[biiibi]

lol

True enough. They do seem to be a bit odd in the head, from what I've heard.

[Kelsey Hall]

Finally, a decent complaint thread.


I feel like the faction rank progression should be based off of how many favors you do for fellow guild members and where are your skills at instead of Just do the quests. For example, if you want to progress through the first rank in Mages College in Winterhold and continue the factions main quest, youll have to do favors for the other novices and get at least 3 schools of magic at level 30. This idea isnt perfect and Im still thinking it over though.

Companions dont seem to level up with me, I hope Bethesda will fix this.

I also dont like how you cant tell your companions a strategy to do in battle like & You should keep a distance & Flank the enemy & Use long range fighting, Use close range combat, Use this stave/scroll, etc.
Companions should have more unique dialogue as well in my opinion.

It wouldnt hurt Bethesda if theyd flesh out the Marriage system some more, like all marriage options would have a more detailed backstory, more unique dialogue, etc and there should be Wood Elves and Khajiit the player could marry.


EDIT: What the hell happened to my post? All of the " and the ' screwed up on me.

[[ becca ]]

+ some more environment interactions. I love the spilling oil lamps, and flammable gases etc. More of that please - let me shatter ice or frozen people, more destructible environments would be cool

[carrie roche]

Instant and spam-able health potions are just a bad game mechanic. All potions should heal over time and not stack, and actually it'd be nice if healing spells that way as well - or were channeled like the basic one. Ideally there'd be a potion using animation as well, requiring some tactic to use one safely in the thick of combat.

Non-pausing menus I don't feel would add or fix anything, you could still bind healing potions and spam them through that method. I can see how you shouldn't be reading a book during combat and so on, but there are legitimate uses for the menu in combat still. We should have more binds anyway though, eight is not enough and there's no good excuse for not letting us customize them either. And we really need a way to bind sets of spells/weapons and so on. Considering how much they hyped their dual wielding system it's a pretty big oversight not to include such. Their switching system right now is extremely awkward, especially if you use one handed weapons and want to block with them. I've been avoiding melee entirely partially due to not wanting to hassle with it until a fix is made - unfortunately it'll probably be a mod that does it rather than a patch.

Speaking of pausing, one thing that shouldn't pause the game is lockpicking. Being able to take your time breaking some of your near unlimited picks on an expert lock with you 30 lockpicking skill while a guard is frozen around a corner kind of kills the suspense.

[Susan]

I have two quests that are broken and impossible to complete.

"Repairing the Phial" because I had a Briarheart (a fairly common item) in my inventory when the courier gave me the letter. It then turned into a quest item and any others picked up won't register for the quest and become quest items themselves.

It is impossible for me to become Guildmaster of the Thieves Guild because I didn't complete what I thought were optional, busywork sidequests from Delvin and Vex before completing the main questline. Now one character's dialog is stuck in a dialog loop and another (my favorite character in the game) is lost deep in a tomb. To avoid spoilers, another area of importance to the guild is completely broken as well.

It's irksome, to say the least.

[stephanie eastwood]

Speaking of pausing, one thing that shouldn't pause the game is lockpicking. Being able to take your time breaking some of your near unlimited picks on an expert lock with you 30 lockpicking skill while a guard is frozen around a corner kind of kills the suspense.

I wrote a bit on lockpicking in real time in this thread, it should be a direct link but I wrote a lot so you need to scroll to the Stealth portion:
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1152946-official-ideas-and-suggestions-topic-3/page__view__findpost__p__16911302

[NAkeshIa BENNETT]

QUIBBLES

I really appreciate the wide variety of stuff to do, but I don't feel that the main quest lines have adequate depth, especially the guild quests. It's like reading an anthology of short stories instead of a novel. The approach works really well for the non-essential, out-of-the-way content, but the meat isn't really there.

Speaking of guilds, the thieves guild quest line was one of my favorites. However, to finish it you have to do several jobs in each hold. Tracking these and making sure you get the job you need is a nightmare. It would've been much better to have the fences in each hold give the quests instead of having to take one an drop it until you finally get the one you needed.

