The Content of the Display Screen

Shadowshire

What I need is a diagram or photgraph of the (default) UI display screen which identifies the various bars, buttons, and numbers that are displayed.

For example, currently, I do not know which bar signifies health, magicka, or stamina, respectively. They don't have any labels and I don't find any UI setting that will cause labels to be displayed or to be hidden. There is a column of numbers that comes and goes on the lower third of the left edge. They are displayed in multiple colors, but not even one of them is labeled.

I see screenshots in which there appears to be a chat window in the lower left corner like the ones I've seen in other games. Currently, it is not displayed on my character's UI. Perhaps it is only displayed when we use the <Enter> key to open it so that we can send a message. So does it remain open afterward? How do you monitor it for "chatter" amongst other players -- or is that not allowed?

Even the "compass" bar across the top is indecipherable, because it does not seem to have any relationship to the "direction" which my character currently faces. There is a marker on it that moves left or right when he moves, but that doesn't tell me the direction in which my character is moving.

Although I bought the retail Standard Edition with Explorer's pack, the retail package does not include a manual like the one for Skyrim. It only has a sheet of Gameplay Controls which, according to the keybind feature, is partially outdated as well as rather incomplete.

So I will appeciate it if you can point me to an annotated diagram or photo of the UI display screen that identifies each item that it displays.

Aett_Thorn

Red bar = Health
Blue bar = Magika
Green bar = Stamina

The chat bar will display if there is chat that you can hear, not just when you want to talk. So if there is somebody chatting in /zone chat, you will see the bar pop up.

The navigation compass has directions for North, East, South and West on it. You should be able to tell which direction your character is facing using those.

MMOs used to come with manuals, but they were usually outdated before the game went live due to changes in powers, systems, etc. As such, game companies stopped using them. There is, however, a help function in the game that you can access that should help you out.

Bloodystab

Press F1 in game, there is a lot of info.

Rosveen

I am at a loss how one can not figure out what each status bar represents after spending even just a short amount of time in the game. Especially someone who, by his/her own admission, has played other similar games. Is this thread a jab at the decision to not include a physical manual? No obvious help menu in the game? Or at the lack of UI options?

nerevarine1138

Bloodystab wrote: »

Press F1 in game, there is a lot of info.

This. I'd also add that when a tutorial window comes up, read it. Most of your questions are answered in the first few windows that appear during the tutorial.

MADshadowman

Natural selection...

natural selection.

Shadowshire

Aett_Thorn wrote: »

Red bar = Health
Blue bar = Magika
Green bar = Stamina
....

Thank-you for your reply. Unfortunately, I am red/green colorblind. (Usually "green" appears to be red, orange, or yellow to me.) Since about 15% of the human male population is colorblind in some respect, you'd think that game designers would take that into account, but think again. Artists assume that everyone sees all of the same colors that they see. ..... The only colorblind artist that I've ever met was a sculptor. :-)

So, in which order are they displayed ? Is it top-to-bottom or left-to-right?

I'm not sure of their location on the screen, and everything changes when my character engages in combat. During a fight, there appears to be one bar for the opponent at the top and just one bar for my character at the bottom, under him. .....

I have installed the add-on "Foundry Tactical Combat" but I have not played the game with it yet. .... Later this evening, I hope.

Shadowshire

Rosveen wrote: »

I am at a loss how one can not figure out what each status bar represents after spending even just a short amount of time in the game. Especially someone who, by his/her own admission, has played other similar games. Is this thread a jab at the decision to not include a physical manual? No obvious help menu in the game? Or at the lack of UI options?

Often many things go on at the same time, especially during combat. So it is not easy to correlate what happens on the screen with changes in bars and numbers, etc., especially since all of them are are not continuously displayed. If your character receives damage at or about the same time they cast a spell, then changes occur simultaneously in both health and magicka and maybe stamina, too. So, from that, how do you recognize which bar is which?

Even for someone with prior experience (none on consoles, only with PCs), the learning curve has been a lot steeper than I ever anticipated. So far most of my time and effort has been spent "learning" how to move my character, a matter that I have discussed on another thread.

xaade

Red is in the middle. This is the health bar. It empties toward the middle.
Resource bars are on the left and right. They empty toward the middle of the screen. So bar on left empties right, and vice versa.
I forget which is on which side, but if you sprint and one of them gets lower as you sprint. That's stamina.

