Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Amaya wrote:

KingCracker wrote:

Amaya wrote:Did you play Morrowind? Oblivion's magick system was one of the few major improvements that it had.

Did YOU ever play morrowind? The only real thing that Oblivion had on it, was it was prettier. Thats it. The enchanment system SUCKED in oblivion and you just couldnt play with the magic system they way you could in Morrowind. In morrowind, sheesh man, the skies where pretty much the limit in that game. Sure it needed some tweeking as far as how you select the spells and such, but over all I LOVED the way it was in Morrowind.

Enchantments were better in Morrowind, but actual spellcasting was terrible.

'course, in Morrowind, Enchanting was part of spellcasting. It was Oblivion that separated the two. Enchanter was a legitimate Magic based custom class, especially with the plethora of petty soulgems to be found in Balmora, and the relatively cheap Soul-trap spell you could get at that mages guild. I had one character who enchanted their first item at Level 1, either a gauntlet or bracer, I can't remember, and used that and the other enchanted items to be found almost exclusively for attack. (Defense was made of Armour and running away) Can't really do that in Oblivion, since you can't enchant items to, say, shoot fire or frost. If you ever want to damage something without magic, you'll need to swing a weapon at it. I guess Poison perhaps filled that niche a little, though. That was nice; gave Alchemists a little more bite.

Amaya wrote:

KingCracker wrote:

Amaya wrote:Did you play Morrowind? Oblivion's magick system was one of the few major improvements that it had.

Did YOU ever play morrowind? The only real thing that Oblivion had on it, was it was prettier. Thats it. The enchanment system SUCKED in oblivion and you just couldnt play with the magic system they way you could in Morrowind. In morrowind, sheesh man, the skies where pretty much the limit in that game. Sure it needed some tweeking as far as how you select the spells and such, but over all I LOVED the way it was in Morrowind.

Enchantments were better in Morrowind, but actual spellcasting was terrible.

I disagree. It was prettier in Oblivion, but far better in Morrowindf and had far more customizations as well. In morrowind you could just make tons of crazy spell combos and things as long as you had the skill to cast it and the money to make it. I used to play on the xbox, so I had to be creative in spellmaking. I hated the levitate spell, and so made my own version of the Icarian flight spells. I couldnt go AS far, but I could jump from Balmora to Vivec in about 4 or 5 hops. You couldnt do ANY of those in Oblivion. I mean, you cant fly?! Erm.....ok. Ill just enchant stuff then....oh wait, I cant CE anything worth doing....and it only went to like 25% didnt it? You couldnt do CE heal, CE restore fatigue, CE restore magic. You know, all the good ones?

Again, Oblivion was 2 things over Morrowind as far as the magics. It was prettier, and they had Necromancy. Which was friggin awesome.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Agreed on the poison. I jsut picked up the GOTY version of Oblivion the other day (I actually missed playing it) so I dunno if they fixed the Alchemy feth up or not. Im working on an assassin right now and I use alchemy to make poisons. I remember when it first came out though, once you got high enough in Alchemy it would just SCREW UP your poisons. Hurray Im damaging your health, BUT Im buffing you at the same time, AND healing you! YEA!....wait thats not a yea moment oh crap

Poison sucks in oblivion, hard.

Wait what necromancy? there wasn't necromancy in oblivion?

I think it was more that Conjuration was much, much more useful in Obliv than it was in Morrowind. In Morrowind, about the best use of Conjuration was Bound items and Turn Undead. Summoning Skeletons, Ghosts, Bonewalkers and such were too magicka expensive for their health and damaging abilities, were incredibly difficult, leading to many wasted tries, and they didn't often have very good threat ratings, so enemies still came after you, and the skeleton or whatever had to run to keep up, and couldn't attack while running.

In Obliv, my battlemage relies on her summons like crazy. Flame Atronachs and Skeleton Guardians, which, while expensive, aren't as potentially dangerous as in Morrowind, due to 'always cast' and Magicka regen.


