Skyrim - What would you change/add?

[SayHelloToMrBullet]

I'm really sick of people constantly saying "Oh why weren't spears in the original Skyrim?" "Oh why wasn't mounted combat in the original Skyrim?" "Oh why is there so little dragon variety!" "Oh why weren't crossbows in the original Skyrim? They were in Morrowind!"

These particular people don't seem to understand that when a game's graphics are more advanced, creating content for it takes longer. Making stuff for Morrowind would've been far easier given its lower graphics quality. Skyrim's technology is far better. Building content for it takes longer. This applies to EVERY game, not just Skyrim. You need examples? Look at every single sequel that has a new engine or has had its graphics updated drastically. The better the graphics, the lesser the quantity.

And for those wanting bigger consequences in the game, honestly we can dream, but at the end of the day making bigger consequences in an already MASSIVE game would take forever.

OT: Marriage in Skyrim is a little shallow. The ability to disable quests in the quest logs (so that you don't have 20 different 'find the item' quests clogging up your miscellaneous section) would be cool. Plus it would be nice if I could set what stuff I want my companions to use/wear, but I believe a mod has already done this.

 

[Cowabungaa]

We can only hope..... though I expect nothing beyond CTDs every 30 minutes, half the quests to be broken, and enemies to run back and forth randomly because of broken AI.

But this time they won't be rushed thanks to Wasteland 2 being a crowd-funded game. No pressure from big executives, no looming deadlines they have to make for the end of the fiscal year or something like that. They can really focus on the game for once.

Ohh yes and Obsidian's specialty, a end boss that can be persuaded to give up on his life's goals with a series of 3 high level speech challenges despite the fact he has literally spent his ENTIRE life on it and showed absolutely no remorse or misgivings about his actions beforehand.

I actually always want to see Obsidian design the final fight with Alduin at the end of Skyrim, just to see what sort of speech challenge they would make to make Alduin ride off into the sunset as a reformed good-guy.

It's funny that you mention it like that. So many RPG fans complain about RPG's being too linear these days. Here Obsidian comes along, actually gives you multiple choices on how you want to handle it and there are still people that complain about it. Goes to show that you can't please everyone.

It's actually one of the things I'd change about Skyrim. The entire 91 hours I've played it so far I never really felt like I was playing an actual roleplaying game. Yeah I can pick my own combat style and maybe choose to intimidate or persuade a minor NPC on rare occasions, but other than that there isn't much choice and consequence going on. It doesn't feel very interactive and it's why, as an RPG, I really prefer New Vegas over Skyrim.

 

[Xdeser2]

I would completly re-do the Civil war questline from the battle of Whiterun onwards. Up to there, it felt good, but during the fight, my opinion of it started on a downward spiral. they should have at least added some extra fighting outside the city, it felt like a fight of 30 Imperial guards vs 30 Stormcloaks.

Also, make the civil war not open up until after its revealed that you are the dragonborn to jarl Balguurff. It would seem like both sides would have a reason to say "Hey, publicly announcing that the dragonborn has taken up our cause is a good thing."

The Stormcloaks could claim that Talos himself has interviened by sending one of his own kin to Skyrim, while the Imperials could claim that a descendant of the Septim Emperors (dragonborn themselves) has taken up their standard. For both sides, a powerful piece of propaganda. Also it would kind of make sense to justify why you get special treatment in their armies, as to Ulfric your just some dude who was going to be executed with him and to Tullius, you just an escaped convict.

Also, i know this is a cardinal sin to suggest, but have the Imperials and Rebels level up with you. Add some new classes of enemies to add variety to them. I mean, the legion is supposed to be based of the Roman legions, so why not add a legionaire and preatorean unit to their make up who wear heavy armor sets? Also, where are their battlemages? And for the stormcloaks why not a berserker enemy or wolf handler?

