You're overthinking it.
Just read the topic thread again and think logically for a second...

"I brought up the menu again and began to equip my new loot. I noticed this system had been improved as well. The game clearly tells you which items are direct upgrades and even what the best items you are carrying are. No more looking at tooltips trying to figure out which loot is truly better, it’s all been streamlined for you."

We're not allowed to think anymore; the game does it for us, unless it's in a subtle, non-intrusive way, which I've been telling along is the best way to go. The best game design is to appeal to both sides of the coin, not shut one side out.

I'll repeat it to you, because I don't get it...

But it can only tell me what is best according to it's criteria. I regularly choose lower damage weapons because they're lower weight, I want to work on a different weapon skill, I want a weapon with a different enchant, I'm fighting a character with specific vulnerabilities, or for some other reason. Telling me which weapon has the highest DPS isn't making my decision for me. It's only providing information for me to take into account. Unless you classify determining which weapon has the highest numbers on it as "thinking," I don't understand your claim. Doing the grunt sorting for me just makes it easier for me to make the real decisions.

"Convenience features = dumbing down", as usual. But i'm not seeing how complexity for complexity's sake is especially smart either :shrug:

Logic fail :bonk: If it serves someone it isn't useless.
Since when did getting better gear and making it easier to equip become powergaming. The whole series is based on getting more powerful and getting better gear, this just serves to easier access those items.

I'll just ignore it, I can tell which is better :rolleyes:

Games have always told you what the best and worst are. Called statistics. They've stated that they'd inut a system where you can compare two items and see which one is better or contrast them but it wasn't finished yet.

This and the level scaling discussion is pointless. This info is months old. Foreign media articles must be out of the loop.

Yeah, items can have similar armor levels, but one might have an enchantment that gives it a boost in an area that you'd want, to help offset the fact it has slightly less protection.

Hey, hey, hey, don't be dissin' in KoRn.

The problem will be, if, like the compass, by adding this "optional feature" they change the way the game plays.
Shortcuts and hand holding by itself is not a problem, the problem is that when Devs know the handholding feature is there, they fail to design the game for those that don't like handholding.

When the quest compass was introduced, quest writers got lazy. Quest text gave less detail about where you were supose to go, because, well the quest compass tells you right... Less NPC's would give you clues, because players just follow an arrow right...
The type of player that read quest text, and thought about it, and searched for the what they were looking for by asking around the town, and searched for visible clues in the environment that hinted at the location... those players lost something of the game they enjoyed.

IF, by adding more hand-holding features, Bethesda remove the details of the game, then that is a bad thing, straight up.

It's just a convenience thing, if this is 'hand holding' then isn't showing us items effect hand holding? Sure we could use it and work out what it does, but for convenience sake it displays it. Same with this, it just highlights which weapons/armour are better statistically for when you want to find them, otherwise we would just look through the whole list, compare them and find the exact same items anyway, just a quicker way of doing it.

Because it falls in the same category as someone just telling you that Alduin happens to be having breakfast in the dungeon over there and you could probably go kill him easily if you wanted to? It takes away from the exploration of the game. To me, games like this is all about exploring the universe, finding out new things for myself, and if they're handed to me on a silver platter I'll feel like I might as well just go straight for the main story line and finish the game asap.

Some of us enjoy the RPG part. It makes no sense for BGS to take away character stats to make the game less stat heavy, only to add features that does exactly that.

So keep your logic fails to yourself :bonk:

Yet the hudreds of dungeons and points of interest and hidden weapons aren't enough exploring, but the fact that you can't explore a menu to find out what number is higher is just to much "dumbing-down" for you to handle?

Yes.
Especially since, as another poster pointed out, we now look at an item in 3d, rotatable and everything.
It is entirely possible that this is just a way to bypass the tedium of having to select an item, the 3d image pops up, you see the stats on the side, deselect, next item.
Because that of course would be a drag.

As yet another poster pointed out, we need a look at the entire interface before we can really accurately make a judgement about how beneficial or detrimental this is.

Sorry I pointed out a flaw in your logic but I have to do it again :angel: because the UI making it easier to find a better item has nothing to do with exploration or alduin eating breakfast :bonk:
and for the record I do quite enjoy role playing, just because I'm not complaining about a feature that makes things a little bit easier for people doesn't mean I don't.

Like you said, Merari, I like using whatever weapon I want, I don't want the game to keep telling me: "Your weapon svcks, use this one!"

It doesn't fall into that category AT ALL. This is just ridiculous. Maybe we should just remove stats from all items because that's just hand holding after all. <_<

Or maybe we should allow people to think and choose items for themselves?

You're still free to do that?....

I imagine it's something like an arrow beside the name or the name is bolded. It's not going to ask you why the hell you're equiping an iron dagger when you have a deadric longsword. For me this in no way worsens my game experience. If you have a PC, mod it out. I'm sure it's easy to do. If you don't have a PC. I'm sure you won't notice it after a while. Heck, you might even find yourself using it.

Fully agree with OP and hlvr. I don't need or want this kind of help. I want to evaluate items (unless there is an actual evaluation skill - remember identifying stuff in Daggerfall?). I want to actually make mistakes - huuuuge part of role playing. Pleeease let it be optional.

Maybe I should just skip it completely and watch a let's play instead?

So basically the whole thread is a waste of time because we don't have enough info to usefully speculate

In Daggerfall we had to go to an NPC and pay him to find out what type of enchantment an item held.
'Item identification' as a spell or ability really isnt that uncommon in an RPG.
Personally I would really enjoy such an added layer of complexity and difficulty.
Possibly as a multi-tiered perk in the rogue tree, combined with NPC's you can pay for the service.

Though this is all tangential of course

edit: to Amazon Queen above: Well, it wasnt a waste of time for me, because I got interesting opinions and factoids out of it that offered a new perspective

You can, as always.

I don't understand this issue. This system exist in most RPGs and... well, it's useful. If you prefer other weapon because of aesthetics or roleplaying just... don't chose the best one. It was like this in Oblivion, Morrowind, Daggerfall and (I suppose) Arena...

No it falls completely outside that category, in the equipment scenario, it shows which are better of two daggers based on the info already present on the screen, it just makes the comparison faster by straight up showing you from the beginning the pro's and con's of them. In the alduin scenario, someone comes up and tells you information you would never have figured out.



Some of us actually enjoy the RPG part, and also recognize which part that is, and therefore also recognize that a comparison feature between equipment does not gimp your ability to roleplay your character.