Skyrim - What would you change/add?
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What I'd like to see from a TES game in the future is a city that felt like it was realistically populated with thousands of people and so going against the grain I want less detailed NPCs, I don't need to be on first name basis with them all. Only a few dozen quest givers, followers and merchants, who could be individually voiced and unique. The rest could be randomly generated with slums and houses that I have no reason to enter. I found the imperial city in Oblivion hilariously small. I want an oblivion city that is as big as something in Assasins Creed.
While I've come to accept the importance of enemy and item leveling I'd like it to be less obvious. Perhaps there's different advantages between dwarven armour and orcish armour rather than just their armour class. Maybe each as certain bonuses if matched. Make the tiers of weapons seem less blatant.
Also more legendary weapons. In Morrowind there was a shitload of weapons with unique powers and visuals. While some would be the result of missions (and daedric shrines), I like to see some as a sort of radiant chest loot, where you might hear rumours of a legendary weapon at a random place.
What I liked in Morrowind was wearing robes over armour. That got me thinking, what if there was an extra item slot for a surcoat/robe/cloak. This way you could add something to your gear that said "Hey I'm a Warrior/Mage/Rogue". Something where you could pick your colour and symbol would be cool.
While I understand overhauling all the different weapons classes from Morrowind with more simplified one handed and two handed trees, I feel spears and polearms could make a return. Fitting in both catergories. Big halberds and pikes for two handers and shorter spears for people using a shield. Perhaps having a throwing skill which covers throwing knives, spears and axes for another choice of ranged combat.
While I've come to accept the importance of enemy and item leveling I'd like it to be less obvious. Perhaps there's different advantages between dwarven armour and orcish armour rather than just their armour class. Maybe each as certain bonuses if matched. Make the tiers of weapons seem less blatant.
Also more legendary weapons. In Morrowind there was a shitload of weapons with unique powers and visuals. While some would be the result of missions (and daedric shrines), I like to see some as a sort of radiant chest loot, where you might hear rumours of a legendary weapon at a random place.
What I liked in Morrowind was wearing robes over armour. That got me thinking, what if there was an extra item slot for a surcoat/robe/cloak. This way you could add something to your gear that said "Hey I'm a Warrior/Mage/Rogue". Something where you could pick your colour and symbol would be cool.
While I understand overhauling all the different weapons classes from Morrowind with more simplified one handed and two handed trees, I feel spears and polearms could make a return. Fitting in both catergories. Big halberds and pikes for two handers and shorter spears for people using a shield. Perhaps having a throwing skill which covers throwing knives, spears and axes for another choice of ranged combat.
I'm surprised this hasn't seen more mentions but proper companions who had more to say and do than ***** about carrying your stuff. The game world being so vast you never get any long standing connection with any of the characters, but having characters who could join you would make that aspect of the game a lot more interesting.
I'd get rid of the level 10 and 20 dragons. I'd probably have to add some other method of getting early shouts and give large numbers of powerful allies to the early quests involving defeating them, but having them swarm around at level 10 makes them a bit "cliff racer" I'd tone down other aspects of scaling, no vampires under level 10 and so on.
I'd like to spice up the combat some, get rid of a load of spells and change the way they work. Eg fire plus healing = fire shield, frost plus healing = frost rune, fire plus lightning = Ball Lightning and so on. Make magic a bit more magic and a bit less trawling through menus or chaining impact. Melee could stand to take inspiration from Dark Messiah, add in a charge gauge powered by performing attacks and not casting spells and amp up the physicality of attacks. Make driving an enemy into a wall or off a cliff a valid strategy. That might be a bit ambitious.
Another thing that would help is to emphasise shouts a bit more and design them around voice input. It wouldn't be mandatory but it is a smooth way of casting Zun Haal Vik to disarm an enemy of a valuable sword then Fus Ro Dah him off a cliff or using Iiz Slen Nus to freeze a melee opponent then Wuld Nah Kest to close into his archer friend.
Finally up the enemy AI and enemy types. Too many battles wind up being a bunch of guys charge round you and you batter them. Give Forsworn eagle pets and have some bandits us winter wolves to slow you down as they pepper you with arrows.