Also, the bars are shaped differently. Health bar has points on either end, resource bars have points in the direction they face and are flat in the center.

Some people have mods that move the bars.

AoEnwyr

Shadowshire wrote: »

Aett_Thorn wrote: »

Red bar = Health
Blue bar = Magika
Green bar = Stamina
....

Thank-you for your reply. Unfortunately, I am red/green colorblind. (Usually "green" appears to be red, orange, or yellow to me.)

So, in which order are they displayed ? Is it top-to-bottom or left-to-right?

I'm not sure of their location on the screen, and everything changes when my character engages in combat. During a fight, there appears to be one bar for the opponent at the top and just one bar for my character at the bottom, under him. .....

I have installed the add-on "Foundry Tactical Combat" but I have not played the game with it yet. .... Later this evening, I hope.

There are a couple of things you can do under your settings.

Firstly from memory the Health/Stamina/Magicka and abilities are all set to auto hide when you are out of combat. You can set this to always show if it is confusing to you to have it suddenly pop up once in combat.

Magicka is displayed on the left, Health in the middle and Stamina on the right. These are the three horizontal bars above your ability slots.

The enemy health bar appears in the middle of the top of the screen as a horizontal red bar for a single enemy such as a world boss.. By default I think health bars for trash mobs are turned off. You can turn this on under your settings.

I am using Foundry Tactical Combat UI which allows for more customisation if you want to tailor UI elements to your needs.

The chat window auto fades after a given period of time. If there is no chat in the area you may not see anything in it for a while. It is possible that you have the chat window minimised.

In the lower left of your screen, where the chat box is by default there is a tiny triangle that if clicked will enlarge the chat box if you have hidden it by accident.

Hope this helps.

Shadowshire

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

Bloodystab wrote: »

Press F1 in game, there is a lot of info.

This. I'd also add that when a tutorial window comes up, read it. Most of your questions are answered in the first few windows that appear during the tutorial.

FWIW, I have read every "tutorial" displayed so far, and not one of them has offered any "tips" about the UI. Maybe things have changed since you last saw them.

What little they say has yet to be actually applicable to the initial quest to get out of Cold Harbour. Since it is irrelevant to the context, I have no idea how much of it I will remember and recognize whenever it might become relevant in the future.

Occasionally a message does appear to press some particular key(s) or a combination of mouse buttons to do something, such as get out of a trap or an AoE. Often there is nothing apparent on the display that would signify that he is in a trap or receiving AoE damage, i.e., nothing that I can recognize as such. So the message leaves me wondering why it was shown.

In that context, when the instruction seems to have probably done something in one situation, it might not evidently have any effect in another one. After a while, a player has the unavoidable impression that either something is missing from the display screen or that the software is unreliable.

In my experience, the "Help" is rarely updated simultaneously with the software, and instructions posted on websites and online .PDF files are neglected as well. Only about 25% of the users for any given piece of software are likely to RTFM (Read The Friendly Manual), so many publishers provide the minimum, if any at all. Frequently Asked Questions usually aren't. I don't suppose that TESO will be any different in that respect.

What is obvious to some people will seldom be obvious to everyone, and those who think it is obvious may be entirely mistaken in their perceptions nonetheless.

Shadowshire

Bloodystab wrote: »

Press F1 in game, there is a lot of info.

Thank-you for the reminder! That is an antique feature that I seldom see any more. For what it is worth, I can recall when no one published software without a .CHM file accessed with either F1 or F2. ..... I hope it is contextual, but I don't expect that it will be. <sigh>

Shadowshire

xaade wrote: »

Red is in the middle. This is the health bar. It empties toward the middle. Resource bars are on the left and right. They empty toward the middle of the screen. So bar on left empties right, and vice versa. .... Also, the bars are shaped differently. Health bar has points on either end, resource bars have points in the direction they face and are flat in the center. ....

Okay, thank-you for that information. It has been over two years since I last played TES5: Skyrim so I've been reviewing the onscreen UI in the player's manual to compare it to the one that I see in TESO.

The bar on the left is Magicka, the center is Health, and the bar on the right is Stamina.

That's interesting, because during fights with the "Child of Bones" in Cold Harbor, the only bars that I have seen are the health bar under my character and a health bar under The Prophet -- and a health bar (?) under the enemy.

