All Skyrim needs is...

[LordFeast58]

What Skyrim need to do is remember the lesson during their struggle when they making lore heavy story such as Morrowind considering the company have a hard time and have to give one final shot of a great game that proves unbeatable when comparing to other game.

Learn and find the programmer or modder that can contribute to make a better game in terms of bugs and innovation to the RPG instead of just focusing the scenery but making the NPC and the city unsatisfied as well as the enemy (there are more to be said, but whatever). Study the game on what make a person doesn't get bored even if he or she plays for 200 hours (unique perks, enemy scaling, quest innovation, emotional epic long story).

I know I find it crazy but I actually waiting for Elder Scrolls 6 and make sure its surpass everything that everyone hoped for. I never actually seen that Bethesda's RPG being greatly criticized until Skyrim came out, even with everything, I actually feel frustrated.

 

[pilouuuu]

All Skyrim needs is characters that are indeed characters and not some idiotic quest-givers robot with zero personality and which you can't even remember their names or give a crap about them.

Also a better story and to see the consequences of your actions produce a result in the world.

And finally better quests that are not about going to some place, killing, looting.

Skyrim in a hollow hiking and mass murder simulation. I wish I could like it more, but I don't think Bethesda can fix it by now.

Now, let me go back to Fallout New Vegas.

 

[SajuukKhar]

All Skyrim needs is characters that are indeed characters and not some idiotic quest-givers robot with zero personality and which you can't even remember their names or give a crap about them.

Also a better story and to see the consequences of your actions produce a result in the world.

And finally better quests that are not about going to some place, killing, looting.

Skyrim in a hollow hiking and mass murder simulation. I wish I could like it more, but I don't think Bethesda can fix it by now.

Now, let me go back to Fallout New Vegas.

Skyrim's characters are the way they are became 99% of people are just that, normal people.

This isn't Mass Effect, or Dragon Age, where almost everyone you met is some sci-fi space marine badass, or some uber-rare mage.

Skyrim's people are just normal people, now tell me, out of everyone you have ever met in your life, how many of them do you actually remember? how many people actually had some ultra-defined personality that sticks out in your mind?

The answer would be few. Most people IRL aren't that memorable, because that is just how normal people are. They just live their lives and go about their day.

 

[Stavros Dimou]

One thing I find a little bit weird is, with Oblivion I really wanted to do some random missions after I finished the Guild quests.

I would have loved to do random kill/fetch/find missions.

Skyrim, no so much. I guess its because the actual guild missions are pretty much just that. But I dunno.

That's how I felt too.
I can see 3 reasons for that:


1) Most Skyrim's quests are based on quest patterns,and the patterns are fewer than let's say Oblivion. It's "Go there and kill him or retrieve that and bring back item X to me". That's how 90% of the quests I played in Skyrim were. Well the NPCs who give the quests differ,sometimes the enemies you have to kill differ,and the items you must retrieve,but after a few quests they all start to feel samey and bland. In Oblivion though quests where more imaginative and featured varied gameplay. There where detective-like missions that featured the same gameplay as L.A. Noire, (search for clues,ask questions,charge a suspect),riddles that you had to use your brain to solve,quests that were based on just dialogue and you had to speak the right words to complete them... Skyrim's quests all involve the same gameplay.

2)While faces in Skyrim are more beautiful,and by beautiful I mean not everybody looks ugly,Oblivion had better facial animations system than Skyrim,and its NPCs could express feelings. I think that this was a factor that made players feel like there really is a need to do that something the NPC asked them to do. Seeing the sadness or agony on people's faces added some motivation to the player to help them out. In Skyrim NPCs other than occasionally blinking their eyes or opening their mouths to speak,they have no facial animations.

3)The journal. Oblivion's journal was simply more functional and helpful than Skyrim's. Skyrim's journal is crippled. You can't read all of the entries of a quest,some quests have no text at all telling you what they are all about and give you just a generic title,and the writing of journal entries isn't as informative as Oblivion journal's writing. While playing Skyrim I remembered I had delayed a quest because I wanted to do something else first,and at the time I wanted to continue that quest I opened my journal. There I found 10+ "Side Quests" and about 50 "Miscellaneous Quests". I read all the entries of the Side Quests,and read all the titles of the Miscellaneous Quests,but I couldn't recognize which quest I was looking for,so I ignored it completely. As I did with all Misc Quests,because having to travel the other side of the world without knowing why and what I'm supposed to do once I get there,killed the motivation I could have to actually travel all the way there.


