I have a level 30 Orc who hasn't done jack with the main quest. Hasn't touched it. Recently started doing Legion quests and realized the Legionnaires have a funny way of greeting me. "Dragonborn, huh? So was it your mother or father that was the dragon?" No shouts learned. No word walls touched. No dragons slain. Nevertheless, my Orc mercenary is apparently Dragonborn. Why? Because.
So I'm thinking "holy crap that's a disappointingly pathetic amount of effort put into making the game recognize your character," because as anyone who's completed a faction quest chain (or the main quest for that matter) knows, NPCs don't exactly seem aware of your standing. But whatever, shrug it off, keep going about my day. Then while running around, I get attacked by a group of Thalmor agents. I think "wtf??" I'd never seen the Thalmor automatically be aggressive before. These came up as giant red dots and seemed to be coming straight for me. Sure enough, a fight ensues and once I kill them all off wondering why the HELL the Thalmor are attacking a random Orc mercenary, I check their bodies and find a note declaring me to be a MASSIVE THREAT to the Thalmor Dominion that must be executed. MY CHARACTER HAS NEVER INTERACTED WITH THESE GUYS IN HIS LIFE.
Skyrim has a beautiful landscape yes.
There's plenty to do, yes.
But I think Bethesda should be absolutely ashamed of the work that's put into making the world react to your character. AND the length of the faction quests. This isn't the first time it's happened, no. "Ah, you must be the Arcane University's newest recruit" is still fresh in my memory. The thing is though, those same Battlemages also recognized you as Arch-mage. The fact that they'd call you Arch-mage AND the new guy suggested that a dev simply forgot to deactivate the first line once a certain quest stage was met. It suggested that the devs ATTEMPTED to do it right, but made a mistake. This though? With my character automatically being an enemy of the Thalmor and Dragonborn? This is like they just couldn't be flipping bothered to give that event or that line of dialog a trigger. No, clearly making sure random rocky ledge #2467 looks REALLY nice was more important than adding a simple trigger.
At least PRETEND you're trying... :sadvaultboy:
Your
title question does not support your
postYes, it is odd that the people know you're Dragonborn, and yes I agree it is a flaw.
However, your title question is: "Did Bethesda make ANY attempt to make the NPCs react to the player actions?", and the answer is,
blatantly, yes, they did make 'any attempt'. In your own description, the NPCs at least acknowledge that you exist. And when you go to a merchant, they sell things to you correct? And you can start dialogue with NPCs, yes? And bandits attack you, is that right?
So YES, Bethesda
did make some kind of attempt. You have just found a very annoying gameplay flaw, that frankly should never have gone un-caught