These controls really suck
 

So, after buying the game a month ago, I'm finally trying to delve into it… but what the hell is up with these controls?

After some googling, I figured out how to hotkey weapons/spells (hurray for counter-intuitiveness), but it seems that if I want to swap from a 2handed weapon to sword/shield or magic/shield, I'm up the creek?

The hot-key system could definitely use a bit of work.

Sometimes it seems to remember your last dual-pairing when you switch from brawling/unarmed to a one handed option, but I've not done any testing to see if two handed weapons work the same way.

This is just so irritatingly cumbersome! And why can't I equip a shield in my right hand? Controls are the opposite of what they actually do, left button for right hand, right for left hand… and if I keymap them differently, then I'm right clicking to attack and left clicking to block - which makes no sense from an ergonomic standpoint!

It's just astonishing that TES games continue to get glowing reviews on launch with all these fumbles.

Yes, I have to agree that the controls were one of the weaker aspects of the game. I played a mage and not being able to assign a key to an arb LR spell combo struck me as pretty crap. As well as the left is right and right is left thing ;-) Eventually you learn to make the mental switch but it is confusing - perhaps a controller works better in this case (?)

I'm going to shelve the game I think. I've waited this long, may as well wait a little longer until modders fix the game (again). How do you screw up controls this badly in an AAA title?

I've been trying all morning to push through this, but I don't have the patience for it.

I was confused by the Left mouse button controlling the right hand and vice versa too. I brought this up early on at the official forums and was called a noob and a troll… jus for asking about it in a curious way, not a trollish way.

In the end, it has made sense for me to just switch the mouse buttons in the controls menu so that right mouse button controls right hand and left mouse button controls left hand.

It takes a little bit of getting use to attacking with your primary weapon by clicking the right mouse button, but it made my brain crack in half a little less versus leaving the default setting of left mouse button controls right hand and vice versa - that just gave me a headache.

Yeah, it initially threw me off for like 2 minutes, but then you adjust and carry on. It certainly didn't impact the game for me after that, I just opened my inventory and changed stuff as needed. Granted, I was playing melee only, no mage skills, so I didn't have that avenue to deal with.



-Carn

Yeah, I pretty much use the favorites menu in combat, and just hotkey for switching shouts/powers and bringing a torch up and down. It's a shame the hotkeys aren't done better.

I mapped all keys to a gamepad and had the same confusion with clicking the left mouse to control the right arm. I am right-handed myself so I prefer to have the shield in the left hand and sword in the right. ;)

Solved the problem by re-mapping in-game the left and right hand mouse button. Works fine, but for some reason the key mapping is not saved. Just repeated it at every game session and I enjoyed the game every minute I played it (ahum, 300 hours). :D

I fixed the problem by switching the left and right in the controls and then dual wielding dagger so it doesn't matter which button I press. Of course now I can't block and there's no roll so I take a lot of hits unless I back straight out of combat, moving left or right and I always get hit.

Definitely INSANE! I'm mostly sticking to bows right now, using spells like summons that I don't have to do in the heat of combat. The right/left switch will make handing the bow mighty strange so I would rather avoid that.

It all would have been a lot easier if they had simply made our characters left handed.

If anyone is interested in the ability to individually assign hotkeys for right and left hands (ie., most players), this mod is mandatory, Extra Hotkeys.

I'm currently using F1 for shield, F2 for right weapon, F3 for left weapon, and F4 for bow. You can do the same with spells.

Nice. I wonder if there is a version that works with the Skyrim Script Extender? I can't imagine both (dragon + skyrim script extenders) will play together nicely?

I have both running just fine, Thrasher. Several mods installed with each.

Really? Seems scary, but it may be worth risking a house of cards to get better hotkey behavior.