Immersion breakers

[Balakirev]

"You enter X. You look around. You suddenly realize that you must sprint forward, because I wrote it was so." :wallbash:

 

Or, in plain English: "We don't know how to cover all the bases in our quests, so we're going to force you to make the decisions *we* want."

[SimpleGlitch]

where to begin. :dry:

First thing that bothered me is how random tapestries can deflect arrows, yet arrows can pierce a metal shield or heavy armor.

There is always an abundance of beef and ham with no cows or pigs.

Guards never try to arrest NPCs caught doing something wrong, they just kill them. Mythic Dawn Sleepers only attack when YOU come to town, and Clothes that completely cover your skin don't protect you from sun damage as a vampire.

 

(plus ones people previously mentioned)

[MarkInMKUK]

A few additional ones:

 

- One-handed swords that are larger than a greatsword, being swung by a petite elven character with no regard to weight or inertia (mostly mods, but it gets silly even in the vanilla game)

- The mix of creatures in the tutorial dungeon - wtf is a zombie doing in there? There's no evidence of a grave anyplace...

- Sewers that don't actually perform a function - no water cascading out of the outfalls after rain.

- Super-rain - falls straight through rocks and stones.

- No clothing requirements for different weather conditions - you should bake in full plate in a desert, sink like a stone in full plate, and freeze unless in furs if you head up towards Skyrim.

- Conversation topics - why on EARTH would a city full of people spend their whole time discussing mudcrabs and goblins? Once the Emperor is dead, that should be high up. Then the invasion should add conversation topics. But, no... "I saw a mudcrab the other day..."

- Clothing - does nobody ever CHANGE their clothes?

- Tides - or lack of them.

- Ships at the IC waterfront - which sailed up a small stream under low bridges?

 

OK, so there are mods for some of these - but I REALLY hope they do better in Skyrim.

Edited March 7, 2011 by MarkInMKUK

[roquefort]

"Tides - or lack of them."

 

I asked about a tide mod ages ago in the mod suggestions forum. IIRC there are base-code reasons why this can't be done. Also, I guess it would look a bit odd in the accelerated time-scale the game uses, watching the water go up or down.

 

I'd still like to see working tidal flow though, also in Fallout3. :thumbsup:

[SoulofChrysamere]

The holes in the cave textures.

[Megatarius]

I used to think Bethesda didn't know what they were doing. Now I'm convinced it's Zenimax's fault that most of these problems are an issue. They got bought out by a bunch of marketing suits. The decision to rush it for the 360 launch date is a business decision. Somebody upstairs who wears a suit to work needs to play a real video game, not just their kid's SOCOM.

 

I've never played Morrowind. Does it have these kinds of problems?

Edited March 9, 2011 by Megatarius

[AncientCircle]

"Oblivion has encountered a problem and needs to close."

Ah, don't you just love unexpected messages from Microsoft. Kills the immersion instantly.

 

Other than that obvious one, the whole guards standing still in front of Kvatch for months waiting for me "get prepared" made the emergency feel like a joke.

 

And how characters would suddenly change their tone mid conversation made me laugh. One minute they'd have a croaking begger's voice, the next they would be telling me in a high pitched cheerful voice about the local inn. Odd.