And Speaking of Conjuration, where do you think all the Mysticism spells are going to go in Skyrim? I'm betting Soultrap is going to become a Conjuration spell, and Conjuration is going to be treated basically as a sort of 'soul magic' category.

I hope we get actual necromancy
As some of you may have noticed I rather like the undead and necromancy.

Well, I should be more clear. In Oblivion they actually had Necromancy in the game for real. Also I seem to remember you being able to soul trap actual NPCs right? I cant remember exactly, as I havnt played the "mage" type yet, Im still enjoying the stealth killing ninja guy. And I did the main quest as a black (yeas like redguard black) Nord Oddly enough, he looks so much like a redguard that everyone I showed him to, they said oh cool your a redguard I love redguards. Personally, I never liked them, they were combaty, but Nords are better at combat. Weird.

Yes, having a REAL NECROMANCER class would make me sing. Seriously. I might make a video and post it on youtube singing about how awesome that is. I collect those books and such on the dead and necromancy and just wish I could actually play as one. Specially if you could quest to become a litch? Oh man that would just be way to cool. Ive never been a magic fan, normally I prefer the stealthy thief/assassin types, but who can argue with the badassidy that is a Necromancer?




Also the poison doesnt suck completely in Oblivion. Its a rather handy tool, but it is a bit lacking. My skill is just over 75 in it, and my poisons still arnt THAT badass. Im slowing down on Alchemy and just making poisons now, because as said earlier, I dont want to hit master and then enjoy having completely useless poisons. Here, die slowly, while I make your STR +20 YAY!

Ugh.

Oblivion was fun, I liked it, but there was alot missing from Morrowind; namely Levitation, Enchanting, weapons, all sorts of goodies.

I miss Levitate and Fortify Speed. You know, Fly By Slashing!

That and the Scrolls of Windform were awesome.

Biggest problem that I had with Obliv in that regards was that you couldn't even Mod something like that, not easily or well, anyways. Fortify Acrobatics 1000 pts, instead of sending you flying like Icarian Flight, just makes you twitchy around for a bit, as you go up, come down, and BOOM massive damage. But it glitched so much on the way, there was no real point to it.

KingCracker wrote:Well, I should be more clear. In Oblivion they actually had Necromancy in the game for real. Also I seem to remember you being able to soul trap actual NPCs right? I cant remember exactly, as I havnt played the "mage" type yet, Im still enjoying the stealth killing ninja guy. And I did the main quest as a black (yeas like redguard black) Nord Oddly enough, he looks so much like a redguard that everyone I showed him to, they said oh cool your a redguard I love redguards. Personally, I never liked them, they were combaty, but Nords are better at combat. Weird.

Yes, having a REAL NECROMANCER class would make me sing. Seriously. I might make a video and post it on youtube singing about how awesome that is. I collect those books and such on the dead and necromancy and just wish I could actually play as one. Specially if you could quest to become a litch? Oh man that would just be way to cool. Ive never been a magic fan, normally I prefer the stealthy thief/assassin types, but who can argue with the badassidy that is a Necromancer?




Also the poison doesnt suck completely in Oblivion. Its a rather handy tool, but it is a bit lacking. My skill is just over 75 in it, and my poisons still arnt THAT badass. Im slowing down on Alchemy and just making poisons now, because as said earlier, I dont want to hit master and then enjoy having completely useless poisons. Here, die slowly, while I make your STR +20 YAY!

Poisons are like magic in that they are good for increasing melee or ranged damage but little else.

Soul trapping isn't considered necromancy unless it was a sentient soul using a black soul gem. Apparently necromancy was illegal in cyrodil.

Another thing that bugged me in oblivion was how black and white it was... Necromancers are bad! daedra are evil!

There are mods for both Morrowind and Oblivion that allow you to become a Lich.

Amaya wrote:There are mods for both Morrowind and Oblivion that allow you to become a Lich.

