There are far more important things to complain about then a walkway connecting right back to the beginning.

I agree, but all issues deserve to be looked into eventually.

Ummmm... you don't HAVE to use the quick exit.

I just want a Return Home spell

Hi there The Terror Of Death. Good to see you.

I'm sure that is your opinion. Please consider the fact that this forum harbours several subforums, which themselves are divided up in different threads. This of course happens for a reason, that being so that all topics can be discussed, no matter how little some might think of them. I would like to add that linearity and predictability in dungeons are no small problems in a game heavily dependant upon Dungeon Crawling.

Here we go finally... you can always use the private messages for this "sideways/Ot" you know ? it was a simple suggestion in good-faith from me.

instead you had the "urge" to reply again here sadly.

This was one design decision I liked from Bethesda. While mostly linear, the dungeons in Skyrim are pretty long. I don't mind the shortcuts at the end, and it's not like EVERY dungeon had one.

I think focusing on non-random loot and more side-stories for cave inhabitants would be the best way to boost Skyrim's dungeons.

Hi NothingButKnight! What gives?

A mix of handpicked and selectively randomized loot might hit the sweet spot, don't you think? Anyway, I don't think I ever felt there was even a small chance of me getting lost in a dungeon. To me, this is a failure from the level designer's part. That threat must be there alright, hanging over you like a funky omen, for such threat is the source of powerful emotions. Currently, even blind falmer happily make their univocal way through each and every dungeon, or so they could. The player can casually navigate most dungeons as well, and not because the local maps are tremendously useful, they're not. It's just the blueprint of dungeon after dungeon after dungeon is a long spaghetti strand, sometimes streched out, sometimes curled upon itself, yet always loyal to that spaghettiness. Variation is the spice of life, and SKyrim's dungeons are a tad too bland.

Yeah, you could in Morrowind. You could "mark" a place to "recall" too. I guess some developer thought that was somehow too powerful, and that feature wasn't included in Oblivion and Skyrim

but, i do have to proceed through a very linear dungeon to get there.

though, it is high quality handcrafted linearity.

I can't describe the dungeons as high quality or hand crafted. I find they are repetitve, cut and paste corridors filled with slightly different arrangements of apples, cabbages and potatoes, ruined books and wooden plates. There are some slightly more valuable baubles every now and then, but they are seldom inspiring or highly sought after items. Enemy variation is also quite disappointing, populations of necromancers/draugr, bandits/pit wolves or Falmer/Chaurus/Mechs seem to be the general pattern. Occasionally there are vampires lurking but they feel like necromancers by another name.

I absolutely love the quick exits and shortcuts back to the start, they save quite a bit of time whilst I'm overencumbered. I can dump my two dozen dragon scales and bones in a handy sack or barrel at the entrance, ransack the dungeon, sloth my way fully laiden with rubbish back to the start, grab those scales again on the way out and begin the the tediously slow hobble back to a frustratingly rare and distant shop that never has enough gold to cash-in all the junk I've accumulated on the trip. (I've also given up on horses to speed me on my journeys because I'm sick of them being slaughtered by mildy curious mudcrabs).

If you're going to exploit it like that, why not just get rid of the weight limit completely?

The problems with the Skyrim dungeons isn't the convenient exit shortcut. It's rather good design to not have the player systematically walk through an empty dungeon once he is done with it.

The problems are different and since the loopback shortcut is systematicaly the last thing yo do in a dungeon, it's what people remember the most.


The problem is : all dungeons are exactly the same : a long corridor with not a single side branch of more than 5s walk length, a boss and a shortcut getting you out of the dungeon 10s after you loot the boss chest. This systematic way to build dungeons to avoid the tedious empty corridor way back syndrom IS the problem. Because Bethesda if they tried a tiny bit harder could have found dozens of ways to avoid that problem without resorting systematically to the exact same "linear with exit right after boss" pattern.

Examples :
- dungeon that refills with (tougher) monsters once you get the item you went for and now you have to fight your way back
- secret exit after boss that still has you fight through a number of opponents and walk in some not visited before corridors before you reach the exit
- boss fight that is right at the dungeon entrance in fact but you cannot go back and have to fight your way through the dungeon just to exit
- boss fight right at entrance but you need to explore the dungeon to activate the fight itself

And they should also stop with the damn perfectly linear dungeons. THIS is the main reason they all feel exactly the same : they are so linear there's no though required at all to visit them.

I am glad they have the quick exits. I remember playing Diablo I, and walking forever through level after level of empty dungeon to get to town to sell my loot. Then I had to make the same long trek back through level after level of empty dungeon to get back to where I was. No thanks. I have better things to do with my time.

I like the feature, but I can see how it would break immersion. I mean, for a few of them it would make sense, but an escape tunnel through every natural cave and bandit fortress? That's a little hard to swollow. I wouldn't mind if there was a seperet exit, because that would make more sense, but still.