Skyrim, where's the fun?

Rooster Cogburn

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Blunderboy said:
Fappy said:
I still have fun with Skyrim despite it's repetitive nature, though I wish they'd return to the quest variety offered in Morrowind :(
This. It's still fun and I do enjoy it but I just lost months of my life to Morrowind. Hell my alarm tone is Nerevar Rising. I wake up in a good mood some days because I instantly think of all the fun I had in that game.

Wow. I think they made the right choice with the title song for Oblivion, but I cannot believe this song didn't make it into the game somehow, somewhere. I think I will always prefer the original Morrowind title song, though. Somehow, it tells you everything you need to know about the journey that awaits. The fans know what I mean lol.

 

ScrabbitRabbit

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Thomas Rembrandt said:
I would recommend playing the game as a stealthy assassin. Sneaking up on enemies and one-shooting them actually adds an entire layer of fun to an admittedly pretty repetitive game.

Also, play the Dark Brotherhood questline, it is really good and you get very useful stealth gear right at the start.
Playing the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild quests as a stealth specialist was incredibly fun. In some parts it almost felt like I was playing a medieval Hitman game.
 

II2

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Rooster Cogburn said:
II2 said:
If anyone has any suggestions for me on the same subject, fire away... I really WANT to love Skyrim, but haven't been able to get invested yet.

I loved morrowind and oblivion and Fallouts 3 / NV. Oblivion is one of the few games I've got every achievement unlocked in, including Shivering Isles + the non-achievement Daedric quests - I played Oblivion top to bottom...

Maybe that's why?

Anyway, I like playing casters, but found the lack of magic crafting dissipointing. I did a bunch of main story and mages college quests, but just found it all.... *blurry*

Anyways, I've got a PC version w/ Dawnguard and soon hearthfire and the HD bethesda texture pack. To anyone reading this, you'd be doing me a solid by giving me a protip where the most fun's at... I REALLY want to LOVE Skyrim, but I'm facing the same disconnect.
Unfortunately, the Mages College is the worst of the major quest-lines. Sorry bro lol. At least you have that disappointment out of the way. I would say the main quest starts poorly and gets continuously better until it ends on a strong note, but it depends who you ask.

I think you need to understand the advantages of the new magic system in order to forgive the loss of spell-making. I liked the old system too, but we all ended up with a small number of really powerful spells to spam. Or we just broke the game completely lol. And the character progression was all jacked up because it wasn't long before you made the spells you wanted and stopped growing your character. The fire spell you started with in the tutorial was pretty much the same as the spell you were using after 400 hours. If you don't think so, play Skyrim and see if it changes your mind.

The old system was empowering, but the new system is rewarding. You start as a lowly wizardling with a wimpy flame spell. But as you level up and accumulate new spells, you slowly gain access to cool new effects and the 'feel' of the new spells becomes more and more powerful. You feel like you're really earning your new powers and you can actually see the results of your expanding abilities on the screen. At high levels, you end up with a list of powerful and interesting spells that really show off what a badass you have become. And you need to use a variety of them more based on context, not just make one uber-spell or an uber-combo and spam it on everything. Or give yourself 100% chameleon, you dirty cheat lol.

My earlier post has some tips that may apply to you. If you absolutely cannot get into the game, please at least play long enough to do some or all of the Daedric Prince quests. They are some of the game's real stand-out moments. And never say no to a bottle of mead *wink wink*.
Cheers, thanks for the pointers!

Yeah, the new magic is a lot more kinesthetically FUN to use. Your absolutely right about the old system - it ended up as a math puzzle. To me it became "within the rules of this system, how can I maximize the effect?" ... The answer was a touch range spell that caused a squared DoT (Damage [Type]) x (Duration) + 100% Weakness to (Damage [Type]) x same (Duration). Then step back and hit them with ranged staff damage types of the same class, while they fall apart.

Another fun one was made using a Buff [Skill] ability aquired uniquely through the grey prince Arena fight quest line. I called it "Best Friend" - Touch Charm 100 x 2sec, [Self] Barter 100 x 2sec, [Self] Speech 100 x 2sec. Took over half my mana to cast, but you just need to hit it once and open a conversation immediately and everyone turns into your Best Friend. :)

Anyway, kinda broke the game, but I had fun doing so, in a weird way. I'll definitely take your advice though... Might roll a stealth character.
 

Kikosemmek

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Well, the thing with any Bethesda game is to learn to enjoy roleplaying. The gameplay itself isn't the best you can get (Skyrim isn't the best hack n' slash; check out Mount and Blade: Warband if you wanna see how medieval style fighting should be done), nor are the graphics the hottest of eye candy on offer. However, the sandbox value is incredible, and if you're a content seeker, ready to go out and explore what people put in your game, roleplaying a character as you go, it's a ton of fun.

My favorite character was an Orc that I roleplayed as a hunter- to add difficulty, everything I used had to be self-caught and self-crafted; that meant I could only use weapons and armor made of animals I killed, and craft potions/poisons from plants I gathered; no magic. I wore leather and fur armor for most of my game, and used Foresworn/Falmer weapons (got this idea after I started using a mod that let you craft these weapons from chitin, etc) until I got to Dragon Smithing, and that's where all those dragons I killed payed off, hard.

