Coming in 2025: Skyrim Utlimate Ultimate Nord CHIM Amaranth Viking Collector’s Edition for Xbox Two 360 X 2 One Box X Two
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Honestly, with all of the ports they’re making they COULD have just made spin-off games by reusing assets ala Fallout New Vegas.
They literally have the resources now to actually produce good remakes quickly using their most recent assets because of their new studio in Montreal. Nah, let’s just sell everyone Skyrim. Again.
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I get the feeling they have an unjustified regret of that game.
After all a lot of FNV’s popularity happened after F4 got a lot of backlash.
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They probably have the same regret towards Morrowind. What made those two games great? Passion and good writers.
Bethesda no longer has real writers, and I’m saying this factually. The person in charge of that department used to just be part of quest design. He legitimately isn’t a writer.
They literally hired Fantastic to write for them.
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Started “replaying” Morrowind today. Played it last in… 2011? Or when did Skyrim get released?
Anyway, I think I never got to truly appreciate that game back then. The combat system was really awkward (and still is to some extend, to be honest) and it always bugged me that beast races (whom I always play) weren’t able to wear any kind of footwear and no closed helmets which makes them inferior in terms of armoring to other races as far as I know.
The main reason why I couldn’t really appreciate the game back then was something probably rather stupid I did, though - or rather two things, actually.
First there was this Corpus doctor guy who told you not to kill his patients. The “patients” attack you though (although I think there actually was an item that prevents that…?). Well, long story short - I simply killed them anyway. Which led to me not being able to continue with the main quest because the doctor didn’t like me anymore…
The second thing was even worse, though:
So, I met the thieves guild guys and they told me to get something for them from someone who was upstairs. So I got it. The person attacked me, though, and suddenly everyone in the whole house was mad at me, so I ended up killing them all. I continued playing for a while until I got back to the main quest guy and he was like “I don’t talk to criminals”. Which actually makes total sense. Unfortunately my bounty was so high that the guards wouldn’t talk to me either, so I couldn’t pay it off. By then I had overwritten all my savefiles…
I still wanted to complete the main quest, though, so I simply started a new game, cheated and rushed through the main quest. But that kinda ruins the game’s atmosphere…
So, going to get the full game experience now!
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They have a low sight range so if you keep a high enough distance (or just run) you should be fine
Either Pickpocket the item or if you can’t do that use the speech skill to taunt him.
Good For you, have Fun.
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No idea if anyone adressed something like this here already, but based on my experiences in Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim here are a few things I’d LOVE to see (again) in TES VI.
1) More diverse wearable equipment again:
Not counting weapons and shields you can wear 8 items at once in Oblivion (boots, greaves, cuirass, helmet, gloves, 2 rings, amulet), 7 items at once in Skyrim (boots, torso armor, gloves, helmet, 2 rings, amulet) and 15 in Morrowind (boots, trousers, greaves, ■■■■■, belt, cuirass, left shoulderpiece, right shoulderpiece, left glove/vambrace, right glove/vembrace, helmet, 2 rings, amulet, robe)!
Morrowind actually allows you to customize your look! You want to play as a mage but also want to look like one, even though you’re wearing armor? - wear a robe over it! Wanna look like a gladiator with armor only on one arm? - no problem! You think it makes no sense to only wear your underwear under your armor? - You’re totally right! Wear normal clothing underneath (you can even enchant it ;))!
2) Recharging enchantments:
So, in Oblivion and Skyrim you pick up an enchanted weapon sooner or later. Well, that’s great, I guess, but once its charges are used up you have to use a soul gem to recharge it. Did anyone of you actually ever bother still doing that after a few times?
In Morrowind items recharge themselves over time which I think is much better in terms of gameplay.
3) Your abilities matter:
You are Shadrub gro-Agbaz, an orc berserker who has killed hundreds with his bare hands and even more with his battleaxe Bloodthunder all the bandits, necromancers and draugr of Skyrim are cowering in fear when they hear your name. As you stand over the headless corpse of the high elf Ancano in the Winterhold mage’s collage, blood dripping from Bloodthunder’s blade, Tolfdir approaches you. He’s all like “Wow, great job! You know, since our arch mage is dead, we need a new one. Since you’ve cast an entirety of two spells in your whole life, all your magic skills are between lvel 5 and 10 and you knew how to hold the Staff of Magnus the right way around that totally qualifies you for the job! Congratulations!”
…
In Morrowind this is much better managed. To actually rise in rank in a faction you not only have to do the quests, but also have to level certain skills. Every faction has like 6 skills that matter and for example to rise to a certain rank you are required to have one of these abilities on level 50 and two on level 20. So getting to the lead position in one of the guilds in Morrowind actually feels like you deserve it, because you’ve worked for it.