All this said I still love Skyrim, warts and all. The scale and sense of freedom is what makes it work and it seems churlish to ask for more. But if these kind of additions could be made into DLC as opposed to "here's another 5 hours of quests" or added by enterprising modders I would love the game so much more.
I'd get rid of the level 10 and 20 dragons. I'd probably have to add some other method of getting early shouts and give large numbers of powerful allies to the early quests involving defeating them, but having them swarm around at level 10 makes them a bit "cliff racer" I'd tone down other aspects of scaling, no vampires under level 10 and so on.
I'd like to spice up the combat some, get rid of a load of spells and change the way they work. Eg fire plus healing = fire shield, frost plus healing = frost rune, fire plus lightning = Ball Lightning and so on. Make magic a bit more magic and a bit less trawling through menus or chaining impact. Melee could stand to take inspiration from Dark Messiah, add in a charge gauge powered by performing attacks and not casting spells and amp up the physicality of attacks. Make driving an enemy into a wall or off a cliff a valid strategy. That might be a bit ambitious.
Another thing that would help is to emphasise shouts a bit more and design them around voice input. It wouldn't be mandatory but it is a smooth way of casting Zun Haal Vik to disarm an enemy of a valuable sword then Fus Ro Dah him off a cliff or using Iiz Slen Nus to freeze a melee opponent then Wuld Nah Kest to close into his archer friend.
Finally up the enemy AI and enemy types. Too many battles wind up being a bunch of guys charge round you and you batter them. Give Forsworn eagle pets and have some bandits us winter wolves to slow you down as they pepper you with arrows.
All this said I still love Skyrim, warts and all. The scale and sense of freedom is what makes it work and it seems churlish to ask for more. But if these kind of additions could be made into DLC as opposed to "here's another 5 hours of quests" or added by enterprising modders I would love the game so much more.
1. i want to be able to go through an imperial legion soldier's training process if i want to join the legion... i dont want some excuse like "ive got a feeling about you, so you can join by doing something else".
2. i think skyrim needs more indepth prison sentences... so when you go to jail, you can sleep if you want to (to end it), or you ca spend time conversing with other prisoners and go through the whle "prison" process (kind of like cidnha mine, but more indepth).
3. magic needs to look cooler (destruction specifically), when i use ice spear, i dont wanta slightly bigger version of ice spike, i want an actual spear that stays in my hand that i can use to stab or throw (and power stabbing freezes opponents). when you freeze an enemy they shouldnt just be paralyzed, they should be frozen so you can shatter them to pieces.
4. expand on the marriage concept. be able to have kids, divorce, or whatever. oh and let me be a polygamist!
all round i really just want my character to be treated like a normal guy, until AFTER he does something great not BEFORE by giving some "you've got a look in your eye" bullshit.
2. i think skyrim needs more indepth prison sentences... so when you go to jail, you can sleep if you want to (to end it), or you ca spend time conversing with other prisoners and go through the whle "prison" process (kind of like cidnha mine, but more indepth).
3. magic needs to look cooler (destruction specifically), when i use ice spear, i dont wanta slightly bigger version of ice spike, i want an actual spear that stays in my hand that i can use to stab or throw (and power stabbing freezes opponents). when you freeze an enemy they shouldnt just be paralyzed, they should be frozen so you can shatter them to pieces.
4. expand on the marriage concept. be able to have kids, divorce, or whatever. oh and let me be a polygamist!
all round i really just want my character to be treated like a normal guy, until AFTER he does something great not BEFORE by giving some "you've got a look in your eye" bullshit.
Spears, Were-bears, ridable dragon (yes im looking at you Odahving), magic on a horse (because damnit if i want to ride into a small town, lighting everyone on fire as a i peacefully trot along) and less NPCs with plot armour
Not having a great story =/= having a crappy story. They had good stories, but I didn't find them to be these masterpieces of literature that deserve to help up for all time.
Witcher 2 was pretty good though.
