The question is fairly straightforward. For the last three Elder Scrolls games, what did each do best. (Example: "Leveling was awesome in Morrowind!" or, "The game world was fantastic in Skyrim!"). Were you to be tasked with creating the ultimate Elder Scrolls experience, what elements would you pull from Morrowind? Oblivion? Skyrim? What would you consider the positive aspects of each game?

Oblivion handled 'just by playing the game you are leveling something up' really well.

Damn I miss athletics and acrobatics :[

Freedom

Gameplay and skill mechanics from Morrowind (yes, combat too), enhanced with animation and visual quality of Skyrim. From Oblivion.... fugheddaboudit.

SKyrim:Pretty, Dragons are cool and shouts
Oblivion: Spell making was boss, having three arms was awesome
Morrowind: Spears, Dunmer, and Spears.

The whole world enviroment from morrowind was best,the ashlands,crazy wizard towers,your strongholds,the bloodmoon expansion with the snow,dwarven ruins(especially the underwater ones)i'm encompassing a lot of stuff in that and i could go on forever...

Hard time thinking of something skyrim does better than morrowind...only thing i think was a big improvement are the character animations and modelling.

Oblivion...nothing.It was a good game but average compared to these other 2.

I sort of agree and disagree at the same time. In general, I like the overall concept of the Skyrim character system. However, perks are way too powerful (well, not all of them, but many). You end up with like 12 perks in most skill trees, and most of the skill trees border on useless later in the game without perks. Skill essentially becomes meaningless in Skyrim, except as a way to earn perk points. They need to dial back the perks, have fewer of them, and let skill level play a larger role, so that you can be competent in a skill without investing a lot of perks in that skill, but the perks do give a higher level of mastery.

I mean, you could have 100 skill in alchemy, and essentially your potions would mostly still svck without any of the perks. That's just one example, but is true for almost all the skills (except, of course, lockpicking, which you can open a Master lock with 30 skill, no perks, and a few lockpicks).

EDIT (Some additional thoughts to add clarification of what I'm driving at) - One of the things I've historically liked about Elder Scrolls games is that *eventually* you could essentially master every skill - the "Class" you chose drove your early character development, in general, so that for the first 15 or 20 levels, maybe you focus on melee, or magic, but then eventually, if you keep developing the character, you can become quite competent at everything. Since these are single player games, and you are supposed to be a legendary hero of destiny, it kind of makes some sense that you can eventually eclipse the accomplishments of lesser men/women. With the current perk system, unless I'm misunderstanding things, you can't actually ever get all the perks on one character - If there's 12 or 14 perks in a skill tree, and you can only level to 100, and you start at 20 or 30, you can only "earn" 7-8 perks in that skill tree. In order to fully master that tree, you have to "steal" perks from other skill trees (that is, level up those other skills to get more perks, but not spend any perks in that skill).

So, in essence, Skyrim violates it's own principle of "you get better at something by doing it" - because in order to keep getting better at, say, 2-handed swords, eventually you have to do *something else* to get perk points (e.g. Destruction), use the perks you earned from learning Destruction spells, to buy additional poitns in 2 hands. So you are exactly NOT getting better at something by doing it.

END EDIT.

I might be a minority here, but I also miss the character attributes (strength, speed, luck, etc). I liked the fact that I could increase my carrying capacity very significantly with potions and enchantments (I mean, you can somewhat in Skyrim too, but it's much more limited).

I miss teleporting, jumping, and levitating from Morrowind.

I miss the "Open Lock" spells. If I'm playing a mage, sure I *could* learn lockpicking, but I'm a mage, dammit! If someone wants to roleplay a theif, let them use lockpicks. Let someone roleplaying a mage use spells.

I miss destruction enchantments on amulets (which, in Morrowind, played much the role that staffs did in Oblivion and Skyrim). I sometimes enjoy playing a spellsword or battlemage, but I think it's stupid that enchanting, which is basically a mage skill, favors melee fighters (because you can enchant a destruction spell onto a weapon; but you can't enchant a destruction spell into an amulet or staff to cast at enemies as a pure magical attack to supplement your magicka; yeah, it can become OP - it pretty definitely was in Morrowind, but that could have been balanced; and yes, in the end, magicka cost reduction enchantments can play much the same role, by allowing your character to cast their dusctruction spells a lot more times before running out of magicka, but still).

