Skyrim isn't dumbed down. Purists are.

[DarkGenius]

Mass Darkness (Target): Paralysis 10 secs, Fear 60 secs, Invisibility 60 secs (fun)

 

 

Wow, I didn't find this. Loading Oblivion, I must test it. Looks absolutely funny. Maybe it can be salted with something like "Shock damage 5 pts. per second for 60 secs." :-))))

 

@Buddah, I understand. I'm cool.

 

-PavelkCZ, You'll be making a ghost, with this charm. It is funny, I laughed over that. Many times, there's always an newly experience.

 

You should add Damage Refletion (Target) on Misanthropy Syndrome, or a Shock/Fire/Frost Shield (target) it is funny too. Try on Mer (Elves)

[macole]

 

I'm calling the Oblivion that because it is all about counterintuitive number crunching. I'm going to explain why I believe it is so:

 

=> Powergaming can't be avoided in Oblivion. If you don't plan your build you won't be able to compete with NPCs because of the level scaling.

 

=> Therefore to be able to compete with NPCs you have to max out your stats and that is done by getting three +5s at level ups.

 

=> To get the +5s you need to control when your character is going to level up. If you don't you will lose points.

 

=> To control when you're getting levels you have to select main skills for your custom class and make sure these skills won't level up by accident. To make sure of that you will have to choose skills that you won't use or skills that you can control (preferably no passive skills).

 

=> Since Endurance has a direct bearing on the number of hit points and since getting bonuses in Endurance is not retroactive you have to increase Endurance first if you don't want to lose hit points in the long run and want your character to be more resilient therefore you have to make sure that you're going to use skills that increase Endurance (presumably as a consequence spending some time repairing items to get the +5 at your next level up).

 

Basically in order to have a viable character in Oblivion you have to select skills that you won't use as main skills, keep track of the number of skills you've increased and purposefully use skills that are linked to the stat that you want to increase. By the way, when I say keep track I mean just that. Keeping a piece of paper tucked under the keyboard to write down which skills have increased since the last level is not that uncommon for dedicated Oblivion players (I know I did). If you've never done that then perhaps you've been using a mod or you've been blessed with a perfect memory.

 

You know the skill based leveling system in Skyrim may be nice and very much like how I play but to say that Oblivion forced someone to play in a certain fashion well that is just plain wrong. So please be careful how you make broad general claims such as these. It would be better to say a majority of players felt compelled to play the leveling system. I know my nephew does. It drives him crazy when he does get the max points. On the other hand and I maybe the only one, I play the game not the leveling system. In fact I did the exact opposite of what you described. I would choose major skills I would use and want to raise quickly and minor skills I might find useful to round out my character. Never did obsess over the +5 by keeping notes or any other method. I played as I wanted, used skills as I wanted, leveled as it came and took whatever points were allocated to the base attributes as best suited my style of play. Never was bothered and it seemed to work out well in Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion. Not more than 2 years ago I did find a Oblivion leveling mod that appears to level in a fashion I like, I use it now.

[macole]

 

Anyways: I havent made a mage character of any sort yet. Nor gone to t he college of winterhold. As it is it isn't in the game...this disappoints me. It's not dumbed down it's simply...gone. That does blow. But Bethesda must've had some sort of reason. Think about it: why would bethesda get rid of spell makin just because? There's gotta be a reason.

Yes beth has a habit of removing functions from the games and a lot of it lately has been affecting the magic system pretty hard. Must be some dumb reason for that. Don't know what but it msut be.

[macole]

 

You're not a mage as I do. Mages need an focus, some "time" for them to ready their spells, the first thing one powerful mage should do is conjure his minions to give him enough time to cast his Arcane Armor, conjure a bound weapon or ready a Bolt. As for hovering in combat, it would make it pretty easy for mages to avoid Melee Attackers, we have runes though, and "two hands" it is pretty suggested to use Glass Armor and Enchant it with Magicka Regen, better for Sorcerer or Battlemage. But I agree with you, sometimes it is hard to keep focus. Mages aren't poor reflections, they never have been.

