The Things You Would Like To See In Elder Scrolls Four

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 8:52 pm

[QUOTE=fable]I'm not especially pleased by their ability to cast spells at attacking rats which as a side effect, kill me, as well.

[/QUOTE]Yes, very annoying that tendency...

I have tried to make sure I don't get between them and the said foe, but that means sometimes they get killed in the process..

The only tactic that really works is to clear the way ahead as BS mentioned, but that is a serious pain. In short, I avoid escort quests like the plague, no telling what woes might beset you...

More on topic, sort of, I really hope the game developers cruise these forums sometimes, because there are some great ideas here.

Gwalchmai · Post by **Gwalchmai** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 9:22 am

I would do away with trainers, or at least most of them. I think that being able to train your skills can make the game way too easy. If some trainers were kept, they should be more difficult to find (like a sage on top of a mountain), and not have "Training" as a dialogue option right off the bat. You should have to talk to the trainer a little, and maybe do a quest or two first.

fable · Post by **fable** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 11:17 am

Interface changes, too. I don't want to drag a rather ugly little icon on top of my paperdoll in order to perform alchemy (among other things). I want to have a button that becomes available when I own the goods, and a separate screen that truly looks attractive and features all four alchemical components. And I wouldn't mind visible changes to the quality of the images depending upon the level of the components, either.

Eskrimador · Post by **Eskrimador** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 7:41 am

Hey first time poster (at least in these forums). I have to agree with what everyone else has said in this thread. One thing I would really like to see though is the chance to be a more dynamic PC. I feel I am very limited in my actions and must follow the "good guy" path. I want to add some dark history to me (other than being a minor cat burglar). I want to have the option to be the "bad guy" or at least the reluctant hero. I also would like to see some intrigue with the guild quests. Perhaps instead of following the quest from guy X, I can go to guy Y and do his quest and get guy X kicked out and promotion for myself along the way. I would like to become the guild leader of my choice rather than theirs. Well that's my two cents.

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 8:10 am

There are several house and guild quests now that leave you the choice of how to proceed, whether to believe a quester's accusation against a proposed victim, which of several questers to select, etc. And House Telvanni is all about immoral remorselessness and advancement.

Have you checked them out?

Shadrach · Post by **Shadrach** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 9:42 am

I think NPCs interacting with each other, instead of just with you, would be fantastic. The NPC interactions simply within your party in BGII greatly contributed to the magic of the game. If any of you remember (or *gasp* played) the antique Wizardry 7, you may remember the wonderful NPC interactions in that game. There were several races of humanoids (some less humanoid than others), many of whom didn't particularly like one another. Two pairs of races were actually constantly warring with each other throughout the game. So the NPCs of the various races would wander around, trade items back and forth, and fight (and often kill) one another. The mafia would demand money every once in a while for "protection," and the Wiz7 equivalent of a televangelist would demand tithes, as well. And if you killed off the leader of a particular race (which happened with frightening regularity; Wizardry games are rife with genocide), the wandering NPCs of that race wouldn't like you very much.

I was slightly disappointed by the lack of actual nomadic Ashlanders. Just a few wandering merchants, yurt-free of course, would have made all the difference. Or kagouti feeding on mudcrabs before turning their attention to you. Or the "famous adventurer" in Maar Gan actually FIGHTING some of the blighted monsters, instead of just chilling in the local pub all day long. Dynamic feels to games are good. Sure, there's a little of it in the game, but not enough. The Ordinator-Sheogorath battles in Ald Daedroth and the marriage in Mournhold after you've set up the little blind date come to mind.

Being able to type in custom dialogue would be great, too. The system Wizardry 8 uses works very well... talking to people creates topics that you can interrogate them further about, but you can also type in topics manually (which leads to some really hilarious dialogue as a side benefit). If you talk to them about something they don't know about, they'll say as much.

I think the cliff racers need to stay. They keep the game realistic. If you scaled *all* the monsters, then you'd walk around at level 40 wondering where all these Daedra you keep fighting were hiding back when you were only level 5, and where did all the guar vanish off to? Having nuisance monsters also helps boost your confidence, so when you fight the really tough guys, you get creamed.

Gwalchmai · Post by **Gwalchmai** » Fri Jul 02, 2004 9:21 am

I think there needs to be more environmental danger. So far, you can be hurt if you fall off a cliff and you take damage if you walk on lava. I think you should also take cold damage if you swim in an icy lake as in Bloodmoon (and you would continue to take cold damage for sometime after until you dry off) and blizzards should cause some damage if you stay out in them too long, lightning strikes should be a risk, etc...

giles337 · Post by **giles337** » Fri Jul 02, 2004 1:25 pm

lol, lightning strikes wld sure be funny. i personally wld like to be able to ride a horse to speed my movement while lugging all my heavy armour around. or maybe i should wear leathe

might give better lightning protection

JesterKing · Post by **JesterKing** » Fri Jul 02, 2004 6:17 pm

oops... repeated the post and i cant delete it...

