Why I separated AI Pathfinding

I stopped reading the IGN article when they claimed the UI is perfect.

My vote goes to the Interface and AI pathfinding.

IGN are utter fools to claim that interface is so perfect when there are a number of glaring design flaws (aside from the terrible theming) that make it very hard to use. Let's look at some now!

- Very little information displayed on screen at once. Take the inventory, for instance. Instead of giving us quick info on the fifteen or twenty items that are currently displayed in the list, we only see one. The rest of the space is taken up by a "OHH EMM GEE LOOKIE WHAT WE CAN DO!!!" 3D model of the item in question. I have never seen such a waste of space in any UI ever before. Half the screen for one item? Seriously? Same goes for Spells.

- Scrolling required where none is needed. The category filters and item lists for Inventory and Spells are primarily to blame here, but the Skills menu commits the same crime, too. Factoring in every sub-category available for the inventory and spells lists (weapons, apparel, destruction, restoration, etc.), no scrolling should even be needed, it's not even necessary to downsize the text. So why do we have to? Needlessly hiding information from the user is VERY sloppy design. Another problem here is that for inexplicable reasons, Bethesda decided to have the lists track the selection arrow instead of the other way around. The selection arrow remains fixed in the center of the lists, so that's where the lists' origin point is. And on first opening that particular list, you will notice that half of the space allocated for it is completely empty. It's going to use that space anyways, guys, why not keep it populated? As for the skills, again, you need to scroll in order to check your progression and current rank outside of the few displayed on screen at once. There's plenty of space available up top, why not just put that info there?

- The Radial menu is completely pointless. For the console, in order to open the menus, you must first go through this compass display that serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever. You press the Menu button to bring up the compass, use the thumbstick to select which menu you wish to enter, and then press your action button. Three actions before the menus actually display anything useful. At least Oblivion gave you information the moment you entered the menus, you didn't have to go through Skyrim's massive-waste-of-time compass display. At least on PC you can skip that thing. But why should PC be able to skip it when consoles can't? How about we get rid of the middleman entirely and just map the menu access controls to the D-Pad? Sure, it would mean losing the quick-selects, but since consoles only got two of those, its a sacrifice that can be made. Now, you use the D-Pad to open your inventory and map and such, and your Favorites are accessed by pressing X. This shaves three unneeded actions off actually getting to the actual meat of the UI while losing none of the original functionality aside from two quick-slots that are not needed anyways (that is WAY not enough for them to be useful). Or how about actually giving some useful tool-tipped information in the compass menu? Inventory could display the stats of weapons and armor you currently have equipped, spells would do the same for equipped magic and powers/shouts. Skills would show you the rank and progression progress of your six highest skills and level progress (moving it from the bottom, about the only real info that was actually displayed on the compass menu), and map would tell you what region you are currently in as well as the current objectives for your selected quests and the clock (also present now, one of only two pieces of information available on this menu as-is). You know, give that menu a reason to exist by making it into a quick-reference interface as well as a gateway middleman.

- Navigating your perks is difficult. Scrolling forward through the stars is okay, but there is one critical flaw here I really can't believe Bethesda missed: you need to scroll backwards blind. The only thing worse than scrolling without reason is scrolling when you can't even see where you are trying to go. 3D menus like this simply cannot have a fixed camera angle.

- No at-a-glance details whatsoever in your inventory and spells lists. If you want to know an item's value, or how much damage a weapon does, or whether or not the item is stolen, you must scroll all the way through your item list until you get to that specific item. This is a direct symptom of the half-a-screen for one item problem, so much space is being wasted being in-your-face that there isn't any room for any sort of quick-references. Oblivion's default UI showed you the details of up to five items at a time. Granted, it wasn't much, but if you advertize reducing the amount of information provided by your interface as a feature of your game, you probably have your priorities in the wrong place. Personally, when I'm paging through a menu, I don't care about "viewing objects in high detail," I would prefer to view my menus in high detail, with lots of good information being communicated to you at one time.

As for the AI Pathfinding, they still seem to only really use the pathgrids as a reference, because I've had companions and other people I needed to follow either wandering in some random direction before exactly retracing their steps and continuing onwards, and already two instances of my companions wandering off and getting lost. First time I forgive, because my random quest follower showed up with absolutely impeccable timing after I slayed a dragon, but the second time I needed to use the console because Lydia got lost. Also, I'm getting sick of pathing conflicts causing two NPCs to be rooted in place until the game intervenes and teleports one of them out of the way.

Yeah once gain IGN editors show just what they know, which is next to nothing.

I think they should take out Friendly Fire if companions are this dumb.

winner: Dark Souls

For combat and online only.

Oblivion didn't have marriage, so that can't be compared.

Marriage isn't on the list.........

How anyone can say the UI is perfect needs to reevaluate what makes a good UI...good. I don't even know where to begin with Skyrim's UI. I just LOVE scrolling through [censored] lists and randomly exiting the inventory because I clicked a little too far left of the name, what a perfect UI.

There's no fine line between what is and isn't an exploit currently, there are major issues with several skills even when used "normally" and skills are just not balanced well in general.

I can't read this and find any sort of validity in it. I read an article about a month or so ago from IGN that compared Skyrim to Dark Souls, and it was the most biased piece of garbage journalism i think i have ever come upon. IGN is way to opinionated when it comes to their articles. Just my input.

There is too much of it I would prefer an NPC maybe giving directions of the general whereabouts. Or maybe they tell you about another NPC who may be in some city who may now the general location.

IDK, map markers seem overdone to me.

Combat: Better but still quite bad. I feel like they need to get outside help from other developers on this probably as Beth is notorious for awkward combat at this point.
Animation: Significantly better, still needs some work
Voice acting: Better, still needs some work
The Skills System: A small step forward but still nowhere near good. Poor balance, poor perk tree design, non-combat skills should've been separated, crafting skills need overhaul completely.
The Menu Interface: Hilariously bad, one of the worst I've had to use on PC
Pathfinding - Markers, Waypoints, Fast Travel: Only issue is they clearly designed for fast travel rather than making it a real option. Quests send you across the map and back too much for no-fast travel to be a consideration. Not a new issue though.
Quest Writing: Hit and miss, not worse than Oblivion but I can't say it's noticeably better
NPCs & Companions: Don't use companions, but I've heard the horror stories and mocking
Bugs: On PC, nothing big other than the one bad patch
Exploits: All over the place
AI Pathfinding: As easily abused as any TES game

Someone here obviously doesn't even understand what "exploit" is.
I guess fan-boyism tends to gets in the way when looking at flaws.

As for the article, are we supposed to take seriously someone who starts by saying that interface is superb and other should take notice of it ? Really ?

They're more robotic and less intuitive than the Companions from Baldur's Gate 1.

Wait intuitive did I use the right word for that?