Over the past 2 years I've been playing TES III & IV (Morrowind and Oblivion).
I've started and stopped going for a few months at a time without playing and jumping back and forth between
Xbox and PC for Morrowind and Xbox 360 and PC for Oblivion.
So it gets rather confusing.
What I am having trouble with is the info under equipment in OBLIVION.
What do the symbols stand for?
This is what I think:
COIN: Price of item.
FEATHER: Weight of item.
DAGGER: ??? I would guess Damage but the numbers don't seem to follow. I have a Glass Arrow that shows 19 and an Elven Long Sword that shows 23. So what is this?
HEART : Through using the repair hammer I think I figured out this means Health of the WEAPON? (Really?)

My other question is Charges verse Uses. One item I have, a Shadowhunt Bow shows 9000 Charges and 134 uses. What does this mean and what is the difference?

I will appreciate any info.
I've purchased 2 copies of each game for the different formats (Xbox, PC, 360) and I've invested a lot of time playing the games. I really like them a lot.
But I would love to see some improvements when Skyrime comes out.
The spells all seem jumbled together. No way to sort for near/far, offense/defense, effect on self or other.
And trying to drop something in TES IV, OMG. It sticks to my hand like a booger. I have almost destroyed my (TES) house trying to shake something off my hand.
And forget about straightening up. Sure I can set the cup back upright, as I knock down a wall, china cabnique and door.
The games are better then I could ever make but I'd really like to see some improvements in the newest game.
It would also be nice to beable to remove spells from your spell book. What use is FIREBALL,basic when yu can now throw FIREBALL, TACTICAL NUKE?
Any info you can help me with would be greatly appreciated.

You're correct about all of the weapon icons. The damage is determined by how high your skill is in the skills that weapon or armor uses, so it's possible to have heavy armor that offers horrible protection and light armor that offers great protection, assuming your heavy armor skill is low and your light armor skill is high.

The Use on an enchanted weapon is how many times you can use the enchantment (fire damage on strike, for example) until it goes away. Using a sword with fire damage on strike with 0 uses means it won't do any fire damage at all.

Let's keep Shadowhunt as an example. Reference: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Shadowhunt
Charge/cost = use
Numbers for the top leveled Shadowhunt are: 9000/70 = 128
Here, 9000 is the charge, or total power of the bow.
70 is the power required to execute one strike or shot or use.
Therefore 9000 divided by 70 = 128, where 128 is the number of shots or uses from the fully charged bow.

When you use a grand soul to enchant a weapon yourself at the enchanting altar, the total power of the grand soul or 'charge' is 1600. The maximum power the altar will allow you per strike/shot/use is 85. Therefore if you opt to make a weapon that has the maximum power per use (85), it would have 19 uses. The numbers would look like this: 1600/85 = 18.823 (ok, 19 uses). If when crafting that weapon, you adjusted the power per use to 50, the numbers would look like this: 1600/50 = 32.

Actually, I'm pretty sure the spell section of the menu has subdivisions for touch-based spells, ranged spells, and on self spells.

You're right about the spell jumbling. On 360 I can have eight hot-keyed items or spells. I constantly change the hot-key set up depending on my situation.
For those of us who do not regenerate magicka immediately, or at all, being able to throw ANYTHING when something is in your face, even something weaker than we already have, is better than standing there and taking the beating.

If, under spells, the Eye is EVERYSPELL then maybe the do sort it.
The Arrows are target on the spells you buy, the hand touch and the head self.
But, while I cannot necessarily suggest a better system, I can tell you this doesn't work. It takes me forever to find a spell.
Then I'll have about 10 strengths of each spell, like

Life detection of 1 second
Budget Life Detection
Basic Life Detection
OK Liffe Detection
So-So life detection
Decent Life Detec
Good Life Detec
Really Good
Super
Legendary
then the one I've made

Max Life Detect.

The problem is, after a certain point I only need or want the best.
And while I can understand "power balance" what is up with a time limit of 60 seconds on spells, unless you cheat and give yourself a very high Magicka.

Since I've spent money on 4 of the games, I'll maintain it is an excellent game. But I think the spell and inventory system need to be worked on a good deal.
And on Oblivion, I finally just got sick of seeing a new gate ( incase you didn't know it, I AM the Hero of Kavatch) and just used to cheat to close the thing.

But it really is a very immersive(?) world and one could just walk and look around for days.
Well thanks for the responses to my questions.
I hope not to upset any hard core TES fans. I think it is a great game but it could use some fixes.

Wait, one more question: When you break into someones house, why are somethings OK to steal and some are not? Is it dependent on the value?
If you check you'll see you get the RED hand on some items and not on others. kind of an inconsistancy, but I"m not trying to nit pick. I just noticed it after playing the game for ever.
Thanks

I wish I could delete old, useless, weak spells as well. After all this time, I've gotten used to it. I don't know 'bout other platforms, but on 360, if you click the Header, meaning which menu you are in: Spells, Potions, Apparel, etc., it flips the menu order from A to Z to Z to A. It will stay like this, until you click it back. Might help you find that thang quicker.
Also, as a veteran player, I tend to wait to purchase spells at all, until I have a minimum of Apprentice level in the respective school of magic. Cuts down on menu clutter. Also, any key that I know I will never use again gets put in a barrel in my Cheydinhal home. Again, think less items to scroll over.
It's very immersive for me as well. I play a bunch of games... it crosses genres to beat fpses {sp.} that I also play.

COIN: Price of item.
FEATHER: Weight of item.
DAGGER: It is damage dealt by the weapon. Diferent weapons deal diferent damages based on your skill with them and the weapon itself. Thats why they are diferent.
HEART : Health of the weapon is a workable way of putting it, but more accurately "Condition" is a better way. Yes.



It means that it has 9000 charges and that means you can use it 134 for times. In other words USES COST CHARGES. SOUL GEMS/SOULS CHARGE AT DIFERENT VALUES. I can go deeper into this as you like.


You can sort them by Cast type: ALL, TOUCH, TARGET, SELF.


pick up by holding the grab button, Release by letting go of the grab button.


Yes this is cumbersome, try a Mysticism-Telekineses spell because it will allow you to rotate and place objects a little easier.


You can do this on the Command Console on the PC version, but you cant do it on a console (XBOX/PS3)