You still powerful for combat

 

 

Telekinesis (the real one)

Bound Armor

Spellcrafting (Stupid Move, Bethesda.)

Silence (how to survive without it?)

Better Alchemy (Why do it have to be "CORRECT" only, all the time? we should be able to experiment)

More Quests (Lacking for real)

 

There is Bug with "Command Daedra" they don't seem to properly work at some times, you have to cast 1 or 3 times to work.

One thing I have been expecting of conjuration in Skyrim would have the ability to summon a mount. Like a Spectral Horse, or Sabercat. Would have been awesome.

 

PS: I use Sincerely at the end, because I'm "Educated."

 

Sincerely,

 

DG.

No DG we do not mage the same. Let's say I force a religious restriction upon myself as I do not conjure minions or bind weapons and armor. So that is why I sorely miss sprellcrafting and proclaim along with you "Stupid move, Bethesda!"

I also agree that Alchemy and any other skill that involves physical action by the player should not always return a successful result. I remember a high school chem lab experiment that resulted in a fire. Can't say who did it but we got the afternoon off school. Yay!

 

thank you,

[Odai]

Ah...now I understand this whole FPS style magic... and on one side, I agree. Its live action, think on your feet, resources dwindling, every second counts, half a second over and you cant cast that game changing healing spell. Very straight forward, overpower the defense, kill quick, be able to recover if the initial attack is inadequate. However, that is a simple way to go about this.

 

Sure, spell making is gone, but you are more than capable of utilizing your arsenal effectively to garner the same results. I tried taking on a Hagraven as a lower level mage. The direct approach ended badly. I try the stealth approach. Bad ending. The heal and strike simultaneous approach. Badly. Then I tried turning all the witches on frenzy and let them have at the hagraven. That got her down fairly low. Doubled up a large fireball and got her down to quarter health. She shot off her fireballs, I warded doubly and the blast was mostly blocked, but she broke the ward, I reanimated the dead witches one at a time and let my magic regenerate while the raven blew them up. Whirlwind sprint saved my life just enough for me to heal, drank my last magic potion and caught her in a final fireball to kill her.

 

Unlike "thinking" turn base games people seem to think that in Skyrim there are places you can and cant go to until you are a higher level. If you are actually THINKING fast enough you can pause in the favorites menu, think about your next move and do it.

 

As for combining spells, there isnt really a need for it when you could simply cast the spells independently. I suppose in a fast moving game like TES every second counts, but isnt that the fun of it?

 

Now the elimination of spells. There are a few redundant spells that were removed that in previous games had a bit of strategy to them (drain health 100 for 1 sec, levitate, intervention, slowfall...etc) but on the whole the devs felt these strategies didnt feel right for Skyrim. Now all I would have asked is for some variation on the spells that they do have. Blue fire, black lightning, yellow snow... and definitely bring back all the types of deadra (I miss my clanfear).

 

But in terms of strategy... I disagree... the game is definitely as strategic for a mage as any.

[Lachdonin]

I actually find that the Magic system, limited though it may be, supports a far more tactical appraoch to play. As Odai said, it takes a keen sense of timing, good resource management, well thought out movement and intuitive spell use to be a good mage, particularly on the higher difficulties. In Oblivion, on the other hand, you could just fortify Magica, create some world-ending spell, and kill everything with impunity...

 

As much as i may have complained earlier, having had the chance to play a more magic-centric character now, i tend to subscribe to the idea that the changes to the Magic system were well done, and make the Mage experience more flexable, thoughtful and allround better.

[Katalytica]

Nice rant Goliath978, but reminding that "Purists" are also important for the future of TES sequels. Remember that.

