Hit the nail on the head.

If you have to make stuff up to make a game entertaining. The game is bad.

Total BS.

i disagree. The best games i have ever played all heavily relied on me making things up.
It's called imagination. Without it, even the best laid out game is just plain boring.

Now, don't get me wrong. There's plenty of things of Skyrim that could use improvement. I think we all agree on that.

But i completely disagree with the notion that using you imagination to make a game (more) enjoyable is a *bad* thing. That is BS ...

I would think that loot balance is the easiest thing to do. It's just unfortunate, that this small mistake can ruin things.

I'm in your position too, did almost everything in Skyrim except for a very few amount of dungeons I haven't found and explored yet. I guess all we can do is wait for DLC for new loot.

By the time I got to the mid-30s, I was too powerful, relative to all but the top tiers of enemies (as in I could kill 50% of enemies with unperked Sneak and unperked archery, then mop up the rest with a few strokes of a war axe). The stupid part is that I had perks in hand... and 10 levels later, I have 12 perk points available.

I had nothing more I could do to my character that wouldn't have overpowered him. I had no perks I "really wanted", because they're so... bland... compared to Fallout 3's perks. The quests... well, the only ones that were anything more than filler for me were the Daedric quests.

Needless to say, I stopped at level 48, and never went back.

I find it a bit opposite, if I play a RPG where everything is set in stone i am "forced" to play that specific role and have very little freedom with the character overall those games have to deliver on story and game mechanics to be remotely interesting. TES for me has always been about me making my own story based on the available RPG mechanics. And Skyrim have some elements that are weak some that are better then previous games, and best of all it allows me to create a character as I want too. Skyrim isn't the best RPG if we look at mechanics itself, but it still allows me to create my story on my character without it trying to constantly dictate my playstyle or background.

It is all about how people roleplay this boils down to, some prefer rules that are set ins tone and allows them to play the role they choose. They don't want to create a big background story, they don't want to use their imagination more then to a certain point they want the game to entertain them not to use the game as a tool to create their entertainment. Then you have the other part who wants the game to simply give you the tools necessary to create your own story, to define your own role and to allow imagination run wild. For me TES games are about making my own character and living it as I see fit. There is enough RPG's that sets rules in stones and allows you to enjoy the story they have created, TES have never been about pushing the player forward with a story, it is about the player doing what he wants to when he wants too. In the end it all boils down to personale preferences and playstyle, there are elements of Skyrim I would like to improve upon. Some I have with mods, but the elements that bug me the most have always been handled not so well in previous games also.

A difference with Skyrim and other RPG's like DA:O is that Skyrim to a large extent relies on the player and his/her creativity when it comes to make the story. You can if you will simply ignore the dragon threat, or ignore all quests and just be a hunter or a thief, or a whatever you want to be. Skyrim gives you a certain amount of tools needed to create your character and live it, it doesn't push you in any directions it doesn't force you to do this quest to move on and unlock new areas. DA:O did this, you could assume the role from a selection of starting points, but then the story kept pushing you on until the end. You didn't have the freedom to what you wanted when you wanted, a lot of things were dictated by the story and your progress in it. TES is in many ways a blank book delivered with the tools to color it and write the text of your story. While DA:O is a written book where you simply play the story and are given a set of choices on how it will turn out.

I think people have misinterpreted me.

If you HAVE TO use your imagination in order to fill the game with some substance. The game is bad. The game should stimulate your imagination. Otherwise we might as well be watching a slideshow.

You should be able to design a character who can fit within the defines of the pre-existing world. Not define the world yourself.

I have read a lot of good statements here on which i partially agree; but what i really think is that the developers have chosen to let the player decide the level of difficulty in the game instead of take a (debatable) decision like the Oblivion one.

As i've said in another similar thread i think that a scaling system applied only at certain levels with new challenge and enemies to fight would have been the solution to those who find "boring" the game; but again i think that the level is fixed at 81 as a long term vision by the developers and in the Dlcs of course we will have more "levels" and enemies.

This is the main problem: in our times the game is planned as a whole with the additional contents already in mind instead of as an "end product" itself.

So at the current state (especially for the console players) the only wise choice would be a certain imagination and self -limitation by the player.

It would be cool if you could hear rumors and traders could point you to some deadry trader or something when you are high level
and that guys always got expensive better equipment than you

I think there's a line though. When you start gutting fundamental mechanics of the game (Character progression, class variety), I believe it's just a desperate attempt not to acknowledge the failings within the games design.


Exactly.

There's a fine(ish) line between stimulation, and stagnation here. Skyrim doesn't leave enough open for players in a lot of ways. But I think this is independent of the issue with difficulty. Difficulty curve is more mechanical than presentational, which actually makes it a lot easier to fix.