 

[SajuukKhar]

It's funny that you mention it like that. So many RPG fans complain about RPG's being too linear these days. Here Obsidian comes along, actually gives you multiple choices on how you want to handle it and there are still people that complain about it. Goes to show that you can't please everyone.

It's actually one of the things I'd change about Skyrim. The entire 91 hours I've played it so far I never really felt like I was playing an actual roleplaying game. Yeah I can pick my own combat style and maybe choose to intimidate or persuade a minor NPC on rare occasions, but other than that there isn't much choice and consequence going on. It doesn't feel very interactive and it's why, as an RPG, I really prefer New Vegas over Skyrim.

I have no problem with choices, and multiple options to complete quests... as long as they make sense. Unfortunately what Obsidian does 90% of the time.. doesn't.

Obsidian makes games were you can talk down ANYONE, no matter how religiously devoted to the cause they were before. It's dumb, idiotic, and only servers to bankrupt their characters depth by making them appear extremely weak willed and not believing in anything at all.

Take for example Esbern or Delphine in Skyrim, you can't talk them down from wanting to kill Parthy, and a lot of people complained about it, but you know what? YOU SHOULDN'T be able to talk them down.

However in Fallout New Vegas you can talk down both Oliver and Lanius, in what was one of the most idiotic series of speech checks I have ever seen.

If Skyrim were an Obsidian game you would, and it would only serve to make the characters crap, well more crap.

snip

1. You literally cannot start the battle of Whiterun before finding out you are Dragonborn, attempting to do so makes Balgruff tell you do to the dragon rising quest, the quest were you find out you are Dragonborn, and he refuses to speak to you before you do. 90% of the civil war cannot be done until after you find out you are Dragonborn.

2. The rebel and legion soldiers do level up with you, all the way to level 50. At level 50 they have over 400hp.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Wasteland 2 is an InXile game. They just brought Avellone on board to help out. The (hopefully) upcoming Obsidian kickstarter will be the true test to see what they can come up with without the shitty publishers interference.

Don't worry Khar, you won't like either game because they wont have AWESOME ACTION COMBAT.

So they are going to have combat based around having the computer fight itself while I can get up from my computer and make toast and still win the fight because so much of it is handled by the computer?

That or combat based around waiting for painfully slow AI make combat decisions between turns?

Such great game design there. because games aren't meant to be played... na, they are meant to be watched, your not supposed to actually do it for yourself or anything, its all supposed to be done by the computer.

skyrim's combat is dull, but at least I can get it over with quickly and explore the world, Fallout's turn based gameplay is so slow I would rather watch paint dry, if only becuase paint dries faster.

 

[SajuukKhar]

] Party based tactical combat where there's alot more decisions to make, options to use and and thought involved, rather that mashing the same buttan over and over again like a fucking retard.

You know, a real RPG ?

Yes "decisions".

Do I go here and let the computer make up uncontrollable dicerolls, that determine if I win or lose, and that are based around luck instead of skill.

or

Do I go there and let the computer make uncontrollable dicerolls, that determine if I win or lose, and that are based around luck instead of skill.


SO MANY OPTIONS, SUCH GOOD GAMEPLAY, GOTTA LOVE THOSE GAMES WERE THE COMPUTER DOES 99% OF THE COMBAT FOR YOU!!!!!

/sarcasm.
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Also, the only way combat in Skyrim is a button masher is if you choose to make it so, you can play tactically using stealth, jumping on rocks to get higher ground, magic, blocking, and other things to make it not a "run up and spam attack button" game.

Skyrim's combat is what you make of it.

I spend more time blocking in combat, and using shield bash as a retaliate while the enemy is staggered, then just plain attacking.

 

[Xdeser2]

1: You completly got me there, dont know what I was thinking :/
however I will always throw behind the old "why dont they at least recognize who you are" argumen

2: I think I phrased the wrong, what I meant was more enemy types as you leveled up, as well in terms of their equipment.

