Even Morrowind was a simplified version of Daggerfall, even though it was groundbreaking when it was released. They decided that the direction to take was to simplify the mechanics progressively, to make the series more appealing to more people, as opposed to adding interesting complications back as their tech develops. They succeeded in their mantra of "keep it simple, stupid". I don't have any hope that the next game will be more interesting. It will look prettier, of course.

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

It's smaller but I would not say it was dumbed down like Oblivion was to Morrowind. Morrowind feels more or less the same as Arena or Daggerfall, except in how character progressiom works and that you didn't have to swing your mouse around trying to hit things with your weapon.

It literally still has all the deeper mechanics like performing rituals during certain times of the day/months/year and what not. Just not a procedurally generated world with RNG quests or dungeons. And thank God for that because Daggerfall and Arena both could literally break by generating a dungeon you couldn't actually finish.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 4 points 4 months ago

Idk, having only played Oblivion and Skyrim, I feel like (generally speaking) the simplifications in Skyrim were for the better. Take custom spells for example. Only a few spells really even made sense to make and it was better to make them in very specific ways. It's not like the games are super difficult. Fucking around with spells and more complex enchantments was cool but too easy to cheese.

Oh, and the leveling. Holy fuck what an over complicated mess. Where you could accidentally over level but also under level. Insane. Good riddance.

Complex systems are not inherently good. They're good if they provide meaningful choices and are fun to use. But ES has always been about the story and exploration more so anyways (in my opinion).