TES V a new report

Post » Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:49 pm

Hello everybody

This is my first post for Skyrim. I am an avid fantasy fan and Elder Scrolls enthusiast. Below is a report I wrote a long time ago after playing Oblivion for my 1500 hour. I decided to incorportae my wants and desires for a fanstay game from information gathered from friends, books and my own selfish desires. I appreciate that some of the material mentioned below may already be spoken of and or may no longer be applicable. Enjoy!


1.0: Introduction

In my opinion Oblivion supplied the best foundation for any fantasy RPG/ action adventure game, ever. Oblivion literally gave fantasy addicts an outlet for all their enthusiasm, imagination and joy. All through the unique ability to create the character they most wanted in an expansive environment, with no commitment to follow the main storyline. Whether that be a remake of a favourite fictional character (I have made Druss, Pug, Skillgannon, Fitz Chivalry, Uthred and many more), the ultimate hero/ villain or the character they always imagine when engulfed in a good story.
However, Oblivion is far from the ideal platform to base the expansive experience we all hope to see in 2011. Plagued with bugs, poor combat dynamics, limited interaction with the environment, lower customization of clothing, and weaponry and character aesthetics when in comparison to other best selling RPGs. As such I would like to list my wants and desires for TES v, with some changes I think would improve the gaming experience. My experience and view stem from being an avid Oblivion fan with over 1000 game hours played on different characters with 200 on my best character, the first immersive RPG I played was Boulders Gate and I have read over 100 fantasy books (many multiple times), I am sure there are far more hard core fantasy fans than myself but I would like to think I am fairly competent.
I start my report with the first cinematic I saw of Oblivion, I title it: The Deer Hunt. This was the game play trailer showing the dynamics of the game through stalking a deer and killing it with an arrow, useful for explaining the levelling systems. What this didn’t take into account was the chaotic, inflexible combat system employed throughout the game.

2.0: Combat systems

My experience and problems with Oblivions combat system stems from two problems:
1. Combat with allies
2. Combat mechanics



2.1: Combat with allies

The combat with allies whether it be mainline or sub-quest based is for the most part terrible. Most of my fights result in me hacking into the back of a frenzied and super fast ally that has stepped in front of an enemy; this mixed with the poor combat mechanics leads to a slap dash fight where I am competing with an ally for the death blow against an enemy.

2.1.1: Shieldwall

You only have to go as far as Cornwell, Gemmell, Kristian and many others to find that melee combat on a large scale results in a shieldwall. I think employing this to some varying degree would be an excellent way of controlling the pace and flexibility of combat and increasing that 'feel' of intensity when fighting.

2.1.2: Shieldwall mechanics

So the shieldwall in itself should reduce the chaotic battles with the pushing and shoving with allies for kills. However, this like all other systems will require management. I think that the shieldwall should have its own skill and be governed by endurance. Dependant on how high your skill is the shieldwall will hold for longer under sustained assault, allow you more opportunities to strike (covered in shieldwall combat) and improve the flexibility of formation and release. The shieldwall should be controlled via one button that will form a shieldwall and disband it, this means that when small skirmishes break out or the enemies or allied shieldwall breaks from losing the shieldwall confrontation the player can decide to release the wall and flee or slaughter the confounded enemies as they run.
The wall can be formed from 3-18 bodies and can go from a maximum of 3 deep and 8 wide, the larger the shieldwall the longer it will last. NPC's can if need be hold together after you release but will be strongly encouraged to respond to your actions, shieldwall will be more likely to occur in significant battles and will commonly be initiated by the enemy or your allies (you can engage them yourself, the choice is yours. Most common battles in my opinion are solved better with free flowing skirmishes), you will know when the wall is breached, either yours or the enemies when lower willed NPC's start to flee. Below are two battle scenarios to help define the shieldwall:
- Impossible odds **
3 allies, 1 row. * **
8 enemies, 2 rows. * **
* **
More likely to happen later on in the game or with weaker enemies, you will tend to lead the wall in the centre. If you release you allies will also do so and put some distance between them and the enemy. Once the enemy shieldwall is broken the remaining enemies (between 3-5, depending on your overall levels) will flee, when you release to pursue your team mates will follow, unless engaged in combat already and attack the closest enemy on their side, leaving you the centre.

- Big battle
12 allies, 3 rows, 4 across
12 enemies, "”

This will be the typical open plane massive main storyline encounter. The wall will most likely already be formed and you join it and will not be leading, which will put you either on the left hand side or the right. If you release your allies will hold the wall. If you start to lose (down to 4-6 men, level dependant) you may take the front and your allies will arrange themselves accordingly, if your wall falls and you flee your allies (depending on their character) will supply a rear guard for your escape and try to do so themselves. If the enemy shieldwall falls and you release to pursue your allies will do as above and attack the closet on their side.