 

[Xdeser2]

snip

1. You literally cannot start the battle of Whiterun before finding out you are Dragonborn, attempting to do so makes Balgruff tell you do to the dragon rising quest, the quest were you find out you are Dragonborn, and he refuses to speak to you before you do. 90% of the civil war cannot be done until after you find out you are Dragonborn.

2. The rebel and legion soldiers do level up with you, all the way to level 50. At level 50 they have over 400hp.

1: You completly got me there, dont know what I was thinking :/
however I will always throw in behind the old "why dont they at least recognize who you are" argument

2: I think I phrased that the wrong way, what I meant was more enemy types as you leveled up, as well in terms of their equipment.

EDIT: I don't know why it double posted like that...

 

[SajuukKhar]

If your such a fan of action combat in 'rpgs', why in the hell would you like Bethesda's games then ? Their gameplay sucks.

I like Bethesda's games because I can choose how easy/hard the game is.

-I can walk around with 80% damage and magicka resistance, and be a unstoppable uber warrior with a sword that 1 hit kills everything because I exploited smithing to make it have like 50000 damage.
-I can walk around with a measly 100 armor rating forcing me to have to have to block pretty much every attack or I will die instantly, and have a sword that does like 20 damage, which makes battles long wars of attrition.
-I can shotgun chug potions giving myself a laundry list of magical effects.
-I can choose to NEVER use potions at all, or place a 10 second cooldown on potions before I use one again.
-I can run in and spam the attack button killing everything in my path with a breeze.
-I can play a tactically, getting high ground to get off an arrow or two before the enemy finds me at which point I switch to a sword and board that relies on blocking and using shield bash retaliations to stagger the enemy while I get a swing in before repeating.

I can do whatever I want, I can make the game as easy or hard as I want, I can make the game as button mashy or as tactical as I desire. I'm not FORCED to do anything, but I can choose do play any way I desire.

Very few games offer that level of freedom, they normally force you to have to play tactically, or play have a high speech skill to get anywhere, in Elder scrolls I can choose how I play, and have fun because of it.

Elder scrolls is a game whose combat is as tactical as you, the player, chooses to make, unlike in many games were developers FORCE a specific level of required tactics and tell you "play by our rules or lose".

Games should be hard because the player chooses to make it hard, not because the game forces itself to be difficult.
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90% of the complaints about Elder scrolls combat come down do "I chose to make my character a uber badass and now it's easy" and my only response to it is "well don't"

-You think shotgunning potions makes it to easy? then don't do it
-You think having a armor rating above or below a certain number makes it to hard? then don't make your armor go above or below that
-you think combat is just rushing in and spamming the attack button? they play more tactically using other methods then just running in and spamming the attack button.

Skyrim's combat is only as good or bad as you, the player, chooses to make it. You don't want it to suck? then stop playing it in such a way that it does suck.

 

[Karelwolfpup]

Aye, dragons do get frustratingly boring after a while, although if one catches me in the middle of town or in a village and I don't want anyone to die from it, I usualy just make the bastard disappear via console commands. Also, is it really necissary to loot EVERYTHING? This game had a similar problem to oblivion and other fallout games where you'd end up being the richest man on earth after just a few hours of playing without even trying to loot anything. High quality gear and high paying jobs are everywhere and it's really hard to miss them.

look... i know I have a problem, alright? I just... *shivers in corner* I just have to take everything that's not nailed down... *rocks away in corner* I-I-I can't h-help myself!

LOL ever since Fallout3 I take anything of even remote value then hoard/sell off that crap. Really had to hoard in New Vegas to afford those implants and weapon mods.
Also, I haz PS3 version, so no swanky console commands for me XDD

but seriously, I think the reason I'm such a kleptomaniac in these games is just because I'm never sure what I may need or what may be of use. And also because... well... because I just CAN do it, I suppose. Also, hunting for books, still missing the third book in "The Argonain Account" series and I want to know how that story developed. Haven't even read the last book yet because I don;t know what happened between it and the 2nd book XDD
I know, I'm proly crazy. But screw it, I'm THane of three seperate holds, Harbinger of the Companions and a werewolf who keeps stumbling across disembodied voices of Daedras who want me to do things for them. So there's probably a reason I'm nuts XDD

 

[SajuukKhar]

"-I can play it tactically"

And all of that doesn't make the shitty gameplay any better anyway.

