Jump to content

S'what bugs you?


Scythe Bearer

Recommended Posts

A couple things bug me about Skyrim.  These aren't bugs in the game, but things that happen in the course of the game which I would have done differently and which I lament over the lack of options. 
The biggie for me is the quest Season Unending; the peace council which can be undertaken in lieu of actually doing the Civil war quest line.  The quest is done to secure the cooperation of the Jarl of Whiterun (Jarl Balgruuf) to trap a dragon and advance the main quest. 

For my part, I would have given the Dragonborn the option to put his foot down early on, exercise the power of the voice and aggressively put a stop to hold swaps and the other bickering.  When Ulfric stands up to leave and rants about Elewen's presence, Dragonborn stands and the following happens after the word "Bitch". 
 

Quote

"STOP!! <in dragon speech, complete with a bit of a rumble in the building and staggers on any standing, except Dragonborn> "

Gasps and gulps from those present.  General Tullius, Legate Rikke, Elewen, Delphine, and Esbern all jump to their feet, draw blades.  Arngier and the other Grey Beards stand.

"We are here to secure a cease fire, not advance your individual agendas or war objectives <very angry>!  If you are not here to look each other in the eyes and agree to a cease fire, then this council is a waste of time <still angry>!  Just know that; should any of you walk out, I shall be obliged to burn you and your cause to ash <very angrily threatening>!  Now, SIT DOWN or leave <angrily commanding>!  Just stop wasting time with your hollow posturing and meaningless gestures <still pretty angry>!"

Everyone sits, and the Dragonborn continues, "Do we have a cease fire or not <quizzically angry>?!?"

Quick; albeit dispassionate, agreement to a cease fire follows, with comments by Elenwen ( <mumbled> "Such power is dangerous, a threat"), Ulfric (who just got brow beat with the same weapon he used against the high king, <sotto voce> "You haven't heard the last of me, Dragonborn"), General Tullius to Jarl Elisif ("Was that The Voice"?), Delphine to Esbern ("Did you know he could do that"?)  and other continuing grumbles about the lack of discussion, bullying and abuse of power <all whispered, sotto voce>.  

.

 

At this point, the quest advances to the discussion on which dragon to capture, sparked by comment from Arngier and responded to by Esbern who recommends Ohdaviing.  Quest ends.  People walk out, still grumbling. 



So, what bugs you?  What would you do differently?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've mentioned this several times over the years.  My biggest complaint is that they chose to make the main quest a prerequisite for beginning the civil war quest.  And, similarly, that they chose to make the main quest a prerequisite for beginning the Dragonborn expansion. 

In my opinion, faction or expansion quest lines should never require a main quest.  To my way of thinking, it violates the open-ended, non-linear, do-what-you-want, craft-your-own-story philosophy of the Elder Scrolls series.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of the things I took issue with was how you had no option to force the Blades to submit and spare Paarthurnax. Which is why I made a mod to deal with it :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can agree with both of you on that score, recent games have that sort of conflict more often. I always thought that if you had a high enough charisma you should be able to modify the direction a faction was going. for instance make the thieves guild more Robbin hood, the assassins guild/dark brotherhood take into consideration the moral side of their work ( yes we will take this contract this person deserves to die, or not). In FO 4 make both the Brother hood of steel and the institute more settler friendly. Also being a member of one guild/faction should make it either more difficult or just not possible to join a rival faction as it was in Morrowwind.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To be honest, there is not much that bothers me about the game - probably because I have so many mods it's barely even Skyrim anymore, and I just ignore anything I don't like:D (if I haven't already changed it with a mod). What bothers me are the forums where people with vast experience - some with almost 100 hours that have been playing the game since November - say that you can do things like remove mods, remove DLCs, and continue playing - then misquote Arthmoor (oh, they call him Arth - must be personal friends - LOL!:woot:) stating he says it's okay to do so - as long as there are no scripts - despite direct quotes from Arthmoor to the contrary in a topic that was linked (which they obviously could not be bothered to read).  If you want a laugh, start reading here.

You can always tell when there has just been a sale on Steam, all the people who just discovered the game are ready to tell others the best strategies and tactics that should be used, and how the game should be redesigned - when not giving advice on how to break the game.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Thieves Guild forced quest.

I love Brynjolf, I could spend all my time around him, but dude, I just came to the city, why are you forcing me to commit a crime for you? Sometimes I just don't want to go down that road.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, smr1957 said:

If you want a laugh, start reading here.

Don't know that I found it funny, but I'm glad I was able to post a response before the moderators there locked it for necromancy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Arthmoor said:

Don't know that I found it funny, but I'm glad I was able to post a response before the moderators there locked it for necromancy.

