Forums » Elder Scrolls

What do you want in the next elder scrolls game/dlc?

    • 4 posts
    April 4, 2013 7:34 PM EDT

    Hi guys, with almost one and half year over since many of us started playing Skyrim. Now I seem to feel that though it is a great game it could have been much better. I am starting this thread to discuss the flaws of this game and suggest better options for upcoming game/DLC. Feel free to add your opinion

     Better Story
    The quest stories donot live upto the expectations. If not for the fans, atleast do justice to your amazing lore and make better quest plots.
    The main quest lines start with you being an errand boy, you forge your alliance with both the greybeards and blades who hates each other. Later, you are supposed to side with either one of the factions, whom you'd most probably not see either of them again after the main quest.
    The guild quests are even worse. The companions and college quests have the same story, you start as a trainee, find some strange things, fetch some items and later take charge from the deceased leader. The thieves guild and dark brotherhood also share their stories. You ask some targets for bribes, search for some specific person, realize you are betrayed by your leader. Kill the leader and take control. In the DB all the actions are just replaced by kill. And for adding insults to the wounds, you could actually become the leader of all factions.
    I'd love it if the faction quests were related to each other. A typical tri war between Clan Volkihar(vampires), Companions(Werewolves) and Dawnguards(Undead Hunters). It would also be nice if the DB approached you when you have completed few guests for a faction, instead of doing an errand for a small boy. Limiting you to one faction would also be great. I'd rather build up a faction (like thieves guild) instead of joining all and having no relation with any of them.

    Some of the side quests donot make any sense. for eg:- the quests of Mara, all you have to do is send message of love from two people who supposedly can't speak to each other themselves.

     Decisions and NPC reaction.
     Skyrim does not provide much of a choice in the dialogues or story. No matter which dialogue or action you choose, you are going to finish the mission in the same way. Only a handful show different routes, other are all the same. Bethesda could learn a lot form the Fable and Witcher series. In the former, the player's decision changes the entire game world and in the later, the missions changes according to the players decision. The only change you could do to Skyrim is tree of Kynareth. Its heart breaking when people suspect me of pickpocketing every time i sneak even after I saved them from the dragons. Look at Fable 3 for example, each time you pass through the common people after becoming the king, they react like 'Look!! Its the king!'. The dragon born gains no such remarks from the people. Your decisions has no effect on the world. You could join the imperials and then spend all your time in Ulfric's castle.

    Reward and Loots

     One of the biggest problem with Skyrim is, the best weapon are the ones you make, not the ones you find as loots. Once you get your enchanting and smiting skills high enough, your adventures are pretty much pointless as you know you are not going to get anything good enough. The world should have unique weapons which cannot be crafted by you, which have better effects and/or stats then the weapons you can make.
    Another problem is, you do not get much for completing the missions. Some missions feel like a chore. It would have been great if I could have summoned Partunax(not sure of the spelling) if I sparred his life or get some special NPC to join Blades after seeing my heroics. Nothing happens to the world after you do any mission. If you help some one, all you can do is steal cups from their house and sell them without having to search for a fence.
     

    Better Perk System
     i)Some of the perks like the ability to make dual enchants are great, but most of the perks are quite useless. In fact the whole locking picking skill tree is useless.
     ii)The way you earn your perk is kinda lame. Why don't we use the same earn as you play like the skills. For eg:- we could get the bonus for using swords after killing x amount of creatures using the sword or earn the smiting perks by doing some side quests (like fighting Daedra or by building the Blades).It feels heartbreaking  when you have to start a new game just because the perk you were hunting seemed to be useless. (I got that perk in the lock picking tree that gives you better loot.)

    Tougher Late game
     Once you hit the level 30's the game becomes to easy, most of the enemies become one shot kills. We need higher level enemies. Lets analyze why this is happening... i)First and foremost, smiting is overpowered. The maximum bonus you can get from level 100 weapon skill is x1.5, whereas while using a daedric battleaxe can reach upto x3 using proper clothing & potions (30%bonus each from four armor pieces and 110% from potions) and this figure goes upto x6 for iron sword. (This can also be upgraded even further by overpowering your armor enchants and potions.). Its the same story for dragon plate armors as they reach upto x3 and iron armors go upto x4.
                                                                                                 ii)Your opponent are weak as they donot level up much. The highest boss you level you will come up against is Volikihar Vampire master(lvl 53). And donot forget the fact that their weapons are not upgraded unlike yours and they donot have perks. Most of the common opponents can reach a maximum of 30's.
    You can see that if we scale down the improvement by smiting and bring on better level opponents, the game would be vary satisfying as long as you play.

    Better battle mechanics.
     So, I'm being outnumbered by my enemies? Perfect time for me to drink a potion or a bowl of soup!! There is no battle preparations. For eg, in witcher 2, you drink potions or strengthen your weapons with poisons before the battle. There is a penalty for gulping potions during the battle.

    There is no battle tactics either, your opponents do not have any weak spots that you can manipulate. All you do is hack and slash and hope for the best.

