In most previous RPG in the old days, they used to give us numerous options for wearable items in the roll-out character figure map that displays where all the possessions you can wear should go. If you can't wear a particular item, when you attempted to drag it into the slot, it would immediately put a red X in the slot to show you that your character couldn't use it. Games like Diablo were awesome at this, and made adventuring fun merely for the sake of trying to fill up all the slots with cool stuff that would glow and shimmer when you opened your character. You began to take pride in your character's possessions and it soon became its own quest just to fill up the slots with cool items.

I always disliked how Oblivion's character roll out seemed to have like 6-8 slots and none were very detailed at all. The interface was itself a little clunky being made for consoles first, so you couldn't actually just drag your items even on the PC. I hope they fix that but that's another thread, so moving quickly.

And didn't you ever wonder WHY they added so many rings and other jewelry that had no value at all? After first level, 15 gold was worthless, but why couldn't you wear it for a stat gain for making your character more appealing? Why should putting on a ring of high value not make your PC character be more noticed and admired (thus RAISING his/her Personality Stat) ? I really think any steps you make to adorn your character should add to your presence or personality or charm in whatever way makes the most sense for a TES game.

I also thought they should give us more options innately. Look at the cover of the UK OXM where the guy has like several custom pieces of armour: he has a cool horned helm, a shield, several swords, a bow or a staff of some kind (can't tell which it is), and straps and pouches and all sorts of interesting things in every place on his character ... and so then I am hoping all of those slots are truly available as expressed by that picture. And I wanted to see if I was the only one, or if you agreed ...

I'd like your additions to this concept, what can make it better and more useful?

Thanks!

I'm glad somebody brought this to light. I hated how you couldn't wear the number of items in Oblivion as you could in Morrowind. It didn't feel like my character was personalized enough.

I never played Diablo, so I can't relate to that. :blush: However, I have to agree with you. I like having freedom and in depth ability to personalize my character the way I want. I selected everything. I think that you should be able to put rings on more than just your index fingers. Also, I like the idea of each section being chosen individually, but COULD get a little out of hand. I also agree with adding the new jewelry and belts.

wearing 10 rings would be awesome.

Personally I didn′t mind Oblivions amount of gear slot, I wouldn′t slam my fist in anger if there are more and welcome it, but neither would I rage if there wasen′t, as long as the armours themself look good and look convincing I′m happy.

as for ring fingers, I say one ring per hand, only attention seeking Pimps/raqers have 20 ringers on there hands. Also good balance, if we could put a ring in each finger it be to easy to break the game with huge stacks of bonuses.

To many slots is a bad idea because of stacked stats that would ruin the game, seriously, that is why they have an "easy" difficulty setting just use that please.... :thumbsup:

I think what Oblivion had was fine. Maybe they could add another slot but I wouldn't want more then what they had in Oblivion.

I think four is a good standard for rings, two on each hand. Too much more would not be as practical for the rugged adventurer you are in TES. However, I do also agree there should be more options to wear whatever you please, and to mix and match. I really would like to see them bring back Morrowind's style of armor, in that the shoulders are separate and you can wear different parts of different sets. I could always get some really cool combo's that seemed unique and interesting. I am all for them bringing back robes that you can wear over your armor, and shirts you can wear underneath. You should also be able to wear tabards (in place of a robe probably) and cloaks, and maybe trophies of some kind, like the skull of some awesome creature you killed, or perhaps the symbol of the House you joined (want houses back) or some kind of trinket or totem that maybe gives you a bonus for what ever god or goddess it represents. Warhammer Online did a really cool thing like that with trophies that you could display on your armor, and you could move it around and dictate where it was and all that good customizable awesomeness.
I also would like to have... dye... or possibly several "sets" of the same type of armor that comes in different colours and textures. Some colours could be rare, and hard to find, so having a full set of say... black elven armor would be like a kind of achievement. I know there will be mods of every colour armor imaginable, but we have to think of the poor console folks too.
There should also be guild/ House specific trinkets or trophies you could wear that would first of all represent that House to all NPC's, resulting in them either liking or disliking you more based on that NPC's House status. And, as you rank up in your House/ guild these trinkets would grant you bonuses, maybe to your stats, or allowing you to buy from a merchant who would not speak to you unless you were wearing said trinket. These would be like marks of honor, like ... the Great Drinking Horn of Whiterun... or something (making stuff up here but you get the idea) But not only would those trinkets give you these bonuses... they would show up on your character as well, so getting whatever trinket you really would like to see your character wear would be something like a personal quest.

so yeah... My two cents. ^

You forget the tail slot, yes it’s an actual slot in Oblivion, but you need the CS to use it.

