Cool it guys, it's getting a bit personal. Lay off please.

(( I just don't see how the removeal of a few things makes that much difference, I'm going to do it right now and play for an hour to see what difference, if any it makes. I laugh that people think this is getting personal, for a communication forum, a lot of people cannot comminucate very well at all. No names said, no pokes to be had, just saying is all. ))

i was being personal? lol i was being sarcastic thats all. no harm done

(( Me either mate, yet a mod felt the need to say smoething?? ))

I use the "Immersion HUD" it turns off the hud when ur doing nothing but selectively turns on certain parts based on what you are doing.

Cross hairs turn on when u knock an arrow or use magic
Shout bar turns on without the compass when a shout is used
Compass turns on when u run or can be toggled

After playing for so long on PS3 (since release) it started out awkward but now I enjoy the empty screen

I should mention that I'm doing this on 360.

I used to do the no HUD thing early on, but I dislike not being able to see the heath, magic, and stamina bars. So what I do instead is put the HUD on its lightest setting. I generally can't even see the compass at all, and only during fights will I barely be able to see the bottom stat bars.

having no HUD is fun.

You actually WANT to use those archery targets to practice on right away so you can tell exactly where the arrow hits at what distance and remember that area in reference to the arrow and the bow in your hands.

I play:

no HUD
Master difficulty
Only wear armor and use weapons that I craft (this means starting out naked punching foxes for pelts lol)
Brightness turned all the way down (torches are needed now)

The game is 1000x more immersion to me this way and I love it. there are areas I jsut can not do with my character now and I go and level up some on mudcrabs. lol

I am on the console so mods are out of the question, so this is as close as I can get to a realism mod.

You want realism, do all of the above but while wearing clothing not armor. I do it and you want to talk real !? Even a wolf is able to get the drop on me and if I'm not carefull they can even kill me.

I'm with Cinco on this one... so it's a for me on 360.

No health bars is crazy. And it's not "immersive" - your character has senses that you don't have (as a person sitting in front of a TV, and not in the world). The feedback of those senses is conveyed to you via the HUD. Being tired, being injured. Knowing when you're NOT tired or injured. Etc, etc, etc.

The game provides information to you. Information you need to make informed and rational gameplay decisions. Removing those things makes absolutely no sense to me.

(Now, whether the game provides too much information - like quest markers, etc; that's another issue. )

But realistically id be able to wear armor that I made myself so I knew it fit my own body. Why would I only be wearing clothes the whole time?

Of course it's more immersive. There are much better ways of conveying to the player the fact that the character is near death than through a health bar. Such as the character becoming noticeably weaker / less effective in combat, staggering, heavy breathing, etc.

The character wouldn't know exactly how much 'health' they have and when it's about to run out. Just as they wouldn't know in advance when their stamina is about to run out.

I don't play with HUD, also, I'm on ps3, playing on a home cinema surround system and full HD back-projectored 80-100"-ish screen.

For me, it makes the game alot more immersive.

- Not because I can't view the health bar that much (although a bit that too, a real life combat wouldn't be based on how many hits you could take, but when you couldn't block. An axechop to the head is final. No -50% hp in real life. So I guess you'll have to imagine blocking when you're letting one in, but.. meh. Still more realistic than -25% hp because of two handed mace to the head, full swing).

- I normally use a map on the side, so I have to cross off places of interest, taking notes, etc. I occationally check the in-game map, but that's only to get a view of where somethings at, if not given proper description (for instance, just "go to Cave X", I'll check the map, cross it off on my own printed one, and go from there")

- Another fun thing is that you have to get to know the terrain around you. To find a lost standing stone for instance, you have to remember the creek by the fallen tree with the sound of waterfall nearby, and stuff like that. Makes it rewarding to find some place you're looking for.

- I saw a thread concerning how scary this game is percieved by forum members, and I can say that sneaking in on someone is alot more creepy when you have no clue about where they are (not shown at compass as a red dot), especially when you're on high difficulty.