Games shouldn't need mods.

Well, no, most games shouldn't. But that doesn't mean that they can't be better with mods.

Take, for example, Oblivion. I started out playing Morrowind, loved it. Never managed to beat it, but I loved it. You make mistakes, you get slammed for it. Kill the wrong person, well, whoops, never gonna get That quest! Enter the wrong cave, and you're dead before you know what hit you.

Now along comes Oblivion. Shiny new graphics, bows and blades that actually hit where you aim, and active Blocking. Absolutely beautiful. But the enemies scale up with you! Mudcrabs and rats are just as difficult at Level 5 as they were at level 1! Bandits start wearing Chainmail and Elven and Glass armor! And no matter where you go, or what you do, the enemies are always just strong enough to make you pay attention, but too weak to offer any sort of challenge. Playing the game becomes a matter of grinding quests, and there's no real point to leveling up. In fact, with the Elder Scrolls' skill system, it's actually more beneficial to keep yourself at an artificially low level, reaping the benefits of better skills without the more difficult enemies! It was dull, it was boring, it was inane and insane.

And along comes Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul, which, among other things, gets rid of Leveled Monsters. I've been playing with it for a while now, and love it. My level 20 Battlemage just went into an Oblivion Gate. Now, I've done about three or four O-gates before installing O3, and they were walks in the park. Wander around, kill a couple scamps, snipe off the Clanfears, yadda yadda. I enter this one, with O3 on, and the first thing I encounter is a Daedroth, which proceeds to wipe the floor with me 3 times before I can finally take it down. I had to avoid an area because it had both a Spider Daedra and a Kynreeve in it, and when I got to the caves, I constantly had my Detect Life spell going, because I knew I'd be dead if I aggro'd more than one monster at a time.

I got to the tower through a combination of dumb luck, strong potions, and spamming Skeleton Guardians, and promptly spent fifteen minutes running around the entrance hall- The Bloody Entrance!- desparately trying to avoid the three(!) Storm Atronachs and two Spider Daedra flinging lightning bolts and rocky fists at my broken armour (fat lot of good an enchanted cuirass does when you're Armorer is under 50 and you're too poor to get it repaired). When I finally killed them through Fire, Bone and Hellsteel, and entered the Rending Halls, I was once again on my lookout, keeping my Detect Life going and getting any Sneak Attacks I could with my bow, and cursing every time I came to a landing, only to see that teltale glow of two or three Daedra waiting for me.

I finally gave up on combatting my way through the tower when my Repair Hammers and Feather potions were running low, so chugged my last Feather, slipped on a ring of Speed, and just sprinted past the rest of the enemies, pulling a trail of about a dozen different, angry Daedra behind me, just barely keeping them distracted with the help of my trusty Skeleton Guardian. When I finally got to the Sigil Stone, it was a desperate duel with a Xivalie- He hit me once, twice as I dodged around him and snagged the Sigil stone. He took another lunge at me, and I, unable to withstand another hit and the Gate already collapsing, decided to trust to Fate, and leapt off the edge of the Sigil Platform, into the center of the Tower, the Xivalie's claws barely missing me as the Oblivion Gate swirled away around me.

In the end, I stood, panting, in the ruins of the Gate, the Sigil Stone, my prize, clutched securely in my grasp. Oblivion had whupped my ass, and I'd barely made it out alive. And I haven't had so much fun in years.



Yeah, Mods can definitely make games more enjoyable, even if they're already great.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well, I feel kinda silly for forgetting what I was going to say next. Anyways,

That's why I'm rather put out that they're keeping the Leveled enemies system in Skyrim. Granted, it might be implemented better, but I honestly believe that a game gets better the less forgiving it is. Just look at Super Mario Bros, or Super Meat Boy, vs something like the ET game. Heck, Space Invaders, Joust, Centipede, all the way up to Halo, are all hellishly difficult unless you cultivate the skills needed to survive in them.