    Better Balance

     i) Destruction magic:-  As you level up, you could hit the same spell 5 time instead of 2 before running out of mana. But the spell itself doesn't get better. Why not make the spell twice as effective instead of reducing the cost(Which could be reduced by enchantments). This hampers mages in the late game compared to other classes.

    ii) Light armor seems a lot better than heavy because you can reach the armor cap with light armor and then get better perks than the heavy armor route. the formula for armor rating is this

    Armor rating = (base armor rating + item quality) × (1 + 0.4 × (skill + skill effect)/100) × (1 + customfit/ well fitted(0.25) + matching set perks(0.25)) × (1 + agile defender/juggernaut).

    you see, light armor and heavy armor would have had difference if the bonus for the unison perks or matching set perks were reduced and if smiting bonus was scaled down as discussed earlier.

    iii)Cooking is something you could do but not viable since it has more weight and less effect than potions. . Why keep something that no one is supposed to use? It would be better if cooked food gave some buffs not given by the potions.

     Better Interface.
    The inter face is very outdated. Its also confusing as sometimes, the option with enlarged font is not the highlighted option. For better description, watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0dZl5Iujsbk#at=26

    Another interface I'd love to be added is better house decoration interface that allows you to place furniture wherever you want.

     Better NPC
     i)Better Followers and horse:- don't need any explaination.

    ii) Services:-There is very little options on how to spend your hard earned gold. If only there were more services provided by the NPCs. It would be great if the blacksmiths could craft an specific weapon for you or enhance your weapons. (for eg:- Eorland may upgrade your weapons to Legendary whereas any other blacksmith may upgrade them to equisite or something like that.) or if court wizards could enchant your weapon etc.

    iii)Better Mariage option:-you attend your wedding wearing your full suit of battle armor and your bloodied Battleaxe, and as the Priest of Mara finishes the ceremony, everyone in attendance, including your new wife / husband, gets up and leaves while you're still stuck in dialogue with the Priest. Should that really be happening at a wedding?

    Now the married life is worse. What can you look forward to? Basically nothing. Your new spouse just sits around in your house all day, supposedly running a business, but they just sit there 24/7. The only ways you can interact with your spouse are to beg for your share of the businesses earnings, and get her to cook you a meal.



     Better Landmarks
    It is really pleasing to see some sign of civilization or landmarks after a long journey. But what is there to do when we reach there? Mast of the landmarks have nothing to do other than serve as a point for fast travelling. Adding side quests or even some good chests would make us feel a lot better.

     Free flowing World

    The world is static without me. There is no urgency in doing any mission. There is no consequences for doing a mission late or reward for doing it early. The people of riverwood need your help to inform the king about Dragon attack, you can wait for an year before you meet the king and the people would still be happy with you. Another example is the civil war. There is no civil war unless I want. There is no random clashes between Stormclock and Imperial soldiers. It seems like my opponent has no intention to attack. I'd love to see a courier come to me and inform me about my opposing civil war group is invading one of our cities/forts/camps.

    • 13 posts
    April 5, 2013 10:05 AM EDT

    The World is what you make of it and that is especially true for Skyrim. Yes the MQ and the Guild Quests are a bit dull at least compared to Morrowind and Oblivion but TES was & is about what you make of it, and in this case your imagination and fantasy is the only limit.

    When i play Skyrim the guild and the main quests only play a minor role, i make my own quests with most of my Builds, with some builds i have a day routine like; chopping wood, hunting or fishing, mining and melting the ore then i use it to forge new weapons or armors, gather ingredients and make potions of it and sell them. But that doesn't mean that this is all i do, after a certain point i get bored and then i pack my bags and on to new adventures.

    I know some people here could explain you that much better (my knowledge of the english language is rather mediocre) but i see Skyrim as a Sandbox or adventure playground were you can build and explore your own Adventures the Lore and the Quests are the framework in which you build your Character and form your own destiny.

    Thats is how i see and how i play TES Games since Morrowind and that is also the reason why certain rather dull quests or npc don't compromise my fun with it.

    • 4 posts
    April 5, 2013 10:42 AM EDT

    I'm not saying Skyrim is bad. It is one of the best games I played. I just want Bethesda to remove the 'dull' parts and make something good, better.

    Plus, once you start playing with mods, few of them really makes you wonder why they weren't in the game in the first place.

    • 13 posts
    April 5, 2013 11:43 AM EDT

    Yes some mods are awesome some of them look even far better than what bethesda managed to do with all those creative employees and the resources they have.

    One reason for this could be that Mod developers can specialize their mod whereas game studios have to make their product accessible to a broad audience, another reason could be the limitation of the current gen Consoles.. but i think the main reason for that is the time limit, Bethesda had to finish Skyrim at 11.11.11 and i have no doubt that Skyrim would be much better today in any regard if BGS had maybe 3 month more to finish the development of Skyrim. 

    The Skyrim DLC from Bethesda were ok but i still miss an Addon in the size of Shivering Isles in terms of Landmass and Content.

    • 4 posts
    April 6, 2013 9:28 PM EDT

    You might be right about the specializing part. Well then Bethesda really needs to expand. If Skyrim had proper polishing, it wouldn't have had any game coming close to it.