As I said, I'm on the ps3, so modding is not an option. If I could have just ONE modification for the ps3, it would be the darkened dungeons, so I'd HAVE to use a torch in the depths of ancient tombs, etc. Alot more creepy.


Edit: Also, I liked the post in this thread about archery dummies actually being useful in learning reference points on your bow/hand depending on the distance between you and your target, etc. Liked it alot! Struggled a bit with archery, not too much really, but still enough to give the dummies a few arrows. Thanks for the tip!

I've tried to but i need crosshairs for archery. I've figured out how to shoot without crosshairs (aim to the left of the arrow tip and slightly below target) but it's hard to line up a shot in combat, especially when fighting archers

i know this isn't for everyone, including, me at times. but, i've printed out a map and use the in-game map to mark a location when it's given and then go and find it without using my gps or player-position icon.

it has added that 'lost' feeling while trying to find the location and nice gratification when i find it.

I play no HUD too, at first it was just so that I didn't have the damn compass telling me what was around me but eventually I got used to checking my health in battle and such. If I could just get rid of the compass then I'd just do that but I do like playing with no HUD.

I've been playing hybrid for a while now.
No compass, crosshair or floating markers, but I do have sneak crosshair and status bars enabled,
Archery is still hard for me, but I "cheat" by crouching to pull up my open eye until I get my range and arch figured out. The lack of mobility is a fair trade-off, I think.

At first, with no compass, I felt like my graphics had improved until I realized that I was just paying so much more attention to my surroundings!
Getting lost in the mountains is easy, but there are lots of landmarks to learn- including the North Star.

I have found Clairvoyance, Detect Life (and Dead) and Aura Whisper to be far more useful than before.

The game does let you know when you'r near death though, the heart beat sound effect starts when you're low on health.

I can play with no Crosshair. I can't play without HUD though.
Whenever I put Crosshair back on, it doesn't feel right.

I always disable the crosshair. I have been doing that since Morrowind, even for archers. Especially for archers in fact because it makes it much more fun to aim the bow,

I tried disabling the HUD in Skyrim, but not knowing how much health I had was too much for me. Now I turn it down so it is harder to see.

I really wish you could disable the sneak crosshair and compass without loosing the health bar. They went to all the trouble to make the health bar invisible unless you were low on health, but they did not let you turn off compass or sneak crosshair, without loosing the health bar entirely. What's up with that?

Usually by then its too late, unless you have lightning fast reflexes. I wish the red spots were more accurate. Sometimes I don't get those until I am almost out of health. Other times I get them when I have only barely been scratched. Do you know if there is any rhyme or reason to them?

I agree. They really should give you the option to toggle off the compass and sneak crosshair independently.

I've not had a worry with using a potion when the sound starts. And then there is always the fact you can use them if you feel you're low.

I've learned to not be overly bothered by where my health is. If I die, so be it. The trick is to not get hit, fight smart instead of just tanking damage.

I've played with no HUD since I first started playing. One of the first things I did was go into settings, turn off mini map, crosshairs etc. and everything else I could. I don't mind not having crosshairs; Archery is a little more challenging, but I got used to it. My char is not the best archer in the world, but I can hit stuff pretty well when I need to. The only problem is not being able to turn off the compass without losing the text info that pops up when you are targeting something. The best I could come up with is to set the HUD opacity so low (or HUD transparency so high.. semantics) that I can still make out the text when I need to but the compass isn't as noticable.

The problem I have, is besides not knowing whether picking up something would be "stealing" or not (depending on whether the object is "owned" or the owner likes you well enough to let you have it) -the real problem is that Skyrim's "grabbing" or selecting system is so majorly screwed up that if 2 objects are remotely close to each other, I have to target waaaayy off the object I really want to pick up, otherwise it's picking up the wrong object. This can lead to going to talk to a shopkeeper and accidentally "stealing" something off the counter... kind of annoying.

Is this a mod? Can you have everything set to off except for the text info that pops up when you are targeting stuff to pick it up or targeting a load door, etc.?