Elder Scrolls V- what would you like to see?

[Jake Reynolds]

Though I realise this isn't a gaming forum, and these kinds of things are usually rampant in such places, but damn, I'm too excited about this to care!

As to the above question, my responses are:

1. Please don’t allow fast travel to places we haven’t been on foot yet. It opened the world up way too much from the start and completely destroyed any sense of exploration when you could walk out of the dungeon at the start and go in seconds to any of the major cities.

2. Please don’t have the bad guys level up as we do. It makes the game easy, and also takes away the exploration element. I want to come across bad guys that kill me in one hit, and then go back to the same place five levels later and see what goodies they were guarding.

3. Though I know they’re not having classes, please have a point where the skills become more difficult to train if you’re not accustomed to it. In Oblivion, I was really annoyed that if you just did everything enough you became master swordsman, mage, thief, all of it. I’d like to see something like, say, if you go down the magic path, after a certain level it takes twice as long to raise weapon and armour skills.

4. And finally, a bit juvenile, but have hot chicks!

 

[Rahl Windsong]

Though I realise this isn't a gaming forum, and these kinds of things are usually rampant in such places, but damn, I'm too excited about this to care!

As to the above question, my responses are:

1. Please don’t allow fast travel to places we haven’t been on foot yet. It opened the world up way too much from the start and completely destroyed any sense of exploration when you could walk out of the dungeon at the start and go in seconds to any of the major cities.

I think what it really needs is an adjustable fast travel, because there are some players who would like it to remain the way it was in Oblivion, and then others like you and me who thinks traveling there at least once is a good idea. So they need to give the player control over how fast travel works, and that way players who never want it can also choose that setting.

2. Please don’t have the bad guys level up as we do. It makes the game easy, and also takes away the exploration element. I want to come across bad guys that kill me in one hit, and then go back to the same place five levels later and see what goodies they were guarding.

If level scaling is done right and it always keeps NPC's 2 or three levels above the players level, with bosses being even higher yet, it is really the way to go. Otherwise the game becomes far to linear because there are places you can not go unless you are a certain level. Level scaling if done right like it was in Fallout 3 is the way to go.

3. Though I know they’re not having classes, please have a point where the skills become more difficult to train if you’re not accustomed to it. In Oblivion, I was really annoyed that if you just did everything enough you became master swordsman, mage, thief, all of it. I’d like to see something like, say, if you go down the magic path, after a certain level it takes twice as long to raise weapon and armour skills.

I think pretty much all of the Elder Scroll games have been like this, it is sort of a trade mark of the series. All they really need to do to fix it is to make progress slower, you gain skill way to fast and also if you are using a practice dummy you should get way less skill inscrease then say if you are fighting a real mob. In Oblivion if you wanted to level up just head to the arena, get a few shields, hold the shield in the block position and let the opponent beat on your shield and bring extra shields in case they wear out. You can then also increase your restoration every time you heal yourself and blade/blunt skill if you fight back. Also if you jump while doing these thing you will increase acrobatics. So as we can all see it was way too easy to level in Oblivion, they just need to correct how fast you progress.

4. And finally, a bit juvenile, but have hot chicks!

Well obviously that would be a bonus... heh

 

[Lenny]

I bring you tidbits from Bethesda:

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim latest details Released | PS3 Attitude
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim details surface -- PlayStation Universe
First ‘Skyrim’ Info And Screens Surface | Gaming News and Opinion at TheSixthAxis.com
Bethesda talks Skyrim level scaling -- PlayStation Universe

Probably the main thing you'll be happy about is that they're doing level scaling like they did in Fallout 3 - the level of enemies is capped at the level you're at when you enter that area for the first time.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Not entirely sure how I'm going to like that aspect, if I ever get a chance to purchase it.


Enemy level capping really isn't all that much fun, especially if you build levels up and then have to return to an area. Personally I would prefer to see something more like Oblivion.


But of course they have to use a new engine for it and I really don't know how that's going to work out.


The main thing for me, though, is that I think they should keep it as mod-friendly as Oblivion was. Mods are where it's at for single-player games these days, probably the only way they're able to stick around. And it's sad. When was the last time we ever saw Black Isle make a game in the style of Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale? Or Blizzard making an RTS game like the first three Warcraft games?

 

[Jake Reynolds]

Meh, mods shmods. A game should be done well in the first place! nah, see your point, though I'll only be playing on PS3.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

They are done well. Mods just add a little more flavor to the thing. What I felt Oblivion WAS lacking, though, were good cosmetics. The landscapes looked nice, but the characters were just bad. I never knew it was possible for a world to survive where everyone was over fifty years old.

 

[scifiJerald]

LOL! The cookie-cutter feel of the characters was really annoying after awhile.

I would love to see more realistic cities and towns. Cities especially should "bustle" in the daytime. There should be markets and kids and animals. It should be noisy and dirty!

Alas, hardware limitations probably make this too difficult, but I think it would REALLY add to the atmosphere.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

LOL! The cookie-cutter feel of the characters was really annoying after awhile.

I would love to see more realistic cities and towns. Cities especially should "bustle" in the daytime. There should be markets and kids and animals. It should be noisy and dirty!

Alas, hardware limitations probably make this too difficult, but I think it would REALLY add to the atmosphere.

That was one issue I had with Morrowind and Oblivion. There were no freaking kids! Except for that Adoring Fan when you become the Arena grand champion in Oblivion. Honestly, how is Tamriel supposed to survive if everyone is celibate, as they seem to be? At least Dragon Age had children and a fairly bustling market.

 

[Rahl Windsong]

That was one issue I had with Morrowind and Oblivion. There were no freaking kids! Except for that Adoring Fan when you become the Arena grand champion in Oblivion. Honestly, how is Tamriel supposed to survive if everyone is celibate, as they seem to be? At least Dragon Age had children and a fairly bustling market.