That's why, as soon as someone finishes a good anti-levelling mod (hell, I might try my hand at it myself) I'm gonna download it for Skyrim, even if the vanilla game is all that and a bag of beef jerky.

Now see, if I had oblivion on the PC, Id totally look up that mod. Thats pretty much how Morrowind felt at times (obviously not when you hit level 50 or so, then the game was a breeze) but still, the point stands. I like that. Why/HOW would some low level character be able to shut down a daedra filled gate? The level cap is 100 right? So what would that compare to in D&D standards? If lvl20 was max, youd be what? lvl 2? Good luck pulling something like that off in a D&D game thats all Im saying. Basically pulling what you did would be the only possible way. Drink something, buff yourself, and run your ass off and hope the Fates shine on you at that moment

Peter Wiggin wrote:

What the hell version of Morrowind is that?!

Rereading this thread, and I just noticed this thing. What, is it some sort of strange mod or something?

Yeah that certainly doesn't look like the Vivec I remember.
Edit for spelling.

Anvildude wrote:

Peter Wiggin wrote:

What the hell version of Morrowind is that?!

Rereading this thread, and I just noticed this thing. What, is it some sort of strange mod or something?

Whenever you see a game like Morrowind, and it looks like all sorts of crazyness has happened to it, just instantly default to modding
I played this one mod that made a Bosmer city in a section of one of the forests. They all lived up in the trees, and had wodden/rope bridges to each building. It was AWESOME

corpsesarefun wrote:

Amaya wrote:There are mods for both Morrowind and Oblivion that allow you to become a Lich.

Games shouldn't need mods.

Oblivion is unplayable without the option to become a creature that, by it's nature, entirely invalidates the rest of the game (as liches would find it rather difficult to converse with anyone other than vampires and necromancers)?

Anvildude wrote:Mudcrabs and rats are just as difficult at Level 5 as they were at level 1

That's not how leveled enemies work.

KingCracker wrote:I dont want to hit master and then enjoy having completely useless poisons. Here, die slowly, while I make your STR +20 YAY!

That's not how poisons work. Any positive effects make something a potion not a poison. Poison making just gets harder at higher levels. On the other hand, you can make some incredibly nasty multi-effect poisons. Fire+Shock+Health Damage and Paralyze+IceDam+DamMag+Silence are just nasty.

corpsesarefun wrote:Poison sucks in oblivion, hard.

Wait what necromancy? there wasn't necromancy in oblivion?

Poison is awesome. You just have to be smart about it.

The only real necromancy in Oblivion involved the late stages of the Mages Guild quests with the Wormwood Staff and the Black Soul Gems.
---
Spellcasting in Oblivion was leaps and bounds ahead of Morrowing just due to ease of use. The spell casting system in Morrowing was clunky, and god-forbid you wanted to play a Spellsword.

CE Heals and Magicka restores made your character an unkillable beast. They either had to go or be toned down immensely.

KingCracker wrote: Hurray Im damaging your health, BUT Im buffing you at the same time, AND healing you! YEA!....wait thats not a yea moment oh crap

That can't happen in Oblivion unless you make a spell.

I posted that before having alchemy as a skill. I was going off a vary vague memory from when the game first came out. I only remembered that alchemy was rather flawed the better you got at it.

I will admit, though I've never gotten to that point, I feel that the 'Master' level perk of being able to make a potion with one ingredient seems like it'd be a little annoying, seeing as how most ingredients have good and bad effect.

I hope I enjoy Skyrim as much as I LOVED Morrowind. I want to have Morrowind's babies.

...Anyway, there are a few things I hope that they change/revert in the new game. One thing I enjoyed about Morrowind and hated about Oblivion was the journal/quest system.

In Morrowind, your journal was actually that - a journal. Something happened, you wrote it down, and you had to reference it (assuming you didn't already know what to do.) And it was written like a journal should be - thoughts converted into words. It was believable, and it was fun to read through on a boring day - a testament to your adventures.

