Skyrim exploring could be better, but it far surpasses Oblivion.

And for the Indiana Jones comment, play Fallout. Quite a few giant rolling boulders

What does your gargantuan Girlfriend have to do with anything? But really... Wow dude, you could run Laps around that.

Here's a list of unique items-
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Unique_Items

Try and collect them all. That should keep you busy for a while with lots of dungeon diving.

See, I think this actually makes the exploration meaningful. Most of the time.

For the Companions, I've been sent to some dungeons for some random radiant thing, only to find out when I get there that the dungeon has its own story that I get to discover. Even if you don't have a big side-quest start up, most dungeons have some sort of interesting backstory you can find out about. I love that; that's the exact sort of thing that was missing in 99% of Oblivion's dungeons.

What would you prefer - just to wander around aimlessly and look at textures?

Now that is what I call hardcoe hoarding!

The game offers a huge variety of things to do and people get lost in this variety. There is plenty of uniques and rare items in it, but it has unique places, unique NPCs, unique effects, etc., too.

I have found a cave that had extremely well hidden loot that I could only get to by climbing and jumping plus whirlwind sprints!

If you only walk along the roads, only follow the quests and do not start to turn every stone around then you will have not much of a chance to find anything special, really. I do not think that I have found or received anything unique by doing the ordinary. There are things in the game that are still not being mentioned on the wikis, too.

There are only 23 Quest Related Dungeons in the game, most of which you can travel directly to in order to start the quest:

Spoilers in the following link:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Dungeon_Quests

Now, almost every dungeon can be assigned to a Radiant Quest, but that does not stop you from exploring them sans quest.

I found a video on Youtube where some dude collected dead female followers, and put their heads on display on his shelves.

Personally, I prefer to display those things that mean something to me personally about my character...so a dwemer bowl taken from a particularly entertaining ruin will get preference over the booty found there, or, a particular weapon taken from a draugr gets preference over the enchanted item in the booty chest from a hard dungeon.

In realation to the actual 'exploring', I tend to agree with the OP, but I see it more as a result of the quest aspect of the game...it seems that pretty much every major location is tied to some quest, and with the focus on 'get to the end of the dungeon, kill the bad guy, take the loot, find the quest objective' it can make you gunshy to randomly go into places. Although, I have found some 'stumble across them' quests at various locations, and I have gone through dungeons randomly only to later get sent there as part of a quest, to find that the quest component is a separate part of the dungeon.

That last aspect had me scratching my head for a while, because I had been thinking that I had come across new areas that I didn't remember (all dungeons blurring into each other in memory over time), but I have had the experience enough times to make me think that there is actually a fail-safe for the random exploring so that quests don't get mucked up...however, I've spent so long wandering around with some quest items in my inventory and no quest that I don't wholly trust that mechanic (if it does actually exist).

Either way, Beth could provide a fail-safe across all the dungeons, so that we could happily wander into them without stuffing up any later quests, and it should be part and parcel of dungeon design as a mandatory feature....it's as simple as putting a hidden door in a wall which only appears or activates when the relevant quest is activated, or some minor trigger or key mechanism.

Before I started Free-Form Exploring, I looked into this as I had seen the posts on some quests getting messed up by exploring early. They fixed most of the issues in Patch 1.4. But, even then, there are less than 10 dungeons you want to avoid until they are assigned to you. Most of the Quest Dungeons, you get the Quest when you find the dungeon.

If you look at the list I linked above, you can tell which ones you want to avoid.

Thanks CC, my exploring on first character was pre-1.4, without referencing wiki's etc. (600+ hours up).

I've just started my second character, so the 1.4 enhancements should kick in, and I've a fair idea of what and where to avoid. It's funny, but this time around I've taken a nord character, rather than an imperial, and already the game is significantly different, both in what is happening and how it is happening. It made me think that you truly don't get to see the level of diversity in the game's delivery unless you do run through with multiple characters.

