Don't know if this has been suggested before but one thing that has bugged me since Morrowind days is the eleven 1 to 0 hotkey limit. Or D-Pad on a console.

I mean just how many items are in these games you think? A lot is the answer!

So with such a plethora of items to suit all different kinds of players (warriors,mages,rogues etc) it makes managing your inventory an important area for a game as big as this.

So my proposal is not just the basic hotkey system thats existed before but "Hot Key Sets". Confused? Some examples below:

1) If I hold down SHIFT (or another key) and 1 (3rd person button and D-Pad on Console) this is my Town Set. Like Clothes that boost my personality/barter etc.

2) If I hold down SHIFT (or another key) and 2 (3rd person button and D-Pad on Console) this is my Battle Set. Like Armour and weapons OR spells if you are a mage.

3) If I hold down SHIFT (or another key) and 3 (3rd person button and D-Pad on Console) this is my Exploration Set. Like Enchanted clothes with water breathing, eye of night, chameleon,enhanced athletics etc.

Also, your usual hotkeys (1 to 0) are also mapped to your hotkey sets too. So your hotkey items correspond with your chosen hotkey costume set. This allows for secondary or tertiary quick weapons on a battle set and different stat enhancing apparel on your town set (Like enchanting boosting items which you only wear for enchanting).

I think it will really work and the good thing about having to use the 3rd person button with your hotkey? You can see what set you are changing into. So no more going into battle dressed in normal clothes without weapons or spells!

I also think it would work brilliantly with mage characters since they have a HUGE arsenal of spells so quick set 1 would be debilitaing set of hotkey spells and quickset 2 would be destroyer/nuker set of spells.

I hope a developer is reading this post and if you are: please take my idea into consideration.

A hotkey alternative I was thinking of was this (in xbox 360 layout):
Left trigger uses left hand weapon/shield/spell
Right trigger uses right hand weapon/shield/spell
Left bumper brings up Left hand hotkey circle, so weapon/shield/spell only
Right bumper brings up Right hand hotkey circle, so weapon/shield/spell only
Then the D-pad alone, without having tapped/held down a bumper, is the general hotkey circle, which would include armor sets, potions, soul gems, repair hammers, and other stuff I cant think of. And I definitely agree 100% totally completely that we should be able to make costumes or armor sets or whatever you want to call them and hotkey them to make changing easier.

I wrote something about this a while ago, don't think anyone really looked at it. My idea was for PC.

Have the same hot-keys as always (1-whatever, Oblivion was 1-8) but allow the player to hold down each one for an extended circle menu of 4-8 items. If you simply tap it the primary (top) slot for that number is equipped. This gives players multiple menus of 4-8 items that they can organize into whatever categories they want. In the inventory screen you simply hold down the number for the menu you want to fill and drag and drop items into it, with the primary tap-equip item in the top slot, as I stated before.

That would effectively eliminate two buttons (R1/L1) though.

that would be great in skyrim mabye a time where you cant move or interact with things to make it less over powered but yeah that would be a great idea but ill be happy aslong as you can equip two sheilds and do a double bash or a quicker bash by timing them correctly :3

Maybe even put item sets in your inventory. So instead of looking for your Sword of Being an Assassin, Boots of Assassination, and Other Armor parts individually, you can just open up your inventory, go to the "Assassination" category (you name them yourself and then you put whatever items you want in it), then just hit equipt for everything.

In lamance terms, think about the armory they had in Fable III. Imagine that, but you choose what armor and what weapons go where. And there are no maniquins, just labels in a menu.


This is very trivial, but I didn't like having to look through caboodles of stuff in my house-crate in Oblivion, just to find my Theif Equiptment.

I didn't have this problem in Morrowind as much, just because I only have one play-style in that game (I only play a Warrior in Morrowind, but I play a Warrior/Theif/Assassin in Oblivion).

From some Magazine (Can't remember which, but it's http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?/topic/286552-skyrim-information/ along with a lot of other stuff though):

"Mapping: Anything from your spell library or item inventory can be "bookmarked" to the favorites menu with the press of a button. How many items appear on that menu is up to each player."

Sounds like a rip off of Two Worlds II rather then an original idea.

One question will be game paused when hotkeys are used?
I prefer no.

I'd prefer that on the PC you could press - and = to switch between two sets of hotkeys. That way, there's 20 hotkeys instead of 10, and those two buttons are in a convienent place on the same line.
I for one would use the first set for spells I use very often and the second one for potions, switching weapons and other less frequently used activities and items.