Borderlands has something like 17 million different types of firearms because of the way they randomnize the loot. Be nice if Bethesda worked something like that into their games.

So, Bethesda games have mostly (left a hole in there for Morrowind to slip through...) always been shallow and exploration and scenery have always been the best parts, and so therefore, that's all anybody should ever expect out of TES games. I hear that over and over. And I wonder why, with all the potential for improvement in so many other aspects of the game(s), they don't set out to really make at least some of those neglected aspects as truly deep and magnificent as the scenery? Why continue to just make a scenery sim with mediocre everything else? Why NOT reach for the stars, and try to do better at the entire game, not just make the scenery prettier? What do they have to lose?

Dunno if they're too proud to go out and seek better talent in things they're lacking like writing and user interface creation and combat mechanics (to name just a few), or what- but if they spent just a bit of the hundreds of millions of dollars they've made from Skyrim on some real gifted outside talent (or companies with that talent... looking at Obsidian) to help improve those areas in future games... damn. With a 'whole' TES game, well made and loaded with good quality in all of those aspects- [censored], they would have the frickin game of the millenium on their hands, and could all retire and buy some medium-sized eastern european country or something. So what's stopping them from taking that intelligent next step? Seriously...

And no... "Beauty encased in mediocrity is their long standing hallmark, and a tried and true philosophy for making TES games"... isn't a very impressive thing to be known for, nor something I'd want to use to try to justify why the game is the way it is today.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

I wish I were as easily amused with Skyrim as you appear to be (BTW, I don't mean that as a snide remark -- I know it might come across as such). Maybe I expected too much from Skyrim. Its just that I've been waiting for about 5 years for the current TES title to be released, and to be honest, I think that the team at Beth can do (could have done) much better. This game was released on the same generation of consoles with a larger budget, larger staff, and ample time -- I hardly think it was totally unreasonable to expect that it would be leaps and bounds better than Oblivion, or any of its other predecessors for that matter.

Don't get me wrong, though, there are things that I like about Skyrim. I think its a beautiful game with great lore (among other things). However, if I wanted to wander around aimlessly while taking in beautiful scenery, I could just pop over to the Cascades or Olympic Mountains and go for a hike. What I can't do while on a hike, however, is explore long-lost tombs and fight supernatural creatures while on a quest to find a legendary enchanted artifact. While I can do that in Skyrim, the task of finding such an artifact becomes more of a chore as I wade through dungeon after dungeon finding nothing better than what I had 'learned' to smith five levels ago. I can only think of three unique, artifact-type items that I've come across in my ~170 hours of playing, and they all seemed to be related to a quest. At some point during that time, dungeon crawling and/or 'exploring' became repetitive and tedious to me as I slowly came to the realization that there was a minute chance that I might find some artifact in a random location. As such, my desire to continue playing Skyrim has waned, while my desire to replay Morrowind or (continue with) Daggerfall has been gradually rekindled.

So, from my perspective, the series seems to be heading in the wrong direction with regard to certain things, and I would like for my opinion about it to be heard and pretend that it might matter. For others who seem to be content with the status quo, well, thats fine, too -- I'm not trying to tell others how to party.

considering all the bugs, the same repetition, the other annoyances, no.



Also, how about not using crafting? It worked for Morrowind, no?

well said!

and, it's exactly what i was expecting with skyrim. take all the good of the previous tes, fallouts and even other rpg's like 2worlds, advance and add a few creative mechanical aspects here and there, get a great story with meaningful quests, great companions, dialogue, and, then add the immersive world we knew was boing to be there anyways and you possibly get the greatest game ever.

well... looks like they fell just a bit short, lol.

I agree with this. That kind of stuff should be rare, so there is still some inventive to smith and enchant, but it should be there for people who look hard enough.

Nightingale Armor. Not necessarily hard to obtain, but definitely takes more than just visiting your local blacksmith, and it's not like it drops off any kill or is given at the end of any quest.

This bothers me as well. Daedric gear just doesn't feel as epic as it once did. It was just silly running into marauders with full suit of Daedric in Oblivion. I think Skyrim handled that a little better, but being able to actually craft Daedric?

More unique loot!

Unique is just for look and style thanks to the Skyrim crafting system.

Even without exploiting (just perks + skill,.... no +skill-items, no +skill-potions and no bugs like "ancient knowledge") the products of my crafting let unique items looks like toys.
The most OP perk is "dual enchant". it let you create weapons and armor with insane magical stats, like a Swords with 30 fire + 30 ice (no "argument" perks) or armor with dual resist.

An amulett of Talos is the only item i wear that is not selfmade.

I don't think it's the ability to craft Daedric that diminishes it, but rather the ease with which you can do so. It should be extremely costly in terms of gold, time, and effort to craft something as powerful as Daedric.

Who needs Daedric when the damage reduction from armor maxes out at 567 displayed armor rating and you can improve steel or Orcish armor above the cap ...

The crafting system destroyed the game for me. I play on Master and there is not any challenge anymore.

The only useful artifact for me was the Black Star but it became useless after I enchanted 4 pieces of armor with "Destruction spells cost 25% less to cast" and now my weapons don't need recharging.

