Skyrim - Why Winter isn't Coming in Skyrim @ Gameranx

aries100 · February 6, 2012

Gameranx's Brendan Keogh has written an opinion piece about why winter hasn't really come to Skyrim. A sample:

“But Brendan!” I hear you cry. “What about all the snow?”
Sure. There’s snow. There’s a lot of snow. And ice. And blizzards. And it all looks marvelous and majestic. My problem is how all the snow and ice and blizzards affect the people. Or, rather, how they do not. Nobody seems to feel cold, and that is my problem. What is lacking is any kind of reaction to the weather. No one in all of Skyrim seems to think the weather harsh. No one dresses for it. Hardly anyone comments on it. Bethesda has put in visual elements to show me it is cold (look at all the snow!) but as none of them seem to affect anyone, it hardly matters. I am not convinced that anyone in all of Skyrim actually feels cold.

In other Skyrim news IGN has penned an editorial which deals with how Bethesda could expand the game. Titled Seven Ways to Expand Skyrim, it can be read here and here's an excerpt about crafting:

For the Crafters
You can make armor and weapons in Skyrim, improve their stats and, if you're into Enchanting, apply magical properties. But there's always room for more. Crafted spells, for instance, could make a return, though perhaps in a way that doesn't completely break the game. An ability to apply custom color schemes to armor might be interesting for the console crowd without access to mods, or might infuriate the artists that spent weeks or months fine tuning every bronze plate of the Dwarven set. Bethesda could also incorporate another role-playing game staple – socketing – so something more interesting can finally be done with that colossal stack of Amethyst.

More information.

blackcanopus · February 6, 2012

Gamespot has another interesting piece on improving Skyrim. You can read it here, if you haven't done so already:
http://www.gamespot.com/special_feature/improve-skyrim/image-feature/index.html

It's quite funny.

KapitanUnterhosen · February 6, 2012

I agree with the first article about all the snow & cold being merely decorative, at the very least it should affect some stats like regeneration(with nords being more resistant to a cold location's effects), something a mod could easily fix.

I also missed the kind of nord cultures/barbarians you saw in bloodmoon.

vurt · February 6, 2012

I bet he has never been to a country with extreme cold or heat, people that are used to it doesnt react because that's the climate they're used to. Sure, they could've added it to people who are supposed to come from other regions perhaps..

aries100 · February 6, 2012

Well, the creation kit comes out tomorrow, so mod away, I guess. The best thing about Bethesda games is that Bethesda at least always releases a Creation Kit that allows players to mod the game, build houses, make quests etc.

basharran · February 6, 2012

It's one of the many things in Skyrim that have no effect on you as player nor on the NPC's. But indeed let the mods make a new and better game!

Starwars · February 6, 2012

Is this crap really worth writing an article about...?

Between this, the "lack of sympathetic main character" article, and the idiotic "quest rythm" article... Is it just me or is there a lot of junk going up on these sites right now?

sakichop · February 7, 2012

With all the stuff that could be improved in skyrim I really do hope they spend alot of time making people feel cold. They could shiver, comment on how cold it is and maybe even get a negative stat adjustment. Then when they go by a fire they could talk about how warm it is and get a stat bonus. This would be amazing ground breaking stuff. :roll:

I just wasted five minutes ill never get back on that article.

JDR13 · February 7, 2012

No matter how much content is in a game, someone will always nitpick about what's not there, and it's usually something insignificant.

Dez · February 7, 2012

I think its quite straightforward. Nords are extremly resistant to cold. Don't these journos bother reading the lore at all? Ah never mind, I shouldn't even be asking that. Furthermore I've heard many times how khajit, argonians, dark elves etc complain about skyrim's harsh nature..

Nerevarine · February 7, 2012

JDR13 said:
No matter how much content is in a game, someone will always nitpick about what's not there, and it's usually something insignificant.

I was just about to post pretty much the exact same thing. There certainly are things that can be fairly criticized when it comes to Skyrim (as always, there is no such thing as a perfect game), but some people go really far out of their way to point out insignificant "flaws" and nitpick every little thing to death. As others have pointed out, NPCs mention the weather, they acknowledge that they are cold (especially the khajiits, who often mention being homesick for their warm homeland), many armors have fur in their designs presumably for warmth, and that is plenty good enough for me to buy into the province being "cold."

Zloth · February 7, 2012

Well it IS nice in the Witcher games when people have at least enough sense to get out of the rain. Unfortunately, we actually doing pretty well to get ANY weather at all. Heck, plenty of games don't even have day/night cycles.

Thrasher · February 7, 2012

Actually the game did make me shiver a bit when I walked through my first blizzard, but then I got used to it.

Articles like this tell me that the game is running out of steam with some folks. Those DLCs better start rolling out!

TheMadGamer · February 7, 2012

My reaction to the assertion that NPCs don't really react to the cold is that it's true. But it's one of those things where had Bethesda put in some cold reacting features into the game (NPCs comment on the cold, they sneeze, they wear thick coats etc.) it would have added to the game's immersion. But that they did not doesn't really take away anything either (at least to me).

crpgnut · February 7, 2012

I didn't bother clicking the link, the title told me all I needed to know about http:/I-need-hits.com's article. There are things that someone could seriously nitpick about, but this really isn't one of them. There are several nods to the cold weather in the game: the khajiit, firepits nearly everywhere, innkeepers that greet you with, "we have warm beds", etc. Mjoll will talk about how she loves the cold and embraces it because of her Nord nature. It would make sense that the Nord's would totally ignore all but the coldest weather. A few more travelers could mention it, but c'mon.

skavenhorde · February 7, 2012

So let me get this straight, the guy had a problem with the NPCs not reacting to the cold weather, but he has no problem with that fact that the player character could go skinny dipping in the freezing water. Actually he's expected to since there are no boats to use. This will be fixed by some mod who is as anal as I am, but I wouldn't write a whole article about it.

The NPCs were fine. They commented on all kinds of stuff, but the poor majority of them had the worst luck with arrows and knees.

Carnifex · February 7, 2012

I want the 20 seconds of my life back that reading that article consumed. And a chance to punch that larper in the mouth. Honestly, someone was mighty bored to write that! Sometimes snow is just snow.

-Carn

DArtagnan · February 7, 2012

Here I was, thinking the gaming media couldn't get less interesting….

Can't wait to read about how the character doesn't gain weight, despite the high-calorie count in healing potions.

Myrthos · February 7, 2012

I'm always annoyed with games that have snow and where my character can't stop to urinate to write his name in the snow. I think we need more realism in games....

GhanBuriGhan · February 7, 2012

Myrthos said:
I'm always annoyed with games that have snow and where my character can't stop to urinate to write his name in the snow. I think we need more realism in games….

Don't eat the yellow snow!

Skyrim - Why Winter isn't Coming in Skyrim @ Gameranx

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