Except you can play tactically.... it really isn't that hard, you just have to do it yourself, the game doesn't force you to do it.

And as I said before, the gameplay is only shitty if you chose to make it so, Skyrim can literally be played in ANY WAY YOU DESIRE. the only way to have shitty gameplay is to make the gameplay shitty by playing shitty.

However I doubt you will be able to just play tactically in a situation when you aren't forced to. You seem utterly unable to create fun for yourself and instead seem to need playstyles forced down your throat to be able to ever see that they are there, or how to accomplish them.
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So go have fun with your games where
-All your character actions only really affect what slight bonuses are applied to the random dice-roll the computer pulls out of its ass to determine if you, or I should say it, wins or not
-Games were your, the player of a game that's meant to be played by YOU not the ocmputer, skill means nothing and it based purely on getting a lucky roll
-Games were despite all your craving for character customization 90% of what your character does is controlled by the computer and not you.
-Games whose sole deign is based around limitations of technology that stopped existing over a decade ago
-Games whose design is based around limiting the number of things you can do as much as possible by throwing in entirely arbitrary difficulty zones, and stat checks.
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On the other hand I'm going to be having fun playing a game, that I can make as easy or hard as I want, for myself, and not letting a computer play the game for me, and where I actually get to play the majority of it, and were there are no idiotic level restricts that only exist to force me to have to go out and grind enemies to proceed.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Are you able to create combacks that don't involve idiotic pictures?

I would really like to see you make an argument for once because so far all you have done is.... well nothing to be honest. It seems like the last desperate act of someone totally incapable of forming an actual thought.

Though I will say that picture is somewhat well done.

Also I have played the Age of Decadence demo.. it really wasn't that good.
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I would like turn based dice-roll games if they could make one that actually played like the D&D board game.

Were I made my own dice-rolls, and the actions, and the results, of my character were of MY doing instead of the computers doing.

 

[SajuukKhar]

You mean ramble on and on spewing nonsense like you do ?

You mean not hold on to idiotic and close minded concepts like the concept of a "true RPG" while totally ignoring the fact that the definitions of words changes over time like you do?

You mean by actually making a point about how the game works, i.e. the computer does most of the shit for you, that is why you can get up, walk away, and still win a fight?

You mean by actually talking about how attribute systems murder character diversity in the long run by forcing you to have to level certain attributes to certain levels just to get past areas of the game no matter what class you are?

You mean by actually pointing out that making a game were people can explore and experience the content at their pace is more fun then having arbitrary level restricted zones placed around everywhere that only force people to grind instead of letting them actually play the content?

Most of your opinions can be summarized as "I am the old grandpa who thinks all of the newer generations music sucks" stereotype.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Really because I thought RPGs were about making a character, advancing the skills of that character in a way you see fit, and making choices about what your character does/how he interacts with the world. Not... having monsters that are higher level then you to fight.

Also, there is a difference between
-Having monsters that are beatable, but just stronger then you, such as having level 50 dragons spawn when you are level 38 like Skyrim does.
-Placing monsters you aren't intended to beat at all until you level up 50 miles down the line and have to backtrack. Like New Vegas did with putting Feral Ghoul Reavers 3 step away from Primm that you had no chance of beating at level 3-5, the level you would be at Primm.

I don't mind the former, in fact I want the former, because that is good game design. Making the game beatable, but not always easy. Skyrim's problem lies in he fact that they didn't add anything past level 30 for most monsters, making it cap out way to fast, and thus making any moderately high character able to kill shit way to easy. They did fix some of that in Dawnguard though.

