sorry Beth, this new favourites pick list just doesn't work for me. Ok, its great to have a way of sorting out most used spells/items etc rather than scrolling down an ever growing inventory list. However, using it during battle to switch out changes in you hands results in totally unrealistic pausing mid battle while you decide on a new load out. Can you imagine in a real confontation asking an attacker to wait a few moments while you switch swords or spells - pah!

In Oblivion, at least the 'Hot Key' system whilst limited to 8 quick access items (on consoles) changed your current weapon/spell instantly in real time. You could change from offensive to say a healing spell whilst backing off an opponent - use it, then switch back to your offensive weapon for the next assault, all while still moving and positioning.

What Beth could and imo should have done, is combine both methods, so a favourites list allows a quick easy look-up without redundant stuff clogging up the listing, but retained the instant switch Hot Key for 8 selected prime favourites.

Remember, the credo of Beths rpgs has always been realism and the 'suspension of disbelief' as far as possible at least - so, I can't keep that disbelief going, when i have to stop mid battle for a quick spell change......

I liked hotkey so much more. It is a huge hassle switching my shield out for fast heal, switch fast heal out for shield, switch out shield and sword for healing hands, switch out healing hands for shield and sword and you get the point. It interups the flow of combat.

The favorite system I like as I can choose the common things I like to use and its listed there. It reminds me of switching threw Morrowinds list somewhat but I feel Skyrim does this better as you can choose what to have and what not to have in it. Its a step in the right direction.

You still have hotkeys. Just press a number key on the quick menu to hotkey it on PC. Consoles only have 2 hotkeys and thats left and right on the d-pad on the quickmenu.

Keep little on you, and dont have that many favorites. It's simple bro

the hotkeys only work well if you're hotkeying something 2-handed (like a bow). If I"m using something different in each hand, it just doesn't work consistently well.

I found a trick for that with certain characters.

My thief dual wields daggers, and BOTH daggers are assigned to hotkey 1.

How did I do that? Well, what I did was buy two identical dwarven daggers and put both on the favourites list. Since the menu stacks items that are the same, you hotkey the stack to hotkey 1 and then upgrade/enchant and hey presto => two weapons on one hotkey.

thats right. A kind of hot key is provided on console pads by toggling left/right on the D pad - but its badly flawed. If you have spells in hand you CAN toggle L or R to change to a pre-selected weapon. BUT, how do get it to toggle back to your pre-selected spells in hand when you don't want the weapon any longer - you can't ! it just swaps you out to empty hands - useless as a hot key then.........

I'd say it's a rather "clunky" approach to weapon or spell switching. For instance dead island has a wheel which is used by many other games but it works in real time. Even better maybe having a load out wheel. Sword and shield for one, magic and sword for another you get the point.

It svcks because I use conjugation and with that bound swords and another spell in the other hand... It's difficult to get bound sword off the right hand. I have to equip a new weapon and then unequip the weapon and the im aloud to put a new spell on my right hand.

Umm... it is realistic.

In real life, you wouldn't sift through an inventory menu to draw your sword. You'd just pull it out.

The game pauses, simulating that effect. Nobody is "waiting" while you switch your weapons and spells.

yep, see thats my point - its , well, clunky as you said.
The thing is, after 5 years of development and presumably countless hours in QA and beta testing (though with all the bugs surfacing I do have to doubt that somehow) a clunky hot key/load out system should not be there, period.

Makes you seriously wonder how the Dev teams 'get together' conversations must go as the game gradually knits together. I mean does one guy say 'yeah i tested the new hot key idea and its slow and clunky - not good guys' and his Dev Team colleagues say in respone 'wow, awsome man thats like real cool - er, what did he say? oh well never mind its gotta be cool right, yeah! keep it in'

If this fatuous parody ISN'T how the development runs then how the heck do they so far down such a long road still thinking the lack of an instant/real time tap-to-change hotkey is great???????

Nell - sorry you're incorrect - see someone IS waiting during the load out - ME. I should not be able to, or have to, shuffle around a list of things while my npc opponent sits time-frozen mid strike awaiting my return with a new weapon set.

And yes, you are right that in real life you just pull out a sword - exactly so - it should be there ready at the tap of a button, no pause. I could do it whilst manoevering - thats real right? Thats what you could do in TES IV. Even hot key a health or magika potion - just tap the D pad and is swigged there and then.

I agree the system isn't perfect in one sense: realism. Here's the thing though; that same unrealism exists with the entire menu system. Before the game came out I thought it would be neat if they made it so that NO menu paused the game except the system menu, so that you could load and save the game and alter game options in peace without getting hit upside the head, and allow the player to actually pause the game to go do real-world things; no sense in making it difficult to go take a pee or something, right? But say you wanna read that book you've been carrying? Well, if you're out in the wilderness somewhere, you better find a nice safe place so a bear doesn't sneak up on you, or a bandit.

