TES5 Skyrim: Changes From Oblivion

[Faerillis]

I think we, or most of us, can agree Oblivion was a pretty spectacular game... But it needed work. Personally I have only ever played Morrowind for a short period of time (the graphics are really hard to talk yourself down to), so I can't talk about what it did right or wrong or whether Oblivion's deviations were good or bad; I can just talk about what I would like. And that is the point of this thread: to debate, discuss and develop ideas we would like to see applied to this latest chapter of an incredible franchise.

Not all of us have played Morrowind, this does not make us casuals (it might in cases) or against the difficulty; so if you think some Morrowind mechanic would work well please explain it for those of us who haven't played it. Also, within the boundaries of absurdity, if your only argument is that the idea is too much work for Bethesda, perhaps you should just not argue that point. Beyond that, standard forum rules apply.

--My Hopes--

More Voices
Ok this one is by far the simplest but these games need more voices. I understand that the 10 voice actors were very good, but a nice standard would be major story character getting an exclusive voice and random NPCs should have at least two voices per Gender+Race so it doesn't sound like one guy talking to himself.


Magic Improvements
Magic is not mundane. I understand that there is a need to balance magic with melee and ranged weapons, but it can't just be point and shoot all the time. Magic should feel, somewhat more magical. Also, as one who "mastered" the mage archetype, invisibility spells are too overpowered; currently you can get away with fighting one of every 80 or so enemies as is. Perhaps by adding some trick to maintaining invisibility this could seem less like a god mode.

General Depth
Martin was the most well developed character in Oblivion... and that's a little sad. At least some big characters need to be more human and emotive. Quests are too easy in Oblivion, certainly including a way to have the quests laid bare to you (as in being able to dig out a big hint) makes your game more accessible to a wider audience, but not all audiences want their hand held through the entirety of the game.

Trading and Economies
Economies are big things and there are tons of Economy engines designed for games just like this. Say there is a shortage of Herb X, Herb X should be traded (on all sides) at a higher price but if Herb X is suddenly in abundance then its price should drop. Also, beyond stolen goods, there should be some items that certain traders won't buy like a vegan NPC being unwilling to purchase meat.

Faction Breadth and Depth
Factions are in my eyes the greatest morality gauge of any system imaginable. Why? Burning a book may appease some people, but it will infuriate others. Everything is subjective and if word of the action should reach back to the faction it should impact your standing with them applicably.

More Models, More Skills, More Armour Parts
No argument really need be made. Everyone noticed the same 8 weapons showing up everywhere. As for skills, a claymore and a dagger are not used in a similar fashion. And a greater number of armour parts the more customizable your appearance is.

Less Random Items
The greatest ring for a blade-user should not come off a random bandit with an axe. Powerful items have some method in their madness.

Alchemy Mini-Game
Obviously this could be used for other things as well, but alchemy is way too simple in Oblivion. Admittedly, you may not wish to play the mini-Game each time and they could build in some feature like making a "guide" for it (doesn't tell you how to get the effects, just automatically does it for you after you've done the same). It would be interesting to say the least.

And this one is a nice dream
Leveling Development
Ever notice that the greatest swordsman, and a novice swordsman hit things in much the same way and in the same stance? It would be nice to see animation change gradually as your skill changes. Moreover attentive and strategic players might notice the way a bandit is using his sword and realize he has Expert level skill and understand how his charged attacks will work. It is also a nice way to feel that your character is growing, watching as your limp-armed peasant turns into his hacking and slashing into a fluid artistic motion. Or watching as your mage goes from wiggling his fingers to try and focus a simple fire ball to nonchalantly snapping them into existence and firing them across the room. Watch your rogue go from trying to tip-toe across a room, to swiftly and silently darting about a hall.

And of course: More RP. Roleplaying gets a bad name, but with no morality system or an infinitely subjective one, I feel people could learn a lot about themselves and also create a character that is truly unique and important to the person.

