The same thing always.... Just can't keep playing : V - Skyrim

» Thu Jun 07, 2012 10:26 pm

So after 3 playtroughts i still want to complete the main quest with my Thief character. As well the dark brotherhood and the companions quests. But something is happening. I just can't keep playing. Because well, there's nothing new on the game. It's the same thing, always the same thing. The same giant and mammoths on the same place doing the same thing. The same bandits on a cave doing the same thing. The same mages on the same ritual site doing the same thing. There's nothing new, sadly. And even if you wait 30 days to them respawn. They will be on the same place doing the same thing.

I remeberd that Bethesda telled us that every new gameplay on the world of Skyrim wouldn't be the same thing. The bandits you encountered wouldn't be on the same place. But yes trying to atack towns murdering people and blah blah. I excepected something more deep. The stormcloack camp you find wouldn't be on the same place, could be on emperial town where they sucefully killed everyone. More rumors that could lead us to many many any diferent things. Like:

" You heard rumors of people being atacked by vampires, sundely you tried to search about that but instead you find a group of mages on the town sewer trying to summon something, like a powerfull Daedra". I expected many things. Much more creatures and options of play. Thousands of diferent things and well thousands of random encounters. But just... there's isn't.
I can understand why there isn't too much dialogue options and as well other things. The quest could be more buggy than New vegas.

I'm not disapointed with the game. It's amazing, the world is very detailed and it's very fun to hang around. But at each playtrought you are forced to find the same thing, as well do the same thing.

Totally agree man. This is my first TES game so maybe i might be missing something or I'm not doing something differently, but i've noticed on the 3 characters i made it svcks how in each cave you have explored on one character your going to remember exactly which bandits and enemies are in them on another character. It makes me feel like I'm repeating the same quests over and over. I love the game i find it to be real fun and amazing but i can't stand making a new character because of this.

» Thu Jun 07, 2012 10:28 pm

Do people not think they're asking a bit much expecting the game to reshuffle itself so it's different on every playthrough? It's not enough that the game is massive, it must also ensure it's morphing into a new game on each playthrough? A fair few of the dungeons have little themes and mini stories going on.Random level scaled enemies spawning outdoors doesn't make the game phenomenally thrilling. I don't see how randomly placing random enemies in dungeons would make the game better. The way they'd make the game more diverse is by giving quests multiple outcomes. Otherwise, it's about trying different characters who employ different strategies.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 3:16 am

Simply a symptom of their own design mantra. Quantity over quality. "Freedom" at the absolute cost of everything. We got a great looking game world that's fun to explore and there's lots to discover but so little of it has any real substance. It's a game of endless distractions and trivial amusemants that's afraid to offer you anything better because it would impede your ability to "do whatever you want". And even then, the "do whatever you want" part of it does not even fully hold up.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 1:43 am

Skyrim is designed for nothing more than incessantly predictable dungeon-diving and item-fetching ad nauseum without choices or consequences. It's designed to be an easy-to-pick-up-and-play, shallow, sandbox, hack-and-slash dungeon-diver with minor RPG elements in the form of basic character progression. All its content is designed to be extremely linear and and readily accessible with any type of character for every, single playthrough. It allows little wiggle-room and contributes little of value in the way of RPG mechanics. Subsequently, it's pretty restrictive, repetitive, and lacking in replay value.

Maybe you're right. Its still a dang good game though.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 5:23 am

Simply a symptom of their own design mantra. Quantity over quality. "Freedom" at the absolute cost of everything. We got a great looking game world that's fun to explore and there's lots to discover but so little of it has any real substance. It's a game of endless distractions and trivial amusemants that's afraid to offer you anything better because it would impede your ability to "do whatever you want". And even then, the "do whatever you want" part of it does not even fully hold up.

Yep. It's sad that we can't have both quality and quantity anymore. Morrowind got the balance right I think. There was nothing I loved better than randomly wandering somewhere and finding a hand-placed artifact worth upwards of 100,000 gold. It just doesn't happen Skyrim, and that's a terrible thing when dungeon-delving is one of the main focuses of the game.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 11:15 am

Bethesda's design goals have always been oriented toward allowing the player to create any kind of character they want and giving them a huge open environment to explore. They have never concerned themselves with creating elaborate narratives with deep meaning because their design specifically allows the player to abandon quests at any time. They have never been concerned with deep characters or deep game mechanics. They are interested in providing a broad experience that provides hundreds of hours of gameplay and it has always been shallow. They have always used lore as a substitute for narrative depth. They have always been oriented toward action/RPG mechanics. Skyrim succeeds at all of these things and meets the design goals they have always held. I don't see anything about this game that indicates that they have changed in any fundamental way. A few things change every time they release a new game, but the core experience of creating a character that you can develop any way you want in a huge sandbox environment has always been the same.

How dare you speak cogently on an internet forum? You sir (madam?) should be ashamed of yourself!

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 4:15 am

Endless distractions and trivial amusemants... Isn't that pretty much the definition of a *game*?