A fun thing to do with the Adoring fan is to get him to come with you to Oblivionive Rock - UESPWiki and then push him off....he can't die so you will find him waiting for you back at the Imperial City eventually.

 

[Toby Frost]

More weirdness, please. Morrowind was full of all kinds of strange animals and things to see. It was almost like a tropical island full of growly elves designed by Lewis Carroll and colonised by Romans. Oblivion, on the other hand, was like a vague mix of the Rohan and Gondor sets from the LOTR films, with the odd viking thrown in. Although I liked the game itself it felt far less visually inventive. I'd also like to see some stronger characterisation: I didn't think anyone in Oblivion measured up to Moira or Desmond in Fallout 3.

And more voice actors please!

 

[Menion]

I agree with the speed travel, like at the start having too find the city using the map and sign posts but also ONLY being able to fast travel to the cities, I mean.. fast traveling too the most distant highest mountain cave only took 5 seconds....

Kids! they should do what they did with fallout invincible kids, I mean who wants too slaughter kids anyway??..... well if your roleplaying a Badass baddie, then killing kids would add too your infamy...but its still wierd.

Hot chicks? Dude.... peronaly I don't mind if there ugly aslong as they look like females and not transvesti-ogres.

 

[Jake Reynolds]

Dude.... peronaly I don't mind if there ugly aslong as they look like females and not transvesti-ogres.

Thats totally what I meant. Maybe I'm so de-sensitised that my idea of 'hot' just means not looking like a monket's butt.

Have just started playing Oblivion again from the start, purely for nostalgia reasons, as I now have 10 months to get excited. Man, even the hotties are rank! Countess of Bruma? Countess of Tumor, more like it!

But aaanyways. Having played a fair bit of warcraft since I finished with Oblivion the first time, I can honestly say that having to aim my bow properly is a treat.

 

[biodroid]

I would like a better looking angine where the people don't look like ballistics gel dummies when they die. The character movement should be move towards human movements not stiff robots IMO. Give us more to do along the loooooooong road to another village/city.

 

[Rahl Windsong]

There were children in Dragon Age and as long as it is done like that so that the PC is helping the kids in some way I think its ok. In DA there were even kids who were ghosts or already dead and it seemed to fit the story well, it all depends on how they blend children into the storyline, as long as the PC is helping them and can't really do anything else but help, I think its ok and adds to the depth of the story.

 

[Jake Reynolds]

Well, I think we can assume there will be kids, since they have kids in Fallout. I had another thought too- epic sidequests that really net you decent goodies. I got excited about the Bruma quest- can't remember the name of it, but it was when you had to follow the clues into the mountains (serpent trail or something?), fight your way through a bunch of skeletons, traps and so on, and then you finally solve a puzzle to speak to the ghostly warrior and...nothing. You get what you went there for, and nothing else. I suppose I want quests that aren;t just 'go here, kill everything, go back'.

The ones that stand out from Oblivion are the ones that were truly unique- the mage one where you had to cast spells at the pillar in a certain order to open it, the assassin quest when you had to kill people at the party without being discovered (actually, all the assassin quests were fun), some of the thief quests too...the fighter's guild was lame, and I can't think of a single quest that wasn't about killign things. Fair enough for a fighter's guild, but it would have been nice to have the odd puzzle to solve.

Also, I think it would benefit greatly from getting rid of that red arrow showing you exactly where to go! It isn't necessary, and besides, if people whinge, they can use the walkthrough if they can't be bothered using that thing between their ears. Seriously, if someone says 'Go to Kvatch,' I don't really need a big red arrow on the map. It made the game too easy, and easy = boring.

 

[Menion]

Also, I think it would benefit greatly from getting rid of that red arrow showing you exactly where to go! It isn't necessary, and besides, if people whinge, they can use the walkthrough if they can't be bothered using that thing between their ears. Seriously, if someone says 'Go to Kvatch,' I don't really need a big red arrow on the map. It made the game too easy, and easy = boring.

Good one.

 

[devilsgrin]

i'd really like to see some better balancing of the race's and their innate characteristics. the trade-offs of benefits for penalties (such as the high elves/Altmer weakness to ... well... everything, just cos they have more mana) are seriously unbalanced. Some of the stupid once a day spells that races get aswell... so lame - ghost lights is it? for Dark Elves/Dunmer? what a ridiculous benefit...

 

[Jake Reynolds]

Yeah, I agree totoally about the race bonuses, and the imbalance in the star signs. I have just started a wood elf thief, with my level up abiities the seven magics, just so I can keep tabs on when I level up, to make sure I'm maxing stats. I chose shadow as my birth sign, purely so I could use the invisibility for the one assassin quest where you have to go in an kill the elf in the gaol cell. Otherwise, I haven't bothered using it once, much like my talk to animals ability. There is no way that talk with animals is on par with the dunmer resistance to fire, nor shadow's once a day invisibilty compared with the absorb magicka bonus of atronach. I purely went with shadow for the rpg element this time through.

Balance, people! I can see why the argonians and kajit have better racials because otherwise nobody woud play them, but seriously, a lame ass heal that gets superceded by any with even the lowest heal spell? A speech bonus when speech can just be bribed/ charmed? No way that compares with being immune to poison and able to breathe underwater, or having a 25% reduction to fire damage in a game that predominantly focuses on lava and fire enemies.

 

[Menion]

I hope theres more than 5 voice actors

 

[CyBeR]

It would be so nice if they went back to the Morrowind skill set. But no, the reduced it AGAIN for this one instead of increasing it and really give you some ways to build your character. I wield a giant claymore and I'm suddenly good with tiny knives now? How does that work?