JesterKing · Post by **JesterKing** » Fri Jul 02, 2004 6:19 pm

They horse idea is brilliant, like the mournhold pack rats, only you can ride them and get a 150 speed increase... but they would dhave to be expensive... lol kagouti rides!!! another thing is I wouldg like to have more of a chance to be involved in everything, the unrest in cyrodil city? I r WANTED TO BE A PART OF THAT!!! it would have been so awesome if the ordinators and royal guards to duke it out in the streets, larger scale battles would be great with second and third party fights, just like most everyone else mentioned... I loved the ordinator sheograth battles during 'the dance'... but events like that were to few and to far apart. telvani quests were good in the same way, but i also think it shoudl be harder to advance through guilds and houses.... i mean seriously, 2 weeks game time i go from a retainer to archmagister, associate to archmage, you name it... maybe a system where you are elibible for advancement once a month, and if you have done enough chores by then for a large enough variety of people then you can advance... I dont know, but something like that maybe.

giles337 · Post by **giles337** » Sat Jul 03, 2004 1:40 pm

i agree. you can affecticely take over in a game month

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Sat Jul 03, 2004 2:04 pm

[QUOTE=giles337]lol, lightning strikes wld sure be funny. i personally wld like to be able to ride a horse to speed my movement while lugging all my heavy armour around. or maybe i should wear leathe

might give better lightning protection

[/QUOTE]

Actually - I found it quite strange that neither horses nor carts were included in Morrowind when they were a functional part of Daggerfall (as with ships).

In Daggerfall you could purchase a horse and ride around faster then running. I can't remember if you could fight while riding, but I think so. When you came to a city or a dungeon you would automatically dismount, and then when leaving the area again, you could mount your horse. (I think .... the excat mechanics elude me a tad right now).
The same with carts. While the cart wheren't visible in the game area, it was visible from within inventory, and with a cart you would have a massive increase in weight.
While you were in a dungeon you didn't have access to your cart, and had to go to the entrance to place stuff in it. In towns you still had access to it.

There were also boats in the game, to allow you to sail for free (well - free if looking away from purcahse cost).

When I think about it - there were many things in Daggerfall that I find missing in Morrowind.

giles337 · Post by **giles337** » Sat Jul 03, 2004 2:07 pm

well i was remembering zelda. it wld be amazing to be a knight though. shining armour and a lance

JesterKing · Post by **JesterKing** » Sat Jul 03, 2004 8:50 pm

What were the graphics like in daggerfall? how does it compare to morrowind?

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat Jul 03, 2004 10:25 pm

They were 640 x 480. Merchant goods were all on 3D shelves, and frankly, looked hideous. The best graphics were in the sky, especially at dawn and dusk.

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 2:45 am

[QUOTE=JesterKing]What were the graphics like in daggerfall? how does it compare to morrowind?[/QUOTE]

Some screenshots can be found:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/daggerfa ... index.html

You gotta remember, for 1996 the graphic was actually quite good.

@Fable. Stores might have had 3D shelves, but you could not see the merchandise on them withouth clicking on them. I remember this vividly, because I used to rob stores blind on occasions. (No stolen goods problem

)

Hmmm - I miss Daggerfall ... it has so many qualities when you first got rid of a large amount of bugs

JesterKing · Post by **JesterKing** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 5:46 am

Sometimes I wish they would take the old games and give them an overhaul... the storylines and gameplay are just so awesome you would think it woudl be worth it! now I am spoiled and state-of-the-art 1996 graphics dont cut it for me anymore... *sigh* ill content myself with reading up on it for now. For now Ill content myself with the most modern supergraphics I can find and hope bethseda keeps it up with the genius storylines.

fable · Post by **fable** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 9:10 am

@Fable. Stores might have had 3D shelves, but you could not see the merchandise on them withouth clicking on them. I remember this vividly, because I used to rob stores blind on occasions.

Maybe I'm thinking of ES1, then. (Or maybe you are.) I know the stores I'm thinking about displayed all their goods on shelves. The colors and meshes defined state-of-the-art butt-ugly, to be frank.

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 10:29 am

[QUOTE=fable]@Fable. Stores might have had 3D shelves, but you could not see the merchandise on them withouth clicking on them. I remember this vividly, because I used to rob stores blind on occasions.

Maybe I'm thinking of ES1, then. (Or maybe you are.) I know the stores I'm thinking about displayed all their goods on shelves. The colors and meshes defined state-of-the-art butt-ugly, to be frank.[/QUOTE]

I didn't play ES1, so can't be me

I seem to remember that stores in Daggerfall only showed a lot of shelves, and you could then loot ... eehh - click ... on a shelf and see what inventory they had, and then purchase them.
I robbed stores often in Daggerfall

I could be mistaken though (in some wierd, alternating universe), because it is after all some years ago

Slick Fork · Post by **Slick Fork** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 11:58 am

I'd also like to see some more "thinking" type quests/problems In BGII there was a section in the asylum where you had to answer all sorts of riddles to get the prize. I really enjoyed that and would like to see that sort of thing incorporated into ES4 to take some of the focus off of just sneaking in somewhere and attacking. I'd also like to see some of the rewards for finishing quests re-examined. By level 20, money is no longer an issue in this game because you've been raiding Daedric Ruins and selling all sorts of Daedric weapons and armour to creeper and the mud-crab so it's frustrating to finish a big quest and just get a pile of "useless" cash and a chitin sparkblade as a reward! I'd like to see more Unique items, things you can't enchant for yourself!

One of the minor interface items I'd like to see change is the little mini-map you get in the bottom right. It's so small it's useless as a map. I'd like to be able to resize it to however big/small I like or decide that maybe a simple compass rose would be better.

How about a "Postal Service", you could have a post office in every town and you can send things too and from another post office. When you advance a little in the game and get a strong-hold you could have the option of paying more taxes and getting mail service to your house. This would be a great way to transport loot while you're out questing because there's nothing more frustrating then getting some great loot and having to leave something neat behind because you don't want to go all the way home and then come all the way back for 1 ebony mace.