» Wed Jan 02, 2013 2:19 am The new mechanics and changes made to Skyrim were a magnificent addition. Crafting, mining, cooking, finishing moves, mounted combat, and many other changes made skyrim feel fresh and new and not just Oblivion or Morrowind with nice graphics. I really hope that most of this mechanics (crafting especially) continue to appear in future TES titles, as well as in new Fallout games.
The first DLC Dawnguard was more or less well received by the community, but I think it was overall a lot of fun. The interactions with Serana added that link that lacked all the other followers that you found in your travels and the expansion of the Warewolf and Vampire abilities made them playable on higher levels. Also, the addition of the crossbow and enchanted bolts gave the game a new way of playing an archer character.
The second DLC Hearthfire was sadlny not very well received by the community. The mechanics of building could be expanded to create some interesting content (Building forts or Castles as well as building or rebuilding towns) and the relations with your couple, as well as the process to get married could also have been expanded. Some who were interested in the content felt that it was a bit expensive and decided to wait until Christmas to buy this DLC.
The third DLC Dragonborn hasn’t hit the PC yet but reviews seem to be quite good and I guess a lot of modders are waiting to mod the Dragon Riding mechanic.
Finally, the release of the Creation Kit has allowed PC users to create great works of art and add hours upon hours of new gameplay. The support that you have given to the whole community is not unnoticed and I hope that in the future you continue to give us this same support.
Now, here are some suggestions about things that could be done for future expansions or DLC as the main story.
Ideas for new expansions:
The Revenge of the Betrayed: We have seen the Falmer are all around Skyrim and they loathe and hate anything else that isn’t them. The keep slaves from diferent races and seem to be increasing their numbers to a great army. With the empire and the warriors of Skyrim weakened by the war, this could be the best moment for them to mount their invasion of the surface and retake what was stolen from them.
The Concordat’s End: The Thalmor know that a new dragonborn has appeared in skyrim. To men this dragonborn can be seen as the second coming of Thalos, to the Thalmor, the dragonborn is a threat that must be dealt with as soon as possible before the kingdoms of men are united again. The civil war in Skyrim ends and some dragons seem to have allied with the dragonborn, if the Aldmeri dominion is to fight against dragons and men it will be a war they will lose. If the Thalmor are to reign all over Tamriel they must strike now that their enemies are weak.
The content of this expansion would be playable after the main story is over (2 years after the civil war and the battle with Alduin)like it was done in the Broken Steel DLC for Fallout. Perhaps we could return to Cyrodill or go to Summerset isles.
Foreigners: New questlines and radiant quests for all the guilds existing in Skyrim. The Main focus of this DLC would be new guilds arriving to Skyrim as competition and enemies to the currently existing guilds. This set after the conflicts in the main story. The new guilds could be the Morag Tong (Opposing the Dark Brotherhood), The Fighters Guild (Opposing the Companions), The College of Whispers (Opposing the Mages College), The Thieves Guild of Cyrodyll or the Summerset Shadows main forces, and a Khajiit Circus (Opposing the Bards College).
Those who defied the gods: The Dwemer banished thousands of years ago, when they attempted to use the Heart of Lorkhan to acquire power equal to the Gods. But as of late, Dwemer Specters have begun appearing in their ruins of Skyrim. Is this perhaps an omen of their return?
Next, I would like to suggest new mechanics for the game:
Underwater combat: So far there isn’t a way to fight enemies in the water, the player is currently forced to go to the shore and deal with them from there. Could it be possible to add a simple underwater combat system? Most likely the weapons to be used under the water would be knives, harpoons, and specific spells designed to work under the water. It would also be nice to have a wider variety of enemies in water as well as submerged dungeons.
hardcoe mode: This mode was introduced in Fallout New Vegas, and I found it very interesting, as it gave an additional level of challenge to the whole game. Adding the need for food, water and sleep, as well as adding durability to the equipment would add a good challenge level to the game, and it would also allow to expand the cooking mechanics.
Expanding the options menu: Currently we have the options menu in a North, East, West and South positions for the Skills, Items, Magic and Map. I was thinking that the North East, North West, South East and South West positions could be used for the following menus:
-Minor Skills: Instead of being skills with a perk tree, this skills will level up just like the skills in oblivion, which means that there would be only four perks per skill, just without needing to spend perk points. The skills I suggest to be added are the following:
a) Unarmed: Allows you to hit harder with your fists. The higher the level, the more damage you will do to your enemies.
b) Unarmored: Increases your armor rating, mana regen and chances to dodge an attack.
c) Mining: Allows you to mine more ore from a vein and faster.
d) Acrobatics: Reduces the fall damage, and increases the jump height (Not to the point you can jump over houses).
e) Athletics: Increases your run and sprint speed, and on higher level it allows you to make a special jump while sprinting.
f) Cooking: Makes the food you prepare heal more and satisfy your hunger for longer periods.
g) Shouts: Makes your Thu’ um stronger, and reduces to cooldown for your shouts.
-Titles: This menu would show you the current position you hold in different guilds and holds, as well as your current followers and their locations.
-Calendar: This menu would give you a more detailed look of the current month and events that could happen based on the month and day.
- Properties: This menu would show you the lands and houses that you own, as well as info on your family.
Spell making: This was a great system that sadly hasn’t made it yet to Skyrim. I would love to see it making a return. Maybe some high wizards from the now defunct Mages Guild are trying to protect their relics from the Synod and the College of Whispers, and thus decided to use the commotion of the war in Skyrim to carry them away from Cyrodill.
More quest variety: One thing that people usually complain about is that the quests seem to be very repetitive “Go here, pick this, kill that and come back”. Here are some suggestions for new kinds of quests:
-Defend the Fort/Castle for x time: Quite like the siege of Whiterun, you would need to defend a position, but in this case, the conditions for defeat could be very different. Fail to protect the VIP in the fort; a relic being kept is destroyed or stolen; an x number of allied soldiers are killed; x number of installations within the fort are destroyed; etc.
-Protect the wagons carrying supplies: In this quest, you would be onboard a wagon that is moving from one hold to another. A bandit attack is expected and you have been hired to protect the caravan from damage. Here the player would act like turret in a rail sequence. The bandits will try to close in to the caravan and you have to take down either the horses or the bandits using spells, bows or crossbows.
-Help train the son of a noble: Here you would be tasked with either defending from attacks using a wooden shield or attacking with a wooden sword for a set amount of time within an area.
-Craft X number of weapons or armor: Craft x amount of weapons or armor parts before you run out of time. Since these are emergency requests, the payment is a lot better than selling the weapons to a normal merchant.
-Search for a criminal hiding in the city: Similar to the murder quest in Winterhold, you have to find clues to find the whereabouts of the wanted individual.
-Catch the band of thieves: A group of thieves has stolen an object of value from the customer as well as some horses and are trying to leave Skyrim. Kill them before they reach the extraction point.
My last suggestion would be to make another Mod Jam session, it would be interesting to see what other things could be done using the havoc engine.
Well, now that I’ve left here this text wall, the only thing that I would like to add is Happy New Year to everyone.
