I have recounted my experience with Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on many articles and comments on this site, as well as our renowned GamerSushi podcast. It was the first game I played on my XBox 360, and I was blown away with my first foray into the realm of HD gaming. Seeing the wide open world, the detail and the nice RPG mechanics was enough to make a nerd like me sweat, and I was in heaven. I did small bits of the main game, but I mostly spent the 30-40 hours of it I played robbing people’s houses. I’m a bit of a klepto at heart, it seems.
Anyway, Oblivion was much loved by many gamers, so naturally, Elder Scrolls V is high on the list for most anticipated sequels. While the last game was great, there are going to be a few things that people are hoping for in the next entry. That’s why GamesRadar has come up with a wishlist for Elder Scrolls V. I have to say, they make a few good points, including a bigger pool of NPC characters and voice actors, a better encumbrance system and a better scaling system for monsters.
That last one I definitely agree with. I’ve never been a huge fan of RPG’s where the monsters level up with you — it sort of defeats the whole purpose of leveling up, yes? Anyway, if you’re an Oblivion nut, I’d highly recommend checking out the article.
What’s on your wishlist for Elder Scrolls V? What do you think of this list? Go!
Source – GamesRadar
I think the big thing I have with it is that there needs to be less repetition among certain aspects, like the people and conversation. I know that it’s kind of hard with such a large game to make everything different, but none-the-less. Also, Kind of adding on to the weapon balancing, I hate how you have a weapon that is supposed to be really good, but it only does, say, 15 damage? That should be boosted again.
And, hopefully they keep all the lighting aspects of Oblivion, and not from Fallout 3. The HDR wasn’t all that great.
I looked at the title and exclaimed joy and so much excitement that I might of had a heart attack. but then was like
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probably the my most anticipated game up there with a proper kotor 3 and until recently starcraft 2.
As for the list itself I agree with most of the ideas especially the leveling of the enemies and the weapons. I found that pure magic and marksman were just too underpowered to be of use. I also personally liked the way they handled encumbrance in oblivion versus morrowind were you would take the kitchen sink with just cause you could.
The only thing I would add to this list is changing how they handled factions. I disliked how you could join every faction and they all had epic catastrophes. I liked morrowind’s system of factions, but I also want them to keep the more interesting quests.
I also hated the main quest, but that is personal taste cause I like murky shades of gray political/spy novels.
Was this too much by the way?
I agree with everything there, and I would add “Better storytelling” to the list. In the original game the storytelling was terrible, and I often would avoid the main quest. They made it a lot better with the Shivering Isles expansion, but it still needs work.
I got the game for 7 bucks when I per-ordered Fallout: New Vegas, and I’ve dumped 44 hours into it already according to steam. I’m loving it; can’t agree more with monsters NOT leveling up along with you. Very frustrating.
Wish for Elder Scrolls V? Make it more like Fallout 3… thanks.
I think something like the stranger events in Red Dead but medieval would be a nice addition, For example “Sir! sir! you must help me, Monsters are attacking my home”
Where do I begin?. I agree with Nic, the thing that killed Oblivion for me was it’s repetition. Need to find someone? Go to an underground cavern. Retrieving a man’s stolen clothes?
Go to an underground cavern. Want to help an old lady cross the street? guess what, that street is in an underground freaking cavern. Add some arrow head-shot insta-kills and a more realistic damage system. Get rid of Clannfears, Zombies, Imps(i hate those bastards), and Spider Daedra, Make Vampirism less of a hindrance and less of a bitch to cure. this just the top of the list, I’ll let you guys fill in the rest.
Oh man this is a big one for me, for real. I love Oblivion to death.
So lets examine this. The intuitive skill system is a big must, I completely agree. To get the most out of your character in Oblivion, leveling was a tricky thing, it wasnt as straight forward as you would think. I would agree that the skills you choose as your ‘majors’ should be what you get the most from and for. I also think that they should bring back and cut down some skills more like Morrowind did. Bring back some skills like pole arms, and why is an axe a ‘blunt’ weapon. Change that.