In Oblivion, your journal was more like a compass/shopping list. "Oh no, this thing happened, I should go here and talk to this guy. He told me to go kill the man he told me I should kill. I should do what he said. I did what he said. I got gold."

Oblivion's higher level = harder creatures was fun, but it became somewhat odd that every bandit strolling the country side was wearing the finest armor available.

I hope they bring back some of the creativity with Enchanting. I made a simple Invisiible Constant Effect amulet so I wouldn't have to kill every Cliff Racer in the sky. Oblivion lost some of that creativity. : (

I honestly feel the same way about Oblivion/Morrowind. Morrowind was so damn immersive, it sucked me in and held me there for about a year IRL. I just couldnt stop playing it. I hope Skyrim has Oblivions combat or better (cmon it could happen lol) because that was 1 HUGE improvement was the combat system. Obviously the magic system looks incredibly pretty watching that video, so as far as that goes, Im sure we wont be disappointed.

I also hope the journal is like it was in Morrowind. It annoyed me as soon as you got a quest, the map goes HEY!!!! HEY YOU!!! THOSE GUYS NO ONE KNOWS WHERE THEY ARE? YEA THEY ARE RIGHT HERE GO GET EM! I liked how in Morrowind you had to do some detective work, you asked around and you got a sometimes vague well they have been seen between here, and here, and you had to leg it to find out. Hell if you just run around for a few hours in Oblivion before doing quests, chances are, youll aready have found the location, and just just teleport there. Whats the point of the horse if you can just fast travel? Doesnt make sense to me

Or if they're adamant about leaving the 'HEY YOU, GO THIS WAY' map and compass system, at least give an option to turn it off, and put more directions in the Journal entries. Was watching a Lets Play, and one of the quests (which I've somehow never done...) included a 'find this cave, kill this person in it' bit. It was obvious the person giving you the quest knew where the cave was, but they didn't do so much as give a compass direction or distance magnitude for it, instead relying on the compass to point you there. It was really, really close, but sort of hidden out of the way, where if you didn't have the compass, you would probably have gone right past it, and taken forever and a day to actually find the place.


Actually, I think that was the biggest goof they made with Oblivion. Fast travel, Magic Compass and all were fine additions to the system; the problem was, they replaced the other options, so that if you didn't want to use them, you couldn't really play the game properly. No Guild Guides, no Boats or Coaches, no Mark/Recall, and the physics engine screwed up anything going higher than a few dozen feet above the ground, so no Magickal jumping or speedy levitation spells possible. Add the aforementioned trouble with bare-bones journal entries, and anyone wanting to do any sort of Role Play in their Role Playing Game was SoL.

I have to admit, Im getting sucked into my current Oblivion character. Hes an Orc fist fighter, and I wear all heavy armor except the chest piece, so hes going bare chested. Really digging this guy. But for my other characters Im finding it hard to immerse myself in them. They are fun and all, but its just eh..... but once again in Morrowind, I had 4 different characters and I still fondly remember each ones back stories and the adventures they had. Infact my oldest brother writes a paper and dice game that is just HUGE and they are in the background of the main bad guys story line. Simply awesome.

Mr Meatballs wrote:

Inanimate wrote:Some new pictures!



http://www.gamereactor.se/media/59/elderscrolls5_235966b.jpg

http://www.gamereactor.se/media/59/elderscrolls5_235967b.jpg

http://www.gamereactor.se/media/59/elderscrolls5_235969b.jpg

http://www.gamereactor.se/media/59/elderscrolls5_235970b.jpg

furies in my elder scrolls?
feth yes

Heresy!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Anvildude wrote:Well, no, most games shouldn't. But that doesn't mean that they can't be better with mods.

