Having played a fair bit more, a few more niggles have come up that (I feel) desperately need addressing.
Some minor spoilers follow.
Character
I’m the Thane
When becoming Thane, the Jarls usually make a big point of telling you that the city guards will look the other way if you commit some minor misdemeanors.
They neglect to tell you that they only let you off once!
I think this system would be better if they ALWAYS let you off small crimes. But you were limited to a bounty of something like 200 Septims before they began insisting on arrests.
Currently I have a 40 Septim bounty in Riften and seeing as I’m a Thane I believe I should be able to have it ignored. Especially as I only have it because I ACCIDENTALLY hit someone with an axe while DEFENDING THEIR LIVES FROM A DRAGON!
As it stands, the game mechanics make the option for me that I slaughter all witnesses in order to remove the bounty.
But I just want to apologise for the mistake and have it forgotten.
I’m in charge now guys
Some questlines have you join a group or fellowship or club or some such thing. Once you progress through the questline, the group leader might be killed for one reason or another and leaves you in command in their place.
The strange thing that happens is that the rest of the group don’t give you the respect you deserve. Most of the time they continue to use you as their errand boy.
At this stage I should think the situation should be reversed and I should be telling them what to do and where to go.
And why are my subordinates still charging me for training?
Followers
Barbas
Rightly regarded as one of the most irritating followers in the game.
Aside from being a missed opportunity for endless comedy and the possibility of being a fan favourite, he just never ceases to annoy.
If I want to stop for a moment to survey the scenery or get my bearings, he will run into me and nudge and push. Especially worrying when I’m near a cliff edge.
He’s also likely to do this while I’m trying to have a conversation with someone.
No wonder his master abandoned him!
Wait there a minute will you?
In some quests, you are assigned temporary followers to assist you.
This is all well and good but you have no control over them whatsoever.
I understand that in many cases, they haven’t pledged allegiance to you in the same way that regular followers sort of do and it’s fair enough that they don’t obey your every command, but it would be nice if you could at the very least ask them to wait somewhere.
You might want to check that the path ahead is clear and so on or something.
Or in my case, I admit, when not completing quests straight away and going off and exploiting the follower to help you in other missions it would definitely be of use to ask them to hang around while you do illegal things you don’t want them to see.
You’re not allowed two friends, that would be madness
It irritates me a little when speaking to a character who seems to be waiting for an opportunity to go adventuring that when you offer the chance to join you they reply with something along the lines of ‘I can’t, there’s already someone with you’.
Lame excuse!
I don’t know why Bethesda limits us to one follower. Sure, with each follower you have the game gets a lot easier, and sometimes squeezing through narrow corridors is difficult, but really, it should be left up to the player if they are happy to go with that or if they’d prefer to go solo.
As I said before, for a while there I’d been using the game exploit that allows you to have a handful of buddies, because I think it makes sense that in a dangerous world like Tamriel, you’d be wise to travel in packs. At least until you’re strong enough to handle yourself better.
In a sort of connected note, the other thing that annoys me is when bonus quest companions force your normal follower to leave while he is with you. Especially when that follower is Kharjo and he’s very difficult to find once he wanders off with the caravan!
Not only does it make no sense, but it’s annoying, and a lot of the time they are carrying some cool stuff I don’t want to lose!
Let the Cavalry come!
When you have a follower, it is unwise to use horses. Horses are fast. Followers are slow and don’t like following you over rough terrain.
This makes for an easy way of losing your followers when adventuring.
I’d love to have my ally get up on his own horse so we can ride together.
It would be pretty cool to see soldiers on horseback charging into battle.
The other thing about horses is that for some reason you can’t interact with people while riding. This means both talking to or fighting with.
I’m sure I should be capable of swinging my sword around while on horseback or firing some spells.
Why can’t you pick that up!?
Followers are happy to take things from the ground or out of boxes, but if you ask them to search a dead body, they tell you it’s not possible.
I don’t understand it. Are they squeamish?
A related thing I would like to see is the option to have followers take specific things from boxes, rather than the current all or nothing.
(But I do like the exploit of not worrying about carry weight).
NPCs
I don’t mean to sound racist, but they all look the same
Mentioned a similar point in the last ‘updates’ article regarding giants.
But it seems a little odd that all Hagravens, dogs and even most children look exactly the same.
Could it be mixed up a little?
Quests
Tell me why I’m doing this?
I suppose the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild quests are meant for immoral Dovahkiin, who don’t need a reason to do things, but as a Dovahkiin who has somehow found himself swept up in all this, I’d like to be able to ask a few questions and learn why certain people need to die or be framed for robbery.
Yeah, I’m meant to follow orders without question, but I don’t even have the option to ask the questions I’m not allowed to ask!
If that makes sense…
Stones of Barenziah
These Unusual Gems are found dotted all over Skyrim.
If you pick one up, it starts a quest that doesn’t end until you find all 24 of them.
During this quest, the gems become marked as Quest Items, which means you can’t drop, give, sell or store them.
This is a bit of a pain. Each one has a carry weight of 0.5, so all 24 would weigh 12.
This doesn’t sound like much, but as an adventurer who likes to make sure I don’t miss out on any loot, any spare weight I can free up is vital.
It would be great if there was somewhere to store these until you got all of them, or if you could give them to the person involved in the quest one by one instead of altogether.
Alternatively, they could be given a weight of 0 like some other quest items, then there’d be no problem.
Weapons and Armour
Gender Specific Armour and Clothes
A niggle that’s bothered me throughout many of Bethesdas RPGs.
Take the Steel Plate Armour below.
A male Dragonborn puts it on and it is a clear sheet of metal with shoulder guards and the rest. However, if a woman dons the exact same gear, somehow it forms around her breasts and gets sucked in at the hips.
This makes no sense. That’s metal! Soft, fleshy boobs aren’t going to force it into a new shape!
I really think these two sets of armour should be seperate items in game.
This also allows the player to indulge in a little dragonborn transvestisism. For fun…
I think the first time this really bothered me was in Fallout when I found the Sexy Sleepwear. I found a frilly little skirt, and when I tried to wear it I found I was in a set of pyjamas. This made me sad.
Bugs and Glitches
Again, this was mentioned in the last article but I feel that some bugs need particular notice.
Some bugs and glitches aren’t big deals, but these ones either affect the realism of the game or almost break it.
Bethesda can be forgiven for letting a few bugs and glitches slip by them. It’s a huge game with so so much content that it was inevitable. But it would be great if when problems are found they are solved.
Cat tails
Dead Khajit seem to still wag their tails. It’s really weird.
Volendrung on a rack
Every time I come back home, it has fallen off. It’s a pain!
Dead Crone Rock Word Wall
A Word Wall that sings and drums at you like all the rest, but for some reason can not be learned.
Sanguine Rose with the Twin Souls Perk
Since getting the perk, my Rose doesn’t work any more! And I was so looking forward to having my enemies double teamed by the Daedra warrior and Arniel Gane!
Stolen Items
Rather than telling my follower to pick up each item I want him/her to take individually, I like to grab them all myself, shove them in one box and tell him/her to take everything from that box. Simpler.
But for some reason, this makes each item taken count as stolen. So now I’ve got a bunch of items that couldn’t possibly have been stolen marked as such. Like special unique weapons awarded to me for my services to the countries holds.
And seemingly no way to undo the damage.
Lag
This is a major one.
My game save recently hit 11MB, which seems insane as it is. The next save I made jumped to 24MB! Nothing in between.
Since the 11MB save, the game has gotten laggy and sometimes difficult to play.
Precision becomes difficult when your guy is jumping about the screen unpredictably. Especially if Barbas is pushing you…
