I got my latest edition of Gameinformer a week or two ago, and today I noticed something.

On page 66, the page dedicated to Skyrim screenshots, in the top right-hand corner of the page there is a picture of the hero fighting two Draugrs. (Spelling?)
If you look to the Draugr on the right, the one who is recoiling with the Two-handed axe, he has a Bow on his back.

I don't think that equipment will show unless it is hot-keyed on the PC, but it is nice to see this.

I don't really want this ... because I might have a ridiculous item I don't want to have on my back hot keyed.

I'm totally in favor of it.
It was highly irritating that bows and daggers would just appear out of thin air when you would switch to them.

that doesn't really mean much other than some draugrs will have bows on their back as a part of their appearence? you could be right, but there is no point to apply player equipment mechanics to npc enemies so its not likly that what you saw was a game mechanic.

its possible, but i doubt it.

And why not?
You are being too skeptical.

Players can sweep floors, clean tables, chop wood, etc.
I do not believe that they would just make it so the NPCs weapons would show, but not the PCs.

Wow, it'll be annoying to not have any hotkeyed weapons. That'd be something to mod out.

there is no benefit to game play by doing that. its just pointless realism. I don't care if its in, provided it is quick and easy to apply and doesn't prevent actual content from being added to the game, and I don't care if its not in.

If only 2 or 3 most used items will appear
Or if we can assign our own hotkeys, then 1st 3 items could appear.
Overall idea is not bad, but need to be polished

that would be epic

Consoles don't have hotkeys but an favourites menu of infinite length. Pc's have 10 hotkeys. I don't see how this would work. :shrug:

consoles do have hotkeys its the D-pad

Not anymore. Pressing up brings up the favourites menu. What the other directions do is up in the air still.

/\ correct /\

Draugrs will probably be limited to carrying two weapons max. The player will have a 10 weapon limit for hotkeys on pc.

In reality do you think a warrior would care more if an item looks silly,or if the item has a practical use and would be a wise mov e to able to use quickly,

Like when walking in woods,I don't care how my backpack or water bottle etc looks,as if things go bad,I know I have water and equpment to hand...

Hopefully this will carry over to the fallout games at some point. It looks much more stupid when an npc has a shotgun and a pistol but has to pull his pistol out of his ass. Holsters and slings for everyone!!!!!!!

The problem with having hotkeyed items displayed on the player (Are hotkeys even in the game? Because it seemed that we'd basically assumed that the favorites menu had replaced hotkeys.) is that it could easily look awkward unless you limit what kind of items you can put in each hotkey slot, sort of like how weapon slots were in the Witcher except in that game, you couldn't carry weapons in your pack at all, if your weapon slots were full, you couldn't carry any more weapons, but that's not the reason I brought it up for. Basically, there were a number of slots on your character, and there were limitations as to what you could carry in each one, for example, the slots on your back could be used to carry two swords, you could also carry another sword on one side of your waist, or some other kind of two handed weapon like an axe, and then there was a slot that could carry a dagger or some other smaller hand-held weapon, this ensures that each item looks appropriate in the slot up put it in. If you just let the player hotkey any items they want anywhere, it can potentially look very strange, as having some weapons in particular slots might just look really awkward, it could get even stranger with modded weapons as if say, someone mods in a particularly large two handed sword and you hotkey it to a slot on your waist, it might end up clipping into the ground while you walk, besides, what happens if you hotkey non-weapon items like spells or potions? Do you just have a potion glued to your back? Simply put, without coming up with a more restrictive system for hotkeys, I just don't see how displaying hotkeyed weapons can work.

Now, as far as whether it's in the game or not, seeing a draughr, or any other monster, appearing to have a bow on its back while also carrying a weapon in hand does not prove anything, because they are monsters, and like in past games, I'm assuming that draugrs and other monsters that can carry weapons don't use the same system for equipment and models that characters do. It may be that this is a feature only they get, or the bow is actually part of the model and not an equipped item at all. In any case, the picture doesn't prove anything, only if you see an in-game screenshot of the player character that clearly has multiple weapons sheathed on him at one time (And you have to be 100% certain it can't be accounted for by dual wielding, since I'd assume that when dual wielding the weapons equipped in both hands will be shown when sheathed.) you really have no way to be sure it's in, at least not for the player.

If the realism is pointless, then they should just remove the random encounters, boats, radient story, speach etc and just have a side-scroller where the player jumps on mushroom shaped dragons
Personally, i think that its a good idea and a likely possibility.

Like what? I'm pretty sure that if this is the case, it's not going to work with bread.. Or potions... Well maybe potions will show at your hip?

I hope hotkeyed items show up, that'd be sweet.

You can probably wield a bow and melee weapon at the same time now. About time since every other RPG, ever did it already.

Lol
I'm playing F.O as we speak,and an seeing it....good call.

Okay so as the three directions on the d-pad are currently unused they could be made to represent loadouts. Giving you three different loadouts, say one-handed weapons, two-handed weapons/bows and magic. I sort of could see it working like this. This on the other hand makes it a bit awkward to map three buttons next to each other on a keyboard in a way that makes sense. :shrug:

I doubt we will have hotkeys because we have to equip spells and weapons specifically to the left and right hands. I suppose there's no reason to not have hotkeyed "sets" of equipment to toggle back and forth. Btw I would love to see potions and such on my belt or something.

In Fallout 3 and NV, your equipped weapon is displayed on your character (either "holstered" or in-hand) . . . weapons do NOT have to be assigned a hotkey slot to be displayed.