Take, for example, Oblivion. I started out playing Morrowind, loved it. Never managed to beat it, but I loved it. You make mistakes, you get slammed for it. Kill the wrong person, well, whoops, never gonna get That quest! Enter the wrong cave, and you're dead before you know what hit you.

Now along comes Oblivion. Shiny new graphics, bows and blades that actually hit where you aim, and active Blocking. Absolutely beautiful. But the enemies scale up with you! Mudcrabs and rats are just as difficult at Level 5 as they were at level 1! Bandits start wearing Chainmail and Elven and Glass armor! And no matter where you go, or what you do, the enemies are always just strong enough to make you pay attention, but too weak to offer any sort of challenge. Playing the game becomes a matter of grinding quests, and there's no real point to leveling up. In fact, with the Elder Scrolls' skill system, it's actually more beneficial to keep yourself at an artificially low level, reaping the benefits of better skills without the more difficult enemies! It was dull, it was boring, it was inane and insane.

And along comes Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul, which, among other things, gets rid of Leveled Monsters. I've been playing with it for a while now, and love it. My level 20 Battlemage just went into an Oblivion Gate. Now, I've done about three or four O-gates before installing O3, and they were walks in the park. Wander around, kill a couple scamps, snipe off the Clanfears, yadda yadda. I enter this one, with O3 on, and the first thing I encounter is a Daedroth, which proceeds to wipe the floor with me 3 times before I can finally take it down. I had to avoid an area because it had both a Spider Daedra and a Kynreeve in it, and when I got to the caves, I constantly had my Detect Life spell going, because I knew I'd be dead if I aggro'd more than one monster at a time.

I got to the tower through a combination of dumb luck, strong potions, and spamming Skeleton Guardians, and promptly spent fifteen minutes running around the entrance hall- The Bloody Entrance!- desparately trying to avoid the three(!) Storm Atronachs and two Spider Daedra flinging lightning bolts and rocky fists at my broken armour (fat lot of good an enchanted cuirass does when you're Armorer is under 50 and you're too poor to get it repaired). When I finally killed them through Fire, Bone and Hellsteel, and entered the Rending Halls, I was once again on my lookout, keeping my Detect Life going and getting any Sneak Attacks I could with my bow, and cursing every time I came to a landing, only to see that teltale glow of two or three Daedra waiting for me.

I finally gave up on combatting my way through the tower when my Repair Hammers and Feather potions were running low, so chugged my last Feather, slipped on a ring of Speed, and just sprinted past the rest of the enemies, pulling a trail of about a dozen different, angry Daedra behind me, just barely keeping them distracted with the help of my trusty Skeleton Guardian. When I finally got to the Sigil Stone, it was a desperate duel with a Xivalie- He hit me once, twice as I dodged around him and snagged the Sigil stone. He took another lunge at me, and I, unable to withstand another hit and the Gate already collapsing, decided to trust to Fate, and leapt off the edge of the Sigil Platform, into the center of the Tower, the Xivalie's claws barely missing me as the Oblivion Gate swirled away around me.

In the end, I stood, panting, in the ruins of the Gate, the Sigil Stone, my prize, clutched securely in my grasp. Oblivion had whupped my ass, and I'd barely made it out alive. And I haven't had so much fun in years.



Yeah, Mods can definitely make games more enjoyable, even if they're already great.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well, I feel kinda silly for forgetting what I was going to say next. Anyways,

That's why I'm rather put out that they're keeping the Leveled enemies system in Skyrim. Granted, it might be implemented better, but I honestly believe that a game gets better the less forgiving it is. Just look at Super Mario Bros, or Super Meat Boy, vs something like the ET game. Heck, Space Invaders, Joust, Centipede, all the way up to Halo, are all hellishly difficult unless you cultivate the skills needed to survive in them.

That's why, as soon as someone finishes a good anti-levelling mod (hell, I might try my hand at it myself) I'm gonna download it for Skyrim, even if the vanilla game is all that and a bag of beef jerky.

mudcrabs and rats are nowhere near as difficult as they were on level 1. WHy do I keep hearing this? On level five you can 1 hit kill them. Most enemies get much easier as you level up.

