I read in one of the recent previews that, although there will be a sort of "hotkey" system for spells in place, the game will pause while you select through them. I am not pleased.

One of my biggest complaints with Morrowind is that I had to pause the game to dig through my magic to find the spell I wanted to use- often in the heat of battle. This completely killed immersion for me. A "real" mage in the middle of a battle has to think quickly on his/her feet. There is no "pause" button in warfare, and using magic should not change that. Now, Fable had a very useful system in which spells could be mapped to a hot key interface that allowed for very quick use of spells. You simply memorized the direction on the d-pad that each of your most used spells was mapped to, and when you wanted to change, merely pushed the direction and a button simultaneously.

Now, obviously Fable was quite a flawed game for those who like RPGs, since it really did not have an open world. But combat-wise, I think it did well with some aspects of magic. Particularly the ability to quickly choose spells without having an immersion-killing pause in the middle of battle. Anyone else feel that something like that should be implemented in Skyrim?

Nuf said. I agree

So why should our no vote have to be associated with some other game that svcks.

I dont think it pauses while switching from the d-pad hotkeys.

But i think it does pause when your in the Favourite spell page.

Toggable pause in the options to please everybody

A REAL mage would KNOW what spell he was going to use next. And so he would use it. Not take 5 minutes searching for it in his scroll. That's why it pauses because a mage would be able to instantly use a different spell, not stand still in the heat of battle while he decides.

I agree on that.
Also, if I have 50 spells in my book and 10 poisons for my blade then I do not want to select those realtime in the middle of a battle.
That would be clumsy, annoying and too action gamey.
I liked the Oblivion system where you could hotkey several favorite actions. To do that in realtime is enough.
If I want to switch to another spell I should not get attacked while finding it in my spellbook.

Um the game puases any time you access your favorites list or anything else like that not just when your swapping spells but swaping from spell to weapon or weapon to weapon or weapon to shield or sandwich to beer.

I'm imagining a pause like in Mass Effect, which I feel works very well. I don't mind a pause. It reminds me that it's and RPG and not just another action game too, though I know the pause doesn't make it any more of an RPG. It just feels that way for me, and it reminds me of using the "wait" option for the ATB menu battle system.

If we get hotkeys again like in Morrowind and Oblivion, then I'm happy.

I thought the dpad on consoles has been repurposed as the menu hotkey buttons (up for skills, down for map, right for inventory, left for magic). I read somewhere that the consoles will not have dpad equipment hotkeys, but they will have favorites menus for each hand. Doesn't really affect me because the PC version will likely still get a hotkey system as well as favorites menus.

But really, in an RPG system you should be able to stop and select the equipment you want. It's not like there's a system where the game can read our brainwaves and switch to whatever one of the dozens of spells or weapons we want, and I thought the console users would appreciate having more than 8 quick slots :shrug:

Well does consoles don't have hotkeys in Oblivion? I think they will be in Skyrim also.
Better if we can adjunct favorites in inventory MenuMode and use and change favorites in realtime gamemode via hotkeys, MenuMode for dialogues already removed I believe it also removed for lockpiking and pickpocketing as well, less immersion killers.

Yeah there were hotkeys for consoles in Oblivion, but that was before dual wielding and before the menu system overhaul. I'm pretty sure it was mentioned somewhere that the dpad will now be quick buttons for the 4 menu screens, and instead of hotkeys there will be a dual favorite menu system, where you can bring up a quick menu with favorites for either hand, quickly equip what you want, and keep playing. I don't know if it will be the bumpers or L3/R3 or what, but at least it doesn't sound like something that would take as much time as going into the inventory.

But the big thing now is that you can equip two spells at once. And there's a possibility that you can combine the spells. How many spells do you need in one battle beyond your two best? Besides, I believe one of the previews from the Utah demo said the favorites system looks great and seems very smooth for changing equipment.

You're missing the point. I am referring only to ONE aspect of the game, and not only that, I said SOMETHING LIKE what they had. In the game, you could map a few spells to the D-pad, and then instantly switch to a different spell during combat. That's all I'm referring to.

