Skyrim Gameplay - Now including classic dumb AI

[Surf Solar]

This inventory is one of the worst I've ever seen. Seriously, even the Fallout 1 interface with all its clunciness deserves a goldmedal agaisnt this.

 

[Micmu]

I love how in today's console games, there are no more icons/thumbnails for individual items; they replaced them with lame, dry listboxes. I suppose the modern consoles are powerful enough to be able to display text.

 

[sser]

It looks like what Oblivion should have been. The graphics and art are fine with me, I just want to know if the gameplay is still totally fucked. If I'm level 50 will I still be fighting thieves decked out in heavy plate armor? Will little crabs pinch the kneecaps out of me? Etc.

 

[.Sigurd]

The game doesn't look half bad, IMO. Nowhere near as bad as Oblivion's art direction, that's for sure. Miles better than the current trend of cartoony/ultra-high-fantasy/anime art style that is so fucking rampant nowadays.

Agreed. The art direction, while not good as Morrowind, managed to get that nordic feel. Even technologically being almost Oblivion level the good art direction manage to make some nice views.

If this game had a highly challenging combat/character system, unintrusive dragons, interesting dungeons, and passable dialogue, I would *definitely* give it a try.

Huehuehuehuehuehuehuehuehuehuehuehuehue impossible.

I love how in today's console games, there are no more icons/thumbnails for individual items; they replaced them with lame, dry listboxes. I suppose the modern consoles are powerful enough to be able to display text.

Why you need icons when you have 3D view of the itens?

 

[Micmu]

Why you need icons when you have 3D view of the itens?

3D view of currently selected item, not whole inventory.

 

[sea]

Here's a list of things I consider paramount to good interface design:

1. Should prioritise function over looks. Always, always, always, this is the core tenet.
2. Where looks are concerned, the interface serves as a portal into the game world and should reflect its tone and style, without being obtrusive. It's okay to be abstract and different so long as it's not confusing or hard to read. For instance, health and mana orbs in Diablo are rather unconventional, but suit the game aesthetic perfectly and are one of the game's iconic traits.
3. Information should be easily and quickly accessible and visible at a glance, not buried. The fewest number of necessary inputs to reach what the user needs is something to strive for.
4. Controls should be simple and intuitive - button and keyboard commands should always be consistent and in line with expectations for the genre (i.e. J always brings up the journal, back button always returns to the previous screen).
5. The design should anticipate how people use the interface and build features around that, not go based on what the designer thinks the player should want. Denying gameplay-sensitive information to the player is insulting and not at all a legitimate design choice, and is comparable to something like having the player's controls freeze up every five seconds.
6. When possible, the interface should provide convenience functions for the user. For example, this could be highlighting whether an item's stat is higher and lower than the currently equipped one, or showing how much money the player has before and after a transaction.
7. Information should not be context-sensitive. I should always be able to see how many of X item I have, my potential choices in leveling up my character, my journal and lore entries I've picked up in the past, etc.
8. A detailed, accurate map is necessary, if possible displaying the specific locations of important buildings, characters and so on. A bad map, or a complete lack of one, is a major sin and will significantly hurt a game and its playability.
9. Finally, organise information logically. If I want to get to my inventory, I should be able to get there quickly, and my items should be organised in a way that makes sense. Where possible, add sorting and auto-arrange functions to avoid micromanagement and wasted time.

I don't think Skyrim fails at all of these, but in many respects it's just awful, especially as far as its aesthetics and efficiency with screen real estate go. I've seen many other screens of the interface which seem to require excessive amounts of scrolling to reach desired information, often in the service of looks, which to me is the worst sin you can commit as far as UI goes. That Bethesda can't even get something as simple or basic as interface design down to me really says something about the quality of their design as a whole, and their priorities when it comes to creating Skyrim... not that it's a surprise or anything.

 

[Excidium]

The inventory looks more like an options screen, but it is much better than the one in Oblivion and Fallout 3.

What's depressing is how that sword only has a DMG stat.

 

[Micmu]

Looks like some TV on-screen menu.
They even did away with their ES trademark red/blue/green bars and replaced them with taskbar of some sort... They totally outdid themselves with this one - when I thought that oblivious UI was really bad (like some kind of lame web site).
Sure it's "just" an UI but it really speaks volumes how badly uncreative these jokers are.

 

[racofer]

DA2 is looking like a complex game, in contrast.

Bethesdurr.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

It really sucks that you can take on a dragon by your lonesome self, herp-derp-derp shouts be damned. When I think of fighting a dragon, I imagine a seizable amount of people in a coordinated effort, maybe archers and spear throwers if dragon's skin can be penetrated by those, lots of pikeman to overwhelm and immobilize the thing when it lands, people with ropes etc.

Well, that's a more...realistic depiction of such a fight, I guess? When I think of "dragon-snuffing team", I imagine this.



I can't tell which one is nerdier

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/59467 ... D2DE7E33F/

Surely Bethesda can beat Bioware's writing now. THEY CAN DO IT.