2.1.3: Combat in the shieldwall

Combat in the shieldwall is relatively straight forward, you can only melee (queue archer, magician and any long ranged/ sneaky killer sharp intake of breath: be patient) and your place in the shieldwall is governed by your skill, the person with the highest skill will lead the shieldwall (this means early on you won’t be leading significant shieldwall but you still have the power to leave and form one.
Melee is divided into short bladed and long bladed, if you use a short blade such as an knife, hand axe, shorts word etc (weapons designed for close combat, short and stabby) you will land more blows. Using long bladed weapons is more cumbersome so initially enemies will be able to block them easier, at least until you damage the wall enough, long bladed weapons will do more damage when a successful strike is landed. You will always be in the front row and the back row will fill in the spaces of the fallen. Having stronger NPC's on your left and right will mean a stronger defence and a stronger offence (choosing NPC will come later). You will hold block (unless you want to get hit) through most of the shieldwall and attack whenever you like (although it is advised that you do so when an open chance is available). Now for the ranged, assassins and magicians and those who do not want to participate in the shieldwall. Here we meet phase two of the shieldwall, flanking. The flanking groups will try to get behind the enemy shieldwall and deal damage to the enemy flanks. However, the enemies back row of the shieldwall will also try and turn to face any threat from behind effectively making a phalanx, you will also have to deal with the enemies flanking units. Flanking will be done individually for players and NPC's.
Ultimately timing the release of your shieldwall will capitalise on the slaughter that follows, as well as knowing when to draw longer bladed weapons more suited to skirmishes. Alternatively knowing when to flee a wall will mean you getting away with your life. Shieldwall will fall once your wall is gone (or vice versa), this is done through either over powering their wall with your own, the flanking team destroying the enemy NPC's flankers and forces a powerful assault on the rear of the enemy wall (note: this is the ideal situation, leaving little to the imagination as to what happens if you’re a enemy). It is my only concern with this approach that combat becomes laboured and drags with the "ow, not another shieldwall..." or "great, they want a shieldwall". The shieldwall will only take place on massive battles and only against intelligent beings like, goblins, daedra, humans and other NPC's, when the situation demands. For example if you attack a bandit camp (any number above 3) they will 90% of the time not shieldwall. I think this is an interesting idea and will defiantly fix the poor combat, as well as adding the serious tone to some fights you just swept through as a skirmish.

2.2: Combat mechanics

Now that the shieldwall combat has been dealt with we come to the meat of the games fighting, skirmishes. I found that with Oblivion the actual "hitting" the enemy with the weapons or magic didn’t actually feel like you were. For me it felt like striking a wall and striking a person "felt" the same. The most rewarding fighting tool in the game was the bow because when you were in sneak and hit some target from 100 yards and it hit home and they went slamming to the floor, it felt great! The same cannot be said for any of the melee weapons in the game (apart from when they blocked and still took damage then died). This could be furthered enhanced by making the enemy move under the impact of the hit and adding actual real time damage to the armour, e.g. if I slash the enemy across the chest (depending on the damage done) there will be ranging from a scratch on their armour to and wide open bleeding wounds and severed limbs (I know the rating would be higher but arguably some of the darker content in Oblivion certainly competes with a little blood). The next addition I would make to combat mechanics would be final blows. The next killing blow depending on the weapon that delivers the blow should have something of a unique final blow, e.g. if you hit them in the head with a double handed hammer, the NPC head will noticeably cave in and they will fly with the blow to land a few feet away or if you knife them in the back you grab them and from 3rd person watch as your player administers a series of quick stabs to the kidneys and spine and then drop the dead NPC to the floor. Having frontal and behind kill blows would defiantly accommodate the assassins guild and the reward from downing a powerful foe (unlike Oblivion where you hit them a few times and they fall over).

3.0: Thane

Throughout Oblivion you fight enemies with allies. This is an excellent way of building comradeships, competition (i.e. fighting with a higher levelled ally, like your beginning fight on FF7 with Sepiroth and aspiring to reach that level or power) and downing large hordes of foes easily. However Oblivion did not capitalise on this enough, most if not all of your allied combat results in their death early on in the mission, similarly there are no real significant NPC's that last throughout the games sub stories. One alternative is becoming a Thane . Joining Thanes and becoming a Thane would be as much of a side quest as the fighters guild was in Oblivion.

3.1: Joining a band

Scattered throughout the world are numerous warrior bands (both good and bad), joining a band will open up lots of quests. At some point in the quests band members will start to tell you that you are a "canny fighter", a strong man and a leader of men...a man they would like to follow. Then ensues a decision of whether you want to fight the current Thane and take over (if you have enough backing), report the band member or leave and start you own band with those that want to follow.



3.2: Becoming a Thane

Whether you become a Thane from murder, open combat, personality, alignment or luck; it will open many new doors and quests. The first thing a Thane needs to do is build a long house (see below for Working skills). Your long house can be updated; from a tent and fire to a grand stone fort with all the bells and whistles. Becoming a Thane will attract positive and negatives, feuds can start with other Thanes leading to night attacks, burnings etc, NPC's can come up to you and offer quests that you wouldn’t get alone that yield great rewards. Having a long house also offers you the opportunity to talk with your men (see recruiting), pick your shieldwall left and right sworn brother rewards your men and equip them.

