The other day while playing, i was going through the favorites menu on the side, and then, i accidently did something that made a number one appear next to one of my shouts.
Ex.
1. Unrelenting Force

Eventually, i figured out that by holding side on the button pad on the ps3, You could number either item 1 OR 2, but just those numbers, and nothing else.

So basically. . .what does this do? I have no idea what the numbers are for. Like seriously. Could anyone explain?

So then when you press the directional pad out of the fav menu left of right (1 or 2) you will equip that item/magic.

On the PC that's how you set up hotkeys. You go to favorites, select something, and assign a number between one and eight. Perhaps some of this functionality was kept in the console release?

I'm guessing those are your hotkeys. On the PC we have 1-8. During gameplay press one of those buttons and it autoequips that favourite item/spell.

You accidentally assigned a hot key. When you want that item quickly, press 1 (left button) or 2 (right) on your directional pad.

Ah, okay. So its like a even QUICKER way to select weapons? I think i get it now. Thanks for the explanations.

Correct me if I'm wrong, the game was designed for console then moved to PC. We just have less buttons or hotkey use.

The XBox 360 was the main developement platform, but it wasn't completed on the XBox 360 and then ported to the other two, it was developed on all three fronts simultaneously. So the hotkey mechanic could have easily been added for the PC and some portion of it kept for the other two.


And it doesn't require pausing the game like the inventory or favorites menu.

1 or 2 is for hotkeys on your game pad allocated to the left or right buttons on the d-pad. If you want to quickly use a favourite sword or spell then bring up your favourites scroll to what you want then hold down the left or right button on the d-pad and a 1 will appear next to it then do the same with the other button and now when you press one of the left or right d-pad buttons it brings that weapon up without having to go into favourites.

Might I take this opportunity to acknowledge how much of a basic GUI fail it was that hotkeyed items must redundantly sit in Favorites?

You can, and, actually, you just did. But it's actually quite useful to list the hotkeyed choices in the favorites list, because I often change what is hotkeyed. Most of the time my 2H melee weapon is 1 and my bow is 2, but sometimes I change out bow for a weapon with soul trap on it, or I change out the greatsword for a spell. Having everything in the favorite list makes this extremely fast and easy to do. So, personally, I wouldn't describe it as a "basic GUI fail" at all. In fact, I like it.


Anyway, back to the OP, Vikartna. Another nice thing is that the game "remembers" what you last had in your hands prior to selecting a hotkeyed choice. So, for example, when I hit 1 to equip my greatsword that's great, and then if I hit 1 again it unequips the greatsword and goes back to what was in my hands before that, like restoration spell left hand and soul trap 1H weapon in right hand.

FYI: If you have identical spells set to both hands and then hit a weapon hotkey and then hit "X" quickly, it will equip the weapon but skip the draw animation (the weapon will be on your back or in its sheath), which can be nice.

I accidentally did that with healing early one, now healing myself is easy peasy.

Awesome thought thats how it worked but i didnt get it work when i tryed, thx for posting!