Why care about Skyrim's menus?

[dashiz94]

I've been seeing numerous threads and articles complaining about Skyrim's interface and menu and what I just can't understand is...why? Why does it matter if the menu is slightly worse than it was in Oblivion? Does it still work for you? Can you still get to your items? Is at least partially organized? Yes, yes, and yes. So why make a big fuss over it? Judging from the tone of many of the comments regarding it, they almost make it out to be a total gamebreaker, when it's not.

Basic point, if you're going to complain about a game, make it so with decent points. Not because the menu doesn't look purrty.

 

[Laxman9292]

This is a bad point to make I think. If there was a change that makes things less convenient for you then you can complain about it. It might not be a deal breaker but the little things can build up and become the most frustrating things.

That being said I don't have the game and I doubt it'll matter to me. From what I heard it's just straight alphabetized? Sounds fine...

 

[cryogeist]

well a game would be slightly less annoying if it didn't annoy you every time you brought up a menu...i dunno i don't even have the game yet.

 

[Akytalusia]

hmm.. people are complaining about this? i find the new menus very intuitive and user friendly.

 

[dashiz94]

This is a bad point to make I think. If there was a change that makes things less convenient for you then you can complain about it. It might not be a deal breaker but the little things can build up and become the most frustrating things.

That being said I don't have the game and I doubt it'll matter to me. From what I heard it's just straight alphabetized? Sounds fine...

It's the level that people are complaining about it. I have the game and yeah there's some faults with it but it works just fine for me. All I need a menu for is to see, Weapons, Apparel, Food, etc., go into that menu, and select the item I want. If I have to scroll to the one I want and waste A FEW SECONDS (GASP), then so be it. The way it's been discussed around the web has been with such vindication you would almost think the entire menu was just a black screen.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

This is a bit of a pointless thread! Are you trying to make discussion or just stating a point that you could have done in one of the mentioned threads?

I'll give the benefit of the doubt and go with 'attempt at discussion.'

I think people are more upset that there is a problem that wasn't addressed throughout the games progression. It is a common problem that has appeared in all the companies games of this type, and it is still reccuring. Complaining about it on the internet can surprisingly be a constructive way of addressing the problem. Not only can it end up in the eyes of a developer, (especially if on a more noticible prestigious site such as this one) but also can enourage others to say how they feel. In the past this has lead developers to change for the better, sometimes without having to do market research beforehand, as the opinions are already out there...

 

[tofulove]

personally for me, the menu doesn't bother me, but many do complain making it a valid point. and it could be improve. but hasn't hamper me any. my biggest grip so far is you cant have multi items on a hot key, like when i press 2 it pulls out my sword and shield as a example.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

I agree with the OP in that it's not a gamebreaker, and people should just stop acting like it is. I also agree with the first poster (to an extent) that it's a bit worse the Oblivion's. If only because I liked seeing my character when I equipped stuff. I know there's a 3rd person mode, but you still have to be standing by a light source and have your weapon sheathed just to get a good look at your own face. That's kinda silly, but again, hardly a gamebreaker. I mean, I don't ever find myself MISSING the old menu, so I guess it can't be THAT bad.


And just what the fuck is this shit?

I'm gonna go with "byBrit neonu". Wish me luck.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

Im also confused as to why people have a problem with it. PC users i can understand but the menu is much less cluttered than Oblivions, theres a section for armour, weapons, potions, books, keys, and misc. items, much better than Oblivion where keys, books and misc. shared a slot, it took forever to get to things.

 

[jaraclain]

I think the people who are most likely to complain about the menus are the mages because it is a ***** to have to keep going back in a swapping out spells. For warriors and theives its not too bad.

 

[shrekfan246]

I've been seeing numerous threads and articles complaining about Skyrim's interface and menu and what I just can't understand is...why? Why does it matter if the menu is slightly worse than it was in Oblivion? Does it still work for you? Can you still get to your items? Is at least partially organized? Yes, yes, and yes. So why make a big fuss over it? Judging from the tone of many of the comments regarding it, they almost make it out to be a total gamebreaker, when it's not.

