Only thing I've noticed improved is that it has some more fish in it, and that's that!
Aquatic life looks boring and dull while it has so much potential.
Why they didn't put some more water creatures like sea serpents and maybe even a kraken-like creature here and there?
Also, where are all the underwater plants?

I'm sorry, but I believe that they did a poor job when it comes to underwater world and really hope that they will improve it via DLCs.

What are your thoughts on this?

I agree i hoped they would've improved it since this was also the case in Oblivion but i guess they were too lazy.

I was thoroughly disappointed myself with the water life. Still that muddy 'realistic' vision whilst snowy regions and spring clear water would contain more "whitish/clear" glow and view. Eh, can't have it all.

If you count the Mudcrabs as aquatic, I think they look more menacing now than in the previous TES games.

I'm fine with the underwater wildlife as it is. I think they could have made Skyrim's aquatic world more interesting and diverse though. I really wished they would have included a huge lake. The only large expanse of water is the northern coast.

PS: Having the same water textures for streams, lakes, marshes, and oceans is lame. Glad I found a mod that makes water look 100x better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX4UO-Pc-eE&feature=player_embedded

I think we should be able to fish with a fishing pole. The only way to fish is to run in and grab them directly. Not too much to complain about given the previous game only had clams and limited vegetation anyways.

So sick of finding Aquatic FOXIES walking along the sea-floor.
WTF?!

I agree. They should have invested an entire art team and graphics department on aquatic life in a game where you spend 99.99% of the time on ground. *durp*

Although the water does look better, while you're in a fast moving stream, they could have done so much more with it. But I guess a release date was more important than adding more quality to an already decent game.

Do you know if installing this texture pack would slow my game down at all? I'm playing on the lowest settings because my computer is crap, so I haven't been able to really download any textures.





@thread topic: I think they could have done a lot lot better on the aquatic side of the game. Definitely would like to see a good variety of aquatic vegetation, and maybe even a unique lake monster or something

Horkers are good swimmers I was chased by 4 of them in the deeps. We could have some cool changes like deeper blue fog and greater clarity underwater. Maybe some glowing things in the deepest parts and maybe some underwater monsters edited from existing creatures with the appropriate swimming animations.

That's sixy.

OH YES I AGREE, FIX THIS BETH! IT'S GAME BREAKING

I could not fight underwater -- got attacked by a couple of slaughter fish, and I could not seem to draw a weapon while I was underwater. I seem to remember we couldn't cast underwater in Oblivion, but not use a weapon?

You're also leaving out the fact that they didn't render stars and asteroids to scale. They just like, used a static picture for the sky. So lazy.


Ever try to swing a bat or any other object in the water? Er, bad question, I doubt many people on this board go swimming or have ever held a baseball bat, but still, you get my point.

It's not lazyness, it's called having PRIORITIES. Would you rather they made the water really interesting but then only had COPY&PASTE dungeons? :facepalm:



EDIT: Thank goodness there are other people who realise that not including something =/= lazyness.

All of underwater is a disappointment.

No underwater exploration / dungeons (barely) / interesting stuff to find.
Can't attack underwater, are useless against slaughterfish
Underwater graphics are HORRID. Even worse than Oblivion. Catastrophic for 2011. It looks like you're "swimming" through a thick, ugly pee. Bad fog levels, bad colors, awful lighting. Just... urgh.
The water surface all-visible-line is quite noticable and pretty distracting sometimes.
Underwater life is lacking. Some fishes here and there and mudcrabs and slaughterfish, that's it.
Underwater are boring in general.

They could have done so much more with underwater. Disappointing. I LOVED exploring underwaters in Morrowind, because they were the exact opposite of Skyrim's. They were fun, exciting, rewarding, yet also dangerous sometimes.

Yes the underwater adventure was a strong point in Morrowind, not so much in Skyrim. However, I enjoy it from an aesthetic standpoint. The world environment is one of the best things about this game, and that includes the rivers, waterfalls, hot springs, etc. One of the first experiences I had with the game was swimming downstream from Riverwood to Whiterun. Going down waterfalls is fun too, but sometimes hilariously fatal.

I think the underwater environment is a vast improvement over Oblivion, there's more vegetation and fish, the water generally looks better (IMO) the current in streams is a very nice touch...I will agree it could be a lot better, being able to use that static fishing pole would be nice, maybe some sort of fishing mini-game and as stated above the water surface line is a bit distracting but really I don't think the underwater environment was the games main focus...no combat underwater is more realistic (IMO) just imagine trying to hit a fairly small fish with a sword underwater in real life, not being able to defend against the threat of a slaughterfish attack simply makes going into the water more dangerous.
And if you think there's nothing to find in the water...you haven't looked around enough.

I miss the fact that unlike oblivion (since we have linear dungeons) we do not have secret access tunnels or places with an entrance only under water (if I am wrong please share). I do not count the half of a castle sticking out of the water which was partially flooded.

You're wrong. We could've both good dungeons and water areas if Bethesda would've spent a little more time and effort but they were like "hey wait a second people will buy the game anyway regardless if we put water monsters there or not so why waste time and effort?"

Maybe you have your settings ultra low; my water on the Xbox looks absolutely amazing, there are DOZENS of underwater plants on the bottom, and there are generally schools of fish everywhere.

-1

Oh. maybe that's why xD I do have it on low settings

The 5/6 boat wrecks were fun for me as was the tour of the icebergs I took. As for the aquatic life, well since combat isnt present it would just be a case of running away from Krakens. Sure they missed a trick, but meh

Morrowind was the last game to really give a reason to go underwater from time to time. There were not many in Oblivion. Is there even a reason in Skyrim? I have not found it yet and don't tell me if there is in this section of the boards.

Anyway, even Morrowind was barren underwater in most places. Could they have done more? Sure, but if the game play does not make you go under water a bunch, then I see no reason to spend resources making what's below the water more interesting.