Fast travel:

Fallout had good fast travel. You still had to explore the world while traveling to the location, possibly stopping on your way to acquire new items/whatnot and then once you made it you could travel back there instantly to save yourself some time. In addition you could add Mark/Recall spells, Intervention spells, an unique item that would greatly boost speed (similar to Boots of Blinding Speed), though I doubt levitate/jump/free fall will make it back, and maybe different travel services as well as fast travel. That way the lazy have fast travel while those looking for immersion have options to chose from beyond fast traveling and just normal walking.

For quest waypoints:

Highlight the general area on the map where the the objective is, perhaps with a faded red circle or some other indicator. Morrowind did not do anything like this and some quests were just impossible to figure out. So you have an idea where to go, but not the exact details. So you must explore a little. Nothing pissed me off more in Morrowind than walking in circles for hours just to find a hidden cave for a quest. In addition, the NPC's could have Morrowind description with a psuedo-Oblivion waypoint... just a general area, not a specific marker so exploring is still possible.

For level scaling:

Most people want it gone. In my opinion it should be 50/50. I want certain enemy type to scale with you. This way certain enemies will still pose a threat, while others like mudcrabs will be easy to slay at higher levels. Maybe like Daedra lords, a specific type of bandit, major NPC's, and what not. While on the other hand you have a majority of enemies that you can't overcome till a specific level, and enemies that you'll crush once you are a high level. Perhaps have the weaker enemies gather closer to towns and the stronger ones be out of your way...

I like fast travel to be optional like it always is. Sometimes I just don't feel like walking or riding halfway around the map.

I dont like quest markers. You should have to find a place before you can see it. Morrowind had this right. Imho.

Level scaling is what seperates Oblivion from Morrowinds greatness, also imho.

I didn't like the fact that certain things didn't get marked on your Map in Morrowind. I liked the travel in Oblivion way better.

This way fast travel would be optional but you would still have to walk to your destination. Like Fallout I doubt Bethesda would have you run to the other side of the world for the early quests so by the time you have to you already have markers somewhat close to there. In addition, speed runners or people who don't like the idea of traveling first could just travel, get it all out of the way with key markers, and then continue using fast travel.

While I agree about quest markers, Morrowind was VERY bad with some quests. Start looking somewhere near a fork in the path, like she saw in her dream, in an area with stone fingers. Seriously?

This is why the red circle/area marker is good. Exploration is still required, and it isn't as exact as Oblivion, but it also isn't as vague as Morrowind if you are having trouble finding a location.

Level Scaling... I still believe 50/50 is a good idea. You have the basic enemies all a set level, won't ever change. In the start of the game Mudcrabs are still thrashing you and by the end of the game when you are conquering set level bosses you feel like a god. SOME things, however, are still a threat to your godliness such as random map Dragons who are ancient and do not like people trying to cut down their trees or Daedra Lords who are supposed to be pretty powerful. For immersion's sake I wouldn't want to be killing those things with ease and it would actually add to the game if there were still enemies that posed a threat.

This is why I loved it. I too would spend hours searching for places that weren't really all that hard to find. I was just searching in the wrong spots. But therein lies the beauty of it all, you had to use the information given to you along with your own wit. However, I feel your pain and would not object to your idea.

I agree. The fact Morrowind didn't mark certain things is why I wouldn't want the absence of some sort of marker in Skyrim.

It is rather amusing that people have any 'common complaints' at all when they know absolutely nothing about the game other than a teaser.

I'm sure OP was referring to past TES games, which we know some things about. So its okay to talk about them.

I love all your ideas, they are perfect for all the listed problems.

Especially the level scaling stuff :yes: normal enemies should stay at their level (so as mere bandits can't get that Daedric Warhammer of Winter you fought a Dremora so hard to get) and boss enemies should scale to pose the exact same threat at all levels. You get stronger, but legendaries should stay legendaries

I find its mostly the things people want changed based on Oblivion.

and @ bittergreen
- I agree, exploration was extremely fun but I don't want to be forced to do it in order to continue the game... I would rather it be in part forced and in part because I want to do it in order to immerse myself, see what is out there, and perhaps acquire new things.

That was mostly the mindset I was getting at. I'd rather not fight a normal bandit wearing full Daedric Armor with the same weapons I've been struggling to get inside Oblivion gates. At that point there... isn't a point to go inside the gates because everything outside has the same stuff, save for sigil stones.

Also... one small thing that irked me with Oblivion's main game...

Not enough creature diversity or creature size. I remember the world mostly, but not the creatures (save for Oblivion gates). Since I went half and half and explored when I had some free time or when I was doing Dbrotherhood quests I only really remember bears, lions, and ogres (right?).

And the size. Most things were the same size, regardless of what it was. Everything seemed humanoid and as tall as your character. I could go for some smaller things like dogs/cats/etc... and some larger things like elephants (or some fantasy equivalent), or stuff elephant sized.

