Each unique item has 100 unique possible locations it *can* be put in. Makes the exploration aspect survive several playthroughs. My second character should know *nothing* of the world.

I like your ideas a lot. I too am very much into roleplaying my characters. If I play a hero, I like to remain a hero, therefore I don't follow through with quests that damage my "fame" and seem out of character.

One thing I wouldn't mind seeing implemented is a players log. I know you have a log that keeps track of what quests you've completed and your progress. What I mean is a log where you can input your own thoughts and impressions of the world. Something like this could potentially get out of hand for some people, as you only have so much memory for customization in a game, but I would love to go back and read a thought I had of a dungeon or city the first time I encountered it or detailed my heroic encounter with a dragon. It could even be useful to remember where someplace was that I wanted to go back and visit. Oblivion had quest markers, which would have been more useful if I could have assigned more than one quest marker at a time on my map.

I agree on the fast travel. I preferred to walk or ride my horse to destinations, but found that the fast travel was sometimes more convenient at certain times. If there could be a more immersive solution, I'd love to see it. Sadly, I don't know what that solution is. Recall potions always kind of ruined the immersion for me as well. It's a tough thing to balance. Maybe a journal entry pops up that described the road you took to reach your destination. Maybe even a marker on that journal that you can select to visit some significant landmark you passed on your journey? I don't, I'm just thinking out loud.

I love Morrowind but it's time to move on bro. Sorry.

THIS!!!!

i hate knowing where every piece of equipment is, and i hate the fact theres a best sword, a best bow, best gloves . . . that svcks, that way every bow using character would strive for the same bow, every fighter for the same shield etc

items should have lvls and a 'drop chance' and then get generated on/in appropriate enemies/dungeons

I would actually kind of like the latter ideas, though the no save continue would be harsh, I always liked the idea of a world on which the main quest progresses with or without you. And you might kill someone or they might be killed and you need them to finish the quest at the end and they are dead. Or you go exploring and leave the main quest be, then meet up with someone by chance and boom your back unto it. I would love to see the world descend into he'll just because I chose not to do what some stranger preached right off the back.
But Skrym looks badass, if it truly learned from fallout and oblivion and realized that morrowind had an incredible atmosphere etc because of simple things (go god arrow herpyderp is Definatley one) then there will be no better rpg til the next TES

The word immersion is tossed around thease forums at the rate people are being born

Correct solution, make you want to explore without doing a checklist like getting items in Fallout 3. Enter Megaton take barrel move up to sheriff house climb inn and steal bobblehead. Then down to rivet city to take the intelligence one.
Then at Minefield get the unique hunting rifle from Dave's republic.

I thought Morrowind was more immersive than Oblivion. The world was way more believable, a lot less generic and standardized feeling, and a little more detailed.
As far as exploration goes, Morrowind was a much more unique and interesting place than Cyrodiil, I liked the differences in the landscapes, and the varied wildlife that inhabited them. Overall I played a wider variety of different character classes in TeS 3. I didn't see much of a reason to experiment with classes in Oblivion. It all came off as pointless to me, and replaying the same type of classes over and over lost appeal to me after a while.

The word I think Beth has considered most important is "superfluous"...

One thing i would enjoy a lot, and will give a good replayability to the game:

Different endings...

If you play as a good guy, the ending should fit your actions, but if you play as an evil badass, the game should end in a totaly different way!

I disagree. So do many of the other posters. I think the OP had a lot of ideas. Many of them might not be original, but his enthusiasm for them and the angle he has given them is worthy of discussion. I mean, the thread is already on it's second page. Everyone is having a good, non-whiny discussion. As with most forum threads the OP has given a seed, and we as posters are delving into it in order to reach the "How? How would it work, to what extent, what do you actually mean?" part of your statement.

I'm not sure that you're being fair to the OP. Perhaps you should ask the OP to verify rather than lambast him?

Here are my own ideas for immersion, exploration, and replayability. Then I'll read yours. Let's see how well alike our minds think.