3.3: Recruiting

I would be to include hundreds of significant NPC's in TES world main story and non-main story (some unique and interesting characters can be hidden away, like Umbra), with a high and wide variety of races, alignments and classes. These NPC's will not be like the henchlings of Oblivion but actual characters with personalities and appearances (see Armour and weapon customization), as well as being tough to kill, healings themselves with their own items and smart fighting. The player’s character can interact with the NPC and depending on a number of factors:
- Personality
- Level
- Alignment
- Class etc.

Can employ or recruit them. These NPC's will then join your band and head over to your camp. The NPC's having their own personality will be able to then challenge you for leadership, support you to the end, be a spy from another band, become a legend of their own etc, etc. It is worth noting that some NPC's will to be able to be recruited from decisions etc and some quests can be unique to obtaining an ally.



4.0: Armour and weapon customization

One issue I have with all fantasy RPG's is the ease in which you obtain armour and weapons, like straight away getting Steel chainmail armour. This just wouldn’t happen and also not to mention the fact that then just to reward players they have to make up armours for later in the game like "god, lightning, thunder, power armour of greatness made from Saphira dragon skin". Realistically good armour costs the same price as a house. You were more likely to find a part of armour like, half a chest plate and combine it with your own at the nearest blacksmith, especially considering the broad range of species and heights etc. (see Height customization). Therefore until you become a Thane or lute a special burial place of a lord of war you will spend most of your time upgrading your own armour as best as your skill dictates (see Working skills) or the skill of a specialist blacksmith with coin, this should then make for some individual armour looks and make it really rewarding if you manage to find an armour that fits and consists of "Complete Elven mail cuirass", "Complete Elven greaves", "Complete Elven gauntlets" and being able to tell who wore the armour and what they did to it also creates a uniqueness to the story as well.
Another addition to armour customization that I would like to see in TES V is colour change, being able to change the colour of the armour you wear would also greatly increase the aspect of individuality. Further to the point mentioned above regarding armour additions would be the ability to repair your armour. Although this was a function on Oblivion again I feel that it was not used to its full positional, instead of that boring screen with hammers etc. I suggest whilst at camp you repair your armour in a more realistic fashion. Sitting down around the camp fire (or forge if you have the money) with hot brands (this would give you more encouragement to visit the camp/ long hall) repairing major armour damage (not minor damage can be done everywhere, maybe when you’re a master you can completely repair armour with a minor repair kit) and as your armourer skill increases the additions you make and the quality of repair to the armour is more permanent and of better quality. This would then give more depth to the armourer skill.

4.1: Weapons

Again weapons, like armour on Oblivion are very basic in terms of customization. There are no real swords of night and day, Snaga, Serpent breath, wasp-sting. You do get weapons that are unique but again everyone can have an Umbra. What I would suggest is being able to work on or pay for your weapon to be customized, with runes, gold wire on the hilt, gems, different cross hilts but most importantly the shape of the blade, as you can see there are many different types of blades for different styles of fighting, choosing a blade should effect the types of swings or lunges that your character does. For example if you prefer to fight from horse back, you should be rewarded for using a cavalry sabre (heavy on the blade, for downward striking) when on a horse by dealing more damage. On the topic of repairs, you should actually get out a whetstone and drag it down the length of your blade in smooth strokes, this should be done anywhere (unlike MAJOR armour repairs) and you should be able to visible see the knick and dents in your weapon (hammers need repairs to the shaft) and run them out, shields (also used as weapons for ramming and striking with the rim of the shield) can splinter and crack, these will also need repairing.

4.2: Details

Here I am going to list a few minor things I would like to see in TES V that come under armour and weapons. Being able to choose where you wish the weapon to be placed on your body and buying harness's to hold more weapons on your person such as over the shoulder, leg, across the back, across the lower back, having throwing knifes in a baldric, should also be an option. Being able to actually watch your character pull out your skinning knife from its sheath from across your lower back and use it in combat (see working skills: hunter) would be immense, attributing different perks to the weapons positions e.g. drawing a sword from over the shoulder is slower but will give your first initial blow more damage (depending on the blade, weapon) as your swinging from a height. It is worth noting that in the character information tab it should also have more in-depth information about what your character is (this should feature in your Xbox or PS3 equivalent profile more simply). For example under the skills tab it should list amongst your skills what you do most often e.g.

Armourer skill: 54
JOURNEYMAN
Behaviour:
- Armour smith, heavy armour 75%
- Blade smith, shorts word 17%
- Freelance armourer 8%
(this is for work the player has been paid for at a smith or that of an Xbox friend)
Blade skill: 64
JOURNEYMAN
Behaviour:
- Curved blade, short sword 65%
- Skinning blade, knife 35%

On your live profile it would say:

CHARACTER NAME
Level: 45
Class: Warrior/ woodsman
Renown: 650/1000

Profile:
- A tall well built Norse
- A Lord of War (this would change depending on your skill, status, level etc e.g. a low level bandit archer would be - A thug with preference for bows, at a high level - Outlaw leader or something)
- Good (alignment)
- Prefers long bladed straight weapons
- Enjoys killing: SEWER RATS (most killed enemy)
- Fearful of: DAEDRA PRINCE (enemy most defeated by)

