» Wed May 16, 2012 10:14 am I'll start with the negatives. First thing is the leveling system in the perks. Smithing, Enchanting and other -very easy- perks to level is just beyond stupid. I can easily do Smithing (and I've done it) to 100 along with Enchanting. Why wasn't there a limit to how much of a certain gear/weapon you can make? For example, 10 x Iron Daggers and that's it!. Then you can make 10 x Iron Swords, and so on. Thou' I think that once you reach a certain Smithing level, you shouldn't be able to make the whole category of Iron or a lot of what's inside Iron - this is a general example and should be painted across all other types of armor (Steel, Glass, etc). As soon as I found out that you can level so easily in the game, I knew the system was broken. It was just so stupid ... now that I KNOW I can be in the best crafted gear, I went after the Dragon Armor and then Daedric Armor and easily made both sets. So now what? Where should I go and replace my gear? There is hardly any good gear out there to replace the crafted pieces. It should always be the other way around - Crafted pieces should be lower than the gear you find out in the world. Also, leveling a production skill (or gathering, just incase you go to that field, too) shouldn't be that easy. I don't want them to be super hard unless it's the top crafted gear, like Daedric - I'd rather level within reason. This brings me to my next point -
The perks ... Half of them are broken! Lockpicking? Seriously a waste of perks. Even I can see the extra gear and gold or making keys from Lockpicking. But if you invested points in there, chances are you wasted good perks in there rather that investing in something like Sneak or Enchanting (Sneak is broken too, btw). I'd rather invest in something that would make sense and less "Cookie Cutter" in perks. I'd rather get more out of where I am investing than "Novice is easy to lockpick" or "Adept is easy to lockpick" perks. Those should all be under one perk! Something like, "Chances to lockpick is easier by 5%" up to a maximum of 15% or 20%. I looked over the Two Hander perk, that's also broken. The Axe, Hammer and Sword special abilities should all fall into one place with lower stats to compensate for their powers. I could go on and on - but these are things to look out for. Make them useful to invest in, to say "This is new" and not a "copy" of an older perk. Nearly all the perks in Skyrim are broken - cookie cutters, useless or/and overpowered.
Dragons attacking towns. Sweet idea. No destructive environments when the Dragon makes a wide mess with their breaths and attacks? Or landing ontop of those small houses? Uh ... no realism there. Sure it could be a bit more work for the developers, but it shouldn't be much if you make it easier to have it destroyed and cripple fast into the wind or something. Then have some hired NPCs and those in town or around town come help and re-build a house (similar or different in size, shape, etc0. Dragons should also have different special attacks, more than one! And they should be unique from each other. There should be some Lesser Dragons and then higher ranked Dragons (named Dragons, or unique names). It's nice to encounter more and more Dragons. But they should be a bit rare to encounter. Probably one every 10 hours. I don't want to encounter one of the same kind in the same place many times. That's just utterly stupid, annoying and boring. I could easily farm them like that ...
Next - Environment and the NPCs should change dynamically. Some NPCs should travel to other towns. Others should do something different and not the same thing over and over again through everyday. Make it interesting, different - I already know what these NPCs are going to say. I'd rather have them say it once a day or twice a day. Not when I pass by them they should all look at me and give me full attention. I'd rather have like 10-20% of their attention unless I am specifically pressing the E button - interacting with them basically.
Melee Attacks - Barely any nice moves like Whirlwind or Charging, Jumping or anything like that. It would be nice to look over Dungeons and Dragons games and take few of those things and even look over World of Warcraft classes and take somethings from there and invest it in Elder Scroll games. World of Warcraft is not an "original" game since it came from Dungeon and Dragons - almost all the games came from Dungeons and Dragons game boards (not video games). I'd also like to have more hot keys or give us the option to have more hot keys. I have not played Magic so much in the game, but I don't see a lot of different types of Magic and have their own unique attacks.
More Unique Bosses (mini and major) should roam around towns. I should encounter one at least once every hour or two hours when I'm road traveling. Those bosses should have henchmen or minions, etc. Enemies should have a bigger variety of attacks. Bosses should be unique in that category as well (gear, attacks, speeches, etc).
Dyes for Gear and Weapons? Probably asking too much. Or maybe have pre-set colors for gear and weapon? So we can visit a Dye Shop and have them color our gear? Not all Dyes should be available and I should go hunt the materials for those Dyes. There should be a mixture of colors in a single Dye, too (up to two or three colors). This is just extra, but I so don't like it when I see the same type of weapon or armor and I KNOW that type of gear. Which brings me to my next point!
