So, don't get me wrong. I love Skyrim, and have been playing it for almost a year.

And yet, I have moments when I go "really, really???" Why can't the characters be more intelligent, like in Bioware games?

Here's what I mean: I am the Archmage of the College, Harbinger of the Companions, level 63, etc., etc. Start the Thieves Guild storyline, and characters treat me like dirt, like a complete nobody - whta's that all about?

Or even better, as the Archmage, in my own College, I ask Urag about the Elder Scrolls (main storyline), and his AI totally ignores my role as Archmage, and he talks to my character as if he's NEVER been to the College.

Come on Bethesda, surely there can be AI flags set to recognise certain achievements, and alter player-NPC interaction somewhat based on those flags.

It is TOTALLY immersion breaking, when these things happen, and fantasy RPG should be all about immersion.

And don't let me get started about the bland colourless follower dialogue and interaction. Why must we be reliant on modders (like the group that made Vilja, or Inigo), to experience good follower interaction?

Right now, I will complete Skyrim, but honestly, I am not sure I will be back for TES next game, if this cannot be improved. Dragon Age Inquisition is just about to be released, and already the NPC follower characters look WAY more interesting than any Lydia, Alea, etc. personality-less NPC follower.

Hope you guys can improve this, which is about the only (serious) deficiency in your games.

Non-recognition of our achievements is an issue in all of Bethesda's games. I'll never forget my first game in Morrowind. I finished the main quest and then I joined the Imperial Legion. Suddenly my Nerevarine, the savior of all Vvardenfell, is being bossed around like some nobody fresh off the boat. It made so little sense to me that I had to stop playing the character at that point.

And while I agree with you about companions, it was nice to at least have permanent companions this time. That, to me, is a step in the right direction. Hopefully they will do better in both these areas next time.

Because funding for dialogue is a problem in bethesda games (from what I've seen).

Which is why I only play a few factions and only before playing through the end of the MQ,but yes it svcks.And it got worse in Skyrim.

Well, there is some leeway to be had in that you may be a great warrior and leader of the fighter's guild or something, for example, but as far as the mage's guild is concerned you're still a newbie. They're not going to just hand you the archmage title because you're famous outside the guild. (Although it might almost seem that way in Skyrim's case. )

Still, becomeing Thane of Whiterun, buying a house and living in Whiterun, every guard in Whiterun talking about how you killed a dragon, capturing a dragon in Dragonsreach, fighting off who knows how many vampire attacks in Whiterun, making all kinds of friends in Whiterun, then going to join the Companions only to have Vilkas proclaim that he's never heard of you and Kodlak acting like he's never heard of you either. That sort of thing can make you wonder if it's really worth joining a group of warriors who apparently never leave the basemant.

Agreed OP. This was one of the main gripes I had with the game as well. Hence why I could never bring myself to play the game without Interesting NPCs/Inigo ect installed. Imo they took a step in the right direction by adding followers and vastly improving them since Oblivion, but they still need a lot of work. AI and story/character wise.

Overall though, they need to spend more money on the writing department, and less money on paying for celebrity voice actors.

Great to see it's not only me finding this frustrating.

In response to Glurin - exactly my point! If I am the Archmage of the College, and ask for a book from the Librarian (about the MQ), his response 'should' be more in line with his usual banter "even if you are the Archmage...", than simply ignoring the fact completely.

In response to Vaen - I found interesting NPCs too late, and then the mod slowed my game down too much. And I don't think anybody really expects Bethesda to hire "celebrity voice actors". In fact, they should have voices we have never heard. A good unknown struggling voice actor would still do great work imho.

And I would have preferred to have the option of only 5 or 6 well developed follower characters, than the many available in Skyrim, who are really just clones of one another any way (who's ever heard of someone that will become your loyal 'till death do us part' follower after you beat them to a pulp in a fist fight in sight of the entire town?? LOL, more like develop a serious grudge and try and kill you at night, etc. Not really believable).

This really should not be that difficult to program? Some flags, etc. It's not like they would have to develop something from nothing. Other companies have done it. In fact, some modders have made fantastic followers. Here's a thought: hire them!

I completely agree with all of this I feel like Bethesda kind of rushed the game like they could have fixed and added some more stuff and there are a heck load if quests and everything but what really annoys me... how little hot dudes there are in skyrim and I'm female so when I played a male character I could find plenty of hot ladies for my character to marry but when I was playing a female character I could only find a handful of guys to marry and most of them are ugly so...

It's not about programming or AI, it's about finding time and money for voice actors to record all the additional dialogue. There is so much to do in an Elderscrolls game and you can do it in any order you please,at the same time, whenever you want so things can get pretty complicated.

Sure, just an additional line or two to recognize when your character has reached certain milestones would be nice but the lines would add up and they apparently didn't think it would be worth the effort.

I know http://youtu.be/nlRbdEzV4Bs?t=14m35s

Everything would be much simpler if there was no VO work to be done and all the dialogue was in text.

It's abit unfair to compare it to a Bioware game that follows a fairly strict narative where the games focus is on story rather than exploration and sandboxing.

Also i acually think the world recognizes you allitle too much, i mean, most people wouldn't know what the Dragonborn acually looked like. There's no medival CNN or Newsfeeds, all they'd hear is exagerated discriptions of how the Dragonborn is 5m tall, can fly, juggle horses and eats bandits.

