Having a poorly designed UI has nothing to do with XBox - they could have easily implemented these changes. Hey OP, maybe Beth has a job opening for you???

OK, so I had a look at some ideas for the skills tree, and although it's not my biggest concern within the game personally, I thought I could come up with an idea to make it better, providing a mod of this nature would be possible -

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v476/sane_man/?action=view¤t=ImprovedSkillScreen01.jpg

The idea is that you still get the pretty solar map interface, but a lot more useful information is displayed at once. Another idea would be to have current bonuses to that skill from activated perks and equipment overlayed in the center, with another key to toggle their display between EQUIP BONUSES, PERKS, and OFF (IE "I just want to see the pretty constellation). On PC this could easily have a key bound to each sorting mechanic and be very easy to reference.

Any thoughts on this? I also think that simply changing the general stats tab would be pretty easy to include your skills, active effects etc all in one place purely for reference.

EDIT - oh yeah anyone doing screenshot modifications might want to use this font - http://www.searchfreefonts.com/free/blue-highway-condensed.htm
It's free and WhatTheFont seemed to think it was the closest it could find to the Skyrim font. Basically make it grey in photoshop and add a shadow drop and you're pretty damn close. (One thing I actually like about the new interface - it is at least easily readable).

Oh, that is nice. I can immediately imagine how it's supposed to behave, even before reading your text description. Keeps all the information right there, gives obvious mouse-navigation, and it keeps the impressive swishing-and-zooming of the constellations.

Pair this with an input overhaul for the in-constellation navigation (movement locked to the connecting lines), and it would be perfect.

...A UI mockup should not make me feel this much joy. It's a sign of how bad the existing UI is that just the thought of using this instead gives me a warm, happy feeling deep in my chest.

Aside, this should totally be possible. Because the UI is coded in Flash it's a pain to reverse-engineer, but it does mean that we can create entirely arbitrary modifications or even entirely new menu interface designs. The only limitations are what data the underlying game engine exposes for use in the Flash menus, and which Flash files the keybindings are hardcoded to bring up (e.g., magic versus inventory menus). However, the SKSE ("script extender") will eventually be able to expose more data to the UI and be able to change how keybindings are mapped to menus. In the end, we should be able to entirely dispose of the existing interface if modders want to go that route. The existing system is going to be a pain to start modding, but once we get the technical knowledge to do it, the sky's the limit!

I do like that, i like it a lot.

To be fair, it does look like something you'd expect to see in an alpha build.

Skyrim's UI is one of the best I've encountered in an RPG, and I've played many. It's fast and intuitive and can be navigated with just the left hand. It has a few issues that could be ironed out but overall I'm loving the new UI.

Excellent diagram of a better UI - hope Bethesda takes notice (but I doubt they will )

Made a compass one day to be used for the map screen. Also cleaned up the graphics files I used.
http://i.imgur.com/YSDZa.png's a low res image. If you want the .svg for illustrator or a comparable vector editing program, I uploaded it http://www.mediafire.com/?r1b162a5e64rrq4.

Yes, you can, but it doesn't always have the desired effect. Since highlighting doesn't consistently follow the mouse, sometimes a mouse click will select the item highlighted instead of what you actually click on. This is especially frustrating when you inadvertently select the wrong dialog choice and find yourself locked out of a quest, or forced to fight a character you wanted to be on friendly terms with.

Morrowind's UI is so much better than Skyrims for a PC user - maybe not for a controller user (don't know, don't use a controller)


obvious button thumper, uses controller, not mouse


another button thumper

Sadly, while this may be what you would see in an alpha build, we are hardly at the alpha stage.

One issue I have, that I haven't seen mentioned here, is with the menu closing when clicking just left of the menu option you're trying to select (but still within the "bar" of the menu). This happens to me every 5-6 times I visit a shop. I'm getting really tired of being asked if I want to protect myself or do a little damage.

The UI doesn't need the complete overhaul that everyone here is suggesting.

Move menus up to the top when you're not using a 360 controller (because it's actually quite nice looking with the controller, I'd imagine) and possibly take some of the extra space and use it up a bit. Oh, and I guess the active effects in the HUD too.

That's it.

Seriously, why couldn't Bethesda think of something like this?

It's as if Todd Howard sat down with his UI team and said, "Imagine the simplest, most efficient, most intuitive user interface. Now make the exact opposite."

Further to the thoughts above about Flash making almost anything possible, one major feature that a new UI should eventually have is a Character Manager. These have always had to be external tools with previous games, but with the ability to put arbitrary Flash inside the game, tools like this can be integrated with the Save, Load, and Start menus.

Now either you're trolling or you've not played many RPGs.

Yeah, that's my point.

I love this thread so much. You guys are awesome.

Are you seriously suggesting we use Flash, the most insecure and all around resource wasting thing known to computer-using man?

[censored] making this man president.

appoint this guy to President of the "NSD" (No [censored] Devision) in bethesdas "Common [censored] Sense Department"

No, you're Beta testing!!!!

The current UI already uses Flash, or some sort of variant (can't remember what it is off the top of my head). I'd blame Bethesda for that decision, not the modders. That's what they gave us to work with. I'm not sure modders could force the game to use a non-SWF format UI without pulling some sort of hail Mary.

Ideally, I'd like for two favorite menus (if we're stuck with the favorites menu) to pop up with one for the left hand and one for the right. They can be a mirror of each other, even, as long as you can bind individual hands. I just find it extremely annoying that if I have a shield equipped I have to manually use the favorites menu to change my right hand. To change them through hotkeys, I have to press the spell button once for left hand, again for right hand, and then finally reequip my shield. Three key presses for a single spell change gets grinding after a while and now I'm just at the point where I just refuse to use a shield or weapon with my spells.

I don't know how much weight there was behind it, but it was mentioned on one of the mod threads (sorry no link) that it's possible to replace the flash with XML and still work.

Currently they seem to be focused on modding the flash menus.

Actually in many cases you can NOT press the same key to exit as you pressed to open, made even worse if you configure the controls your own way. Sometimes this introduces bugs, breaks controls, and some keys even when remapped don't fully remap. The original key retains some functionality, and you are left to figure out the when and where on your own.

That's what Bailey's is for! Makes "Mmm" coffee "Mmmmmmmm."

Also, please ignore trolls. They're not trying to be part of the conversation, they're trying to derail the conversation.

Since people here are spending time anolyzing the UI, I have a sort of "poll question:"

Is everyone experiencing the problems where (and by "menu" I mean any list in-game):

1) Menus do not scroll immediately when opened in response to mouse-scroll, may require a click to set focus first
2) Clicking a menu item activates a different menu item
3) Clicking a menu item once does not activate it, it may activate on a second click, or be selected on a second click
4) Selecting (clicking or with activate key) an item has variable responses - may move item to container, may equip or consume it, seemingly at random

There are probably others but I want to get a feel for whether this is universal or a bug affecting only some users.

It has been that way for me throughout testing and makes the UI almost completely worthless.