The Elder Scrolls

[c-no]

Isn't that just a spinoff based off of those cell phone games using Oblivion assets?

The closest this would be with the cell phone games would be Shadowkey since that too was 3D. The other cellphone games were more or less 2D.

 

[Hypodermic Johnny]

I can't speak for the oldest games or ESO; but I love Skyrim to bits; modded or unmodded it's just a fun time. It's like being in Game of Thrones without actually having to endure Game of Thrones. And Oblivion's great and was even what got me into the Fallout series; my issue when I played it (before I somehow lost the damn game on my computer; as in actually lost all the files) was that after all the darker/more broody feel of Skyrim I was having trouble adjusting to how bright and colorful Cyrodil was.

I REALLY wanted to get into Morrowind. I mean I really wanted to. The setting looked so cool and different from most fantasy games I'd played. But going from modded-til-it-crashes Skyrim to raw Morrowind is like going from a suped-up luxury racer to a stuttering clunker, and the difficulty's a lot harder to adjust to. Maybe someday I'll get my hands on it and try again.

 

[Doctor Druid]

I was kind of the opposite because I went from Daggerfall to Morrowind and so on. So it was kinda like "oh, I have to adjust my arrow arc now" and "Oh, I have health regen now. Cool."

 

[John Furrman]

I can't speak for the oldest games or ESO; but I love Skyrim to bits; modded or unmodded it's just a fun time. It's like being in Game of Thrones without actually having to endure Game of Thrones. And Oblivion's great and was even what got me into the Fallout series; my issue when I played it (before I somehow lost the damn game on my computer; as in actually lost all the files) was that after all the darker/more broody feel of Skyrim I was having trouble adjusting to how bright and colorful Cyrodil was.

I REALLY wanted to get into Morrowind. I mean I really wanted to. The setting looked so cool and different from most fantasy games I'd played. But going from modded-til-it-crashes Skyrim to raw Morrowind is like going from a suped-up luxury racer to a stuttering clunker, and the difficulty's a lot harder to adjust to. Maybe someday I'll get my hands on it and try again.

Marrowind is just plain more difficult than Skyrim. It's merciless to new players who haven't figured out the mechanics, but at the same time, extremely rewarding to veteran players as there is no content level scaling. In fact, Marrowind can be beaten in less than 10 minutes.

Skyrim is very near and dear to my heart. I've beaten the main quest maybe twice, and managed to log over 200 hours over 4 characters, and that was before I even started modding it. Now I use it as a virtual dress up simulator with slutty armor mods. I also read the books. Most are pretty interesting and have nuggets of hidden lore.

 

[c-no]

Marrowind is just plain more difficult than Skyrim. It's merciless to new players who haven't figured out the mechanics, but at the same time, extremely rewarding to veteran players as there is no content level scaling. In fact, Marrowind can be beaten in less than 10 minutes.

When considering how the mechanics differ, anyone that doesn't take the time to read on what the stats can do would be punished. Agility is one of the stats aside from specific offensive weapon skills that determines your attack hitting enemies. Speaking of not figuring out mechanics, a good example was from one former kiwi that tried to do an LP of Morrowind here on the forum. He was totally blind and as such, he didn't understand how armor worked in Morrowind aside from there being heavy, light, medium, and unarmored.

 

[John Furrman]

When considering how the mechanics differ, anyone that doesn't take the time to read on what the stats can do would be punished. Agility is one of the stats aside from specific offensive weapon skills that determines your attack hitting enemies. Speaking of not figuring out mechanics, a good example was from one former kiwi that tried to do an LP of Morrowind here on the forum. He was totally blind and as such, he didn't understand how armor worked in Morrowind aside from there being heavy, light, medium, and unarmored.

That's the thing, though. If Marrowind were released today as-is, I think some people would complain about the brutality of it, as opposed to learning how the game mechanics work by actually playing the game. That being said, Morrowind is nowhere near unapproachable, especially once the player has died enough times to realize "oh maybe I should try doing this instead of that". I liked the way Morrowind encourages player exploration of not only the world, but the game's mechanics itself while being completely unapologetic about its features.

