To the person who spoke about Morrowind taunts: If someone pulls out a knife and tries to kill me, they can expect to not get up.

But also... I prefer character-based. If i can't open a lock, then I need to live with it. But it makes it feel much more substantial, to be able to open it later than being able to make everyone's disposition 100 (by a quick little game) or be able to pick every lock in the game with 5 security

As long as they are done well I am all for them. I do not think we need tons of them for every little thing but one or two per game are ok with me.

I love minimgames in sandbox games like Oblivion. DOesn't mean that they are all perfect, but I would want more, and they need to be good. Yes, high expectations.

Speechcraft is lame. After awhile, I can jam that out in seconds. It was boring and dull. Lockpicking on the other hand, I found quite joyful. I was proud when I retired my thief at level 45 with no lockpicks broken...

Fallout was nice for the lockpicking aspect, but I don't recall seeing any deadbolts in Oblivion.

Neopets... now that's a blast from the past!

On the whole, I don't mind minigames - I'm sure they've come up with some good'uns. Lockpicking was always quite fun.

Minigames... meh.

I've got nothing against them as long as they are good and character skill based. Oblivion's minigames svcked because they made the skills almost pointless. I never chose security as a major skill because I could open just about any lock anyways (I'd also get the skeleton key at level 10...), a bit of the same with speechcraft.

Also... minigames like lockpicking should be in real-time.

I only like minigames that are not essential to the game.

Dice, cards, boardgames, throwing balls, rings, darts or horse racing and sports.
Those things all have potential to be fun.

But I hate minigames for "making friends", lockpicking or any other minigame that is forced upon you every time you use a skill.

I'm all for more minigames.


Of course, if it was like Neopets the merchant would shout at a random time "I just restocked a glass katana, but there's only one!", and you'd have to compete with the 97 NPCs that were waiting outside the door in order to be the first one to get it, so instead of haggling for a good price you'd throw out the first numbers that come to mind and hope the merchant likes it. And if you didn't get it the NPC would take it to their own store with a x10 price increase. :laugh:
Aside from that though it's not a bad system. It's pretty much how haggling worked in TES1.

I think minigames are boring and kill immersion.

For example the security minigame I thought was particularly horrible. Opening a lock did not depend on your security level, it depended on how good you are at a random minigame that tests the players abilities, not the characters.

People like me, who are not automatically good at fast clicking really have no choice but to make a spell to boost security to 100.

I much, much prefer Morrowinds system where it was a role of the dice based on your security and agility levels.

It should not be a player skill, it should be a character skill.

I hated secutiy in Oblivion. It made me crazy.

I liked Morrowind's better... but don't think Morrowind did as good as possible.

Bethesda should make a new lockpick/security system. I'd be okay with if it resembles to Morrowind's, but improved.
I'd die if it resembles to Oblivion's.

Edit: I don't like mini-games in general, so I'd have to say no.

The idea of minigames isn't terrible, but the implementation was.

Speechcraft had absolutely nothing in common with the mingame of the same name. It rendered the character's skill meaningless and replaced it with a funky wheel that didn't resemble anything. The very first OB mod I added was Persuasion Overhaul, to remove the offending mini-game.

Lockpicking was closer, but still relied 90% on player skill, rather than the character's. The "perks" at 25 point skill increments lessened the penalties for failure, but did nothing to make the basic mechanics any easier as you progressed. As a SLIGHT improvement, FO3 added a stat check to forbid access if your skill was too low, but if you met the requirement, the game was still unaffected by skill. A BETTER approach would have been to vaary the speed, sensitivity, and/or "stickyness" of the tumblers according to the DIFFERENCE between your skill and the difficulty of the lock, and not in 25 point leaps. At low skill level, even easy locks would be a challenge, while hard locks would simply be too difficult, regardless of the player's own relexes and dexterity. At high skill levels, the easy locks would be so slow and lethargic that you could work them without even concentrating, while the most difficult locks would become merely "challenging". The game shouldn't rely solely on player skill, but it can be allowed to make the difference in "borderline" circumstances.

Combat as a mini-game was mediocre. Again, player skill trumped character skill, and the only effects of the character's weapon skills were to nerf damage and to trigger the next special attack "perk".

Somehow, I can't picture Alchemy or Armorer skills being improved by a mini-game, although I would like to see some "challenge" half-way between MW's "frequent failures" and OB's "can't possibly fail" approaches. Allowing you to either choose a "safe" and always successful, but limited result within your skill range, or push the envelope (slightly) for a riskier but more rewarding outcome, would be far preferable to MW's "8 failures and 1 success" at low skill levels, or OB's "can't even try at 24 skill, but can't fail at 25". Making it possible to try things too far above your level would merely lead to payers reloading and trying again until they got a success, which is probably how some MW players managed to pull off a few of those "exploits". Having "marginal success" or "marginal failure" results that lead to slightly less desirable outcomes (weak or spoiled potions, loss/use of repair items/parts for minimal benefit, etc.), if a "skill check" falls near the borderline, would be more interesting than the simplistic "succeed/fail" die roll mechanics and "all or nothing" outcomes of the past.

I chose Mixed. I like the idea but the fact that in both lockpicking and speechcraft they removed the need to level up it did not work.
I would prefer mini games more in the form of Pub Games or puzzles in dungeons not in things linked to trainable skills.

Minigames are fine, but they should have an "auto attempt" option that is based on your stats. That way everyone is happy, Morrowind and Oblivion, Casual and hardcoe

Both of the minigames rely way too much on player skill. With enough practice you can run around with a single lockpick at the lowest skill level and pick very hard locks to your heart's content. Contrarily, I don't know about everyone else but there are some enemies I just can't defeat at lower levels without gaming the system.

I think the minigames should be similar to games you play when you walk into a casino. No, I'm not saying locking picking should be a slot machine or video poker, but it should have a similar level of unpredictability when playing it.

Luckily for you and I the elderscrolls V will not be a MMO. As I was thinking back on it (in terms of haggling...), its pretty similar aside from the fact that the merchant will propose a counter off instead of entirely rejecting your transaction...

They're alright as long as they're optional and implemented into the game well. Otherwise no. Never.

Skyrim is (most likely...) going to be an RPG based around a stat system. So use those stats. Fallout 3's limited minigame (only starts if you had enough security skill, otherwise come back later) was OK, but seemed kind of pointless.

If my character can pick the lock, he should just do it. A little animation would be nice, and keep it real-time so that it is a bit dangerous to start lockpicking while there are enemies wandering about.

The minigames were part of the reason that Oblivion suffered from the 'one character can do everything' problem. It's fine that one character has the potential to eventually excel at whatever he/she wants, but only by hard work.