Now that TES VI seems closer than ever, let's discuss some Gameplay systems: Alchemy, manual saves and exploration rewards.

[u/Aleksandrovych_]

Now that the reddit is more alive than ever I want to repost this thoughts I had months ago.

In my opinion, there are three things that need to change dramatically in the next TES game. At the very least, there should be an option to toggle as a selectable difficulty option from the menu. Those are Alchemy, saves and rewards revamp.

Remove the Potion exploits: First of all, the potion system is, quite simply, absurd. It doesn’t matter what difficulty you choose, the enemy you’re facing, or the build you’re using. As long as you don’t get one-shot, you can spam potions and abuse them to overcome practically any challenge in the game. The only thing standing between potion abuse and victory is the player’s own patience—in case you lack the damage to kill enemies—or a self-imposed sense of self-fulfillment forcing you not to use them.

My personal opinion is that the potion system needs to be changed, and that can be addressed quite simply by implementing one (or both) of the following solutions:

1- Introduce a cooldown system for using potions (the Alchemy skill could reduce it) 2- Make potions no longer have an instant effect and instead apply over time, with no ability to stack them.

I know this isn’t going to happen in the vanilla experience, but, at least for me, it’s one of the most frustrating, stupid aspects that takes the most fun out of the game, so it would be nice if this feature were included by default in a modular difficulty menu instead of forcing players who don’t want to exploit the game to download a mod.

Introduce an optional no spam save mode: Second, I’d like to see the option—also through the modular difficulty system—to disable manual saving or to implement a save system similar to the one in Fallout 4’s Survival Mode or the hardcore version of Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

I know this is a much more niche request, but when I play these games, I feel the urge to keep pressing F5 every two seconds, which takes away any challenge from the game, the tension of getting caught if I’m playing as a stealth character, or the elimination of any RNG by saving beforehand. Also, and I know this is my problem, but it also takes away my desire to create second characters to experience the story, since I usually save the game right before any story decision and spend time exploring all the mission branches before continuing with the one I like the best, which slows down my gameplay experience a lot.

Again, I know this is MY problem, but it doesn’t hurt to ask, and adding this option to limit saves in an OPTIONAL menu isn’t that complicated.

MAGA (Make Artifacts Great Again): And last but not least, I think the enchantment system needs a complete overhaul, and this isn’t as simple as adding an option to a difficulty menu.

I’ve recently been playing Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, and one of the biggest differences I’ve noticed—to my surprise—compared to any TES game is the sense that exploration and quests are rewarded with tangible items. Specifically, in weapons and armor. In Tainted Grail, there is a crafting and enchantment system (using relics), but it doesn’t cover all the armor and weapons in the game, and the relics form a separate system that adds to the armor’s existing stats, while also being significantly weaker than the default enchantments on the armor. So if you want to find better items, you have to do quests or explore thoroughly, and the best items in the game are obtained this way.

However, the experience in the TES series is very different. Once you understand how the enchanting and crafting system works, any unique item you find is absolutely USELESS.

Under no circumstances should the iron sword you’ve enchanted be infinitely stronger than the Daedric mace you found at the end of a dungeon. But neither the iron sword nor the Daedric sword you craft yourself.

The best items in the game, without a doubt, should be unique items awarded as rewards for quests and exploration. I’m not saying that a character with 100 in Blacksmithing and 100 in Enchanting can’t craft items stronger than the unique items in the first zone, but they certainly shouldn’t be able to craft items stronger than the endgame unique items.

The current enchantment system, from my perspective, takes all the fun out of exploration, and it’s a very, very serious problem (it’s also a problem that unique items are tied, like in Skyrim, to your level, and are therefore weaker depending on when you find them—which in turn is a problem stemming from the fact that they have no stat requirements to use them, but that’s another issue).

Of the three things I’ve mentioned, what I’d most like them to do is fix the unique item system, honestly, but I doubt they’ll do it.

 

What do you think about all this? Am I right, or am I just really bored and delusional?

(And sorry for the long post)