The jobs are short and simple, and they also overlap. For example, burglary, sweep and heist jobs are essentially the same thing. Go to a building and steal something. Variety would really make it more fun.

SUGGESTIONS

DLC

I want my own castle. After completing the Civil War and main quest lines, it would be great to get some land. Of course, it could already be occupied by evil of some sort. Then I have to get it fixed. Move the missus in. Start shops (maybe start my own store to sell the spoils of my war). Eventually I could found a village to lord over and move my followers in. Quests could spring up through this process (Friends and family kidnapped, raids by local bandits, dragon attacks). If I happen to be the leader of a local guild or two, there could be local representation. It's a great way to give players something to spend money on and an excuse to use tradeskills.

Some characters need depth. Housecarls, for example, could benefit from personal quest lines. Some NPCs like Sapphire, Ysolda and the Blades seem like they could offer a lot more.

Restoration spell - Heal Knee

THE NEXT TES

I'm not a fan of tradeskills biting into my combat development. For the next game, this type of development should be separate (not sharing perks). Obviously it has to be a bit more balanced as well. Can't have players making gear better than they can find in the wild unless the ingredients for it are really tough to come by. I had everything I needed to make 2-3 suits of dragon armor long before I ever needed it.

I was very happy to see personal relationships and marriage show up in Skyrim. This is a system that needs to have much more depth. For the next game I suggest quest lines that lead to marriage, and, of course, the ability to marry more than one person.

On a detail note, it would be nice if news didn't travel quite so fast. I'd like to see everyone in a town talking about the things I've done in that town instead of instantly knowing everything I do. Is there a paparazzi following me?

[steve brewin]

Well, I'm a particular fan of the interface overall, but I do agree about the hotkeys. I'm using a 360 controller on PC, and I'd like to be able to use the eight keyboard hotkeys. Also, I wish it was a bit less quirky regarding one-handed weapons and spells.

I on the other hand dislike the UI. A lot.

1)It fails to play to the strengths of the PC, where you typically have a short viewing distance to the screen, and high resolution displays, so you can use larger amounts of descriptive text on items in inventories etc. Massive amounts of screen real-estate is wasted by the menus, that use only a small strip on the left/right, when you have the whole screen free for relevant information.
2) Having to use WASD to navigate in the menus, where sometimes the Enter-key counts as confirming a command, sometimes the Y key, and sometimes you have to click OK with the mouse. The last one is particularly hilarious, since the mouse isn't normally used for jack in the interface. There's no rhyme or reason to this thing. (Possibly unless you use a XBox controller?)
3)When you use WASD during conversations, sometimes focus gets lost from the conversation lines, so W and S keys don't work anymore for selecting lines.
4)Also, I haven't found a way to move between pages in the Options or racemenu screens using the keyboard. There might be a way, but it seems rather hard to spot.
5)You can not quickslot weapons to the left hand.

I too have played games since the 8-bit times, and I have to say that the only UI I remember being as actively hostile to the user is the one in Dungeon Siege III. Funnily enough that's also a recent multi-platform game...

You personally seem to have moved straight away to using a X-Box controller. Why is that, I wonder? Should it be acceptable or the norm that a big budget game leaves usability with the default control method of a platform as an afterthought?

[ImmaTakeYour]

I on the other hand dislike the UI. A lot.

1)It fails to play to the strengths of the PC, where you typically have a short viewing distance to the screen, and high resolution displays, so you can use larger amounts of descriptive text on items in inventories etc. Massive amounts of screen real-estate is wasted by the menus, that use only a small strip on the left/right, when you have the whole screen free for relevant information.
2) Having to use WASD to navigate in the menus, where sometimes the Enter-key counts as confirming a command, sometimes the Y key, and sometimes you have to click OK with the mouse. The last one is particularly hilarious, since the mouse isn't normally used for jack in the interface. There's no rhyme or reason to this thing. (Possibly unless you use a XBox controller?)
3)When you use WASD during conversations, sometimes focus gets lost from the conversation lines, so W and S keys don't work anymore for selecting lines.
4)Also, I haven't found a way to move between pages in the Options or racemenu screens using the keyboard. There might be a way, but it seems rather hard to spot.
5)You can not quickslot weapons to the left hand.

