You can transmute iron ore to gold, sell the gold and buy sweetrolls and beer, much better idea.

It's a catch 22. In order to make Elder Scrolls games better, they need more money. To get more money, they have to gain a wider audience by dumbing it down.

So dumbing down = better Elder Scrolls games, go figure.

People complain about bad writing, animation and physics, guess where all this "casual" money is going to go.

Absolutely right.

While audible voice talk is nice, even in Skyrim you can see where short cuts have been made and where the depth of a story and options is cut ridiculously short. It`s obvious that they still don`t have time or space or the resources to add the kind of depth that non-audible rpgs had.

Hearing them talk is nice, but for it to be a true rpg experience they have to triple the amount of speech at least.

Because the guy in charge had a "better idea for a mod", and forced it down the staff's throat.

Seriously... I am sure they had a bunch of ideas, and played with all of them. The end result was what happened after some votes, some testing, and some boss-ruling. Once set in stone, they just run with it, until the game is full of stuff. Then they go back and refine what they made, and solidify it.

Once solidified, you can't just "change it" and expect it to work. (Ask the modders about that one! It takes a lot of testing and slight modifications to everything that seems unrelated, due to the heavy integration of every-other thing in the game.)

Unfortunately, everything is not truly unique, and un-bound, and universal... (That would make sense.)

It is catered to what they were able, and what they wanted to do, with the time they had. (You could spend years perfecting a new or implementing an older lock-picking setup. They did what they did in weeks, so they had more time for actual content.)

Explain Athletics and Acrobatics under this current system, they wouldn't work and would cause problems with Leveling. Open Locks would make Lockpicking useless, The Attribute system caused more problems then helped, not to mention we have 3 attributes that are more important. Mysticism, is there enough spells to keep it a skill, I would argue no. Weapon Degradtion, unlike Fallout 3 we can't repair an Iron Sword with another Iron Sword and it basically in Oblivion was spam the Repair Hammers. Spell Creation, basically it's just a normal spell with a different name, unlike Skyrim where we have spells that have different effects. The loss of classes is a good thing, made the game too restrictive and the major minor system in Oblivion was severely flawed when Minor skills are more important, that to me makes no sense at all, shouldn't majors be more important in terms of leveling. I believe Skyrim fixes that flaw.

What we have lost is nothing big at all in comparasion to what we have gained.

We got back Enchanting as a skill, Pickpocket was also added, made that feature better. We have Smithing which allows us to create any armor we want giving us a lot of options, we have a perk system that is superior to the previous games level up system and adds more customization options to our characters, we have a radiant quest story that won't always send me to the same dungeon everytime, we have handcrafted dungeons that are fun to explore and rewarding due to the random preset item system not to mention better enemies, we can now Duelwield Weapons and Spells, The Bow is much better with the changes, AI is better no longer Damn Rats or standing like a statue when they hear you move, etc.

In a nutshell it's just RPG elitists that believe an RPG has to be done one way but what they don't realize is that RPG's aren't 100% about stats, it's a system and the system that Skyrim is under is pretty damn good with a whole lot of choices in terms of Roleplaying and just playing the game in general.

Yeah. List of new things I could have done without:
Those pretty things on our loading screens. Yes, they are pretty, and I enjoy them, but every time I see them I can't help but think that if they had left them out, they could have spent more time developing, oh factions. Horses. Companions in general. More pieces to armor and clothing. Spellmaking. I'm sure you can think of others.
That 3d map. Without roads. Looking like it would fit in well in a futuristic sci-fi game.
That awkward UI.
Voice acting. With text, you can have a much more in depth game.
Perks. With attributes, don't need 'em.

That said, I am enjoying archery. Bravo archery.

From what I see, the quality of game continues to go up.

None of my college friends or I couldn't stand Morrowind because it was too difficult to manage the wonky journal system, even after I bought the GOTY edition in hopes that would be one of the changes.

I did not like the Oblivion gates in Oblivion and the graphics and character design was too cartoony, although I still really loved it and put a ton of hours into it.

I find it hard to find things wrong with Skyrim without nitpicking. Nothing I have experienced has hampered my love for what it is. Maybe(to me at least) the new good things far out way any shortcomings I've seen.

I wish you could summon more creatures. i wanna summon Draugr Deathlords and dragon priests damnit! I tried reviving a deathlord with dead thrall, to my big dissapointment it didn't work because I forgot to read the spell description

I also miss spellmaking, that was fun.