 

[John Titor]

Can we agree that grinding a "run and jump" skill is not fun?

 

[Watcher]

Can we agree that grinding a "run and jump" skill is not fun?

I think removing acrobatics and athletics was a good idea.

Both were utterly pointless skills that were a holdover from Daggerfall when you had things like a climb skill specifically for vaulting over high walls, or where running actually consumed fatigue. Acrobatics was just a skill people used solely because they wanted one that was easy to grind. The same with athletics which just leveled up by just moving forwards.

Almost every time I play Morrowind and Oblivion I never select either skill because I see both as completely pointless.

 

[Pepsi-Cola]

I can't speak for the oldest games or ESO; but I love Skyrim to bits; modded or unmodded it's just a fun time. It's like being in Game of Thrones without actually having to endure Game of Thrones. And Oblivion's great and was even what got me into the Fallout series; my issue when I played it (before I somehow lost the damn game on my computer; as in actually lost all the files) was that after all the darker/more broody feel of Skyrim I was having trouble adjusting to how bright and colorful Cyrodil was.

I REALLY wanted to get into Morrowind. I mean I really wanted to. The setting looked so cool and different from most fantasy games I'd played. But going from modded-til-it-crashes Skyrim to raw Morrowind is like going from a suped-up luxury racer to a stuttering clunker, and the difficulty's a lot harder to adjust to. Maybe someday I'll get my hands on it and try again.

Morrowind isn't as clunky as people think it is, the whole "never hit" complaint with weapons is basically a myth. If you're not hitting anybody with any of your weapons, you're probably using a weapon you didn't pick as one of your major skills. If you at least have 40 points in a weapon skill, you should hit your target 7/10. And if it really bothers you that much, you can just play a mage character.

The only thing I still have some trouble getting used to is how slow you move. You can run, but that drains your stamina, and because there are enemies everywhere in the wilderness, ranging from basic giant rats to straight up bandits, you need a decent amount of stamina if you don't want to get your ass kicked.

 

[Watcher]

Morrowind isn't as clunky as people think it is, the whole "never hit" complaint with weapons is basically a myth. If you're not hitting anybody with any of your weapons, you're probably using a weapon you didn't pick as one of your major skills. If you at least have 40 points in a weapon skill, you should hit your target 7/10. And if it really bothers you that much, you can just play a mage character.

The only thing I still have some trouble getting used to is how slow you move. You can run, but that drains your stamina, and because there are enemies everywhere in the wilderness, ranging from basic giant rats to straight up bandits, you need a decent amount of stamina if you don't want to get your ass kicked.

I remember once I got to around 55 in Marksman, the only time I ever missed was against Almalexia.

Even still it's not like the combat is particularly good in Morrowind, or in any of the subsequent TES games. I honestly thought the combat in Daggerfall was better.

 

[c-no]

I remember once I got to around 55 in Marksman, the only time I ever missed was against Almalexia.

Even still it's not like the combat is particularly good in Morrowind, or in any of the subsequent TES games. I honestly thought the combat in Daggerfall was better.

Arena and Daggerfall was basically dragging the mouse around while holding a button down. It was more immersive than what Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim had.

 

[Count groudon]

I think removing acrobatics and athletics was a good idea.

Both were utterly pointless skills that were a holdover from Daggerfall when you had things like a climb skill specifically for vaulting over high walls, or where running actually consumed fatigue. Acrobatics was just a skill people used solely because they wanted one that was easy to grind. The same with athletics which just leveled up by just moving forwards.

Almost every time I play Morrowind and Oblivion I never select either skill because I see both as completely pointless.