Sticking to roleplaying limitations like that will really make you think about the game, what you're doing and where you're going in order to level up and survive. It rewards your playstyle and enhances the fun of sandboxing.
 

Mirroga

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woodaba said:
Mirroga said:
All I can say is, if you're not into Skyrim it's either you never liked the RPG setting or you simply don't play too many games in different genres.
Or we can realize that Skyrim is essentially a lobotomized version of Elder Scrolls designed specifically to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Some people do have opinions outisde the realm of your comprehension, ya know.
I am aware there's people outside my realm of comprehension. The problem is if I state my opinions to be compatible with every person in the world, then either everyone hates or likes the game. That's why my statement had the word "some." I'm analyzing through my perspective, not the whole of society.

Another question. Are you aware some people do have opinions that differ from yours?

Leonardo Chaves said:
Mirroga said:
I have analyzed some behaviors about the fun in different genre. All I can say is, if you're not into Skyrim it's either you never liked the RPG setting or you simply don't play too many games in different genres. The appeal of Skyrim and possibly other Bethesda games is the "freedom" found in it that are rare in today's videogames.
I like RPGs and found Skyrim to be boring as hell...

The freedom is nice, but without anything out of the ordinary to do it doesn't mean much...
To be fair, I have yet to find my favorite RPG considering none of the RPGs I experienced have gameplay good enough to stand on its own. The only charm of Bethesda games are their freedom, but their gameplay and story are flawed. This is coming from a guy who liked but gave up on Fallout 3. Loved the immersion and freedom, but due to my number-crunching ways, I made a character strong enough that the immersion is broken due to continuous overkills.

I always felt that combining Elder Scrolls and Mass Effect might be a good idea.
 

Vuliev

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Rooster Cogburn said:
It's like playing Halo on Easy and only using the Battle Rifle. Like any game, it becomes fun when the difficulty forces you to economize and scramble, and use all the tools at your disposal.
I actually disagree with you on "difficulty is how you find fun"--the most fun I've had in Skyrim is my ridiculously console-boosted Argonian who I like to think is actually a Viashino planeswalker from Jund. While the combat is laughably easy for Tim the Enchanter, every questline he encounters is a barrel of fun for me--roleplaying a being that no one from any of the planes of the Elder Scrolls series have ever encountered before makes for some interesting and often hilarious interaction with NPCs.
 

Rooster Cogburn

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Vuliev said:
I actually disagree with you on "difficulty is how you find fun"--the most fun I've had in Skyrim is my ridiculously console-boosted Argonian who I like to think is actually a Viashino planeswalker from Jund. While the combat is laughably easy for Tim the Enchanter, every questline he encounters is a barrel of fun for me--roleplaying a being that no one from any of the planes of the Elder Scrolls series have ever encountered before makes for some interesting and often hilarious interaction with NPCs.
Oh, I didn't mean to imply there is one thing from which all fun is derived. I was just trying to describe how fun can be achieved by a challenge of appropriate magnitude. Tim the Enchanter sounds awesome. I used to fly around Vvardenfel slaughtering the inhabitants with exploding ice spells lol.
 

Rooster Cogburn

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Mirroga said:
I always felt that combining Elder Scrolls and Mass Effect might be a good idea.
I can definitely see why you say this but I am against it for so many reasons. Let's keep Bioware and Bethesda in separate cages lol.
 

lord.jeff

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TopazFusion said:
Yeah, the enemy variety is lacking, somewhat.

DRAUGR!!

...

Also there's this . . .



If that font is too small, click here for full size.
So much this, even the thieves guild was mostly dungeon diving, it didn't even have a murder penalty or any reason to bother sneaking at all as far as I remember. Also I want to mention House of Horrors(I think that's the right name) was my favorite quests and Skyrim has nothing even remotely like it in the game.
 

GAunderrated

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lord.jeff said:
TopazFusion said:
Yeah, the enemy variety is lacking, somewhat.

DRAUGR!!

...

Also there's this . . .



If that font is too small, click here for full size.
So much this, even the thieves guild was mostly dungeon diving, it didn't even have a murder penalty or any reason to bother sneaking at all as far as I remember. Also I want to mention House of Horrors(I think that's the right name) was my favorite quests and Skyrim has nothing even remotely like it in the game.
As much as I like skyrim I have to admit that image is correct. In oblivion the thieves guild finally was legendary while in skyrim it was always go to dungeon and kill x and grab y.
 

SycoMantis91

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Skyrim's so much more enjoyable than Oblivion. But Oblivion was pretty damn shitty. Skyrim's fun is in the intrigue, as soon as you've seen everything it's really dull.
 

Moonlight Butterfly

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I enjoy it but it's definitely not perfect. The radiant quest system needs tweaked if they are gonna stick with it.

I'm looking forward to Fallout 4 at least.

