At the very least I hope fixed placement of items is easier. That way they'll serve the same purpose they served for me in Morrowind: a vulgar display of wealth.

They should definitely be consumable as alchemical ingredients. Plus I find it amusing that my character may amass so many gems that he actually considers eating them as a valid form of use.

On the more controversial side, it would be really interesting if regular coins had weight. What does that have to do with gems? Well, why carry around 100 coins weighing over a pound when I can carry one gem that's less than a pound and is worth more than 100 coins. If money had weight, then all other loot (especially gems) instantly becomes more valuable simply for its ability to concentrate wealth. Furthermore, mercantile becomes an even more valuable skill as it allows you to realize a greater percentage of the gem's actual value, when using it as a proxy for coins.

Maybe you want remove wortcraft completely from alchemy?
Alchemy already suffer from removing of attributes, remove variability of ingredient combination and add 85 static receipts also?

More than likely the currency is based on a precious metal. That does wonders for exchange rates. Whether it's a septim or something else, that quantity of gold will be worth the same, regardless.

As for gems, eh. I'm perfectly fine with them being sold for gold (especially if gold has weight). I suppose it might be interesting to seem the required in crafting, but I'd be fine without it.

Actually, I wouldn't mind it all if Alchemy was greatly simplified. Oblivion had far too many effects that created nothing but useless potions. Like what good is a Damage Personality potion? I'd like to see just a few basic effects, and not necessarily on every item you come across. It would be great if food was just that, leaving the alchemy effects to more exotic ingredients.

I always figured the purpose of those was so that if you weren't careful with your ingredient combinations, you might end up with negative side effects from your potions.

Let's face it. The only use for them in Oblivion was to sell them, right? So today I was pondering on how they could actually be used in Skyrim. And I was thinking they could be used somewhere along the lines of smithing. Before I say more, you guys must know this is MY idea if I was creating the game so feel free to agree/disagree. I was thinking what if each gem (emerald, ruby, diamond, ect.) had a unique feature and power to them? This is how smithing comes in:

Once your smithing skill reaches a certain level along with your character's level, you would then have a perk unlocked which would then give you the ability to embed desired gem into a weapon, sort of like Diablo II, but much more advanced. For example having the gem visible on the weapon, effects when hitting a target (non-magic), increases durability, damage and even price to the weapon. I just thought this would be a cool little feature that could get added to the game. If not, would a moderator move this thread to the appropriate forum/thread?

Note: This could also be part of enchanting, not just smithing.

Thoughts? Opinions? Rude remarks?

Discuss.