I'm seriously wondering what you mean by "real substance".

osheao - I agree that Skyrim lacks in the numbers-crunching aspect of traditional rpgs, where you have stats and so on. I was (still am, I guess) a little disappointed that we don't have attributes anymore, and only race, skill usage and gear to differentiate character builds. And who wouldn't love more options. But would I prefer to go back to grinding Block with a mudcrab so I can get a +5 in Endurance next level-up, because if I don't I'm gimping my hp for my level? Those are the sort of mechanics-focused things that get in the *way* of good roleplaying imo. I know you didn't have to play that way, and most players (myself included) likely just played "naturally" - but in that case we're just ignoring those crunchy, gamey aspects.

But to get back to the OP, in terms of content, I'm not seeing a huge differential between past games and Skyrim - except that in Skyrim, the game world seems more alive.

Morrowind was great. I never played it that much (too busy playing Thief), but I came back to it after playing Oblivion and my wife played the hell out of that game. But when you look at things like "real substance" and "too many fetch/kill quests" - don't you see the same stuff in the older title? Granted, MW had more dialogue options, more guild quests, more guilds period. But did those people feel alive, changing? Granted, Skyrim's dialogue options are limited (sometimes indeed nonexistent) and the guilds are shallower. But there seem to be more ways to interact with the world in a way that *does* seem to make a difference.

I guess if I thought I could do the same quests over and over and get 5 different outcomes based on which type of character I played, that would be neat. But designing game content is, I take it, something of a zero-sum game, and I'd much prefer the sprawling, open-ended worlds TES is famous for to narrow if well-implemented questlines in which I get to do *almost* the same thing multiple times with different endings.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 8:00 am

The OP is experiencing what I feared about Skyrim- that because the character development has been cut, the interaction with NPC's gone missing, the game would not last as long as former Elders Scrolls games.

Play past 300 hours and see. Play to 400 hours and see. I predict many will change their minds about Skyrim. It is a great game, but it does not have the long lasting character build a repeatable RPG must have to be enduring. Skyrim is a action adventure rpg, with the emphasis on Action and adventure. If someone has been playing Fallout 3 since it came out, consistantly, my hat is off to them.

One poster calls the past character builds number crunching. I don't know about that. I'm not good in math and somehow both Morrowind and Oblivion took care of themselves. Those game have deep character builds possible- and they are not like Skyrim.

Skyrim is as exciting as the next new cave. When all assets and topography is exhausted, when all events played out, move on. Not so with Morrowind and Oblivion- that was just the warm up.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 12:22 am

Yep. It's sad that we can't have both quality and quantity anymore. Morrowind got the balance right I think. There was nothing I loved better than randomly wandering somewhere and finding a hand-placed artifact worth upwards of 100,000 gold. It just doesn't happen Skyrim, and that's a terrible thing when dungeon-delving is one of the main focuses of the game.

That you couldn't sell anywhere.

Back to OP: What you seem to want is a completely different game than any of the ES games ever. You want Diablo, with a randomized dungeon every playthrough. Well, go play Diablo. If you want a game that has an incredibly deep story, compelling and deep - go watch a movie or read a book. Elderscrolls has always (almost) been a sandbox game, and god willing always will be. At least it has since Morrowind.

I haven't put in the intense hours that some have. But I have been incredibly delighted and surprised with the variety of dungeons and availability of sidequests. I've watched my husband get a completely different prompt to explore a ruined fort that I happened upon. No spoilers, but there have been some really fun, stand alone dungeons with unique named characters. Not MQ or faction quest related (that I could see). With Skyrim, as it was with MW, the cool stuff is in the details. Deciding to explore that cave you could just walk on by. Sure, it might be related to a quest you get down the road - or it might be a righteous stand-alone dungeon.

I see thread after thread of people wishing ES was a different kind of game, and I wonder why. It's always been about doing fetch quests and beating down baddies. It's a fun formula clearly works. This isn't to say I don't have minor complaints about quirks here or there, but this endless whinging about how horrible Beth is for creating a truly fun, gorgeous, and at times creepy, exciting, and excellent game are so tiresome.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 4:12 am

jaberkaty-

for me, the fetch quests/combat/caves and dungeons is fun. could be a done a bit better, but, no big. the gameworld is graphically terrific and full of life. good, but, expected. the addition of leveling only what you do in-game with perks (though, poorly designed) is great. the ability to use our minds and roleplay different characters is good, but, expected in a rpg.

i'll give you some basic examples of where skyrim fails bigtime: very little thought needed to play, factions/choices/cause and effect, companion abilities/controls, option menu has terrible choices for display and audio, weak npc dialogue, object manipulation/house decoration, worthless skills, flawed horse system, no spells, enchanting/smithing/alchemy are ok but have so much room for creativity, complexity and implementation, flawed journal/descriptions/markers, poor economy, generic loot/less unique items, can't name your saves, no hardcoe-type mode, no high level enemies/need more enemy types, etcetc.

this is a quick list, and, the problem is, imo, these are all aspects that other games, including, beth themselves!, have used successfully.