TES V: Skyrim

Fast travel is stupid. They need to go back to the Morrowind way, where you could travel between towns via boat or Silt Strider or magic. Maybe they would substitute the Silt Strider for caravans since I guess there are no striders in Skyrim.

I don't like being able to transport anywhere at any time. It makes the game feel small, and there is no reason this game should feel small. I know I know, just don't use it, well I am weak :(.
Wouldn't it be cool if on the hardest difficulty you could only fast travel via caravans, and then even only between towns? I call for a mod!

Well caravans do only go between the holds and you can install the No Fast Travel mod.
 
Uh, homerdog? You know there's a wagon guy you can pay to take you to the big towns? That's the silt strider, right there.

Fast travel is great.

I know about that but I think it should be the only option, well maybe that and boats. I don't think you should be able to fast travel to every location on the map.

That mod looks sweet.
 
As far as I can tell, fast travel is pretty much necessary if you want to recover your horse. I occasionally fast travel to the same location I'm currently at purely for the sake of recalling it.
 
I think this is a game design question. Having to ride a caravan is more "realistic," but after a few times it's probably not that fun nor cool anymore. Actually, when I played Morrowind I was disappointed that the cool big bug did not actually carry me to my destination (and when I ride a taxi in WoW the first time I was surprised that it literally carries me to the destination).

As many WoW players can attest, the flight paths are cool the first few times, but it became tedious after that. Sometimes a game designer has to sacrifice for the "fun factor," as the ultimate reason for playing a game is, after all, to have fun.

Of course, I understand that not everyone has the same idea of fun, but fast travel is one of the "most people like it this way" thing. Also, in Skyrim it's rather balanced by the fact that you can't fast travel without going there first. So it does not really remove all exploration opportunities.
 
I don't find caves or ruins that contain new shouts by fast traveling. Therefore, I never do it. In fact, I haven't used it once my entire time playing. Do different horses run at different speeds? My horse I bought from Whiterun is slow as hell, but I assume like Oblivion, different horses purchased at different cities have varying speeds. Or at least I hope.
 
Well, with my mage this was an issue at lower levels, but could usually be handled by casting my spells sparingly, and only using the apprentice-level spells. At higher levels I had more than enough magicka regen to cast these spells continuously.

To me, the real saving grace of making a mage is the 100% stagger chance on dual-cast destruction spells. The conjuration spells also help a ton when going up against a bunch of enemies.

Mana regens in combat as long as your not holding down the cast button.
You want to avoid holding down a fireball cast popping out of cover and then releasing, because you wasted a lot of regen time.
I use the Ice-Form Thume or the one that makes you intangible if I get desperate for mana.
I do run out of mana I usually either pop a potion, or back track through the dungeon while it regenerates.
I do agree when fighting multiple enemies there isn't a lot of room for error, missing with high level destruction spells wastes a lot of mana.
 
Sigh, the game is simply over if you ever level BS & Enchanting to 100 :(
Everything dies to max 3-4 hits even with just 1h's
This just shows that it is a decent RPG game, because in a good RPG the whole point is that you become more and more powerful and experienced over time.

However I agree Bethesda should try to fix overpowered perks or exploits or make their progression after a certain level to be a lot more slow. Some people increases Blacksmith really quick, And there are other exploits some found...
 
Fast travel is stupid. They need to go back to the Morrowind way, where you could travel between towns via boat or Silt Strider or magic. Maybe they would substitute the Silt Strider for caravans since I guess there are no striders in Skyrim.

I don't like being able to transport anywhere at any time. It makes the game feel small, and there is no reason this game should feel small. I know I know, just don't use it, well I am weak :(.
Wouldn't it be cool if on the hardest difficulty you could only fast travel via caravans, and then even only between towns? I call for a mod!
For those who loved Morrowind, here is a reminder of how great it was back in its time.

"The official Morrowind made my jaw fall off thread" :smile:

http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=791334

Love this quote -response in boldface-:

Originally posted by Karnak:
The game runs quite smoothly on my system. I am running it at 1024x768 with FSAA set to 4xS.

AthlonXP 1800+ (1533mhz)
512mb 266 DDR
GeForce4 4600
WindowsXP Pro

-Karnak
______________

Stop bragging
 
You could train speed, make fortify speed potions, enchant something with fortify speed, or you could levitate or jump, etc.

In other words: there was a large amount of things you could do to improve your exploration options and speed.
You can do a lot of things in these games still, fortunately Bethesda didn't forget from previous TES and other great representative games of the RPG genre.

