Dear All and Bethesda,

First of all I would like you to read what I will be writing carefully, I assure you that this will in no way be a flaming post but will include critique towards Bethesda Softworks and Elder Scrolls in general. My sole purpose and intention here is to truly encourage Bethesda and you will see why. And I know that most people will think that I will be imposing my own view of how a game should be to others, which is totally not the case, pleae read carefully.

Let us begin with the question "Why the encouragement?"

I have always felt that the Elder Scrolls merchandise is horrible, until I played Skyrim (not finished yet), so that is where the encouragement comes from.

1. What I know about game development

- I know that it is very hard, I know that there are financial issues associated with it, I know that it is demanding. So please do not take me wrong.

2. What I like about the Elder Scrolls series

- I like the attempt to create a wide, open dynamic world, I like the idea and attempt at freedom.

3. What TRULY bothers me about the Elder Scrolls series

- Compared to classical RPG's Elder Scrolls series are lifeless, I will not be advertising here so I will not compare Elder Scrolls with other merchandise but if you have played a Classic RPG you would know what I mean. From Daggerfall to Skyrim, you have your freedom, you have your big world, but no matter how good the scenery is, "THE LIFE" in these worlds are dull and empty and REPETITIVE.

I confess, I was afraid to go into dungeons in Daggerfall because the map was so confusing I would get lost and could not get out , but in Morrowind, Oblivion dungeons might be different in structure but there were maybe 3 settings in total, you knwo what I mean right? dwemer ruins, oh another dwemer ruins, oh another dwemer ruins etc.

- NPC's are there, they are involved in random stuff, but in all the 3 games they are like lifeless zombies, Morrowinds dialogue was more like a Manual, in Skyrim and Oblivion everyone speaks with the same monotonic tone, they want you to do stuff but they act like zombies, no motivation, no agendas they just "state" things, even when they have a hidden agenda it is just too obvious. They sometimes state something about their character but it is just a sentence and still it is a statement, it does not have much life in it.

- In Morrowind and Oblivion, even factions are just statements, Fighters Guild, Mages Guild, Thieves Guild, too generic and they reek of statement again.

- Again considering NPC's there are races, and of course there are conflicts within races, but there conflicts are again "stated" somewhere in the games, there is no real action of these conflicts.

- I also have some problems with the setting, I understand that Bethesda has created their own world, their own races, their own history, I like it ,nothing wrong with that, but the way it is imposed on players is kinda tiresome. One of the problems is naming, in Elder Scrolls literature, for example books in Skyrim, we see names of cities, factions, people, all made up names and all too cryptic

e.g. (Completely making up here) Then Khul-Dagar traveled to the great city of Shambilhordis to search for the great artifact of Jarl Hrogrimtis which was buried under the castle of Ferfillty Forgamos who was the mage apprentice of great wizard Grufthak Gergimus and so on...

This in my opinion does not make the world more immersive, yet it makes it feel more alien and more made up. Even with the names of the days, Mondas, Tirdas... It screams that we borrowed the name of Days from the English language and distorted them. Forgive me but it is not creative at all.

4. Other issues

- COMBAT: A first person real time RPG combat, this is a great attempt because it does not exist in more Classical RPG's at all, I will need to name a game here which is probably not heard much, Silver. Has anyone played Silver? It had pretty good real time combat, it is an old game, isometric, simple magic setting but combat is satisfying, or Mount&Blade, although there is no magic setting here hand to hand combat, ranged combat, and horseback combat is implemented pretty pretty good.

In Elder Scrolls it is too chaotic, And Classical RPG pause resume and turn based combat is much more tactical yet is not dynamic enough it is too structured. In Elder Scrolls everyone is running around hacking, slashing, casting protecting etc you have no idea what is going on

- MAGIC: Now this is different in Morrowind and Oblivion vs Skyrim, Classical RPG's based on D&D really shine in terms of magic use and variety (by variety I mean casting times, effects, strategic planning etc) but in Classical RPG's you do not have the option to create your own spells. Now it is a great attempt, seriously, but I have not seen it work in both games. Spells become abusable, crazy combinations emerge, or when you want real power from a spell it consumes all your magicka etc.

in Skyrim it is too simplistic, especially Destruction line of spells.

