Skyrim - What would you change/add?

[Duskflamer]

Also would like an expansion of the marriage option. It seems like a decent idea, but there's pretty much almost nothing that indicates it's a marriage and not just yet another companion thing that gives you gold every day.

Personally, I think this is a side effect of how bland the NPCs are in general. It's fine enough that they're bland if you just pass by them and ignore them easily, but once you make one of them important, and they're still bland...it's more noticeable.

 

[Imbechile]

One word: consequences.

Pretty much this.
Bethesda, consequences make the game world feel alive, not radiant AI or voiceacting.
But that would require actuall effort, so it's probably too much to ask.

Also, removing the remaining RPG elements and concentrating on making the gameplay better.
This way the game is too shallow to appeal to the RPG crowd and too boring to appeal to the action crowd. The game tries to please everyone, then ends up pleasing no-one.

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

I didn't come across any invisible walls that I can recall, besides the standard borders of existance. Nothing like NV, which had them atop any minor slope and atoll.


Mining. The mining kills me. I know why it's in WoW and MMOs, they thrive on wasting your time. Time = money. But in a single player game with no subscription? Why do I have to sit through this 10 second animation every time I want some ore? Ore that I could much more easily purchase at a weapons store, smith into something, and sell back to them?
I don't want to remove it from the game, it'd be dumb to only be able to buy ore. But something needs to be done about the wait. Make a mini-Bejeweled minigame or something. Flowers are easy, heck I'll be hightailing it at 5% health from arch necromancers and sabrecats but I'll still snag mountain flowers and lilacs as I flee.

Politics: It would be nice if, at least in the integrated circles you join, your rise to power was more relevant. You become arch-mage and all that changes is some static dialogue swaps on the npcs wandering the college. You become the Guild Master of the thieves guild and no one bats an eyelid. Sean Connery won't even talk to you after you do it.

Marriage: It is a little disappointing that all your fantasy wife does is sit around the house and cook (why hasn't this breezed across the feminist conciousness?!) but at the same time it's more than any of their other games offered. It's arguably more than Dragon Age offers because of the sheer number of choices. I'm a fan of the tacked on Bishoujo game dynamic, but I'm not terribly upset that the concept is still in its infancy for major releases. People seem to like it, Fallout 4 or Elder Scrolls 6 will probably have more to do.

 

[Snowbell]

Prettier clothes and longer, nicer looking hair

If I'm going to be murdering dragons I'd like to look nice while I do it

 

[Skratt]

I often wonder what would happen if you had the option to make your local world semi-persistent. Example: You start a single player game and you play the game and join the mages guild let's say. you go all the way through those events, but you decide (as I have) to roll a different character to do the main quest. make some of the changes to the world that would reflect my other character's actions. You'd have to change how the game worked a bit, and limit it perhaps to 3 characters affecting the same world, but think subtle changes could be possible.

It doesn't have to be like everything in it's place is exactly how your character left it. If one character goes through the thieves guild quests, the other characters could still join that guild, but the main quest would not be available to them and things like the Honeybrew Meadery would now be Black Briar Meadery, etc and people would talk about how the events that caused it, making slight references to a khajiit this or that. If another character on the main quest has gone through the first quest in white run, that quest line would be locked to that character, but dragons would be loose in the world. The NPCs could make reference to the dovakiin walking around, etc.

Just some basic reference style changes to the world not the exact conditions of every dungeon or anything overly complicated.

 

[WanderingFool]

I would fix the leveling system so that leveling up is tied to kills and finishing quests, like a normal RPG. Leveling up by using your skills may seem more natural, but it also means your character's development will fall dead in its tracks the moment your main skill set has reached 100. And using other skills I don't like or that don't fit my character simply for the sake of leveling up sucks.

The other change would be making the gameworld feel more alive. I can't really put my finger on it, but the land of Skyrim felt rather lifeless as opposed to games like Fallout 3 or New Vegas.

The quests were also dull as fuck; Go there, kill/find that, or don't. Those were the only options open to you throughout the game.

This so much. I like how the leveling works in Fallout, gain experience from killing enemies, finishing quests, and random things like unlocking doors and hacking computers. But the mechanics for TES work nice as well, for it would make sense that If you work at picking locks, you would get better at it. I wish they would combine these two systems somehow.

 

[skywolfblue]

Combat. Especially melee.

