Skyrim - Remains in the Shadow of Morrowind

Fluent said:
"Impacting decisions" well, does every RPG need this to be enjoyable? I don't think so.
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Obviously not and I would never imply such a generality. However, I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to expect more effort in this department within the greater context of it being a AAA RPG series of such massive scope.

For instance, whilst the Stormcloak/Empire dichotomy was a major choice in Skyrim - more role-playing options for the various races should have been implemented. One notable example of this that I've been quite vocal about in the past, is the High Elves and the lack of role-playing choices in-game to support the Thalmor. When I was playing my altmer mage, I thought this was a logical expectation, yet the game didn't really support this outlook which was disappointing, since I like player/character reactivity a great deal as it helps make the experience more immersive and enjoyable to me.

With all of its sweeping "drop the player in a fantasy world and let them explore" grandeur and magnitude, the Elder Scrolls could certainly make adventuring more meaningful by providing more impacting choices in its narratives (see New Vegas/Witcher series/Bloodlines).

I don't think it's a difficult argument to make really; yet if Fallout 4 is anything to go by, I probably shouldn't expect much to change in TESVI. Ahh well, just to have enjoy them for what they are I guess. :)

Edit:
This whole argument of "X doesn't need to have X or be like Y" is needlessly reductionist I think. Please consider the first point I made in this post; TES games can improve role-playing opportunities in many facets of their design.
 
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Pessimeister said:
Obviously not and I would never imply such a generality. However, I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to expect more effort in this department within the greater context of it being a AAA RPG series of such massive scope.

For instance, whilst the Stormcloak/Empire dichotomy was a major choice in Skyrim - more role-playing options for the various races should have been implemented. One notable example of this that I've been quite vocal about in the past, is the High Elves and the lack of role-playing choices in-game to support the Thalmor. When I was playing my altmer mage, I thought this was a logical expectation, yet the game didn't really support this outlook which was disappointing, since I like player/character reactivity a great deal as it helps make the experience more immersive and enjoyable to me.

With all of its sweeping "drop the player in a fantasy world and let them explore" grandeur and magnitude, the Elder Scrolls could certainly make adventuring more meaningful by providing more impacting choices in its narratives (see New Vegas/Witcher series/Bloodlines).

I don't think it's a difficult argument to make really; yet if Fallout 4 is anything to go by, I probably shouldn't expect much to change in TESVI. Ahh well, just to have enjoy them for what they are I guess. :)
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I don't think that is what Elder Scrolls needs to focus on, though. If you want that, you have New Vegas/Witcher/Bloodlines. :) I would say that the Witcher series likely has the "impact choices" thing down.

I would prefer a Morrowind-style RPG that focuses more on mechanics. Adding race/class specific dialogue/quest/background is great, but it doesn't necessarily need to be to a huge, world-altering scale. A good example is the simple guard dialogue in Skyrim. To me, that adds a ton of charm and uniqueness to the world. The race-specific dialogue and greetings in Morrowind and Oblivion are wonderful, too.

What I'm thinking of isn't really what is likely to happen in TES:VI anyway. I'm speaking more in general about why I like Morrowind so much and how I would like some company to approach a "Morrowind-style" RPG in the future.

For TES:VI we really just have to hope they don't strip more armor slots and reduce the amount of skills even more. :p
 
JDR13 said:
You're missing out on half the fun.
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Exactly. That's like people who are into art saying they'll never look at the Mona Lisa again or talk about the history of art. Of book fans saying they'll never read Hemmingway again or talk about literature from the past.

That's fine, it doesn't make you a bad person or anything. But it certainly is self-limiting with no real reason to do so.
 
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Back in the days, I bought Neverwinter Nights and Morrowind at the same time. Morrowind just because it looked good and I had a new PC. I had never heard for TES before. After I was a bit (understatement) disappointed that NW was not Baldur's Gate 3 ;-) I decided to test Morrowind.
It was eye-opening at the time. Incredible graphics and atmosphere. The combat is unbearable for me now, but it didn't matter at the time. And then I discovered the Nexus! Man, I was in heaven! Those were the times...
 
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I think Morrowind with a RTwP system for combat would be great. The combat had fun moments, especially when you played a mage and tried to hit your opponent with all types of spells, debuffs, etc., while trying to buff yourself (and survive) as well. I always thought a Might & Magic VI turn-based/RT hybrid would be cool for Morrowind.
 
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Caddy said:
Unfortunately the economies of scale at Bethesda wouldn't adapt to a Morrowind remake. Also the gamers waiting something new, over the gamers that want a remake is exponentially much larger. Skywind is coming along great. Might as well wait for the best of both worlds.
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I'm an avid Morrowind fan, greatly enjoyed the game and it's one of the games that are always installed. Having said that I have no interest and certainly no desire for Bethesda to remake it, at all, infact I'm very much against them even attempting.

I have no idea why some think so many Morrowind fans would like that and it makes even less sense that a Morrowind fan to want it.

What exactly would one expect, a faithful backwards compatible recreation from the ground up, or a touch of paint to improve the graphics, perhaps just some bug fixes? None of the remotely feasible or realistic options from Bethesda sound worthwhile or even good.

if Bethesda were to "remake" Morrowind today it wouldn't be Morrowind, plain and simple. As for Bethesda touching up the graphics, that's already been done well beyond the point that Bethesda would see a worthwhile return on the work needed just to match let alone surpass. Even the bug fixing done since the last official update would be to much work to match while expecting a worthwhile return.

All that before even considering one of the very important things, keeping mod compatibility. Over time Morrowind has become different things to different fans, because of mods, without which they might not have their Morrowind.

Simply, the biggest and best thing about Morrowind related developments is OpenMW. If that reaches a state where the game can run as well as a modern game on modern hardware with some modern rendering features, such as those offered by MGEXE while retaining compatibility with standard Morrowind mods, well one could not hope for better.

OpenMW is where fans should be focusing their hopes and wishes, I'll even be a shill and say donations or contribution. The amount of skill, knowledge and determination to have come so far, can not be overstated.



As for things like Skywind, well it's not really worth mentioning. Morrowind fans will still be making mods for Morrowind long after the "Skywinds" have made their splash and faded away.
 
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Hastar said:
Have a mod that fixes the combat and I am with you.
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"Fixes" what, exactly? It is a stat-based, dice-roll system built on an abstraction of real-time combat. If you ask me I think Skyrim needs to "fix" its combat to be more dice-roll and stat-based. :p
 
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