Outdoor vs. dungeon gameplay? : V - Skyrim

» Thu Sep 22, 2011 9:51 am

It was in Todd's Gameswelt TV interview. He said some dungeons will take 15 minutes and a few of them will take 2 hours or so.

However, if the combat balance is improved from Oblivion, then I expect on the hardest setting every dungeon will take a lot longer to complete.

For example, with FCOM and Duke Patricks, I die a few times at almost every combat encounter, so even the smallest dungeons in Oblivion take me hours to complete.

If this is not the case with Skyrim (at least on the hardest difficulty setting), then I suppose I can only look forward to some combat overhaul mods to improve the balance.

W :rock: hoa man turn down the difficulty a bit!

» Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:29 pm

One thing you have to remember is that Skyrim is a mountainous region. So there could be 3x as many as Oblivion. But I'm not really worried about that. I'm worried with what you mentioned. An empty world. The dragons should spice it all up. And the mammoth herds.

» Thu Sep 22, 2011 5:32 am

Being a mountainous region, something I would like to see are mines. If you read this and scoff, saying "Oblivion had mines" you are not getting the point. Oblivion did not have mines. It had caves that were labelled mines, and had a few extra pickaxes lying around. I want to see some carts, maybe some cart tracks. I want to see elevators. I don't want to be able to "open" rocks to see if they contain 1, 2 or 3 pieces of silver. I wouldn't mind seeing people in there too. Why was it that every single mine in Oblivion was abandoned by all human activity, including the ones right outside Chorrol and Cheydinhall? If I don't see another Oblivion cave in my life it'll be too soon!

A bit more on-topic though, I would definitely love to see more outdoor action. Maybe a roaming bandit party that you have to hunt down to avenge a friend's daughter? Maybe some more political/speechcraft quests? One thing that was missing from Oblivion, that I missed (though I'm sure some won't agree) is one of those nearly endless quest chains where you have to deliver fruit to someone, then they trade you some ore for that fruit, which you deliver to a local blacksmith, who makes you some horseshoes for a messenger, who gives you a message to deliver to a nearby wizard, who then makes you find some alchemical ingredients in exhange for a signet ring of his grandfather's that some woman asked you to find because she is completing a family tree, and her grandmother was a love interest of the wizard's grandfather. The woman then gives you those crafting blueprints you really wanted...

» Thu Sep 22, 2011 4:26 am

I preferred the outdoors in Oblivion just because it svcks being in the dark all the time, but yeah, you're right; neither is that exciting. All the caves are the same. -_- Even when there's someone living in the cave, they just put down bedrolls and maybe a tent or a couple tables. It was much more interesting in Morrowind; the bandits/mages actually furnished their caves and were clearly living there.

» Wed Sep 21, 2011 7:41 pm

I just hope there won't be those annoying places it really looks you can go, but there's actually invisible walls. New vegas is really bad with that. Don't mean on the edge of the map either, just random hills with fake open spaces.

» Wed Sep 21, 2011 10:27 pm

Couldn't agree more.

» Thu Sep 22, 2011 3:13 am

I just hope there won't be those annoying places it really looks you can go, but there's actually invisible walls. New vegas is really bad with that. Don't mean on the edge of the map either, just random hills with fake open spaces.

Agreed!

it was the only aspect of New Vegas that I found annoying

» Thu Sep 22, 2011 12:17 am

Speaking of outdoors i heard something about wolf dens is that true?

» Thu Sep 22, 2011 1:57 am

i thought i was the only one who felt this way, yeah i don't really enjoy being underground. when i heard Skyrim had 150+ dungeons i was just like... eh

it would be cool if some of the dungeons could be above ground, like huge abandoned castles

» Thu Sep 22, 2011 2:28 am

Yes I understand where you are coming from, the constant being in caves got a little annoying(up until I got a Daedric helmet with detect life 120ft). However, I wouldn't worry to much about it in Skyrim for several reasons. First of all your in the northern country of the Nords now, and no longer the Heartland, meaning the scenery will be completely different and certainly refreshing. Secondly, I assume you have watched the game play trailer, no? If so then you have seen that both the outdoors and inside ruins and caves look fantastic. The concept of "too much time indoors" is easily rectified with the addition of unscripted dragon encounters. Wouldn't you rather come out of a dungeon seeing a dragon and say "Come at me bro!" rather than saying "Damn that was annoying."

» Thu Sep 22, 2011 5:59 am

it would be cool if some of the dungeons could be above ground, like huge abandoned castles

Cool idea, kinda similar to Kvatch... should also be doors inside that are dragon-accessible only (i.e. the roof in an area is collapsed, an unscripted dragon can come come inside whenever). Be neat if you could stumble across sleeping dragons too; sneak masters could take them by surprise!