As long as the core mechanic of the game is complete bullshit, nothing else really matters.

What does combat need? Player skill. Currently it's pretty much like Runescape where the combatants keep slashing each other until the one with worse skills/equipment dies. The game needs dodging (that one slow motion shield perk was a step in the right direction), proper parrying and shields that actually do shit. I wouldn't mind if they ripped the whole (melee and armor) system from Dark Souls.

When they're done with that, they could fix the boring and grindy crafting skills and the potion system. After all it turned out infinite-ish amount of healing potions that can be used instantly doesn't really work. Shocker, I know.

This.

The "stand there and hack away" makes for terrible combat. Rolling/Dodging/Parrying need to be included.

 

[kickyourass]

I'd definitely love some kind of expansion for the whole "Marriage" thing, I mean aside from another place to sell loot and a cute Argonian girl living in my house there's not much to it. A few more perks would be very appealing.

I'd separate Axes, Hammers and Swords into their own categories again and give each their separate one handed and two handed perk tree. I'd also add back in Short Swords, no idea why but the absence of a middle between daggers and full swords bothers me.

I'd love to some kind of polearm in the game, I mean the older games have them where the hell did they all go?

I'd also have the lower body armor and the upper body armor seperate like it was in Oblivion. This shocked the hell out of me cause I actually criticized people for complaining about it, but the fact that they have the torso armor/clothing always attached to the leg armor/ clothing actually does bother me a little.

And who wouldn't want an opportunity to become Jarl/King? I busted my ass saving this realm, I at least deserve a minor holding like Falkreath or something.

 

[newdarkcloud]

I would have added skill barriers into the guild quests. There is no reason for an unskilled mage to become Headmaster and no reason for an unskilled thief to ascend to Guild Master. It doesn't make sense.

I'd also add some Spellcrafting back into the game. I loved Spellcrafting in Oblivion. It made me feel like a magic scholar truly mastering my craft.

 

[Nimzabaat]

I'd like something in the game world to be afraid of dragons. It's hard to feel all bad ass when a dragon appears and your horse, a farmer and a mudcrab all beat you to it.

 

[ImperialSunlight]

I would prefer if the game was more like Morrowind in terms of expansive dialogue, characterization and lore. Too many people in the game were random guards or stock characters. In this way, Skyrim felt somewhat empty from a roleplaying perspevtive. Of course, this is the result of the voice acting, which limits the amount of dialogue in the game. If it was my choice, then, I would remove the voice acting.

Also, I wish the guilds/groups were more expansive. Not only were the guild quests unremarkable and no different from any other quest (honestly, a "guild" screen in your menu that shows what level you are in each guild would have been a vast improvement as it is and that was in both Morrowind and Oblivion), it also bars you from certain groups for no explained reason, which breaks immersion. If your character hates werewolves, you probably would join the Silver Hand, but you can't. If your character is a Breton who wants to follow the "old ways", he would probably join the Foresworn, but, oh? YOU CAN'T.

Additional notice of your race would also be nice. This topic has been beaten into the ground, but why can I, a Khajiit, wander freely in even the most fundamentalist, for lack of a better word, of Nord cities, yet all other Khajiit have to stay outside?

 

[Sande45]

Dark souls... the game that was only hard because the gameplay was so imbalanced against you... not because the enemies were actually smart, or had good AI. such GREAT gameplay there.

Dark Souls' game play is not all that difficult except for a few boss fights. It's just unforgiving. You fail, you die. Kind of the point of a sword fight, isn't it? And that's why people (atleast why I) like Dark Souls' combat - it's one of the only games where it really feels like you're in an actual sword fight instead of a game of 'whose lifebar depletes faster'.

I got to admit though, the AI was terrible (almost as bad as Skyrim even).

 

[cojo965]

I would recall all the dragonsfrom the game and staple another pair of legs to them, let's see how well Dovakiin will do against something out of Dragon's Dogma. I would also make a leveling system that uses exp from killing enemies so the player can level up without having to use a skill they are unused to. Also the game's teeth fell out at a point that would need to be fixed.

 

[Darkmantle]

Combat. Especially melee.

As long as the core mechanic of the game is complete bullshit, nothing else really matters.

What does combat need? Player skill. Currently it's pretty much like Runescape where the combatants keep slashing each other until the one with worse skills/equipment dies. The game needs dodging (that one slow motion shield perk was a step in the right direction), proper parrying and shields that actually do shit. I wouldn't mind if they ripped the whole (melee and armor) system from Dark Souls.