It's not like real life yet though, because you can't try to to run a house, work and pay bills, make ends meet, keep a roof over your head, get the laundry done, keep the kids from burning down the house, put food on the table, feed the cat, feed your dog or cows, mow the lawn, clean the bathroom, including but not limited to, the toilet, wash the car... nor your woman will have mood swings during her period or simply because some women have a lot of mood swings.

But anyways, one of the things I love about RPG games is decision-making. I am level 12, and I still have a lot to explore. I liked some of the options they gave me like when meeting Sven
the Camila affair
, etc, I had an influence in a love story. :smile:

That to me is roleplaying and I am glad the developers realize this is a very important part of the genre. I miss from Morrowind I can't join more factions :cry:. Screw the Imperial this time around, I will go with the Stormcloaks. Maybe I will go with the imperials when I create my next character.

I made some decisions but I want to make more and more, and have an influence in some things. That's a very important fact that makes a huge difference for me.
 
I know about that but I think it should be the only option, well maybe that and boats. I don't think you should be able to fast travel to every location on the map.

That mod looks sweet.
It is a singleplayer game, roleplay that it is the only option or get that mod. Geez, let us who like it have it.
 
As far as I can tell, fast travel is pretty much necessary if you want to recover your horse. I occasionally fast travel to the same location I'm currently at purely for the sake of recalling it.

I do that all the time.
 
Are some horses faster then others? They plod so slowly. Still the horses allow a person to explore where they want b/c they can climb cliffs and things like in the old games. They got rid of that for the player so you have to go the long way along the pathway instead of over mountains.
 
The stable masters actually tell you that Skyrim horses are slower than common horses, but they are tougher.
 
Are some horses faster then others? They plod so slowly. Still the horses allow a person to explore where they want b/c they can climb cliffs and things like in the old games. They got rid of that for the player so you have to go the long way along the pathway instead of over mountains.

I just looked it up. As opposed to Oblivion, where different horses had different speeds, they now have varying levels of stamina. Meaning they'll be able to sprint longer, which I actually like a little more than how Oblivion handled it.
Shadowmere is back and still the best horse in the game.
 
Ok, I have time for a more in-depth answer.

For starters: all of this is very subjective. I know plenty of people who want to play Doom on beginner difficulty when they get home; "Kill, boss! Die, manager!", just to get the frustration out of their system and relax.

Like politics ;)

I replayed Morrowind a fair way through not long before starting up Skyrim, and I have to say, in my opinion Skyrim is such a huge advancement it isn't even funny.
Yes, you even like the levelling in Oblivion. In my opinion, any TES game is wasted on you, and FPS on rails are your thing.

So, why do you play and like the TES games? I'm wondering about that.

The problems with Morrowind:
1. Travel is just way the hell too slow at first. You can speed it up significantly once you get the boots of blinding speed, but that's basically a cheat. In Skyrim, travel is pretty quick from the start, which is nice. Also, the sprint button is fantastic!
Answered that already.

2. The leveling in Morrowind is very twinky and artificial. The amount of power you can gain by being careful about which skills you level up is just plain nuts. Oblivion was the same way. Doing away with the main stats makes the leveling feel much more organic, and I'm not spending nearly as much time worrying about which skills I'm leveling up.
Well, they're hard to level up when they don't exist. ;)

All those things were there, because it isn't supposed to be you, physically who is doing all those things (you couldn't, anyway), but the person you're acting like. That's role playing.

3. The combat in Morrowind is really, really bad. The missing all the time even though your sword goes right through the enemy just feels wrong. While Skyrim certainly isn't as good as some other games out there (Dark Messiah comes to mind), it is vastly improved over previous installments.
Same problem; who is making the swings?

1. You, yourself. You aim with the mouse or activate the auto-aim with the gamepad, and expect the hit to land, because the cursor is over the opponent. Stats should go out of the window, ASAP.

2. The character you're role-playing. That gives roughly two options: merely bruise the opponent if you hit his/her neck with a very sharp sword/shoot him in the head with a gun, or reduce the amount of blows/shots that actually hit.

In real life, weapons are made for killing. A single hit is supposed to do lethal damage. The whole trick in surviving is making sure you aren't hit in the first place.

So, what is less stupid: missing (with a lack of animations to show all the avoidance), or hitting repeatedly with a lethal weapon and only bruising the opponent?

4. The alchemy in Morrowind was way overpowered, and the interface has improved by leaps and bounds in subsequent games. I like the game mechanic in Skyrim of having the player discover the effects of various ingredients.
There is no such thing as "overpowered" in a single-player game. If you decide to become great in alchemy, it should have an impact.