Recently I received an e-mail from Zenimax that referred me to "tips" for new players online, that does have some useful information about how to tell when your character is affected by an AoE, or when the foe is charging-up for a special ability, or the foe is "channeling" for a spell, and what to do in each case.
(http://www.ign.com/wikis/elder-scrolls-online/Tips_and_Tricks_for_New_Players) Today they sent an e-mail acknowledging that my character has increased to Level 1.

They should send that information out as soon as the player downloads and installs the game. As it stands, it arrived over a week too late. :-(

Shadowshire

UlanX wrote: »

There are a couple of things you can do under your settings.

Firstly from memory the Health/Stamina/Magicka and abilities are all set to auto hide when you are out of combat. You can set this to always show if it is confusing to you to have it suddenly pop up once in combat.

Thanks! I don't recall seeing a configuration option to show them at all times, so I will take another look. Since they are restored while the character is not in combat, it seems to be a good idea to keep them displayed so that the player will know what their status is before choosing to start a fight as the aggressor.

Be that as it may, as I have commented in reply to xaade, during the fights with Child of Bones, only one bar has been displayed. If memory serves, it had an arrow at each end and the solid content seemed to shrink from the ends toward the middle. Maybe that is the only bar displayed while the character has no Magicka and no Stamina remaining.

Magicka is displayed on the left, Health in the middle and Stamina on the right. These are the three horizontal bars above your ability slots.

Ummm .... so far I haven't seen any ability slots either, but maybe that is because my character doesn't have any abilities yet.

If memory serves, there is an option to display actual values instead of percentages for stats, so maybe I have that option enabled and the bars are turned off. There is a column of numbers in tiny font along the edge of the lower lefthand corner. It seems to me that the bars should be displayed, with a choice between showing a percentage on the bar or showing the actual value of the stat on the bar (an option in WoW).

Thank-you also for the additional information about Foundry Tactical Combat and about the Chat Window. I will check for a tiny triangle in the corner where the Chat Box is located. From what I have seen in a screenshot, displaying the Chat Box also displays the colored numbers across the top of it, with labels for them.

P.S.: you have a great signature. :-)

Enodoc

@Shadowshire I'm afraid I can't do a diagram right now, but hopefully the following will help:

• Top-center: Compass. Rotates with the camera to show you what direction you're facing, has cardinal points marked by N, E, S, W. Locations and quest givers you are close to are marked on there with their respective icons.
  • Note: In a boss fight, the compass becomes the boss's health bar.
  • There are add-ons, such as "MiniMap by Fyrakin", which replace the compass with a mini-map in the top-right corner.
• Top-center, underneath the compass: Target Nameplate. This is the name, level and health of the character that your reticule is currently on. This looks pretty much the same regardless of whether it's a friendly NPC, a player, or an enemy.
• Bottom-center: Skill bar. This lists the skills that you have in your current set up, as seen on the K screen.
• Bottom-center, above the skill bar: Health Bar.
• Bottom left, in line with health: Magicka Bar.
• Bottom right, in line with health: Stamina Bar.
• Lower left area: Chat box. If minimised, appears as three icons with numbers (envelope - unread mail, two people - friends online, speech bubble - notifications) and a triangle. Click the triangle to open the chat box.
• Just below the top right corner: Quest tracker. Change tracked quest in the journal (J) or by pressing T.
• Dead-center: Reticule. Crosshair '+' by standard, changes to eye shape when sneaking/disguised (flat line when hidden).

I probably missed something out, so shout if there's something else you need clarification on!
There's also lots of add-ons that add to the UI if you want other things displayed.

nerevarine1138

Shadowshire wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

Bloodystab wrote: »

Press F1 in game, there is a lot of info.

This. I'd also add that when a tutorial window comes up, read it. Most of your questions are answered in the first few windows that appear during the tutorial.

FWIW, I have read every "tutorial" displayed so far, and not one of them has offered any "tips" about the UI. Maybe things have changed since you last saw them.

What little they say has yet to be actually applicable to the initial quest to get out of Cold Harbour. Since it is irrelevant to the context, I have no idea how much of it I will remember and recognize whenever it might become relevant in the future.