Basic point, if you're going to complain about a game, make it so with decent points. Not because the menu doesn't look purrty.

My issue with the menu is that it's poorly implemented into the PC version. The menus themselves are extremely laggy, not registering that I've moved my mouse onto a different button half of the time and clicking an item that I had selected five items up the other half because it decided it didn't want to move the selected item when I scrolled down. It gets very annoying when you need to enter the item/magic screens every fifteen minutes, or when you want to sell items but the menu registers you asking the shopkeeper if they've heard any rumors instead because the cursor didn't move.

 

[TilMorrow]

I think the menu looks shiney :3. Okay to be serious for a moment the new menu does feel a bit disorientating for me especially since I'm playing Skyrim on PC rather than PS3 or Xbox 360 as I did for Obilvion but I largely feel I'll get used as I play on. What I'm more annoyed by is how close FPV seems. It feels like I'm pressing my face against the screen for goodness sake.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

I thought the complaint was with the key-driven menus on PC, as apposed to being mouse-wheel-driven, or even cursor-driven. Like, it's weird that you can only scroll with WASD, and not with the mouse wheel designed for scrolling. It basically highlighted that the PC version was just a slightly improved port, which, when you're making a game that's garnered so much praise from PC gamers, is not something you want to do.

That's what I've heard, anyway.

 

[Agayek]

hmm.. people are complaining about this? i find the new menus very intuitive and user friendly.

The menus look very shiny, but there's a number of issues with it, at least on the PC version. I doubt it applies to consoles, but on PC the menus are rather unresponsive. They also have a tendency to de-sync from the mouse and become unusable (which can and has caused problems in conversations).

That said, I only really have 2 complaints with the Skyrim UI:

First, there's no buff bar. I have to go through a number of different menus just to find out if my potions are still active or not. This is not proper game design. Oblivion did it much better, and something like that would have been greatly appreciated.

Second, there's no breath bar. When you're swimming, you have to guess how close you are to running out of breath, and it's really silly. It's cut off a few, admittedly rare, areas of exploration for me.

Neither of these are particularly game-breaking, but considering they were perfectly serviceable in the last game, it's rather glaring.

 

[Zeh Don]

The reason the issues with the menu are so widely discussed is because in a game such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, you spend a good bit of time in menus. You use them to access literally thousands of items over the course of hundreds of hours of gameplay.
In a game like Uncharted 3, for example, the menus are less of an issue.

 

[Talux]

The menu system in Skyrim is just bad. It's a nice game but the menus are awful, there's no way around it.

The inventory is poorly organised, the favorites list is clunky, right and left hands are swapped over on the mouse for some weird reason, the skill up tree is nothing short of awful, there's way too much empty space on the inventory screen, there's no character display on the inventory screen, status effects are hidden behind two menus for no reason, I feel like I'm fighting the interface when I try to pick dialogue options etc.

 

[infohippie]

For me, the main problem with the menus is simply that they have bugs. I often have to choose an item two or three times before it registers, and it all-too-frequently selects a different item to the one I have selected. Oblivion's menus might have been more cluttered but at least they worked reliably.

 

[Risingblade]

They just take a little bit of getting used to. Play long enough and you won't even notice the difference. The magic menu is at least superior to the old one. So much more organized and easier to sort though.

 

[Talux]

They just take a little bit of getting used to. Play long enough and you won't even notice the difference. The magic menu is at least superior to the old one. So much more organized and easier to sort though.

Really, it's objectively bad.

Having to open up this big, clunky menu every time I want to change weapons or spells is ridiculous. Why can't I set my weapons and abilities to 1-9 (or on console set a shoulder button to quick-switching). Why does the picture of an apple take up 2/3rds of the screen? Why don't I have a character portrait to see what I actually have equipped?

I know you can get used to it but that doesn't stop it from being bad.