The Perfect Skyrim

[Chatt7]

The Perfect Skyrim

Although Skyrim is an amazing game, there are some minor and some major design flaws that I would have loved to be seen fixed. I will list the problems that I’ve so far noticed and give what I think would be a better solution. It’s definately not a full list so feel free to add your ideas. The list is mainly meant for discussion, but if anyone from Bethesda sees this... Please! Take these changes up to consideration before the first DLC! :P

 

 

Pickpocketing

Problem

• Pickpocketing is a matter of saving right before an attempt and then quick loading untill you get it right. It completely destroys the sense of immersion.
  

Fix

• A simple minigame like with lockpicking, or a cooldown so you wouldn't be able to pickpocket right after a load game.
  

 

 

The World Map

Problem

• There is no ‘fog of war’ and your exact location is always marked on the map. This spoils the world, makes it feel smaller and takes away from the immersion and excitement of exploring.
  

Fix

• An old school hand drawn map, which is being updated as you travel the land. Your location are not marked directly nor indirectly, but has to be derived by looking at your surroundings (mountains, rivers, etc) or by asking people.
  

The entire world is immediately spoiled because of the lack of any sort of ‘fog of war’. You know exactly where the borders of the world are and how big it is right from the beginning. The world quickly starts to feel smaller than it aught to feel. The fact that you know that the world border is 5 minutes walk in ‘that’ direction completely demotivates any sort of spontaneous exploration in ‘that’ direction. The fact that your location is always marked on the map is also something that takes away from the experience. I guess it’s something we’ve become very used to, as I don’t remember seeing a game where there is no such marker. Real navigation requires you to not only look at the map but your environment too. Skyrim would have been perfect for this as you could have used the tall mountains as reference points. It also feels like the dialogue choices was originally designed for a player with no access to a map. For example in Riverwood you are able to ask the people how to get to Whiterun, and Camilla at the Riverwood Trader offers to lead you on your way to Bleak Falls Barrow.

Skyrim is a game where you forge your own story depending on where you decide to go. Getting lost in a forest and ending up in a city you never knew existed, does NOT take away from the experience.

A blank piece of paper where a map would be drawn as you travel the land would fix this problem. Monuments, rivers, lakes etc. are drawn after spending some time around/along them. Mountains can be seen from far away and ‘is drawn from a greater distance’. Populated locations are not marked untill you ask a citizen to mark them for you. Dungeons are marked as you clear them. With settings like these your exact location is never marked directly nor indirectly, and you would still have a very useful map.

 

 

The Quest Journal

Problem

• The game expects the player to use the compass and floating markers to track quests. This leaves no motivation to listen to the quest giver, nor to use your brain to complete the quests. Instead you end up blindly following markers.
  

Fix

• Remove the compass and the floating markers. Add a notebook that would hold key pieces of information and maybe a drawing of where to go or what the quest item looks like. Also draw any necessary information onto the map.

The quest system in Skyrim reminds me of those quest tracking addons I downloaded for World of Warcraft back in the day. But as I see it, WoW and Skyrim are very different games. The quests in Skyrim are not to be completed as fast as you can. Instead the interface and quest system should focus your attention on what the quest giver is telling you. The quest system shouldn’t hold your hand all the way through the quest. It completely spoils it for me. It’s like having an annoying brother at your back telling you what to do, without giving you a chance of figuring it out yourself. A lot of people end up skipping through the conversations and then letting the markers show them the way.

I downloaded a mod so the compass and the floating markers disappeared, so I wouldn’t have the temptation right up there. Most of the quests were actually still doable, but in a few cases the quest giver and the journal left me with too little information, which forced me to look on a wiki. So its either compass and floating markers or a wiki, which is ridiculous.

 

Fast Travelling

Problem

• Fast travelling ends up being the only way you travel if you don't restrict yourself. It does NOT feel like travelling. You might as well have opened the console and typed in a coordinate. It destroys the feeling of immersion and makes the world feel smaller.
  

Fix

• Remove fast travelling. Raise the prices of the caravans, so it would actually cost you something to travel all across Skyrim. Spread out special monuments and add a spell that ports you to the nearest of activated monument. Activate the monuments by visiting them. Add some sort of debuff or a cooldown so you wouldn't teleport all the time.
  

Edited November 27, 2011 by Chatt7

[Psientist]

You can't make it perfect because everyone have different opinions on the matter.

 

For an example I disagree, I think pickpocketing should be like gambling in Fallout NW (3 also?) so that you can't do it within X minutes after saving a game.

