Skyrim

News, week ending 12 May 2012

  • Comment

56 comments

  1. supernastypants
    supernastypants
    • member
    • 117 kudos
    yafi,

    Agree 100%. I mean, just looking at the links Saaj posted, and comparing it to the artifacts list in Morrowind, its pretty sad really. Morrowind: 59 unique artifacts alone, each with a custom mesh, unique and interesting stats and looks. Skyrim: 40 artifacts... but... 14 reused models with little variation between the textures, appalling/generic stats, and most are simply Daedric quest rewards or priest masks /:.

    Its not even so much that the dungeons have repetitive art assets, that is tolerable mostly, and dungeon design has become much better since Morrowind. But they absolutely failed to give much incentive to explore them in terms of loot. The loot in Skyrim is terrible really, with only a handful of enchantments sprawled across leveled loot. So much for a "risk and reward" system we were promised in the trailers, because all reward in Skyrim ends up being the same leveled rings with enchantments like "Fire Resistance +10%". Stellar. Luckily we both chose the platform where these issues can be resolved with the ingenuity of this community (ASIS, I'm talking about you sexy devil...).

  2. yafi
    yafi
    • BANNED
    • 18 kudos
    deathknowz is correct about Skyrim's dungeons, they all have a predictable forumla. Sure, each dungeon certainly visually looks unique, but when it comes down to it, they all follow a linear structure of completion. Enter -- small room with some enemies -- corridor -- [repeat a few times] -- boss room with henchmen -- random loot with chess -- conveniant way out behind -- exit.

    Morrowind mixed it up a bit and finding secret items felt rewarding. With Skyrim you're GIVEN these items for completing a quest, rather than earning it on your own initiative. Go on, thumb me down for speaking the truth.
  3. sajuukkhar9000
    sajuukkhar9000
    • member
    • 10 kudos
    @kaasinees

    In both those situations I was able to tell the quest givers I didn't want to help them, they said OK, and then I walked off and didn't do the quest..........

    Also the people making the MMO aren't the same people who made Skyrim.
  4. The Vampire Dante
    The Vampire Dante
    • Global Moderator
    • 425 kudos
    All right, everyone calm down and keep it civil.

    People start throwing around names and insults it's going to end badly for a lot of people. kaasinees - I mean you as well. Tone it down, or step out.
  5. deathknowz
    deathknowz
    • supporter
    • 236 kudos
    I use the term hate very loosely. Live with it.
  6. deleted4244978
    deleted4244978
    • account closed
    • 8 kudos
    Morrowind was NOT linear, skyrim is linear as hell, only the world map is open. but when doing a dungeon or quest it was all linear. Never have i in morrowind felt the game was linear, it was actually fun searching dungeons and exploring. The only fun in skyrim is exploring a few areas because of the good looking sceneries ocasionally but there are also embarasing sceneries. For example skyrim has no decent bump mapping which makes anything look horrible, inexcusable for 2012 games. The skyrim crew is LAZY. Have you read the notes on ESO? "we are not adding realtime combat because of latencies" << utter laziness and bullshit.
    Stop being a fanboy and get a grip on reality, we are being cash cowed.

    And what do you mean you are not forced to do quests in skyrim? Because i can name a dozen, i will name two, thief guild quests and the abandoned house are the most embarrassing. Unkillable NPCs are unforgiving.

    @deathknowz

    Good job kid, hating a guy you dont even know.
  7. sajuukkhar9000
    sajuukkhar9000
    • member
    • 10 kudos
    Which is a step up from Morrowind's "walk into a Cave/Daedric ruin/Dwemer ruin, follow a linear pathway, kill a bunch of low level badguys, kill a boss, loot his items, then backtrack through the same long ass linear path and leave the cave, and occasionally you will have to go into a side room or two, mostly in Dwemer ruins", the shortcut thing was a great improvement.

    The problem with Morrowind's artifact placement is that the reason why they were hidden wasn't because they were well placed, but because the terrain was so poorly made it made it hard to find them.

    Furthermore given the repetitive nature of the dungeons, the low quality textures, and fatigue from going through 200 similar places already, most people I know never found most of the artifacts because even though they like exploring, it was just so boring too go through everything.

    Skyrim's radiant quest system, and lowered number of places is better, and gives more incentive to explore, because its actually completable, and you have a real reason to go there. Also this leads to the Devs not having spend their time making a crap ton of places 90% of people wont ever see leading to an overall increase in quality in the dungeons.

    Also I find many skyrim's artifacts feel just as unique as Morrowind's, and if you look at the list again a good half of Skyrim's unique items are just found in places.
  8. deathknowz
    deathknowz
    • supporter
    • 236 kudos
    Same could be said about Skyrim's dungeons. And while a step up from Oblivion, they are still lame. They have a pattern that you can predict for each type, which can be summed up as this: Enter, kill low level enemies, walk into large room, kill boss enemy, loot boss chest, exit via secret passage that happens to lead back to the exit. Occasionally there might be a puzzle door. And you always know that you'll find the best loot in the boss chest, nearly every time. Morrowind hid the best items in dungeons, so you won't find it if you're just mindlessly running through the obvious path. Skyrim rewards following the obvious path, killing any reason you have to explore, other than to see the pretty scenery

    As far as artifacts go, they don't feel unique and they never feel like you earned them. You get them via this lame and unchanging way, which simply involves talking to a statue and doing the quest that you're walked through. Morrowind set it up in a way that you get them in different ways, ranging from the basic doing a quest line to exploring every nook and cranny in a dungeon. Nearly every artifact in Skyrim is handed to you for doing some incredibly predictable fetch quest.
  9. sajuukkhar9000
    sajuukkhar9000
    • member
    • 10 kudos
    @deathknowz
    I would disagree with Morrowind being the least repetitive in terms of dungeons. Every cave and Dwemer ruin felt almost the exact same, I cant recall the number of times in Morrowind I went "wait haven't I been in this Dwemer/Daedric/Cave place before?". In Skyrim every Nordic or Dwemer ruin's layout feels unique.

    Also what do you mean by *actual* unique weapons and artifacts? Skyrim has plenty of those
    http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Artifacts
    http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Unique_Items


    I personally think that all quest related NPCs should be unkillable until their quest are done. Having killable NPCs in Morrowind only worked because most of them never moved out of their spot and had no chance of being attacked, unlike Oblivion and Skyrim where they are actually in some danger.
  10. deathknowz
    deathknowz
    • supporter
    • 236 kudos


    -Due to Morrowind's bigger world most of its dungeons and ruins are dull, its textures, and ruins layout, were repetitive, and the land was generic copy paste over and over.

    Not even a little bit true. Morrowind was the least repetitive of the last 3 games environmentally, and had *actual* unique weapons and artifacts to find all over the place to reward your exploration.



    -Killing its NPCs was also something many people hated because they had no idea if doing so would break the game.

    Being an idiot and stabbing everything that moves shouldn't be rewarded. If someone decides to stab Caius Cosades when he meets him, he deserves to break the quest line.



    -You aren't forced to do any quest in Skyrim.

    True. But that doesn't set Skyrim apart from any other elder scrolls game. Moot point.

    But for the record, I'm not siding with kaasinees either. I still hate that guy.