Hitpoints and healing potions are way more stupid. If you have alchemy, let it shine.

5. Enchanting in Morrowind was very twinky (like many things in that game), in that there was a sudden and dramatic jump in power between lower-level soul gems and grand soul gems. It definitely feels much more natural in Skyrim, especially the discovery aspect (though that can be a bit frustrating if you can't find an item that has the effect you want), though I do think the double effect bit at skill level 100 is overpowered.
Enchanting is still powerful, but they removed all the cool effects.

I don't care about the combat, as long as I can one-shot nuisances one way or the other. But I do care about all the cool stuff, like open locks, levitate, water breathing and jump.

And I rather spend hours increasing that skill, so I'm not forced to drink a potion every 30 or 60 seconds. That's a nuisance.

Anyway, overall I just don't see what Morrowind has to offer that Skyrim doesn't. At most Morrowind has longer quest lines, but they're also much more boring. So I don't really see that as a benefit.
I think you would be better off playing streamlined FPSes, like Half-Life 2 and such.

But please, don't advocate making the great games others like for their overpoweredness and role-playing into yet another FPS-on-rails.

:)
 
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Btw, I like quests (and the stories around them). Not the fed-ex or kill ones, but anything unique.

And I don't see the point in keeping the combat challenging all the time.

Either it starts out very challenging and becomes much easier the better you get at it, or you can circumvent it and explore everything else the game has to offer. If it has that, of course. Which is where Morrowind shines, and which Skyrim severely lacks.

Well, it's nice on the eyes, and offers plenty of unique views. And "challenging combat", of course. No rolepaying to speak of.


Then again, I have been in challenging combat situations in real life (none potentially lethal, fortunately), but the emotional feeling I got with those is magnitudes higher than when playing any video game.

Those are mostly irritating if I have to reload.

Which is why they make it as "challenging" as to keep the player occupied, but take pains removing all nuisances, like the player losing.
 
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This just shows that it is a decent RPG game, because in a good RPG the whole point is that you become more and more powerful and experienced over time.

However I agree Bethesda should try to fix overpowered perks or exploits or make their progression after a certain level to be a lot more slow. Some people increases Blacksmith really quick, And there are other exploits some found...
In practice what we really need is content to make use of the higher-level perks. And that is almost certainly coming. Expansion packs have been the norm for Bethesda in the past...
 
I think you would be better off playing streamlined FPSes, like Half-Life 2 and such.

But please, don't advocate making the great games others like for their overpoweredness and role-playing into yet another FPS-on-rails.

:)
Now you're just being positively silly. Not one of my complaints could possibly be construed as me preferring that kind of game. Half-life 2 is one of the very few FPS's I have. It's definitely enjoyable, but I've played it (and episodes one and two) a total of 50 hours. I've so far played Skyrim for 123 hours. I guarantee you I've spent vastly, vastly more hours playing both Morrowind and Oblivion (but I don't have their Steam versions so I could tell you precisely).

So guess which type of game I like more?

Really, I think you've just let nostalgia cloud your judgment and are unwilling to actually judge new games on their merits. And this blatantly irrational attack by you proves that better than I ever could.
 
Same problem; who is making the swings?

1. You, yourself. You aim with the mouse or activate the auto-aim with the gamepad, and expect the hit to land, because the cursor is over the opponent. Stats should go out of the window, ASAP.

2. The character you're role-playing. That gives roughly two options: merely bruise the opponent if you hit his/her neck with a very sharp sword/shoot him in the head with a gun, or reduce the amount of blows/shots that actually hit.

In real life, weapons are made for killing. A single hit is supposed to do lethal damage. The whole trick in surviving is making sure you aren't hit in the first place.

So, what is less stupid: missing (with a lack of animations to show all the avoidance), or hitting repeatedly with a lethal weapon and only bruising the opponent?

This is something that has always irked me. I just did a full on overhead smackdown with a 30lb Greatsword, really, you didn't just die?

The Morrowind solution isn't ideal (miss with no animation), but the Health Meter is just as silly.
Ideally I suppose your "Health" would define how great a chance you have to deflect/dodge a blow. As you get beat up more your health meter drops, and when it gets to zero someone lands a lethal blow on you.

Heavy Armor users could simply shrug off blows with their armor, and small fast guys could dodge around until they are too winded and then the next successful attack means death.

I dunno it's just a rough idea but it seems better than getting shot in the face by an arrow and walking around with it sticking out of your face.
 
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