-LEVELING AND SCALING(Oblivion and F3): Leveling is absolutely simply tiresome in Morrowind and Oblivion, and extremely chaotic you have to be very careful in choosing your skills and which skills you use in the game to make the optimum character for you. I will talk about level scaling later.


Anyway what about Skyrim, why I like it

- It has more interesting events, I have seen quests develop with unexpected turns and twists

- Perk system provides more structure in leveling

- Honestly after I played Skyrim for a while I said to myself that Bethesda is trying to get their Elder Scrolls merchandise better, and that is why I am writing this post.

Now let us get to suggestions, and more about why Skyrim is promising

- DIALOGUE AND NPC's: I know it is hard to do but please make NPC's actual characters than Zombies, not all NPC need voice acting, seriously write better dialogue, make commoners talk like commoners think like commoners, when they interact with you let tham act like commoners, give agendas, purposes to your NPC's, when they give you a quest make it have a purpose and reflect it in the world you have created .

-ENEMY NPC's: Please create more creatures and unique "named" enemy NPC's the sequence of Draughr, Bigger Draughr, BIgger and Better Draughr, Grand Draughr ...... Master powerful Draughr of Extreme Undead Zombie Power
sequence with creatures gets tiresome and boring. Make enemies have access to skills abilities the PC does not have but at the smae time make the PC understand what that is. e.g (making up here again) a Black Robe Mage should nto just cast a more powerful version of the spells I have, because of his level let him have unique spells and abilities which the PC might or might not get.

- GUILDS and FACTIONS: I love that Factions in Skyrim are rescued from their generic names, keep it up, make rival factions, create quest lines that intermingle, that allow you to discover the motivations of the Guilds, make someone in the Guild betray you for a purpose let events unfold, create stories, again I KNOW IT iS DIFFICULT TO DO, syncronising the entire world with all your actions through these stories but it should be doable.

-QUESTS: I liked the quests in Skyrim because unexpected things showed up occasionaly, make things more interesting, for example when I unlocked the first voice while I was walking back to whiterun the thu'um of greybreads caught me in surprise, or in Morrowind the guy with the "flight of icarus" scrolls, these are nice ideas build them up again put more twists and turns to your quests, e.g. even after you do a simple quest (I will make up something here similar ro a quest encountered in Skyrim) say there are two lovers of a maiden, and you help one of them, let the other one attack you in your room while you are sleeping unarmed and unarmored, let there be assassins following you for something you did, if you are more inclined to being a wizard for example, let the character be teleported to some archmages house just as the character is dying, let events unfold from there etc.

You can include random encounters with two conflicting sides, let the character interrupt it, choose a side, resolve the issue, like some commoners somewhere could be trying to burn a women because of witchcraft let you interrupt, let events unfold, put a couple of crazy NPC's with weird agendas promising power, let you follow them or do their bidding to see what happens, let events unfold. Encounter a group of HIgh Elves harrasing a Dwarf and watch the dwarf own them or vice versa

As you see all these things will make the game feel more alive, will make the character feel more purpose rather than just power, loot, power, loot, craft, power, loot, craft, enchant get stronger, kill bigger, get stronger etc..

-COMBAT: I do not have much suggestions here, but maybe you can slow down the combat, let characters approach eachother cautiously, weapons drawn, 4 block options, 4 attack options (like thrust, side slash, over the head, critical attempt something like V.A.T.S could work here), counter attacks, let casting be a bit slower, and include casting times for spells, if combat is slower it will get more tactical, it will open up probabilities for a wider range of magic mechanics

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I hope that I was able to make myself clear, please note that whatever I have suggested here does not damage or interfere with the "Open World" sandbox feeling of the game, nor restricts your freedom, I believe that one day an awe inspiring Elder Scrolls game could be released satisfying both hardcoe Elder Scroll fans, and people who are more inclined to classical RPG's. In any case I think the biggest aspect is to focus on the STORY and IMMERSIVENESS of the WORLD and keeping it INTERESTING

I have seen a light in Skryrim I hope that you expand it.