{All Above Are Works In Progress, Falling Asleep and Needing to Work More on Them}

[Yezac]

So, TES V is confirmed? Because I've been waiting and hoping for this. Oblivion has shattered the RPG world for me, and I just simply can't pick up any other game without disappointment due to the fact of how much freedom I had in TES IV. Though, I will say Shivering Isle was such a let down. Besides that point, if this is true, I'm stoked.

I agree with you on the voices. I hated the fact that it seemed like I talked to 700 Baurus like characters. xD

I think the magic spells were dull, but at the same time they were alright. I think that fireball depending on damage should have scaled in size. I mainly used lightning spells because it was the only one that seemed cool. Though, there were tons of mods out there that released different spells if you were fortunate to have the PC version.

As far as story line and quests. I felt they were a bit repetitive but slightly different. Dark Brother Hood was obviously the best of them all.

Didn't cover everything you said, but something I felt you left out was the guards AI. The guards to me seemed ridiculously over aware of your actions. I mean...You kill a man in the Imperial City and travel to Bruma and the guards are well of aware of your murderous ways....It's just no fun.

And one thing I hope they don't change is the lock picking mechanics. I love the fact if you're a level 1 lock pick you can attempt to open any set level of locks. I hated what Bethesda did in Fallout for lock picking.

[Faerillis]

Crap I'm sorry, I didn't look at the forum specific rules. Please close this topic and I'll move the discussion into the other.

[ryoukthebloodelf]

Voices should be fine this time liek the were in fallout since they wont blow budget on patrick stewart etc

Better bodies like in the mods

Hopefully a new game engine since its pretty old by now

I like the fallout lvling system

Most importantly levitation spells like morrowind =)

---------- Post added 2010-12-13 at 07:13 PM ----------

Voices should be fine this time liek the were in fallout since they wont blow budget on patrick stewart etc

Better bodies like in the mods

Hopefully a new game engine since its pretty old by now

I like the fallout lvling system

Most importantly levitation spells like morrowind =)

oh and also some companions like dogmeat in fallout =)

[rantus]

Agree with everyone of your points, and I'd like to add a better levelling system - Oblivion could really fuck you up if you didn't plan your levelling or use mods to improve the progress, and more populated cities - it wasn't fun each city having barely 20 occupants.

[Thelshyn]

I would like npc interactions were more interesting. Sitting around in the fighters guild listening how one of the higher ranking members likes to avoid mud crabs is rather boring and somewhat unrealistic. And I miss levitation but one of those mostly boring npc conversations I listen to from time to time mentioned a levitation act of 476 or somthing which made me laugh.

[Deleted]

I'd love to see more faction interaction and more models. Those are always the things I feel the need to mod when I play Oblivion - The generic armor sets need to be at least doubled for you to feel as if what you're wearing has any originality.

Factions could be expanded upon in a lot more detail, undoubtedly. Oblivion was the game of the decade in my eyes, I can only hope Skyrim lives up to this!

[UnholyGuardian]

I’d say a bit of work on the character - environment interaction so it didn’t seen like you were hovering an inch above the ground when running along, but with this so called "new engine" they’re using hopefully that won’t be the case this time round :P

+ Of course more voices

[Jupiter II]

I'm gonna laugh when their "new engine" is just as bad as Gamebryo. That hunk of trash is the reason I'm unable to play FO or FO3. Even playing on a PC with great specs that engine is a clunky piece of shit. Mouse pointers are retardedly unresponsive, movement feels like your are moving through a pool of molasses, GUI is awful and slow.

I am astounded that Bethesda could stand to produce so many games on that garbage.

[3clipse]

Nothing wrong with this thread, the other's talking about the announcement while this one is talking about specific details.