-Immersion
-NPC schedules, NPC jobs (not just standing around), NPCs speaking to one another
-more NPC dialogue - to reduce the amount of times you hear stuff in a certain amount of time
-balance between size and detail
-jobs/activities PC can do other than just quests (Skyrim will have plenty of this)
-more

-Exploration
-No quest marker
-Locations spread further apart (Yes, there are less dungeons in Skyrim, but at least they will be further apart than in Oblivion.)
-Varied Dungeons (When each dungeon looks different than the last, when one cave looks different than another cave, it encourages exploration.)
-Varied Landscape (When game worlds contain a mixture of different terrains, like forest, snow, mountains, desert, marsh, ice, etc., exploration is more encouraged. This is where Oblivion and Two Worlds 2 fail. Oblivion had only a forest, mountains, and a swampy forest area. TW 2 contained a savannah, jungle, and field, a reduction in what TW 1 had. I am very pleased in the direction Skyrim is going with this.)
-Unique Items found through pure exploration, not only through quests.

-Replayability
-Different endings for main quest (Allow for at least 2 to 3 endings based on actions taken during certain quests in the main storyline. The quests that can change the ending should definitely NOT be only towards the end, but should be spread out through the story.
-Different outcomes in sidequests (Allow for different outcomes based on the good/evil actions done during side quests)
-Different types of races that affect how certain parts of the main storyline play out AND how different races are treated/spoken to
-Both genders that affect how certain parts of main storyline play out AND how men and women are treated/spoken to
-Different moral paths affecting the ending of the game and how we experience the whole game

Why is immersion capitalized while replayability and exploration are not? Also, the in game diary messages in Oblivion only added to immersion..

Oh, we're just nerding out. Finding this to be a good, appropriate place to express our massive amount of interest and excitement. Rather than running up to passerbys on the street and shouting in their face "I WANT SKYRIM!!" then try to have an anolytical conversation with them about the gameplay experience when they care nothing of TES or of gaming that isn't CallOfDuty. I take it we're all on here due to our interest in the game. We're just here using our imaginations to.. keep us from... exploding ourselves from excitement, to keep our minds occupied.
Not really to give anyone pointers or anything like that on what they *nned to do for the next game, no not at all. We love this game.
That's why there are topics such as this, good sir.

Why isn't it? I don't see a problem with discussing aspects of gameplay experience that we may find interesting. "Immersion": We like being *part of the game. To make it feel less like a "game" and more like an... engaging experience, we like it... Or, at least, I like it. I enjoy just letting my imagination run wild while I'm playing, I enjoy getting wrapped up in it. And i enjoy reading about other people's thoughts on the subject. I love the creative elements of topics like this.

I mean sure, it's a pointless topic to some, but then why would you post if it's worthless? Kind of seems like a pointless thing to do. If it's not against the rules or an uber-repost... why not?
Don't post about it then. I don't mind. I would enjoy your input if you have any on this topic.

Some people need to actually read previous posts. Did I ask him to clarify? Yes. Did I get an answer? So far I think no.


In that case all this sounds like meaningless brainstorming. You just said you like immersion, so do I, so what else is there to discuss? Yes, we all like it, end of story. And honestly, if you look at the posts you'll see that there's barely any actual discussion going on for this exact same reason. Or at least I don't see a dozen different people posting "cool ideas, I like immersing myself" as a discussion, but I guess that's just me.

Or maybe I react this way simply because I've read hundreds of these topics, heard each of the "amazing ideas" in the OP over and over and over again and I am simply sick of it. Yes, we like immersion. Yes, immersion can be achieved by creating a believable world and writing a good main story to draw us in. All of this I've known for a decade and I've seen it successfully done for even longer, so what is there to discuss in this topic?

But since, at least the way I see it, there is no actual point to this all I will stop posting. Enjoy the discussion or whatever, I've got better ways to fill my time till Skyrim comes out. Like doing something actually not related to TES, that really helps ease the pain.

PS Seriously, what input? Input on what? Yes, I like immersion, I like exploration and so on. Is there any other kind of input or is that it?

I agree with the OP for the most part, with a few exceptions and clarifications.

As for "Immersion", what works for some players does not work for others. Morrowind's version of FT, integrated smoothly into the game world, worked for many players, but was restrictive and tedious to others. Oblivion's blatant FT was immersion-breaking to some players, yet an absolute god-send to others. Taking FT out of the game would be as gratingly annoying as removing the game-world alternatives was to the MW "immersionist" players. The only viable option seems to be to include BOTH.

The fact that high-level items existed in the MW game world, rather than have them suddenly materialize or morph themselves when you reached an "appropriate" level, was wonderful. The fact that some of them were just lying around unguarded, for any L1 character to just pick up, was less than great.

I don't want MW 2.0, I want something that takes the BEST of MW, combines it with the BEST of OB, and goes beyond either.