» Fri Dec 09, 2011 11:58 am I'm usually upset by simplification or streamlining of games because I actually LIKE stuff like gear maintenance and arranging inventories - Resident Evil 4's unintentional inventory tetris keeps me far more interested that it should. However, I think Skyrim gets streamlining right because for everything that has been removed (eg gear wear and tear) there has been something added, or more added, eg the blacksmithing. Crafting in the game is something which I'd like to see explored even further, eg I would have liked to see a "culinary" skill that's raised by cooking and certain benefits applying, although I'm not sure Elder Scrolls will ever have an option to throw dinner parties to affect your local reputation, that's sounds more like a Fable game feature.
One thing I'd really like to see back in the game, and it could surely be easily patched back in, is "named" soul gems. In Morrowind I went around building a collection of every beast in the game because a soul gem would tell you what was in it. Oblivion dulled that back to just "petty, lesser" etc and Skyrim has stuck with that unfortunately. Frankly the design of the gems themselves is far more boring in Oblivion and Skyrim than they were in Morrowind. Having soul gems named with the creatures in them also helps me to know what creatures are "worth". I still have no idea what constitutes a common, greater or grand soul apart from human npcs (after I managed to stuff a bandit leader into a "black soul gem".)
Apart from that I'm really impressed at the range of improvements that have been made in Skyrim at all levels. The range of creatures are more interesting than Oblivion, the behaviour of dragons leaping about the environment continues to impress me and the fights are enjoyable for it - I comprehend why you've made the main questline creatures easy to defeat... but they are too easy you know. I continue to have more problems with bears than dragons.
The number of quests are like Tribbles, it's actually kind of overwhelming and although the quest management system is the best one you've yet come up with, yes, overwhelming number of quests. I would like an option to cancel quests, because a number of them are ones I would not choose to do. In the game you often have to accept the quest before someone tells you what it is. I'm not qoing to steal the statue of Dibella or stitch up some Talos worshipper, and I'd like to be able to cancel or fail out those quests so I can trim the huge list a bit.
I miss being able to make elemental damage poisons and what happened to Nighteye? only for cats now? but apart from some unwelcome culling of abilities the enchanting and alchemy systems are still a lot of fun.
The "verticality" of the world design that was promised has certainly born out. I think it's clever that you've designed the game world to have mountains all spaced a certain distance apart which helps to hide the limits of the (otherwise impressive) draw distance. I want you to know that I would buy this game again on the next generation machines with improved draw distance and textures. I think it's unusual but the industry is at a point now where I believe you could plan a "goty" collected edition for the next gen consoles with draw distance and texture improvements.
Due to the engine's ability with mountains I guess it would be a natural fit for a new Fallout game to be in the Rockies or something, I'm looking forward to whatever comes next in any case. You've certainly shown that there's more to potentially look forward to from this generation of consoles, but I do find myself seeing textures and draw-distance from the Throat of the World and looking wistfully toward a future with just that bit more RAM in it.
I want to say just on patching that I really appreciated the series of patches and rebalancing that took place with Fallout: New Vegas. I didn't have any problems with it in the first place (on 360) but found that when I came back to it many months later for the Big Mountain DLC the latest patch did such an amazing job of rebalancing the weapons that it felt like an all new game to play. I feel that the perfect game in your style is somewhere between Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. F3 had the more interesting world building in my opinion (the DC location landmarks helped) but I really appreciated a lot of what New Vegas brought in terms of writing and choices to the character. Unfortunately the only choice I remember from F3 was to save or destroy Megaton, which is disappointing given how much emphasis you guys placed on choice within that game. New Vegas offered choices which were all imperfect to some degree, which made them fantastic for an RPG. The character of Mr House was also a terrific core to the game and Odo's voice work was just great. I also loved the voice work and writing for the President character in F3 but was very disappointed by what came about with that character. I was hoping to find a well-meaning eccentric kept prisoner by the enclave, but what the President turned out to be felt cliched and dissatisfying.
Wow, I don't comment on games' designer's forums very often and can't seem to shut myself up. Good work anyway. I hope you rebuild Morrowind in the Skyrim engine because I will never finish Morrowind without fast travel.