Witcher 2 was pretty good though.
well thats a bit better at least, so heres my answer to your other post:SajuukKhar said:
they make better quest stories overall(in my opinion).SajuukKhar said:
its a nice change from the kill kill kill (and it usually need a really high level charisma (we are talking hitler level charisma here people, not bush type charisma))
bethesta does that too.
thats why i said for dlc(yeah i dont trust those guys either but i love their writting department)
I know they make better stories, but making a better story in a game is entirely meaningless if the game doesn't work, because you can't experience the story.sonofliber said:
Writing the best book ever written means nothing unless you can get it published on paper that doesn't dissolve after 3 minutes.
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And making the speech checks have a 90-95-100 Charisma necessity really doesn't change the fact it is still idiotic.
Yes Bethesda lets you use speech to talk people down, but only when it makes sense.
-You can't talk down Esbern from want to kill Parthy
-You can't talk down the Greaybeards for getting pissed at you killing Parthy
-You can't Talk down Tullius or Ulfric and make them give up the war
because you shouldn't.
-You can't talk Alduin into killing himself or giving up taking over the world.
If Skyrim was an Obsidian game you could do all those things, just like you could talk down Legate Lanius, and Oliver from the battle, and it makes Obsidian's characters feel very hollow, and like they never believed anything they said.
Bethesda makes shittier overall characters yes, but at last I feel like Bethesda's characters actually believe in what they say.
depends on the perspective, for me a character with 100 charisma is someone that can make the most ideological close minded person doubt what he is doing, same for someone with 100 marksman, i expect hawkeye level of perfection, with 100 strengh i expect giant or dragon level of strengh, if it for inteligence i expect frigging tony stark + doom + richard level of inteligence,it depends on what you think 100 meansSajuukKhar said:
I think 100 should stay within somewhat realistic bounds.
-Even at 100 archery you should be able to miss, because even the greatest expert marksman misses sometimes.
-Even at 100 STR I shouldn't be able to pick up some stuff, even the strongest man alive cant pick up everything.
Making 100 be this god-tier level of skill makes my character feel extremely fake, and like the world was just designed around me, instead of feeling like a realistic world.
It ends up bankrupting the realism and believability of the world and characters in most situations IMO.
-Even at 100 archery you should be able to miss, because even the greatest expert marksman misses sometimes.
-Even at 100 STR I shouldn't be able to pick up some stuff, even the strongest man alive cant pick up everything.
Making 100 be this god-tier level of skill makes my character feel extremely fake, and like the world was just designed around me, instead of feeling like a realistic world.
It ends up bankrupting the realism and believability of the world and characters in most situations IMO.
well in the TES you usually play the chosen one, not a normal person, so its not so unrealistic that you are able to do that (heck in Nerevarine is frigging inmortal)SajuukKhar said:
Well according to elder scrolls lore the entire universe is actually just a dream of the schizophrenic god-head, who is Bethesda, and CHIM, the ultimate state of being is realizing that you are just a person in a video game, and upon realization of that you gain ultimate control over it.sonofliber said:
It doesn't bother me in Elder Scrolls because the entire universe is set up like that on purpose. It is explained in lore, that things like pausing time when you open the menu, or loading up save games to come back to life, and gaining 100% damage immunity are something you do.
Bethesda has gone so far as to explain the constriction kit, and mods, in the lore of the game. The main character being a uber-badass who can do anything is justified in the lore of the games themselves.
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However, in games like Fallout your just some dude, and not some magical divine chosen being in video game, and even in many games were are you some magically chosen badass, the lore of the series doesn't set you up for being AS badass as you are.
I don't mind having a person who can persuade everyone to do anything, as long as the game justifies it in its lore and setting, but Fallout, and most other games, don't.
If the Fallout series turned out to be some computer simulation and your character being able to persuade everyone to do everything was one of the devs hacking it or something I would be fine with it, because it would make sense at that point.
More armor variants. Fur, the weakest in the game almost, has like 5 variants including several different gauntlets. Steel has 2, plus the imperial subset.
