BetterSkyrimProject

Thanks for the replys, people. It didn't go as I expected it to go (my mailbox isn't full of eager modders yet), but this is a start. :) Thank you, that's the point - there are so many things missing in Skyrim that it's actually dissapointing for me to play. Really. I feel sad that my playhours go nowhere, and there is nothing I can expect from the game, even if I advance further and further. If we tweak it, it could really be much-much better. That's a great reply, thank you for making it. I'll try to address to everything you wrote. And thank you for your support. I'd love to have some help with this, but I don't want to abandon the idea of making this project real. But I'd be happy to discuss this Jarl idea - I have bits of concept already. Please, do mail me and we can discuss it through. :) It's obviously not a troll post. :) And I know that Skyrim is this massive game that took great effort to create. It is huge, it is enourmous - but quantity surely doesn't mean quality. Back in my day I played Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion. And with each respective title, Bethesda created much more "popular", but much less intertaining games. It is understandable - this is a common trend in the game industry, and it is interconnected with technological advance (better graphics - need more time to implement different ideas - less ideas in the final product). Still, gameplay-wise Bethesda has been rolling downhill with each incarnation of TES series. I can prove it, but it will be a lot of work to do, so I just put it simply. In Morrowind you felt that there is an adventure waiting by this corner. In Oblivion you managed to capture this feeling sometimes. In Skyrim it is nowhere to be find. It may sound strange, but this feeling is a prior indicator of any good game which deals with advantures and explorations. I know that Skyrim is still the best game of its genre - but it doesn't make it a good game. With all the effort they undoubtedly put into it - if you "scratch" it, you'll that there is nothing underneath. Examples will follow. You are totally right that this game has a lot of potential and we have powerful tools to work with. This is exactly my point, as I wrote above. If we take these tools and imply our fantasy and good knowledge of game mechanics and esthetics, we can make Skyrim much more better than it is now. Now, cornerning the variaty of opinions and tastes and the issue of "there is no ring to rule them all" - there is. It is called cohesion. You can enjoy your anime, but you know that there is no place for it in this game. People may want to make their characters look like pimps and hustlers, but they know that they are doing for the purpose of fun solemly. They sure do not expect their heroines with huge breasts in two tiny pieces of clothing to be anything but this. And what I propose is a development of the ideas already existing there. Here is example one. Does anyone enjoyed the in-game races' vanilla appearance? Human races are just ugly, beast ones are plain and elves... My God, elves are just abominations. I see what Bethesda tried to do here - they wanted them to look like an "alien" race, meaning that they are not pretty in the eyes of humans. Well, they surely succeeded in that. But in the terms of gameplay it is just painful to play Dunmer or High Elf, because one can't relate to them. They have nothing likeable in them, along with other races. I'm not saying that all people of Skyrim should have angel-faces and look like every boy and girl's fantasy come alive. But they should be more attractive, that is for sure. The first thing to do is to understand racial differences between humans and elves and beastly races. Humans are simple - we have plenty of examples of human races. Agronians and Khajiits should look more human-like. They now look too alien and out of place, if you really give it a thought. Among some variants I'd pick these ones: See? Sad kitten from vanilla - and here is so much better cat-human than this. And for the Argonians I'd go with this. Both examples have strong human resemblence, but still look beastly and unique. In previous games Bethesda really didn't care much about the continuity of beast races representation - so why should we? And all the new races out there on Nexus prove that this can be done. Then we need to rely on lore to see how elf and human races developed through time. In the lore, for instance, Dark Elves were once a part of High Elves, but they later went isolated and were transformed by Azura's curse (or maybe they just evolved naturally under new circumstances). This should leave an impact on them, strong enough for other elf races not to rely to them anymore (as in lore), but still with the resemblance to the elfkind. I can go on, but I think that the point is clear. Once again, thank you for trying to bring several mods to my attention. But, as I said - there are many great mods out where, but they usually do not work together properly. It looks like patch-working, and I am looking for the whole garment. Color palette. Second example. It's not about shadows or textures or tastes. It's about additional tones in the palette. Colors should look like more dynamic, there should be more tones. It's hard to explain. Here is the most pretty picture of Skyrim scenery. And here is the dullest real-life scenery. It's both whitish and foggy, but just notice the grass color - it's much deeper, not brighter, but deeper. Skyrim color palette is washed out, and that's the problem. There is nothing exciting about "washed-out". People tend not to settle in such places. Players do not enjoy such places. It makes game - quite naturally - look dull. That's the issue. Cities. Third example. You definitely underestimate my intelligence. :) I know that there were no railroads back in good old Medieval times, and there were far less people living in cities or elsewhere, thanks. Let's have look at Whiterun. Can anyone explain why Dragonsreach is located up there and is not surronded by other houses? It's natural for medieval cities to grow around the significant