You understand!!!!

Compulsive Hoarding is a mental disorder marked by an obsessive need to acquire and keep things, even if the items are worthless, hazardous, or unsanitary.

More than 300 Skyrim residents are compulsive hoarders.

This is one of their stories.

I think the OP is going to have to clarify what he actually means by his comments, because many people in this thread have said exactly the opposite (plenty to explore, plenty to loot, lots of uniques, etc). So if he means something different, he'll have to explain a bit more.


Personally, I love exploring and looting in these games, Skyrim included. And I mean any and all loot, not just "hand placed" or "unique" things. All sorts of stuff to collect, plenty of random enchanted items that I got use out of, things to sell, etc. Not sure what else to say.

Agreed

My sisters house looks like that. Seriously.

That was hilarious. That would drive me crazy; I knocked a jug off my table when i was grabbing food and it took me like 10 minutes to get it back where I wanted it..

What he should add is his character and his follower and caption it: 'Ok, I've emptied my pockets. Now what?'

It would've been cool if they had put in a few or maybe just two Aylied type ruins where a migrating aylied faction setup shop there a few thousand years back bringing with them a few welkynd stones as treasure,they got taken out along with the falmer when skyrim was settled.One could've tied in the Thalmor trying to keep the place quiet from the rest of the world.

Skyrim is a hell of a stepup from oblivion but even though its 200 yrs on theres no cultural overlap from cyrodil in ancient dwellings.

is there any just falmer ruins? there should have been considering they were the resident civilisation at the time of nordic settlement.

As much as I criticize Skyrim for removing choices and its character build, the lack of collectables isn't really a valid observation- (*unless you are comparing it to other industry games I'm not aware of loaded with loot.) But in the Elder Scrolls series- not since Morrowind has there been this many special items.

In terms of weapons and armor I have to disagree. In Oblivion I was able to fill up this massive display vault: http://ypdesign.com/tes/glenvar/display.htm

I don't think I could put half that many displays with Skyrim weapons and Armor. Hopefully, DLC will add some more truly unique stuff, not just enchanted vanilla weapons.

All kidding aside on the hoarding, I vehemently disagree with the OP. I keep hearing that the guild missions are too short; I'm at 163 hours and I haven't completed any guilds...I don't fast travel; I trudge across the map; and then I see something fascinating and I get svcked into another ruin; or building, or outpost..and wind up staggering to the nearest town to unload and then start my original quest again. Best example..I was told by Ulfric to go take Falkreath. I've never been to Falkreath. On the way their, I found a bandit camp and some really cool loot; had a headless horseman ride by..and now I'm exploring around Falkreath, my mission with Ulfric on hold; my trip to Solitude to do the blade quest on hold...my entire game has gone like this. It's why I haven't finished it. How can you say there aren't places to explore? IT'S ALL I'VE DONE! Sheesh.

Wow. That is cool. I've never played Oblivion but once I'm done with Skyrim I'm going to pick it up.

Someone call "Skyrim Hoarders", quick! I'd hate to see their RL house/room!
Great, thanks! Now I do too.

Seriously though, I think Skyrim did a better job of this, so far (I haven't played through much of the game yet). In Oblivion, nothing felt very far off "the beaten path" and I started to feel like it didn't matter which Fort/Tomb I went exploring, unless I had an associated quest, I could expect the same chance of finding the same type of stuff and face the same enemies/traps in the same spots. Skyrim seems a bit more varied than this.


Wow. I got nothin'.

You still have the Steam achievements. <-sarcasm

I love treasure hunting in Skyrim, and I love exploring everywhere, that is half of why this game takes me so friggin long to beat. I have terrible ADD in this game, I am doing a quest then I see some dungeon or something that peaks my interest, next thing I know its 3 hours later and I forgot what I was supposed to be doing.

THAT made me laugh HARD Im surprised the whirlwind of crap flying through the air when he comes in the house doesnt kill him! >-<