If it can be done, do it. If it cannot, don't waste time trying to do it.

This is my stance.

i supported as long as it doesent get banned for being grotesque

It could be easily done just make a global script that corpses get placed after some ours with decaying version there for you only need 2-3 versions of it would be enough and just replace them wouldnt be much work, and could be easily addet with mods later i guess. Would only be to much work if you have to make a version for every animal, deadra etc but npc would be fine and enough animals could just despawn.

Drage Age Origins did it fairly well. The body would turn to bones in about 20 seconds (or after you loot it), then it would dissappear much later.

I admit Morrowinds bodies laying around was kinda lame. I could always see where I had been in the wilds by following the dead cliffracers.

I'm all for getting rid of permacorpses. Although I did once kill Lucien Lachance when he visited me at home, and subsequently used his body as a novelty drinks cabinet.

Beyond that I don't think we need rotting corpses. Like others said, the town guard and wild animals would do a pretty efficient job in a few days anyway.

Just thinking about it is giving me a stomach ache :[ Make it an option if you must, but THINK ABOUT THE CHILDREN!

Yeah, the only skeletons in oblivion seemed to be the chaises of human species. And there should be different levels of decay, not just alive, partially worm eaten or full on bleached bone a la oblivion.

While it might be cool to see the body decompose and turn into a skeleton, I think the practicality of that would be near impossible.

Say you killed someone and left them:
- You would need a decaying character model for a fully clothed person with all items that would deform, as the body got smaller.
- You'd need decaying character model with only some cloths left on the body intact that would deform as the body got smaller (shirt or pants hanging looses over the bones, etc). And would changes as you loot them.
- You would need a decaying character model for an unclothed person with no items over various stages of decay

It make it more realistic you have to make all the permutation also look more realistic, and without a cloth deformation system in game you would will see clothing pumped up like a balloon surrounding a skeleton....that will look weird. So adding this feature now makes the clothing system TOTALLY different and possibly more processor intestine as clothing not has a adhere to physics. Sounds like a lot of work…

I think it would be fairly easy to implement a system where bodies decompose in stages. Day 1: fresh body; Day 2: dirty body; Day 3; partially decomposed; Day 4; mostly decomposed; Day 5: skeleton; Day 6; gone. I guess the tricky bit is dealing with clothes, weapons, and armor that get left behind. At minimum, bodies should disappear after a few days, and dead bodies in public places should be removed. In Oblivion, dead bodies would lie in the streets of the imperial city for days and days. It was kind of funny, but it also took away from realism.

i know what you meant, still it was a double negative that made me lol.

Just make them disappear after a while. I don't really care about creating some unnecessary system of decaying corpses.

Would it be cool yeah. Do I want it not really. I'd rather my resources be eaten up by more advanced AI, or better textures and and models rather than keeping track of how decayed each of the thousands of corpses I'll be creating is.

This would really only be useful if necromancy is in. How "good" your new soldier becomes is a function of how fresh the body is.

Recently deceased? Good chance of getting a working undead warrior like the Dreugh.
Somewhat rotted? Zombie.
Skeletal remains? Skeleton warrior.

Think about it. You get ambushed by bandits working for someone else. Later that day, the bandits are ambushing someone else - for you.

...If game developers only spent time on things absolutely necessary things in games. Then we would never see changes for the better either, so IMO all suggestions that aren't completely ridiculous or not remotely connected to TES lore should be supported

I would like it if tastefully done like after a few days it looks like a dead zombie corpse, but no maggots or splattered entrails that would be a bit much, I personally am not looking for a resident evil feel to the game, blood gore splatter yes, body pieces yes, massive gore piles, not so much

Personally I'm for bodies disappearing after a short period of time. Not because I would be upset by seeing decaying bodies, but it would just take up too much in the way of resources--think of all the models you would need for decayed versions of people and clothes. That's a lot of extra artwork to include.

Besides, it makes sense to me that most bodies wouldn't be around long.

Maybe, but it would also cause lag, as is the case with the permabodies in Oblivion and Fallout 3.

This is why in many games the bodies will disappear so it doesn't tax your system with additional information.



There was also a technical reason to do this, bodies and open doors caused lag because it introduced new changes to the environment.

even if they Bethesda doesn't add it, it wouldn't be an extremely complex mod!

Hmm its a good idea but i wont make or break the game.