5 Tiny Things I Hope Get Changed in Skyrim

[Ack-ack]

At least few quests that are one or two races/characters only, like in morrowind, where you couldn't do mages/fighters/thiefs guild unless you were mage/warrior/thief.

That and the fact that no matter what race i played as everyone treated me the same broke the immersion for me. I mean I was arch-mage as high elf mage sure, but my orc warrior and dunmer thief too??

 

[GameMaNiAC]

I hope they won't remove the ability to sit on chairs that was in Oblivion, Fallout 3 and New Vegas. It's the most minor thing in the game but I love to roleplay in TES.

 

[brunothepig]

snip

All great points, most of which I've been hoping for, one or two I didn't think of, but I didn't play a lot of Oblivion.
Even Morrowind had a way to decorate your house. It was finicky, but you could place items from your inventory. And, there were some cool mods that had practice dummys you could make "wear" your armour, to display it. That's a cool mod, maybe they could implement something like that...
As for the fast travel, I feel it needs to be removed. Providing an alternative might work, but the problem with Oblivion was it was geared to have the fast travel used. You could forgo it, but I didn't feel like riding back and forth across the map to do one quest... Morrowind was perfect, with the silt striders, mage teleports, and your own spells.
My rather major gripe. GET RID OF AUTO-LEVEL, PLEASE!
I didn't feel I was increasing in power, when trolls could still put up a fight, and bandits were wearing either daedric or elven armour. In Morrowind, I started about a weak pathetic *****, explored, grew in power and confidence, got killed by my own arrogance, learned my lesson, slowly assumed the mantle of a hero etc. It worked, by the time I could wade into a group of daedroths and clannfears and such, I felt like an invincible son of a *****, which I was, and I felt I'd earned it.
Oh, one other thing (ok, there's many more, but I should stop). I liked the gray fox thing, but I'd also like to throw on a cloak and enter a city and not be recognised... It'd be so cool. So basically, a disguise mechanic.

 

[Neonit]

why not simply give options? if some people are against fast travel, give an option to turn it off. if some people want need of eating and drinking, give it as an option. thats what i liked in new vegas - you can choose.


what i would really want to see in skyrim are chargeable spells (there is an awesome mod in oblivion for that) and better enchanting/spellmaking mechanics (also here is a list of mods that fix that in oblivion)

(did i mention i will not play it on console because of mods? )

and i really hope that they will find a way to make playing mages more..... interesting. but seeing as this game will be called "skyrim" im afraid they will concentrate more on warriors.....

 

[Tcafitra]

At least few quests that are one or two races/characters only, like in morrowind, where you couldn't do mages/fighters/thiefs guild unless you were mage/warrior/thief.

Well they're doing away with classes so guilds won't discriminate on that. An idea might be that a recruiter for each guild will assess your skills and base their decision on that.

For instance if you walk into the Fighter's Guild with a robe and staff and piss poor 'fighting' skills (blade, blunt, etc) they're not going to be too keen on letting you join. Likewise with the Mage's Guild, go to their recruiter wearing a full set of heavy armor and huge warhammer knowing little to nothing about the arcane arts and he's just going to show you the door.

 

[Ack-ack]

Well they're doing away with classes so guilds won't discriminate on that. An idea might be that a recruiter for each guild will assess your skills and base their decision on that.

For instance if you walk into the Fighter's Guild with a robe and staff and piss poor 'fighting' skills (blade, blunt, etc) they're not going to be too keen on letting you join. Likewise with the Mage's Guild, go to their recruiter wearing a full set of heavy armor and huge warhammer knowing little to nothing about the arcane arts and he's just going to show you the door.