Occasionally a message does appear to press some particular key(s) or a combination of mouse buttons to do something, such as get out of a trap or an AoE. Often there is nothing apparent on the display that would signify that he is in a trap or receiving AoE damage, i.e., nothing that I can recognize as such. So the message leaves me wondering why it was shown.

In that context, when the instruction seems to have probably done something in one situation, it might not evidently have any effect in another one. After a while, a player has the unavoidable impression that either something is missing from the display screen or that the software is unreliable.

In my experience, the "Help" is rarely updated simultaneously with the software, and instructions posted on websites and online .PDF files are neglected as well. Only about 25% of the users for any given piece of software are likely to RTFM (Read The Friendly Manual), so many publishers provide the minimum, if any at all. Frequently Asked Questions usually aren't. I don't suppose that TESO will be any different in that respect.

What is obvious to some people will seldom be obvious to everyone, and those who think it is obvious may be entirely mistaken in their perceptions nonetheless.

I assure you (having had my tutorials come back after the most recent big patch) that the tutorials in Coldharbour are absolutely relevant to the rest of the game. Every single one of those windows would answer the questions you've had.

That said, the reason you're not seeing AoE damage is likely because of your colorblindness. AoE damage appears as a red area on the ground. And to answer another question you've raised: the reason you'll only see one bar during a given fight is if only one resource is being affected. If you aren't using magicka or stamina, those bars stay hidden by default.

Islyn

I would advise using something like FTC for health, mana, stam - bars are always visible and top is health, middle is mana, bottom is stam.

During things with a lot of AOE a la wispmother in AA, setting monitor to b/w or all 'blue' like it looks when you die - as you will be better able to see aoe.

Shadowshire

Enodoc wrote: »

@Shadowshire I'm afraid I can't do a diagram right now, but hopefully the following will help:

Thank-you for the list. It has been more than two years since I played Skyrim, but I found the manual. Apparently the default onscreen display for TESO is roughly the same as the default Skyrim display (as well as according to your description) -- perhaps with ability boxes (?) displayed along the bottom.

What has baffled me so far is that I have not seen most parts of it at all, such as the crosshairs reticule. Perhaps that is absent while the "mouse cursor" is toggled off, so I need to check it at the start of my next session.

The Magicka, Health and Stamina bars can also be configured to display only during combat, so I need to check that.

During the fights with "Child of Bones" the only bar that I can recall seeing was what I now know is the Health Bar. Perhaps the Magicka and Stamina bars were not displayed because my character had none remaining of them. If that was the case, then the UI designer's decision to omit them makes the learning curve much steeper than it needs to be for no particular benefit that I can perceive. What may be a feature looks like a bug.

• Top-center: Compass. Rotates with the camera to show you what direction you're facing, has cardinal points marked by N, E, S, W. Locations and quest givers you are close to are marked on there with their respective icons.
  ....
• There are add-ons, such as "MiniMap by Fyrakin", which replace the compass with a mini-map in the top-right corner.

Since I have installed Zr Minimap, I suppose that the default edge-on "Compass" will not be displayed. But if I have to use it, then I need to find out what each of the icons signifies. There should be documentation for this, perhaps by using <F1>. I will keep "MiniMap by Fyrakin" in mind as an alternative if I don't like Zr.
.....

• Bottom-center: Skill bar. This lists the skills that you have in your current set up, as seen on the K screen.

Again, this is something that I have not seen. I don't know whether a character has any skills by default, other than (if memory serves) racial skills. At this point my character should have some Skill Points but I have not attempted to access the Skills panel and allocate them.
....

• Lower left area: Chat box. If minimised, appears as three icons with numbers (envelope - unread mail, two people - friends online, speech bubble - notifications) and a triangle. Click the triangle to open the chat box.

Got it. Thanks for describing the respective icons.

• Just below the top right corner: Quest tracker. Change tracked quest in the journal (J) or by pressing T.

That could be toggled off, or maybe configured to not be displayed. Dunno whether I need it for most questing, but there are circumstances in which it could be useful.

• Dead-center: Reticule. Crosshair '+' by standard, changes to eye shape when sneaking/disguised (flat line when hidden).

Again, since I've never seen it, it is probably toggled off. If there is a "flat line" anywhere on the display screen then I probably have not recognized it to signify anything in particular. Most likely I would simply assume that it is a flaw in the graphics output data or the display card.

Again, thank-you for your time and effort. I appreciate it very much.

