Skyrim is a great game, one of my favorite games ever in fact, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any ways for the game to be improved upon. Here are some of my biggest gripes about Skyrim and some suggestions for how I think these weaknesses can be improved upon for the next installment of The Elder Scrolls.
Skyrim does a really bad job of explaining the mechanics of the game to players. Luckily for us, there are some great wikis that contain the knowledge that devoted Skyrim fans were able to wring from the game, but for someone who does not want to do additional reading, Skyrim is a game with a lot of unknown information regarding what actually happens when you play it. More specifically, the combat mechanics are barely even touched upon beyond short descriptions of weapons, spells, abilities, and enchantments. A few examples:
-The damage number on a weapon is not useful except when comparing weapons of the exact same type due to hidden differences in attack speed between weapon types.
-The speed at which dual wield attacks are made are determined by the attack speed of the weapon in your left hand.
-Different enemies are weak and resistant to different kinds of damage.
-The rate at which you gain experience in Alchemy is based on the gold value of the potions you create.
-Power attacks when sneaking can provide up to three times as much experience, if all three attacks hit the enemy.
-And the list goes on...
I don't believe that players should have to deduce the gameplay mechanics from the game, there should be clear explanations of these things available to players who wish to know them.
The journal is weak when it comes to tracking miscellaneous quests, and keeping track of collection quests. The journal is really good at showing you the location of main quest objectives, however the lumping together of all the miscellaneous quests makes its really difficult to keep track of more than a few miscellaneous quests without having to run through a long list whenever you want to add or remove a quest from tracking. There is also an overload of quests in the log once you get to a certain point, and it gets difficult to separate the quests that actually have story built into them from the simple quests that are meant to point you to undiscovered locations. Finally when it comes to collection quests, it is difficult to keep track of which items you need to complete the quest without going into your journal and swimming through the sea of miscellaneous quests.
What I would like to see is for them to do a better job of indicating which quests have actual story interactions included in them, and which ones are simple move to this location type quests. An idea would be for there to be three tiers of quest: main quests that are fully featured and contain unique dialogue, locations, and/or characters; secondary quests which still contain unique features but are not meant to be full experiences, and tertiary quests which are simple and usually involve either discovering a new location or killing a generic NPC. Something else I would like to see is the ability to hide quest objectives for the tertiary quests unless you are in very close proximity to them, as tracking too many miscellaneous quests can quickly clutter your map and your compass.
The combat in Skyrim is clunky, especially when it comes to melee combat. As a melee character, it is difficult to make sure that all your attacks hit your target. Yes this can be considered intentional because real melee combats are likely very hectic, but the player is often left feeling like they are playing whack a mole. If you have a companion with you the combat becomes more chaotic still, and what should be a cool combat experience turns into the silly dance where you are just hoping that your horse or a downed companion doesn't run in front of your sword and force you to murder them.
What I think might be a way that melee combat could be improved, would be for there to be a soft targeting system, whereby the player can choose to soft lock on a target, and the camera would follow that target loosely, so that if an enemy suddenly rushes behind you, your camera will follow it, and you can focus on making sure that you hit the areas of the target that you want to, instead of playing where's Waldo.
Potions and poisons are poorly implemented. The use of potions and poisons in combat is extremely disruptive. Stopping combat completely so that you can drink 20 potions is a chore, and the fact that poisons only last for a single hit can make playing a poison user into an exercise in tedium. The number of different potions and poisons is overwhelming and you can quickly find yourself holding dozens of different kinds of potion and taking 5 minutes to sort through them all in the middle of combat.
What I would like to see is a better way of categorizing potions and poisons. Lump all the healing potions into a single line on the inventory, and allow the player to expand it if they want to see the full list. There should be poisons that last longer than a single hit, or at least the option to auto apply poisons so that you don't have to keep menu hopping. Multi effect potions can really blow up your inventory, so I think it would be a good idea to really consider whether the diversity of potion choice is worth the chaos it creates. Perhaps creating a potion that has both beneficial and detrimental effects would just spoil the potion, and it would simply become something to sell. Speaking of your inventory...
The inventory system has some major issues. In fact people were so dissatisfied with the inventory system that modders completely redesigned the UI in what is one of the single most popular Skyrim mods in existence. My main complaints come from the huge amount of clutter. In addition to the aforementioned potion explosion, I also end up with lines and lines of soul gems and Stones of Barenziah that refuse to collect themselves properly.
I think that the inventory needs to be streamlined better for Elder Scrolls VI. There should be more categories of item, so that I don't have to go through all my soul gems and quest items when I am checking which smithing materials I have, or how many gems I have of a type needed for a quest.
Finally, one of my biggest complaints is that the game is not roleplay friendly if you are trying to play a good character. A large amount of the game's main content is found in questlines that require you to perform evil actions like committing crimes or murdering innocent people. In my first playthrough I tried to roleplay a good aligned hero, and as a result I never got to do any of the Thieves Guild or Dark Brotherhood quests, nor was I able to do many of the Daedric Quests. I also decided my character did not want to be a werewolf so I missed out on the Companions questline. There were many other side quests that I could not undertake without breaking my character's moral code, and it really sucked because I couldn't enjoy the game's full offering without throwing my character immersion out the window.
I would love to see more choice given to the player in Elder Scrolls VI. If I don't want to join the Thieves Guild, then why can I take them down or work from the inside to convince them to change? Elder Scrolls is supposed to be a role playing game, and the gating of content behind immoral actions made it so I could not play the game the way I wanted to.
I am eagerly awaiting news on the next Elder Scrolls game, and I still love Skyrim despite its flaws, but I hope that Bethesda is able to learn from the shortcomings of this game and work to make Elder Scrolls VI into something greater still.