Well, it was funny like listening to any of the tin foil hat brigade spouting their usual nonsense of things totally wrong - yet at the same time totally unfunny at all, because others who know just as much (which is little) actually listen. And yeah, I was hoping you would respond - I HATE when people are like that - but it's after every Steam sale.  Sometimes I wonder how I deal with it.  But then there are a few who actually are willing to listen and learn from those of us who know, and that makes it worthwhile.  But that's enough off-topic on my part for one day!:)

 

Back on topic, there is one thing I really hate about the game (now that I am doing a reset of my build and am ready to start another playthrough), and that is having to rebuild all the Hearthfire homes all over again (which, since I have the same style (mod changed, of course) all the time, never varies.  But there is no feasible way around that.  And I suppose the same can be said about all the other initial quests (Bleak Falls again, Western Watchtower again, Ustengrav again) - but at least with Alternate Start, it's not the wagon ride and chopping block, again!  Mostly I put them off and do other things until I feel up to doing them, so I don't actually start the main quest until a little after level 20 or so - and then take a little bit of time so that I don't actually get to the Greybeards and then Ustengrav and Kynesgrove until 5 or 6 levels later (at least). 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Combining smr’s points: it bugs me how the design of Hearthfires makes it hard to add new homes without cloning a lot of scripts that should simply be extensible. The logic that says you can’t buy logs unless you have one of the three standard homes, etc. I’m working on a new one of mine, and extending another, so I have been doing a lot of restarting from the beginning because of baked properties. Restart with three HF homes is trivial compared to games with ten. 

Ok, so I don’t build them all during development, but each new one needs checking in a game with the others, once I think it’s complete. I would have no hair if there were no mods to skip the cart ride.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have played the game for so long now with the same character that I have forgotten what used to irritate, probably that my play style eventually results in characters which are basically the same and almost indestructible, now that could be down to me I know, or maybe the game design (in vanilla at any rate) lends itself to that sort of outcome, which suggests limited choices perhaps.

But as I know some others do, I always play games well through in vanilla first for a long time before venturing into the wold of mods. Those people (modders) have my endless thanks and admiration for adding variety into Beth games, which has allowed me many hours of enjoyment (mostly :rolleyes:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/11/2023 at 2:47 AM, Arthmoor said:

One of the things I took issue with was how you had no option to force the Blades to submit and spare Paarthurnax. Which is why I made a mod to deal with it :P

I don't understand their decision to design a quest like that. It's not the first time they do this and they will certainly do this again. The whole main quest story lines of Fallout 4 are an all or nothing decision in the end. Having multiple choices which are not only black and white makes a quest interesting in the first place.

But this is not the point that bothers me the most in Skyrim. It's the repetitiveness of the greeting dialogues of the NPCs. Every time I hear Nazeem saying "Do you get to the Cloud District very often?", well, a knife in the back would be the most harmless think I do to him if I give vent to my feelings. But I'm the Dragonborn. This wouldn't be good for my P.R. :teehee:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello, I'm new here, and I love the modding community, it really makes the game pop! My only real beef against the game is pretty much the  whole Delphine quest.. She's bossy and rude to the Dragonborn. Right at the get-go, with the 'Are you afraid of me?" line, really puts me off. And no way to tell her that without having the quest just stop cold.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Selene310187 said:

I don't understand their decision to design a quest like that. It's not the first time they do this and they will certainly do this again. The whole main quest story lines of Fallout 4 are an all or nothing decision in the end. Having multiple choices which are not only black and white makes a quest interesting in the first place.

But this is not the point that bothers me the most in Skyrim. It's the repetitiveness of the greeting dialogues of the NPCs. Every time I hear Nazeem saying "Do you get to the Cloud District very often?", well, a knife in the back would be the most harmless think I do to him if I give vent to my feelings. But I'm the Dragonborn. This wouldn't be good for my P.R. :teehee:

That's easy to remove. In the CK goto Gameplay -> Settings and change fAIMinGreetingDistance from 150.0000 to 0.0000. I have made a personal mod in which I change such annoyances.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Selene310187 said:

I don't understand their decision to design a quest like that.

I can see what they were after - either you do what the Blades want or you just ignore them like everyone else except the Thalmor has been for 200 years. I'm assuming in their minds, ignoring them is the alternative decision.

I just didn't like that and set out to do something about it. Especially since it still makes some sense lore-wise to revive the Blades and bring them back from the brink. But you can't do that in vanilla if you ignore their demands.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Things I would have liked in vanilla Skyrim: A bed and safe storage in High Hrothgar. Winterhold to have been a bigger town. Horse & carts located at the smaller towns. An option to wipe out the thieves guild. Also what Pseron said above - the ability to do the civil war quest without starting the main quest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/16/2023 at 1:18 AM, Fenrus said:

Horse & carts located at the smaller towns

You might try Touring Carriages. The developers actually thought of this, but ran out of time to complete it. Vanilla resources are already available.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...