No one said anything about orcs... :confused:

I'd say go with Morrowind enhanced for this, because Oblivion's way of handling them was kind kind of boring, it made them feel too much like the other races. In Morrowind, they felt more unique due to having different animations, and for that, I loved it. Sure, the animations were horrible, but so were the other animations in that game, and in any case, it's not like Bethesda is going to reuse the exact same animations from Morrowind and Oblivion. They'd use new animations that we can probably safely assume will be a lot better than anything previous Elder Scrolls games had to offer. To be honest, not being able to wear boots didn't even bother me that much, still, I can't see it being that hard to include special boots for Khajiit and Argonians, modders could do it just fine, in any case. As far as full helms go. As long as there's a decent selection of open ones in the game, I don't really care if I can't wear a helmet that covers my entire face, and really, it doesn't even need to be an issue, because the thing that could cause problems with helmets is the head structure, not the feet, and Oblivion's Khajiit and Argonians weren't that different from Morrowind's in their heads, and yet they could wear all helmets, Bethesda could just do this in Skyrim too, or not. Just bring the claws back, and I won't mind having my helmet options slightly limited.



As much as I'd love to see that, I doubt Bethesda is willing to give them that much focus, even though when you think about it, it would just serve to balance out the over abundance of reskinned humans and elves (Really, any given fantasy game only needs one race of humans, with enough customization to make characters resembling major real life ethnic groups, and zero elven races, adding more than that just feels like the creators need to fill up the race list, so they do it in the easiest way possible. Retextured, resized humans with different shaped ears. But it's a little late to change it now that the current races are fixed in the lore, so Bethesda should do the next best thing and balance them out by giving the same level of variety to the races that actually feel slightly unique.) since they'd essentially be entire races unto themselves. Maybe we'll get to see this if we ever get a game in Black Marsh or Elsweyr, but otherwise, I think we're just going to see one generic "Khajiit" race again.

Actually, I think that the whole question of having different versions of armor for beaast-race leggings and helmets is only the "tip of the iceberg". The armor in past games somehow morphed itself to fit either a tiny Bosmer or a massive Orc, and most adapted themselves to fit either a male or female form with totally different shapes, seams, and accessories. Everyone took it for granted that you could wear anything, except for the Argonians and Kajiit who somehow had a problem.

If Skyrim does allow different body shapes (lean, fit, and heavy), as well as male and female versions of armor, along with having larger and smaller races and individuals, it would make a lot more sense to get your armor "fitted" by a competent Armorer or Smith. Of course, you could "luck out" and find something to fit you once in a while, but the majority of the armor in the game, and much of the clothing, should require fitting or tailoring to the individual or at least to your general size: L, M, or S; male or female; and slender, "fit", or wide. Having items converted from "man/mer" to "beast" versions would be just another option, and probably wouldn't even require seperate male/female versions in the case of Argonians.

Personally, I enjoyed the odd digitigrade legs of the Argonians and Kajiit in Morrowind, although the animations were pretty terrible. They always felt like "humans with monster masks" in OB, not something unique and different. OB's beast races may have been a "return" to the old form used in DF and before, but I felt that MW made a major improvement in that respect. I played several Argonian characters in MW (which I enjoyed), and one in OB (which I didn't care for, because it was so "ordinary"). I still get a chuckle out of the one unhappy Argonian's lines in Solstheim: "A pair of boots, is that too much to ask?"

For those people who don't like beast races in the game, I'm reminded of another "solution" which was implemented in the mid-20th century to remove "undesirable" elements from society.....