It seems to me that Bethesda wanted so much to have the most possible fans happy,that they spent their time just adding every single thing the fans have been asking in the forums just to make them shut up,but because of time constraints they didn't have the time to make all these features actually important,and instead of presenting let's say 10 things that are all fleshed out and important,they made 30 things,which are all complete on the bare bones level.

 

[Robot Number V]

1. Some kind of system that allows you to equip two items in one hand. Like, maybe they could make slightly weaker spells and shields that could be double-equipped with a "real" weapon. Like a small shield strapped to wrist with a spell equipped to the hand. Oblivion had you shooting spells out of your sword hand, so why not?

2. Better quests. Jesus Christ. It seems like almost all of them eventually come down to storming a random dungeon to find Object X, Y, or Z. There's a few unique ones in there, but the ratio has definitely shifted since Oblivion.

Honorable Mentions

a. Make dungeons dark again.

b. Spears would be nice for those pesky dragons. Speaking of which,

c. Dragons that actually land without you having to shout them down. The whole "Dragonrend" thing always seemed totally redundant and pointless to me. Is there a problem with having the dragons just land on their own?

d. Guards that actually give a shit when the entire town spontaneously decides to fucking lynch me for pickpocketing someone. And how come sometimes, they don't even CARE when they catch you, but other times the entire town bands together to murder you? What kind of logic is that?!

 

[SajuukKhar]

c. Dragons that actually land without you having to shout them down. The whole "Dragonrend" thing always seemed totally redundant and pointless to me. Is there a problem with having the dragons just land on their own?

Dragons do land on their own....... they do it all the time.

The only time I have ever used Dragonrend was on Alduin because a quest demanded it, besides that, I spend more time fighting dragons on the ground then in the air.

 

[Scorekeeper]

A re-spec option would be good.

 

[Robot Number V]

c. Dragons that actually land without you having to shout them down. The whole "Dragonrend" thing always seemed totally redundant and pointless to me. Is there a problem with having the dragons just land on their own?

Dragons do land on their own....... they do it all the time.

The only time I have ever used Dragonrend was on Alduin because a quest demanded it, besides that, I spend more time fighting dragons on the ground then in the air.

Not in my game, they don't. I can't speak for your experiences, but in mine, they MIGHT land every five minutes or so. And they usually take off again before I can even get close.

 

[Major Chip]

It was too much of a hand holding game. My first TES was Oblivion, I remember the moment I left the sewers. I asked my friend, who lent me his copy: "What do I do now then?" He said: "Whatever you like". Just like that, I'm finding myself in an adventure that gave me basic quest guidelines and left me to my business.

My main gripe with Skyrim was that damn marker. I don't mind quick travel, sometimes even a hardcore RPG gamer can't be bothered (or dosen't have time) to work out which mountain face to scale in order to get over to the nearby town. But that marker...

Previous TES games said: "Make your way to this vague location". After adventuring and finding numerous caves, some of which are generic, some offer cool original quests and some just offer random encounters that I found more memorable than some £60 games in their entirety, you eventually arrive at your quest.

Skyrim points you to the exact spot or gives you no clue at all. Being directed there removes the desire to look around (not helped by Skyrim's lack of anything interesting, it must be said). Being given no clue at all is just confusing, a confused gamer is not having the fun he ought to be.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Not in my game, they don't. I can't speak for your experiences, but in mine, they MIGHT land every five minutes or so. And they usually take off again before I can even get close.

Mine land roughly every minute, and stay on the ground long enough to do two or three fire breath attacks.

It was too much of a hand holding game. My first TES was Oblivion, I remember the moment I left the sewers. I asked my friend, who lent me his copy: "What do I do now then?" He said: "Whatever you like". Just like that, I'm finding myself in an adventure that gave me basic quest guidelines and left me to my business.

My main gripe with Skyrim was that damn marker. I don't mind quick travel, sometimes even a hardcore RPG gamer can't be bothered (or dosen't have time) to work out which mountain face to scale in order to get over to the nearby town. But that marker...

You are aware Oblivion had the exact same marker then pointed you to the exact location an item was at?

also you can turn the marker off, and if you pay attention to what people say, finding the location you have to go isnt hard, furthermore, since you know the item you want is always at the end chest, you dont need the marker at all to help you find it.

the choise of leaving the marker on is one you make, and the game can be played, it its entirety, with it being off.

