» Thu May 03, 2012 1:35 am 1: There are too many abilities to choose from when you level up. Massive ability trees are Never approachable for the novice.
2: Forced lore (the stuff that you have to listen too, rather than the stuff you can read) Comes at you Far too early, It's usualy not very good either. I also have a problem with boring lore and contradictions and great simplifications to earlier titles not explained.
3: Too many Stats that need explanation and too many items with too many stats. There is never a problem with heavy armour, short blades, alchemy or acrobatics because those are self explanatory- There is always a problem with dexterity/whatever that always seems to change for every game and there is also always a problem with items altering too many stats so that you have to work out what an item with +1 +4 -3 +7 is for your character. This is less of a problem late game.
Anyways... Solution time
Firstly- With skills. Why not tell the player how to do things or what something with skill increases? Here's some examples.
Blade
what it weighs and an approximation of damage (Novice) The weapon looking damaged or rusted is your indication of condition
It's condition and material as well as what's the best attack to use (apprentice)
How much armour it will ignore (adept/journeyman)
Enchanting
- you find out what enchantment is in the thing when you see the effects. Or when bought or identified by someone who knows enchantments. you can recharge items (novice)
- You know what kind of soul is in an item and a worded approximation of what's left. You know what effect it has if you've seen it. you can enchant things with lesser soul gems. You can use cast on use enchantments (for those who don't know- in morrowind you could use items as reusable scrolls by enchanting them- a Belt of scamp summoning for instance) (Aprentice)
- use all soul gems (but anything above common has a chance of failing). Have percentage knowledge of how full an item is. Can put multiple enchantments on the same thing although each addition subtracts from the others. Can make daggerfall like problems to increase the positives (Journeyman)
- Know the numerical value of a soul (like morrowind) and know all enchantments but the very rarest (expert)
- No failing , Can learn the enchantments of artifacts (master)
^ boom, we have a very complex Enchanting system that Eases the player in without intimidating them.
Acrobatics
- Can climb over things,step and (messily) dive away from danger (novice) (speed is determined by fatigue and what armour is worn, player learns that these affect acrobatics)
- Can vault over things , grab ledges, Swing from things and climb easy surfaces and may grab things correctly when jumping to them (apprentice)
- Climb harder things, swing from things, limited wallrun, Dives a lot cleaner, can roll, lands on people from high places better (adept)
Hand to hand
-Can punch (novice)
-Can kick, elbow, headbut, knee (etc) with one button and can use this whilst holding weapons. Can grab enemies with another new button(with poor technique, although some fortify strength would do well) Can block (apprentice)
-Can grab well, can grab attacking arms, Can countergrab (and throw)
- Attacks passively go for critical areas and can counter countergrabs (expert)
- Counter-counter counter grabs (master-
) ^ again, Player gains knowledge at the same rate as his character
destruction
Can use spells of 20 skill below my skill one handed (which is more difficult and uses more magicka
Holding down a charge spell for more time gives it more of your mana for power. Higher level- Less magicka and more power. (rate slows after a bit)
Using two buttons instead of one for two handed attacks- more power
Anyway- im sure that you can think of examples for every skill. One other thing that's important is to use Dreams (when your character sleeps) as tutorials.
Also- Have attributes auto level up so that the player need not worry about them. Perks should be Fallout style... Because skyrim's perk trees were poorly thought out and defeated the point of "you are who you play" and "freedom" because you needed to put perks into "enchanter" and "armsman" to keep up with the leveling.
Secondly
The lore/writing.. while i would slyly suggest that bethesda should actualy hire writing staff i need to say a few things.
1: The start.. Don't force the player anywhere. Walk him/her out of prison. No Cult/dragon attacks. Give them some suggestions on where to go. No characters spurting religious nonsense or whatever. The starting area should be fairly boring with mostly human characters and a few natives. Don't keep it like this though. The world needs to become more interesting as you venture from this safe place.
The main quest should be started in many mundane ways that Grip the player. Not an emotionless story of slaying dragons. Perhaps the game doesn't even need a "main quest" but instead several long questlines with good story
-Someone outside a tavern calling to you .."hey, you look like a strong lad/lass, why don't you join us for some work" (then in a tavern you discus plundering a ruin, then you move onto bigger jobs and get to know the world from this group, you might get some story revolving around your relationship with these guys and may even get political)
-the person who lets you out of jail might offer to help you turn your life around and enroll with the legion
- a person offers you money if you kill someone
- a mage wants alchemical ingredients, she then offers a position in the guild
2: But it's AFTER this first part that the game needs to get MORE unique. Dwarven ruins made of bronze, Illogical daedric ruins, Unearthly plants (not oversized with glowing things on but rather , Alien daedra, creepy cults, dungeons that terrify, Monsters (werevultures? Giant crabs?) strange lands
anyways- the goal is too put the player in a comfort zone and expand this zone till it is huge. Rather than tone already logical things down to be more acceptable (Mostly stone dwemer ruins in skyrim, because copper isn't "mainstream") Space the weird out.
Nothing should be strange or illogical "just because". I doubt that i am unique in my distaste for Large pauldrons and big swords and high fantasy plants that have features which are impractical. Yet i still find it believable that a race might have large amounts of scientists that build robots, live in metal halls and wear monocles. I Dislike reading about something awesome in books or finding something in past games which is cool and finding that it isn't in existence according to the new game. (werebears, everything on solthstiem, ice vampires, daedra, sophisticated orcish art, decently sized cities, winterhold, slightly elven bretons, crossbows/spears/throwing, fearsome dremora,wakazashi,levitate/jump,Guilds, sutch,jungle cyrodil...)