I just hope that you can become a Werewolf. Since it's Skyrim, there is really no excuse to not being able to.

@GalacticDefender: The only reason you can one-hit kill them at Level five is because you've probably ranked up your primary attack skill enough that it'll boost the damage of your weapon. I'm not saying that it's not balanced, and that they did silly things like make all enemies the same strength as you, but there are certain things you can point at and say 'that's BS for immersion'. Perhaps the mudcrab and Rat example was a bad one. Instead, look at the levelled gear on Bandits, or the fact that at higher levels, parts of the forest that used to have wolves will now spawn Mountain Lions, or Bears, or Spriggans (and what's the deal with Spriggans in Cyrodiil anyways?), and that there's noplace in the world that you really need to avoid, at any level.

So perhaps not so much that enemies get easier as you level up, but that they aren't really harder at lower levels.

OK look people.

First of all, poison in Oblivion is pure win. Almost OP.

The difference between Oblivion and Morrowind's game mechanics -- you can move and cast spells in Oblivion, where in Morrowind if you want to do the same thing you have to use magic rings.

Morrowind you can only cast spells while standing still, making Oblivion much more rewarding for "hybrid" play-style. Oblivion also introduced mana-regen based on the player's Willpower stat. In Morrowind of course you can fly.

Morrowind is Morrowind, it is a cool game. Oblivion is a bit more what you could call cookie-cutter although the areas, quests and dialogue are first-rate of course.

The problem I had with poison is that it was just extra effects for other forms of combat instead of being its own kind of combat, I would have loved to be able to craft smoke bombs or potions that could be thrown as some kind of explosive or to create a cloud of toxic gas.

Tacobake wrote:
The difference between Oblivion and Morrowind's game mechanics -- you can move and cast spells in Oblivion, where in Morrowind if you want to do the same thing you have to use magic rings.

Morrowind you can only cast spells while standing still, making Oblivion much more rewarding for "hybrid" play-style. Oblivion also introduced mana-regen based on the player's Willpower stat.

??? Don't know what version of Morrowind you're playing, but you can move while you're casting spells in mine. You don't necessarily want to, since if you're running that'll lower your fatigue and make it harder, but there's nothing preventing you from tossing fireballs about while hotfooting it away from something pointy.

Perhaps you're thinking instead of "Can't have both a weapon and a spell readied at the same time"?
Though I will agree the mana-regen was neat. However, I think perhaps the best Magicka control system would be a hybrid of the two,

In Oblivion, you use Willpower to regen your Magicka over time. Nice, but in some ways limiting, since to balance that, they severely reduced the total amount of Magicka you can have without fortification. In Morrowind, you only get Magicka back when you rest or drink potions, but to balance that, you have a much, much deeper pool to drink from, with the multiplying modifiers instead of straight addative. +2x Int from the Atronach instead of +200, and I believe (though I may be wrong about this) a base x modifier to Int as well. Not to mention, spells tended to be cheaper, especially with variable strengths.

Perhaps in Skyrim, there could be a hybrid of the two, utilizing the cheaper spells and greater maximum magicka of Morrowind, with a slowed-down version of the Magicka regeneration from Oblivion. You wouldn't be able to just wait for a minute when your Magicka is drained, and have it all have come rushing back, but if you were in a dangerous area and couldn't rest, it'd come back slowly while you try other ways of getting out.

Tacobake wrote: Oblivion is a bit more what you could call cookie-cutter although the areas, quests and dialogue are first-rate of course.

First rate Area's? They were the same exact thing across the entire continent basically. Yeah it was a pretty game, and I honestly have to say that Dialogue was good and Quests were awesome (Whodunnit? being my favorite quest in any game EVAR!), but the area/landscape left much to be desired until Shivering Isles, IMHO.