No more prisoner to hero : V - Skyrim

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 7:59 am

I just hope the next game goes back to like Oblivion (where you can save & make changes at the END of the tutorial dungeon).

Otherwise, I like both intro's a lot, for slightly different reasons.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 3:59 am

The prisoner tradition is perfectly fine in my opinion. I'm absolutely sick of the hero / chosen one crap though.

I really wish they'd just scrap having a main storyline entirely personally. It's never been one of the strengths of the series. The strengths are the open gameworld, the freedom to make the character you want, and factions. To have a great main storyline that really involves the player, they'd have to dictate too much about the player's character - which would be awful for the series.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 6:18 am

I think what Baldurs Gate did was pretty pimpin.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 4:06 pm

The prisoner tradition is perfectly fine in my opinion. I'm absolutely sick of the hero / chosen one crap though.

I really wish they'd just scrap having a main storyline entirely personally. It's never been one of the strengths of the series. The strengths are the open gameworld, the freedom to make the character you want, and factions. To have a great main storyline that really involves the player, they'd have to dictate too much about the player's character - which would be awful for the series.

This is why, after I play these games for a week or two, I make my "real" main character, and I completely ignore the main quest and most/all of the guilds. It's nice that they are in the game, and I know a lot of people love them, but I am thankful that with a bit of planning the Mq and guilds can be completely avoided. It makes no sense at all, for example, for my Ashlander agent to do anything for the jarls or guilds in Skyrim, nor would my character work for (or take advice from) the Greybeards. Thankfully, I don't have to.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 8:50 am

While that's true, you could save at the exit grate in OB which allowed you to redesign your character. So you never had to do it more than once, it would be nice if there was a similar shortcut for Skyrim. Maybe the cave exit at the end of the Helgen Keep escape.

I do so miss that part of the games. Morrowind (which was a real short tutorial) all the way up to Fallout New Vegas you could re-roll your character at the end of the tutorial area. However after seeing the mess that some people make of their characters using racemenus in the consoles I can kind of understand why it is out for this game.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 2:54 pm

Why would it be called "The Elder Scrolls" if we weren't living as a hero that the scrolls foretold?
Might as well call it Medieval Life.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 5:18 pm

I think that the hero should live in a nice quaint peasant farming village and then it gets attacked and you have to fulfill a prophecy immediately that decided to come true once your village got destroyed.

Oh and even though you were a little farmer boy, you're apparently a master swordsman/rogue/mage

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 10:55 am

Why would it be called "The Elder Scrolls" if we weren't living as a hero that the scrolls foretold?
Might as well call it Medieval Life.

This.

I can understand the desire to create a fully immersive experience and spend some time in the game building up the history of the character- just a sellsword who settled down, got married and does odd jobs in Whiterun. But to continually do this for the next year instead of joining a guild or following the main quest has no appeal for me. I already have a mundane existance in the real world, I see no reason to participate in day to day activities like chopping wood and gathering flowers perpetually just to support an RP. And who wants to RP as no one? What is the appeal in that?

Different strokes...

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 11:00 am

Oh and even though you were a little farmer boy

The character development could start there. Parents were nice/mean/indifferent folks who raised your right/taught you to kill puppies/left you to your own devices. Your 17/18 and have basic skills as a person in the land, but your real training starts now as you need to discover why these two groups of people had to have a battle in your fields. A battle which destroyed your house and killed your parents as collateral damage. The main quest is discovered once you start investigating the two groups. The only problem is the backstory would be provided in more detail than in past games. Unless you got to "grow up" on the farm, ala Fallout 3, in the tutorial.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 10:44 am

Clearly the "Start as a prisoner" bit is a Running Gag. It does give the player a reason to have his character go out and get involved, either for revenge (Stormcloaks) or to clear his name (Imperials)

I think the next game should be different though...how about this?

Your character is being payed by a wizard to test a new travel spell (Thus he gets some starting money after character creation) - the spell http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoneHorriblyWrong ? and transports the character back in time to the time of the war between the Snow Elves (later to become the Thalmer) and the Dwemer. This way, Bethesda could have Dwemer in the game without retconning anything, and the quest line could explore and explain exactly how the Dwemer disappeared.

Thats an idea...............but

What about the Barbarian character I want to play, that has no intention of using spells, let alone test them for a wizard?

Thats my character broken after about 10 seconds of the game.

Who said anything about your character CASTING the spell? You're the guinea pig the wizard is teleporting to test it, silly.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 2:37 pm

If too much of a back story is provided, then it can limit the character that you want to develop. Instead, you will be playing someone else's character. I agree that the prisoner theme is getting a bit trite, but what would be an alternative blank canvas?

1. Amnesia as you wake up at a healers house (Done in New Vegas and it worked, but the role was defined to an extent before you got there)
2. Grow Up during the opening sequence (Done in FO3, Fable, and a few others but it is about as trite as the prisoner)
3. ?????

Wake up naked in the wilderness.
Start traveling in X direction, after a few minutes trigger NPCs that are chasing you.
Herd player to abandoned shack.
Player looks into mirror/wash basin.
- Insert character creation.
NPCs break into shack.
Fight ensues.
Defeat NPCs.

Go from there.