» Thu Dec 08, 2011 9:39 pm Interface:
The first and most serious failing in my view is the interface. Firstly, I would like to see the mouse properly integrated for the PC. This game was clearly ported from a game pad interface to the PC, and it fails to take advantage of the additional flexibility offered by a PC interface. Navigating through the menus in particular could be done FAR more efficiently with a mouse than endlessly clicking with directional keys on the keyboard, which is clearly just a lazy port from the gamepad.
Secondly, and this one isnt really platform specific, is the god awful way in which you equip things, particularly the infuriating way in which the game refuses to let you unequip what is selected in your main hand when selecting one handed items/spells. Suppose I have firebolt in both hands and I want to switch to and ice spell in one hand and a ward in another. If I select the ice spell and then the ward spell, my left hand will change from fire to ice, to ward, but my right hand will simply remain fire, so it doesnt work. I have to assign a hotkey to the ice spell, press it twice, and then click once on the ward. This isnt that bad in itself, but this leads to a very bloated quick menu (utterly defeating the point of it) and as there are only 8 hotkeys (it should at least let you use all 12 of the keys including - and =), you constantly have to assign new hotkeys, when you are using more obscure items or spells, and then go back and reassign the hotkey to its more commonly used counterpart after you are done. Again, this utterly defeats the point of hotkeys; instead of giving you quick access to commonly used items and spells, you regularly have to manually assign hotkeys mid combat, making it an additional and cumbersome step.
But this isnt even the most annoying part. The worst part of this is when you dont have 2 of the same item to equip. Want to go through the hotkeys or even the quick menu go from to spells to a sword and shield? It cannot be done, youll just alternate between spell and shield and spell and sword, which is frankly a pathetic limitation. If you want to unequip your spell to block with your one handed weapon, its the same problem. You have to manually go to the inventory page, which takes forever. Consequently, I've pretty much given up on using meele equipment as a caster altogether, not because I never have situations where I would like to use it (indeed, given how broken destruction magic is, there are many situations were I would like to fall back on meele) but because the interface basically makes it unplayable if you regularly switch from spells to sword and board.
What I would like to see is a straightforward and intuitive system where if you left click a one handed item/spell, its is assigned to your main hand, and if you rightclick a one handed spell/item, its assigned to your offhand. I would also like to be able to use 12 hotkeys, and assign combinations to single hotkeys, to 1 can be mapped to a sword and shield combo, and 2 to a ward and fire spell combo, for example.
The game clearly shipped without the interface being properly polished. Its borderline broken, and simply not good enough.
Magic:
I am writing from the perspective of having mainly focussed on destruction and restoration spells, but a few general comments: compared to other spell schools, destruction and restoration are far slower to level, even when I use them far more frequently. I mean, you can level illusion very quickly by spamming muffle, out of combat (admittedly, this is probably too easy), but destruction takes forever and a day to level killing enemies in combat, and restoration only levels anything like quickly if you get hit alot, which as a caster you generally try to avoid. Indeed, destruction levels far more slowly than weapon skills, for any given ammount of damage done (and due to magicka limitations, generally takes alot longer to do that damage).
Another gripe is the stunted magicka regeneration in combat, and the fact that it stops altogether during casts. It might be acceptable if you simply use it to heal and cast the odd buff or crowd control, but if you rely on destruction for your primary damage source, then your mana depletes very quickly, and you simply have to run away to survive whilst you wait for it to regenerate, on any boss fight or against more than one opponent, untill you reach very high levels. Even at 54, having spent 2/3 of all level ups on magicka increases, 32% destruction cost reduction from items, all the 50% cost perks and a 300% bonus to mana regen, plus 80 bonus mana, I can barely down most bosses on their own with a full mana bar, and only 3-5 weaker opponents before I have to run away (and this is using the mana efficient and tediously slow firebolt (or ice spike for fire immunes) spell). Needless to say, this isnt fun. I might consider trying to mix in meele instead, but the interface makes that intolerable.
Get rid of the stunted magicka regen during combat, and the complete halt to mana regen whilst charging spells, or at least give a perk for destruction to remove these (call it combat caster if you like), as destruction uses far more mana and spends far more time charging spells. Having to exploit stacking enchants (which I didnt invest in on the character I am currently playing being my first one, as I didnt know how useless destruction would be without it) is not an acceptable answer to the problem. Destruction should be viable on its own.
Also, can you please look at the magicka costs? I have both fireball and incinerate, (and the perks to reduce their cost) but still almost exclusively use firebolt, as the other spells drain my mana way too fast. 3 dual casts of incinerate drain my mana completely (and I have around 550 magicka), after which time, I have to run away. Incinerate is supposed to be better than firebolt, but because it does only about a third of the damage for the same magicka, it is useless for any high health opponent, because the what determines the length of the fight for enemies which dont die in a few casts is damage per magicka, not damage per cast. It least fireball has an AOE component that makes its lower efficiency a situationally worthwhile tradeoff, but incinerate is even less efficient still, and is only single target.
Firebolt does 37 for 9 magicka, incinerate does 90 for 62 magicka (with my perks and equipment). This gross inefficiency makes it virtually useless, unless you exploit stacking destruction cost reduction enchants.
Also, though I dont really use summons, is there any reason why the dremora lord, which is vastly more powerful than the elementals and undead, doesnt benefit from the large majority of conjuration perks, making those perks pretty useless?
Skills and Perks:
I certainly like the introduction of Perks, giving interesting and powerful bonuses, as well as forcing you to make hard choices, but there are still a few problems with the system. Firstly, the perks have in many cases replaced skill progression altogether as a form of improving your proficiency in that skill. All leveling your skill does, in these cases, is unlock certain perks, and increases your character level, giving you more perks. If you dont invest those perks in a given skill, then irrespective of your skill level, your actual competance doesnt improve at all. The difference between having 75 and 99 destruction (which takes a very long time to level) is nothing as far as I can tell. The spells do no more damage, cost no less, and no new perks become available. Even at 100, you only get a mana reduction of a handful of a situational spells; everything else remains exactly the same.
Its even more annyoing with lockpicking; I am never going to put scarce perks into a skill which has no in combat benefit, and not even a substantial out of combat benefit (you can still unlock everything without any perks). But inspite of going from level 15 to now 89, I am no better at all at lockpicking, and master locks are still a complete pain in the [censored] to pick. And I'd have to level all the way to 100 and then waste half a dozen perks to get any benefit from the skill at all on master locks. Why couldnt you have a general increase in lockpick durability and range of degrees where you can pick the lock, in addition to the bonuses from the perks? You could easily weaken some of the perks which do the same thing so it overall balances out the same.
Perks should be an additional bonus to skill level, they shouldnt replace them entirely as a form of progression. I would prefer to see all skills work like pickpocket; the perks make you significantly better, but leveling the skill alone still also makes you alot better at it. As it is, leveling many skills is something that I only do to benefit the skills I am investing perks into, rather than improving the skill being leveled itself, which is particularly annoying if I actually use that skill (like lockpicking).
Further, it might be an idea to separate combat and none combat skills, and give perks to spend to these categories separately. As it is, I imagine skills like speechcraft and lockpicking rarely get a look in, when you would have to sacrafice enchanting, amour, weapon, stealth of magic skills to do so. Or perhaps you could have an orientation at character creation, where you select from either magic, stealth or combat, and the orientation you select would give you perks in that area every level and perks in the other areas every other level. This would still stop you maxing out everything or coming close to it, but having more perks and having to spend some outside of the primary area of focus might let you pick up some of the more utilitarian and less combat focussed perks.