I hate the latter, because there is no reason to make people backtrack when you could still make a hard, but beatable fight, in that place instead.

God forbid someone makes a game that you can actually play as you go.

 

[triggrhappy94]

There needs to be more trails in the mountains. For a hiking sim, I was disapointed in the lack of mountains I could actually climb.

 

[8a88leph1sh]

In no particular order here are some of my hopes for the future:

1. Dragon Mounts/Taming
2. Spears that are usable as both melee and throwing weapons
3. Leveling spells - I use fireball more than some of the other higher power fire destruction spells because I like it's blast radius but at the level I'm at it doesn't have much damage output while I can cut enemies down no problem with my sword despite the fact that my destruction and one-handed skills are nearly the same level.
4. More recognition for the fact that you are a guild leader/Jarl/Dovahkin
5. A weapon which levels as you use it, starting as a pretty poor weapon with the potential to become one of the strongest if not the strongest weapon in the game. You would choose what kind of weapon you'd like to fit your play style and you would choose how to upgrade it as it levels. The choices you make upgrading it would change its appearance. For instance, if it does extra damage to undead it would glow with holy light but if it does extra damage to human enemies it would look evil and jagged. You would not be able to improve it with smithing, only blood can temper it and make it stronger.
6. Bring back spell making
7. Longer, more interesting guild quests like those in Oblivion

 

[Sande45]

Skyrim's combat is only as good or bad as you, the player, chooses to make it. You don't want it to suck? then stop playing it in such a way that it does suck.

Ummm... nope. When you need to limit your playstyle and nerf your character to keep the game even remotely challenging and interesting, it's bad design.

And you know what? On one playthrough I actually did everything there was to do to make the combat as good as it can be and it still sucked big time. It was too easy and simplistic to my taste and the little difficulty there was came from wrong places.

I guess someone can like Skyrim's combat, but saying something like "if you don't like it you're just doing it wrong", is incredibly ignorant. People have different preferences you know.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Tell that to every RPG ever.

I cant think of a single RPG were not nerfing your character allowed for the game to be challenging at the end.
-BG1 and 2
-NWN 1 and 2
-SWTOR 1 and 2
-All the Fallouts.
If you used the best gear in those games you were pretty much god-like.

It's impossible to make a game with AI as good as the player, so there will ALWAYS come a time were
1. The game designs stupidly overpowered monsters to compensate for their shitty AI, usually by making them damage sponges or have insta-kill moves, which is bad game design.
2. You have to self-nerf in order to make the end game challenging, which is bad game design.

It is literally 100% impossible to NOT have "bad game design", and have challenging enemies, because enemy AI can NEVER match human players without getting some retarded buff to compensate.

 

[Duskflamer]

SajuukKhar, if you think turn based games are nothing more than random dice roll vs. random dice roll, you clearly aren't understanding the game you were playing.

This is also why everyone is so confused at your insistence that Skyrim can be a tactical game. I, personally, play Skyrim about as tactically as I think is possible, I sneak, fire off arrows and ducking back to avoid being spotted, when forced into open combat I doublecast destruction to make enemies stagger and make good use of the shouts. This does not come close to the kinds of decisions you have to make in a proper tactics RPG like Fire Emblem or FF tactics.

It is 100% fine for you to prefer more action oriented games, but the way you're talking about more tactics focused games makes me think that you are just completely failing to comprehend anything that doesn't involve you personally controlling the combat.

 

[scotth266]

82 hours into Skyrim after about a week, and here's what I think ought to be changed:

Dungeons are brilliant, when they work. When they don't work, you feel like you're just running around killing Draugr. Some more diversity in both dungeon enemies and planning is needed here - spiders were fun to fight for instance, but there aren't enough of them.

Some of the puzzles in the dungeons are bloody brilliant - but they lack diversity. There's essentially two puzzles in Skyim: the dragon claw ring and the symbol match, and while Bethesda found a whole lotta ways to keep the second one interesting, the first gets old after the third time you do it.