I never played that much Morrowind(Yes, I deserve to be punished/Ignored/Decapitated!) but i can give my opinion on the last two TES games

Oblivion's spellmaking & racial attributes that make sense.

Skyrim's use of light & colour & the Dragons.

Morrowind had the concept of the Neravarine.

Were you the Neravarine? Were you just a fake? Everyone wanted to know. People hated you or loved you based upon what they thought and you truly had to go on a journey to answer that basic question. That's a question that drove the whole game.

Arena: Pure badass anatagonist
Daggerfall: World that seemed to go along without you, massive scope
Morrowind: Great concepts, great art design, great story
Oblivion: Better combat, more viable magic
Skyrim: Better Graphics, less static world.

Morrowind: The history/lore and how discovering it was an integral part of the questlines (particularly MQ and Mages Guild)
Oblivion: Well some of the game mechanics like how stolen goods were handled were an improvement. Not much though
Skyrim: Atmospheric, lots of well-done little details to be discovered, well-done level-scaling

Skyrim: nothing (just a butchered version of Oblivion with better graphics. No justification for removing so many things and adding virtually nothing but graphical content)

Oblivion: immersion (you know your jaw dropped the instant you stepped foot outside of the sewers + Imperial city was awe- inspiring and worthy of being called the capital)

Morrowind: character individuality, challenge, city/terrain diversity.

It's hard to say what the best part of Oblivion is for me, something that the other games don't have. All Oblivion's features that I thought were an improvement over Morrowind (things like radiant AI and pathfinding) were done even better in Skyrim.

I did like Oblivion at the time, despite its flaws. I just feel it's a bit redundant now, for me.

I never played Morrowind, but a friend has convinced me that the guildline quests were long as hell, which is something I didnt like in Oblivion or Skyrim. I'd like lengthier questlines for joining a guild to becoming its leader.

I've also looked at lodes of Morrowinds enemies, and they look pretty cool and unique. I like that.


Oblivion, I liked the npc diologue towards you, that updated and didnt go back (Like it does in Skyrim. Leader of fighters guild, still the mead fetcher.)
Also loved spell making, even if most I made were combo spells or general shenanigans
And I really enjoyed the Shivering Isles. Best dlc/expansion ever made imho.
The little things you'd find if you explored. I remember one fort that had an iron sword on it pointing into the woods. If you headed out there, you'd find a chest with goodies and a note that said IIRC "Divines bless those who walk the road less traveled."
I miss my wine collections. Shadowbanish, the wines from the fighters stronghold, the rarer vintages.

Skyrim: Graphics are nice, but thats not what makes a game.
Perk trees are nice
really like how archery and magic works (I have yet to roll a warrior, cause melee feels to...fake. Look at Dead islands melee combat AKA the only thing techland did good, then look at Skyrims.)
Ruins, forst and caves are actually fun to explore this time
FISH. Now if only I could use a dang pole and chill next to the river.


On a side note, neither Skyrim or Oblivion does a good follower system. Oblivion, you could create a small army, and that small army could be killed by a mudcrap. Skyrim does it a bit better, but you can only have 1 (And I think the dog), but they're to...flat. NV did them much better than either, where they felt like actual characters and had stories.

Yeqa I miss it too and I miss the Arena I wanted Skyrim to have Arena too.

I also wish the guildline quests were longer it wasn't bad in Oblivion but in Skyrim the guildline quests were to short.

In Morrowind did I like the extensive and limitless landscape as well as the underwater caves best. The underwater caves is what I miss in Oblivion and Skyrim. I am also finding invisible barriers in Skyrim now and also miss the acrobatics skill.

In Oblivion it was the inventory interface and the Nirnroot. I now miss the old inventory. Oblivion had better graphics over Morrowind, but this was expected. Other improvements felt rather unnecessary, i.e. the fast travelling made it too easy. The crawling in and out of the Oblivion gates was boring and the auto-leveling mobs in the open, too. Those I do not miss.

In Skyrim now is it the caves, the cold mountains and generally the visual realism plus the Canis Root. The graphics have exceeded my expectation. The reason for the caves being so good is partly because of the caves in Oblivion that were far too similar in form and appearance, but still, those of Skyrim exceed what Morrowind had to offer. I still search for possible underwater entrances to caves... The Canis Root is like the new Nirnroot. It can be very hard to find even when one is standing right infront of one! Oh, and the Dartwings and Dragonflies are awesome, too. I could spend hours with catching them. They are very lovely.

