» Wed Jun 13, 2012 4:27 am Wow, worst choice of title ever!
Anyway, none of what you listed adds any real depth to the game, it only makes things more convenient. Examples of things which add depth would be: quests can be completed in multiple ways, you can dual-cast spells of different schools to produce an original effect, sabotaging a hold's economy by destroying mills and farms will increase prices in that hold but decrease prices in the competing holds, archery's power shot slows enemies if they are struck in the legs and staggers them if struck anywhere else, shouts are redesigned to be weaker but have much shorter cooldowns so they can be weaved between your main attacks, etc., etc..
Anyway, none of what you listed adds any real depth to the game, it only makes things more convenient. Examples of things which add depth would be: quests can be completed in multiple ways, you can dual-cast spells of different schools to produce an original effect, sabotaging a hold's economy by destroying mills and farms will increase prices in that hold but decrease prices in the competing holds, archery's power shot slows enemies if they are struck in the legs and staggers them if struck anywhere else, shouts are redesigned to be weaker but have much shorter cooldowns so they can be weaved between your main attacks, etc., etc..
Beat me to it. The shallowness of Skyrim has less to do with game mechanics than it has to do with choices and consequences. Quest lines absolutely railroad you to a single conclusion. No choices.
From a game mechanics PoV it is the constant reduction n character development options that is raising cries of "shallow". The mechanics listed in the OP might be nice to have, kind of the same way that kill cams or some of the immersion mods are nice to have, but they really do not address any of the core issues. If they were implemented tomorrow Skyrim really would not be any deeper.