You can remove the compass and markers in Settings, it was the first thing I did when I started up the game.

No opinion on the map, I'm fine with it as it is. I played the first few days with the map I got from my purchase :)

[Chatt7]

You can't make it perfect because everyone have different opinions on the matter.

 

For an example I disagree, I think pickpocketing should be like gambling in Fallout NW (3 also?) so that you can't do it within X minutes after saving a game.

You can remove the compass and markers in Settings, it was the first thing I did when I started up the game.

No opinion on the map, I'm fine with it as it is. I played the first few days with the map I got from my purchase :)

 

Nice.. I would have liked to use that map. Yeah, it's true that people have different opinions, but at least I can try and make a list of people think are problems and ideas for fixes.

'll add your Fallout idea to fixes :)

 

Ive removed the compass and markers too, but as I said.. some quests leave you with too little information.

[Earendel.co.uk]

You should be able to climb certain surfaces...

[DragonChester]

if Bethesda actually bothered to work on the horses, They could have a much better way to travel, explore the whole area.. Right now horses are mere eye candy and that it.. They die too quickly.. They should have added barns for players, perhaps you could raise, breed or even find rare different horses.

different horses types, and not just draft/heavy horses. They should have including both kinds..

We could save different kinds in our barns, use different ones, Buy/sell/trade,

Heck even give our own Hired help a Horse to use!

 

Heck they could have even look at idea the way Red dead redemption, The biggest flaw in that game with horses is you have no idea if

stallions or mare and don't even mention it rarely. They could have put simple name /race/sex as you get on the horse.

There is difference in mares and stallions, Colts and gelding. Just like there is cars in driving/racing games..

Is sad that game company take more attention to detail to cars then do horses. Don't get me wrong, I love cars/trucks too.

 

but I'm also horse person, and if you think back then to that time, Horses we're very big part of whole world, As was farming community too.

Actually it seems like Bethesda has seem to do less with horses then had in Oblivion,

You never see any guard on horse back patrolling?

Edited November 27, 2011 by centaurchester

[samyG]

if Bethesda actually bothered to work on the horses, They could have a much better way to travel, explore the whole area.. Right now horses are mere eye candy and that it.. They die too quickly.. They should have added barns for players, perhaps you could raise, breed or even find rare different horses.

different horses types, and not just draft/heavy horses. They should have including both kinds..

We could save different kinds in our barns, use different ones, Buy/sell/trade,

Heck even give our own Hired help a Horse to use!

 

Heck they could have even look at idea the way Red dead redemption, The biggest flaw in that game with horses is you have no idea if

stallions or mare and don't even mention it rarely. They could have put simple name /race/sex as you get on the horse.

There is difference in mares and stallions, Colts and gelding. Just like there is cars in driving/racing games..

Is sad that game company take more attention to detail to cars then do horses. Don't get me wrong, I love cars/trucks too.

 

but I'm also horse person, and if you think back then to that time, Horses we're very big part of whole world, As was farming community too.

Actually it seems like Bethesda has seem to do less with horses then had in Oblivion,

You never see any guard on horse back patrolling?

 

 

For real. I think the ONLY time I've seen an NPC ride a horse was when I saw 3 guards escort a noble. The horse was merely walking/trotting too. I've yet to come across an NPC riding a horse like the player can. Running down the path or across fields.

[droscoe2]

If you want to perfect Skyrim, that list is far from complete.

 

The mods that are out now are just a primer, in my opinion, to the more 'gamechanging' mods that come out after CS release.

I personally look for these type of mods: (some are out now)

Textures

Meshes

More armor/weapons

UI

Sound

NPCs

Commerce

Rebalancing mods

Water mods

Weather mods

[Shantih]

It's definitely a question of playing style.

 

I really like some of the suggestions although it comes down to self control (not using fast travel or not reloading when pickpocketing. ;)

 

The Quest idea is great. As it is now turning off the markers makes it almost impossible to go through a quest because of the lack of information. It will require a lot of work to mod this.

 

Regarding the map I'd like to comment that the fog of war is a good idea but that spoiling the map may not be such a big deal since actual maps are present in many locations.

[Galacticat42]

The only two reasons I could think of why Bethesda made the map the way it is, is A. Console gamers demand pretty graphics and B. The map will auto-update with landscape changing mods.

 

I propose for the map to lock the camera view into a 270 degree view, forcing it to look directly downward. When this is done, add a filter to make it all look like drawing on paper.

[Nadimos]

Pigs. I have not seen a single pig ingame!

 

Edit: Or is my memory failing me here?

Edited November 27, 2011 by Nadimos