Everything else just falls under good or better (or worse...like Skyrim's new user interface), but not best. There was a lot of new stuff in all of the games, many of which I liked, but I had seen these elements before in other games.

Basically it is everything that I miss or where I have to ask myself why I never missed it before is what makes it best for me...

I liked the ideas I've heard about mw guilds.
Ob had some crazy classic quests. I loved the dungeons. Goblins!
Sk fixed the problem with leveling from the older games. I can finally play the ranger/thief that I always wanted. It makes me want to replay a lot.

Freedom to go wherever, be whatever, and do whatever (for the most part). I haven't played any games other than Bethesda's that have all those elements, except for Minecraft.

Morrowind: Exploration
Oblivion: Exploration
Skyrim: Exploration

morrowind.
not your average landscape. sure there were castles dotted around the place but they were the minority. interesting design all around, from the different styles of dunmer archetecture to the range of beasties trying to make you into thier next meal. high five to the guy who created kagouti's.
also due to the lack of voice acting, the reams and reams of text that gave depth to just about every subject. if you ignored a savant the first time you met one then you definately missed out.
chance to fail/miss. not just saying this added a layer of realism (it added a touch, but then again, kagouti's ) but it gave a sense of progression when you finally were able to cast a fireball reliably at low fatigue. with OB/SK you can do nigh on everything (barring sneak, high level lockpicking/spell casting) straight out of the tutorial. also the chance to miss and be missed gave us sanctuary and fortify attack effects. which brings me to...
a full spellbook with many interesting effects, and even a few useless ones too. teleports, levitate, jump, slowfall, blind/sound, sanctuary, fortify attack. those are just some i can think of. now add that to every effect in OB and add a totally unrestricted spellmaker and enchantments limited only by the piece of equipment you're enchanting, you have some very entertaining combos.

oblivion.
interesting npc's. well, interesting when you're not talking to them anyway. they have lives and they live them. also, animations.
quite liked the pre-made enchantments (sigil stones) ready to be rubbed on your favourite pokey stick.
also still used the attributes system, which gave a greater feeling of 'character', at least sub level 30 anyway.

skyrim.
random encounters are fun.
huge epic dungeons are also fun too.
smithing needs a thorough workout before i'll put it fully on this list (questline for deadric gear perhaps? definately shouldn't be abuseable the way it is) but i'll give it an honourable mention just because it's something new, if implimented in an arbitrary way.

Morrowind: Vivec. Ashlands. Medium armor. Silt Striders. Mark/Recall. Staves. UI. Quest Journal. Morag Tong. Nerevarine. Exploration. Levitation. Mage Towers. Questlines that were mutually exclusive. Felt a real connection to Vvardenfell and the Dunmer.

Oblivion: AI. Graphics (except character design, blech). Brotherhood questline.

Skyrim: Perk tree. Smithing. Level scaling. Dragonborn. Beautiful snow and cliffs. Tons of misc quests. Dragons. Brotherhood questline. Felt a real connection to the Nords and Skyrim.

Let's see

Skyrim: more scripted "events", dynamic world, best combat of the three, perks and attention to detail

Oblivion: hard to say, not a big fan since skyrim improved on everything - some good factions?

Morrowind: Originality, more unemcumbered interface (PC), breadth of written material



Edit: Almost forgot the best new skyrim feature, sprint!

Morrowind: Spells, armor and clothing slots, terrain, guilds that are actual guilds and not save-the-world-dear-stranger pseudoguilds, no needed quest markers, actual journal, stats, more skills, casting/hitting can fail, strongholds, Telvanni, text based everything, muthsera, open cities, spellmaking, enchantment system, immersion, more summonings, not-intrusive compass, good GUI, difficulty bar, lots of pickable objects, weapon types, armor types, can summon multiple creatures.
EDIT: Less scripted everything (the main reason for dismissing mark/recall, jump, slowfall, etc IIRC)

Oblivion: Semi-random dialogue between NPCs, DB questline, active effects on screen, magicka regen.

Skyrim: Alchemy, smithing, cooking (even if useless), dual casting, dual wielding, flames/frostbite/sparks effect (that flamethrower effect), constant casting spells (like how works detect life), sneak, archery.

freedom freedom freedom. A lot has changed but that still feels the same.

Morrowind: Immersion
Oblivion: Factions
Skyrim: Magic(the way it feels to use)