Because a mage practices lock picking right?

and bring back bashing locks ala Daggerfall

Why does garnering a wider audience = audience needs to be spoon fed? is there any Statistic report that explains to Get a large influx of new guys to line your pockets, they need a game simplified??? I mean, isn't wow brimming with numbers? and it has what 11 million and still going?

the only thing "added" in terms of the skills was smithing. pickpocketing and Lockpicking have always existed, as one skill. and those are of the widely viewed useless skills in Skyrim. and objectively look at Smithing, a menu that creats and destroys, you can't alter or make things personal to you unless you name them, come on thats a bit much. and like I said earlier, so what about the things added, thats all fine and well, they are imo pretty shallow and don't make up for what I can't do anymore. I don'thave a preconcieved notion of what RPG's are, but I do know what I liked that TES games use to have.

WOW will slowly die off over time and getting more people into TES series is a good thing.

Bethesda are pretty much victims of their own success, as well as advertising. I can't speak about daggerfall or Skyrim, never having played either, but there seems to be a downward progression of complexity from Daggerfall onwards, while graphics and accessability have been improved. The reason for this is simple in my opinion. With each game more people who don't normally play RPGs buy the games, Bethesda make more money, make the next game more accessible and better looking, and even more people buy them. These people who don't usually play RPGs complain about stats, spellmaking, not being able to do everything, getting lost, etc. So as more non-RPG gamers buy Bethesda games, the games become less RPGish to accomodate them.

Business before the integrity of the RPG genre.

Most of these same people are also complaining about smithing leveling up to fast when they try to level smithing (which is a really dumb complaint), they claim that magic is better than ot was in previous games because we can dual cast spells and it look better, which is qutie frankly a dumb argumment, considering the loss of spell making and all the spell and spell effect they have cut. Along with the fact that just because something is prettier does not mean it is better.

I see people here saying that they have added stuff and that makes up for the stuff that they cut, which is bull. The only thing they added to Skyrim was more detailed dungeons and smithing. They took out spell cration, spells and spell effects, acrobatics and athletics, other skills from other previous games that I don't know about because I have not played them yet, They took out a school of magic, which makes no sense at all. Did mysticism just disappear from nirn and no one remembers it? They cut attributes, people say that they replaced atttributes with perks, but they already had perks in Oblivion. The only difference is that they are optional in skyrim. The perks are also a complete joke as they act as the skills should. They wrote horrible quests with no sense of progression that can be beat in a hour or two. Oblvion had better and longer quests. The thieves guild does not even involve stealing, [spoiler] it iis just a glorified deadric quest where you save the nightengales [spoiler], there are less options on how to tackle quests, at least a quarter of the npcs are immortle, so you can,t just kill whoever you want because bethesda decided for you that you did not want to kill them, which means that if you commit a crime, you might not be able to kill all witnesses because one of the witnesses is tagged as essential, you can not drop quest items. I could go on but I think I made my point.

I think Bethesda just lost the creative edge it used to have. The stuff it is putting out is a shell of it's former self. I'd love to open a software company myself, I mean there has to be ways to make money, making games with depth and character. The only thing that is gotten better is the graphics technology, and the fact Bethesda has a familiar game engine to work with, with all the previously developed tools. The programming side of things, AI and game scripts engine has hardly been touched. I won't even go into detail how badly I was disappointed with this game, it's almost like all they do now is release a prefabbed super realistic sandbox and leave it at that.

The rest is up to modders to fix. I just can't see myself buying another elder-scrolls game. They completely lack depth, and instead of going in that direction they have gone in quite the opposite direction. If the original team who had made daggerfall had access to the technology today and the tools, we would see something spectacular. I for one hope the profit dies up on these types of games from Bethesda. Or maybe a decent company will fill the void. We need some decent PC game developers to come out. Bethesda is a console company much like EA.

I think there's a balance to be found between voice-acting to enhance parts of the game and appeal to the masses, and the more traditional text-based dialogue.

When done properly, voice acting really adds to the experience. Can anyone really say that Uriel & Martin Septim weren't made more memorable due to Captain Picard and Boromir?

But at the same time, is it really necessary that every fetch or kill quest be voiced? Or for God's sake every single f***** merchant? It becomes counter-productive and actually breaks the immersion when I go to buy something and I think "Hey, you have the exact same voice and make the exact same comments as a stall vendor in Whiterun... and a shopkeeper in Markarth... and..."

The "mass appeal" audience that companies are pandering to these days aren't the same gamers who are finding & completing every side quest, so don't bother half-assing the voicework. Just put more empasis on the voice-acting for the main storyline (use some of the time spent on throwaway lines for branching storyline options), and keep the side stuff text based.