4) More different weapons
Daggers, swords, maces, axes, greatswords, warhammers, battle axes and bows. That’s basically all the variation you get in Oblivion and Skyrim in terms of weaponry. Ok, there’re also crossbows in Skyrim again if you own the Dawnguard DLC, but compared to Morrowind that still is a little meager. In Morrowind you have: daggers, tantos, wakizashis, shortswords, longswords, cutlasses, katanas, greatswords, dai-katanas, one handed axes, twohanded axes, maces, warhammers, spears, halberds, battle staffs, bows, crossbows, throwing darts and shurikens. Now, you might argue that the Akaviri katanas in Oblivion and Skyrim basically are katanas, too, but in those games they nonetheless are simple swords considering how they’re used. In Morrowind, though, every type of weapon has slight differences…
5) It matters how you use your weapon/you are able to do different attacks
Basically all you can do with a melee weapon in Oblivion and Skyrim is swinging it around. In Morrowind you actually had three different attacks: stab, swing and cut. And that wasn’t just for the look. Depending on which type of weapon you used one attack type might be way stronger than another one. With a katana for example you could deliver powerful cuts and decent swings, but only rather ineffective stabs. A spear on the other hand was only really good at stabbing, but due to its reach you could also hit enemies with it while they couldn’t hit you.
6) NPCs can give you extended information
In Oblivion you could still at least talk to pretty much every NPC and ask for rumors. In Skyrim you can’t even talk to a big part of the NPCs. An example: In Morrowind every random guard could not only tell you the newest rumors, but also about the place, the surroundings, important people, give you tips for adventuring, give you sometimes detailed information for how to best get to a certain place like another city, etc. In Oblivion the town guards could at least give you directions most of the time. In Skyrim the guards won’t talk to you properly anymore - exept if you’ve committed a crime. Sure, you can randomly get the newest rumors from them, but most of the time they’ll just tell you about “how they once were an andventurer, too”…
Ok, all that information from NPCs in Morrowind probably was mostly possible only due to the fact that you had to read the dialogue since the characters had no voice cover beyond basic interaction lines. At first I actually thought that would quickly ruin a game a bit for me - reading extensive dialogue to get information instead of listening to it? But you know what? I sometimes spent half an hour talking to one NPC, because the dialogue about pretty much everything explained the game mechanics to me - and it worked! I didn’t feel like I was in a tutorial and wasn’t bored by a seemingly endless dialogue but rather felt myself getting immersed in the world in a nice way.
7) Popularity and haggling
People who like you might give you different information or any information in the first place. People who don’t like you might refuse to answer your questions or to trade with you. In Morrowind and Oblivion you could see how much people liked you and if they didn’t want to spit out their information you could try to persuade them (although I never really figured out how that works in Oblivion…) or bribe them. Why was this lacking in Skyrim??? Ok, there were a few cases where you could actually persuade/bribe someone, but those were all scripted. You couldn’t go up to a merchant, persuade him to like you and then get better prices from him.
Oh yeah, speaking of merchants - it’s actually a nice thing to haggle over prices in Morrowind and it’s really simple, too. You’d give me only 589 drakes for all that stuff, merchant? Give me 600! - and as long as you keep it reasonable and/or the merchant likes you it works. I actually can’t remember if you can haggle in Oblivion, but in Skyrim it’s definitely missing.
Those are just two little things that make a game feel more complete.
Might continue with this somewhen… there’s a lot more.
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Good ideas but I have to argue this point.
In morrowind the difference was only what kind of damage was dealt with what kind of attack. Very few weapon styles got different animations from other very similar item. For instance every single sword shares an animation with the difference being what damage is dealt from what type of strike.
by this virtue Katanas are just as similar to regular swords as the few in Oblivion and Skyrim are. The same for Dai-Katanas. Once again Cutlasses suffer in the same way.
Halberds are effectively spears that due a bit more damage for chop attacks and the animation remains identical. They still did not return in Oblivion or Skyrim so that point isn’t flawed.
If you turn on “Always use best attack” those differences stop even being a factor as well.
The throwing weapons were unique as a class but not from each other.
I’m not attempting to dis your point overall but the “Weapon variety” argument isn’t as strong as you made it out to be. Morrowind’s only “unique” weapon styles are thrown weapons (as a whole because there is no actual difference between thrown types) and Spear/halberds (both are given exactly the same animations with the difference being that Halberds focus on chopping and are usually more powerful to begin with)
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Of course I end up spamming the exact same attack, too, in Morrowind since it does the most damage, but my point mainly was that a) you can do different attacks and b) you have to consider what attack you use with what weapon type.
If you’re using an axe in Morrowind you have to take care not to accidently stab an enemy since that does close to nothing. In Oblivion and Skyrim you can simply mash the button since your attack will always be the same and do the same damage anyway.
