» Wed Jun 13, 2012 12:17 am I'm confused as to what you mean, exactly?
Context, flavour and purpose to what? Most of the real world lacks purpose. If you mean the dungeons, they all hold purpose in why they are there and what they do (except for caves, which, being natural, lack purpose). Dwemer ruins are dwellings, as evidenced by the workbenches, chairs, desks, broken bits of old furniture, gates and much else. A few are also power stations, hence the pipeworks and such. Nordic ruins are often barrows, or ancient tombs, crypts, or old temples (Bleak Falls is an old temple, Dead Man's Respite is a tomb). The fort ruins are actual disused forts, that way because Skyrim until recently had no need of them, hence why the Civil War involves retaking them. Mines are mines.
Many of the random locales have a point. Giant Camps are homes of giants, or at least, literal camps for them to stop at when they're not travelling (they're referred to as nomadic) altars were set up by necromancers, shrines by worshippers etc.
Basically, outside of the loot, what exactly lacks context? I'm not denying what you say may be true, I'm just unsure as to what you refer to.
You're only half right, which makes you all wrong. The landscape, dungeons, Spawn points and item spots are all hand crafted. How those slots are filled out are almost entirely procedural. Even instances of items laying out in the open are procedural and radiant (For example, you can find an Iron sword in a fort, and on another playthrough, the same sword will be an Ebony sword). Skyrim does a lot better work with Procedural stuff, but it's still too much.
So what this creates is a world with a ton of detail, but very little context. Go back to Morrowind, and go through a cave. Each NPC had specific apparel, armor and loot which could impart context to their life, including class, fighting style and success (Successful bandits tend to wear better gear). Likewise, you find similar items strewn about within this area. You're not going to find any Ebony, Daedric or even Dwemer items in the smuggler cave of Adamasartirus (Or whatever it's called) right outside Seyda Neen. But out in the Dagon Fel region, you can find more successful bandits boasting Ebony or orcish armors. This even goes so far as to personalize base weapons for individuals, such as the custom Axes and spears many of the Ashkans and Agulukahns of the Ashlander Tribes use.
So what this creates is a world with a ton of detail, but very little context. Go back to Morrowind, and go through a cave. Each NPC had specific apparel, armor and loot which could impart context to their life, including class, fighting style and success (Successful bandits tend to wear better gear). Likewise, you find similar items strewn about within this area. You're not going to find any Ebony, Daedric or even Dwemer items in the smuggler cave of Adamasartirus (Or whatever it's called) right outside Seyda Neen. But out in the Dagon Fel region, you can find more successful bandits boasting Ebony or orcish armors. This even goes so far as to personalize base weapons for individuals, such as the custom Axes and spears many of the Ashkans and Agulukahns of the Ashlander Tribes use.
This is true, Skyrim introduced "dummy items" so objects in the world can be levelled, but I already said in my post that loot (which includes items lying around, not just in containers) is generic and levelled. Items are indeed randomised, and lacking in context, and that is where the flaw is. What you posted however suggested that the locations themselves were procedural, when they are not. Also, unique weapons do exist and actually many aren't really levelled at all, it's just that, as you say, Skyrim seems to prefer to just drop in a random enchanted weapon without a name, rather than a static one with a name.