The areas I'd like to see good voice acting are:

• Main Questline
  
• Guild Questlines (Brotherhood, Thieves Guild, etc)
  
• Daedric Princes

Beyond that, I don't care if the rest of the town is mute and shopkeepers never mention their "Trinkets, odds-and-ends, that sort of thing..."

The point of a sequel is to have MORE of something, but games nowadays seem to have adopted the reverse,

For instance the Crackdown sequel removed all enemy diversity, the entire progression structure, and most of the story. It's one of the most absurd examples if you give it a look.

Sadly Bethesda don't seem to disagree with their policy. Removing things with every sequel is a sure-fire way of removing choice. Sure they add things like cooking and marriage, but are they particuarly deep? Not terribly.. I'd much rather see the removed choices for skills come back, and the ENTIRE mechanic for attributes that got arbitrarily removed. Who ever complained about attributes I ask? They were central to the previous titles and one of my favourite parts.
As graphics improves, content get removed. But it's more down to developer mindset than actual restraints.

It's definitely something that I would love to see happen but I doubt it's going to take place, not to mention that the video game media would react badly. I could imagine the IGN's of the world saying, "No voice acting, I can't stand reading text I need emotion and something to hook me in".

Athletics and acrobatics were just fine. The ai still svcks.RPGs are actualyy about stats. Thats what makes them rpgs. The system in Skyrim completely svcks. And why is it everytime someone has a problem with the game you come around and act like its perfect.

Broken record, but I REALLY would like a chime in on this for whatever opinion it may be.

Is there some kind of stereotype for "casuals" in Game developement? that one is to purposely not go as far as one could (RESONABLY) out of fear that it will dissuade people from getting the game? doesn't Hype sell initially(which Skyrim did) and depth keep the longevity?, in some cases doesn't really matter for most folks, but then I ask ok so whats the harm?

RPG's are about stats but if the previous games stat system like Attributes doesn't work then why fix it, why not improve it with a vastly superior system that Skyrim uses.

It worked just fine.

Dialogue in Skyrim is entirely stat based, you can persuade and success depend on the speechcraft skill, in Morrowind and Oblivion you could bribe your way.

Combat has always been an combination of player and character skills. Ranged attacks are the most obvious one as you has to hit moving targets and move to avoid getting hit.
Spears was useful in Morrowind as they had long range so you could keep safe distance from an enemy, however it was also quite useful to run in, hit with an sword and back out again against slow enemies with lots of health.

Main change from Morrowind to Oblivion was that they changed from skill gives increased chance for hit to increased damage, this made lower levels less frustrating and random, however it also made enchanted weapons overpowered as they always hit and did the full enchant damage.

I agree with voice actors however Morrowind had fewer unique lines of dialogue than Oblivion, no I did not believed it either.
My main issue with dialogue in Skyrim is all the stupid repeated comments from people you pass on the street.

I don t think you have ever played an elder scrolls game in your whole life !

I ve played since Arena. Yes daggerfall had, in theory, the most skills, largest cities, largest number of places. But this is theory. Arena was pure 320x200. Daggerfall was a bit better because of doom style 3D support, but this was a harsh transition era for pc games, as in order to gain 3D you lost overall graphic quality. In the end it was worth it (today). But daggerfall was behind quake in quality, despite being released after quake. Quake had already moved to 640x400

But I digress.

Skyrim is the first title that start adding stuff again, even if it cut some.

spell making:
an unbalanced cryptic system that allowed the player to cheat his way through, while not really having the ability to do anything creative. the typical spelll would be *mega destroyer spell*. the npcs never used that, always limited to existing spells just like in arena

spellmaking in skyrim:
much like in diablo II, there is a big difference between purchasing a spell and mastering it. you may recall how some diablo II players dealt more dammage with their level 5 frozen orbs, while noobs couldn t scratch anything with their level 20 orbs. this was because the orb had mechanics. and a certain precise angle and aim would yield 20x more dammage, while the wrong anfle could yield zero dammage.

skyrim is similar, once you get the hang of it, spells like wall of frost can do amazing things. you also gain tactical situation like those created by immunes in diablo II. we re still behind in tactics because skyrim doesnt have all those miniboss with special abilities that diablo II has, and doesn t have as bad a mob and swarm effect.

skyrim has a spellmaking of sort throught the ritual spells quest, and the attronach forge. I think that beat spellmaking any day. now yes, a new kind of spellmaking could be interesting, if the npcs can do it too.

