What you wish Skyrim had...

[peacherino]

A lot of people have been talking about what Skyrim lacked as a game, or what would've made it even better. Do you? What would you have added to make it a better game?

[♥ Barney ♥]

I think the game holds your hand most of the time and i would have liked harder puzzles and quests that require a bit of detective work to solve. Maybe get rid of the arrow pointers above peoples heads and quest markers.

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by WinnersDynamics:

What you wish Skyrim had

Proper writing and story and a world that actually is immersive and not some silly cartoon, where i travel from Riften to Markant, wearing a fur armor, and one of the Guards goes like "Hey, you are in the thief guild!"

Or joining a secret brotherhood and guards remark on being a member of the dark brotherhood.

Or a random guard remarks about how great my powers of illusion are, when all i did was raise illusion so i could have the silent casting perk.

And while we are at it... a few situations in which you can actually roleplay a character. Make a few decisions... maybe actually influence something.

Originally posted by Badwolf:

Hardcore mode +1

Frostfall is quite a nice start. All i am currently missing for Hardcore mode is a mod that requires me to actually eat food and drink something.

[perico2palotes]

Originally posted by Gordon Freeman The Famous:

I want them to add sex and Gandalf the Grey also an evil lab of murder and tourchering naked ladies

You actually get an evil lab of torture and murder in vanilla Skyrim, with nearly naked ladies (including an elderly woman) and gentlemen. What is more, if you actually torture them they point you to the location of hidden treasures.

My two cents:

- I'd like different weapons to have different movesets -no need for more skill trees, just actual ingame fightning styles. This probably takes some work and is hard to balance properly.
- I'd like some artifacts to have competitive stats even for powergamers (right now no piece of gear is worth its slot compared to legit crafted gear to a minmaxer). That's something that could be more or less fixed if they just let you add one enchant to single-enchant artifacts with the Enchanting tree capstone perk.
- More variety in puzzles and boss fights (as well as unique bosses with unique designs and powers) would be cool. Some boss fights do have interesting mechanics, but those are few and far between.
- I'd like more depth to factions and their quests (some chains are too linear or too short, or both).
- Merchants and economy feel somewhat stagnant; it would be nice to have small evolving elements such as having those shops you trade the most with having increasing amount of gold or more goods available, or both, even it those changes happen really slowly.
- I'd also like hand-placing of elements to be more like in TES IV; now you always grab items from the same point and it's pretty hard to handplace them properly. I love weapon racks, mannequins, showcases and bookshelves, but I'd like to customize my virtual property even more.

About quest markers: several quests don't have markers. From non-logged quests (such as Karstaag's) to collectables quests to miscellaneous quests such as Wizards College magic capstone quests or find X's werebear brother (those from the top of my head), etc. For many others you do have to go out of your way to get markers: dragon locations, shout locations, black book locations, and what not. Skyrim isn't Morrowind, though; map is four or five times the size and brimming with dungeons, many quests are radiant and/or randomized (radiant also means you can get a quest from several different sources even it the steps to solve it aren't randomized), and all dialog lines are voiced. In the event there were no markers, you'd have to find your way to each and every single quest through reading books because NPCs here are no longer lampposts; they actually talk and have schedules, and exploration is not a feasible option in a world so vast and full of dungeons.

[peacherino]

Originally posted by pLaGUe-DoG:

Also, more variety to the puzzles/traps in dungeons. The claws were awesome the first time I used them, but used once and then you knew exactly what to do for EVERY single nord tomb after...

I agree, and all of the puzzles involving turning the stones to match a pattern get kind of bland, even if there is a tiny change every once and a while.

