Two-thirds of my Skyrim experience can be boiled down to these ten repetitive actions

[Brawndo]

1. Walk into dungeon
2. Get mobbed by melee enemies
3. Backpedal and spam dual cast destruction spells on whatever is up in my face until it dies
4. Press down on D-pad to pause game and drink Restore Health/Sorcery potions
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until all enemies in dungeon are dead
6. Loot all bodies
7. Fast travel to nearest town
8. Wait for merchants to open and/or their gold to regenerate
9. Sell all the shit I looted
10. Buy better equipment to go looting dungeons with
11. Repeat steps 1-10 ad nauseum

I realized so much of the game involves preparing for combat: buying weapons, crafting armor, learning spells, finding alchemy ingredients to make potions, training skills, learning shouts... but then when I do get into combat, it is over in a matter of seconds and doesn't involve any tactical decisions beyond what weapon or spell to equip to each hand.

The only diversions I get in the game are talking to NPCs, fighting the occasional dragon (which is much more exciting than regular combat), and doing much more varied Thief's Guild and Dark Brotherhood quests.

 

[the spud]

I fail to find the discussion value...

Maybe you should just stick to the non randomly generated quests?

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I would put my repeated actions for every other game but they would look pretty similar I think.

Imagine Super Mario lol....

 

[babinro]

That's pretty much it. It sounds pretty plain when you put no story or environment around your actions.

I can make a FPS shooter sound boring by detailing the mechanics of how one walks and shoots.

I get what you're saying though...Skyrim seems to lack the longevity that you want it to have. A lot of the process feels like a bit of a grind because of the lack of difficulty or unique tactics involved. Still, I can't really complain seeing as the game will has already given me 70 hours of content and I'm not done with it.

 

[Kahunaburger]

1. Walk into dungeon
2. Get mobbed by melee enemies
3. Backpedal and spam dual cast destruction spells on whatever is up in my face until it dies
4. Press down on D-pad to pause game and drink Restore Health/Sorcery potions
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until all enemies in dungeon are dead
6. Loot all bodies
7. Fast travel to nearest town
8. Wait for merchants to open and/or their gold to regenerate
9. Sell all the shit I looted
10. Buy better equipment to go looting dungeons with
11. Repeat steps 1-10 ad nauseum

I wonder what the Morrowind equivalent of this would be.

1. Pimp into dungeon.
2. Get mobbed by melee enemies.
3. Roflstomp everything with custom spells and items.
4. See step 3
5. See step 3
6. Loot all bodies - but no need to take anything but the most expensive stuff
7. JUMP OVER A FUCKING MOUNTAIN to nearest town.
8. No need to wait - 24/7 merchants!
9. Sell all the shit I looted
10. Make moar spells.
11. Install mods, do fun stuff.

...in related news, Morrowind is the best TES game.

 

[Risingblade]

Pfft buying weapons, smith and enchant that shit!

 

[Laser Priest]

Good job breaking down the dungeon system itself.

Every game can be made to seem repetitive when you break it down like that.

 

[Woodsey]

Stop raiding dungeons and do something else instead then. And don't fast travel.

 

[DEAD34345]

10 steps, eh? So... that's quite a bit more variety than most games?

I was playing the original Halo earlier (and I'm not insulting the game by the way, I really like it) and my entire experience boiled to:

1. Shoot aliens
2. Vehicle section
3. Push button (though this only happened once)
4. ... Grenade aliens?

Diablo:

1. Click bad guys
2. Get loot
3. Sell/equip loot and move to step 1

Forza Motorsport:

1. Drive fast
2. Upgrade car

Also, if you're getting bored of doing that stuff in Skyrim then stop doing it. That's one of the great things about the game, there's a nice wide variety of things you can do and ways you can go about doing them.

 

[6_Qubed]

1. Walk into dungeon
2. Get mobbed by melee enemies
3. Backpedal and spam dual cast destruction spells on whatever is up in my face until it dies
4. Press down on D-pad to pause game and drink Restore Health/Sorcery potions
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until all enemies in dungeon are dead
6. Loot all bodies
7. Fast travel to nearest town
8. Wait for merchants to open and/or their gold to regenerate
9. Sell all the shit I looted
10. Buy better equipment to go looting dungeons with
11. Repeat steps 1-10 ad nauseum

I wonder what the Morrowind equivalent of this would be.

1. Pimp into dungeon.
2. Get mobbed by melee enemies.
3. Roflstomp everything with custom spells and items.
4. See step 3
5. See step 3
6. Loot all bodies - but no need to take anything but the most expensive stuff
7. JUMP OVER A FUCKING MOUNTAIN to nearest town.
8. No need to wait - 24/7 merchants!
9. Sell all the shit I looted
10. Make moar spells.
11. Install mods, do fun stuff.