 

Did you see what they did with Magic? They just destroyed it, I can't say that Skyrim is faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar better than Oblivion or Morrowind, because these two have many things better than skyrim, still, skyrim is revolutionary. There is many spells that I'd never have expected from a TES Sequel, like transmute, Wards, Runes and such. But Bethesda disappointed me, as I play mostly as Battlemage, Sorcerer and Mage. The Spells sistem, the whole magic system is left off. They say there are over a hundred spells, there's no such thing! there only stronger versions of vanilla spells, and some are annoying miscellaneous like the Telekinesis. You don't know how much I loved mysticism.. Telekinesis was my beloved spell.. they KILLED IT.. I used it for opening doors, catching stuff from distance and throwing it there, placing this here and that there. Do you know what Telekinesis do in Skyrim? We lift stuff with KILLING Intent. It's no longer a tool, its a weapon. That really made me say "I expected more" Did you people Join the Bards College? You can do Nothing more than recover a few instruments and do a Exploring in an Dungeon (I hope they make an DLC for that faction, to add more stuff, like the ability to use instruments that was my whole point of joining that faction)[

 

There's no Spellcraft in this game, I.. can't express my disappointment with it.

Made me feel like there's no place for mages in skyrim, y'know? spell system is disrespected, telekinesis which was a tool for exploring, attack and distracting is useless, y'know you could place something on the ground and and lift it with telekinesis, throw it to make Enemy NPC go searching it, while we ambush them. In Oblivion.

 

Not disrespectful of Nords, there can't be only warriors on this game, As the Arch-mage of Winterhold college said, and I quote it. Magic is True Power, "it deserves proper respect and study". Not because you're a Dragonborn, that doesn't mean they can do a Game only for Warrior/Thief Class. So, you can cast a few spells? Yes, few..

 

Also, now that we are all about rant about something, the mods for Oblivion.. do you people don't get disappointed? to have more Reskins, vanity mods than immersive, lore-like and quests?

There are a few mods in The Elder Scrolls Oblivion that are Immersive, you can see Middas, that mod changed the whole magic system in Oblivion, As a sorcerer I like to have the ability to create my undead servants, use reagents to create atronachs, conjure Deadra servants do my bidding. There are mods that do that in Oblivion, Like Dark Arts and a few new. But most of them are abandoned, why? the "ModBase" of Oblivion turns around: Retextures, Vanity items and Armors/Weapons, there's not much immersive strength of lore on most of them. Today I saw an mod for Skyrim, which adds Fallout 101 numbers on Iron Armor. Will this disaster happen to skyrim too? Have the entire modbase around Retextures and Vanity Armors?

 

Share your opinion people, I know some of you thinks the same.

 

Sincerely,

 

DG.

 

haha, but that's happening with everything, dumbing down/entropy can't be avoided, as far as the mod scene i know what your saying, i suppose it's easier to retexture and tweak then to script any actual TES-worthy content. except midas that sh*t was insane

[Oomo]

Translation: My way of playing is best and if you disagree it means you are a lesser person than me

 

Saved people the time of reading it and get the gist quickly.

[Goliath978]

Translation: My way of playing is best and if you disagree it means you are a lesser person than me

 

Saved people the time of reading it and get the gist quickly.

No you just disagree with my posts so you feel the urge to troll...

 

On topic: the healing spell is still there and very cheap IMo. It's easymode to put it in one hand, wear an amulet and ring with restoration bonuses, a couple restoration perks, and good to go. Just hold down heal while you hack away.

 

But the combos make up for the loss of creditable spells. And anyways: what would've you made anyways? Invisible paralysis spells? I think Beth made up for not being able to morph spells by letting us morph combos. So instead of having a spell to do 2 things you just equip those two spell effects.

[Goliath978]

And purists have no place in future elder scroll games lol. Purists exist in every franchise. Basically you must realize that just because it isn't morrowind or whichever was the franchise favorite, it isn't bad. Now we say morrowind had more depth. Okay...so rocks and mushrooms give you more depth than intricate environments?

 

**crickets creaking**

 

There's depth if you look for it, there's flaws if you look for em. I could assault morrowind right now. Sample: nothing but brown bland landscape with the same old snails called 10 different creatures. Bah what a streamlined game no dual wielding tiny creatures, magic was so streamlined, fire didn't stay, frost didn't slow enemies down. Morrowind sucks.

 

If you think that sounded stupid it's no different from what people assaulting Skyrim are saying. Morrowind i enjoyed a lot, but the point is pessimism will find flaws in anything.