Stats need to be varied on gear! For example, Iron Dagger's damage is 4 to 6. So it isn't always 4 damage all the time because "Oh, it's an Iron Dagger. I already know it's not an upgrade". There should be weapon speed, too (at the very least). Stacking weapon speed should be limited for each type of weapon (for daggers, up to 50% haste, for two handers, up to 30% haste - just an example) even when drinking potions! Upgrading gear in Skyrim is nice, but for each stronger upgrade it should cost a bit more. Not something "simple". And there isn't any "chance on hit" you can proc 10 strength or 10 stamina or whatever. I'd like to see stuff like that on enchantments. It would be nice to see. Now, to my next point -
Not a lot of Ore in Skyrim ... and also a bit difficult to see or find. Not a lot of ore ...
I could find a lot of herbs ... but the ore in the world ...As for Smithing AND finding gear, making an Iron Dagger is one thing. How about two or three types of Iron Daggers? They could have a random stat or a varied stat besides just making an Iron Dagger? It would also be nice to give it a gear level or color the name of the item like how other games are doing it. Simple is White, one stats is Green, two-three stats is Blue, two-five stats is Purple, five to nine stats Orange - Just an example. Brings me to my next point -
No stats on gear. No real stats in the game. Strength, Agility, Critical Strike, Crushing Strike, etc. Stamina, Health (should be Vitality) and Mana do exist. Those stats could also be put on the gear we make or find. We should also have the ability to change (or reforge they call it in WoW) one type of stat by 5% to 40% of it (requires materials, small work to do not hard or super hard in my opinion that way we play around and test the types of stat changing.
Respeccing your Perks and Stats. It's just nice to have. Of course by paying gold (it should probably reflect your current level or increase to a limited maximum amount of gold and rest slowly as time passes). I really want to try out One Hander and Sneak or other Magic stuff (Destruction, Restoration) but I'm limited. I don't feel like making a whole new character and re-do the quests and the talking and so on and try to skip through all the NPC talk because I already know what it is. I'd rather have the option to respec my Perks and Stats.
Shops having easy access to items ... medium, to hard and to rare types of materials is my concern. Not interesting, not productive. Limits me, the player, from going out there to "explore" more of what Skyrim has. Shops like that shouldn't exist. And if they do, they should be very rare and the merchant should travel from town to town Randomly and not by a fixed date, a fixed time, etc. NPCs at the INN should rarely give you information about those type of merchants. And if you do encounter those merchants you shouldn't encounter them again for another 30+ days. Their prices should be twice the normal or three times the normal as well. Take a step back and think about what I said ... Ebony Ore and Ignots easily purchased from Shoppers? ... So now I shouldn't go out there in the world and try to discover where they're located ... Not fun ... Isn't Skyrim all about being an adventure and discovering things? This is what I wanted from this game. But most of what I can get is like ... so easy to get. Sure Quest items need work, but everything else? ... Boring ... really boring. I don't want to be in the best or near-best type of gear in the game in a short amount of time with less or no hard work. I'd rather feel that "achievement" of busting my buttocks off to make that one amazing item with all these enchants and stats on them.
I didn't expect any of what I said to be in Skyrim. All I want to say is Skyrim is one hell of an amazing game. But the game is so broken that ... it's not pulling me back in anymore. I've wasted some 70+ hours on the game and now I realized I am playing the game to discover things and look over the stories Skyrim has. I've probably discovered about 40-60% of the map but that doesn't matter. I don't look over my gear, I already know what the gear is like, barely any enchantments (would be nice to have Runes or Sockets to put all those gems I keep finding, and it would be nice to actually SHOW it on your gear when your putting it and it should give you a certain stat or a unique enchantment not relating to Enchanting skill), I could go on and on ... I'm just bored now. I don't feel like starting over again, there isn't much of choices and randoms. Sigh ... I hope all of this information could be useful to Bethesda team and I hope they take it positively to make the next installment of Elder Scrolls. I know for a fact you guys worked hard on this game, but there are still things missing and broken in the game - the game IS amazing, but it's missing things and its broken. It feel like I wasted my dollars playing this game.
I look forward to your next Elder Scrolls.