The alternative is to either ( a ) Stop battle every 3 seconds while you change to new spells, or ( b ) have magic battles that are nothing like almost all of Fantasy Lore. If you've ever read a fantasy novel, magic battles involve quick thinking and shifting through a few spells.

In addition, you don't PAUSE THE GAME if you choose to play the game as a Knight or Warrior as you switch between different types of attacks (whether a slash, thrust, or a block, etc), so why should you have to with magic?


It has nothing to do with Fable other than that is the only game I can think of that had hotkeys for spells. I don't understand why you would assume anything more than that based on the words I wrote and the context of them.







It takes less than one second to switch spells in the way that Fable did it, and what I am referring to. Just like a "real" mage would merely have to say a chant to cast a second or third spell in the heat of battle. How many times have you read a fantasy novel where a mage uses ONE AND ONLY ONE SPELL in a serious battle? It's rare. Usually there are spells and counter spells and then more counter spells.

For example, one mage might cast a fire spell at another mage, who might retaliate with some sort of ice wall circle of protection, and then may counter with his OWN offensive spell, which then would possibly countered by a defensive spell from the other mage. Et cetera.

Again, the system Fable had allowed you to pick a few specific spells that you like. Not your entire spell book. Say you want a lightning spell and a circle of protection spell for quick access. It makes sense to have an offensive and defensive spell ready at all times, and again, it took less than a second in Fable, and NO you WEREN'T shifting through endless lists of spells. You MEMORIZE hotkey locations and merely push the button and bam! One of your FEW hotkeyed spells are ready to cast.


EDIT- in fact the entire point of hotkeyed spells is so you DON'T have to shift through your entire spell book in real time OR pause the game.

As for what Skyrim has, I'd like it IF the game didn't pause. What I read is that it WILL pause.




EDIT 2- I see that some in this thread merely want the pause because it reminds them of past RPGs they've played (like Dragon Warrior or Final Fantasy, for example) where moves in battles are pre-planed and act out according to turns. TES games are action RPGs, however, and the aim appears to me to be to duplicate what we read in Fantasy Lore, not what we played on NES. There are no turns in fantasy novels or fantasy lore in general. I would not expect it in an action RPG like TES games.

Nah, it's not like you have to equip another object to cast a different spell. But the reference to fable in the "no" option was totally unnecessary. This is purposely producing biased results because not a lot of TES fans are into fable.

Well, actually it wasn't "purposely." I have just never seen another game that hot keyed spells before.

But as long as you don't have to pause the game to change spells I'm cool.

Since when does the game pause for hotkeyed spells? Isn't the entire point of a hotkey to eliminate that and have immediate access? Opening menus should still pause the game, but hotkeys should still not. Same as Oblivion.

I actually never realized Morrowind had hotkeys. How the hell do you use them?

Totally agree. But I read in one of the articles on the main page that there was a "slight pause" while you flipped through the favorites or whatever.


Also, I second your last line: what is this about hotkeys in Morrowind?

I don't think the "favorites" menu is synonymous with hotkeys, is it? I don't see why they'd announce it if it was, as it was in Oblivion. I was thinking that the favorites menu would just be a place to put any number of spells or items so you don't have to search through hundreds of selections. Kind of like hotkeys except for less-pressing spells/items; ones that you'd want to use but didn't need to have immediate access to. I certainly hope the favorites menu isn't replacing hotkeys.

I actually rarely used the D-pad for hotlinked spells. whenever I tried getting a spell that was hotlinked diagonally, I found it much to difficult when I was battle to be precise. I always used to the spell list to chose spells from. much more time, much less pressure.

Me too. I really want true hot keys.

But if there WERE hot keys, you don't have to use them. You could still pause the game and select your spell. It'd make more people happy if they included hot keys.

On the PC you can set your hotkeys by pressing F1. Not sure about the XBox.

I'm not saying hot keys are a bad thing. I would probably use them if them if the d-pad was more sensitive diagonally(retrospectively this is the only game I have problem with the d-pad).