Personally I liked acrobatics because if you spent enough time grinding it, you could break the game by jumping fucking everywhere. I always thought speechcraft was a useless skill. In every game they make it either super boring or super gimmicky, especially in oblivion. That fucking wheel game is such a pain in the ass, it's really better to just charm people with illusion spells.

 

[c-no]

Personally I liked acrobatics because if you spent enough time grinding it, you could break the game by jumping fucking everywhere. I always thought speechcraft was a useless skill. In every game they make it either super boring or super gimmicky, especially in oblivion. That fucking wheel game is such a pain in the ass, it's really better to just charm people with illusion spells.

Within Morrowind, once you had a lot of gold, you could just give out 1000 gold bribes. It's only usefulness was taunting people so you could kill them under self-defense which could be useless if you had frenzy spells. As for Oblivion, it's also useless when considering that you could have an NPC love you based solely on a high reputation.

 

[Watcher]

Personally I liked acrobatics because if you spent enough time grinding it, you could break the game by jumping fucking everywhere. I always thought speechcraft was a useless skill. In every game they make it either super boring or super gimmicky, especially in oblivion. That fucking wheel game is such a pain in the ass, it's really better to just charm people with illusion spells.

the reason why I see Speechcraft as being more deserving to be in an Elder Scrolls game than Acrobatics/athletics is because Speechcraft actually has a purpose and can't be leveled by just moving. There are numerous examples of games with good speech mechanics (Fallout comes to mind, Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines too).

I think the skill needs more improvement than being torn out, and I don't think you could make a game on this sort of scale without a Speech skill without really dumbing down the progression of quests. The biggest problem I have with athletics/acrobatics is they take no skill and thought process to level up. You end up leveling up both skills anyway even if you haven't tagged them as class skills.

 

[Count groudon]

the reason why I see Speechcraft as being more deserving to be in an Elder Scrolls game than Acrobatics/athletics is because Speechcraft actually has a purpose and can't be leveled by just moving. There are numerous examples of games with good speech mechanics (Fallout comes to mind, Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines too).

I think the skill needs more improvement than being torn out, and I don't think you could make a game on this sort of scale without a Speech skill without really dumbing down the progression of quests. The biggest problem I have with athletics/acrobatics is they take no skill and thought process to level up. You end up leveling up both skills anyway even if you haven't tagged them as class skills.

Plus the actual perks associated with those skills are relatively shitty too. I understand what you're saying here, and I agree that the speech skill does serve a purpose. I just think that leveling up acrobatics/athletics, while super tedious and simple, does have some unintentionally hilarious payoffs while speech is always such an odd skill no matter what game they put it in. I mean in skyrim all you had to do to raise its skill was buy shit and occasionally try to persuade someone to do something (which you could always do through a specific choice regardless of your skill level). To me having to buy a shitload of stuff/play a nonsensical minigame is way more tedious than simply walking and jumping.

 

[Tranhuviya]

Can we agree that grinding a "run and jump" skill is not fun?

Somebody hasn't jumped from rooftop to rooftop with a grin on their face.

PARKOUR

 

[RP 520]

Somebody hasn't jumped from rooftop to rooftop with a grin on their face.

PARKOUR

It's why they removed the jumping and flying spells and acrobat skill I think. You could easily cheese quest lines and break the game from almost the start. It was fun beating Morrowind in under an hour though.

 

[John Titor]

Somebody hasn't jumped from rooftop to rooftop with a grin on their face.

PARKOUR

Well I would love a proper ability to parkour.

 

[c-no]

Somebody hasn't jumped from rooftop to rooftop with a grin on their face.

PARKOUR

Jump around the rooftops of Bravil and you can end up on the top of the city walls. Fun time that was.

 

[ActualKiwi]

It's why they removed the jumping and flying spells and acrobat skill I think. You could easily cheese quest lines and break the game from almost the start. It was fun beating Morrowind in under an hour though.

Oh yeah, it was super-easy to beat certain bits when you could basically jump up or even over the side of mountains/walls/buildings that were intended to be barriers.