Onto monsters, This is a tricky one. I agree with them that it was sill to do and made it harder, but we see why they did that. In Morrowind, things didnt re-spawn. They should keep re-spawning like in Oblivion, but maybe have monsters level only slightly. Lets say a skeleton will level 8-10, depending, but it wont go higher. So in oen area you get a certain SET of monsters at a certain SET of levels. This will allow some areas to be, like in Morrowind, only for high level characters.
Weapons: Like I had said, break down some classes and maybe bring some new ones in (or old ones back). The thing they say about the weapons I have to disagree with. Weapons in Obi were CHARGE weapons. They had charges, to thwart the ever life sucking out of an item. That to me was irritating, seeing as how that wasnt how it was in Morrowind. I felt like effects on weapons SHOULD be permanent, or a variation where some are permanent, some are charge based. Invisibility and sneaking were yes, very overpowered, but not so bad that it would completely ruin things. If they want to make it more realistic, I think that sneaking should be dumbed down, by a lot. I wont lie, it got ridiculous once you were a grandmaster. Invisibility I didnt play with much, so I cant say much there other than I think it may be a delicate one to deal with. However, I can see their point, dumb them down, but not too much.
NPCs: The Modding community helped there. I agree, get more voices, make more faces and unique characters. I think they WILL do that though, thats just a another step. On this issue if you look at mods, I think more features will be implemented in making characters features, which should allow them to do more with looks. Again though, yea, get more voices, the modding community helped, some mods offered fresh new voices.
Woman: Haha again I think taking from the modding community will fix that. Look at other games that have come out since then, they should fix it 😀
Encumbrance: I dont really agree….two reaons. As a PC gamer (and smarter for the ES series I think) I used console command to get rid of that after completing a dungeon. (Toggle God Mode on and raid the place) So thats unfair for the console folk. Alright then, how to fix it? Well honestly it makes sense. Its stupid to carry around so much anyway. But with such a unique loot system they had to do something. Like the article siad you hate leaving armor and items behind when they are so good. It just takes balancing it out. One solution could be items like ‘bags of holding’ that would allow you to carry more, and make sense in a magical sort of way. Just call them ‘bags of feather’ or something. My other disagreement with it is simply because I felt like that made it more realistic and better. You cant just carry everything & be a walking walmart. If they were to get rid of it, they need to be tricky with it. I dont want a system like Diablo. That would make it worse.
Armor: Ok here is another interesting one Mods soved that (Sorry console folk) They need more armor IMO and Ill agree with them, they should let you do more to it. A color changing pallet would be great. But again, mods will show you that there is so much more potential that WILL be brought in in the next installment.
Map: Make it color for god sake please. I dont agree fully. Icons help, but do what they suggested, let them add notes to these icons. Let there be a better way of saying “ok, what is that place again” I didnt have much problem with this simple because Im a nerd and bought the guide books for this reason, they have descriptions.
Smaller world: NO. Are you nuts? Heck no. Again, MODDING SAVES THE DAY! I know I keep blabbing about it, and those who dont play on PC are probably like “shut up you biased PC gamer” but you have to realize that games like this are MEANT for the PC. Modding is the reason why. No, no smaller world, you want it large, why? You can ADD MORE. I agree, more levels, more unique levels, but dont make it a smaller world. What I feel they should have done was this. Make certian small levels more cookie cutter. BUT include MANY MANY more unique dungeons. Look back to Morrowind. Dungeons were more complex, more unique. I can see you lowering the level of dungeons if you make the other ones bigger &/or more complex, but dont tone down the world. I also feel they should add in what Morrowind and Modding did. Make dungeons more challenging. Some places you could only get to if you had this skill or that. Like dungeons in mods where you have to have telekinesis to grab a key to open door. Or platforms that need you to be able to hover to get to (Morrowind). Make them more complex and more unique, but dont make it a small world.
Crashing: PC, didnt happen much. happened a hell of a lot more in fallout. HOnestly, with what people want, be prepared. I think that Oblivion should be used on High end machines. We need the next step to get the full out of the next ES game. If it was crashy on console, I wouldn’t want to play it. So Ill agree, make sure it doesnt crash. It made fallout unfun.