Traps don't feel lethal unless you're criminally stupid and stand in their way. Hell, half of them can be beat just by running really fast - this isn't a good trap at all. And the lack of unique triggers means that 90% of the time you won't even trigger the trap, because noticing those tripwires and floor panels is incredibly easy. Traps could also use more diversity - the first time you see a slashing axe trap you're like HELL YEAH, but after the fifth you're like "Is this the only kind of trap these guys know about?"

Dragons feel stupid and they are too frequently spawned when you fast-travel. Either they get stupid and attack other enemies, allowing you to freely kill them, or they trot up to you and 1-hit kill you by nom-nomming your head off, which isn't conducive to having fun. And if you fast-travel a lot, dragons wind up becoming more of a travel tax than an interesting encounter - it doesn't feel random when, after fast-traveling to three open areas, I get attacked by three dragons in a row. I have more dragon souls than I know what to do with at this point. And they lack diverse attacks - it's either bite, breath, or tail slam, with the odd overhead breath attack.

The inventory is a gods-awful mess, especially the Misc and Potion categories. I understand there's a mod that fixes it, but I'm playing the vanilla game right now and will critique it as such.

Some perk trees are absolutely pointless. Speech and Pickpocket are both pointless: the former because you just don't need it, the latter because it's mostly a tree for RP'ing as a thief. The Lockpicking tree is also worthless unless you suck at the lockpick minigame.

Taking Enchanting is an insane priority over Smithing and Alchemy, since you can just enchant with "fortify alchemy/bsmithing" and then BOOM you level those skills a bajillion times faster.

Magic seems poorly implemented: sure Destruction's fun to use, but Fire seems to be the dominant element, with a bit of lightning mixed in to take out mages since nobody ever has ANY elemental resists whatsoever. Frost magic seems pointless other than for making enemies a bit slower. Alteration and Illusion get fucked over in favor of Conjuration, Restoration, and Destruction - sure, invisibility and muffle are cool, but there isn't anything else worthwhile in Illusion, and Alteration's sole virtue appears to be Oakflesh.

Hitting birds with anything other than lighting bolts to get their ingredients is hard as hell. Realistic to be sure, but annoying in game terms.

The whole "conquer Skyrim for either the resistance/Legion" is a cool idea, but the whole "battle for Fort Whatthefuck" minigame attached to it is dull as hell. How about mixing it up a bit, eh? And let's see some actual CHANGES when you take the areas other than the Jarls moving out - some new quests would be nice. And I shouldn't have to be re-Thaned each time I take over an area. And the Thane-dubbings should have more unique dialog.

It really doesn't make sense for me to be able to trot into the enemy capital when I'm supposed to be a figurehead of my movement - swaggering around Solitude when I'm going to be taking it over in an hour (and all the Jarls in the basement hate me, and probably told the Jarl of Solitude who I am) strikes me as being more than a tad silly. I'd also like to be able to actually, you know, have INPUT on the whole Jarl situation. Some of those people I wanted to keep. And what's with the racism coming from people I'm supposed to be a hero to, anyway? And why wasn't all of this tied into the main quest line - it's kind of goddamn important!

Why does the Dark Brotherhood's big quest not DO anything? Someone important just died: there should be more than two line's worth of dialog changed here!

Once you hit the 30's the difficulty of the game just disappears, at least at the "Adept" setting. Only thing that threatens me now is dragons, and even then it's mostly because of the stupid 1-hit kill move.

The houses outside of Morthal suck donkey balls in terms of aesthetics (though I haven't gotten the one in Solitude yet, so I still have hope). Breezeholm is a shitty house for early game, I get it, but couldn't I make it nicer given the money I put into it? And isn't the one I got in Ulfric's city kind of, well, empty? There's room for entire dining tables in here, even with the upgrades! What's the deal?

Of course, all of this ignores that I had a lot of fun with Skyrim. But I could have had EVEN MORE with this stuff fixed.