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That’s a popular misconception.
Different swings in Skyrim (they are always swings sadly) don’t for different damage but they do have certain benefits such as a sideways swing being more likely to trigger a beheading (and therefor instant kill). It also changes hitbox of your attack so that you can do things like attack enemies above you with a vertical swing.
Usually that’s not a huge thing because the only time it ever actually matters is with the Bloodskaal blade in the Dragonborn DLC. (you need to know this for all of 5 seconds before blissfully forgetting).
I wont deny that’s a stupidly tiny difference though.
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I think what you’re talking about are the power attacks, not the normal attacks.
Although admittedly power attacks and normal attacks in Morrowind look exactly the same and only differ in how much damage they do.
In the end with power attacks it comes down to this, I guess:
Morrowind: 3 differnt types of attacks, each in two versions, and it matters what type of attack you do with which weapon as well as which attack version
Skyrim: 1 basic attack that at least has an animation where you once swing it from right to left and then left to right, a sideways power attack, and a vertical power attack - but in terms of actual damage output it only matters if it’s a power attack or not.
Come to think of it, though, you can also bash enemies with your shield in Skyrim, and that’s definitely a thing I greatly appreciate.
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I want weapon variation similar to BotW’s. More about function than damage and speed.
Like, spears keep enemies far away and are great for keeping distance, Great Blades make you slow and vulnerable, but they also stagger enemies extremely often to make up for that, and Broad Swords allow for the use of shields.
I think the next TES game needs to focus on adding dodging to combat, and giving us more lively animations while also having specific invisible hitboxes for body parts (ala Bethesda Fallout with no VATS) and weakneses depending on armor coverage and race.
Oh, and up the enemy and weapon variety. No more copy and paste crap. Completely unique armor and weapons make games fun. I loved Dawnbreaker, but then you go and make it hardly upgradeable. What the heck. Also, actually put work into making unique boss battles while you’re at it.
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Normal attacks share much of the traits of power attacks though without most of the utility.
I was talking both but I will admit that the argument does involve power attacks to a higher degree.
I do agree skyrim (and to a lesser degree Oblivion) did reduce much of the variety and what not but I was trying to make the point that there is a surprisingly large amount of vestigial traces of the older systems.
It is worth noting that (sadly appearance only) many weapons in Skyrim do resemble other types of weapons than the norm. For instance many battleaxes look much more like halberds while “sword” is a super broad term encompassing longswords, broadswords, etc. (Skyrim isn’t helping itself by making them all functionally the same however)
I would certainly love this type of thing. As much as I like weapon variety I find it somewhat pointless without greater difference among weapon styles.
This is one of my constant annoyances with the series as a whole. We have so many styles of armors and so many NPCs wearing unusual combinations of gear but it all gets mashed together into a single “armor value” that reduces all damage of all types.
If we could embrace locational damage as well as separating resistances out of basic reduction it would be great. For instance a magical attack may not be nearly as affected by metallic armor as it would by armor crafted from cloth or hide.
We already have a ton of lore surrounding different materials such as Ebony or Malachite but the games gloss over that for gameplay purposes. For instance Stalhrim is a super special form of ice but as far as gameplay is concerned it’s “dragonbone but lighter”.
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As long as the “making you slow” part stays reasonable I’m all for it. Because it is kinda annoying that enemies in video games frequently take hits from twohanded warhammers and the like like they don’t care. I’d actually say that if you’re properly hit with such a thing there’s no chance you wouldn’t at least stagger, even when blocking with a shield.
I agree, although I feel like magic resistance shouldn’t be defined by metallic/cloth armor, but rather by something that would reintroduce and expand a gameplay mechanic in Morrowind and Oblivion that only remained in Skyrim to a pretty useless extend: Some creatures can only be hurt by certain weapons.
In Morrowind and Oblivion you couldn’t just rush into any dungeon with your starting equipment, because ghosts (Oblivion and Morrowind) and Daedra (Morrowind) were immune to weapons that weren’t either magical or made from a certain substance like silver or glass.
In addition to reintroducing this I’d say it would be great if armor made from these materials also had additional traits. Silver armor for example could increase your magical resistance by 50%. Glass armor might have a chance of reflecting spells. Ebony armor could maybe add 50% normal weapon resistance. Daedric armor could add 25% normal weapon resistance and 25% magical resistance.
In the game this could for example mean that instead of wearing your steel armor with better physical defense properties you should maybe wear a silver armor when entering a dungeon in which you expect mages.
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I don’t just mean as simple as just metals versus cloth, those were just examples I threw out.