Yeah too many slots is a bad idea. I agree with having more than two rings. But it should be limited to 4 total. Also, as I said I am for more locations for jewelry (ex. stomach and ears). I like all these ideas, but I think that there could be a "stat limit." By this I mean: You can have all the jewelry, armour, enchantments and/or stats you want, but only a certain number of them will be taken.......

Its simple... what do you think of when someone says WIZARD? WARRIOR? ROGUE? You get an image in your mind and guess what? They arnt all wearing the same number of rings or necklaces or amulets or bits of armor or weaponry or whatever...

I think anything you wear should have side effects and the more of it you wear the greater those effects should be such that each kind of character winds up with its own prefered set of thingies.

A shoulder slot for my pauldrons is an absolute must. In fact without pauldrons I will trade my copy right back to Gamestation!

Ibracelets, anklets, necklaces, earings. all with disadvantages to couter the advantages. For example a tongue ring could decrease cold resistance [if its in the game] or a heavy ring could increase stanmina consumption when hitting someone.

I think you must have stretched out that 2 cents quite a bit, because it was well used. Good ideas, I mean! Thanks!

I think its perfectly fine for one character to wind up with 6 rings as long as they dont also wind up with alot of armors or clothing at the same time as those rings and amulets and ear rings...

Just as I think its perfectly fine for a warrior to wind up wearing both leather and chain body armor and a helm and .. but not wear any rings.

A few things here from the OP that I hope the dev's have thought about.
A more traditional UI for the game like Diablo or baldurs gate etc, not sure about this tbh.
I'd rather a new, fresh look to interfaces, one hopefully that is easy to get a handle on.

More slots for armour yes I'd personally like this.
Rings and other bling, maybe if they could cap the amount of magical rings yes.
Just pull the AD&D McGuffin and say more would cause an effect that cancels out their power rather than add to it.

Not really mentioned is the actual mesh of the outfits, in Oblivion almost every piece of a outfit was a single block piece.
With item crafting being touted for Skyrim I hope freedom to customise the left side of an outfit differently from the right is in, even if just to modders.

Basically I hope for lots more freedom to play around with outfits and armour.

Speaking as someone who dislikes wearing rings in real life, I don't see the realistic nature of wearing four rings at once. I think two is a good baseline, but I would be open to unlocking a third or fourth through a skill leveling to its terminus.

I did really miss shoulder items - it IS an rpg after all.

I do like separate left and right shoulder, wrist and hand slots. I like the customization, but also the rpg element of trying to "complete the set."

I think anything along the lines of nose, ear, or bellybutton piercings should be purely cosmetic, and done in the same method that a haircut or beard adjustment might be done.

Otherwise, this is a good discussion to have. I think that more choices (within reason) are a good thing, and a near-essential nature of a good RPG.

Oh dear, 3rd time I’ve signed up for the forums! 1st pre-TES3, then pre-TES4, now pre-TES5! My own fault for not posting enough to keep from getting deleted.

Anyway, good topic and opening post! I’d definitely like more than Oblivion but as much as Morrowind isn’t necessary. Something that’s closer to Arena/Daggerfall if I remember those games correctly -- I think they only separated pauldrons. I’m fine with combining left and right if only to have certain armour slots at all, e.g. I’d rather one slot for pauldrons than no pauldrons at all.

First, I definitely agree that we need to have a character sheet again with our equipped items. That's a must-have for me -- hopefully it's in the vanilla game. I really miss having clothes underneath and cape over. It was nice to arrive in town and maybe take off parts of my armour while I’m at the inn and doing my shopping, with some spiffy outfit on underneath. Plus if I’m sneaking about in my shiny glass armour, I’d like a dark robe to keep better hidden (role-play-wise -- doesn’t have to be a mechanic). And pauldrons would be very nice, and probably a belt, too. Actually, since I think it was mentioned that armour sets could be set up on hotkeys or something of that nature, maybe it’s not so bad keeping clothes and armour separate (besides capes/robes, though). Assuming otherwise, though, and since I'd rather wear both at once, I’ll give you my own personal vision:

Layer 1

• Head: Hat/Helmet/Other Adornments
  
• Neck: Necklace/Amulet/Other Adornments
  
• Left Ring Finger: Ring
  
• Right Ring Finger: Ring
  
• Upper Torso: Shirt
  
• Waist: Belt
  
• Lower Torso: Skirt/Pants
  
• Feet: Shoes/Sandals/Boots (should we allow socks with sandals?* just kidding!)

