Things that Skyrim Needs

[TheCommanders]

I should say first off that I am a big fan of the Elder Scrolls series and love playing Skyrim, but feel that it (or the next title in the series) could be significantly improved.

Quick note:

You know what I really want? I want to start my own damn rebellion. I want to introduce a third power to the war. I want to take over the world. I hate both factions, and it feels like which is the lesser of two evils. Interesting choice, morally, but I still just want to be able to make my own rebellion and kill them both. Heck, I could probably invade Whiterun MYSELF and take it over. ALONE. With some good use of tactics considering how many units there are when you attempt. But still!

I totally thought that should have been an option, but specifically because they had the independent option in the latest fallout title (new vegas) which whether or not I wanted to take it (I did) made me feel like I wasn't just being forced to play along with everyone's game plan, but rather given the option.

Come to think of it, quite a few lessons from Fallout New Vegas seem to have been forgotten. For example, the conversations there had many options that were influenced by either your standing with a particular faction, your reputation, morals, or skills. Where did that go? In Skyrim the choices (other than persuade) never affect the conversation, the person's opinion of you, or the outcome/direction of a quest. Honestly, I was expecting to see at the very least the same sorts of options present in FNV in Skyrim, if not more, and to see them left out entirely was rather disappointing.

As has been mentioned at least a few times, I wish that your actions affected the world more. The civil war has been harped on enough so I'll go to a few other examples of the surprisingly small impact your actions seem to have. *SPOILER WARNING* If you haven't finished the dark brotherhood quest line skip this and the next paragraph. You kill the frikin' Emperor, and all that happens is a few peasants ask if you've heard the news. The last time an emperor was assassinated it set of an entire game (oblivion) and you do it and all that changes are a few generic townspeople now ask "hey weren't you the one who killed the emperor?" (paraphrased). Actually, how the hell do they know it was me anyway? It happened on a ship, and killed every single person on it, so how did they identify the killer, call up CSI Miami for a consult? And if people do know, shouldn't all imperial soldiers I meet try to kill me, or at least yell some sort of epithet in my general direction?

I feel like the problem a lot of people have (that after having done many amazing things you are still treated as a newb or whatever when you first join a new organization) would be helped by recording a few different tiers of possible dialogues for early quests for any given organization. One for a player with a low reputation, one for a moderately reputable player, and one for those who have killed the death dragon, ended a rebellion and *SPOILER WARNING AGAIN* killed the frikin' emperor.

Anyway, attempting not to repeat anything that's already been said, here are a few minor suggestions for the next Elder Scrolls Game:
- Break down weapons and armor to recover some materials
- Improve the sneak indicator to reduce ambiguity over which stage of hidden you are in
- Improve facial expression in conversations
- Add more than one animation for jumping (the exact same motion makes jumping look silly)
- Add more spells to destruction, specifically spells for each element that are unique to that element

FINALLY, A QUESTION:

What would people think about your character having a voice? For the purposes of this question ignore the technical difficulties and assume it's a feasible possibility to implement several different voices (male and female) to choose between that would allow for fully voiced conversations throughout the game.

 

[GeorgW]

Some things that I'd like in order of annoyance at them not existing:
I want to be able to cut jewels, make them flawless.
I want an option for a hunger meter, food is worthless ATM.
I want to be able to create my own spells or to make them better somehow.
I want better end game content, better dragons for levels 50+.
I want a way to mark things to sell off later.

Sure, new content and cool mechanics are always nice, but these I feel would be the most necessary.

 

[elcamino41383]

To stop existing! *prepares flame shield*

Dwemer Flame Thrower crafting mission: 1 Dwemer Piston + 1 Dwemer Flexible Hose + Nozzle of Enchanted Flame + 1 waterproof Dragonscale Satchel + 1 Grand Soul Gem for Power + 10 bottles of that flamible liquid that you find on dungeon floors = 1 Flame Thrower + Enchant with Firey Soul Trap.

@elcamino41383 YOUR SOUL IS MINE!!

To stop existing! *prepares flame shield*

I hope you've been leveling up Enchanting so you can get the most resistance out of that.

Hard to level something when I'm not playing it And I'm sorry. I just have had no interest in this game from the start. I played it for an hour and I still don't. I'm really not sure what it is about it that I just can't seem to care. I got a warning for "trolling" and yeah I suppose I shouldn't have posted that, but I'm sure SOMEONE else out there wanted to...

I know playing for an hour for a game such as this isn't nearly enough time to form a solid opinion on it, but I just really couldn't get into it. Maybe I'll give it another shot next time I get a chance at my friends, but I'm really not going out of my way for it.

 

[The Pinray]

One huge thing for me is that followers either need their own horse or they can hop in the ***** seat.

Also, I'd kinda like some random bandit raids on towns every so often. Not too often for it too be unbelievable, though.

 

[Gromril]

Less threads on these forums is all skyrim needs

 

[Nazulu]

Platypuses. Everything needs at least one platypus.

Also, spears as available weapons.

Yeah, I thought it was strange that I couldn't use a spear. Perfect weapon for this kind of game.

Also, why can I never attack on my horse? Would be one of the greatest additions ever! Not sure how you could make it work when fighting a dragon, but if it did, it would be epic.

I have to say that I agree with Yahtzee when he mentioned having the same monsters, linear path ways and usually having the boss at the end through all the dungeons gets stale really quick.

Another thing is the difficulty rise at higher levels that gives mobs more life and just makes things take longer. We need mobs that can't be killed by just running or shooting at them, make you have to think of strategy's which will make the game a lot more interesting.

 

[Nazulu]

FINALLY, A QUESTION:

What would people think about your character having a voice? For the purposes of this question ignore the technical difficulties and assume it's a feasible possibility to implement several different voices (male and female) to choose between that would allow for fully voiced conversations throughout the game.

