Twinfalls
Erudite
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2005
- Messages
- 3,903
No doubt people here have touched on this before, but I can't find it, so....
There's some spirited discussion in a thread below about one aspect of Oblivion's magic system (you can cast even more easily now). What troubles me most however about TES games (since Morrowind, as I recall this was one of the big steps backward from Daggerfall) is this:
You can learn just one spell and practice it until you are a master at it, and simultaneously be useless at all other spells . In TES, you can pick 'destruction magic' for example as a *sole* major skill - and load yourself up with non-magic skills, combat or stealth or whatever, for the rest of your skillset. Then you can simply buy a 'fireball' spell from some dude, (without joining any magic school), practice it non stop for a while, and et voila! You are a fire chucking barbarian thief.
I find this particularly unbelievable - to me, magic should be much more wholistic - one ought to be a general mage of some sort to be able to cast *any* spell with that much proficiency.
What Bethesda have done is to completely jettison what should be common sense - the notion that magic is a higher art, that there are *general* principles and techniques to be learned before you can cast any spell, of any sort.
This is supposed to be 'freedom' yet it is the most artificial idea I've seen in an RPG. And it seems to be accepted in the name of the 'well I ken do whatevar I want and that is kewl' mentality.
The Gothic games at least gave RPG magic some respect. To cast anything at a reasonable level you had to join the Mages Guild, and work your way up. None of this pick and choose what I am uber at in a total piecemeal fashion...
I really hope Bethesda eventually get back into their skulls that throwing away what are called 'restrictions' in the name of 'freedom' actually *reduces* the sophistication and therefore options available, when 'restrictions' mean giving the concept of magic more than just the value and depth of what vegetable you buy at a market.
I blame Todd Howard - he's demonstrated his ethos with comments like 'We like enchanting, and are going to make it even more easy in Oblivion' etc.
There's some spirited discussion in a thread below about one aspect of Oblivion's magic system (you can cast even more easily now). What troubles me most however about TES games (since Morrowind, as I recall this was one of the big steps backward from Daggerfall) is this:
You can learn just one spell and practice it until you are a master at it, and simultaneously be useless at all other spells . In TES, you can pick 'destruction magic' for example as a *sole* major skill - and load yourself up with non-magic skills, combat or stealth or whatever, for the rest of your skillset. Then you can simply buy a 'fireball' spell from some dude, (without joining any magic school), practice it non stop for a while, and et voila! You are a fire chucking barbarian thief.
I find this particularly unbelievable - to me, magic should be much more wholistic - one ought to be a general mage of some sort to be able to cast *any* spell with that much proficiency.
What Bethesda have done is to completely jettison what should be common sense - the notion that magic is a higher art, that there are *general* principles and techniques to be learned before you can cast any spell, of any sort.
This is supposed to be 'freedom' yet it is the most artificial idea I've seen in an RPG. And it seems to be accepted in the name of the 'well I ken do whatevar I want and that is kewl' mentality.
The Gothic games at least gave RPG magic some respect. To cast anything at a reasonable level you had to join the Mages Guild, and work your way up. None of this pick and choose what I am uber at in a total piecemeal fashion...
I really hope Bethesda eventually get back into their skulls that throwing away what are called 'restrictions' in the name of 'freedom' actually *reduces* the sophistication and therefore options available, when 'restrictions' mean giving the concept of magic more than just the value and depth of what vegetable you buy at a market.
I blame Todd Howard - he's demonstrated his ethos with comments like 'We like enchanting, and are going to make it even more easy in Oblivion' etc.