I know I could restrict myself from crafting / enchanting but it's difficult to resist when it's a part of the game and you don't cheat by using it.

On top of this, after I restored the Crown of Barenziah, I find too many precious stones that I don't bother to pick them up anymore. I have 650K gold and exploration is pointless for me.


EDIT:
On second thought, I shouldn't complain ... The things I'm complaining about are basically a reward for character lvl 81 and 400 hours of gameplay.

A feature that is optional to use can not destroy the game for you. It's just as silly to say fast travel ruins everything when you do not have to use it.

Now, as far as max AR and such, yes, there are serious flaws. Bethesda has included many features in all of their games to date that nullify other included features. To some degree it's difficult to eliminate all those conflicts, but a lot of it is just a lack of effort, probably due to having different priorities during game development.

One of the biggest problems in TES has always been finding loot that you can't actually benefit from. Regardless of whether your character can use it or not, you'll never be able to sell it to recover its extraordinary value. Why put an item in the game worth 10,000 gold if the most gold available for barter is half that?

Anyway, if a feature takes the challenge away for you, then don't use it. It svcks that they've included something that's essentially broken, but it is what it is. Notable is not just all that you can do in the game but also what you can not do. It's one of those things that makes you stop and wonder what exactly they were thinking during development.

I don't know if anyone has mentioned them yet, but there are some unique-model bracers in one of the Dark Brotherhood Quests, and one completely unique spell tome.

And Chillrend.

So people want more unique loot? Doesn't that make it even less unique? I have no problems with what I find. Most is enough to make me rich, and a selected few weapons and armor feels really unique, then add some truly unique items scattered scarcely around the world - stuff you can't use, but is really unique.

The same repetition? How so? The other annoyances? Please be more specific then this because this is not very convincing.

Actually, I like the fast travel, I have a family and full-time job and I don't have ages in front of me to play Skyrim.

And yes, I know I can downscale my character's equipment so I'm not complaining about this.
But I'm complaining about the so called "unique" items, they're underpowered and useless, with few exceptions.

I still remember my hunting in Oblivion for specific Transcendent Sigil Stones and Mundane Rings in the Temple of the Ancestor Moths. That's what I consider a "real" unique items. Maybe only the Dragon Priest masks in Skyrim come close to this. The Daedric artifacts in Oblivion were better too.

Well, I'm with you on the complaints about the unique items. Many of the items are technically unique, but there is no appreciable difference to them. In the same way that we're all unique individuals, but there's no appreciable difference when comparing the lot of us among ourselves. Not like comparing us to individuals like Einstein. I said it earlier, I think the uniqueness of items is lessened by how saturated the game is with them. If you only saw a magic blade every once in a blue moon it would completely change the feel of it. Finding magical stuff in every encounter just creates a sense of "meh". Oblivion wasn't much better in my memory, if at all, but Morrowind did have a noticeable feeling of discovery around every bend.

As far as fast travel goes, I never understood those claims. I've a wife and three kids, work full-time, and go to university. I don't see why that would compel me to speed up a game that I bought with the hopes of it lasting indefinitely. To each his own I guess.


EDIT: A lot of spelling errors.

Well there is the tried and true method of buying stuff from the merchant until his gold is up to 10,000, then selling him the expensive item and coming back later and selling the other stuff back to him piecemeal once his gold replenishes (or selling it to different merchants). You take a little haircut on that transaction, but not that much if your speech is high and you have some fortify haggle buffs. At least you get something more for your valuable item than the max gold the merchant has on hand.

Or, the PC solution: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=769

The Riverwood Trader has 10,000 after investing in his shop. Sell, wait 48 hours, then repeat. The waiting takes less than a minute. For me he was the main reason to waste few perks in Speech (you'll need "Investor").

Cheater.

"Customizer"

I haven't seen enough of Skyrim to know which items are most valuable and which merchants have the most gold. In Oblivion the most valuable item was I believe the Mundane Ring worth some 21600 gold. Nevertheless, the richest merchant only had 2000 gold. Another issue was with exceptional items that had NO value, such as the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal, The Necromancer's Amulet, Staff of Worms, and the Ogham Infinium. In other words, after acquiring them, if you didn't intend to use them, you couldn't benefit from them... unless you're into charity, in which case you can give them away.

I do know that thus far in Skyrim I have frequently encountered a problem when attempting to pawn the loot I acquired during an expeditionary run. At the very least, if I can carry this much back to town, there are ought to be enough merchants with enough gold who are willing to buy what I have.

Assuming, of course, you're looking for Amazing Artifacts to gain gold. A good number of the people who do it, just do it for collecting's sake. If it's not an item they're going to use, they display it in their house/etc. (Personally, I don't think I'd sell most truly unique items. There's more than enough mundane loot to make cash off of. )


re: enough money to sell stuff. Yeah, that can be a bit of a problem. Whiterun's pretty good for selling, though..... two Smiths, the junk dealer, the Alchemist, the Bowyer, plenty of beer/food shops, the Enchanter. Your spouse, if you get one. But yeah - sometimes I ended up buying small/expensive items - like high-end ingots & grand soulgems - so that I could sell the rest of the loot.