Shadowshire

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

Shadowshire wrote: »

FWIW, I have read every "tutorial" displayed so far, and not one of them has offered any "tips" about the UI. Maybe things have changed since you last saw them.

What little they say has yet to be actually applicable to the initial quest to get out of Cold Harbour. Since it is irrelevant to the context, I have no idea how much of it I will remember and recognize whenever it might become relevant in the future.

Occasionally a message does appear to press some particular key(s) or a combination of mouse buttons to do something, such as get out of a trap or an AoE. Often there is nothing apparent on the display that would signify that he is in a trap or receiving AoE damage, i.e., nothing that I can recognize as such. So the message leaves me wondering why it was shown.

....

I assure you (having had my tutorials come back after the most recent big patch) that the tutorials in Coldharbour are absolutely relevant to the rest of the game. Every single one of those windows would answer the questions you've had.

As I stated, I have not seen one that describes any part of the UI -- except, in retrospect, a "tips" box that was displayed the first time that I accessed the bags (Inventory). Bearing in mind that I have not yet used the <F1> key:

I have not seen anything that offers tips or instructions for moving a character, or explains the respective effects of the 3rd-person and 1st-person views upon movement and which features can be used in each. Nothing has been displayed as to using keys and mouse buttons and for their associated actions -- other than the messages that I mentioned above. The only other way to find this out is to access the keybinding settings and I haven't seen much documentation for any of them in particular. Please note that I did not know before I started the two threads here that if I use the Dodge keybind, then I must press the direction key after pressing the Dodge key; nowhere have I seen that documented. I have not seen anything that lists the parts of the display screen, or describes any part of the display screen, including any icon(s) that are associated with it. So far I haven't seen any documentation for the game configuration settings. If memory serves, some are not clearly identified as to their effects and/or as to which effect enabling the option will have.

So the only conclusion that I can reach is that the "tutorials" to which you refer have not been displayed at all. Perhaps their content was not included in the installed software and the updates which were downloaded and installed. Or there is a bug.

Since you seem to be their author, are they part of an addon?

That said, the reason you're not seeing AoE damage is likely because of your colorblindness. AoE damage appears as a red area on the ground.

No, I can see red. The only color that I rarely recognize is green (which is the most common AoE color in WoW). Whatever is colored green usually appears to me as red, orange, or yellow -- or sometimes as blue, blue-gray, gray, or brown. It does not mean that I do not see it at all.

More likely, I see it but do not recognize it as signifying something such as an AoE attack -- no "tutorial" has been displayed to describe how to detect it and what to do about it. However, I have found a resource that tells me what I need to know:

Tips_and_Tricks_for_New_Players

... the reason you'll only see one bar during a given fight is if only one resource is being affected. If you aren't using magicka or stamina, those bars stay hidden by default.

How would the game designer know whether I am "using magicka or stamina" during a fight? The only thing they would know is whether a character has any to use. So, if the character has no magicka and no stamina, then the player cannot use any skill or spell which requires them. Even then, as a software designer I would display the empty bars, because that is relevant information -- especially so for a beginning player!

If there are fights in which a character that does have magicaka and/or stamina cannot use those resources, then there should be some signification of that fact rather than just omitting display of the bars. For example, they could be displayed "greyed out", and the reason for that should be documented, of course.

No one automagically knows the rules of the game. They have to learn what they are whether by documentation (text and audio-visual), by trial-and-error, by asking for advice and instruction, or some combination of those ways of learning.

Valencer

The magicka and stamina bars are displayed if they aren't 100% full. So theyre also displayed if they're at 0% (empty).

Give me a moment, and I'll get you a screenshot with some helpful pointers.

WolfingHour

Another add-on you might want to check out is ggFrames which, like the Tactical Foundry one, allows for extensive UI customization.

One of the things you can do with one of them (can't remember which since I use both) is resize the HP/STA/MGK bars individually, so you can give them different heights to be able to distinguish between the three of them with a glance during the heat of battle.

squidgod2000b14_ESO

nevermind.

Enodoc

Shadowshire wrote: »

Enodoc wrote: »

@Shadowshire I'm afraid I can't do a diagram right now, but hopefully the following will help:

Thank-you for the list. It has been more than two years since I played Skyrim, but I found the manual. Apparently the default onscreen display for TESO is roughly the same as the default Skyrim display (as well as according to your description) -- perhaps with ability boxes (?) displayed along the bottom.