5.0 Working skills

I thought the skills layout in Oblivion was excellent, it really gave you some direction and character preference, my only problem with it was again its limitations. What I suggest is adding another page with the title working skills. Here will be detailed all the jobs and working skills that you acquire during the game (note this will not affect your core levelling up but will be linked with major and minor skills such as Blacksmith with armourer and barman with speachcraft etc.), progressing through the skills will allow certain skill to be unlocked when you are proficient enough that will aid you in the job and with general play e.g. huntsman level: 75, at expert you unlock natural camouflage which grants you a certain evasion quality (not to high) that allows you to blend in with your natural environment (note: this will only be effective if you wear the right clothes, e.g. bright plate mail armour will not blend in with trees!), it will also increase your renown and feature in your profile with - Master huntsman, 4th best hunter in Cyrodill.

6.0 General wants

Thank you for reading if you have made it this far. Here I would like to list a few things I would like to see that are small and do not have an area but would be great additions to the game. I would like your hair and beard to grow in real time, requiring you to get them trimmed, similarly if you avoid water and do not wash you will start to smell (with both this and hair, time should be drawn out a little, no-one wants to be washing and cutting all the time), I would also like to put piercings, tattoo and warrior rings (moulded bands from fallen enemies that Saxons and Danes would put on their arms to show their prowess) in the game. Having other guilds like the "fist fighters guild" (no need to explain what you do there), "Bards guild", "Smiths guild" and others that give you more quests when you join and allow you to get your hands on some unique items. Put some Dwarfs in the game please! Pub games, Being able to call out warriors for a duel to the death without upsetting the guards. ONLINE CO-OP and COUCH CO-OP! Don’t make it MMO but being able to play on missions in bands of 4, with your friends is something I always wanted to do (what’s the point of making an in depth character if you don’t get to play with friends. With the for mentioned additions the possibilities are endless, join war bands with friends, duelling, opening your own joint tavern, making an arena/ survival mode would be immense.
At this point I cannot think of anything else although I am sure there are hundreds of more changes I would like to add. Again thank you for taking the time to read through this, I would love to see these changes as I think they would make TES V the best game of the decade.
User avatar
Charles Weber
 
Posts: 3447
Joined: Wed Aug 08, 2007 5:14 pm

Post » Sat Feb 19, 2011 12:50 am

Hi Hex, welcome aboard. It's good to see that you are enthusiastic about the game. Have you been keeping up to date with http://www.gameinformer.com/p/esv.aspx ? That might help to answer some of your thoughts on Skyrim's combat, amongst other things.

Also - there's no multiplayer.

:wave:
User avatar
Holli Dillon
 
Posts: 3397
Joined: Wed Jun 21, 2006 4:54 am

Post » Sat Feb 19, 2011 2:17 am

. Put some Dwarfs in the game please!


There are no dwarves in TES. The Dwemer were sometimes called that, but they have disappeared a long time ago, and they were just another Mer race. Also, I strongly disagree with all the good/evil characterisations that seem to be omnipresent in other RPGs - it just would not work in a game with as much cultural diversity as TES have.
User avatar
JERMAINE VIDAURRI
 
Posts: 3382
Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2007 9:06 am

Post » Sat Feb 19, 2011 2:41 am

I had started this in another post but I don't think it will get much attention. As I said, first time post for me. I love reading fantasy novels and playing games. Below is a report I made after playing Oblivion for near 1500 hours total, it is a mixture of what I have read in historical fantasy and heroic fantasy that I would like to see in Skyrim. PLEASE READ! (please forgive any no relevant information that has been made out of date due to recent Skyrim news, I made this report long time ago).




1.0: Introduction

In my opinion Oblivion supplied the best foundation for any fantasy RPG/ action adventure game, ever. Oblivion literally gave fantasy addicts an outlet for all their enthusiasm, imagination and joy. All through the unique ability to create the character they most wanted in an expansive environment, with no commitment to follow the main storyline. Whether that be a remake of a favourite fictional character (I have made Druss, Pug, Skillgannon, Fitz Chivalry, Uthred and many more), the ultimate hero/ villain or the character they always imagine when engulfed in a good story.
However, Oblivion is far from the ideal platform to base the expansive experience we all hope to see in 2011. Plagued with bugs, poor combat dynamics, limited interaction with the environment, lower customization of clothing, and weaponry and character aesthetics when in comparison to other best selling RPGs. As such I would like to list my wants and desires for TES v, with some changes I think would improve the gaming experience. My experience and view stem from being an avid Oblivion fan with over 1000 game hours played on different characters with 200 on my best character, the first immersive RPG I played was Boulders Gate and I have read over 100 fantasy books (many multiple times), I am sure there are far more hard core fantasy fans than myself but I would like to think I am fairly competent.
I start my report with the first cinematic I saw of Oblivion, I title it: The Deer Hunt. This was the game play trailer showing the dynamics of the game through stalking a deer and killing it with an arrow, useful for explaining the levelling systems. What this didn’t take into account was the chaotic, inflexible combat system employed throughout the game.