It's hard to say how things would work in combat. The entire combat system is built to make you semi-dependent upon being able to drink healing potions in combat, and that's a bit of an issue. It's entirely unrealistic to be able to pause time, rummage through your pack, switch armor, stow the shield and sword and draw a battleaxe all in one no-time-at-all instant. I mean, think about it: everything you're carrying is easily and immediately accessible at all times, even in the middle of combat. I mean, I have a low enchanting score, so I keep a pair of iron gauntlets I found that are enchanted +20% for archery, but I wear a set of plate steel gauntlets for melee. Realistic? Not really. They probably should have found a system to make such a thing unrealistic; after all, I could go even further and enchant a set of sneak-clothing, boots, gloves and hat all to increase my sneak values, another set of clothes to do the same for archery, and then switch to armor JUST as the enemy closes to melee range. Which is utterly silly, and they should have thought of a mechanism to make doing that sort of thing impossible.

It would probably require (1) limiting the favorites menu to only a few things (2) limiting the type of things that can be put on the favorites menu so that only so many weapons can be favorited and no armor or clothing at all except maybe the helmet, and (3) possibly have the favorites menu not freeze time.

I know some people will say "That isn't how I want to play. Why should Bethesda make my choices for me?" Well, they already made some choices for you. They decided you weren't going to fly, levitate, or run 85 miles per hour. They decided you weren't going to be shooting fireballs underwater. They decided not to allow you to do many things. I think perhaps deciding not to let people freeze time, rummage through their gear, drink five potions, change armor completely and draw an entirely different weapon and poison the blade all at once would be a perfectly rational thing to not allow in this instance.

All that being said, as far as spells go, I agree that you should have a means of selecting any spell quickly. The spells are, after all, in your head, and it would be nice if there were a way for you to select the one you want without freezing time.

I do have one question, though. I'm playing on PC but using a 360 controller to play. Are the keyboard assignable hotkeys (1-8) still accessible to me? Or can I only use the D-pad assignable hotkeys?

Its clunky yes if it was smoothed out great, I just do not want a wheel system like in Oblivion, I like the favorites much better as I can have whatever I want in there and I can have how much I want in there.

I am quite pleased with it. Makes things much simpler. (I never use hotkey)

Okay, after playing around with it for a bit, the keyboard hotkeys are not accessible if you use a 360 controller on PC, only the D-pad hotkeys. It's a bit unwieldy; it always wants to assign spells to the left hand and weapons to the right. If you assign left-D-pad to a weapon and right-D-pad to another, then hit left then right on the D-pad, it doesn't assign one to the left and the other to the right for dual-wielding, it keeps a shield in the left and just cycles weapons through the right. If you have a weapon in the right and shield in the left, and assign left-D-pad to a spell - healing in my case - then hit left-D-pad twice, it doesn't assign the healing spell to both hands, it just activates healing then "sheathes" the spell, giving you a fist in your left hand.

I think perhaps the way they could better execute what people would like would be to have 1-8 be able to be multi-item selections. Meaning, you enter a hotkey menu and assign (for example) 1 as left hand shield, right hand war axe, 2 as healing in both hands, 3 as a bow, 4 as a two-handed weapon, and 5 as war axe in the right and sword in the left. Take away the ability to hotkey armor items. It's entirely realistic to hotkey a sword - it's right there on your belt, right? But it makes no realistic sense to be able to switch sets of armor or clothing at the touch of a button; changing what you're wearing takes time. Even a helmet or boots can't be put on all that quickly; those things are made to fit well, if they're worth a damn, and take some time to put on and take off. Only a few seconds for a helmet - but still not zero seconds - and much more time for boots. I'm sure you've all noticed how the boots have buckles and the like on them. Only Tony Stark can put on a full suit of armor in a couple seconds time.

The favourites system is alright, it's better than nothing.

Yeah, frankly I think the entire interface is worlds beyond Oblivion's.

I think the hotkey setup for Skyrim on consoles is completely amateur and an impediment to the game. I love the game but this gets tiring after a playthrough or two.

Why when there are just 4 directions being used (why not use the diagonals?) do two directions dot he same thing? Just to waste one of the very select few available hotkeys? For the lulz?

How I would have done it:
8 Hotkey system or 4 hotkey with option to enable the diagonals (could leave them off if you wanted)
Each direction able to be hotkeyed.
In the menu to set your hotkeys you could preset which hand the item spell would equip.
You would be able to preset two items as dual wield without any messing about. Just pick your left and hand, set, pick your right hand, set. You could leave either blank for each hotkey.
Holding any direction down instead of just tapping it would bring up that favorites list.

This system would allow for 4 times the amount of hotkeys we get currently on console.
This syetm would allow you to have a hotkey setup for Steel Dagger (L Hand) Steel Mace (R Hand) and also for Steel Dagger (L Hand) Steel Dagger (R Hand) and even Steel Mace (R Hand) with Steel Shield (L Hand) and on and on and on. Want your Steel Shield hotkeyed in 8 different varieties? No problems! UI design for console was basically "Let's make it work ok for a guy with 1 big two handed sword and 1 big bow, I'm a viking rar!"

Oblivion had 8 hotkeys.
Skyrim has 2.
Fail.
(console versions, obviously)


You can do that with any two different One-Handed weapons. They do not have to be identical weapons.
It's the same concept of why you're shield also gets ready when you Hot-Key equip your sword.

It's horrible as a mage. In Oblivion I could just instantly switch between fire/frost/heal/paralyze/shield e.t.c but now every time I want to switch my spell I need to pause the game.I would much rather have the 8 hotkeys back.