Sadly I really like the Fur and Leather sets, helmets aside but they have no smithing perks so its not worth the trouble required to get them to be decent. I like Glass, and Dragonscale armors. Again HELMETS ASIDE lol. I mainly use Glass even though it looks weird on my female Breton due to dragonscale's obnoxious organic components not being stocked in any shop.
I wish I liked daedric, that Steel Plate and Ancient Nord sets had better defense and better helmets, and that dwarven had a more feminine variant. Seriously its like I'm wearing a yellow refrigerator with metal "floaties" on my wrists.
I've seen countless armor mods for PC, and some of them are actually nice. I mean I would like dragon plate and daedric way more if the huge pauldrons were removed. And if my "lightly armored" glass suit didn't make me look like a line backer from Mountain Dew's unofficial American Football team. Even so, its waaay better than the glass suit in Oblivion. Only things in Oblivion I liked was Mithril, Amber, Ebony, and especially Golden Saint.
I actually like Ebony armor, unfortunately proportioned helmet aside, but the texture is usually glitched so that it looks like crap.
The only heavy armor full set I like is Orcish, but there are some tweaks I'd prefer.
I know, everyone's issue with anything in the game can be solved with 2 words...PC Mods.
Sadly I really like the Fur and Leather sets, helmets aside but they have no smithing perks so its not worth the trouble required to get them to be decent. I like Glass, and Dragonscale armors. Again HELMETS ASIDE lol. I mainly use Glass even though it looks weird on my female Breton due to dragonscale's obnoxious organic components not being stocked in any shop.
I wish I liked daedric, that Steel Plate and Ancient Nord sets had better defense and better helmets, and that dwarven had a more feminine variant. Seriously its like I'm wearing a yellow refrigerator with metal "floaties" on my wrists.
I've seen countless armor mods for PC, and some of them are actually nice. I mean I would like dragon plate and daedric way more if the huge pauldrons were removed. And if my "lightly armored" glass suit didn't make me look like a line backer from Mountain Dew's unofficial American Football team. Even so, its waaay better than the glass suit in Oblivion. Only things in Oblivion I liked was Mithril, Amber, Ebony, and especially Golden Saint.
I actually like Ebony armor, unfortunately proportioned helmet aside, but the texture is usually glitched so that it looks like crap.
The only heavy armor full set I like is Orcish, but there are some tweaks I'd prefer.
I know, everyone's issue with anything in the game can be solved with 2 words...PC Mods.
Lets see, in no particular order:-
- Meaningful race differentiation. Kajjit are supposed to be lower than mudcrabs in the social order, not even allowed into cities, except the PC who can walk strait up to any city and be allowed in, the walk strait up the the Jarl and sit on his throne. No comment, no fuss. Atlmer Elf want to join the Stormcloaks, no worries, no more fuss than if you were a Nord.
- Mutually exclusive Factions.
Join the Legion, Have slaughtered more Storm Cloaks than wolves but want to go to Windhelm for a shopping trip, no worries, the stormcloak guards will open the gates and help you with directions for a cordial chat with Ulfric before attacking the city. If you join a faction you should be barred from that factions holdings until you have taken them over.
-Duties as a Thane to help your city (to the point may be of only being able to be Thane of one city)
-More City seiges and large scale battles
-More meaning quest lines after taking over guilds
-The civil war without your intervention. Several of my characters have not joined either side of the civil war, and I'd love to see how that plays out without help.
Hardcore mode like in New Vegas
Sure I'll think of more, but that it for now
- Meaningful race differentiation. Kajjit are supposed to be lower than mudcrabs in the social order, not even allowed into cities, except the PC who can walk strait up to any city and be allowed in, the walk strait up the the Jarl and sit on his throne. No comment, no fuss. Atlmer Elf want to join the Stormcloaks, no worries, no more fuss than if you were a Nord.
- Mutually exclusive Factions.
Join the Legion, Have slaughtered more Storm Cloaks than wolves but want to go to Windhelm for a shopping trip, no worries, the stormcloak guards will open the gates and help you with directions for a cordial chat with Ulfric before attacking the city. If you join a faction you should be barred from that factions holdings until you have taken them over.