 

[SquidVicious]

I would have really liked to have gotten the sense that Skyrim was a province plagued by war. I mean everyone brings it up, but the most you ever see when you're just out in the field is the occasional skirmish between 2-3 Stormcloaks and Imperials. As cool as it would be to stumble into a bigger battle, I don't think that's within the limitations of what the programmers can do, but there are some things. For instance, you could stumble across the aftermath of a battle, with lots of dead bodies to loot, or perhaps you could see a small town burned down. Maybe if you drag out the Civil War quest line, the more houses/ villages get burned down. It would certainly give the player some incentive to make a decision and play the quest line. Or if that doesn't work, then have a side take over a town and impose taxes to pay for the war efforts, and impose capital punishment for crimes.

It's just little things like this that could make a great game all the better. I mean I've only recently gotten it, but I've already sunk more than 100 hours into playing it which is pretty obscene given that gaming has taken the back seat to other adult responsibilities.

 

[Valdrrak Draconis]

play it on PC, then mod the hell put of it =D

 

[DeathQuaker]

It's not my favorite game by far, but I've enjoyed Skyrim a lot, and it holds a personal distinction for me over Morrowind and Oblivion as a TES game I will likely actually finish the main quest for, rather than trail off playing out of boredom with wandering around (Morrowind I got hopelessly lost in at one point and just gave up). I realize with any TES game YMMV and if you liked these earlier games, I'm glad you did. I just got frustrated. (As an aside, I've also noticed that with every TES game that comes out, it always seems like there's a wave of "THIS is the BEST TES game EVER" followed by a bunch of people who decide the oldskool is better after all. I wish y'all'd make up your minds.)

Anyway, Skyrim to me is more interesting to wander around in, it's less easy to get lost, and there's just enough variation in what you run into to never feel like I'm just kind of standing around picking my nose. I do like most of the quest storylines (with some exceptions like the hideous railroad that was Markath's plotline). Unlike Morrowind and Oblivion, there are NPCs whose names I actually remember because they were interesting enough to remember.

That said, there's a lot that could be improved (I have yet to explore mods), and in the vein of the OP, "All Skyrim needs is..." ...

- Skills need to develop consistently at similar rates. It's easy to build up my weapon skills--just keep using it. Any weapon will do in the right category. But to smith, not only do I not need to keep smithing, I've got to find materials and I've got to find the workshops and I've got to take the time to smith 8,000,000 warhammers and whatnot in order to level. AND I need to keep crafting increasingly more valuable stuff to continue to get the fastest leveling out of it (no more iron dagger exploit). Out of sheer desire to make use of all the damned dragon scales and bones I leveled the whole damn smithing tree and I think I wasted about six hours of in game time doing so. And I don't even think it was worth it, save to have a nice matching armor set. Ah well, next playthrough I'll ignore it, but it's annoying still.

- A better mechanic that triggers NPC reactions and at the right time. I had a woman persistently asking me to clear the creatures out of her mines while a dragon was literally trying to set her on fire. However they code NPC priorities to react to you versus their surroundings needs to be done much more carefully. (This is especially frustrating because often the most epic stuff I've seen in Skyrim has been totally random AI incidents, like a dragon versus bear fight I witness that was strangely epic.)

- Related to this but more specifically, there needs to be far fewer barkstrings. People do not need to say the same damn "Do you know what's wrong with Skyrim these days? Everyone's obsessed with death," every time I walk past them. People can nod or say hello to you, but they shouldn't say anything to you unless you trigger talking to them or they are approaching you for a quest. This dramatically reduces immersion rather than the opposite.

- There should be a reputation system (a la Fallout New Vegas) instead of people just checking basic faction allegiance and/or skills. If I'm the head of the Dark Brotherhood, head of the Thieves Guild, head of the Mage's Guild, head of the Companions, and Thane of every major region in Skyrim, people will have heard of me one way or another. They will not trash talk me for being the Companions' "mead carrier." They will not demand 100 gold in tolls. They will not tell me to stop lollygagging about. Because they know I could bring half of Skyrim, if not more, on top of their heads. In fact, as you build a reputation, Jarls and such should actually grow wary of you. Realistically, you become an extraordinarily politically powerful character in addition to just a physically/magically powerful character, and yet the game consistently treats you as an unknown. Even quests do this -- if I'm the well-known Dovahkin who just negotiated a truce between the Empire and the Stormcloaks, you want ME to be the one who goes undercover to the Emperor's feast pretending to be a chef? You're a moron. Maybe more that's it--if you're granted political positions in the realm, you should be able to use them to affect politics, and save for very specific scripted moments, you can't. Again, immersion breaker. Don't give us the titles of power of they are ultimately meaningless and every guard is still mocking you for carrying mead.

