Radical overhaul concept: Skyrim tactics

[mm04926412]

I've been playing a lot of breath of the wild lately and I've been thinking about what made that game work and it's given me an idea for a total overhaul of the games mechanics to turn the game into something far more tactical and in depth than the game is currently, it would first involve 3 massive changes to the game which sound mad at first and will make every rpg traditionalist scoff to achieve this but I will explain my reasoning

Attributes stay the same, and depend entirely on race no matter what level you are

All weapons of the same type deal the same damage, all spells are balanced with respect to each-other, no novice apprentice etc. just different options

 

Skills do not achieve anymore "Raw power" as you level them, only unlocking perks which never directly buff the skill outright

Why the heck would you do that? it's about a fundamental realignment of levelling up no longer being about increasing the numbers on your character passively, but being about learning new skills, and the end game not about being a mechanically overpowered character that can win easily, but a character who is exactly as he started except for access to a lot more tactical options which allow them to turn the tide of the battle in their favour, enemies too won't scale anymore near as quickly as in vanilla due to your new constant innate strength, but they will slowly get harder as before, with the rest of this post explaining what you're going to do about it. I may even delevel the world but I'm not sure yet.

All weapons may do the same damage, but they would all have an ability similar to the crossbows ability to ignore armour, these abilities would come with a downside as well but would generally get better up the tier list whilst whilst also leaving lower tiered weapons as valid situational options. Sure the daedric sword and iron sword both do 20 damage, but the iron sword does nothing whilst the daedric allows you to sap health from opponents whilst taking more damage, a perfect weapon for keeping up a constant offence, new weapon types from morrowind (tantos etc) would be added allowing different attributes on the same ultra aggressive theme spread across a large weapon set, dwarven weapons might focus on armour penetration, orcish on making crippling the unarmoured etc. you would keep a variety of weapons on you at all times for different situations whether forsworn or undead.

Perks would all consist of situational abilities that can be combined together to make builds that make you more powerful than your stats and the individual perks would suggest, the system would reward intelligent planning and understanding mechanics, for example a daedric sword user focusing on aggression and lets say dual weilding may take a perk that makes power attacks 20% faster, but this becomes very powerful indeed when combined with an unrelated perk on the tree that makes power attacks stagger anyone trying to power attack you, a skilled player could use this to respond to any power attack with one of their own to gain the benefits of blocking without being able to. A destruction perk might allow you to damage armour instead of doing direct damage, meaning a melee player might skirmish with destruction magic then come in with their full orcish gear that butchers the unarmoured with ease. Respecing would be very easy, and could be done at any time to make up for some of the extreme effects some of these perks might have.

 

Enchanting would also be reworked, enchantments would again be strange but deadly when properly combined with perks that match up with the enchantment. One might be "Increases attack speed by 30% under the influence of a mage armour spell", a clever player might ditch armour completely with our imaginary dual weapons build, using their still existent but untapped mana pool for protection instead of armour, perhaps they have a helmet which has a special ability to not count as armour for the sake of the mage armour spells which are more effective on the robed and clothed that amplifies movement speed, the possibilities are endless the point is that the player is designing a set of gear to work the mechanics in their favour.

Anyhow enough examples, I think I've made the intent of this mod concept pretty clear, that the character gains no raw mechanical strength at all over the course of the game, only situational perks and extras that the player must actively work into a build to hope to grow stronger, and by allowing absolute flexibility in terms of respecs and free form perk tree structures with no prerequisites, levelling would become a puzzle to be solved. Resistances and weaknesses of enemies may also be made more extreme, to the point that respeccng your character constantly to hope to survive a particular encounter. It would make the game into a constant puzzle, learning the mechanics and analysing your next move, formulating how the best way to proceed is and what perks, equipment, and spells will let you turn the odds against you in the next dungeon to make up for your mechanical weakness, furthermore no spell or item would ever be obsolete, as this difficulty system is based entirely on perks and special properties the standard flames spell will be just as good at level 50 than at level 5, and fireball will be just as available at level 3 than it is at 30.

Any thoughts on this, I'm considering developing it but only if people think it sounds interesting.

Edited August 10, 2017 by mm04926412

[AquaLaurin]

Your idea isn't radical. What you describe is similar to the system Guild Wars and some other games use.

 

In Guild Wars you can only level up to 20 to simulate growth in physical (and mental) abilities. After level 20 each "level up" only gives you more skill slots.

 

 

All in all it's the old question of 'tall' vs. 'wide':

 

'Tall' means that almost everything depends on your level. Most JRPGs use this system which leads to ridiculous (hp, dmg, etc.) numbers at high levels. Also there's usually a great power gap between levels, i. e. lvl 10 -> 100 dmg/s vs. lvl 12 -> 250 dmg/s. Skyrim uses this kind of concept.

 

'Wide' means that levels are mostly unimportant. What counts are the amount of versitle skills you have and your own ability to use the right skill at the right moment. This is exactly what you descibe. This kind of game mechanic is more difficult to use as the player has to use about 5 - 10 skills for everyday fights. Boss fights usually require up to 20 skills to counter the boss' abilities and skills. Also games which uses this kind of system tend to have a slower combat speed to allow the player to think about the next skill use.

 

IMO Skyrim doesn't fit the 'wide' player character growth. It lacks a good system to quickly switch between skills and to keep track of what skills are available at the moment. Sure, you can use the Q-menu and also assign hotkeys to magic skills but that can cover only half of what you want. For example I don't see a chance to use physical combat skills through the Q-menu + hotkeys in a way which isn't a hassle for the player.

And don't forget that Skyrim's combat is pretty fast. Most fights only last a few seconds. Is there a need to fight enemies in a tactical manner when they perish after two or three slashes? Remember that fights happen pretty often which means that the combat length shouldn't be too long or the player tires pretty fast.

 

Tera Online uses a good system to allow fast-paced action combat with diverse skills. Maybe you want to look at that. But again Tera uses a complete different combat system (locking targets, limited auto-aim, etc.) which also relies on the 'tall' concept.

 

Currently I don't see a way how your idea can work in Skyrim.

 

 

Edit:

Sorry, I didn't see the date. *_*

Edited October 7, 2017 by AquaLaurin