[Teroseth]

Oblivion was a terrible game, an absolute travesty. The story was pish, the combat was pish, if number 5 wants to win, it needs an interesting story, it needs actual combat. One of my main problems with oblivion was the actual fighting, there was no difficulty there, things scaled according to your level and that was a good idea, but implemented poorly, so in the end you could win a fight with the same few spells, or attacks all the way through the game. Also, and I'm glad it actually has this, it needs a difference engine...bethesda absolutely suck with making game engines, everytime it's always full of glitches (sometimes gamebreaking) and it shows in their games. I'm hoping they've learnt, or hell, just bought the licence to one from another company.

[Steampunk]

Been a TES fan and addict since 2002. Not "got an Oblivion symbol" type addict though. I saw one of those. Whoa.

I bought 2 copies of Morrowind for the XBox in 2002, then the GoTY in 2003, that had both expansions. Burned out the first two discs from playing them too much. I am dead serious.

Then in 2004, I bought a better PC, bought the game on PC (eventually twice from overplaying ) and played with mods till the day Oblivion hit. Rinse and repeat. I still find myself reinstalling Oblivion whenever a huge quest series, or well known WIP mod comes out.

TES is the only series of games that I consider myself loyal too. People often complain about the old (literally) gamebryo engine and mods not working right, but I've been lucky to keep good load orders, read the community forums for fixes, and most the time... only get limited amounts of CTDs (with over 300 mods running in tandem compacted right now). And I'd put up with all of it in Skyrim for the open worlds TES provides.

I can't wait for the next chapter.

[Direshadow]

I hope it's more like Morrowind.


That is all.

[ryoukthebloodelf]

I hope it's more like Morrowind.


That is all.

I would like the large and expansive world like morrowind had but with the aesticis of oblvion

[Strakha]

Daggerfall and Arena were pretty awesome, was not a big fan of Morrowind or Oblivion.

Oblivion was a lot like Fallout 3 to me, I just ended up killing everyone i could find then stopped playing, the quests were droll.

[Maxxron]

Man I'm thoroughly excited about Skyrim.

I've been a TES fan since Arena, Daggerfall was probably the best of them all. Morrowind had the best story of them all. If they were to revamp it with a new engine or even the Unreal3 engine, those that have never played it, along with those that adored it, might flip out at it's immersion. Oblivion; I loved when it first came out, played the hell out of it on my 360, though, once I beat it, wasn't enough to break me away from wow. But once I got a PC worthy enough to play it with a ridiculous amount of mods (including Qarl's textures that are a must) and .ini tweaks, I quit WoW for 4 months. It's a completely different game and the aesthetics are better than most new games these days. Not to mention the dozens of gameplay changing mods that are too many to mention.

I'm just hoping that the horse riding isn't as clunky as it has been and that they bring back the banks and boats from Daggerfall. Not to mention, if i'm gonna spend two and a half hours creating what my character looks like, there better be a boatload of mirrors/reflective surfaces to justify it. Also, for the love of all that is good and holy in this world, make sure that they have a x64 client. With all the mods and whatnot, even when making the .exe LAA, I'd have Oblivion crashing. I'd very much like to let my machine tell me how much memory i can use instead of the game.

All in all, If you're a console player, you won't be able to enjoy a TES game to the fullest and probably don't truly understand why these games are as highly regarded as they are. Don't get me wrong, you'll get a top notch game and it will probably be a GOY contender, but you'll miss out on what makes TES games great; mods.

For PC players, If Oblivion was any indication, you'll probably have to build a machine around this game or do some serious upgrading to play it at it's full potential. I'm excited to see how this game will utilize DX11's tessellation.

I am a bit skeptical on the release date as TES has generally never released when they say. But if not, then Blizzard better pump out the greatest content of all time to keep me from walking away for a period of time.

[Olgierd]

- No More Gamebryo.
- New writing team.
- New design team.
- Oh hell, a whole new company to make the game.

We are wishing, right?

[ryoukthebloodelf]

i want references to the new madgod =D

[Rageissues]

Any word on multiplayer?

[ryoukthebloodelf]

Any word on multiplayer?

still to early