Horses are pretty useless and weird in every game I've played. After all, they are the middle ages verion of an automobile or tank, and are terrifying in combat, and can jump and steer themselves to a large extent, sometimes too much so! I've ridden horses that have decided to brush me off on a low level branch or barbed wire, or just jump a fence without any warning. Falling off horses is fun! Being dragged by a stirrup as the horse goes downhill even more so. They don't usually run into trees or off cliffs, and can be trained for combat. I think a skill where you can figh on horseback similarly to your "heavy armor" skill would be appropriate and give you access to lances or horse mounted bows. Sure, maybe you'd need some sort of legendary mounts to fight against the harder monsters (a constant fee to pay for upkeep?) but fighting on dragonback is a huge theme in fantasy and would give you somewhere to go once you reached level 50... working your way to flying the hugest, nastiest dragon in Tamriel! because the basis of monarchism is the idea that other people are appointed by god/s to rule; merit has nothing to do with it. Of course you could seize power, kill martin, and force the church to proclaim you the legitimate heir; that's pretty much what happened throughout history. I found the quests very linear and there wasn't much scope for roleplaying or tactics. You could be appointed responsibility for the lives of the soldiers in the fighter's guild quest, but have no power to give them orders, for example. I think planescape was the best so far as quests went, with baldur's gate running a close second, and oblivion is a visually goreous console game with mostly tedious quests (with exceptions such as the dream and the painting quest). I haven't got to the shivering isles part yet so can't comment. I would have liked to be able to individualise the homes more easily. Havok physics make for fun vandalism but even putting a broom against a wall is maddening. Placing my own posters or earning better static decorations would have felt like an achievement; maybe trophies on the walls. Conjured creatures that didn't vanish so quickly, could be conjured ina mini horde, balanced by a continous drain of majicka to prevent abuse would have been more interesting. More specialised classes; i felt like everyone just turned into a jack of all trades. Enemies running backwards on uneven surfaces, casting fire bolts and shooting arrows; grrr, who thought that was a good idea? The thief/spy/assassin mehanics had potential but every time you had to protect npcs, you had to ignore stealth as they would gleefully charge ahead to their doom. You couldn't stealthily slit daedra throats, and snipe the casters. I know a lot of people just cheat through the console to keep them from kamikazing but a little thought into giving the player an option to go solo would have been nice. You were essentially alone. NPC dialogue was mostly repetitive and unhelpful. I missed planescape and BG2 companions, with depth and flavour. I know people make mods to get around that but most of them are just weapons platforms not people. Oh well, I enjoy the game but it's a shame there's such a focus on graphics over story in the industry now. EDIT: Merged your posts. - Switch
