I think Skyrim could be even more amazing if NPC's were a bit more deep but methinks that doesn't appeal to the casual gamer.

I'd love to do this, if it weren't for the CTD every 45 seconds...

Yes, I'm sure we lock every single thread that says anything bad about the game.

Excuse me, but have you actually read the forums recently? There would be a lot less for us to do, and far fewer posts made if we locked anything negative.

We do lock threads that are breaking the forum rules; flaming, trolling, flame-baiting, constant bypassing of the autocensor are some things that will get any thread locked, postive or negative. If the people posting negative things managed to do so with examples of what they consider to be the issue, and refrain from implying or flat out stating that anyone who doesn't happen to share their opinion is stupid, a moron, mentally challenged or any other derogatory term you might choose, or breaking any of the other forum rules, the thread wouldn't be locked.

On topic; no, I don't see that issue. I've been wandering and exploring. I've met npcs, picked up quests, found stories, and generally enjoyed the above ground exploration quite a bit. I'm finding it a lot more engrossing than Oblivion, to be truthful. Besides the constant wolf/troll/imp/whatever attacks, there wasn't a lot of outdoor content in Oblivion.

Nah, loving the game so far...and i'm enjoying it more with each passing day !

Check your system. There are countless reasons for CTD's outwith the game. Infact I know that with Beth games certain video codecs will cause this exact problem, ie CTD's or hard lockups within 1 minute of play.

talaran- i agree that the game is a vibrant world with great things to see and do. i love losing myself within my character and the world. the exploration is great. lots of dungeons and quests. however, the things that i stated above are reasons that i feel are BLATANT regressions, omissions or shortcomings.

There's a herd behind every bush, you hit a tree there are three wolves falling from it, in all the villages everybody get out of their homes to walk around everyday... and there are still players that perceive this "world" (tiny region, measure it) as lifeless/soulless. What do you want? Dense population buildings and hundreds of NPCs going to work, taking the underground, etc.
Advice : travel out of your megalopolis IRL. See how's life in the countryside. Take an area of the same dimension of Skyrim and see how many animals you see, how many people out of their homes, how everything has so much life and soul. Now remember : in Skyrim, it's cold outside. The real question in Skyrim is : why the heck is everyone frolicking outside?

About the quest tied to dungeons... I'm sorry what? Of course a lot of them use those easy-to-design levels, but if you take the quests from the mad people walking around in towns, they give you quests that don't necessarily require going to a dungeon.

But yeah, great revelation, TES are also greatly turned towards dungeon crawling. Huge discovery. Will you publish that in a scientific magazine?

Skyrim creates a wierd dynamic where I think a lot of the complaints that the world lacks the RPG "complexity" are, in fact, coming from the fact that a lot of the backstory designed to make the world fell less "empty and soulless" isn't just thrown at you, but rather is told in a more complex way.

The world is alive. It has stories to tell. But you can't always walk up to an NPC and get a dialogue option to find out everything that's going on in town or the history of every little cave. You have to overhear conversations, read a journal by a skeleton, look at the way things are laid out in a cave.

Much of the story of Skyrim is told in ways other than dialogue. If you only take in what NPCs will tell you, I can see how it feels empty. But that's taking the simple way out. Look deeper.

first off, what I find funny is the original poster misunderstanding
a rpg is all about dungeon crawling
that s what pen and paper rpg were for

IT IS NOT A CLICK THROUGH MOVIE

IT IS NOT A CUTSCENES FEST

Those are adventure games, like the witcher, or King Quest.
They are fixed games with limited options, and a fixed path
What limited choices you got go in specific direction
and most likely don t change the world the way you want to
(example: witcher 2, dragon age 2)


yes, that s what it excell at, it s a rpg, not an adventure game with a fixed storyline and static frozen in time cutscenes like dragon age 2
(where you don t have a thing to say about what will happen, if the da2 devs didnt put your options there, you are in for frustration)

personaly I feel it s the best dungeon crawl ever atmosphere wise
challenge wise, it could be improved

bethesda should have made difficulty level FIXED for each new game
you start at master, you stay at master
this would have given them the opurtunity to unleash difficulty tagged content

-deadlier traps
-higher monster density
-better monster gear
-higher monster variety
(all of a sudden darkreach crawling with dragons, giants and trolls)
-swarm and spawn scripts


which part, skyrim is a good hunting, harvesting and exploring game too
and an excellent thieves game
thieves side improvement it needs:
-wall climbing (limited)
-mountain climbing(limited)
-traps
-camping

now if you mean the cities, I disagree
from tavern bards to beggars to funny troopers, it s quite lively and memorable

I do wish the cities were larger with multiple taverns and guilds at each other throats

improvements:
-there should be dancing and juggling in taverns and market, and more bards
-active caravans


as I said, npcs are lively and memorable
so many example I could give
like bothela at the hag cure ....
or lisette in solitude

it could use improvements
-mage guilds members and mages in genral should have conversations topic
for all daedric, religious, dwemer and mysterious quests...
-I mean what mage doesn t like to chat about azura star
-likewise, other quests should get more reaction,
gharmal was still taking to me as if I was going to join the stormcloack
(I killed the ice wraith, but declined to take the oath, and finally joined the empire)
what I mean is Gharmal was still talking to me friendly like that
when I was an imperial soldier delivering the whiterun axe ...

Nah, I spend plenty of time above world and in towns too.

Now Daggerfall, THAT was a dungeon crawler, the dungeons were pretty much 90% of the game, towns were places you went to sleep, stock up, pick up quests and occaisionally make deliveries, before heading into another labyrinth that apparently used to be a farm (these farmers are crazy).

It feels like a dungeon crawler because it is a dungeon crawler; Skyrim is a mile wide and an inch deep.