You personally seem to have moved straight away to using a X-Box controller. Why is that, I wonder? Should it be acceptable or the norm that a big budget game leaves usability with the default control method of a platform as an afterthought?

I agree that there might well be some usability issues and quirks with the UI, but I like the fact that it's clean. Empty space isn't "wasted real estate", it's a clean design that doesn't overload you with information. Small fonts and a screen jammed with an overload of information is just a bad idea. The UI is far cleaner than Oblivion's and most games I run across in general. The only issue I have regarding the UI is with the quests; I'd like to be able to click on them and see the history of the quest for the miscellaneous quests, so that I don't forget why in the world I was even doing them.

As far as moving to the 360 controller, I use it because it's comfortable. I played RTSes on games back in the days of Doom, Quake, Heretic and Hexen, and never did much keyboard + mouse playing; after that I moved to console FPS games. I'll grant you that if the keyboard + mouse acts interacts oddly with the UI then they need to fix that, pronto. Where I laud the UI is in the area of visual simplicity and communication of information. It's so far beyond Oblivion and most other game UIs that I love it.

[George PUluse]

I agree that there might well be some usability issues and quirks with the UI, but I like the fact that it's clean. Empty space isn't "wasted real estate", it's a clean design that doesn't overload you with information. Small fonts and a screen jammed with an overload of information is just a bad idea. The UI is far cleaner than Oblivion's and most games I run across in general. The only issue I have regarding the UI is with the quests; I'd like to be able to click on them and see the history of the quest for the miscellaneous quests, so that I don't forget why in the world I was even doing them.

As far as moving to the 360 controller, I use it because it's comfortable. I played RTSes on games back in the days of Doom, Quake, Heretic and Hexen, and never did much keyboard + mouse playing; after that I moved to console FPS games. I'll grant you that if the keyboard + mouse acts interacts oddly with the UI then they need to fix that, pronto. Where I laud the UI is in the area of visual simplicity and communication of information. It's so far beyond Oblivion and most other game UIs that I love it.

It seems we have diametrically opposed views on presenting information to the user. IMHO, it's better to give the user too much information, than too little. It's easier to self-filter the information on your screen, than it is to go hunting for it through long, single strips of text, with only a few items visible at a time, as the interface has now. Despite what you said about bringing up Morrowind, I have to mention Morrowind's inventory screen as a well implemented one. It used icons which you could filter by categories. It was immediately obvious to you with one glance, what you were carrying and how much. Morrowind is hardly the only example of similar design, but an example that readily comes to mind, since the game was already mentioned.
Skyrim's user interface somehow magically manages to combine the "Gaah! Too much text!"-UI of olden times, with presenting as little information to the user as possible.

Most of the design decisions in this game make perfect sense, in that they saved developer time, or made the mechanics easier to balance. But the UI one is baffling. Some people might claim that "Bethesda doesn't playtest their own games", but I'd rather think that playtesting UI usability in-house is fairly hard, since the QA people tend to get used to the user interface, which makes them ignore usability quirks, since they know how to get around them. This combined with "eh, it's good enough, the deadline's closing!" got us this UI.

[Chloé]

The problem people face in that case Slaphead is information overload. When giving out so much information it takes extensive time just understanding what value is relevant to which statistic, and what its doing in the game. Its why airforces (particularly the USAF) are investing in and researching cleaner and easier to read HUD's for pilots so that only required information is displayed at the required time. Of course we are not pilots in billion dollar aircraft, but the principle is the same. To much info can lead to an overload, which leads to frustration, confusion and errors.

Although I do agree the UI could use a fair bit more work, even on console.