2.0: Combat systems

My experience and problems with Oblivions combat system stems from two problems:
1. Combat with allies
2. Combat mechanics



2.1: Combat with allies

The combat with allies whether it be mainline or sub-quest based is for the most part terrible. Most of my fights result in me hacking into the back of a frenzied and super fast ally that has stepped in front of an enemy; this mixed with the poor combat mechanics leads to a slap dash fight where I am competing with an ally for the death blow against an enemy.

2.1.1: Shieldwall

You only have to go as far as Cornwell, Gemmell, Kristian and many others to find that melee combat on a large scale results in a shieldwall. I think employing this to some varying degree would be an excellent way of controlling the pace and flexibility of combat and increasing that 'feel' of intensity when fighting.

2.1.2: Shieldwall mechanics

So the shieldwall in itself should reduce the chaotic battles with the pushing and shoving with allies for kills. However, this like all other systems will require management. I think that the shieldwall should have its own skill and be governed by endurance. Dependant on how high your skill is the shieldwall will hold for longer under sustained assault, allow you more opportunities to strike (covered in shieldwall combat) and improve the flexibility of formation and release. The shieldwall should be controlled via one button that will form a shieldwall and disband it, this means that when small skirmishes break out or the enemies or allied shieldwall breaks from losing the shieldwall confrontation the player can decide to release the wall and flee or slaughter the confounded enemies as they run.
The wall can be formed from 3-18 bodies and can go from a maximum of 3 deep and 8 wide, the larger the shieldwall the longer it will last. NPC's can if need be hold together after you release but will be strongly encouraged to respond to your actions, shieldwall will be more likely to occur in significant battles and will commonly be initiated by the enemy or your allies (you can engage them yourself, the choice is yours. Most common battles in my opinion are solved better with free flowing skirmishes), you will know when the wall is breached, either yours or the enemies when lower willed NPC's start to flee. Below are two battle scenarios to help define the shieldwall:
- Impossible odds **
3 allies, 1 row. * **
8 enemies, 2 rows. * **
* **
More likely to happen later on in the game or with weaker enemies, you will tend to lead the wall in the centre. If you release you allies will also do so and put some distance between them and the enemy. Once the enemy shieldwall is broken the remaining enemies (between 3-5, depending on your overall levels) will flee, when you release to pursue your team mates will follow, unless engaged in combat already and attack the closest enemy on their side, leaving you the centre.

- Big battle
12 allies, 3 rows, 4 across
12 enemies, "”

This will be the typical open plane massive main storyline encounter. The wall will most likely already be formed and you join it and will not be leading, which will put you either on the left hand side or the right. If you release your allies will hold the wall. If you start to lose (down to 4-6 men, level dependant) you may take the front and your allies will arrange themselves accordingly, if your wall falls and you flee your allies (depending on their character) will supply a rear guard for your escape and try to do so themselves. If the enemy shieldwall falls and you release to pursue your allies will do as above and attack the closet on their side.

2.1.3: Combat in the shieldwall

Combat in the shieldwall is relatively straight forward, you can only melee (queue archer, magician and any long ranged/ sneaky killer sharp intake of breath: be patient) and your place in the shieldwall is governed by your skill, the person with the highest skill will lead the shieldwall (this means early on you won’t be leading significant shieldwall but you still have the power to leave and form one.
Melee is divided into short bladed and long bladed, if you use a short blade such as an knife, hand axe, shorts word etc (weapons designed for close combat, short and stabby) you will land more blows. Using long bladed weapons is more cumbersome so initially enemies will be able to block them easier, at least until you damage the wall enough, long bladed weapons will do more damage when a successful strike is landed. You will always be in the front row and the back row will fill in the spaces of the fallen. Having stronger NPC's on your left and right will mean a stronger defence and a stronger offence (choosing NPC will come later). You will hold block (unless you want to get hit) through most of the shieldwall and attack whenever you like (although it is advised that you do so when an open chance is available). Now for the ranged, assassins and magicians and those who do not want to participate in the shieldwall. Here we meet phase two of the shieldwall, flanking. The flanking groups will try to get behind the enemy shieldwall and deal damage to the enemy flanks. However, the enemies back row of the shieldwall will also try and turn to face any threat from behind effectively making a phalanx, you will also have to deal with the enemies flanking units. Flanking will be done individually for players and NPC's.
Ultimately timing the release of your shieldwall will capitalise on the slaughter that follows, as well as knowing when to draw longer bladed weapons more suited to skirmishes. Alternatively knowing when to flee a wall will mean you getting away with your life. Shieldwall will fall once your wall is gone (or vice versa), this is done through either over powering their wall with your own, the flanking team destroying the enemy NPC's flankers and forces a powerful assault on the rear of the enemy wall (note: this is the ideal situation, leaving little to the imagination as to what happens if you’re a enemy). It is my only concern with this approach that combat becomes laboured and drags with the "ow, not another shieldwall..." or "great, they want a shieldwall". The shieldwall will only take place on massive battles and only against intelligent beings like, goblins, daedra, humans and other NPC's, when the situation demands. For example if you attack a bandit camp (any number above 3) they will 90% of the time not shieldwall. I think this is an interesting idea and will defiantly fix the poor combat, as well as adding the serious tone to some fights you just swept through as a skirmish.