 

[Panegyric Tryst]

that interface looks like windows vista

 

[Xi]

The user interface is one of the most common pitfalls of any role-playing game, what with the amount of skill progression and item management the genre throws at you. Bethesda's solution? "We're big Apple fans at Bethesda," said Howard, and the clean, minimalist game interface was designed out of an attempt to create the sort of menu system Apple might make if it decided to build a fantasy game. You can navigate the majority of the menu system using only directions on the analog stick, never having to press a single button until you get to an item you want to use. Skill trees are depicted not as abstract lines on the screen, but as constellations in the sky that you must move from one star to the next as you upgrade your skills.

 

[Reptilian Shapeshifter]

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/594679948378133855/1A95DB8D679B412C4778B5D9F6D586CD2DE7E33F/

Surely Bethesda can beat Bioware's writing now. THEY CAN DO IT.

I want to tastefully rape a dragon.

 

[Metro]

I love how in today's console games, there are no more icons/thumbnails for individual items; they replaced them with lame, dry listboxes. I suppose the modern consoles are powerful enough to be able to display text.

Indeed. I can't begin to tell you how much I hate the lazy/bland console list style of inventory. At least with icons/thumbnails for half a second you might think: I have a bunch of cool loot... but with a list... it's just meaningless names/digital crap.

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

Notice there's a "Favorites" section in the general inventory list, why not just call it "Bookmarks" while they're at it? Doesn't seem consolized to me, just much closer to trendy OS interfaces than a game's inventory system.

Besides they said the pc version was going to have a different interface system.

 

[Bahamut]

Besides they said the pc version was going to have a different interface system.

Here we go again, they said the same before oblivion and FO3 was released

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

I don't recall them saying anything about a different interface for the pc version of fo3, just some improvements like resolution-scaled number of visible items.

You're probably right though, I can't find the exact quote on the skyrim pc interface and from the way they're jerking off about this apple-style stuff and Todd's talk about the pc representing less than 10% of their sales we're likely stuck with the mouse-enabled version.

 

[Orgasmic ThoughtCrime]

Holy shit, the interface looks atrocious.

I mostly agree with Sea’s list of interface design, but I feel that keeping the tone of the game and immersion when designing the interface is just as important as making it readable and easy to use.
In fact, I’d be willing to sacrifice a bit of info or readability in favour of a more stylish look and better integration with the gameworld.

I’m sick of this trend nowadays of making everything “accessible” and “readable” in the detriment of immersion. Everything looks like a cross between an iPhone app and a website.

Just look at DA2’s interface with its freaking web 2.0 style helveticons for items. Oh, and the letters you receive, written on black plexiglass with a very medieval-looking sans-serif font.

And that screen from Skyrim takes the cake. I almost want to slide my finger across the screen to see if I can cycle through items that way.

Fucking hell, these are supposed to be medieval fantasy RPGs, not “web standards 101”.

 

[thesheeep]

Oh, and enjoy your extremely consolized inventory:

Wow. An inventory in which you can actually find and see stuff that takes 100% of the screen. How horrible. No, really, what's so bad about that inventory?

Yeah, I mean, it's not great, obviously, but seems to be better than the Oblivion one IMHO.
And as long as it is better than that Fallout (3+NV) abomination of an inventory, and it looks like it will be, it is usable.

 

[Turisas]

Darn to the rescue. Hopefully.

 

[Black]

Oh, and enjoy your extremely consolized inventory:

Wow. An inventory in which you can actually find and see stuff that takes 100% of the screen. How horrible. No, really, what's so bad about that inventory?

Yeah, I mean, it's not great, obviously, but seems to be better than the Oblivion one IMHO.
And as long as it is better than that Fallout (3+NV) abomination of an inventory, and it looks like it will be, it is usable.

Whoa, this looks extremely complicated.

 

[Begriffenfeldt]

The inventory doesn't look half bad. It might be quite simple to navigate actually, as long as those 3D models don't slow down scrolling. But notice how they still only show six items at a time, fucking derp.

 

[CorpseZeb]

… because consolites are connected to their old 4:3 21' SD TV sets? How many them, dunno, but clearly enough for that stupid UI.

 

[Rivmusique]

Wow. An inventory in which you can actually find and see stuff that takes 100% of the screen. How horrible. No, really, what's so bad about that inventory?

Yeah, I mean, it's not great, obviously, but seems to be better than the Oblivion one IMHO.
And as long as it is better than that Fallout (3+NV) abomination of an inventory, and it looks like it will be, it is usable.

Well if it's just for consoles as someone suggested in this thread, no problem really. It looks like it's quite a decent UI to navigate with a gamepad. However, if this is what they are using for PC version as well, it's not taking advantage of mouse/keyboard at all. I would prefer a grid-like icon-based inventory (so I can see more than 6 items at once) with drag & drop arranging etc. Think pretty much Morrowind/Twitcher 1, throw in a "Sort by:" dropdown list and maybe even a "Search" function and there you have it.