[Emma Louise Adams]

I was dissapointed that after all the hard work I did getting the guild back on its feet, I can't pal around skyrim with Jason Statham (Delvin Mallory), or any other guildies.

After discovering that you could marry, I began to search skyrim for all possible canidates and found there is little choice. * cough* you can't marry a woodelf girl

[Assumptah George]

The "unarmed" skill should be brought back, either through a mod or put in the next TES game. Playing the game as a martial arts - using monk should be made a feasible gameplay option, and a skilled martial artist should be able to do as much damage with his/her hands and feet as a warrior with a sword.

[Alex Vincent]

My Quibble is that this interation of Skyrim likes to tease on alot of things, call it lack of depth or unfinished or whatever but many aspects of the game seems to stop short. there was massive potential in the Radiant Story System, I find it to be more of a random encounter selector than anything was stated prior to release "a game that looks at what you and applies itself accordingy via, enemies who you're weak against, dungeons you haven't been to etc etc" RS could have been used to solve the levelled loot problem easiliy by applying several random quest types to powerful unique unlevelled loot, thus keeping the exploration factor fresh and giving a reason to dungeon dive beyond word walls. to be honest unless a quest is telling me to do so, I don't even open Chests. I had high hopes for RS.

[Stu Clarke]

The problem people face in that case Slaphead is information overload. When giving out so much information it takes extensive time just understanding what value is relevant to which statistic, and what its doing in the game. Its why airforces (particularly the USAF) are investing in and researching cleaner and easier to read HUD's for pilots so that only required information is displayed at the required time. Of course we are not pilots in billion dollar aircraft, but the principle is the same. To much info can lead to an overload, which leads to frustration, confusion and errors.

Although I do agree the UI could use a fair bit more work, even on console.

True, but what all do you really have in Skyrim?

Weapon: Name, Weight, Damage, Value
Armor: Name, Weight, Armor Value, Value
Potion: Name, Weight, Value
Misc: Name, Weight, Value

There isn't that much information to be given, but it isn't given in an efficient manner. What's more, you only get to see maybe 10 items at one time, when you could easily be looking at 20-30 items in the same space with no visual or mental strain. So if you used the same amount of space per item as you have now but smaller text you could get a lot more info in, if you were so inclined. Half of the things I mentioned you need to highlight it to see most of the info.

Also, we could use a sorting option. I like my UI mod because it lets me sort by what I have equipped, or value/weight ratio, or other things that come in handy.

[James Potter]

Indeed which is why I said it could use some more work, but keep it streamlined and simplified at the same time to reduce information overload.

I mean along the lines of things like ingredients; we dont need a zoomable and rotatable picure of them at all. Use that resource to create a tabbed ingredient panel, or even a grid display.

[k a t e]

Indeed which is why I said it could use some more work, but keep it streamlined and simplified at the same time to reduce information overload.

I mean along the lines of things like ingredients; we dont need a zoomable and rotatable picure of them at all. Use that resource to create a tabbed ingredient panel, or even a grid display.

Exactly. The space is fine for many things, it is just used poorly as a source of information.

[krystal sowten]

Well, I don't mind the zoomable and rotatable pictures myself, but I agree it's certainly an unessential feature. My point with the UI is that it avoids a case of the terminal spreadsheets. I agree that it should definitely include value-per-weight ration as standard bit of information. I get tired of doing division in my head, and have just started declining to pick up anything that isn't worth ten gold per pound, except for the occasional ore.

[Ross Thomas]

Well, I don't mind the zoomable and rotatable pictures myself, but I agree it's certainly an unessential feature. My point with the UI is that it avoids a case of the terminal spreadsheets. I agree that it should definitely include value-per-weight ration as standard bit of information. I get tired of doing division in my head, and have just started declining to pick up anything that isn't worth ten gold per pound, except for the occasional ore.

That's one thing I never understood. That was one reason for spellmaking being removed, that it was too "spreadsheety". In a menu like an inventory or Spell Making menu, wouldn't a neat, concise, accurate representation of all the info you need be the best choice? Those menus are there specifically to inform you about what you have, so as a spreadsheet is the most efficient way of presenting the information it seems to be a good fit.

