Kahunaburger said:
Ragsnstitches said:
Todd howard already explained why they won't be bringing back levitation (and mark/recall for similar reasons).
Todd Howard said:
Mark and recall is one where it's a lot of fun, but like levitation, was removed so we could design better gameplay spaces and scenarios.
We were really limited in Morrowind because the player could recall or levitate out of many situations and break them. There was a lot of good gameplay and level design work that we just couldn't do and now we can.
Back then it seemed like many good ideas we had were shot down when another designer would say "oh yeah, I just levitate or recall away." So we got rid of them
The more detailed and visceral their worlds become, the more difficult it becomes to balance such powerful spells. Those spells would dictate where and how events play out, rather then events laying out options to the player. Removing them was giving the devs more freedom to plot out quests and events, not to handicap your travel options.
Hey, I'm all for Skyrim adding more stuff to the game. In an Elder Scrolls game, more options = good. Re: levitation, that's I think the big design philosophy flaw with Bethesada when designing Elder Scrolls - it's the whole "have fun, but only the way we want you to" thing. If I want to do a dungeon the way the level designers intended, I can choose not to levitate, or pick a class that can't levitate. If not, I don't have to - at least in Morrowind. That's the beauty of that game - you're actively pursuing the things you want to pursue instead of following some linear path that the devs set up for you, or you can go linear if that appeals to you more.
And let's be honest with ourselves - Bethesada is great at creating open environments, but they're hardly a CDPR or even a Bioware when it comes to setting up more linear environments or narratives. So why not play to their strengths?
Bethesda DO make fantastic open worlds... but they are finite in length and breadth. Unlike say, minecraft, where you populate a world (that randomly generates) with stuff from your own imagination, TES is static. The world does not change unless you initiate a script by completing a quest or triggering an event. These are what make TES games dynamic. It's the sum of it's parts, minus the flaws, that makes TES a hit series.
But they are limited and a chunk of that sum suffers if the devs have to be wary of exploits from ludicrous abilites.
In an open world, where the player is given total freedom, it's impractical to expect a developer to account for every possibly angle of entry, every possible exploit in their own design or even every possible character permutation (hence the imbalance). To expect this of them, is to naively expect the masses to wait for another year or 2 while they reconfigure their game around a handful of gimmicks.
It's not laziness to refuse to program something that is likely to break their game in multiple ways. They did consider these things before oblivion and likely before starting skyrim but opted not to waste precious time coding, animating, testing, re-coding 1 or 2 frivolous spells.
In order to stabilise their game, they have to either restrict world (would be a death sentence for TES) or restrict the player. Since, as you said, their strength is in creating amazing open worlds to explore, the only thing they can try limit is the player.
Without sacrificing choice, they grounded the player from taking to the air (unless we get dragon mounts in skyrim, though I suspect not), dismantled and re-absorbed old skills into fewer new skills, Removed armour customisation in favour of natural variety (instead of pick and mix drag queens), implemented current gen "by the book" features (Sprint).
In contrast to that, they removed classes and attributes in order to give more freedom to a player as 1 character. This allows your character to find his niche, rather then being pidgeonhold before you even know your ass from your elbow.
Don't get me wrong. If they came out and said "Guys, we're going to put (insert lost aspect) back in" I would be thrilled. I would love to cross the expanse of skyrim in a single bound, I would love to float to the top of a mountain, I would love to make a character who is phobic of upper body clothing, but loves close fitting pants. Why? Because I can... and as you said, that's the charm.
But I don't expect it of them. I realise the impracticality, I realise the necessity of the sacrifice. These items affect the game in many ways, but have limited usefulness for the player. I will miss it, but I won't boycott Bethesda over it (not that I'm suggesting you are, but there people who do).
