I agree with most of what you said. Whilst I enjoy the game a great deal, I don't even like continuing past your first dragon encounter [outside of Helgen]. I'v got like 150 hours into Skyirm already, and i'v not once went past the Throat of the World. I enjoy the start of the game so much. The start feels like the game should. Like it works and it's balanced. I play until around level 15 and the game immediately breaks. For me, my main problems lie, in as you said, the balance. I had a dedicated assassin, btw, who used daggers and a bow. Archery for the player is trash. The players range to hit a target is gone. I don't know WHY. But from testing, i'v been shot from 2.5 times FURTHER than I can shoot someone. Stealth characters are BROKEN for balance in this game, and I don't understand why. Like, I realize I should be able to insta-kill anyone I can sneak up to with a dagger [and you can], but the AI is so absolutely f***ing dumb, that if they start "wandering" to me, I can shoot an arrow at a rock 12 feet behind them, and they will go LOOK at it. Magic as you said is a joke. There are a few balance mods out now for Magic, but it doesn't address the major problem. Stuff costs either NOTHING to cast with enchantments [which, btw, is f***ing BROKEN when you can lob fireballs from 100 yards away before anything gets remotely close to you], or you CAN'T play at all at a certain point. I'v now had three Mages, and at level 15, every single one has trouble doing any real "dungeon" with a Flame Attronarch [which, btw, hits harder than I do for some reason] on apprentice. There are still easy kills, obviously. But when my fireball does like 10% of a guys health in damage at times, and I can only cast it maybe 5-6 times without dual casting. It's pretty lame. I JUST deleted my third mage tonight to, and remaking. My other main problem is enchanting., smithing and alchemy. Why? Because this game FORCES any and all classes to max all of those to be effective end game. A mage without light or heavy armor cannot, literally, take a hit. And everyone but a heavy armor sword and shield or 2 handed user requires mass enchanting. Potions become scarce when you've gone to every town and keep buying up the supplies to be able to effectively DO anything without dying. I want to delve into modding when the kit comes out. If I can manage to learn to mod, I am definitely going to be trying the following: ::Adding in Oblivion stats. I will keep the three current ones, but also add stats for people to pick. Maybe give three points each level to put into strength, intelligence, etc. ::Scale damage -- Magic Damage, Physical Damage, etc. And base damage off the corresponding stat, like strength and int ::Would remove the NEED to enchant, smith or do alchemy. Will be good reasons to learn it, however the change won't force you to do it to compete with the later levels of the game ::Wider range of spells, allowing for people to use spells more efficiently without fear of doing no damage or running out of mana immediately.