climbing, athletics, speed, strenght:
yes daggerfall had climbing of a sort. and morrowind had amazing acrobatics. however again it was unbalanced and poorly done. what we need is a reimplementation from scratch, using a system inspired from games like drakhan, tomb raiders, assassin creed, prince of persia , thieves ... to name a few. this time arround, they got stealth almost right (a bit overpowered this time, but this can be fixed) so I have hopes

stats and levels
the stats are not a big loss because they were poorly used. and some had no impact at all. personaly I think health, stamina, cc and magika should be skills, not stats, and evolve as they get used, or linked to specific skills. I cant find a reason why gaining 10 points in lockpicking should level me up and give me 10 points in magika. I also think using offense and defense, or maybe just offense, as a way to control the leveled list would yield a much better game balance. after all it s your melle, ranged, or magical attack capability that determine your real fighting power

flying:
Many criticized that might and magic 6 (no flying in dungeons) and diablo I and II (no flying, limited teleport) were superior because of the tactical aspects of that limitation. If flying went back, it should be done with limiting factord. In morrowind the player could use enchantment to gain near unlimited flying, and stay out of range as he pounded enemies to dust. hardly fun since most had no flying or ranged attack.

weapons skills:
lost skills, gained a global aspect, with refinement using perks. added shield bash and dual wielding. there is actually a guard animation where he hold an invisible spear near a castle. perhaps spears are coming back. overall with power attacks, the amazing treatment of archery this time arround, I think it s a win. it may need improvements or additions, but its in the right direction

smithing:
bethesda are no fool, and I m sure they read my post about how the smithing mechanics got out of hand and how to fix it. There are so many things impacting the smithing exploit that, in the end, smithing has nothing to do with it

dammage = melee skill x smithing x smithing potion x stealth x dual wielding
that s where the problem is. multiplications instead of additions, and unbalanced sneak attack factor. it should be x2-3 like archery


I think the refrigerator ran out with your girlfriend while you were busy. And a necromancer walked through the screen while you were busy with a dragon, and is terrorizing new york city !

happy new year !

( the amount of work put into Oblivion and Skyrim is at least equal to the amount of work put into Morrowind)
skyrim is way larger than morrowind. have you seen blackreach yet. also, fire up morrowind and WALK accross the whole island, time it. now do the same in skyrim. why do I say walk ... because skyrim has no speed stats, and you run really fast. you also run and sprint while in stealth mode (slower than full run - sprint, but way faster than walk or stealth-walk)

morrowind is abbout the size of blackreach which is under 25% of the surface area of the skyrim map. I know I travelled morrowind over and over. Solstheim is barely a speck of dust in there. and I am generous in my evaluation of morrowind size. It s under 20 minutes to cross it from one end to the next in end game (max speed and athletics, equivalent to skyrim run) while it take 30 minutes in stealth-run to go from solitude to wolfskull cave (the wolfqueen dungeon)

Also, dungeons in skyrim are utterly massive. not counting blackreach, most average dungeon cell in skyrim are equivalent to all the tribunal sewer dungeon cells combined. now some skyrim dungeon have more than one cell. mournhold had the largest dungeons in morrowind. so I dont think it compare

now for daggerfall, to the exception of one specific dungeon, and not comparing to blackreach, skyrim dungeons are larger. now if you count blackreach, the only thing comparable is ultima underground.

so this leave cities. daggerfall and arena have a higher house count. a better illusion of a large city. but in arena there was not much to see. and in daggerfall those were mostly empty houses. not houses full of 3d furniture and bread and salmon steak scaterred on the table !!!
so that one is a hard call, but overall skyrim is more immersive. I still would like larger cities. something in the 10,000 peoples range for cities. that s at least 200 houses. but things like london had arround 50,000 souls, so that s 1000 houses. of course imperial rome, if I recall had nearly a million souls, before the goths razed it, and so did medieval bagdhad before the mongols razed it.

but lets face it, we spend most of our time inside dungeons, and those cities certainly beat cities in dragon age 2, witcher 2, gothic 3, two world 2, mounnt and balde:warband. truth is to do it in full 3d they need a bit more tech

Everything you just mentioned was for the removal of player choice. SC is not cryptic system. Why do you care if someone uses it or not. Its not cheating if I'm playing by myself.

It was just a pain for them to balance and account for them...so they nixed them. Bethesda avoids any kind of need to balance and sit down and calculate how their game should play out. Just like the cheesy auto leveling, rather than go in dungeon by dungeon and decide the level of enemies they just auto level everything. They don't take a look at their game map and say this is going to be a more advanced area, this area will be treacherous because of terrain and animals...they don't do any of that. They just sidestep that whole process and use auto leveling. It makes their game-world unbelievably bland.