I dreamt of the perfect Skrim one night and my character sounded a lot like Jack Sparrow, he even had really good responses to all the punks in Riften.

No doubt it would be awesome, but flipping difficult to pull off. You can't have all the different voices saying exactly the same thing as each other either. Unless you want to keep them really simple and bland, different personality's and good acting is what would be the improvement.

 

[Jandau]

A better combat system. Sure, Skyrim is a step forward from Oblivion in a number of small details, but it's still the same thing. Melee combat is just crap in first person view since you can't do anything cool with it without whipping the camera around like crazy. The best you can do is a back-and-forth slugging match. There's a reason why the Jedi Knight games switch to thrid person when you turn on your Lightsaber (yes, I know you can stick to 1st person, but it sucks in comparison) and that's because 3rd person is better for any activity that requires a lot of movement.

This is something that applies to 1st person VS 3rd person in general - when we move in real life we get various feedback from our bodies about our movements, not just what we see in front of us. This feedback is an important part of movement, even though it's often overlooked. When we play games, we obviously can't have that feedback. But 3rd person at least lets us see what our character is doing and we can derive the feedback from that, making the movement more immersive. First person doesn't allow that (or it might, but it would likely induce vomiting). First person is better for activities that focus on visual awareness and precision, like ranged combat. The motion feedback here is secondary to visual data. That's why FPS games work so well. But for any activity more complex than pointing a gun and running around, third person is superior.

Skyrim does have a 3rd person mode, but it's crap. Less crap than Oblivion's was, but still crap when compared to actual 3rd person games. This works for Fallout games since there shooting is the primary method of conflict resolution, but Elder Scrolls tends to emphasize melee combat more and would benefit from a better 3rd person view, which would in turn allow for a better, deeper combat system tha might go beyond Hit-Block-Hit-Block-Hit-Block.

 

[spartandude]

its been 200 years since oblivion, a crossbow for higher levels when things get tougher

morrowind was like 30 years before oblivion and had crossbows, i dont get what happened to them?

Id like some kind of hardcore mode
more villages
more things involving Dunmer (yes i really really like Dunmer)
more armor types

and to find out who the fuck is shooting all these arrows at people's knees, i mean seriously is it some kind of hidden scandel for recruiting guards?

 

[Ross Limmage]

Guns end of discussion

 

[elcamino41383]

Hard to level something when I'm not playing it And I'm sorry. I just have had no interest in this game from the start. I played it for an hour and I still don't. I'm really not sure what it is about it that I just can't seem to care. I got a warning for "trolling" and yeah I suppose I shouldn't have posted that, but I'm sure SOMEONE else out there wanted to...

I know playing for an hour for a game such as this isn't nearly enough time to form a solid opinion on it, but I just really couldn't get into it. Maybe I'll give it another shot next time I get a chance at my friends, but I'm really not going out of my way for it.

You're not the first to tell me that they just couldn't get into Skyrim. I'm guessing I get a little too into the game since I was able to surmount the hill of "Won't this intro get over already."

I know that the game is far from perfect. Hopefully you've found a different game to occupy that time.

Plenty. Though I already beat Saint's Row the Third, I'll play through again. Also played Assassin's Creed Revelations, and both Batman games, still playing City currently.

 

[Hatchet90]

How about no fucking lag or lockups that happen every five minutes? I'm 50 hours in, and up to that point I'd be willing to say that it was the greatest experience that gaming had to offer. Now, I can't even walk across Solitude and back without the game locking up. From the 2 hours I've been fiddling with it on my PS3 to make it work, nothing has helped. I do believe patches made the game even worse. Because there was apparent lag before the patch, but now the game is literally unplayable. I can't move anywhere without the game locking up!

At this point, the biggest thing Skyrim needs is a developer that cares about a game being functional before its rushed out the door.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Needs more characterization.

Oh wait...

Needs some attack kangaroos. I want to be able to sick them on the dragons that keep taking time out of my busy mountain-cartography business. This topo map isn't gonna map itself, and these pesky lizards keep getting in my way. Or a giant purple dildo bat.

[small]You call those dragons? Pah, I say, Pah![/small]

 

[galdon2004]

Fishing rods. Just to show those slaughter fish who's boss

A quest to make a prototype gun, only to have it destroyed while fighting some bad guy/boss so that the world still relies on good ol' sword and magic. Just for the lolz.

The ability to versus other players? Kind of like the invasion ability in Demon Soul.

I can see that last one... being hilarious. "come out come out wherever you are.." 'sorry, I saw you coming and I'm halfway to riverwood' "damnit! I'll just fast travel there" 'can't, fast travel is disabled during invasions' "Fine! i'll walk over there and I'm goi-ow!! I thought you said you were halfway to riverwood!!" 'Yes I did. Made you stop searching for where I was hiding from didn't it?'

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Actually, on reflection--Skyrim Needs a VATS system. =D

Because really, everything needs a VATS system.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

I want to be able to make arrows. That's pretty much it that's really high on the list for me.

 

[SlaveNumber23]

Here is a serious and easy to do one: folders to organize your save files with so that you can separate your save files for different characters.

Also needs spears, lances, halberds etc.

 

[DarkRyter]

Some guy who collects thalmor eyeballs.

You kill thalmor and give him the eyeballs. He pays you.

 

[Tharwen]

A Creation Kit - the rest is provided by modders.

The problem with mods is that they tend to be fairly shoddy compared to official stuff, and they make the game less stable. They're great, but definitely what I hope for as the primary solution.

 

[gigastrike]

1: Hardcore mode
2: Larger cities
3: An actual use for cooking
4: The ability to join the Vigilants of Stendarr (plus quest line)
5: Ponies

Afterthought: the merchants need to be rebalanced.