P.S.

- There will be people who will tell me not to play these if I do not like them. That is not the solution, I have some hope that these games could be much much more enjoyable than their actual state fro EVERYONE and I am just expressing my thoughts, I would love such developments and I am sure that most people would too.

- There will be people who will accuse me of trying to change the games feeling. As I have said earlier what I am suggesting and pointing our here is in no way harmful to the current open ended, sandbox feel of the game. These developments would not decrease your freedom, on the contrary they will make the game more lively and you will have more chance in expressing your freedom rahter than a dull freedom of choice which consiss of to kill this or that, or to join this guild or that, to do this quest or not.

I would say the opposite, specially when it comes to Skyrim. Skyrim is the first RPG where I actually have a sense that the world around is living. Skyrim is packed with a bunch of small detail's that might not be spotted by everyone. Looking around at a living world like earth things are repetetive there also, but looking at the details you have;

• Fish swimming around in rivers, lakes and jumping in waterfalls
  
• Insects like Dragon flies flying over waters
  
• Butterflies flying around
  
• People having a somewhat normal routine for sleep etc.
  
• Shop's are sometimes closed indicating the owner is out or doing other things
  
• Wildlife chasing eachother
  
• People walking around in the cities and occasinally have conversations with eachother
  
• Children playing around in the street's
  
• Guards patrolling the roads outside the cities
  
• Farmer's working on their farms

There is a bunch of these minor things that makes skyrim feel more alive then most other RPG's I have played. however not all of it is easy to spot unless you start looking for it.

I know just the game for you - it's called real life! It's a fantastic game, and it's really the only one good enough to fit your requirements

Ok, that was a bit harsh. Sorry. But you get the gist of it - Skyrim is an amazing game, and pretty damn close to perfect. People seem to expect it to be exactly like real life. To be honest, I'd like to see those people make a game like Skyrim

Bethesda - "Out of the ten of thousands of letters like the one above, that we receive daily, I think we should take this one at face value and put whatever he has written into practice. After all, he isn't just some random dink with an opinion... oh... wait..."


If you want to change the minds of an entire development team, you're priorities aren't straight.

Go get some experience and make your own game, apparently it's as easy as being really opinionated.

I'm not really a fan of what you said. I could tell I wouldn't like it when you started with "I've always thought Elder Scrolls merchandise was horrible"

I have to disagree with the second part of item three.

If you immerse yourself in the lore youll find that it is cohesive.
They arent just random names and places, the map is drawn, the timeline thought out and there is a lot of history from the start of the Dawn Era until Skyrim.
I would say in fact that a lot of the depth of Elder Scrolls is in these writings, as they truly flesh out the world with history, languages, philosophy, religion and all these things that make a world real.
In scope and realisation it reminds me of Middle Earth.
Or, as Terry Pratchett said: If youre going to invent a fantasy city, you have to start from the ground up. You cant just plop a city on a map. Where does it get its water from, where does its sewage go? What is its history that explains its shape?

The true depth of TES lies in these details and people like Potema and Barenziah that we read about in the books seem more real to me than the NPC's we meet in the games, even if they are the same ones.

I understand what you mean here, but all of these constitiude the ENVIRONMENT of the game not the STRUCTURE. TES series are regarded as RPG's and people tend to disagree that they are Action/Adventure games. I have seen a hint of RPG in Skyrim. So all these dynamics in Nirn/Tamriel exists, but how relevant are these to the player character? How much all these effects you mentioned effect the player character, NONE. Of course you can catch the fish, butterflies and fish but being a Dragonborn adventurer capable of changing the fate of the world, hunting fish does not really fit in the picture.



This is not at all what I meant, exactly the opposite, I feel that TES would be much better if it were more like a game with plotlines rather than real life. Morrowind was the msot real life like of these games in all, but I prefer Skyrim.


I aggree with what you are saying about the lore, but also to your comments about the NPC's.