On the celebrity voice actors, I don't actually care if they are celebrity or not as long as they are good voice actors. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCPOf_it7Do almost as fast as a television commercial in the middle of a big fight scene.

I'd have to agree with you on that one. Their games are usually focused on story and character development. But it wouldn't hurt to have a little of that in TES. In Skyrim, there was no one I cared about... at all... Even Oblivion had more engaging characters. MARTIN NOOOO!

This is also another thing that irked me about the game... There's nothing more immersion breaking than having a guard come up to you and whisper, loudly, in front of everyone, "PSST, I KNOW WHO YOU ARE. HAIL SITHIS!"

So Farengar Secret-Fire then Good lawd, I hope that V.A isn't in the next TES.

But yeah, I think the majority of people who play T.E.S games don't give a damn if the V.A is a celeb. Just look at Paarthurnax, most people didn't know he's Mario's V.A. I didn't know until about two years after the game released

Yeah absolutely, they were stretched thin as it is going for quantity rather than quality. I would have much rather prefered a few deep storylines with good characters and the rest beeing more radiant story type quests but it is what it is. Honestly i've never thought Bethesda were that great at crafting stories or characters and the rest of the game just made up for it, but there's ALOT of room for imporvment.

In defense of the designers, I'm shuddering imagining all the "logical" implications of character achievements and the resulting pile of voiced dialogue bits. Different dialogue for newbie mages, mid-range guildsters, almost-boss, and kingpin of the whole guild, for each group. Then figure in your MQ status, plus possible dawnguard or dragonborn achievements, daedric questlines. . . .

I agree, it is awful as is, but we'd eventually be running into inappropriate dialogue at some point, so Long as they are limited by requiring voiced script.

I've had this argument before on another game forum involving references to player character race. Someone was arguing that such a thing was way too much work, therefore the game should not include race options.

You know what I realized when I started anolyzing their argument? It's actually not that much extra work because there aren't really that many instances where it's appropriate. Quite frankly, the word changes between genders is a whole lot more work than the occasional reference to race or profession or rank. It only becomes really problematic if you go and try to shoehorn it in during the final month of development or something. Or if you do something silly like try and shove a reference into every single line of dialogue or something.

There are no internett in skyrim. How are every person supposed to know who you are?

The guards tell them. The guards know everything about you. They can tell that you are a master Alchemist or Smith, just by looking at the way you wear your hat.

My #1 most disappointing thing about Skyrim is I haven't played it in 3 days.

Exactly! Now, if it's it possible for the guard dialogue to recognize the progress/fame/infamy of your character, surely....

BTW, many other NPCs comment on stuff like that as well

it won't because they'll never be able to handle that much dialogue now that it's all voiced. I imagine they'd trade it off with even shorter guilds, and how some guilds in Skyrim went we really don't need anything to be any shorter than it is right now.

They can, they just have their priorities messed up. I'd rather have the guards to know who I am, than have them ask me if I could brew them a beer, or comment on the hair sticking out of my ears.

Again, not as much dialogue as you think. Think about how many times the dialogue shifts based on your race. If it's mentioned, it's like one or two lines during the whole conversation. If you think about it, that's all that's really needed. It starts getting ridiculous, elf, if they have to talk about your elven heritage, elf, every time an elf, like you, talks to them like you elves do, with your elven features making it clear that you are an elf, elf. The same principle applies to accomplishments, guild rank, profession, etc.

Compare that to the dialogue shifts based on gender. Man, woman, lad, lass, his, her, he, she, boy, girl, etc. Much more common than apprentice, swordsman, dunmer, champion, prisoner and so on.

There's a giant difference between gender and race, and being a member of a guild. Former just requires one line changed to say "redguard" instead of "argonian". Coming from a high position of a guild completely changes someone's attitude towards you, and that, in my opinion, requires a completely unique dialogue.
Even the race and gender differences in dialogues svck in Skyrim, it's obvious they were totally lazy with most of them. If you approach a racist nord as a nord, you just usually come out of the conversation as a dunmer-lover, and altmer talking to the Thalmor still gets some royal spit in the face and likely attacked too.

Not necessarily. "I need you to go to Bonebreaker Chasm and retrieve the sandwich I dropped." Not a whole lot of need there to change it to "Oh please great and merciful grandmaster, please go to Bonebreaker Chasm and find my sandwich." or "Stupid worm! Fetch me my sandwich from Bonebreaker Chasm or I'll break your legs!"

For starters, I'll assume that Companions, or some other guild won't send me to fetch a freakin sandwich if I'm a grandmaster of the College, since you know, I'm capable of erasing the whole guild and sell their souls to, I dunno, Molag Bal, who I previously worked with, as indicated by demonic mace on my back that svcks your soul by just looking at it. But alas, I can be a famous dragon slayer clad in armor made of bones of thousand virgin Aureals, and champion of every daedric prince in existence, but joining the companions will still result with some dike testing me and telling me that I'm less worthy than his crappy shield. I'd like to be greeted into a guild with honor, for once. So it goes a bit deeper than just a bit of dialogue change.

They are so badasses that they even mock the Dragonborn with crossed arms during a demonstration of a Thu'um.