When they're done with that, they could fix the boring and grindy crafting skills and the potion system. After all it turned out infinite-ish amount of healing potions that can be used instantly doesn't really work. Shocker, I know.

This.

The "stand there and hack away" makes for terrible combat. Rolling/Dodging/Parrying need to be included.

you know what? On that note, cover should do SOMETHING vs dragons breath. I hate diving behind a rock only to remember that I still take full damage, it just clips through. It's irritating.

 

[Karelwolfpup]

Skyrim only needs two things to be super awesome:

1. Spears
2. Mudcrab Merchant

This, a thousand times this XDD

OP: For me, personally, better control and animations for my horse. Ever since Red Dead Redemption, the fact that my horse in Skyrim controls like a forklift bugs the shit out of me.
Yeah, Spears, polearms and crossbows are some of the weapons I would have expected in Skyrim, along with horseborn combat (dragonborn combat would have been awesome too but a ***** to programme no doubt since any flight is purely a scripted event)

For the love of the Blood God, more voice actors!!! FFS Bethesda! I may love Jim Cummings to death, but he is almost EVERY old man I encounter in Skyrim, WTF!?!? Reminds me of Oblivion where there were only two VAs. Even if the Khajiit do sound teh sexay ^w^

Also, more Quality Assurance during development. I get that Skyrim is MASSIVE and was no doubt a labour of love and a total steeltipped boot to the nads to programme, but Jesus. Encountered some serious issues with Quest bugs. Also, major lag issues on the PS3 version. Not as bad as with New Vegas, thank the Blood God.
This also feeds into the quests themselves... kinda samey samey after a while. I know most RPGs are all about the grind, but... come on guys, make the grind at least interesting.

On the whole, I really liked Skyrim. unique dungeons, fascinating aesthetic, interesting lore but the story took a nose dive right after Helgen tbh. Have dragons coming back or a civil war as the main focus. You can't really have both. One will take precedence over the other in gameplay and as such both kinda suffer. Still, love it despite its flaws.

 

[The Scotsman72]

I'd like spears.

Beyond that, I'm content to see what Besthada or modders think to add.

This
I was very disapointed when I found that there were no spears in the world to use with my spartan armor set I modded in. Adding to that, why not a lance to use with your horse? (If the horse controls weren't so shite in the first place)

 

[The Scotsman72]

[quote="Karelwolfpup" post="9.384635.15266684
Have dragons coming back or a civil war as the main focus. You can't really have both. One will take precedence over the other in gameplay and as such both kinda suffer. Still, love it despite its flaws.[/quote]

Oh I don't know about that. I found it pretty ammusing when a dragon came down out of no where and slaughtered everyone while I was trying to do one of the cival war fort captures.

 

[bat32391]

Well I would love for the guild quests to be longer and have much better stories, and less followers so each one could an actual character like the ones in New Vegas

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

I enjoyed the game as was to be honest, though there are some things I'd love to see in it that would only serve to make it better, in my opinion:

- Staves and Spears (maybe even scythes!) for fighting, in a style similar to DMoMaM
- Destruction and Restoration spells in particular that scale with skill level. They levelled too slowly and didn't scale in any way, meaning they became useless at higher levels.
- Golden Saints
- Shapeshifting
- Better NPCs with personality, stories and history that further aren't wiped out if you marry them.

Things that could've been done better (and in some cases, have been with mods):
- Werewolf form
- Thieves' Guild quests
- No constant effect detect life effect :-( Hated having to keep using Vas Ya Nir all the time.
- Menus/hotkeys optimised for PC keyboard, not a D-Pad, in the PC version
- Golden Saints

 

[Shavon513]

Bethesda games are a nice break from the sadly devolving rpg games (think BiowarEA and others). But the plastic, 2D characters get old. Dawnguard was an excellent deviation from this, however! Serana is possibly the only fairly-characterized npc I have ever encountered in a Bethesda game (Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim; I don't play the FA series). It was heaven, to have an npc that had a personality. It really fleshed out the quest line and made the gaming experience more meaningful, if that makes sense. If classic pre-EA Bioware ever developed an open world game such as this, it just might resemble Dawnguard.

So, more of this.

Also, more nods to the older games are nice.