made said:
U7 had hand-placed loot. A magically locked chest in a secret treasure room would contain something special and rewarding as expected. Skyrim has randomized, value-scaled chests. I'd routinely break all my lockpicks to open a master lock only to find a couple gold coins and rags. Later a simple fetch quest for a peasant would miraculously reward 1000gp.
Agreed.
But to be fair, Skyrim uses a mixture. There tends to be some non-leveled hand-placed loot throughout and at the the end of dungeons.
And in theory the mixture of random and pre-placed loot is ideal. It encourages low-level characters to brave dungeons to get the non-leveled loot, while over-leveled characters still get something worthwhile from the chest.
Obviously in practice it doesn't always work out that way. It's not quite 'Oblivion bad' where the random loot was the same food/clothing combinations you'd find in town, but still seems to provide less hits than misses.
made said:
Dungeons in U7 were perhaps not as extensive as in previous titles, but at least they were hand-crafted and unique. They also had various traps, secret doors, teleporters etc. Skyrim's dungeons might as well be based on some algorithm that twists and bends a tube in various directions. When you enter a dungeon you know exactly what to expect: a single corridor with the occasional side-room here and there and a shortcut at the end that takes you back to the entrance. Coupled with the scaled loot this kills any sense of exploration. There is no way to get lost because there is ever only one way to go. The most elaborate puzzles in Skyrim amount to unlocking doors with rune combinations you find on walls in the very room the door is in.
My memory might be faulty (my last playthrough was about five years ago) but besides the comparative lack of Dungeons in U7, I also don't remember them being particularly puzzling or non-liner. That might also be a side effect from having played it through multiple times, but I'm pretty sure the Dungeons were not U7's high-point.
And for the most part, I haven't had the feeling that Skyrim's are anything other that hand-crafted. Sure, they are linear roller-coasters, but they are at least competent linear roller coasters.
(Actually, that's not totally true... there are a bunch of forts out there that feel like they were all built from the same lego set. They are fairly disconcerting.)
I'm not saying you're wrong about Skyrim - I just think you're giving U7 more credit then it deserves.
(Though I'd give you that if we were including U7-Prt2, which is dungeon-palozza... but it's also a very different game).
made said:
As far as NPC interaction goes, Ultima's keyword dialogue may seem simplistic but it works well enough as a source of background information and clues. My journal from my last exult playthrough is full of ambiguous entries and hints, leaving it to me to piece them together. Skyrim has no need for a journal. Skyrim's NPCs don't give clues, they hand out tasks. Usually of the "go to dungeon, fetch item" variety, and I'm not even talking about the randomized kill/fetch quests. They also don't give directions, they upload the goal straight to your GPS. I found exactly one quest that didn't play out like that (demon in mage college) and required a modicum of thought, whether due to a bug or design I do not know. I was pleasantly surprised. I do appreciate that inn keepers give rumors of the "investigate bard college" sort, but that's just another reminder of wasted potential.
Not going to fight you on this one.
Skyrim has it's moments of brilliance, but it's hidden in a swamp of derp.
