Skyrim Questions

Eh, I'm happy with the enemy roll-call for the most part. You do realize there are 32 hostile enemy types in the game. That seems like a lot. This list is pretty telling > http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Creatures

They could have added more Daedra though. It's weird playing an Elder Scrolls game where the only Daedra you fight are the Atronachs. No Dremoras, no Spider Daedra, etc.

I wonder if Dragonborn is going to add any Daedra? Daedra were prevalent in Morrowind, maybe some of them migrated to Solstheim when Red Mountain blew. Doubtful, but anything's possible.

More monster variety would have been really nice but I think I could say that about every game I've ever played except perhaps Nethack.

Originally Posted by Zloth
More monster variety would have been really nice but I think I could say that about every game I've ever played except perhaps Nethack.

Did you play any of the Infinity Engine games? I thought they did a good job in terms of variety, and Baldur's Gate 2 in particular had an impressive bestiary.

I agree that many RPGs lack a significant degree of variety when it comes to enemy types though. Ironically, jRPGs actually seem to be superior in that aspect.

That's why I never play skyrim without the monster mod.

While nothing is ever perfect (or even close) - I find the amount of variety in Skyrim exceedingly impressive - and that includes the variety of enemies. My only real complaint with that game is about balance and mechanics.

Bethesda games always suffer balance problems because it is hard to accurately guess how far an individual will progress. What is mid-game for me is well past endgame for most, so I end up overpowered. I'm grateful for mods that allow me to tweak difficulty as I play. Still, this is their best attempt at my ideal game and I started playing again last night, early this morning. I added in an alternative start and a couple of quest mods to give me some new stuff to do when I get tired of same-old, same-old.

Originally Posted by Fluent
Eh, I'm happy with the enemy roll-call for the most part. You do realize there are 32 hostile enemy types in the game. That seems like a lot. This list is pretty telling > http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Creatures

They could have added more Daedra though. It's weird playing an Elder Scrolls game where the only Daedra you fight are the Atronachs. No Dremoras, no Spider Daedra, etc.

I wonder if Dragonborn is going to add any Daedra? Daedra were prevalent in Morrowind, maybe some of them migrated to Solstheim when Red Mountain blew. Doubtful, but anything's possible.

Take away the farm animals, basic forest animals/ambient life, docile animals and what are you left with from that 32? Not a whole lot IMO.

Good luck finding a game with much more variety. Most have far fewer. Seems like a silly complaint.

Originally Posted by Zloth
More monster variety would have been really nice but I think I could say that about every game I've ever played except perhaps Nethack.

Exactly, compared to the Dragon Age games or Risen, for example, Skyrim is a treasure trove of zoological diversity.

There are some great mods that add more creatures to the game, and some I really enjoy that add lots of variants to the existing creature meshes, Real Wildlife and Automatic Variants.

Originally Posted by Harlequin
Take away the farm animals, basic forest animals/ambient life, docile animals and what are you left with from that 32? Not a whole lot IMO.

Actually, I didn't count the farm animals or docile animals in that count of 32. 32 is the number of hostile enemy types there are. Hostile enemy types.

Technically there's much more than 32 hostile enemies though. For example, Falmer is counted as 1 of the 32 enemy types, but there are 6 varieties of Falmer alone (Falmer, Skulker, Gloomlurker, Nightprowler, Shadowmaster, Warmonger). This applies to other enemy types as well.

Then if you further subdivide those 6 varieties of Falmer into their combat specialties, you get even further diversity (Melee Fighters, Melee Bosses, Archers, Shaman, Spellswords, Spellsword Bosses, Frozen Falmer, Frozen Falmer Shaman).

So overall I would say Skyrim has a ton of diversity, but you have to pay attention to the subtlety of it to really appreciate it.

Originally Posted by CountChocula
Exactly, compared to the Dragon Age games or Risen, for example, Skyrim is a treasure trove of zoological diversity.

There are some great mods that add more creatures to the game, and some I really enjoy that add lots of variants to the existing creature meshes, Real Wildlife and Automatic Variants.

I should clarify I think the AMBIENT life is wonderful (though house cats & pigs would have been nice my only real complaint). As you said the best or one of the best in any CRPG. The issue is monsters. Yes there are a ton of different falmer and durger types. But you take away those re-skinned variants and there are about 50% of the total monster fights. I would have liked seeing DIFFERENT types not sub-types of the same monster type. In BG and NWN you have goblins, orc, kobolds, trolls, slew of undead types, lizard men, drow, spirit and fairy types, etc.

Seems in skyrim I keep fighting some type of durger or falmer and the occasional spider, troll, ice wraith, hagraven, vampire and dragon over and over. (not including human type enemies like bandits)

To me that's not a very large selection of creatures.

I think you are missing a few of the 33.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Creatures

In any case, judging by the screenshots it looks like there will be some interesting new creatures in the upcoming DLC.

Originally Posted by Fluent
So overall I would say Skyrim has a ton of diversity, but you have to pay attention to the subtlety of it to really appreciate it.

Yeah, there's the real problem - you don't have to. Other than hit points, is there really much difference between a bear coming at you, a tiger, a skeleton with a sword, a humanoid with an axe, a falmer with a hammer, and a rock crab? I think there are some differences in the damage types you are doing but most of them seem pretty similar.

It would be nice to see enemies that are really different. There are already a bunch in there - like vampires and their draining attacks, rats and their disease, flying dragons, regenerating trolls, and enemies with different shouts/spells to use on you. It would just be nice to have more.

And yeah, I'm hoping the DLC actually has some of that, too. I'm not getting my hopes up yet.

Wow, I thought I was a demanding player. Enemies don't seem different in Skyrim?

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Skyrim, Skyrim, Skyrim. I just grabbed the Vilja mod last night looking for a little bit better companion. The weakest aspect of Bethesda games are character interactions, and though Skyrim is much better than its predecessors, Obsidian and many modders do a better job in this aspect. Loving the game again though The alternative start mod had me as a mage apprentice, so I did several mage guild quests before visiting Helgen and starting the main quest.

Originally Posted by azarhal
There is a mod that make villagers less "suicidal"…

Could you give me a link to this mod azarhal?

Originally Posted by zahratustra
Could you give me a link to this mod azarhal?

Everyone Get Inside. It's in beta though.

Nice idea. Chalk another one up to the modding community. Of course, they could just scale the villagers' strength, too.

Nah, I like the image of everyone running to their houses!