Why so hard to switch combat modes?

[Eldarmari]

See what i dont get with skyrim and i noticed this from the beginning, is that when i used to play morrowind it was a simple task to switch weapons, and magic etc and all that.

 

Correct me if i am wrong (its been awhile since i played Morrowind) if you had a weapon out, you just scrolled the mouse up, it would switch to caster mode, and vice versa, at least thats what i remembering having it set up as?

 

So why cant we do something extremely simple like that in Skyrim? i read a lot of people having issues with switching and cumbersome setups to go from say dual wield to cast and back.

 

The "favorites" system isnt really all that great either, it saves some time, but when you use it, it pauses the game, and you click on the setup, then the game resumes, for me that kills the immersion a bit to have to constantly click through menu's just to switch modes?

 

There doesn't seem to be any hotkeys or way to set keys for anything to resemble a saved setup in the game, which really wish there was.

 

Also i started out using 1 hander and shield, and to switch them, the game confuses the bejeezus about of me with its reference to right hand and left hand and which mouse button does what, because half the time i'd click my 1 hander, click my shield, it would unpause, and i'd be standing there with just the shield on, attacking with my fists...the 1 hander disspears off my belt where it hangs, so i go back into the favorites thing, click off and on, and it will get me what i want, but i have to click a million times in different combinations to get it to EQUIP 1 HAND AXE AND SHIELD at the SAME time...am i doing it wrong?

 

because this frustrated me a lot, because if i wanted to switch to my bow for some ranged (or even magic) when i wanted to go back to 1hand/shield i'd have to do the click dance again....sigh

 

So what is preventing us to have a simple scroll up or down to switch stances? wouldnt that be the best solution? the game would be so much smoother imo, stroll into a dungeon, with a bow, snap an arrow into a dude's head, his guards come up, scroll up, bam 1hand/shield ready to go, fight them, and then scroll down for healing magic...SIMPLE right??

 

the combat in this game is above and beyond and great over the older elderscroll games...but they have cluttered it up a bit to switch modes or something.

[Farem]

So what is preventing us to have a simple scroll up or down to switch stances?

The Creation Kit.

[Eldarmari]

well yeah i guess thats 1 thing, when does the creation kit come out? I just really hope the community can fix it up, because it would make the game 100x better for me, and probably a lot of others. Its 1 thing to say hey well you should choose 1 style and stick with it (like archer only using bows) but there are a lot of times you need that 1 hander/shield or some magic, and clicking through all that just to do what you want, gets old fast, especially in the middle of combat.

[BigH002]

Also i started out using 1 hander and shield, and to switch them, the game confuses the bejeezus about of me with its reference to right hand and left hand and which mouse button does what, because half the time i'd click my 1 hander, click my shield, it would unpause, and i'd be standing there with just the shield on, attacking with my fists...the 1 hander disspears off my belt where it hangs, so i go back into the favorites thing, click off and on, and it will get me what i want, but i have to click a million times in different combinations to get it to EQUIP 1 HAND AXE AND SHIELD at the SAME time...am i doing it wrong?

The problem is the game uses a right handed character (block with left hand, hit with right) but the common mouse setup is for right button = block. I agree, it gets really confusing sometimes, but I can understand why they did it.

 

 

For the favorites... Open the favorite menu (Q), then when you have a weapon/spell/etc selected (but still on the menu) hit a number key (number row, not sure if the pad works). It saves that item to that number so when you're in combat you can just hit the number and it switched, no pausing the game or mucking about. It's finicky however, so since you can only bind a single item to a number it has problems with dual-wielding, or maybe I just haven't figured out a good key setup for dual-wield since I don't use it often.

[Eldarmari]

hmm i had been clicking to equip on the favorites thing, i didnt realize/see that you could assign a number...maybe that would be a huge help. because before i'd click on my weapon and then the shield, it would have the little icon like you equipped it from the inventory menu, so i thought ok both are equipped, i exit the favorites thing and i am standing there with just shield on, and thats when i go in and equip/unequip both in different combinatons till it finally gets what i want, its very cumbersome like that

 

so maybe i'll look at it and see about assinging a number, and if i can just hit "1" for 1hand/shield and "2" for magic (or bow) that wouldnt be so bad i guess, but this clicking and equipping to get it to switch to proper setup drives me nuts...i dont even use anything now but a bow but when i start a warrior i'd imangine i'd want some flexibility then

 

thanks for suggestion..i'll try that out

[Vagrant0]

For the right hand - left button, left hand - right button... thing, I just swapped the two pretty much from the start. Seems to be a bit more intuitive although I'd probably drive myself mad when going back to Oblivion or something. Atleast my right mouse button is getting more use lately.