Layer 2 (can cover layer 1)

• Shoulders: Pauldrons
  
• Hands: Gloves/Gauntlets
  
• Upper Torso: Cuirass
  
• Lower Torso: Grieves

Layer 3 (can cover layers 1/2)

• Body: Cape/Robe

This adds only 5 slots from Oblivion (3 “layered” slots for clothing with armour plus shoulder and waist slots) and removes 3 from Morrowind (left/right separation of boots, gloves, and pauldrons). I would love more but those are my “gotta haves”.

For clipping concerns, maybe a hooded robe should make the hat/helmet invisible. Similarly grieves could hide the belt at least, and gloves/gauntlets any rings. And of course there can be some items that take more than one slot (e.g. gown, combined greaves/cuirass).

I think to remedy any unbalance with enchantments, which tends to go hand-in-hand with this topic, Bethesda could consider:

• Magnitude of enchantments relative to slot size (maybe excluding rings/amulet?) (e.g. hands small, upper torso large)
  
• Enchantment types restricted to certain slots (e.g. you run, walk, jump with your feet: Water Walking, Fortify Speed, Fortify Agility) (WARNING: this probably sounds better on paper... or not at all!)
  
• Perhaps enchantments introduce small, opposing side effects (e.g. Fortify Strength magnitude 8 comes with Damage Intelligence magnitude 2, Resist Fire 40% comes with Weakness to Cold 10%) (same warning as above!)
  
• Disallow enchantments on clothing (same warning again!)
  
• Remove enchantments on clothing (except cape/robe) as active effects when covered by armour (that sounds a little more reasonable -- it negates 3 added slots when armour is on: belt and 1st layer of upper/lower torso)

I think, excluding points 2/3/4 above (lol), what I’ve presented would make the most people happy (“I think”, not “I know”). At least the ones that like more (for RPing or otherwise) get more, and those that thought Morrowind was overkill get a huge break trying to find matching pauldrons/gloves/boots for their sets.

Sorry if I’ve bumped an older topic. I was reading a similar one last night but couldn’t find it today. Forum moves fast!

tl;dr Version
Wanna wear clothes with armour! Gimme pauldrons and a belt! Gotta balance them there enchantments! :clap:

* I like socks with sandals. :confused:

You missed the "other" option.

An "Other" should be automatic, people often create very biased polls some times with out even meaning to, other would correct that. Sure there would be some rare poles were it might not makes sense, but it would not hurt the poll in anyway.
At least half the polls here are nearly worthless due to there poor wording,being biased,etc. An "Other" option would would be good for everyone, as some polls people would be interested in, yet the poll is flawed so they can't get the true info they want and the poll is already made, so making another would just get it closed.

Other - it depends on the GUI. In a list based UI, I prefer as few as possible, maybe even to the point of FONV - just an outfit. If there is a character sheet with items I can click on to select what goes there, then pretty much as much as possible. It could also be branched out in a character sheet, i.e. if you had a leather curiass, you wouldn't be able to put on steel or daedric pauldrons (it's a modeling issue that can't be neglected).

I prefer to travel light. Spells dont take up room like objects do.
Don't see much sense in having a ridiculous amount of slots to compete with other games. More intrested in the practical applications.
Can I use it? Is it compatible with my needs? Does it multitask? Sometimes having less can be remarkably freeing.

The more the merrier I say.

I love a lot of you'r ideas, especially the forehead slot one. Never thought of that.

More slots would be nice for Uber enemies, as usual I'm strongly in favor of enemies and other people in the world that "abuse" the same game aspects that you do. The Her Hands in tribunal would be good example.

You ddn't add a layering option for clothes and robes/cloaks.
How could you not list those?

The jewelry is a bit overboard but it be cool. Only 2 rings though.

Well one issue I see is to be blunt first foremost and everywhere else enchantment should be mage centric in nature. The most enchantable items should be stuff you expect a mage to wear or use. The most slots available should be on a mage. The most use out of enchantment should be with a mage character.

Thus clothing should be more enchantable by far then armor... rings.. mage style charcters either via perks or otherwise should wind up with more rings and amulets and such on them.

robes robes and more robes.. and hoods. and gloves...
all the fancy bits you expect of a mage.


But its limits should also be mage centric...

The limit of chameleon should be such that with a fairly large stock of MAGE style items like a hood and robe that have say chameleon and some other enchantments.. the mage can get to say 50% chameleon but no farther unless they cast the freaking spell.

But the key thing is not everyone should WANT more then a few enchanted items and for that matter some people should have a solid reason to want nothing to do with enchanted items at all.