At least the terrain is a bit more interesting than oblivion... fields, fields and some more fields. yay.

I found a few quite interesting quests in Skyrim but they are all very area based rather than character based.
 

Nannernade

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If you want more exciting combat just go play Dragon's Dogma, the exploration isn't as deep and the companions are just as annoying but the combat is much better.
 

Applejack

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Rooster Cogburn said:
Mirroga said:
I always felt that combining Elder Scrolls and Mass Effect might be a good idea.
I can definitely see why you say this but I am against it for so many reasons. Let's keep Bioware and Bethesda in separate cages lol.
I wouldn't mind if Betheada gave us talk menus that were voiced and showed your character's expressions like in Mass Effect. I would feel more like my character was real.
ScrabbitRabbit said:
Thomas Rembrandt said:
I would recommend playing the game as a stealthy assassin. Sneaking up on enemies and one-shooting them actually adds an entire layer of fun to an admittedly pretty repetitive game.

Also, play the Dark Brotherhood questline, it is really good and you get very useful stealth gear right at the start.
Playing the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild quests as a stealth specialist was incredibly fun. In some parts it almost felt like I was playing a medieval Hitman game.
I tried stealth but I feel silly sneaking around enemies I could easily kill normally but your point is to role play some right? Maybe it would be more fun to try somethin like that, or this
Kikosemmek said:
Well, the thing with any Bethesda game is to learn to enjoy roleplaying. The gameplay itself isn't the best you can get (Skyrim isn't the best hack n' slash; check out Mount and Blade: Warband if you wanna see how medieval style fighting should be done), nor are the graphics the hottest of eye candy on offer. However, the sandbox value is incredible, and if you're a content seeker, ready to go out and explore what people put in your game, roleplaying a character as you go, it's a ton of fun.

My favorite character was an Orc that I roleplayed as a hunter- to add difficulty, everything I used had to be self-caught and self-crafted; that meant I could only use weapons and armor made of animals I killed, and craft potions/poisons from plants I gathered; no magic. I wore leather and fur armor for most of my game, and used Foresworn/Falmer weapons (got this idea after I started using a mod that let you craft these weapons from chitin, etc) until I got to Dragon Smithing, and that's where all those dragons I killed payed off, hard.

Sticking to roleplaying limitations like that will really make you think about the game, what you're doing and where you're going in order to level up and survive. It rewards your playstyle and enhances the fun of sandboxing.
I always take what I see in games at face value so I don't think about who my character might be. I know I'm a prisoner and I have a few spells and everyone trusts me with handling their most personal problems. Must be my charm. Or maybe I'm a sucker. It sounds fun to play a certain way based off a personality trait. I'll have to think real hard on this one but thanks for the post this is the kind of ideas I'm looking for.
 

Rooster Cogburn

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Applejack said:
I wouldn't mind if Betheada gave us talk menus that were voiced and showed your character's expressions like in Mass Effect. I would feel more like my character was real.
I would rage so hard. That's a neat feature in-and-of-itself, but everything has it's time and place. If The Elder Scrolls had a voiced protagonist it would be much worse for it. It would undermine the freedom of being whatever you want, one of the things that makes The Elder Scrolls stand out from the herd. If Bethesdoware is defining my character's personality through voice and animation then I am not. It would put too much emphasis on characterizing the player-character. Morrowind was good because it was about Morrowind. The player character should not get top-billing like in Mass Effect. We don't need to go messing around with the formula lol.
Applejack said:
I tried stealth but I feel silly sneaking around enemies I could easily kill normally but your point is to role play some right? Maybe it would be more fun to try somethin like that, or this
Well, the badass melee fighter you've already leveled up doesn't need sneak. Try it with a new character on Expert difficulty. I think you'll find you rely on sneak quite a bit lol.
 

Something Amyss

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FelixG said:
A slight correction, players who lack an active imagination are the ones who I would say fell victim to the hype.
A slight correction, players who lack an active imagination and a willingness to use it to justify playing retail prices for a glitch-ridden sandbox are the ones I would say fell victim to the hype.

I can get more entertainment out of staring at the wall and just imagining things than Skyrim. And I don't have to pay people to do it!
 

woodaba

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May 31, 2011
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Mirroga said:
woodaba said:
Mirroga said:
All I can say is, if you're not into Skyrim it's either you never liked the RPG setting or you simply don't play too many games in different genres.
Or we can realize that Skyrim is essentially a lobotomized version of Elder Scrolls designed specifically to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Some people do have opinions outisde the realm of your comprehension, ya know.
I am aware there's people outside my realm of comprehension. The problem is if I state my opinions to be compatible with every person in the world, then either everyone hates or likes the game. That's why my statement had the word "some." I'm analyzing through my perspective, not the whole of society.

Another question. Are you aware some people do have opinions that differ from yours?
Exactly my point. You assume that if people don't like Skyrim, then they either don't like RPGs, or don't play enough games in general, which is an incredibly arrogant thing to say. I'm just trying to show that that is blatantly untrue, though I did word it poorly.