A lot of people do that, including myself. Limited crafting for example. But as I said above, when you do things like limit your level to Lv.1, you are essentially changing the game at it's core, not to mention remove around a third of the content in the game. At that point, it seems like you should just play a different game.

What is ASIS?

I still havent got a character past level 40 yet

Obviously getting to a high level ingame LEGIT is a very hard thing to do. I would know, since I've done 6 or 7 quests without a single level-up. I'm at level 52.

Now judging from this, the game should REWARD you for your patience. Although it may be less exciting combat-wise, there's always gotta be a sense of accomplishment with whatever you did to achieve all of those levels.

That being said, the game shouldn't be boring, knowing you were patient enough to sit through all of the hard fights, quests, and levels you made progress with. Personally, it excites me even further.

Anybody on PC who's bored should try the CK. It's just amazing the amount of time it consumes without even realizing it

I agree with you, but you don't have to limit yourself so much for an enjoyable experience on higher levels at master difficulty in my opinion ( without any "cheat" of course)

What i mean is that if a Sword with enchantment is almost "necessary" at first levels,you don't have the necessity to use it anymore when you are -to say - at level 50 with an high Health and Stamina level/regeneration.

I know and i agree that the developers should have take "this decision" in terms of gameplay for you -perhaps introducing the already mentioned scaling system and new/tougher enemies only at higher levels - but as i've said before i think that this is a strict and precise choice from Bethesda with the Dlcs already clear in mind.

A debatable (and perhaps wrong) choice of course,but at least "nothing is lost" yet in this regard,this is what i mean.

Regarding money, a Tax system would have been good as it would entice you to get married so your wife/husband can deal with it, meaning you still have to find loot to sell or risk being jailed. But that is going a bit too far into realism, we all hate tax... imagine it in a game

For the money the only thing needed - apart from a more balanced economy system of course -is an incentive to spend them,like be able to buy a castle or to build your own houses; rare weapons/objects/horses to acquire,shops to own or invest on (and i mean really invest,not the 500 septims of the game) weapons/armor degradation, the possibility of being robbed (with the exception of quest items of course) even at your own house etc.

There was talk of a mod that allows the player to own castle's or keeps, but with that the other keeps and castle's would have AI owners and they could attack yours and vice versa. You'd pay for your army but also collect money from anybody living/working within it. So it is basically a hold war thing, would have been good if anybody was up for the task.

Good to know,and probably there are even extraordinary mods out there for pc in this regard (economy) but it would be more satisfying and correct having a more balanced economy already in the vanilla game in my opinion - considering that the console players are the large majority of the purchasers if i'm not wrong .

I have both versions (xbox360 and PC) but i understand that not all unfortunately have this opportunity

That is just a problem with an open world game like this. All Bethesda's wonderful Open World games have this problem: Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3 (I haven't played the earlier TES games).

The issue is, I think, that there is a dramatic, huge difference between the Player Character's power (combat damage, health, equipment, etc) at level 1 vs level 40 or so. One way to solve this is to not make that difference so enormous. But the downside to that is that you don't as much of a feeling of character development.

Oblivion tried to solve just this complaint with the intent of making the game challenging at all levels. They did that by introducing "level scaling" which caused the world to change as your character increases levels. That way at higher levels you are battling harder and harder enemies. But lots of people (including myself) hated that because (1) it was unrealistic/immersion breaking, and (2) it is possible for your character to get weaker by leveling up.

Another possible solution is to make the game less about combat and more about puzzles and relationships. But of course that is not easy to do.

So to the OP, yes at higher levels the game can get boring.

The level scaling of Oblivion was heavily criticized by the fans at the time for valid reasons.

I mean, finding bandits with a glass armour set was hilarious frankly

A new "adaptable" system (only at high levels) and with real new enemies would be the solution perhaps; at the risk of being repetitive.

What a sad collection of attitudes.

Eh, whatever. Not every game will be appealing to every person. Different personalities, different goals, etc. Luckily, there are games tailored to those different personalities..... RPGs that focus entirely on min/maxing your character with ever-increasing loot to beat ever-increasing enemies (Diablo2, for instance); ones that focus on story; ones that focus on exploration.

Like I mentioned earlier - I enjoy the looting, I enjoy the exploring. So, for me, I don't see the "lack of motivational elements."

There is no such thing as "endgame" in Skyrim, period. Which may be why you have trouble finding endgame content.

"Endgame" is a term that can only be applied to RPGs (primarily) where the goal of playing is to get to the level cap in order to experience the highest level content/gear. The Elder Scrolls has never been about this, and if you play any ES game like it's World of Warcraft, you'll quickly become frustrated.

What's funny is, even if enemies had all Daedric and Glass armor now, it wouldn't make any difference, No Enemy has any armor skill, so at max they have around 145, which is negligible.

I think a lot of Skyrim's difficulty issues could be solved just by giving enemies appropriate abilities for their level... Armor Skill, Perks, etc.