I have ever seen). Please name a multiplatform game released in the last 5 years that lives up to your definition of "PC Optimized" controls.

Oh and btw I am an interactive designer and design UIs all day.

Unintuitive? I figured out the UI in about 10 minutes and I've only thought about it on 2 occasions:

1. Confirming exactly how the mouse-over is bugged.
2. Playing a dual wield weapon character, switching to a magic spell, then switching back to dual wield. Doesn't work well, but there's not much Bethesda can do about it as long as magic is equipped in a hand.

I guess some people have different levels of intuition. Honestly, I thought the Fallout UI was more tedius -- had to spend a decent amount of time looking for information that were located in awkward locations.

IMHO it takes away from the game. It doesnt feel like a PC game or a TES type game at all. It feels like that 'new console action rpg' type game. They clearly slacked big time with the UI & it hurt alot of other parts of the game too.

I think the worst part for me is that I have this chest. This chest has 3 million collected books. There is no way to sort the books. The only way to get to the book at the bottom is to scroll through every book in the game.

Pretty crazy if you ask me.

Haha, a chest with every book in the game is indeed a problem! Beth can definitely tweak the UI to be a bit better, but it's fine overall. I find it funny that people demand things to be so tailored to their own habits from previous games.

If you are happy with it, shouldn't you be playing instead of being on here shouting down people who see and want to talk about issues they are experiencing with the game?



You seem to have the idea as to what a discussion forum is about the wrong way round. You're happy with it, we get it, your input has been noted and is really no longer needed.

Cheers.