My last little bit is to say follow what the modders did. Some unreal mods. One thing I would definantly add to this list is one thing Im surprised they didnt mention…
Combat: Good lord does it get dull. Sure extra button combos while attacking were nice, but you can do so much more. Add in things like button combos that work like they did in Assassins Creed (unless thats too much and breaks things) and make it more entertaining. There were mods out there that also allowed for things like better combat physics. People made mods that allowed for arms to be severed, heads to be chopped off, and a bunch more goodies like mounted combat. USE WHAT PEOPLE MAKE! Modders go out of their way to show you what can be done. Make combat more interesting.
Phew. There is my list of wishes based on what was said.
I read this the other day and I thought the ideas were very good. I agree with Eddy that the enemies leveled up all funky and made the game more difficult than it needed to be.
I’ve only played a little of Oblivion but I played the hell out of Morrowind and I can say that a lot of that game’s problems got hammered out in Oblivion. One of the problems with the Elder Scrolls games in general is that character builds that are effective at low levels aren’t always effective at high levels. In Morrowind, your gear was EVERYTHING. Leveling up didn’t actually help you a whole lot in that game, which I think is one of the things that sets the ES games apart from typical RPGs. And speaking of invisiblity, it was RIDICULOUSLY overpowered in Morrowind as well, especially if you had the resources to get it forged into an item as a permanent effect.
Still, I like all of the points this article made with the exception of the map and the size of the world. I really don’t mind seeing the reused assets in different dungeons; it gets old, but it’s never bothered me too much in Morrowind or Fallout 3 (perhaps Oblivion is worse, though). As for the map, it’s way more intuitive than in Morrowind. Morrowind didn’t actually put any quest locations on the map until you found them, and even then, it might not get a marker. The worst thing was getting directions to those points. An NPC would say something like “Go south until you reach the fork in the road, take a left, then turn right at the big rock.” Easy, right? But then you’d get there and start asking, “Wait, is this the big rock or is that the big rock? And that fork in the road doesn’t really go left…dammit, I’m lost!” Oh, and there was no fast travel either. Very time consuming to tromp across central Vvardenfell getting ambushed by cliff racers every ten yards.
I guess that’s a long way of saying that I have faith in Bethesda to fix a lot of these problems based on the way Oblivion improved upon Morrowind and how Fallout 3 improved upon Oblivion. I’d be interested to see how many of the changes to Oblivion originated as Morrowind mods (I had it on pc, but never got into the modding).
Unfortunately, I don’t have much hope for the storytelling aspect. Every Bethesda rpg I’ve played has a mediocre to crappy main quest storyline. They can’t hold a candle to Bioware in this department, though I would argue that they build immersive worlds better than anyone else (though I say this not having played Dragon Age or Mass Effect, so those games could change my opinion if I ever get around to playing them). In Morrowind, I had an entire room dedicated to books I’d discovered on my journeys. The amount of detail that goes into their games is remarkable.
@sean: damn I thought I was long, also what did you mean by a “charge” weapon?
Another thing I would like to add, is a more varied and interesting spell list and combat. I want to see brutal fireballs that look like they hurt. As for the spells themselves I believe that they should put more magic like LOTR. For example if I become arch-thingy of the mages guild I want to feel like I am. I say they should keep the fireball and simple heal spells in. But if you are a high level mage it should go beyond that till where it feels mystical. Hopefully at least one person understood that.
[quote comment=”12348″]@sean: damn I thought I was long, also what did you mean by a “charge” weapon?[/quote]
@Mauddib:
Weapons in Oblivion with magical properties (fire Dmg or life drain) had a set number of ‘charges’ based on their magical properties. Weapons were recharged with varla stones. I feel that saying weapons were super unfair wasnt always true, seeing as how they had charges that dictated the number of hits/damage that could be done with the magic attributes.
For god’s sake release it! I think it’s gotta be every other post I make here, if not more often, that I express my love for Morrowind. If they can emulate that with new items and a new area, it would be enough to keep me busy for hundreds of hours.
I think that better ranged combat is a must. I thought that the bows in oblivion were seriously underpowered, and there should have been different effects for different body parts (eg. headshot)
I would love to see new types of ranged weapons, like crossbows, thrown items(javelins, knives) or even rudimentary firearms in the next game.
The other thing I think defiantly needs improving is the sneak attack. I think that it needs its own special animation, like cutting the opponents throat, or strangling them from behind.