LE Overhaul Wishlist

[sundawn]

Playing Skyrim 30h+ i came across several points i would like revised in a overhaul maybe some of you will want to join in and maybe discuss doability of those or your wishes for a overhaul

Better Horse Animations - really awful - it looks like someone never saw horses moving in real life.

 

Other Mounts - Theres already other Animals of appropriate size in the Game (Wolf, Mammoth, Elk, Spiders) putting reins on them would be a nice addition.

 

mounted combat - horse archery anyone? swinging swords at enemies on foot? LANCES! and mounted combat on dragons :) needs even bigger lances

 

more house options - more decoration items, more weapon racks, maybe wall mounts, maybe a cellar added to the existing houses with a feasting hall style and armor and weapon racks or wallmounts for decoration.

 

Improved Finishing moves - great additition from FO-Vats-System to TES but i feel there is room for improvement. like cutting off limbs of animals (those moves look very generic btw). since i am only 30h+ into the game i have yet to see if theres a dragon finishing move (killed 5 or 6 yet) but a move like jumping on the neck or head and sticking the sword through the skull would be awesome.

 

Open Cities - This will probably be a must if some dragon rider mod shows up. Anything involving flying would otherwise break immersion without the cities being accessible from above. Wondering how high the skybox ceilling is set

 

more realistic population honestly major hubs with 20 residents. it all feels very desolate. i understand that skyrim has not always been at civil war so whiterun being a major trading hub in skyrim should be surrounded by small houses and tents or whatever. thats how towns grew larger through the centuries. together with open cities i would like to see an increase to rural housing next to the town and maybe some shabby houses of poor people etc.

 

boats or ships since the times of Ultima i have yet to see a RPG to include those again. Skrim northern coast would be a great way to include additional locations in mods for questing or a new town. manuvering a knar, longship or karve. by design they would work fine in the relativeley shallow waters on the northern coast i experienced so far.

 

 

[Stratomunchkin]

I think the depth of the factions and their interactions is another major issue; it seems to have been almost totally ignored. Which really is a shame for a game that uses a civil war and the intrigues between noble families as its setting. Even if it doesn't amount to anything, it's the kind of stuff the game should present you with, very frequently. It's not just the Legion, it's endemic to the whole game. I'm still in the middle of the exploring part of my first playthrough, so I really don't mind that much right now, but after all is said and done, this sadly seems to follow the line of great Bethesda sandbox game where you're really ending up not doing all that much in the sandbox.

 

And that's what infuriates me with Bethesda: this sort of... half-assedness. I would understand it if the game engine couldn't handle it. But if the long history of modding BethSoft's games has shown one thing then it's that the engines can handle that sort of stuff, and very well so!

 

It's not just the Legion: your actions should have tangible consequences for the world!

 

NPC comments are fine, but your impact should be greater than that.

 

Thoughts about this issue always bring me back to Oblivion. There was this one side quest where you were asked by a bunch of settlers to help them with two goblin tribes in the region, and if you did and later came back to the settlers, you'd see the changes you affected (twice, I think) in so far that their tents were replaced by farms and farm land and the like.

 

So far, what little I cared for in Skyrim, these changes haven't happened. Sure, I'm the Thane of Falkreath and stuff, but neither can I influence decisions there, nor do the people care. For that matter, something should happen with those dragon skeletons I leave behind. One's right in the town square of Falkreath and nobody notices or cares. Things don't change. Towns and villages don't change. People don't change. Skyrim is far better than Oblivion in general, but in that regard it seems to be your typical Bethesda game: they built a great sandbox and left it at that.

 

Look at Falkreath and the situation there. The game even tells you that the old Jarl has been replaced against his will, and you immediately realize the new Jarl is a corrupt douchebag whose hold is run by his Aldmeri "advisor". Perfect hook for intrigues and quests with an impact on the actual setting. But do we get that? Nooo.

 

Some of the more important NPCs would need more work (the Battleborns and Greymanes, for example; they would need more conversations amongst each other, possibly scenes where they meet in front of the Jarl to discuss/argue things; only problem here would be the voice acting, or rather, the lack thereof).

 

I suppose the gist of my post is that once the first rush of being impressed has worn off (I'm still midway in that since I'm still exploring :biggrin: ) the world appears lifeless and non-reactive. Not necessarily as "bad" as in other Beth games. But certainly not as good as the engine and the scripting allows.

 

Picking up sundawn's point about "realistic populations":

In the smaller settlements it really isn't too bad, like that one small mining village where the miners do their work, sit around the fire in the evening, then go to bed. But once you're in bigger settlements that very basic structure becomes apparent in many cases, because half the people really don't seem to do anything other than stand around and basically walk in a large circle. Conversations between each other there need to be more frequent, as do activities. I'm getting the feeling that in this regard the game always seems to stop short just one step of being really great.

 

We also need more people on the road, be they refugees or merchnt horse carts with guards and the like. The intro scene shows that horse carts work, so why not implement them in the game? You could even use some of them for mini quests like escorting merchants from one village to another.

Edited November 19, 2011 by Stratomunchkin