Hey Guys/Devs,

So my 1st character was a pure mage. And she was fine with regard to playing thru quests/dungeons etc. However, she was extremely painful to play. Not because of the class or her abilities but because of the UI. Using favorites didn't help all that much or barely if at all. Lets look at it without favorites for a sec. Let's say I'm destruction/Conj/heal. Lets say I want to summon, then cast a big fire spell and then a lower level fire spell. Then mid battle I want to heal.

Ok so this is how it goes ... (bring up spell menu) ... select summon, leave menu and cast, then do it all over again to grab the big fire ball cast that a few times ... OH wait immune to fire or resistant, bring up menu and choose sparks etc. Now I've taken some damage and want to heal, do all that over again (If i live thru it). Now back in the menu etc etc etc. This become all the more worse If i want a frost spell in my right hand and a fire spell in my left. And with all the possible spell combos that you might want to use it become utterly ridiculous.

Ok so lets say we set up some favorites. Stuff is faster but it's still very clunky. Not to mention having spells from different schools equipped (like the easy example of frost/fire) You often lose the numbered assignments when you change out and so your having to go back in the favorite menu to reassign. Its just way to much hassle.

If I'm a fire/frost/conj/healing mage .... I would just cast what I wanted. I wouldn't be thinking ok equip fire left hand (got it), equip frost right hand (got it). OH WAIT maybe ill go with that more powerful spell in my left .... ok equip that in left (got it). Oops need a heal .... ok equip heal right hand (got it). Ok heal done ... and by some miracle I survived the three Falmer beating on me and my companion ... NOW switch back to whatever in the right (got it) and all this while in battle. It's just plain stupid.

......

So I switched out to a 2H/Stealthy/Archer ... hit 3 bow, Hit 3 again my dual wield setup ... good to go. Need a heal drink a potion or 10 . The way the interface is right now you better not need or want to use more than 2-3 things or your basically in hell.

......

Any Thoughts?,

I really wish the UI and the whole system around using things was sooooooo much better than it is. Other than this stuff I'm loving the game, really wish I could have played a pure caster with easy access to all the cool stuff but alas ... .

.......

LD



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On a trying to provide helpful suggestions ... I at the very least we could assign numbers to two handed setups it wouldn't be as bad. Say 1 does my frost/fire setup, 2 does Conj/Heal setup etc. Even then its not all that great as I often want to use many different kinds of spells from many different schools etc etc etc. The usage UI needs a serious overhaul for the PC.

I think its fine.. been playing a pure mage and have no trouble simply hitting Q and assigning the spell I want to use. The game is paused while your switching so no one is beating on anyone while your just switching spells. Simply cast whatever pre battle spell you want. Some conjuration and a shield if its a tough fight. Switch back to your destruction. Begin raining destruction, switch to some healing if you need it.

It's not complicated. I can't grasp how you ever got through oblivion then. You could only select ONE spell at a time there and had to go all the way into the menu each and every time to select a new spell, Unless you hotkeyed them but the battles don't pause while your messing around trying to remember what spells you have hotkeyed to what keys (at least for me those spells changed all the time) and then the minions usually ARE beating on you as your trying to switch spells to the one you wanted.

Here you can have two spells equipped and bring up a simple little menu to switch on the fly.
Is hitting Q and pressing the left and right mouse so complicated?

Then again I don't know the controls if you are playing on console

Its the constant switching .... it should be much more fluid than it is.

(Didn't play oblivion ... I guess coming from something where it was worse gives you a different perspective. But from where I'm sitting its way to many actions just to cast/use something. Even with hotkeys as they are working right now).

The optimist in me says:

"Oh cool, Bethesda decided to try their hand at a turn-based RPG! This could be fun!"

Open your favorites menu, highlight a spell/item/weapon press 1-8 to hotkey it. Double tap the hotkey to put a spell in both hands.
You're welcome.

its really not that hard, i hit 5 on the way into combat and hit oakflesh, hit 1,1 and dual equip my lightning bolt. Need healing? Hit 2,2 and dual wield instant healing. hit 1,1 again and im back to my dual wield lightning. Takes no time at all, are you assigning hotkeys?

Yep, bet OP only just found out about hotkeys, i found out yesterday as well LOL
They should probably include that in the tutorial, i was favoriting my magic and cursing it for about 20 hours

The bad part about hotkeys is that their is no visual reminder, so you have to remember where you put stuff. There is also no visual notification when you switch, just a very low volume click. And if you miss click and cast a spell you won't even realize it until its too late.

I agree it helps with the hotkeys, but its a lot more finikey and informative than it should be.

It svcks having only 2 hotkeys. I can understand not wanting to use the diagnoals since PS3 doesn't have it, but how come the Down is not used for a hot key as well? This way we have 3 hot keys. Then you have the PC wich should be able to have 10 hotkeys. No excuse why the PC doesn't.

yes i am ... the thing is the way your doing it is to "dual cast" everything. Sometime (quite often) I want one spell in one hand and another in the other. If I was "dual casting" all the time it would be easier. Staffs also become quite combersome due to this.

naw I knew about them since the start.

Think about it. There are mutiple spells in multiple schools. not to mention scrolls, staffs etc. Sometimes you want the benefits of two schools (say fire and lightning for example). So with all the combos possible from higher level spells in the same school to spells from multiple schools etc etc, it becomes a constant switching exercise.

If we could set up combos on the hotkeys that would help abit. Bot right now your constantly having to switch things into your hands rather than just casting the spell you want. For example in WoW you can hotkey (with modifiers) any ability and just cast it. Something like that would allow for access to everything available to you and there would be no switching mechanic (that at least you would have to mess with). There is a lot to explain here, small details etc. If everything was dual cast like in the other guys post it wouldn't be as bad but with hand selection etc etc it becomes cumbersome and you have to do it ALOT.

you gotta play on PC and use the number-pad hotkeys. That means no annoying pressing and clicking over and over. Just pop number 2 for your sword and bam, there she is.

I agree. I don't really understand how someone can have low enough standards to actually think Skyrims UI is fine or even good as some people claim.

Thank you for this post, because I didn't even realize I could assign numbers to my favorites...so now I've tried it and I don't think you can assign one spell to both hands with one number...or at least I couldn't get that to work.

The number row above the keys seems to work fine, I wouldn't use the numpad as I would have to either remove my hand from my mouse or use my left hand to travel all the way over. Terrible interface Bethesda.