It was like that in morrowind. You needed increasing skills in the area of the guild to join/advance, but that sadly did not get into oblivion. That is what I meant, also the thing about races having something unique about them besides minimal skill bonuses and useless talents, like 1 race only quest chain or something. Because with the 3rd person-mode being broken, if the only difference is visual, every character is only the skills they have

 

[Tcafitra]

It was like that in morrowind. You needed increasing skills in the area of the guild to join/advance, but that sadly did not get into oblivion. That is what I meant, also the thing about races having something unique about them besides minimal skill bonuses and useless talents, like 1 race only quest chain or something. Because with the 3rd person-mode being broken, if the only difference is visual, every character is only the skills they have

It's been far too long since I've played Morrowind, I might have to blow the dust off the disc. I do remember the guild quests a bit.

Let's hope for a playable 3rd person mode. And surely an Orc's -5 disposition to all other races in Oblivion isn't useless

I know what's immersion breaking, if I play an Argonian how come when I go into towns I don't hit over the head from behind and wake up being sold into slavery?

 

[templar1138a]

When it come to tiny requests, here's mine:
Bring back spears!

 

[Nannernade]

When you buy a DLC for a support base make sure it doesn't permanently lock the location you need to go to for the upgrades without having to pick lock it to get in with the five0 on your tail. >.>

I speak of the Frostcraig Spire DLC, every time you downloaded it it always locked the magic shop and the only way to get in was to pick the hard lock on it, and about 85% of the time after you finished talking to the clerk a random guard would faze through the door and arrest your ass.

That was actually fixed in a patch at one point. Patch your game!

...although, it did get UNpatched by the Battlehorn Castle DLC, so don't DL that on your console. For the PC, get the Unofficial Oblivion Patch--fixes it right back.

AH unfortunatly last year I lost my copy of Oblivion and haven't been able to play it since, so no fixing that bug for me. =\

 

[concrete89]

I, for one hate the voices in oblivion... A dunmer is supposed to sound like he smokes ten loaves a day and eat burlap for breakfast...
And there should be more customization in spellmaking. If I want my fireballs to be green and dragonshaped, then by The Nine, they should be green and dragonshaped.

 

[Yarrow]

I agree with all five points in the article and would echo numerous points posted in the thread such as resetting items/having NPCs rearrange their homes, guards not possessing psychic powers and a hive-mind, and not have everything scale with your level to name a few. As a fan of using stealth (also a fan of magic) in Oblivion, I particularly like the idea of disguises. You could hide your face with a hood or helmet or even have it go as far ?looking the part? to reduce suspicion e.g. you want to burgle the local mages guild chapter then donning a mages robe could make NPCs pay less attention to you whereas wearing all black leather and hiding your face would make them more suspicious. I think it would be good having NPCs react to what you wear e.g. if you wear rags and look poor then a highwayman may be less inclined to waste energy robbing you, a snobbish merchant might refuse to do business and ask you to leave his shop or a noble might take pity on you and give you some coins or ignore you altogether. Alternatively wearing fine clothing would make you a target for the robber, the merchant overcharge you and the noble pay attention.

I always found it a bit irritating when a dagger wielding highwayman threatens my mage who is idly flinging fireballs, surrounded by an aura of magical energy and accompanied by some daedric monstrosity; and it was just silly when doing the Brotherhood quest where you have to kill a number of people locked in a house that as you start to kill them off they become paranoid and accuse each other of being the murderer, all the while ignoring you, dressed in your black leather armour hooded and wielding some vicious looking blade.

What I would like is a game that reacts to what my character is in a more meaningful way then the occasional comment when you get a skill to 100. You could get some NPCs asking for potions once your alchemy is at a certain level or ask for healing if you have high enough restoration.

 

[aarontg]

I also hope they make the magic system more condensed. I would rather have around 50 spells that are interesting and have specific outcomes rather than 200 where every 30 do roughly the same thing.

 

[-Ulven-]

But Susan you COULD place your trinkets in the display cases. I did. I had swords, arrows, armors all those stuff around in display cases and such... I think I used 2 hrs just to get it right though <.<

I want an easier system for actually putting down things in the display case. Oh and also... that you could put swords and weapons (maybe even trophies like heads or such) on the walls.