[Blakkheim]

Originally posted by pLaGUe-DoG:

Also, more variety to the puzzles/traps in dungeons. The claws were awesome the first time I used them, but used once and then you knew exactly what to do for EVERY single nord tomb after...

so much this. It would be more fun if you only dont have to watch on the dragon claw oder at the order of some animls on stones

[peacherino]

Originally posted by perico2palotes:

Originally posted by Gordon Freeman The Famous:

I want them to add sex and Gandalf the Grey also an evil lab of murder and tourchering naked ladies

You actually get an evil lab of torture and murder in vanilla Skyrim, with nearly naked ladies (including an elderly woman) and gentlemen. What is more, if you actually torture them they point you to the location of hidden treasures.

My two cents:

- I'd like different weapons to have different movesets -no need for more skill trees, just actual ingame fightning styles. This probably takes some work and is hard to balance properly.
- I'd like some artifacts to have competitive stats even for powergamers (right now no piece of gear is worth its slot compared to legit crafted gear to a minmaxer). That's something that could be more or less fixed if they just let you add one enchant to single-enchant artifacts with the Enchanting tree capstone perk.
- More variety in puzzles and boss fights (as well as unique bosses with unique designs and powers) would be cool. Some boss fights do have interesting mechanics, but those are few and far between.
- I'd like more depth to factions and their quests (some chains are too linear or too short, or both).
- Merchants and economy feel somewhat stagnant; it would be nice to have small evolving elements such as having those shops you trade the most with having increasing amount of gold or more goods available, or both, even it those changes happen really slowly.
- I'd also like hand-placing of elements to be more like in TES IV; now you always grab items from the same point and it's pretty hard to handplace them properly. I love weapon racks, mannequins, showcases and bookshelves, but I'd like to customize my virtual property even more.

About quest markers: several quests don't have markers. From non-logged quests (such as Karstaag's) to collectables quests to miscellaneous quests such as Wizards College magic capstone quests or find X's werebear brother (those from the top of my head), etc. For many others you do have to go out of your way to get markers: dragon locations, shout locations, black book locations, and what not. Skyrim isn't Morrowind, though; map is four or five times the size and brimming with dungeons, many quests are radiant and/or randomized (radiant also means you can get a quest from several different sources even it the steps to solve it aren't randomized), and all dialog lines are voiced. In the event there were no markers, you'd have to find your way to each and every single quest through reading books because NPCs here are no longer lampposts; they actually talk and have schedules, and exploration is not a feasible option in a world so vast and full of dungeons.

I agree with everythign you just said. Especially the Factions Questlines. They're probably my favorite part of the game, and having so few, which a lot of their quest lines aren't that interesting or in depth kind of sucks. I also agree with te merchants. In order to sell all of the loot from bandits or whatnot, you have to end up going all around the world, because no one has consistent money. Also if you want a certain enchantment on an item, yu have to search everywhere because merchants dont get new items very quickly, like they would if it was real life.

[Mr. Fibble]

An option to smelt all the ore or a slider to set the amount.

Decent voice acting for the kids that actually fits into the accents around them rather than sounding like generic american.

A civil war that actually has some kind of impact on the world. Joining one side or other should have implications on how easily you can travel in certain parts once your face is known to the other side having pretty much sacked a town solo. Likewise there's never an attempt to retake the towns and the next one down the line never seems to beef up it's garrison.

Again with the civil war and capturing of locations. If you play a stealthy character there should be an option to bypass the combat at the gate and scoot around to a side entrance/culvert or up a wall to open the gates or whatever needs done.

[Vityan]

i'd say realism like in new vegas and coop and this will be the game of millenium

[Vita, Mortis, Careo]

As someone that almost always plays mages, I see the changes to the magic system as a net gain. I see the formal removal of Mysticism as arbitrary; most of the commonly used spells simply exist in other forms. And while I do lament the loss of spells such as silence and dispel magic, I find that outweighed by the removal of some of the more game-breaking elements like spellcraft, reflect damage and reflect magic. While there are no proper charm spells, the effect still remains in the pacify effects of various spells which, if you have ever played any D&D, is how charm spells generally work in combat. So, in short, if I were to give a ranking on a scale from 1 to 10 if Morrowind was a 5 (levitation was so incredibly stupid), Oblivion was a 6 in terms of magic, Skyrim would be a 7.

