People appear to be designing such characters frequently. I don't recall any examples of players defining the world themselves, except for modders.

Umm... it's called using your imagination. A thing which pretty much all roleplayers have to do.

I know how it is said to be done. I don't recall hearing any examples of anyone doing it, or having to do it, in Skyrim. Further, the primary application of roleplayers' imagination is their character. Defining the world is generally off limits.

I'm not even sure degradation is possible in the current game's system, even if they wanted to add it, which I'm fairly sure they don't. I'm not so sure it's even a good idea from the original game's (Morrowind, Oblivion) perspective. The linear Degradation became a little too irritating, mostly because it was so trivial, a 20g hammer could repair 50,000 worth of goods in sufficient skill, and it didn't scale in any drastic way if your skill was low.

If I were to implement degradation in Skyrim, it would function off the current smithing skill, using raw materials and the grindstone-workbench. When the items health reaches 0, the item is officially "Worn", but instead of breaking outright, it immediately drops from 100% effectiveness, to 50% effectiveness, and won't degrade beyond that point. "Reparing" Consumes one group of materials (Ebony Ingot and Leather strap for most Ebony Weapons, for example) to repair the item to 100% from its current state. Same cost for 99% to 100% as from 0 to 100%.

I think a system like that would change the dynamic and economy of the game, without severely penalizing the player who "Just doesn't give a damn", given that the armor and weapons in Skyrim can usually be brought above-and-beyond anything reasonable to kill most enemies.


This is a problem the Thieves' Guild solves, but I think they could have really taken it a step further in the way I described. Doing Radiants (Specifically Bounty missions) in a hold should improve the hold's merchant stock and gold reserves. Strong vendors shouldn't be limited to the Thieves guild.

[Double Post]

That's kind of what they're doing when they imagine events that never happened or encounters that don't exist.

Like pretending to be a farmer - how?
No one engages you as such.
You can't be a Farmer as far as the game is concerned. You're a warrior/mage/thief who seems to bring a lot of food produce to towns for what ever reason.
In Skyrim, your character has no personality outside of your own head. Mainly because the dialogue options don't allow for it.

How are you guys who are saying this game is horrible and boring sitting on the forums and complaining about it all day? This game is one of the best created (that i've played), and I think it deserves more credit than it gets. How about you go to Bethesda's studio and try to create a game that can even BEGIN to rival skyrim, oblivion, or even morrowind! Once I get a copy of a game that you made and its better than any of TES, you can complain about skyrim all you like.

svck it up, buttercups.

Oh, not this again...
I don't need to be able to make a better game to point out Skyrim's flaws. I hate this argument. It's senseless and childish. I don't think Skyrim is a horrible game, I've had a lot of fun with it, I just don't think it's as deep of a roleplaying experience as Morrowind or Daggerfall are. I own every TES game and enjoy them all to some degree, so I have every right to 'complain' about your precious Skyrim

Criticism is how great games become greater games. It's really that simple.

if i could go to gamesas and have 30 minutes with them i could give them a ton of simple, yet, effective gameplay additions that would turn skyrim into a better game.

shoot, just the stuff off of gamejam would add gameplay elements to it.

the code and programming i'll leave to them, lol.

You can only put so much into the game. Try thinking of the thousands of amazing things that were put in there. of course there are going to be additions that can make it better, and there always will be.

Unarmed perk tree

I'm following you now. My personal favorite is putting on a uniform and imagining that you are one of a town's official guards.

Talking is just another kind of action, like helping someone or stealing from someone or opposing someone. Any action the game responds to could be viewed as a response to a character's personality. I think in any RPG the character's personality is predominantly in our own head. Dialogue isn't needed for effecting a character's personality, but it is a good place to do it.

i agree. however, the point i try and make often is that the additions that i would have made to the game are simple ones. (though, a programmer i most definitely am not, lol)

a proper working hud options, health regen toggle, hardcoe options, more descriptive quests/journal, less repetitive npc's, more high level enemies, more enemy types, a companion wheel, potions over time/limited potions, degradation, real time lockpicking, etc.

these are all very simple additions that would affect the actual gameplay tremendously and i'm almost positive they could have been included in the base game.

i'm not talking about dialogue and quests or animations or attributes (though, desired), better a.i., better trade skill creativity and implementation, etc. Those are changes that i'll assume would be much harder and time/resource consuming.

Surely you can understand that for every roleplaying character that they supported in Skyrim (such as your farmer), I could think of 10 that they didn't. It's impossible to do what you want in a game the size of Skyrim. But if you use your imagination, almost anything is possible because the game has so much content and possibilities.

Bioware games are much better for giving in-game roleplaying possibilities. Of course, as a trade-off, they aren't as open world as TES games. I'd trade a linear game world and a deep roleplaying experience for a nonlinear one and a shallow roleplaying experience any day, but I realize I'm the minority around here in that.

i completely disagree. i would guess that a high % of these imagined rp characters would have absolutely no in-game functionality.

mindplay and imagination don't make up for actual in-game function and mechanics.

you can't play a farmer outside your own mind because the in-game mechanics don't recognize you. you have to create a fantasy land within your fantasy game.

you can play a hunter in your brain, but, nobody in the game will recognize your character as an actual in-game hunter.

huge freakin difference. though, i do like the fact that tes games allow mindplay. but, nothing makes up for in-game reality.

LOL... no kidding.

I thought the big game mechanic was the beautifully done, living, breathing world with it's many many places to explore and many sights to see. Ok, so looting is a big part of the game if you involve it in your playstyle, but there is a lot more for Skyrim to offer than loot. If you got into it for loot, then you got into it for the wrong reason. I'm sorry, but you levelled smithing, so any and all arguments your present pertaining to loot are player error; no one forces you to improve your equipment nor do they force you to make the best thing you can.

I didn't read through all of the pages, but I think it's rather funny. Looking at Skyrim as a whole, and people complaining about how they failed to make an RPG. I think they've succeeded but not how most people would want. What they've done is create a game that is more RP than it is G. Gimping is probably the best idea I've heard, and happens naturally when you ROLEPLAY... "but wait, that will take me using my imagination. I want to be spoonfed my entertainment without any effort on my part." If this sounds like a response you would make then Skyrim, nay, TES is not for you.

I am nearing 200,000 gold on my level 50 character and I have not done one thieves guild mission, no fences, and no investment in stores. At this point some merchants have 1100 and the others have 750 for me to work with. I still loot every urn in every dungeon and sell my (mostly ebony) looted weapons. I also have zillions of gems and gold ingots that I could sell in a bind. I don't know why, but I keep collecting all this stuff.

lol!

because that's one of the things we love about rpg's.

searching every corner. overencumbrance is our friend.

This is just silly. The whole point of video games is to provide an interactive medium that gives me an experience without using my imagination. I have no problem using my imagination to make fun, but when I play video games it's because I don't want to. The whole point of video RPG's is to provide a medium that allows you to roleplay in-game while keeping mindplay at a minimum.

lol!

you hit it right out of the freakin ballpark.

in-game reality.

USE THE SKILL TREE TO GET MORE LOOT OUT OF CHESTS THINK ITS THE LOCKPICK SKILL AND THERE IS MORE LOOT AND INCREASE WEIGHT OPTIONS ON VARIOUS PARTS OF TREE

If you're not even willing to give it a go, then you can't really complain about it. I've played both ways and there's so much difference. You're in a living world, why play a mindless, soulless machine?

Interesting times we live in where people choose entertainment as a means to suspend the use of their brain rather than excite it.