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Let us not turn this argument into fanboyism, I have seen an obvious inclination in the series Morrowind->Oblivion->Skyrim that Bethesda is trying to give TES a more RPG like feel rather than a free roam action/adventure, and my intention is not to bash the series, rather I point out aspects of the game that are weak and offering rather possible improvements so that it could be discussed.

Let me restate my first post in terms of questions:

1. Would you like more quest lines in the next TES series?
2. Would you like the dialogue to be more extensive in the next TES series?
3. Would you like to see more twists and turns during quest lines in the next TES series?
4. Although it might restrict total freedom a bit, would you like to see a somewhat stricter character definitions?

please answer me those questions, because honestly I would like to see these. In an RPG you must be playing a role & the world should react to you according to that role. It is not just fame vs infamy, people love you, hate you situation. Cities, Factions, NPC's must have purposes and plots and they should react to you accordingly.

Let me point out some examples:

1. There was a Female Jarl in Skyrim who has been seeing visions (possibly related to magic), Now I was the Archmage of the College of WInterhold, but when I talk to her this does not come up at all, it should. Random characters telling me not to set things on fire might be a fine environmental touch but in terms of role playing it adds nothing.

2. It is pretty obvious in the game that Stormcloacks are a bit prejudiced against other races, yet as a Breton the only thing I needed to do to join the Stormcloacks was to say that Skyrim was my home and I would die for it, then slay an ice wraith and boom you are in the rebellion. I am sure that this is the case even if you are an imperial or a high elf. Why not make things harder a bit if you are NOT a nord, test your loyalty etc...

3. There is a civil war in Skyrim, you walk Skyrim from end to end and you do not come accross any implications of that. If some cities are under Imperial and some cities are under Stormcloak control, then this could be used in a lot of events. There might be a city recently forcefully occupied by Imperial (or Stormcloacks) some districts might be closed due to the occupation and you might need to do things to get in there, maybe even fight the occupying forces.

4. The game might introduce a setting change for certain quests, a guild, a city, a faction might need reinforcements, I am still making up here but I cannot resist, for example because of the citation in Skyrim, the imperial city of Cyrodiil might be suspicious of the activities of College of Winterhold and they set up their own College of Mages, the two factions might be rivals and a major quest could be to eliminate one of them. In one of the particular College of Winterhold quests you might be sent to a small town in Cyrodiil (just a small tiny map compared to Skyrim map) to retrieve an artifact from the other college, infiltrate them, or assasinate someone from there. But whether you will do this the sneaking way, fighting way or the casting way you might need to take care of finely crafted mini side quests to access the location.

5. If you are a Thane, and Faction leader of a guild you might be granted a land (if you are the leader of multiple factions choose one title) since I have started with archmage I will continue with that, e.g. You might be the Archmage Thane of Maltoh, use your money to open stores, raise and train guards, convert merchants, etc. and depending on yoru loyatly to the imperials or the stormcloaks your town might get attacked by one at some point in a big battle. Such things have been implemented in RPG's since 199x's

All of these by the way are possible wihtin the game given the capabilities of the developers.

You will have a hard time understanding what I mean if you have not played some classic D&D based cRPG's like Baldur's Gate, NWN, Planescape Torment etc. I am in no way implying that those are superior to TES, yet I am not stating the opposite either. Where classic RPG's lack in freedom and randomness TES has it, but TES lacks a HUGE deal of role playing and storytelling compared to those.

So as I said I have seen the possibility of adding a great deal of role playing into TES from what I have seen in Skyrim, and without changing the aspect of freedom and randomness present in the game. So why not do it?

The world I believe, like the OP, is lifeless because the world is not just limited to the trees, the deer and the rivers. The entire world is the entire world, the landscape, the animals, the dungeons, towns and more importantly the people and how they interact with the character. Skyrim's world makes for a beautiful painting, you see the deer prancing about, a farmer tilling their field, the majestic mountain range in the background covered in snow and clouds... but that's all it is, a still painting because the moment you walk up to interact with that farmer or that horse rider there is little life to be found there. The world is not just the landscape, it's the entire playing field and all that's included in it.