- A way to say to all non-essential quests, "I am not going to do this," so that it will be removed from your list of quests. There are several optional quests that you cannot remove without using the PC debug console (the worst offender is the Paarthunax quest, which you do not have to complete--and in fact in many ways are at an advantage if you do not--but it will not resolve and remain your quest list unless you do the kill you are asked to do. You can even say to the quest givers that you refuse to do the kill, but the quest won't go away. You can't even force-fail the quest by killing the quest givers because they're marked as essential. *wallbang*). ETA: Actually, I think I lied, the worst offender is the Civil War issue--if you decide to avoid joining either the Stormcloaks or Imperials, you can never talk to Tullius or Ulfric because they will force you into a conversation that basically forces you to say you want to join their side, and you otherwise can never converse with them until the quest is "resolved" (which if you don't want to follow it, you can't resolve it).

- Fewer rabid animals. Wolves and bears are not going to persistently attack you when there is easier game nearby unless you're actively threatening their territory/food. They are also likely to run away when in one blow you've practically severed their leg off. Bears are more aggressive and persistent than dragons. Seriously, I have had a bear chase me across half of Skyrim while dragons avoided me like the plague. What is wrong with this picture?

- About 1/4 the companions and marriage candidates, or even fewer than that, and the ones remaining need to have real dialogue that changes and advances as the storyline continues. What's the point of having a billion possible companions if ability and conversation wise they are largely interchangeable?

And what's the point of having spouses if all you ever get to say to them is "give me food and money, *****"? If I wanted to do that I'd get married in real life.

I know Bethesda is the world building company and not the script writing company, but if they're going to go the route of giving folks romances and companions, then they need to do it right and make it meaningful, or not bother at all.

 

[Alhazred]

From the top of my head...

1. Better quests. This has been mentioned before, but Oblivion had some really interesting quests that put Skyrim's meagre offerings to shame. There's a creepy HP Lovecraft tribute in A Shadow Over Hackdirt, the nightmare guantlet of Through a Nightmare Darkly, and the decidedly disturbing "Paranoia" (involving everyone second most hated wood elf, Glarthir). None of these quests involve the tedious dungeon delving that Skyrim seems to favour so much.

2. A more threatening villain. Alduin just isn't a very good bad guy. Besides torch Helgen, what exactly does he do to threaten Skyrim? Resurrects a few of his cronies and leaves them to it. True, Mehrunes Dagon from Oblivion does even less, but that's because he can't actually reach Tamriel. His followers do manage to get some shit done, busting up Kvatch, killing the Emperor and almost destroying Bruma, so there's that.

Besides, Alduin himself is never clearly characterised, besides some "nyah you're not a real dragon Dovahkiin you suck nyah" taunting. One of the reasons why I like Mankar Cameron and the Mythic Dawn from Oblivion is because Cameron is not an omnicidal maniac, he believes that Nirn actually belongs to Dagon and that by letting him into Nirn he can remake the world as a paradise. Sure it's a batshit crazy and likely wrong idea, but at least it's a recognisable motive.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Besides, Alduin himself is never clearly characterised, besides some "nyah you're not a real dragon Dovahkiin you suck nyah" taunting. One of the reasons why I like Mankar Cameron and the Mythic Dawn from Oblivion is because Cameron is not an omnicidal maniac, he believes that Nirn actually belongs to Dagon and that by letting him into Nirn he can remake the world as a paradise. Sure it's a batshit crazy and likely wrong idea, but at least it's a recognisable motive.

The Aldudaggavelashadingas, or "The Songs of Dragon and Dagon" - http://www.imperial-library.info/content/seven-fights-aldudagga

These were the days of Hoag the Greater, born in a boot...[Long after] the two bells [of the All-Maker's Goat] rang out their clamouring, calling the end of days again in Sarthaal and the world, and Alduin's shadow was cast like carpetflame on east, west, south, and north...[he was] epoch eater. For as far as any man's eyes, only High Hrothgaar remained above the churning coils of dragon stop.

And Alduin said, "Ho ha ho."

But, look! Seven more mountains remained through Mereth like Hrothgaar and the Leaper Devil King (a kindly leaper demon, to be sure, but their king) jumped across the nilphony swirl. He came to Alduin (who always eats Nords first) and said, "Wait, wait, wait! Wait! It is not time to destroy the world yet!"

