DarnUI allowed for list or grid view, this was very nice.

Which game had this? I have had to change mouse sensitivity is the options. And things worked out.

I don't understand why Oblivions UI was so terrible, it was just as bad on consoles, too large and annoying. Morrowinds UI worked fine on consoles, and if there was a difference between consoles and PC i've yet to see it...

If it's truly like iTunes it would have all those options, but I have a nasty feeling they meant only the horizontal list version of the iTunes display.

I was not aware of those option in Itunes(I'm not a user). That would be best for all concerned though. Because while my 3 main points are very popular ideas with no one saying the game is better with out them, the grid vs list view has many proponents on both sides.

One thing about the grid view though, many people who prefer the list view say its because of the stats on the items can be seen unlike a grid view. But that is only based on MW grid view. Look at how the grid view is handled in windows you can see text and an icon. You could simply have the icon and the stats below it with the grid view for Skyrim. Sure it would take up more space, but I think it would still use the screen space more efficiently than a list view while providing the same information. Thoughts?

Yea, Morrowind has a pretty good Inventory window.
We can easely equip or remove items.

I want the ability to equip as I loot corpse/containers like in MW, that was a great feature. That is what UI is all about getting things done in the most efficient way.

Even with windows, it only shows the icon's name not the other statistics, for that I have to click on it. Even on windows I tend to use list view.


You mean the drag and drop thing? Yeah, I hated it...

No I mean the fact you can equip from a container or dead body, That is a great feature. That drag and drop thing was a waste of time, double clicking would be more efficient. Kingdoms of Amalur will have that feature and it will have a junk pile feature were when you are looting you can put some things in a "junk" pile and sell the whole pile at a merchant, 1 click sell junk pile. No more going down the list wasting time making sure that you all getting rid of all the crap you have pick up.

And why can't you just have all the info in a grid view? Though the best solution is just like Windows you have both options, just like a real pc interface should.

You know, I never really minded the UI in fallout 3/NV or Oblivion, its just one of the thing that doesnt bother me. HOWEVER, it does irk me a little that they didn't even change it a little, when there are tons of messages like this on every single message board regarding Oblivion, FO3, NV (though they didn't really make that one it was based off of FO3 interface) and now on Skyrim. While it personally doesn't bother me that the UI is what it is, it will bother me if they don't change it, merely because so many people on PC's want it

I would never call that signature awesome. It takes a quote out of context and uses it to misrepresent Todd's message. A full quote from page 54 of the February issue of Game Informer reads:



Todd apparently recognizes that getting to things quickly is important. Still, to me the UI as described in Game Informer sounds awkward, with too much emphasis on entertainment. Ironically, there is an old fantasy game created exclusively for the Apple Macintosh. Although Apple didn't make it, it was faithful to Apple's UI guidelines. It featured a rather large, fairly open world too. I wonder if Todd ever encountered it.

Notice that if you set a folder as tile view in Windows, the only information it gives is a picture, a name, and a file type. Whereas if you set it as a detail view you can see all the information you want. Lists are just a better way to pack in more information in a small space. Oblivion would have proved this if they just used a smaller font.... But being able to equip from a container is not something that's limited to a grid view.

I agree that a list view can be used to pick stuff from a container I was not trying to implies otherwise. But I still like the grid view myself, DarnUI had both for OB(you could see 100 items at once with a 10x10 grid), it was great. That would be ideal. But either way its the 3 core things I think Beth should work on, as no one thinks it will make the game worse and many think it will improve the game. The grid is secondary to me. First focus on what will be good for everyone, then think about optional stuff like a grid view.

Id like to see more UI options for the PC version(maybe even list/icon option on the consoles too), but I far far far prefer the Oblivion UI and menus to Morrowinds on the PC even unmodded.

A Windows Explorer menu system works for me, as long as the PC version also has the consoles UI as an option for people playing with controllers. Or if the iPod menu selections can be done well without the use of a mouse(instead with WASD) I might be into that too, I just abhor drag and drop inventories in games.

I agree with you about drop and drag. Its just a waste of time. This is not about bringing back MW UI, it had a number of issues. Its about the 3 things that are not in dispute (hotkeys,etc) that I hope Beth looks into. The other stuff is secondary.

appologize if its already been mentioned in here, i didnt see it, but i just read one of beth responses to fan questions and they stated that the PC version will have a different UI than the console versions. So it sounds like, or hopefully sounds like theyve been listening to the pc playerbase and are hopefully adding a more pc friendly interface since we'd be able to have much more information on our screen with easier access to everything with the mouse etc, (and the other positives from the thread)

A functional UI on pc is a rare thing these days, at least with multiplatform releases. I hope Bethesda doesn't let us down.

One thing that concerns me is that in one of the recent Scandinavian interviews (I don't remember which) Todd Howard mentioned that he wanted to move away from RPG menu screens being like spreadsheets.

That concerns me because if he's not careful it could end up with flash over substance. Spreadsheets exist because they are a great way to present data efficiently. I fear about only a couple things displayed on screen at once with all kinds of bells and whistles taking up 75% of the screen.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

That is one of my concerns. I am suspicious for sure.

Its actually not that rare. Alot of EA and even now Ubisoft games have it. I know this year major multiplats like da2, portal2, ME3, BF3, deusix3 all have nice pc UIs..........far nicer than Oblivion or FO3 lol.

Crysis2's was a tad fail though, "push start" and no real graphics or FOV settings options.

Assassin Creed 2 was not very good, fancy looking but sluggish to move through menus. But thats just one game, either way Its what Beth is doing that matters to me.

I hope this is not the case...

I can definitely tell you hope that's not the case because you quoted/responded to that twice.

I'm imagining, as a worst case scenario, some kind of bizarre ribbon-like UI with icons and no textual labels. That probably makes it obvious I'm resistant to Microsoft's love of its Ribbon UI design, which I feel makes it harder to find features if you aren't already familiar with them. Just imagining UI elements shuffled through a bunch of bizarre ribbon pages with giant icons that the UI designer thinks are obvious with little clue where to find what makes me shake my head, like when I try to find something in Microsoft Office that I used to know where to find before the Ribbon. Thankfully the iTunes design isn't like that, so at least they didn't say "We want it like the Ribbons in new Microsoft products!"

For some reason I seem to be in a minority of people that hate the Ribbon though, so maybe I'm just not used to it.

If you're talking about what I think you are, then no. I was quite annoyed when 3dsMax moved to a similar UI.

Yeah:
http://www.projectpro.com/letters/usability.html