Couple things:
1)
If you find the idea of running *any* non-illegal business enterprise in a high fantasy setting totally boring, you have a shitty imagination. I'm sorry, but it's true. Companies in TES mine ore laced with the souls of the dead. They brew booze laced with the blood of dead gods. They transport goods on the back of colossal one-eyed arachnids through desolate wastelands filled with savage monsters.
I can think of allll kinds of non-boring activities related to those things.
And since when has needing money been a prerequisite to *want* money?
2)
You wouldn't actually need to be able to navigate for a piracy faction to work, they'd just need to create a patch of blank sea and generate enemy ships for you to board/sink while doing piracy missions.
3)
The whole "You can't be a survivalist in Skyrim's climate!" argument would hold weight... if the natives didn't have an in-born *supernatural resistance to the cold*. If I can tank a frost dragons breath without seeing my health bar drop 1/50th of it's full width, I can make it through the winter without catching hypothermia.
And besides, like a few people have mentioned: the Forsworn and the Skald are both *similar* to survivalists. Not quite, but they're close.
4)
Pacifism is only boring if its implemented badly. Most games treat the non-violent option like it was a paintball version of the real game.
IE: instead of blowing the random prick's head off and watching his head explode in a shower of gore, you hear a pathetic *phwift* and your tranquilizer gun makes him limply fall over (possibly for only a few minutes/seconds, implying a HERCULEAN level of liver function).
If instead the "pacifist" option was say... sneaking up on the guy as he's turning a corner, wrestling him to the ground as you chloroform him, then stuffing his unconscious body into a vent before anyone notices he's gone... it'd be alot more entertaining.
(And I realize that's the wrong genre of game, but bear with me.)
Apply the same logic to Skyrim. Instead of the pacifist option just being an "off switch" for monster aggro, it'd need to be more complex than that.
In the case of bandits, I picture it working like this: tie all the bandit random encounters to specific bandit lairs (meaning that once a lair has been wiped out/converted, bandits stop appearing within that section of the map). And *if* you take the high road and make use of the "Enlightenment" (or w.e) shout, the bandits you encountered would repent their crimes and agree to help you rout out their former comrades.
This would then start a mini quest. Your converts would lead you back to their lair, help you fight your way to their leader, culminating in either your new friends killing him (if he's too powerful to be shouted down), or you converting him like you did them. The bandit clan would then disband, and you'd have a few friendly npcs added to the nearest hold capitol. Maybe certain leaders could become recruitable followers once you're done? Dutiful toe-headed apostles to your sanctimonious Jesus?
I realize I'm arguing this point pretty hard considering all my characters are sociopathic assholes, but I just think it's more doable than people think.
And for ONCE in a game I'd like to be good, and actually feel good as a result. Instead of feeling bored/frustrated/annoyed/restrained/stupid for not taking the far more sensible and entertaining violent option.
And I feel like reforming those bitter pricks muttering to themselves in the dark ("Go to college... like I'm supposed to know which college he meant!") and possibly earning a few new friends in the process would be a better reward for trying to find a reasonable solution than what AAA games usually give me. Meaning nothing (except more hassle).
So why not make the "good guy" (I HATE that term) into an actual wandering messiah, converting the people, performing miracles and heralding peace? Y'know, rather than a short sighted pussy with the power to temporarily make dangerous things not kill him.
1)
If you find the idea of running *any* non-illegal business enterprise in a high fantasy setting totally boring, you have a shitty imagination. I'm sorry, but it's true. Companies in TES mine ore laced with the souls of the dead. They brew booze laced with the blood of dead gods. They transport goods on the back of colossal one-eyed arachnids through desolate wastelands filled with savage monsters.
I can think of allll kinds of non-boring activities related to those things.
And since when has needing money been a prerequisite to *want* money?
2)
You wouldn't actually need to be able to navigate for a piracy faction to work, they'd just need to create a patch of blank sea and generate enemy ships for you to board/sink while doing piracy missions.
3)
The whole "You can't be a survivalist in Skyrim's climate!" argument would hold weight... if the natives didn't have an in-born *supernatural resistance to the cold*. If I can tank a frost dragons breath without seeing my health bar drop 1/50th of it's full width, I can make it through the winter without catching hypothermia.
And besides, like a few people have mentioned: the Forsworn and the Skald are both *similar* to survivalists. Not quite, but they're close.
4)
Pacifism is only boring if its implemented badly. Most games treat the non-violent option like it was a paintball version of the real game.
IE: instead of blowing the random prick's head off and watching his head explode in a shower of gore, you hear a pathetic *phwift* and your tranquilizer gun makes him limply fall over (possibly for only a few minutes/seconds, implying a HERCULEAN level of liver function).
If instead the "pacifist" option was say... sneaking up on the guy as he's turning a corner, wrestling him to the ground as you chloroform him, then stuffing his unconscious body into a vent before anyone notices he's gone... it'd be alot more entertaining.
(And I realize that's the wrong genre of game, but bear with me.)
Apply the same logic to Skyrim. Instead of the pacifist option just being an "off switch" for monster aggro, it'd need to be more complex than that.
In the case of bandits, I picture it working like this: tie all the bandit random encounters to specific bandit lairs (meaning that once a lair has been wiped out/converted, bandits stop appearing within that section of the map). And *if* you take the high road and make use of the "Enlightenment" (or w.e) shout, the bandits you encountered would repent their crimes and agree to help you rout out their former comrades.
This would then start a mini quest. Your converts would lead you back to their lair, help you fight your way to their leader, culminating in either your new friends killing him (if he's too powerful to be shouted down), or you converting him like you did them. The bandit clan would then disband, and you'd have a few friendly npcs added to the nearest hold capitol. Maybe certain leaders could become recruitable followers once you're done? Dutiful toe-headed apostles to your sanctimonious Jesus?
I realize I'm arguing this point pretty hard considering all my characters are sociopathic assholes, but I just think it's more doable than people think.
And for ONCE in a game I'd like to be good, and actually feel good as a result. Instead of feeling bored/frustrated/annoyed/restrained/stupid for not taking the far more sensible and entertaining violent option.
And I feel like reforming those bitter pricks muttering to themselves in the dark ("Go to college... like I'm supposed to know which college he meant!") and possibly earning a few new friends in the process would be a better reward for trying to find a reasonable solution than what AAA games usually give me. Meaning nothing (except more hassle).
So why not make the "good guy" (I HATE that term) into an actual wandering messiah, converting the people, performing miracles and heralding peace? Y'know, rather than a short sighted pussy with the power to temporarily make dangerous things not kill him.