2.2: Combat mechanics

Now that the shieldwall combat has been dealt with we come to the meat of the games fighting, skirmishes. I found that with Oblivion the actual "hitting" the enemy with the weapons or magic didn’t actually feel like you were. For me it felt like striking a wall and striking a person "felt" the same. The most rewarding fighting tool in the game was the bow because when you were in sneak and hit some target from 100 yards and it hit home and they went slamming to the floor, it felt great! The same cannot be said for any of the melee weapons in the game (apart from when they blocked and still took damage then died). This could be furthered enhanced by making the enemy move under the impact of the hit and adding actual real time damage to the armour, e.g. if I slash the enemy across the chest (depending on the damage done) there will be ranging from a scratch on their armour to and wide open bleeding wounds and severed limbs (I know the rating would be higher but arguably some of the darker content in Oblivion certainly competes with a little blood). The next addition I would make to combat mechanics would be final blows. The next killing blow depending on the weapon that delivers the blow should have something of a unique final blow, e.g. if you hit them in the head with a double handed hammer, the NPC head will noticeably cave in and they will fly with the blow to land a few feet away or if you knife them in the back you grab them and from 3rd person watch as your player administers a series of quick stabs to the kidneys and spine and then drop the dead NPC to the floor. Having frontal and behind kill blows would defiantly accommodate the assassins guild and the reward from downing a powerful foe (unlike Oblivion where you hit them a few times and they fall over).

3.0: Thane

Throughout Oblivion you fight enemies with allies. This is an excellent way of building comradeships, competition (i.e. fighting with a higher levelled ally, like your beginning fight on FF7 with Sepiroth and aspiring to reach that level or power) and downing large hordes of foes easily. However Oblivion did not capitalise on this enough, most if not all of your allied combat results in their death early on in the mission, similarly there are no real significant NPC's that last throughout the games sub stories. One alternative is becoming a Thane . Joining Thanes and becoming a Thane would be as much of a side quest as the fighters guild was in Oblivion.

3.1: Joining a band

Scattered throughout the world are numerous warrior bands (both good and bad), joining a band will open up lots of quests. At some point in the quests band members will start to tell you that you are a "canny fighter", a strong man and a leader of men...a man they would like to follow. Then ensues a decision of whether you want to fight the current Thane and take over (if you have enough backing), report the band member or leave and start you own band with those that want to follow.



3.2: Becoming a Thane

Whether you become a Thane from murder, open combat, personality, alignment or luck; it will open many new doors and quests. The first thing a Thane needs to do is build a long house (see below for Working skills). Your long house can be updated; from a tent and fire to a grand stone fort with all the bells and whistles. Becoming a Thane will attract positive and negatives, feuds can start with other Thanes leading to night attacks, burnings etc, NPC's can come up to you and offer quests that you wouldn’t get alone that yield great rewards. Having a long house also offers you the opportunity to talk with your men (see recruiting), pick your shieldwall left and right sworn brother rewards your men and equip them.

3.3: Recruiting

I would be to include hundreds of significant NPC's in TES world main story and non-main story (some unique and interesting characters can be hidden away, like Umbra), with a high and wide variety of races, alignments and classes. These NPC's will not be like the henchlings of Oblivion but actual characters with personalities and appearances (see Armour and weapon customization), as well as being tough to kill, healings themselves with their own items and smart fighting. The player’s character can interact with the NPC and depending on a number of factors:
- Personality
- Level
- Alignment
- Class etc.

Can employ or recruit them. These NPC's will then join your band and head over to your camp. The NPC's having their own personality will be able to then challenge you for leadership, support you to the end, be a spy from another band, become a legend of their own etc, etc. It is worth noting that some NPC's will to be able to be recruited from decisions etc and some quests can be unique to obtaining an ally.



4.0: Armour and weapon customization

One issue I have with all fantasy RPG's is the ease in which you obtain armour and weapons, like straight away getting Steel chainmail armour. This just wouldn’t happen and also not to mention the fact that then just to reward players they have to make up armours for later in the game like "god, lightning, thunder, power armour of greatness made from Saphira dragon skin". Realistically good armour costs the same price as a house. You were more likely to find a part of armour like, half a chest plate and combine it with your own at the nearest blacksmith, especially considering the broad range of species and heights etc. (see Height customization). Therefore until you become a Thane or lute a special burial place of a lord of war you will spend most of your time upgrading your own armour as best as your skill dictates (see Working skills) or the skill of a specialist blacksmith with coin, this should then make for some individual armour looks and make it really rewarding if you manage to find an armour that fits and consists of "Complete Elven mail cuirass", "Complete Elven greaves", "Complete Elven gauntlets" and being able to tell who wore the armour and what they did to it also creates a uniqueness to the story as well.
Another addition to armour customization that I would like to see in TES V is colour change, being able to change the colour of the armour you wear would also greatly increase the aspect of individuality. Further to the point mentioned above regarding armour additions would be the ability to repair your armour. Although this was a function on Oblivion again I feel that it was not used to its full positional, instead of that boring screen with hammers etc. I suggest whilst at camp you repair your armour in a more realistic fashion. Sitting down around the camp fire (or forge if you have the money) with hot brands (this would give you more encouragement to visit the camp/ long hall) repairing major armour damage (not minor damage can be done everywhere, maybe when you’re a master you can completely repair armour with a minor repair kit) and as your armourer skill increases the additions you make and the quality of repair to the armour is more permanent and of better quality. This would then give more depth to the armourer skill.

