The simple problem is that (with the exception of the spike wall and Dwemer spinning blades) they aren't deadly enough and are comically easy to spot.

I want traps to be a serious threat to the player, but currently they aren't. Some examples:



- Poison Darts. They do almost no damage. You would have to deliberately stand in front of them in order to be killed.

- Swinging Blades. They are more of a hassle than a danger. And the hallways they are in can be seen from far away.

- Rocks falling from ceiling. Capable of decent damage, but they never seem to hit me.

- Spiked Mace on chain. Gives a big warning noise that gives you ample time to sidestep them.

- Log ram. Same problem as the spiked mace on a chain. Warning noise serves as way too good of a warning.

- Fire traps. Causes little damage and are a nuisance more than anything.

- False Floor. Potentially deadly, but typically survivable.

- Hidden spikes in walls. Easy to spot and they do fairly low damage.

- Mammoth Skull ram. I've yet to be hit by one...

- Bear traps. They don't even pin you down, they just stagger you slightly! Lame...

- Dwemer spinning blades. These are fairly good, because they can deal lethal amounts of damage easily.

- Spiked walls. These are also fairly good. They do high damage and can surprise you occasionally.

-Dwemer Crossbow. These are pretty good as well. They can kill in one hit, which I like.



I don't know why they bothered putting traps in the game if 90% of them pose little to no threat. Some of them never hit you if your sneaking, because the timing is based off of a running character.

My solution would be to hide them better in future DLC so that you don't see the trap from a mile away, and have them deal larger amounts of damage than they currently do.

What do you guys think? Discuss!

In the early stages of the game I like luring opponents into them. They seem to do them more harm than I can.

Well hmm. My companions constantly die to every damn trap possible.

Spike traps (in a pit) kill you pretty good. Just bumping up against one of the pointy things will do a fair amount of damage. Anyway, I always consider traps as a tactical point for the player to use against his foes, more than a danger to the player. Most of them a relatively harmless, but I have had my life saved more than once by kiting a tough opponent into a trap and then taking advantage of his moment of weakness and vulnerability. The flammable oil slicks can be very helpful, and they are all over the place... helps to get an early edge when you are outnumbered and outgunned.

-Loth

PS @chunky: you still have 138 more to go! Is your list really that long?

I love the traps. Especially in dwemer ruins.

Possibly. I''ll see how long I can make these before I'm inevitably banned.

I'm surprised that you prefer the traps in Oblivion, as there seem to be quite a few more varieties of traps.

I've been playing nearly 400 hours and just came across a brand new one yesterday, the Dwemer crossbow trap. A giant crossbow bolt suddenly impaled and killed my heavy armor level 29 warrior at full health.

I hated the Oblivion traps, too. They were even easier to avoid and did even less damage.

I forgot about the crossbow traps, those are pretty good. I'll update the list.

Good point. Especially considering if traps actually posed a real threat the light step perk would be worth something.

There's one trap in a Dwemer ruin that is particularly nasty - two spinning blades in an ascending hallway triggered by proximity. I could not get past them without dying unless I used Ethereal Shout. I had to wait literally 10 minutes for my follower to get through them. He'd get knocked down, then hit by the blades and knocked all the way back to the beginning.

I do also like how the fallen rocks can still hurt you, even after they've come to complete stops...

The sole problem with traps is auto regeneration. Damage that doesn't kill you outside of combat is arbitrary in Skyrim.

Good point, although one hit kills would solve that.

Minor Spoilers in Link
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Traps

There's a lot more traps than the ones you listed here but almost all are fairly weak.

Stealth perk makes traps even less dangerous, and even less useful against enemies.

The only trap I have come to fear is the spinning blades. Nothing else scares me in the slightest.

Runes on the other hand...

The traps should be more lethal and be placed in places that was not so obvious. The Dwemer crossbow trap is one of the better ones I have been one shorted with them several times.

Yes in Oblivion traps were also weak.

But the OOO mod makes them very deadly. Often insta-kills even for high level characters with tons of health.

I suspect there will be an equivalent mod for Skyrim (similar to OOO for Oblivion, and FWE for Fallout 3).

In general TES games are not really designed to be very difficult or dangerous.

So you would agree that Skyrim has improved on the traps since Oblivion?

The spinning blades are awesome. They're usually fairly easy to spot but I was picking a lock one day when I saw my health rapidly falling so I ran away to find the door trapped with these devious things. Rune traps piss me off, because they seem to ignore your magic resistances even after 1.3. This doesn't make much sense to me.

Typically in caves and such I Indiana Jones it, sprinting through traps because for me, that's kinda fun.

Variety? Sure.
Strength? On some, but mostly no.
How well hidden they are? Absolutely not.

On variety Oblivion wins with (from the wiki) 21 types of traps vs 17 for Skyrim

Oblivion: Abyss, Avalanche, Ayleid Ruin Spike Pit, Cave In, Ceiling Spikes, Citadel Guillotine Blade, Citadel Spikes, Citadel Trident Blade, Claw Trap, Crumbling Bridge, Darts, Falling Blades, Falling Logs, Gas Trap, Gas Room, Rotten Plank, Spike Pit, Spiked Barrier, Swinging Blades, Swinging Log, Swinging Mace

Skyrim: Battering Ram, Bear Trap, Bone Chimes, Claw, Ceiling Spikes, Dart Trap, Falling Boulders, Spinning Blades, Rotten Planks, Slicer. Spear Trap, Spike Pit, Spike Wall, Steam Piston, Swinging Blades, Swinging Mace, Trap Door

I think Oblivion and Skyrim are about equal in trap quality.

Solution: Make traps insta-kill and better hidden.

The only traps I recall dying from in TES IV were the dark welkynd stones and the fire turrets in the Deadlands.

Maybe you guys are playing with extremely high health/armor or low difficulty setting, but in Skyrim, playing on Master, I have personally died numerous times from

• Falmer claw traps
  
• mammoth skull traps
  
• log traps
  
• soul gem frost and shock magic spell traps
  
• dwemer spinning blades
  
• dwemer crossbows
  
• magic rune traps (extremely deadly)
  
• spike walls

And I had a lot of fun playing with a few of the traps getting enemies to walk in front of them, particularly the boulder/avalanche traps, spike walls, dwemer spinning blades and all those clay firepots in the dungeons.

There are so many more different kinds of traps, different kinds of triggering mechanisms, better implementation in the level design, etc. Certainly, there is always room for improvement, but IMHO the Skyrim traps are a massive step up from Oblivion in every way possible.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Traps vs http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Dungeon_Traps/Damage_Inflictors

You forgot about the Magical Traps.

I think the variety of traps is good, not great but good, I do agree though they should cause more damage.

Some mods which might be of interest to you (haven't tried out any of these yet personally):

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2905

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5410

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2653

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=952

Enjoy!