If fast traveling is going to be limited, then something should be done about some quests. In Oblivion it was common to be sent from one corner of the world to the other for the simplest quests. Just getting into the arcane university required you to have visited every city. The first three fighters guild missions require the player to travel from far west to far east. Now I'm doing a playthrough where I'm using no or almost no fast traveling up to now, and with a chestnut horse it's pretty doable to get around the map. But I've still only done one guild mission, and for the rest I've done quests wherever I ended up. I already know it's going to be a pain to work myself through all those guild quests if I'm not going to use fast travel.

Otherwise, let limited fast travel be an option in a possible hardcoe (or realistic) mode. Introduce some easy transport options like guild teleporters, and allow fast travel between cities/towns/inns on horseback.

I think a quest waypoint isnt a problem if the quest is interesting enough to stand on its own. most "go kill this" quests dont need a marker at all, same can be said for go fetch-ems, in some cases. Markers really come down to how big and complex the world is.

The problem about fast travel is that the game will be built around whatever travel system they implement
if it's morrowind fast travel, there isn't going to be massive treks through the wilderness to get to a simple quest
however, if it's oblivion fast travel, the devs will have no problem with doing something like that
therefore, it can't be optional, as the game would be built around the system, but they can't have both either

Thats true. Though I still believe the Fallout 3 style works. They DID have you going pretty far in some quests but it was still interesting and you could always revisit it via fast travel if you had to go back.

Fast travel in oblivion made it feel like the map was alot smaller then morrowind's map. I like how they did the traveling in morrowind

Never had any problems in Morrowind without compass. Just need some patience.

Compass is bad in my opinion. Bad because I want to discover, not being held by hands. Making it optional is easy.

I like the idea of 50/50 level scaling. One thing I do not want though is bandits/marauders running everywhere in Daedric/Glass armors.. This is just wrong.

As for fast travel, I don't use it and I won't use it. It will be optional anyway.


EDIT : minor change

i hate your 50 50 level scaling, but your marker idea is good

Why the 50/50 hate?

It seems like it would solve the problems of the last two games, being:

Morrowind: Weak pansy who can't hit a crab to god
Oblivion: Srsly? Bandits in full Daedric?

and would mold the two together. Strong things would stay strong while still being able to thrash lower levels.

I know its been stated before but fast travel already is optional, I mean no one's forcing anyone to do it. But I suppose in addition to fast travel there could be some kind of teleportation service to bring a bit more immersion in.

As for quest markers I never really did see what was wrong with them, I'd much rather just find my next objective than search for it for hours.

I agree with everything in the original post.

Fast travel as an option is ok, personaly i like morrowinds method of having to use preset travel 'destinations' by boat or whatever, but I also understand that the insta-fast travel is handy.

I also LOVE the directions from morrowind way more than the magic markers in oblivion and fallout 3/NV
The reason: It requires thinking, and quests can be scaled in difficulty in more ways than just the strength of an enemy. I remeber the quest in bloodmoon, when you meet a scholar in Ald Rhun who tells you about his missing expedition, and then you have to search solsthielm to find the crashed airship using the little info you have and studying your map and looking for landmarks.

It made it FEEL like an adventure, where I have to actualy seek what I'm trying to find, and pay attention to the world around me.


as for level scaling, I understand that some form of it is needed. but there should be upper and lower limits, and your level SHOULD NOT dictate what weapons/armor/items exist in the world.
In morrowind, all forms of armor existed in the world to begin with, some only in certain areas, others very common. Elven armor should'nt suddenly 'appear' in the world because you've reached a certain level, it should be on characters and in places you would expect it to be, and in some cases in odd places you wouldn't expect.

Very immersion breaking when at level 1 all shops only stock iron/fur and the occasional steel/leather, then a few levels later they suddenly have elven and ebony.
Why is the worlds economy and production based off how strong my character is??

as for people who complain about balance, they way I see it is if you manage to score yourself something that is above what would normaly be expected, you darn well deserve it.

I second this.
As for the fast travel. keep it as it is please.
Level scaling. For me it is more important that the game provides a good challenge throughout the game rather than weather it is realistic or logic. But good items should be hard to come by, so fx bandits should rather be skilled than have good equipment at higher levels. Also, I really like Frans approach to this. You should be able to encounter a foe you just cant handle at low level, and at higher level there should be low grade foes as well as tough ones.

I don't think either the compass or level scaling are bad by themselves but in Oblivion they were so overdone that it ruined the fun. The compass often gave you information you simply could not have gotten in any way. This made dungeon exploring rather pointless. If you want to send the PC to look for some hidden cave or something, just guide him to a near landmark and tell him to "look north of here." Levelscaling is fine in random dungeons but I find it rather annoying in quest areas. There should also a limit how powerful a certain enemy type could get. Caves full of goblin warlords don not make sense. High level bandits with good equipment should not happen, because they could probably find a good paying job live in a real house instead of a cave. If someone is riding around in full daedric attire most bandits would probably take this as a hint so there is no need for bandits on the high end of the levelled list.