[VisciousFishes]

Originally posted by Two Bears:

As someone that almost always plays mages, I see the changes to the magic system as a net gain. I see the formal removal of Mysticism as arbitrary; most of the commonly used spells simply exist in other forms. And while I do lament the loss of spells such as silence and dispel magic, I find that outweighed by the removal of some of the more game-breaking elements like spellcraft, reflect damage and reflect magic. While there are no proper charm spells, the effect still remains in the pacify effects of various spells which, if you have ever played any D&D, is how charm spells generally work in combat. So, in short, if I were to give a ranking on a scale from 1 to 10 if Morrowind was a 5 (levitation was so incredibly stupid), Oblivion was a 6 in terms of magic, Skyrim would be a 7.

I was reading this thread thinking about the spell crafting/enchanting and then found this post. While I disagree with the spell crafting opinion (personally, I miss it) I do feel that the crafting misses the freedom that it had in previous games. I actually enjoyed the spell crafting and if you're a bit careful with it, you could use it without breaking the game. The previous ways to enchant was better too - none of this "breaking stuff to learn the enchantment" - an enchantment based on the spells you know seemed more immersive. Although, I do like the "dual casting" which is marginally better than the Oblivion way of casting.

Also I kinda miss the dice-based elements of interactions. Yeah, combat was more frustrating but being able to fail casting a spell makes being an arcane based character more challenging than Skyrim's "I know the spell so it's always going to work" which makes powerlevelling a bit too easy. Prime example - I am playing a mage with a bow (working on an "arcane archer" style avatar right now) and I have a follower who's also good with a bow. While walking the wilds with him I have managed to spam the muffle spell and get 6 points of illusion built up in 5 minutes (I as being conservative) leading me to level up reasonably quicker. Spell spamming is an easy way to power-level in this game which is kind of pointless (unless you're doing it for level based rewards) and a bit cheaty.

[Chill_Hill]

Hand to Hand combat
Mysticism
Removal of Pickpocketing skill; possible merger with Lockpicking or sneak
Make lockpicking harder (lockpicking skill tree is useless -_-)
Unarmored skill (focus on dodge chance and speed)

Better puzzles and Traps! I feel like the game sees me as a child when I do certain puzzles
Better Magic: Plenty of mods already show this can be done without it being OP
Better sneak mechanics: Way too easy, needs balance!
Some sort of reputation system: Harbinger, Master Thief, College Archmage, Savior of the friggin world! Guards still see me as a regular citizen, or worse: a chump. Make jokes at me or downright insult me. "He used to be a guard once, until he took an arrow to the face..."

Better Vampire mechanics: Why do I feel the sun burning at 5am? The damn sun isn't even out yet -_- Plus, the downsides aren't even that bad, just slap on some enchanted gear or even Perks! Make shade a possible safe haven (sun does health damage based on stage, like oblivion, and shade stops burning, but stunts stamina/health/magic regen. Different times of the day burn for different levels; morning/dusk is very little, mid-day is lethal. Cloud overcast and weather can downplay the effects, etc.

I could go on and on and on, but I'll stop here...

[Chill_Hill]

Originally posted by Two Bears:

As someone that almost always plays mages, I see the changes to the magic system as a net gain. I see the formal removal of Mysticism as arbitrary; most of the commonly used spells simply exist in other forms. And while I do lament the loss of spells such as silence and dispel magic, I find that outweighed by the removal of some of the more game-breaking elements like spellcraft, reflect damage and reflect magic. While there are no proper charm spells, the effect still remains in the pacify effects of various spells which, if you have ever played any D&D, is how charm spells generally work in combat. So, in short, if I were to give a ranking on a scale from 1 to 10 if Morrowind was a 5 (levitation was so incredibly stupid), Oblivion was a 6 in terms of magic, Skyrim would be a 7.