-Duties as a Thane to help your city (to the point may be of only being able to be Thane of one city)
-More City seiges and large scale battles
-More meaning quest lines after taking over guilds
-The civil war without your intervention. Several of my characters have not joined either side of the civil war, and I'd love to see how that plays out without help.
Hardcore mode like in New Vegas
Sure I'll think of more, but that it for now
I would add to my earlier comment that the more I play Skyrim the more I wish (and this was true of Oblivion as well, and I think Morrowind also) that Bethesda's plot designers would, slightly more often, consider the phrase "but what if I don't want to?"
There are way, way too many places in Skyrim where unwillingness to do things a particular way just means that quests remain permanently unfulfilled. And I get it, Skyrim is a big game, and it would have been hard to give all those plots that many extra vectors. But I would genuinely be happy to play a smaller game that recognized more possibilities and more motivations.
Skyrim is still a great game, don't get me wrong. But it's supposed "moral ambiguity" often feels like a thin excuse for shallowness.
But what if I don't want to restore the altar of Molag Bal? What if I want to bring a priest back and banish the Daedric bastard altogether?
What if I don't want to join the thieves' guild? What if I'd rather purge their reprehensible dealings from Riften altogether? And what if I don't want to carry the @#$%ing strange gems around for all eternity because of my loathing of the Guild?
What if I don't want to put either people who want to racially purge Skyrim or the guys who casually execute political prisoners on their masters' say-so in charge of the place?
Or from Oblivion: What if I don't want to kill the "Grey Prince" who is no longer interested in fighting back? Seriously, guys, how could you possibly have failed to even consider that possibility?
What if I'm only "stealing" the treasure because I want to return it to its rightful owner?
What if I don't want to join the thieves' guild? What if I'd rather purge their reprehensible dealings from Riften altogether? And what if I don't want to carry the @#$%ing strange gems around for all eternity because of my loathing of the Guild?
What if I don't want to put either people who want to racially purge Skyrim or the guys who casually execute political prisoners on their masters' say-so in charge of the place?
Or from Oblivion: What if I don't want to kill the "Grey Prince" who is no longer interested in fighting back? Seriously, guys, how could you possibly have failed to even consider that possibility?
What if I'm only "stealing" the treasure because I want to return it to its rightful owner?
There are way, way too many places in Skyrim where unwillingness to do things a particular way just means that quests remain permanently unfulfilled. And I get it, Skyrim is a big game, and it would have been hard to give all those plots that many extra vectors. But I would genuinely be happy to play a smaller game that recognized more possibilities and more motivations.
Skyrim is still a great game, don't get me wrong. But it's supposed "moral ambiguity" often feels like a thin excuse for shallowness.
Everything. Make combat more fun. Make the RPG segments actual RPG segments. Change the world to stop being a samey mess. Make quests actually fun and less tedious. Make a actual difficulty. I would make it so that you start in the middle of the map and expand outwards to even more difficult regions. Remove dragons. Get rid of overpowered magic. Make stealth viable ETC ETC.
I could go on, but I won't.
Actually, I forgot one. Make the game interesting.
I could go on, but I won't.
Actually, I forgot one. Make the game interesting.
Sheogorath remains (at least in appearance) a Breton male, and hints in his conversation to have completed several quest lines as the champion in Oblivion. So technically, there are certain guild lines (Dark Brotherhood in particular) which are canon.SajuukKhar said:
His appearance is more forgiveable as he's, y'know, the Daedric Prince of madness and is therefore 'fickle' incarnate.
But nothing has confirmed 100% that Sheogorath is the Champion of Cyrodill, for all we know the CoC gave the title to someone else.Nokshor said:
Also the process of mantling, the process the CoC used to become Sheo, alters the appearance of the manteler into the mantele.
It is very possible that Sheogorath was originally a female Argonian, but it is negated becuase when she became Sheogorath she BECAME Sheogorath in all ways thus being transformed into a Breton male.
So the player's choice of race/gender is explained away in lore as "whatever you want, you just transformed into a Breton male".