 

[burymagnets]

I personally don't even think most of these points are minor. I found Oblivion a truly unimmersive experience because of issues like this.

I think Susan is being a bit reserved so as not to upset the fanboys,and Oblivion has a great core, but with absolutely zero polish.

 

[adderseal]

Another minor suggestion: Let NPCs rearrange their items if you knock them over. In Oblivion, you could run into someone's house, kick their dinner over, pull all their books onto the floor and leave without them doing anything about it. At least reset items to their default locations every few days, pl0x?

Oooo, that's a good one. Just the kind of tiny, immersion-breaking thing I'm talking about. Perfect!

And, well, no, we can't have actual Silt Striders as some folks have pointed out, but something along those lines. What would be appropriate for Skyrim?

Isn't it also slightly immersion-breaking to have the NPCs calmly watch you, not doing anything, as you chuck their stuff around their house? Make them get angry or call the guards or something. Someone else's house NEEDS to feel like their private sanctuary. It would make the Thieves Guild/Dark Brotherhood missions much more interesting. If you break into a house, and you're caught, the game needs to make serious shit go down. It needs to feel like you're violating their safety and privacy. In Oblivion it felt too much like you were just in another shop.

 

[Theysaid]

Conversations with NPCs in Oblivion became more annoying over time. The zoom-in to their ugly mugs, the diplomacy wheel, and the limited voices all played a part in this. I've read that you'll no longer zoom in on them when conversing in Skyrim, which helps eliminate that pause when starting a conversation... and also helps if they are ugly. I'm sure character faces will be much more appealing in Skyrim, where a beard doesn't look like you just huffed paint.

While I understand that the conversations between NPCs weren't exactly informative or entertaining, I did appreciate that NPCs actually acknowledged each other. In many games you're the only one NPCs usually seem to notice outside of major story scripted events. But with that said, it would be nice to hear more interesting -- or at least more varied -- banter.

As for moving things around that weren't yours, I thought NPCs told you not to do that, but I'm not sure if they did more than that. Its been a while since I played. I do like the idea of NPCs cleaning up after you, even if it is just a reset after you leave the shop and come back later. They don't have to do it in front of you, but that would be cool too.

Also, it's rude for someone to run up the stairs into someone's bedroom and snoop around. Sure, the NPC would follow you but wouldn't say anything. It would be nice if the NPC would ask you to return to the store level or just leave. It's odd that they don't care where you go in their house as long as they've got an eye on you. And if you were out of sight for a bit, they don't seem to care. "What were you doing in my cellar?" would be a good question to ask, especially if the door was previously locked. All minor complaints though, just like the article.

 

[bomblord]

Those would all by nice touches.

I always decorate my houses in Oblivion. I don't sell a lot of special equipment (especially not the Daedric artifacts!) even if I won't be using them because I like to arrange them around the rooms. Doesn't everyone put "Mother's Head" in a special place?

Yes on my table next to my human heart

 

[RelexCryo]

I agree with the "Modify your own house" especially.

 

[Arctic Fox]

It would be nice to have more diverse locations. Yes, I enjoyed the mountains, forests, and swamps, but what about a desert? or tropical jungle? I also would like to see how an orc or dunmer would acclimate to those different conditions.

Also maybe have a dialect change from city to city. It would have been neat to hear a different accent or mannerism depending on where I was.
Example: Anvil could have them talking with pirate accents or say the phrase "scurvy dog" in conversation, while Bruma could have Swedish accents and could use phrases like "bitter as the mountain wind" etc.

 

[RuralGamer]

All I can say is that from what I gather, the conversation system has been completely overhauled anyway and I don't even know if the persuasion wheel is making a comeback (which wouldn't be too bad, considering the NPCs no longer look like botoxed chimps). I think that one of the developers said something a while back about the game having a lot more in common with Morrowind than Oblivion did; having never really played Morrowind, I wouldn't know, but for all of my enjoyment of Oblivion, the setting did feel a tad bland at times.