place - castle or marketplace. OK, in this case the castle was built later - the center was Jorrvaskr. But again, it's on the ourskirts of the city. The center is Gildergreem for some reason, but it was planted not so long ago. OK, I agree - let it be. But for the sake of realism and city development logic, there must be houses around Jorrvaskr (downhill), up to the Hall of Dead and left to Battle-Born's. Maybe even outside city walls. Anyhow, vanilla Whiterun is just a mere village, and I don't even want to start covering the point that this is, by its historical and geographical function, the trade center of Skyrim. Really? With five stalls and four shops? And for "skilled voice actors, NPC characters with their own homes, agendas, families, jobs and lifestyles" - you must be kidding. Do show me any NPC in game, who has an agenda or a lifestyle. In GTA, for instance, people have nothing - they are there just for the bits of realism. But they do their "job" - they make you believe that you are in a living-breathing city. Realism. Example four. You are telling me that you felt the impact of the Civil war. Really? Ok, NPC have different lines of dialogue when you are in different cities. There are several random convoys on the empty roads. And there are several camps in the outskirts. That's all. If we are talking about realism, we are not talking about "real-life realism". We are talking about what make us believe that this is real - the Civil war is real. The cities are real. The roads are used not only by our hero. Lives are shattered, world outside city walls is dangerous. The borders of the Hold are patroled. There are battles here and there. There is propaganda, and not just some lame bard singing in a half-empty tavern. We can do all this. And then you can truly feel the war. That's my point. Oh, that's the next step, for sure. But it's very ambitious, still, because it really need a lot of work. What I propose is tweaking, and you are talking about creation from scratch. I've been there - it was hard, to say the least. :)

Good day, fellow modders! Skyrim may be named "the best game ever" by some, but we all know that it can't be further away from the truth. Skyrim is not a good game - believe me, I have some experience in game industry. It's dull, unfinished, imbalanced, underdeveloped, plain and crude game. If you don't agree with me, have a look at Skyrim Nexus - people are trying to change each and every aspect of the game. If it's such a bad game, why bother doing anything at all then? The answer is simple - there is a possibility to make this game great. We already have all we need, so we won't be making a game from scratch. We have powerful tools in our disposal and the Nexus as a proof that anything can be done. And we have the amazingness of the TES universe. All we need to do is to make Skyrim better. Again, a lot of people tried - we tried - but we all have the same problem. One is changing lips, another is adding bears, but their amazing work is either not compatible at all, or look strange if we install both. The lack of communication between modders makes Skyrim look like Frankenstein - all quilted together, patch worked and unstable. I don't want us to make another abomination - I want us to do an amazing project, which will make Bethesda guys cry and allow gamers to enjoy Skyrim more, much more. I know that this may sound quite ambitious. But I handled quite a few ambitious projects and can ensure you of my reliable skills in managing other people's work and letting them stay focused. As I told, I worked in the game industry for quite some time and have the vision and knowledge "how to do it right". To make this a real new beginning, I created this account today and prefer to stay anonymous for the sake of clear judgment. The only thing I lack is technical skills - to put it simply, I can't make mods. That's why I rely on you. I see the process of enhancing Skyrim divided into three main categories: - Visual likeability Skyrim still looks good, but graphics are not the main problem here. We need to make color palette more engaging and realistic, more dynamic. Also, vanilla faces and bodies are just atrocious - and don't even get me started on hair and clothes. In-game items look like they origin from different games - no cohesion whatsoever. The cities are planned by people who never saw actual cities, and dungeons are simply generic. Plants, buildings, exterior, interior, NPC - anything can be made much more visually appealing. And I have a plan how to do it. I just need somebody to do it. - In-game depth This is a major setback of the game. It's just plain. There is nothing there, "up onto that hill". Taverns are empty, towns are dead, guilds are just a mockery. Even the dragons, the civil war are nothing but several lines in dialogues. And I don't even bother to mention any portion of realism and lore. There are no such things in Skyrim, and this makes me sad, because there should be. - Enhanced gameplay The game asks us to do two things - to do (blah) quests and to explore (huh) dungeons. And we usually do it both at the same time. That's all. You can never be a Jarl, beggar of farmer. You cannot plan murders, save lives, protect your ideals and burn villages to ashes. You can't even be a mage with this stump of the College of Winterhold. You can't have meaningful relations or enjoy your life as a wealthy citizen or a national hero. We should be able to do this and much more. We should enjoy the game to its fullest. It's not too late. As you can see, all three categories are linked together. But, with bits of proper management, we can do it right away and all at the same time. And I have some grand idea how to make you and I satisfied with the result... But enough with this. If you are interested, e-mail me: [email protected] You can also send me a private message or post a reply here. Please, mention what you are good at and what you would like to work on and/or any information you find worth mentioning. The more people reply, the sooner we all can enjoy better Skyrim! Together we can achieve anything. Best wishes, Alex