...in related news, Morrowind is the best TES game.

One time, in Morrowind, I accidentally a god.

(became one, that is)

 

[Kesimir]

In addition, my repeated actions are nothing like those, I don't buy anything in the shops because I can make my own healing potions and loot found in dungeons is always better than what the shop sells, at least until you can make your own loot. I sword+heal my way through battles, which i usually start with a sneak arrow before switching to melee/magic when they rush me (if not killed instantly). I recently found the joys of poisoning arrows! That is a typical dungeon run. Sometimes to spice things up I will go onehand+shield and just bumrush with potions and sometimes I run conjure+destruction if the mood strikes... I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you find the game boring I think it is more a reflection of the choices you are making than a lack of options in the game. If you are playing just to beat the game and find some personal optimal strategy to repeat "ad nauseum" until you do then I would venture to say you are missing the point of the game. Now I wouldn't deign to tell you how you should enjoy your own games but if you are playing a game that you are not enjoying what is the point?

 

[JET1971]

I really dont think RPG's are the right games for you. but since dual casting seems to be too easy for you and no tactics try using a weaker weapon in one hand and a less powerfull destruction spell and dont use potions until after the fight but then again i dont think crippling yourself to make the game more chalenging apears to be how you would play. but it does make things interesting trying to take out 2 giants with an iron dagger in one hand or a pickaxe...

 

[Argtee]

1. Walk into dungeon
2. Get mobbed by melee enemies
3. Backpedal and spam dual cast destruction spells on whatever is up in my face until it dies
4. Press down on D-pad to pause game and drink Restore Health/Sorcery potions
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until all enemies in dungeon are dead
6. Loot all bodies
7. Fast travel to nearest town
8. Wait for merchants to open and/or their gold to regenerate
9. Sell all the shit I looted
10. Buy better equipment to go looting dungeons with
11. Repeat steps 1-10 ad nauseum

^Better than Dwarf Fortress^

1. Start of new fort is fine
2. Dig stuff
3. Dwarves are retarded
4. All hell breaks loose
5. Rage quit
6. Cry

[sub]Speaking of Dwarf Fortress, I haven't played that in a while...[/sub]

Yeah, it seems like you're just doing the randomly generated quests.

 

[Zhukov]

Yup, pretty much.

Although I would narrow it down to three steps.
1. Mash attack button.
2. Drink Health/Mana potions.
3. Loot.

I've been trying to work up the enthusiasm to get back into Skyrim, but the knowledge that I'll just be stabbing my way through my thirteenth cave of bandits ("Mead mead mead...") kinda takes the wind from my sales.

 

[Handbag1992]

I enjoy these actions. I even have a simple equation to help out on number 6.

Value/weight=x

If X is less than 3 it's not going in my bag. Unless it's a health potion or item I could use.

 

[Rhatar Khurin]

pretty silly thread Keep it up!

 

[iNsaneMilesy]

I feel Skyrim really lacks the sense of humour or fun that Both Oblivion and Fallout had in many of thier offbeat quests or environmental easter eggs. I've yet o come accross a quest that has a distinct air of humour about it.

 

[Brawndo]

I really dont think RPG's are the right games for you. but since dual casting seems to be too easy for you and no tactics try using a weaker weapon in one hand and a less powerfull destruction spell and dont use potions until after the fight but then again i dont think crippling yourself to make the game more chalenging apears to be how you would play. but it does make things interesting trying to take out 2 giants with an iron dagger in one hand or a pickaxe...

Quite to the contrary - I have a long history with RPGs. I just prefer tactical, turn-based RPGs with multiple characters to command. In those games status aliments, bonuses, and decisions you make during combat actually matter.

On the other hand, in Skyrim, what is the point of finding the ingredients to make a Damage Willpower potion and then applying the potion to my sword? Any mage I encounter at melee range will die in less than 10 seconds anyway. And the slightly extra damage I take from the mage's destruction spells because I didn't reduce his Willpower can easily be remedied by pausing the game, drinking a healing potion, and then un-pausing and mashing the attack button over and over until he's dead.

Combat in the TES series is just so simplistic to me. In Oblivion, I hated the repetitive nature of combat so much that I just made a super-fast thief/conjuror so I could avoid it. This build allowed me to explore the world, interact with NPCs, and do the fun quests. Then if I had to fight, I would just summon zombies and daedra to do it for me. I was hoping things might change with Skyrim but it's pretty much the same.