To which Alduin roared and laughed and said, "King of Leapers, you always bounce up to me around this time (for you are one of the only spirits that can last til my last bite) and shout, 'Wait!', but I never do and I will not now. Leap up to Hrothgaar's top and wait awhile longer in little dignity. The two bells have went 'Gong! Gong!' and that means the kalpa has turned."

The Leaper Demon King knew all this was true but still he said, "Wait, first and last of spirits, the kalpa-turning is brought too soon and I can prove it! Look over there on top of Red Mountain. See the Greedy Man waving his arms?"

Alduin swallowed more of Mereth (this was the destruction of Njorvela and Teed County) and looked over. Indeed the Greedy Man was waving his arms as if to tell the time-eating dragon to stop. Alduin snorted gruffly (a few farms shot out of his nose but he caught them with his tongue and pulled them back into his mouth, for he eats it all) and said, "And the Greedy Man always waves his arms about around this time as if to stop me just like you. It is almost as if you two work together to delay me. Is that what this is? Is some other low spirit hiding portions of the world while you two do this thing? Is this why the kalpa-feast always takes a little longer than it did the previous time?"

Also how is Parthanux saying "Alduin wants to rule the world and bring everyone under his rule becuase he feels that, as the firstborn of Akatosh, he is owed that right" not a recognizable motive?

 

[Alcoholidayer]

I thought skyrim had great atmosphere and a great world, exploring was really fun and the various random encounters you had en route to various places were great fun as well.

What it was missing was a good central story, which I thought was pretty lame-o. Another thing they should have improved upon is making the combat more fun, more technical and less based on stats and stuff. More organic combat and more intelligent enemy AI, not to mention a greater variety of them. And of course, the dragons. Wouldn't have hurt to make them more strong.

 

[Soopy]

Because Alduin never does anything to actively bring that about?
Its one character saying it. Alduin literally does nothing after randomly destroying Helgen.

Alduin is never characterized within the main story line. Never.

 

[pilouuuu]

All Skyrim needs is characters that are indeed characters and not some idiotic quest-givers robot with zero personality and which you can't even remember their names or give a crap about them.

Also a better story and to see the consequences of your actions produce a result in the world.

And finally better quests that are not about going to some place, killing, looting.

Skyrim in a hollow hiking and mass murder simulation. I wish I could like it more, but I don't think Bethesda can fix it by now.

Now, let me go back to Fallout New Vegas.

Skyrim's characters are the way they are became 99% of people are just that, normal people.

This isn't Mass Effect, or Dragon Age, where almost everyone you met is some sci-fi space marine badass, or some uber-rare mage.

Skyrim's people are just normal people, now tell me, out of everyone you have ever met in your life, how many of them do you actually remember? how many people actually had some ultra-defined personality that sticks out in your mind?

The answer would be few. Most people IRL aren't that memorable, because that is just how normal people are. They just live their lives and go about their day.

It's more than that though. Let's compare it to Lord of The Rings for instance. Hobbits are no marines, but you care about them. Gandalf, how could you forget him? Even Aragorn is the heir to the crown and a bad ass, but he is human. Those are characters you remember. Let's not put Planescape Torment as an example. I'm convinced that Bethesda is simply not good making characters and the game engine doesn't help a lot.

 

[SajuukKhar]

It's more than that though. Let's compare it to Lord of The Rings for instance. Hobbits are no marines, but you care about them. Gandalf, how could you forget him? Even Aragorn is the heir to the crown and a bad ass, but he is human. Those are characters you remember. Let's not put Planescape Torment as an example. I'm convinced that Bethesda is simply not good making characters and the game engine doesn't help a lot.

So what your saying is...... because the normal people of Skyrim are not as detailed AS THE MAIN CHARACTERS of the LoTR series they suck? Are you serious?

The normal people of Skyrim are like..... that one really angry hobbit that gives Merry and Pippin a bad look when they get back the end of the film..... who remembers that dudes name? who would give a shit if he died? yeah... no one.

Trying to compare random background character to the main characters of a series like LotR is laughably silly.

Because Alduin never does anything to actively bring that about?
Its one character saying it. Alduin literally does nothing after randomly destroying Helgen.

Alduin is never characterized within the main story line. Never.

How is raising a whole crap ton of Dragons to rebuild his armies, and trying to kill the Dragonborn, the one person who can stop him, not doing just that?

Alduin can't go on a world-domination spree without henchmen, so he gets henchmen, and since there's only one person on Nirn who can kill him, he send his henchmen to attack him, and even attacks him himself when the Dovahkiin time travels and learns Alduin's like one weakness.

Both of those things contribute to Alduin's plan to take over the world, pretty clearly.