LE Everything in Skyrim is to do with the player

[GoodfellowGoodspring]

Skyrim makes me that im just playing a game, with Oblivion I could some what believe that I was part of a living, dynamic world.

 

However with Skyrim everything seems orchestrated around me, when I enter a city I get 'scenes' played out in front of me to explain a certain conflict, troubles or backgrounds. This is great and could have been used to bring life to cities, however most just break immersion and are not wanted.. and they only happen once.

 

For example you receive three of these scenes when walking in to Riften; one with the two folks talking near the barrels, the guy who forces you into dialogue, and the thieves guild member threatening someone which in turn leads to a quest. Surely this doesn’t happen to every person who walks through the gates for the first time? The player should be allowed to explore, pick up hints of conflict by eavesdropping in passing conversations.. not be force fed them when entering an area.

 

The one which really gets me is in Solitude, here we can witness some guy being beheaded in front of the town's populace, now here we have a lot of problems. Firstly, it shows how limited Skyrim is. All of Solitude's population are there to witness the event, however the crowd is maybe 8 people strong which just shows how empty the cities are and I am yet to find a 'increase population' mod which joins newly created npcs up to such events.

 

Anyway moving on, the scene doesn’t even let you save the poor guy, where’s our choice in that? Something which sandbox games are famous for.. making your own choices! I even killed the guards during the execution and freed the man doomed for death.. and guess what? He died automatically so he was scripted to die, you don't even have the chance to save him even when cheating! This seems even more silly when you consider the scene in Markarth where you can actually save Margret from death, well if its your second playthrough, or if you have spidey sense and can stop a guy which pulls for his sword as you exit the town gate. What makes Margaret so special? Why couldn’t I save the guy on a similar scene elsewhere?

 

Do these people ever sleep? Nope, I walk past a scene at noon or midnight and all of the npcs will be patiently stood there ready to act for me, why would a guy be asking a smithy about an order at 2am.. when her store is closed when no one else is around? He shouldn’t.. because he can also do this during the day, this is for the benefit for the player and looks stupid.

 

These scenes should blend harmlessly into the ambience of the game, not be thrown into your face. Even having them activate during a particular quest, date, playtime, fame, for example would have been better because it would have been different every time you played. You would think 'oh! somethings going on here which isnt just normal chatter dialogue'.. instead we are treated by a whole bunch of activity when entering a city then ordinary, boring behaviour using the same dialogue and same routines.

 

Adding to that, npcs never move around and are too predictable.. in Oblivion you would need to go out searching for a particular person to finish a quest. This isnt a waste of time or made quests boring, it made you feel that these folks were living and wouldnt stand around their homestead waiting for you to talk to them. In Skyrim, everyone moves around the same every day, no trips to a different city to visit a relative, no hunting in the forest, nope just a basic work AI package.

 

Next up, you are a God to the people of Skyrim.. but in the wrong way. Cizitens are mesmerised by the player, they talk to you randomly in the street despite not even knowing you and stare at you while they should be looking elsewhere. This only happens to the player, ive heard no sweet roll quotes when a guard passes Nazeem. On the otherhand, unlike in Oblivion, the people of Skyrim do not recognize you for the celebrity that you are yet are more interested in you when you are a nobody and push quests upon you. I vanquished the dragons, I am the Dragonborn, I am rumoured to be a member of the Theives guild which has stolen many priceless jewels.. yet, no one cares, no one even comments on it. Nothing changes, you would be lucky to get any unique dialogue once in a while. Where are my epic/grandmaster quests? Why don't i receive 100 job offers a day asking to resolve disputes? Why wasnt i made High King for saving Skyrim from destruction?!

 

The player dictates the outcome of the civil war, the Dragonborn is destined to end the dragon crisis yet somehow ends up being able to select which faction will rein over Skyrim. The player should have been part of the war, or even a pawn used in the war to gain victory, a mod exists which allows for quests to be lost so that holds can be won or lost. This widens the whole storyline up to how skillfull the player is.. not which side they selected to be on.

 

 

Well, this is all I can think of at the moment, why wasnt Skyrim a better game than Oblivion? They should have added not taken stuff away!

 

Oh, and modders, feel free to add all this stuff to the game!

Edited July 28, 2013 by GoodfellowGoodspring

[Shadeybladey]

There are mods that do a lot of that for you. But a lot of it is to do with Konsole Kiddie dumbing down and spoon-feeding.

[JohnsonDown]

I also thought about that, the most NPC's are just boring. A little diffrence in their day would be cool.

Take Gerdur from Riverwood for example, she is supossed to work at the Mill, so Hod is working the mill and she could a least go into the forest nearby and search for good trees or sit somewhere down and write stuff, dunno like the shipments.

There are a lot of NPC's who could use a "makeover".

 

And I belive there is a mod that changes at least the respect of the guards, so you don't have to hear things like "Ohh heard about you and your honeyed words" while you just saved the whole world.

 

There is also a mod that reduces the distance which makes the NPC's talk to you, so pretty usefull if you don't want to hear Nazeem talking s#*!. Also makes the NPC's less "intressted in you".

 

But at all, I know ya feel bro. I hate it in game, after you finished the whole mainstory and even the side and guild quest, nothing really changes. There is a lot they could have put more effort in.

[EaglehawkAves]

I also hate this. I am the Master of the Thieves Guild, yet they all come at me like: "Hey, I got some jobs for you!" What? YOU have jobs for ME? I'm the master, I have the jobs for YOU! Same with The Dark Brotherhood...

 

 

Also, I banish Alduin, I kill Mirrak, I stop the vampires from taking over the world, I am the master of the Thieves guild and the Whisperer of The Dark Brotherhood, I am a werewolf or a vampire and all that is rolled up into one nice DRAGONBORN with the most badass weapons and armor in the game, yet, I'm treated like sh!t...

 

I'm treated like every other person, as If I'm just another NPC in Skyrim, as you say, aimlessly walking around. Where are the presents, the women, the thanks, the mansion, the wine, the celebration of some sort, something like that!? No, nothing! Just a: "Thank you, we could not have done this without you." And then they forget about you.

 

All of this and more needs to be fixed as soon as possible, so it actually feels like real life rather than a play in a theater.

[GoodfellowGoodspring]

Ive installed a few mods which handle some of these problems, the problem with the reduced greeting mods is that it makes everything boring! I remember the npcs from Oblivion having more 'random conversations,' many sounded weird but it gave you a sense of life and friends talking.. does Skyrim actually do this? I can't really think back to such events unless it was modded like with inconsequential npcs or something. The folks in Skyrim will just stand around and say nothing (while staring at you,) even a patron singing while drunk or people making small talk would make everything more bareable. Again, have npcs talk amonst themselves don't bring the player into their lives for no reason!

 

TL:DR, Skyrim added some good stuff but all in the wrong places and not enough of it!