I've seen reviews that praise (sometimes sarcastically) Skyrim's vast amount of written books, and the content found therein, but we all know that most of this has been imported from earlier TES games. I'm not hackin' on the books, in fact I like them, but where is the rest of the text? For me, one of the greatest "immersion breakers" is the lack of dialogue coupled with the lack of text.

There are three categories that stick out to me where text is missing and badly needed.

1. Character creation: Races should have a biography. If I select a Breton, I should be presented with a small paragraph on the history of High Rock, followed by another paragraph on the nature of Bretons in general, at least.

2. Items: Not only are enchanted / rare / unique items bland and mediocre in their effects (see Diablo 2 for items that have 4-20+ unique attributes apiece), but the item's have no written back story. I was playing Icewind Dale today and just enjoying that unique items all have a back story that tells how the item came to be, and how it came within your grasp. Even the normal items have a paragraph that explains what they are & their relevance.

3. Interactions with the world: If I walk up to something, say a dungeon wall, and there is nothing there that I can interact with / pick up, but I try to interact with it anyways, it should say something like "You see an old stone wall, making up part of the dungeon that you are currently wandering aimlessly around in. There is moss on the wall, and it smells of eldeberrys. You should probably stop staring at the wall."

Maybe I've just played too much Quest for Glory, IDK, but when you have the video game experience like I have, combined with the respect for and desire of depth in your gameplay, lack of effort on the developer's behalf sticks out like a sore dragonborn.

Can anyone relate with me on this? Or am I the last of a dying breed?

I'm pretty sure than in character creation is does give a description of each race.

also, when it comes to unique items, (weapons specifically) i've noticed quite a bit of lore related writing in actual in game books. Not for every single piece mind you, but if you pay attention, references are hiding all over skyrim.

as for the third, It works for games where puzzles are key factors like Resident evil series, or Silent hill, But it's just not Elderscrolls bread and butter.

1. There is a description of each race in Chargen, but it could be fleshed out, so to speak.

2. Most unique items are spoken about in books. In fact, before Wiki's, the only way to learn about Uniques was to read books. Usually there is a journal in each dungeon, or the setting of a story in the dungeon itself, that talks about what is in there and why.

3. With the advent of Graphical Displays, we can see the cave opening and the moss surrounding it, don't need a pop up box to tell me.

The character creation gives maybe one sentence? Pretty weak ;-/

Honestly, as a fan of Arena and a diehard fanatical fan of Daggerfall, text interaction is really feasible to me. I guess other people think otherwise...

3. why would we have a text that just tells us what we see?

Impossible!

But as has been stated, the description of the environment isn't needed. I wouldn't mind a bit more info on the races, but the main area that falls short is the lack of the quest journal. And no, what we have in game is no journal. I've seen more in depth objectives in an FPS.

I can understand a personal preference to this, but honestly, how many times are the devs going to say "well we don't really need this" or "that's not 100% necessary". That's why this game has, IMO lost it's way. Not enough RP, too much Action Adventure.

Ya know, we don't need levels either, just go out and kill stuff! We don't need health, just breathe for a second and the screen blood will disappear!

Edit: Oh yeah, the quest journal! and the lack thereof... Cut some more corners, the game isn't a circle yet!

I think that there is a long way between not having Text-Described Walls and don't having health or levels. Hyperbole. :teehee:

But yeah, I would love to have my quest journal back and some other unique items.

Certainly :foodndrink:

most things have back storys to them (unless, maybe, it is just some weapon/armour owned by some random adventurer who did not actually do something interesting) including the races, it is all in books. as for your last point, i dont even get that, i can see the object in question for myself so there is no need to give a discription of it.

but there should be more books, that ammount of text should be increased :thumbsup:

edit: i agree the quest journal svcks

I would agree with you, except that we have auto regeneration already. I mean, look at everything they're cutting because "Well, we could do without." Pants for gods sakes.

Um, please explain why we would need this. This isn't a text adventure.

You'd be a fool to argue that less details = more immersive. Personally, I'd love to see them. I, too, grew up playing MUDs and Kings Quest and I understand your need for imersive detail. Hearing you describe the item description in Icewind Dale reminded me that Baldur's Gate had this, too. At the time (and currently, still) I very much enjoy this concept. But I have to ask myself, how much do I REALLY care? Honestly, I completely forgot it was there until just now.

If it means more items, quests, spells, books... IE content, then... I'd gladly give this detail up. It's not a matter of physical memory, I'd say it's a matter of time.

I'm not saying we need this, but clearly they have adopted "less is more" for the worst. What we have today is a company of developers spending 8 hours a day working on models, textures, and all things graphical, as opposed to working on the heart of the game.

Hmmm... so you see where I'm coming from... and disagree?

There comes a point where enough is enough. When you cross that point, you've gone overboard.

Text popping up that describes what you see with modern graphics in the picture is simply absurd. Why would I want text that pops up saying "You see a wall. It is brown and covered in mud." when I can just look at the damn thing? Get out of my way, wall of text. You're obsolete.

I agree with you. Especially on the text-based part. I loved that Daggerfall would tell me how I could smell something in the air or something wheneve rI'm near a cave or ruin. Nice touch. Small things make RPG's, I don't care what anyone says.

Of course there are boundaries that shouldn't be crossed, and I respect your opinion, until you also try to tell me that the game has enough dialogue, ample depth, plenty of options, great story, and next gen graphics.

1. That would be cool. It could be a huge database of 100 some biographies and it would be randomized out of those 100 so you would never get the same one. And say example: from the imperial city and dad was admirable alchemist and widely known so you are born with some extra alchemy attributes, and speech because people admire you because of your fathers influence and name.

Something like that would be really awesome. I would love that.

Cheers

Yes! Someone feels my pain, and reps the Daggerfall avatar to boot. There is hope in this forum world.

Hmm... I didn't think about specialized biographies... that's an interesting idea!

Its also something that was an option in Ice Wind Dale (and Baldur's Gate)

It would be very awesome ~if each one of them had tangible effects on the story and NPC interaction... Like past acquaintances, relatives; friends, and enemies to encounter.

We're a dieing breed. :sadvaultboy:

You should check out the Past Games and Lore forums.

Heck, the Morrowind community seems to respect its predessesors, too.

Yes... to a degree. My ultimate point is that if the developers have to make sacrifices to get the game made, then I'd prefer them to sacrifice text based detail. Why do the developers have to sacrifice anything? Well, they're human. If we could make a perfect game, it'd never get released.