The real idea is that every material would have different resistances appropriate to the material. Similar to what you said as a counter point to me. For instance Stalhrim has every logical reason to confer frost resistance independent of enchantments. Having silver/daedric (or enchanted anything) for certain enemies would work well as a trait of certain armor as well as built into many enemies.
Personally though I think Daedric armor should go back to being the most massively powerful and massively heavy set in the game. It should still be usable but you have to specialize yourself to such a heavy armor and you have to accept a lot of your carry weight would be forfeited in the name of great protection.
I’ve been playing a ton of Dark Souls of late and one game mechanic they had was “equipment load” basically if you equip more than a certain fraction of that you suffer movement penalties and if you exceed the number your dodging skills are severely neutered. TES could adopt a system based on carry weight where heavier armors slow you down but with additional strength that could be overcome and you’d be able to move regularly.
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As long as the weight stays reasonable… In Morrowind I find Daedric stuff to be a little too heavy. Don’t have the exact numbers, but like a one handed daedric axe weighted more than the entire equipment I was using at the time I found it. And that’s just unrealisticly heavy.
I think I prefer movement penalties induced by carry weight alone over that. I would agree that heavier armor should maybe tax you stamina more and that less stamina makes your attacks weaker and less accurate. I would like it if video games could get away from the “heavier armor = better armor” thing, though. (“Heavier weapon = better weapon” is really stupid, too, in most cases for that matter) There’s just so much weight you can carry and still profit from it. What you basically want from an armor is for it to absorb the blows. For example there’s not much of a weight difference between plate armor and chainmail - but the plate armor can absorb hits better.
It’s also kinda annoying when you want to collect a lot of stuff, level the attribute that increases your carry weight, and then basically have to use all that extra carry weight up for the newest armor… Wasn’t that bad in Skyrim, as far as I remember, but in Oblivion and Morrowind that’s pretty extreme.
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Equipment load was that game’s equivalent of carry weight.
The problem with what you suggested is that with enough stamina you could nullify the effects of wearing heavier stuff. That’s wholly unrealistic because being energetic has 0 effect on your strength.
What I suggest is a “equipment load” system based on the same attribute determining carry weight. You still have basic encumbrance penalties but that has never cared about what you wear. Equipment load would be the difference between wearing metal and leather.
So far in TES if you had the armor skill there has never been a functional difference between clothes, light, medium, or even heavy armor. If speed gains penalties from the bigger stuff than it requires you to use the strong warrior for heavy armor instead of anyone being able to do it without issue.
Though in all honestly I’d just like a break from “newest armor is best armor” in game lore suggests few materials outclass others in every way. We have legends of people using a steel weapon to slay hundreds of foes and yet steel remains wholly outclassed by everything except (logically) iron. Ebony is a great material used for tons of artifacts because it has capacity for imbuing with magic so why not make that less superior in general damage but better in enchantment power.
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Agreed, but the thing is that you don’t need to be particularly strong to wear armor effectively. It’s your endurance that makes the difference. If you’re strong enough to lift 180 kilos that doesn’t automatically mean that you also have a high endurance or could move faster wearing armor.
Because armor actually isn’t that heavy - or at least the weight is distributed over your body well enough for it to not seem that way.
They should definitely start to make special weapons truly special in some way. The only two weapon artifacts I can remember being actually the best in their game were the swords Umbra and Dawnfang/Duskfang in Oblivion.
It would be nice if not only had the different armor sets slightly different traits, but also if there were more armor sets for every armor class per level, so that you can actually choose between a couple armor sets and not only one or two.
I’d also like it if they introduced medium armor again. Just for diversity.
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I’ve worn plate. It’s heavy. Endurance is needed for going the distance but you still need strength to move in it to begin with. I still disagree with you because heavy armor does slow you down realistically but strong men can overcome that. If we were to be realistic about how endurance affects it than that would be better for either reducing stamina costs or increasing overall stamina.
Dragonborn has the illusion of this by making all of the new standard armors craftable but all the new armors are superior to the ones they share perks with so the only decision is if you want to go to solsthiem early for those armors.
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Ok, I only have worn chainmail, but while when lifting it up it feels like it weighs a lot, when actually wearing it I hardly felt the weight. Only my shoulders started aching after a few hours.
Basically how I would design heavy armor gameplay and link it to stamina would be something like this:
- all actions drain your stamina quicker/more while wearing heavy armor (running, swinging your weapon, etc.)
- with leveling the skill you can reduce this drain of stamina, but you’ll never be able to completely nullify it
- you’ll always be slower than if you were wearing no heavy armor, although only slightly
- when out of stamina it’s easier to stagger you and it’s much easier to actually knock you off your feet than if you were wearing lighter armor
To make heavy armor viable at all in this case it should offer more protection against physical hits than light armor no matter what, though.
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