What has baffled me so far is that I have not seen most parts of it at all, such as the crosshairs reticule. Perhaps that is absent while the "mouse cursor" is toggled off, so I need to check it at the start of my next session.

The Magicka, Health and Stamina bars can also be configured to display only during combat, so I need to check that.

During the fights with "Child of Bones" the only bar that I can recall seeing was what I now know is the Health Bar. Perhaps the Magicka and Stamina bars were not displayed because my character had none remaining of them. If that was the case, then the UI designer's decision to omit them makes the learning curve much steeper than it needs to be for no particular benefit that I can perceive. What may be a feature looks like a bug.

• Top-center: Compass. Rotates with the camera to show you what direction you're facing, has cardinal points marked by N, E, S, W. Locations and quest givers you are close to are marked on there with their respective icons.
  ....
• There are add-ons, such as "MiniMap by Fyrakin", which replace the compass with a mini-map in the top-right corner.

Since I have installed Zr Minimap, I suppose that the default edge-on "Compass" will not be displayed. But if I have to use it, then I need to find out what each of the icons signifies. There should be documentation for this, perhaps by using <F1>. I will keep "MiniMap by Fyrakin" in mind as an alternative if I don't like Zr.
.....

• Bottom-center: Skill bar. This lists the skills that you have in your current set up, as seen on the K screen.

Again, this is something that I have not seen. I don't know whether a character has any skills by default, other than (if memory serves) racial skills. At this point my character should have some Skill Points but I have not attempted to access the Skills panel and allocate them.
....

• Lower left area: Chat box. If minimised, appears as three icons with numbers (envelope - unread mail, two people - friends online, speech bubble - notifications) and a triangle. Click the triangle to open the chat box.

Got it. Thanks for describing the respective icons.

• Just below the top right corner: Quest tracker. Change tracked quest in the journal (J) or by pressing T.

That could be toggled off, or maybe configured to not be displayed. Dunno whether I need it for most questing, but there are circumstances in which it could be useful.

• Dead-center: Reticule. Crosshair '+' by standard, changes to eye shape when sneaking/disguised (flat line when hidden).

Again, since I've never seen it, it is probably toggled off. If there is a "flat line" anywhere on the display screen then I probably have not recognized it to signify anything in particular. Most likely I would simply assume that it is a flaw in the graphics output data or the display card.

Again, thank-you for your time and effort. I appreciate it very much.

• Found this in your other thread, may help:

  Circuitous wrote: »

  The crosshair should look a bit like this.
  
  

• Health, Magicka and Stamina bars are only not displayed if they are full. (If they are empty, the bar shows up as empty.)
• ZrMiniMap is considered discontinued; Fyrakin's is seen as the spiritual successor, as it was originally based on the same code and is continually updated.
• What each specific icon means on the compass is actually largely not relevant; as in Skyrim, they symbolise the type of place - so a house is a town, an anchor is a dock, a gravestone is a cemetery, etc. They serve more to show you where they are, and whether you have "Completed" the location or not (black is Incomplete, white is Complete). Those that are more relevant are indicated on the Map Key (press M, click on the key). When in town, all the relevant Services icons are also listed.
• If you have not allocated any skills through the K screen yet, this is indeed why you have not seen the skill bar. It is also likely why you have not seen the Magicka and Stamina bars, as skills are the primary drains of those attributes.
• Check out the "Interface" menu in the Settings, as that has the display options for the Skill Bar, the Quest Tracker and the Resource Bars.

Valencer

Does this help you? Click on it to see the full 1920x1080 version.

Syntse

I was already wondering how long it will take before someone manages to put screenshot with the explanations.

From settings you can make the action bar and your mana/health/stam bars permanently visible if seems confusing if they are not there or disappearing. They disappear for the immersion.

Aett_Thorn

@Shadowshire‌, if you got to the fight against the bone golem at the end of the tutorial, and did not have a skill to use to help you out, then I have got to say that it doesn't appear as if you have been reading the tutorials as closely as you say that you have. This is because after the second fight (the one with the archer skeleton), you would have leveled up. The game would have told you to give yourself and attribute point (a point in either health, magika, or stamina) as well as choosing a skill point. When choosing to allocate the skill point, it would have told you how to place it on your skill bar to use.