4.1: Weapons

Again weapons, like armour on Oblivion are very basic in terms of customization. There are no real swords of night and day, Snaga, Serpent breath, wasp-sting. You do get weapons that are unique but again everyone can have an Umbra. What I would suggest is being able to work on or pay for your weapon to be customized, with runes, gold wire on the hilt, gems, different cross hilts but most importantly the shape of the blade, as you can see there are many different types of blades for different styles of fighting, choosing a blade should effect the types of swings or lunges that your character does. For example if you prefer to fight from horse back, you should be rewarded for using a cavalry sabre (heavy on the blade, for downward striking) when on a horse by dealing more damage. On the topic of repairs, you should actually get out a whetstone and drag it down the length of your blade in smooth strokes, this should be done anywhere (unlike MAJOR armour repairs) and you should be able to visible see the knick and dents in your weapon (hammers need repairs to the shaft) and run them out, shields (also used as weapons for ramming and striking with the rim of the shield) can splinter and crack, these will also need repairing.

4.2: Details

Here I am going to list a few minor things I would like to see in TES V that come under armour and weapons. Being able to choose where you wish the weapon to be placed on your body and buying harness's to hold more weapons on your person such as over the shoulder, leg, across the back, across the lower back, having throwing knifes in a baldric, should also be an option. Being able to actually watch your character pull out your skinning knife from its sheath from across your lower back and use it in combat (see working skills: hunter) would be immense, attributing different perks to the weapons positions e.g. drawing a sword from over the shoulder is slower but will give your first initial blow more damage (depending on the blade, weapon) as your swinging from a height. It is worth noting that in the character information tab it should also have more in-depth information about what your character is (this should feature in your Xbox or PS3 equivalent profile more simply). For example under the skills tab it should list amongst your skills what you do most often e.g.

Armourer skill: 54
JOURNEYMAN
Behaviour:
- Armour smith, heavy armour 75%
- Blade smith, shorts word 17%
- Freelance armourer 8%
(this is for work the player has been paid for at a smith or that of an Xbox friend)
Blade skill: 64
JOURNEYMAN
Behaviour:
- Curved blade, short sword 65%
- Skinning blade, knife 35%

On your live profile it would say:

CHARACTER NAME
Level: 45
Class: Warrior/ woodsman
Renown: 650/1000

Profile:
- A tall well built Norse
- A Lord of War (this would change depending on your skill, status, level etc e.g. a low level bandit archer would be - A thug with preference for bows, at a high level - Outlaw leader or something)
- Good (alignment)
- Prefers long bladed straight weapons
- Enjoys killing: SEWER RATS (most killed enemy)
- Fearful of: DAEDRA PRINCE (enemy most defeated by)

5.0 Working skills

I thought the skills layout in Oblivion was excellent, it really gave you some direction and character preference, my only problem with it was again its limitations. What I suggest is adding another page with the title working skills. Here will be detailed all the jobs and working skills that you acquire during the game (note this will not affect your core levelling up but will be linked with major and minor skills such as Blacksmith with armourer and barman with speachcraft etc.), progressing through the skills will allow certain skill to be unlocked when you are proficient enough that will aid you in the job and with general play e.g. huntsman level: 75, at expert you unlock natural camouflage which grants you a certain evasion quality (not to high) that allows you to blend in with your natural environment (note: this will only be effective if you wear the right clothes, e.g. bright plate mail armour will not blend in with trees!), it will also increase your renown and feature in your profile with - Master huntsman, 4th best hunter in Cyrodill.

6.0 General wants

Thank you for reading if you have made it this far. Here I would like to list a few things I would like to see that are small and do not have an area but would be great additions to the game. I would like your hair and beard to grow in real time, requiring you to get them trimmed, similarly if you avoid water and do not wash you will start to smell (with both this and hair, time should be drawn out a little, no-one wants to be washing and cutting all the time), I would also like to put piercings, tattoo and warrior rings (moulded bands from fallen enemies that Saxons and Danes would put on their arms to show their prowess) in the game. Having other guilds like the "fist fighters guild" (no need to explain what you do there), "Bards guild", "Smiths guild" and others that give you more quests when you join and allow you to get your hands on some unique items. Put some Dwarfs in the game please! Pub games, Being able to call out warriors for a duel to the death without upsetting the guards. ONLINE CO-OP and COUCH CO-OP! Don’t make it MMO but being able to play on missions in bands of 4, with your friends is something I always wanted to do (what’s the point of making an in depth character if you don’t get to play with friends. With the for mentioned additions the possibilities are endless, join war bands with friends, duelling, opening your own joint tavern, making an arena/ survival mode would be immense.
At this point I cannot think of anything else although I am sure there are hundreds of more changes I would like to add. Again thank you for taking the time to read through this, I would love to see these changes as I think they would make TES V the best game of the decade.
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Eire Charlotta
 
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Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2006 6:00 pm

Post » Sat Feb 19, 2011 9:48 am

Hi Hex, welcome aboard. It's good to see that you are enthusiastic about the game. Have you been keeping up to date with http://www.gameinformer.com/p/esv.aspx ? That might help to answer some of your thoughts on Skyrim's combat, amongst other things.

