I think the point that people who are opposed to racial modifiers don't get is that racial modifiers are a
reward to the people who want them, not a limitation.
It's true that Skyrim doesn't penalize us for playing a specific race, but it's also true that it doesn't reward us for playing a specific race, whether that's a statistical advantage by playing into a racial stereotype, or the satisfaction of overcoming a racial handicap. It's the same reason why it's disappointing when NPCs don't react to your race or accomplishments. Sure, you can
pretend that they're saying: "Good job, even if you are a Khajiit," but it would be nice if the game did it for you.
And please don't pretend that that old chestnut: "you don't need the game to do it for you if you're any good at role-playing" has any merit. It's a truly weak argument and always has been. I am a top-notch role-player, not a number-crunching min/maxer. If imagining everything were better than really seeing or hearing it, humans wouldn't have invented art, literature, music, film, or video games. More importantly, if your imagination is so darn good, please explain why you bought the game in the first place or why you read novels or go to the movies? I'm guessing it's because these things are useful props that make your imaginings
better. We're just trying to figure out how the prop could be improved.
I want the racial modifiers because I want to be
challenged by playing a character who doesn't fit into the archetype. I'm disappointed that the game doesn't offer me that challenge. There is no way, in Skyrim, to enjoy the accomplishment of overcoming a
racial challenge because there aren't any.
Personally--and I expect the majority of players will hate the idea--I would do a couple of things:
- get rid of the level cap on skills
- make all skills harder to level based on total experience earned, rather than per skill
- apply racial modifiers that make advancing in certain skills easier or harder depending on your race
So, in theory, you could play forever and raise every skill to 'godlike' levels, but it would take you forever to do it, rather like the 'perfect arrow' anology earlier. The more total xp you had, the harder it would be to level every skill, not just the skill you're leveling. Lower level skills would still level faster than higher level skills, but not as quickly at higher levels as they would at lower levels. With this kind of mechanic, the skills you use the most would level the fastest, but leveling them would also slow down leveling every other skill. Your characters would develop distinct builds without being restricted. The 'level cap' would be player exhaustion: the character is capped at the level the player stops playing them.
The racial modifiers would just make it slightly easier for an Altmer to raise Illusion, for example, than an Orc, and slightly harder to raise Two-Handed, though neither one of them would have a hard cap. Theoretically, each could have the same amount of skill, but one would get there sooner. An Altmer might have an Illusion skill of 85 on level 30, for example, while the Orc, using the same skill the same amount as the Altmer might only have a skill of 80. I would also have racial perk trees that give other kinds of racial advantages but I talked about that in another thread, so I won't belabor the point here. Playing an Orc Illusionist under these conditions is more appealing to me because it presents more of a challenge without imposing any kind of restriction on my choices. The game is
rewarding me for choosing a specific race, rather than
ignoring me.
» Tue Jun 12, 2012 10:26 am 
