In Oblivion, you didnt level up if you didnt sleep? Do I remember this correctly? If its similar in Skyrim, cant you just skip sleeping?

You can go on about freedom this, freedom that, then you'll probably one day realize why the modding tools exist..

I've read that you level up "on the fly" and sleeping is uninvolved in the process. However, there's no way to prevent yourself from skilling up as that happens organically during play.

However, you don't have to pick Perks when you level; you can save your Perk points. (Not sure if you have to choose Health/Magicka/Stamina immediately or not.) As skyrimaddict31 says, if you don't choose Perks for a skill, you'll lose a lot of effectiveness. This looks to me like a great method for limiting character power without even resorting to the console.

I am not twisting Bethesda's words and intent. It is simple fact that Bethesda design their games with free-form roleplaying in mind, essentially making the 'point' of the game whatever the player chooses. To suggest that the point of their games is to beat the Main Quest and make an ungodlily-powerful character (if that is what you are doing, forgive me if I'm misinterpreting you) flies in the face of virtually all official statements. In fact, allow me to quote verbatim from the Oblivion manual:


So, if you like wandering and exploring, that's what you should do. If you simply want to complete the main quest and feel like you've "finished" the game, then you can do just that. Most folks will find themselves somewhere in between
.......
.......
.......
And, just as you can go and do whatever you like, you can also be whatever kind of character you want.

And from The Vault Dweller's Survival Guide:

Now, here's the good news. When that giant vault door slides open and you're thrust into the harsh sunlight of the Capital Wasteland, you're completely free to make your own destiny. Follow after dear old Dad.....or forget he even exists.

They make no choice for the game. Maybe the developers have broad ideas, but they leave the detail to us. They give us tools to create our own roleplaying experience, not just beat the game. They intentionally design the game broadly so we can choose what kind of character to play as, and design a dynamic, realistic world for that purpose. Arguing that I am projecting my choices onto the devs' intent is silly. Do you think the devs possibly know exactly, from the myriad of roleplay scenarios made possible by the game's engine, which ones real-world players will pick?

Arguing that the existence of a main quest proves that its completion is the intent of the devs is equally silly. There are quests in Oblivion that I haven't completed after 1000+ hours of play, and I did not complete the Main Quest for a good 400 hours of play or so. It's entire possible that I may take a while to do Skyrim's MQ, if I do it at all. And that's not to even mention the faction quests. I did not complete the Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild or Fighters Guild questlines, nor did I feel the need to.

It is already possible to roleplay mediocre characters, per se. Just not easy. In Fallout 3 I could opt out of getting skillbooks, bobbledheads etc. and doing quests to keep my skills down. In Oblivion, it meant designing a character with major skills that I didn't use often. But that is not the point. Skyrim, like other games, will have roundabout methods of achieving that aim. It would be much better though, if there was an easier way.

I suppose the argument against this sort of feature is that gamers whose goal is, primarily, a gaming challenge, rather than roleplay, will not like it because it takes away from that side of things, although I'd stress that it would be entirely optional and certainly would not make anything easier. I really don't see why anyone could seriously object to this as an option when we have things like fast travel in the game.

I think a lot of people associate "options" with TES games, but there's a lot of confusion as to where those options exist. The only options we've ever been given is what to do IN GAME. We have never had the option to change how the game works (mods notwithstanding).

Personally, I'd rather see Bethesda work on a single unified game mechanic, rather than making the game work for multiple conflicting mechanics.

Your whole posts are invalid, but I still reply them.


Nope.
You are one that didn't get what TES is.
All the quests, guild, spells, weapons, etc. are just toys for us to play.
Dragons and being dragonborn is just the biggest toy in the game and that's why it's on the cover.
It's up to us to chose if we will use it or not.
By your way of thinking, everyone who is not master of everything and doesn't complete every single quest in TES is playing it wrong.
You can't beat TES since unless you complete absolutely everything and master everything, and that's not the point of TES.


Then how about simply not use it? >_>
Only because you don't like something, it doesn't mean others will not.
I don't like bows, axes or maces, but still want them in since I know lot of people like them and will enjoy them.


How?


What the?
Something as simple as this would practically take no time at all compared to other stuff they've implemented!
Also, this is not something minor, it's major!
RPing what you want to be in a open world is what TES is all about and this would improve it greatly.


The main idea here is not only to stop leveling, but you from getting better at certain things.

If they have said we are the Dovahkiin, it is probably meant only as a general statement. Most of us will choose to play as the Dovahkiin at some point, but we will not be forced to do so. We are the Dovahkiin in the sense that our character will enter the game world by default as a main quest character, but Beth's games normally allow us to deviate totally from that default setting.

There are no mods necessary for a free-form roleplay in Bethesda's game generally speaking. In Oblivion you could create a character that bypasses the Main Quest almost entirely, save dropping off the Amulet of Kings at Weynon Priory. That character could then never touch the MQ again, and could go on to do he aes Guild/Fighters Guild/Arena/Dark Brotherhood quests, or simply freeform adventuring. I did tht on Xbox360, needless to say without mods.

Just to reiterate, I accept this option will not be in Skyrim, but why exactyare you totally against its implemenattion in future games?

How many years of application development and project management convinces you that this is a trivial addition?

It was easily done in Oblivion on the PC through the way of console commands. I imagine making a mod that does the same is quite easy. Bethesda puts out the modding tools for things exactly like this, so you can tailor your game to your liking.

If you play on console then you are out of luck on this. The game will certainly be feature locked by now.

No. Not because it's a bad idea, but because they don't have infinite development time on games, and if they did have more time, I would rather they spend it on spears or something that everyone will use.

"You don't get what TES is"

"If they said we are the Dovahkiin it was probably meant..."

You're making all these assumptions instead of just simply listening to the devs. There's a ton of interviews out there, go take a listen. I'm done attempting to tell you the same thing 20 different ways. Good luck!

I doubt it would be particularly difficult to implement. It essentially involves switching off an element of the game's mechanics from an in-game menu, which happens a lot at present. Why would that be particularly difficult?

The entire premise of the leveling system is to increase the skills you use. Selecting which skills will level when you use them circumvents the forced specialization and would allow you to say, make unlimited low level potions without losing a single level to Alchemy. It's exploitation to say the least.

I never said the first quote. As for the second, I have outlined in detail why I think Bethesda's intentions are for us to enjoy the game however we wish, including completely ignoring the main quest if we wish, and have quoted verbatim from previous games. Just because a dev says "you will play as Dovahkiin", it means nothing without context. The context of the series has always been free-form roleplaying.

edit: accidental double-post due to forum issues.