Also - there's no multiplayer.

:wave:


Thank you for replying, and for the heads up. I do not expect this to get read much but I am happy that its finally seen the light of day. It makes me feel like a tried to put something forward, the best thing about TES is that even if they didn't put in any of my suggestions I will still be an amazing game for me.
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Hope Greenhaw
 
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Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2007 8:44 pm

Post » Sat Feb 19, 2011 6:29 am

Sorry, dont have time to read through the entire thing. I will respond to what I have read:

That shieldwall idea, is not only a bad idea for this game, but it is not true that a general melee would turn into that. Unless I am misunderstanding you here anyways. Because, a general melee is just that, a general melee. Even in RL, battle was chaotic even with the best disciplined soldiers. People used shieldwalls when it was tacticaly appropriate, and they usually didnt use a shieldwall, they used something else. And in Oblivion, it was never tacticaly appropriate. Because you are almost always on your own. After completeing certain quest lines, you can take ONE companion with you. And there are 2 quests where you end up with a significant amount of allies, and for the most part of the quest, they dont do anything to help! As for thanes, they will likely still have groups to join regardless, dont worry.
Now, I also disagree when you say that you are more likely to find say, a piece of a chestpiece then the whole thing. Now, to an extent, I have always kinda disagreed with finding armour while searching. But finding pieces of pieces scattered around? Who got torn apart that badly? Why not just go back to morrowind style, where the better armour is actualy really tough to find(although, in vanilla oblivion, I neveer saw a full suit of ebony, daedric, glass or orcish armour, although admittedly, I did it at a low level).
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flora
 
Posts: 3479
Joined: Fri Jun 23, 2006 1:48 am

Post » Sat Feb 19, 2011 12:31 am

Erm, my appologies for not reading the post, but I do admire your time and effort! :foodndrink:

One suggestion that might help people read it instead of it being a wall of text:
You have sections already numbered; could you edit in a table of contents?
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stevie critchley
 
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Post » Sat Feb 19, 2011 8:04 am

Can I ask why you posted this twice?
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Amy Siebenhaar
 
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Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2007 1:51 am

Post » Sat Feb 19, 2011 3:37 am

Please dont make 2 identical threads. Enough topics get lost as it is with the activity of this section.
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Curveballs On Phoenix
 
Posts: 3365
Joined: Sun Jul 01, 2007 4:43 am

Post » Sat Feb 19, 2011 3:17 am

Sorry, dont have time to read through the entire thing. I will respond to what I have read:

That shieldwall idea, is not only a bad idea for this game, but it is not true that a general melee would turn into that. Unless I am misunderstanding you here anyways. Because, a general melee is just that, a general melee. Even in RL, battle was chaotic even with the best disciplined soldiers. People used shieldwalls when it was tacticaly appropriate, and they usually didnt use a shieldwall, they used something else. And in Oblivion, it was never tacticaly appropriate. Because you are almost always on your own. After completeing certain quest lines, you can take ONE companion with you. And there are 2 quests where you end up with a significant amount of allies, and for the most part of the quest, they dont do anything to help! As for thanes, they will likely still have groups to join regardless, dont worry.
Now, I also disagree when you say that you are more likely to find say, a piece of a chestpiece then the whole thing. Now, to an extent, I have always kinda disagreed with finding armour while searching. But finding pieces of pieces scattered around? Who got torn apart that badly? Why not just go back to morrowind style, where the better armour is actualy really tough to find(although, in vanilla oblivion, I neveer saw a full suit of ebony, daedric, glass or orcish armour, although admittedly, I did it at a low level).


Thanks for your response

I meant with the sheild wall the kind of battles like (SPOILERS) at the end of Oblivion main story, I agree that it doesnt happen often but I was just an Idea. Shield walls were far more common than melees (no matter how un organised)

The piece of armour thing was more to deal with the fact that armour (traditionally was extremely expensive) and that it inst that realistic to find a size and full piece.

As i said its only my opinion not fully drawn out but as I see it (maybe not right but its there)

thanks
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Jonathan Montero
 
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Post » Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:14 pm

Well, those are some very interesting ideas, and I think it would be great if the game were that dynamic. I'm not going to get my hopes up that high, though. I particularly like the Thane and Shield Wall ideas, though. This might be a good theoretical foundation for some mods?
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Cody Banks
 
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Post » Sat Feb 19, 2011 4:37 am

Since you're new, here have a http://images.uesp.net//c/c4/Fishystick.jpg.
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Susan Elizabeth
 
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