I still have difficulty letting Mysticism go, like how being able to rip and command the very soul of a creature into a soul gem all-of-a-sudden goes into conjuration, a school that focuses on creating a mental link to a summoned creature.
A quote from The Doors of Oblivion states: Conjuration, for the layman unacquainted with its workings, connects the caster's mind with that of the summoned. It is a tenuous link, meant only to lure, hold, and dismiss. While this may be explained on the base of Necromancy, I have a hard time seeing a good relation to summoning a lost soul from Oblivion to ripping the soul from a living being and sending it to the Soul Cairn.
Or how Alteration gets Telekinesis, even though it really doesn't change how the item or world works, except that the item floats to you and you can fling it at someone, even then that is based on the character's power and not on changing the world around the object itself.
Mysticism would need a total revamp to make it useful, but to completely remove it because of simplicity? I don't exactly agree with it, that approach is lazy.

Spellcasting was a little OP with the less magica cost exploit, but this can be a lesson learned and can be worked around and reintroduced again; but as it was in Oblivion, I would make the game easier than it already is.

[Vita, Mortis, Careo]

Originally posted by Chill_Hill:

I still have difficulty letting Mysticism go, like how being able to rip and command the very soul of a creature into a soul gem all-of-a-sudden goes into conjuration, a school that focuses on creating a mental link to a summoned creature.
A quote from The Doors of Oblivion states: <i>Conjuration, for the layman unacquainted with its workings, connects the caster's mind with that of the summoned. It is a tenuous link, meant only to lure, hold, and dismiss.</i> While this may be explained on the base of Necromancy, I have a hard time seeing a good relation to summoning a lost soul from Oblivion to ripping the soul from a living being and sending it to the Soul Cairn.
Or how Alteration gets Telekinesis, even though it really doesn't change how the item or world works, except that the item floats to you and you can fling it at someone, even then that is based on the character's power and not on changing the world around the object itself.
Mysticism would need a total revamp to make it useful, but to completely remove it because of simplicity? I don't exactly agree with it, that approach is lazy.

Well, that's Bethesda and lore for you. Just look at the ending(s) of Daggerfall. Whereas most devs like Bioware or Obsidian would simply pick whatever ending they wanted to be canon and go from there, Bethesda created The Warp in the West where they disrupted the entire space-time continuum to make all endings canonical and yet no endings canonical. Now, I love TES but nothing changes the fact that Bethesda stinks at lore; particularly when it comes to lore upkeep and addition. So, really, if respect for lore is your thing you'll have a hard time with this series. I just take Elder Scrolls a game at a time. To that end, soul trap continues to function exactly as it had in previous installments, so it really doesn't matter in the long run.

Spellcasting was a little OP with the less magica cost exploit, but this can be a lesson learned and can be worked around and reintroduced again; but as it was in Oblivion, I would make the game easier than it already is.

Spellcasting should be OP, ie linear warriors and quadratic wizards. In my opinion, the balance began to shift too far over once gaming systems began to include mana. I think it is another case where D&D got it right; you limit the player to X number of spells per day, per level. This makes low-level magic users very weak but rewards the player once higher level are reached by being able to do things that no other class can do. However action-RPGs, like TES, found it necessary to do away with these sort of checks and balances once the party system was dropped. Enemies, dungeons, quests, bosses, etc were not scaled to a single-player difficulty, forcing the player character to become a sort of one-man army; a far cry from the days of limits on player ability and specilization where every party had to have a warrior, wizard, thief and cleric. And that is why I think a return to a party system, even in "lite" RPGs like Elder Scrolls, could resolve a lot of these problems.

[Mr. Fibble]

Bethesda like to take threads of various stories and make them into a tapestry but only shows you the backside.

Skyrim is a great example of that in the way there are lots of quest chains but not that many have any real substance, length or actual impact on the world outside the passing commentary of the guards (who dont act on the information they have)

[Skyrimnut]

Mounted combat for spells and staves. Some of us mages like riding horses.