there was a link awhile back but i cant remember where that posted a graphic comparing morrowind's UI versus skyrims's UI and all the wasted space and weird layout decisions of skyrim. as for the overhead map itself, it is utterly useless most of the time, thankfully i just saw a mod that added visible roads to it.

i remember alot of "apple" talk and how the game would look if apple made it. well now we know, it would svck. what is this obsession bethesda has with apple and why did they think this was a good system by any stretch of the imagination? did anyone at bethesda even spend a few minutes testing it out on the PC? unless you enjoy spending most of your time in the menues because you only have 8 hotkeys and you just love scrolling up and down all the time and my favorite is that any gear you have equipped is scattered throughout the load order when it should all be in on spot like pretty much every other game does it.

i really like skryim alot but these design decisions leave me scratching my head.

Because it looks good

Bethesda, oh Bethesda, you still need to learn so much.

Pitty you, along the way, see this as an opportunity to flame apple.. But besides that, you're absolutely right. Luckily we already have SkyUI, which works great (but I personally dont really like it visual-wise). I also remember that other UI-redesign idea which has a topic in the mods-section of this forum. That looks really great, but the modder doesnt seem active lately.
Little teaser: http://digicharles.com/skyrim_ui/ (does take a little while to load, be patient)

it was more tounge in cheek regarding apple. im going by their assumption that this is what an apple game would look like. i actually like the leapord OS UI alot. im currently using skyUI and i just downloaded a mod that puts stuff in grid pattern although i haven had a chance to try that one out. im just mostly amazed that skyUI was out on day one practically and they had 3 years or more to discover how awful the UI was on a PC. it actually works pretty well when i tried my controller but its just awful compared to other games with PC UI.

The UI was a great step in a different direction... but was not fully realized for functionality. UI's for Morrowind, Oblivion, and now Skyrim offer a compelling case why it's better to buy TES games for the PC so you can get some much needed mods.

8 hotkeys are more than enough, but you are right about the UI svcking. the map said i was in falkreth (spelling?) once when i was really in the mountains south of it (well it did not actually marked me asbeing there but it seemed like it), the perk trees can be annoying to navigate at times, and the inventory screen does not show enough information on a single screen (in oblivion we had all the stats of every weapon/armour piece that was on screen now we only get one at a time)

one hotkey for my dagger, one for my main weapon, one for my bow and one for my shield. that leaves me with 4 hotkeys to assign between potions and spells. that is not enough for me. the point of hotkeys is so that you can play in realtime and not have to jump in and out of menus like its some turnbased RPG from the 90s.

i would gladly trade the "cool" option to rotate stuff for a more practical and efficient inventory system. its not even a new concept. resident evil had this back in 98 or whenever it was released.

Skyrim's UI is fine and much better then Oblivion's horrible UI.

I'll say that Skryim's UI is better than Oblivion's. However, it is not better than Morrowind's. It is pretty, I'll give them that, but I think balance needs to be struck between form and functionality no matter what you're applying it to, be it the UI or the graphics engine itself.

Any who, thank goodness for mods.

...if you use a control pad.

But use the far more `efficient` mouse\keyboard and it`s a nightmare. It shouldn`t be like this. I don`t believe Bethesda are incompetent, but I find it hard to believe Bethesda meant it this way, unless...

I have a sneaky suspicion that Bethesda made a DEAL with microsoft to PROMOTE the Xbox 360 like crazy, even if this meant nerfing the superior controls of mouse and keyboard on purpose to do it.

It really is the only explanation which i`m sure many of you won`t want to believe.

I think they got the slickness and attractiveness of an Apple-style product, but not the functionality. Better luck next time eh?

The UI is a bit poor, but manageable.

Hey, don't blame Apple. This is what you get when you take a team that has never produced a Macintosh game in its life and set them to work attempting to create their very first Apple-standard interface.

This may be the only interface I ever used where I place my cursor over an item in a list, click, and regularly end up with a different item from the one I meant to select. The interface is pretty and decently functional, and those are the only nice things I can say about it.

Only because the designers didn't interpret "how Apple would make it" correctly. Apple's interfaces tend to be supremely usable. It's not just a "looks" thing.

I hated Morrowind's UI, It was needlework, got tired of clicking. Skyrim's ain't good either, but in a different way.

Let's just wait for DarN =P

mnieh, i only have 8 hotkeys! i have two, you son of a [censored]

Hah, the pretty graphics covers it all up.
Player: Hey Beth, the UI is pretty dumb, how come no hotkeys anymore ?
Beth: LOOK AT DAT DRAGON !

We all falled for it.