I am going to go through the tutorial again, but I'm fairly sure that most of your questions are addressed before you leave Coldharbour.

Syntse

Aett_Thorn wrote: »

@Shadowshire‌, if you got to the fight against the bone golem at the end of the tutorial, and did not have a skill to use to help you out, then I have got to say that it doesn't appear as if you have been reading the tutorials as closely as you say that you have. This is because after the second fight (the one with the archer skeleton), you would have leveled up. The game would have told you to give yourself and attribute point (a point in either health, magika, or stamina) as well as choosing a skill point. When choosing to allocate the skill point, it would have told you how to place it on your skill bar to use.

I am going to go through the tutorial again, but I'm fairly sure that most of your questions are addressed before you leave Coldharbour.

Have to agree here. As far as I remember most of the basic things are explained on screen tips at least. Like how to block and how to move etc. Also when getting first skill point and opening skill, it will automatically place it into the action bar.

Circuitous

By default the Skill bar only shows up while in-combat and if a skill is slotted into it. You start with no active skills. When you gain your first level you'll receive a attribute point and a skill point - the Help window should have come up, instructing you to hit C to allocate your attribute point. After doing so and confirming the change, it will automatically take you to the Skill window (also accessed by hitting K) to allocate a skill point. Once you select a skill and put a point into it, it's automatically slotted into the first slot of your skill bar for you, but you can click and drag the icon into any slot you choose.

All of this is covered by in-game help and tutorials.

Shadowshire

Enodoc wrote: »

Shadowshire wrote: »

....
During the fights with "Child of Bones" the only bar that I can recall seeing was what I now know is the Health Bar. Perhaps the Magicka and Stamina bars were not displayed because my character had none remaining of them. If that was the case, then the UI designer's decision to omit them makes the learning curve much steeper than it needs to be for no particular benefit that I can perceive. What may be a feature looks like a bug.

.....

• Bottom-center: Skill bar. This lists the skills that you have in your current set up, as seen on the K screen.

Again, the Skill Bar is something that I have not seen. I don't know whether a character has any skills by default, other than (if memory serves) racial skills. At this point my character should have some Skill Points but I have not attempted to access the Skills panel and allocate them.
....

• Found this in your other thread, may help:

  Circuitous wrote: »

  The crosshair should look a bit like this.
  
  

Right. As I remarked before, it has probably not been displayed because the "mouse cursor" was toggled off without my being aware of its status.

[*] Health, Magicka and Stamina bars are only not displayed if they are full. (If they are empty, the bar shows up as empty.)

[*] ZrMiniMap is considered discontinued; Fyrakin's is seen as the spiritual successor, as it was originally based on the same code and is continually updated.

Thanks for the heads-up. None of the addons on the list displayed by Minion for esoui.com has been updated past 1.4. Most have not been updated past 1.3. Patch 5 is due today, if memory serves.

[*] If you have not allocated any skills through the K screen yet, this is indeed why you have not seen the skill bar. It is also likely why you have not seen the Magicka and Stamina bars, as skills are the primary drains of those attributes.

Oh well, then, I should hope that is the case, else there is probably a bug.

[*] Check out the "Interface" menu in the Settings, as that has the display options for the Skill Bar, the Quest Tracker and the Resource Bars.

Yes, I've seen it already, but need to look at it again. If memory serves, it was not clear for some options what would happen if it were enabled, or disabled. I hope I can learn more from using <F1>.

Something which I've come to dislike about the initial quest is the constant repetition of "hurry" and "we don't have much time" ..... etc. That might be all well and good for an experienced player but for someone who has never played TESO that is not appropriate, IMHO. It takes time to examine the software and its features, and to learn how to use it. The same sort of scenario began Skyrim, too, and every "walkthrough" that I found began after the character escapes execution and the dragon attack. There should be some sort of "training ground" for new players, regardless.

Aett_Thorn

While the narrator (the Prophet) tells you to hurry, there is absolutely no reason to. Nothing bad happens if you take your time to read stuff and take whatever time you need to get used to stuff.

Circuitous

The mouse cursor (toggled with the Period key) has a very obvious on-off status. If it's on, you have a cursor you can move around the screen to interact with your various windows and UI elements. If it's off, you have a crosshair, and moving the mouse moves your view. There's no trick to it.