[Genocidal Cry]

That's one thing I never understood. That was one reason for spellmaking being removed, that it was too "spreadsheety". In a menu like an inventory or Spell Making menu, wouldn't a neat, concise, accurate representation of all the info you need be the best choice? Those menus are there specifically to inform you about what you have, so as a spreadsheet is the most efficient way of presenting the information it seems to be a good fit.

Well, a good spreadsheet, yes, presents information pretty readably, but it's still a fairly data-intensive sort of thing. I really don't want to spend much time in the menus looking for things. In fact, I wish that containers worked like your inventory menu, to avoid having to scroll down a loooooooong list of loot that you've stuffed in a chest somewhere. Having a metric ton of information on the screen I think should be avoided, even if it's presented in a concise fashion.

Now, I agree that spellmaking probably should have been retained in the game.

[Bee Baby]

Pausing menu is the only way to drink potions other than those you have hot keyed. Any other potions accessed from inventory is unlikely to be used given that you character is helpless during the 3 seconds needed to open inventory, drink potion and close inventory. If you have 3 seconds to spare allowing free hits, you actually don't need the potion in the first place.

So no, a potion cooldown is a far better option. Unless you are playing some kind of alchemist merchant who wins fights using potion buffs of course.

As for NPC AI, it is basically a set follow distance. They could allow you change the follow distance as in fallout and a way to push past people as in Assassin's Creed. Provided they get it right of course, far too many times stuff gets dropped though a floor or wall.

[kennedy]

Lots of the quests and mechanics seem...i don't know...not fleshed out?

It's as if Bethesda had so many great ideas (Like Marriage), but they didn't have the time or resources to really improve upon those ideas. Maybe they were rushed by the deadline. Maybe they got lazy. No one will really know, I'm sure. But it's disappointing still.

[Alexandra Louise Taylor]

Pausing menu is the only way to drink potions other than those you have hot keyed. Any other potions accessed from inventory is unlikely to be used given that you character is helpless during the 3 seconds needed to open inventory, drink potion and close inventory. If you have 3 seconds to spare allowing free hits, you actually don't need the potion in the first place.

So no, a potion cooldown is a far better option. Unless you are playing some kind of alchemist merchant who wins fights using potion buffs of course.

As for NPC AI, it is basically a set follow distance. They could allow you change the follow distance as in fallout and a way to push past people as in Assassin's Creed. Provided they get it right of course, far too many times stuff gets dropped though a floor or wall.

Well, that's kind of the point - to stop people being able to drink potions in combat unless they actually manage to find a spot where they can take a few seconds to dig around in their pack. It's kinda silly to make time stop so that you can drink potions in an instant's time, that's what my suggestion is all about. I mean, think about it - I can wear super-sneak armor around, with one set of enchantments to enhance my sneaking, then if somebody sees me I can stop time and change into armor with a totally different set of enchantments. Having only the save/load/options menu freeze time would be a good way to make it impossible to do these sorts of ridiculous things. The only other menu I think should freeze time would probably be the magic menu - after all, the spells are in your head, so you should be able to change spells in zero time, but you shouldn't be able to dig around in your bag and change armor and weapons and drink a few potions and poison a weapon all in zero seconds flat.

[Anthony Rand]

Lots of the quests and mechanics seem...i don't know...not fleshed out?

It's as if Bethesda had so many great ideas (Like Marriage), but they didn't have the time or resources to really improve upon those ideas. Maybe they were rushed by the deadline. Maybe they got lazy. No one will really know, I'm sure. But it's disappointing still.

All the quests seem okay to me, but I agree marriage sounds near-worthless. I doubt I'll ever marry any of my characters for that reason.

[cutiecute]

I'm not sure if I already mentioned this earlier in the thread, but making the lockpicking game more difficult would probably be a good idea. As it stands it's entirely unnecessary to take any perks in lockpicking. Master locks can be easily picked with the loss of no more than 4-5 picks.