Like with all of my "rant" posts, I'll open it by saying that Skyrim is an absolutely amazing game. Todd wasn't lying when he said they were "obsessed" with the little details, and it has proven to be well worth it. I have been surprisingly happy with all the cool new systems like alchemy and enchanting. I really hope it gets game of the year, it deserves it.

Now, on with my rant:

Like all my main characters I play in Oblivion, I worked my character around the fact that I wanted to be become a vampire. I love playing games with vampires that are dark, twisted and evil (None of that Twilight or trendy crap), so naturally I enjoy vampirism in Elder Scrolls games.

To my dismay, the system turned out to be even worse than Oblivion's. I guess I expected much more care and attention to the system, like everything else in Skyrim, but it almost looks like they added the system as an after thought, just to have it in to give modders the base they need to make it playable.

There is only one way to become a vampire that I have seen so far, and that is simply getting bit by one randomly while fighting one. Once you become one, there are no quest entries, no roleplay elements whatsoever. No dream sequences, nothing. The attribute gains are totally minimal, and it's hard to justify ever becoming one.

The system is designed so that the hungrier you are, the stronger you become, eventually frightening everyone around you. It's in your best interest to become as hungry as you can get, as you have access to new powers and spells.

This doesn't make any sense to me, and I was hoping Bethesda would have learned from their mistake. You should feed because you want to be stronger.... Additionally, all sun damage has been done away with, instead, you simply become weaker in the daylight. Hand holding at it's best.

Good luck trying to feed on anyone at level 4 vampirism without extreme luck, or very high sneaking or illusion skills, as the psychic guards and npcs (Another issue gone wrong entirely) will attack you from miles away (almost literally). Feeding on hostile players and npcs is non-existant unless they are sleeping (I have seen maybe 2 in my total game time so far, pre-vampirism). I would have loved a vampire bite power that I could use every few seconds to attack and feed on someone I am fighting, and with the new "press Z" to use your power, and the new kill animations added in Skyrim, it could have been so awesome.

I severely feel bad for all Skyrim console players out there as they have to deal with the default timescale, as well as have no hope for any modders to remedy the system.

Anyone else completely dissaspointed with Vampirism? I could go on about the subject for hours, but I would love to hear what you have to say.

It makes sense that it's lackluster. There's nothing about Skyrim that brings vampires to mind, and it was a feature that they knew they would be pilloried for removing, so they tacked it on.

I think Bethesda learned from the mistake of making being a vampire so easy and beneficial to your character that not being one becomes a disadvantage.

I take it the volkier (spelling) aren't included then if it's tacked on

Sounds like a challenge

:D

They at least got rid of vampire aging right?

Apparently, but not... I saw an article with pictures of how it SHOULD look, but my Vampire did not seem to change at all... :S

Yeah I am fairly disapointed... I am a stealth guy and I was disapointed with both Vampirism and dark brotherhood questline

Yeah they did. The 2 good things about Vampirism in this game, is the lack of aging, and the addition of fangs.

In the end, they did lay us a nice base to work with as far as modding goes but.. still lame they designed it so shallow.

Sounds like being a vampire in The Elder Scrolls games isn't all that great. Well good thing I was never a fan of Vampires in the first place. :celebration:

i just want that vampiric drain spell, anyone know the spell-ID for it?