What do you think would improve the imersion in Skyrim over previous games and give us those genuinely breath-taking moments?

Spears...

Nah, just kiddin...

A good story, funny NPC's epic battles, all that jazz...

"M'aiq thinks immersion is for bathing."

You'll get no one answer and a few angry ones for using the phrase immersive..

However to put it simply anything that draws me into the game and makes it seem less of a game.

So for me, good characters, a unique and detailed story, great dialogue, unique quests, subtle writing, head spinning moments that pop out of nowhere.
Chaos and things I least expect to pop up out of nowhere.. basically superb writing and curve balls in its use.

Travel services, no compass icons, no quest markers.

Better HDR.

Anything that cuts down repetetiveness. Best thing for immerion IMO.
For example creatures unique to specific dungeons, and the like.

Judging from the gameplay trailer, there's nothing to worry about in this aspect.

Choices and consequences. Different paths in the main quest. I want to be eager to replay the game to see how it would have been if I chose otherwise, like in The Witcher.

more challenging and realistic fights, for example something like this mod is definitely a step in the right direction

http://tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/files/file/514-duke-patricks-combat-archery-32/

For me, its stuff to do other than side quests, like jobs, minigames, exploring, etc.

With the jobs aspect of Skyrim, I think it will feel a lot more immersive than Oblivion. Also, more unique locations for exploring will be a plus to. I'm hoping there will be minigames, like dice and card games. I also can't wait to see whether they've added new features to home ownership.

Lots of things.

hardcoe mode with a no-saving option, you are forced to eat and sleep etc.

Perma death on all NPCs. :hubbahubba:

Lots and lots of normal animals (rats, sheep, wolves, deers, elks, dogs, cows, beers, birds, fish, foxes, badgers etc).

Mundane activites such as cooking, woodcutting, mining, hunting.

Advanced housing.

Same strong HDR lighting as in Oblivion.

Same quality of sound and music as in Oblivion.

Lots of physics such as immersive weather, changing seasons, all items and furniture should be breakable.

For me it would be four things mainly: more seamless gameplay, more voice diversity, more setting interactivity and a sense of being the character.

It's all about the realism; how much the game can draw you in and how much you can feel as though you are the character, plunging into dungeons and conquering dragons.

Loading screens are usually necessary, but it should feel like you are really walking into a city or opening a door etc.

I loved the vast quantities of NPC's, but they started to feel like the same person after the twelfth Wood Elf you met had the exact same voice as the previous eleven. The different voices really would make it feel like individual characters, and add to the vastness of the world.

Setting interactivity is difficult, and they certainly made strides in Oblivion, but the more you can interact, pick up, use, destroy, etc. the scenery, the more realistic it feels and the more I get into the game. I know that this isn't virtual reality, but until we get there, it would be awesome to see the effects of your fireball on a wooden house or something. Charred or frozen objects and scenery would just be awesome. I know this would never happen, but it would be insane to be able to pick up random objects and be able to throw them, use them as weapons, and all that jazz. Imagine wielding that silver carafe like a bludgeon or smashing a sweetroll in a dragon's face... Ahh the potential, the potential! Unrealistic, and a Herculean task to imagine and animate all the possibilities, but I can dream, can't I?

Finally the sense of being the character: customization always helps, and the way your behavior effects the outcome of the game and how NPC's react to you is nice. The way the character moves when running in a first person mode in the gameplay trailer made me giddy. The realistic recoil from blocking and slashing or casting magic and stuff really takes me into the game and makes it so much more exciting and rewarding to play through it.

Bigger towns, more people, travellers and merchants on the road, more interaction and dialogue between NPCs, visually seeing shopkeepers, smithies and the like selling their wares and services to others, proper animations which make men, mer and beasts look natural and not like awkard androids; etc.

Obviously that's a simplified list, but it has some important elements necessary in the creation of a living, believable world.

Loads of dialog from everyone was my vice. In Morrowind it was great (for me, although not everyone obviously) because there was so much, however redundant, to "discuss". Oblivion wasn't terribly bad, but there were so few options, so im not particularly happy about not being able to talk with everyone...

But the UI sounds bad from my perspective. Allow me to spend as little time as possible in them, and I will be better.
A destruction engine would be amazing, but kinda pointless and difficult to implement (So many buildings, so much to add at last minute, and very little gain)
Better combat and spells always helps, which they seem to be adding.
More customization, im a unique character lets look it too.
Better level scaling.
More creatures, and more unique creatures.

Eh, people take "immersion" differently and some confuse it with "realism".

For me things in Oblivion like beggars voice-over dramatically changing in the blink of an eye was immersion breaking. Stuff like that can be fixed. Theres things like godrays and full surround sounds and 3D that definitely add to the immersion and I would like to see be optional(because theres really no reason why they shouldnt).

But then theres stuff like menus, or health bars or the crosshair. If you take things like that out sure its more immersive and real but(and while I know there are people out there who will disagree with me) it can become gamebreaking and unfun.

Someone is going to flame me for this, but Fable 3 having no health bars and taking out Mana entirely really added a lot more immersion and let me focus more on playing the game and enjoying the world rather than planning out stats and watching a red bar. Would that work for a TES game? Probably not, but I wouldnt mind seeing some mods like that for Skyrim. Go and play Fallout NV and completely turn off the HUD(turn down opacity all the way) and its an entirely different game.

The way Fallout 3 does the menus on the Pipboy is also really cool to me. Id like that when we open up our quest log in Skyrim your character actually pulls out a journal, or actually pulling out a map.

Edit: Another game that does really well with no HUD is Assassins Creed, at least the first one anyway.

I have to say I've been thinking if magacka as a stat is worth it.
I read on game informer that charging spells will drain magicka qucker than just using other forms of it.
So it's still in Skyrim unless they were just stuck for a phrase or being too literal, so it'll take mods to see how it would work without a magicka well.
I may also use one if it's made well tbh though.

Well immersive health has been done in games enough by now, what with red edges and heartbeats. So getting rid of the health bar is possible. Theres also Fatigue which could use panting. Im not sure how to do Magicka , maybe you start to black out or the more burned out you get from magic use(running out of magicka) there could be stuff like... the world starts to loose color, like everything starts going black and white. Or get rid of magicka altogether and have spells cost Fatigue instead.

Better AI, more believable animations, and less glitches in the quests. Those are the three most important things I can think of for immersion. Better AI will make everything more immersive, whether it's how NPCs act in town or how they act during battle. More believable animations with bring life to those actions and make everything seem more real. Less glitches is kind of an obvious one. I'm not talking about visual or audio glitches though, as those are to be expected. I mean things like getting a ring for completing a quest... only you can't take off that ring, and the effects of it are permanent whether you are wearing it or not.

Yes I wondered about the fatigue bar, as TeS already uses it for impact on magic.
In Morrowind you had it increase percentage I believe ( it's been awhile ).
In Oblivion it lessened the effects, time or damage dealt.
So a mage is thrice afflicted with both magicka and fatigue rather than just fatigue and health.

Two examples of fatigue being used, the first I'll use is not the best however.
DA:O: in that they just call it magic / fatigue, same thing just different colour on the bar the characters both mage and none mage use.

The second beter example to use as the character generation / leveling is far more similar.
Is Arcanum: in that you had fatigue as well.
Every move, attack both dealt and taken, spell cast.. etc would effect fatigue.
Once your fatigue reached 0 you'd pass out untill you raised it.

A tad extreme it would be in TeS however.
Although since potions are more available, potion gulping is frequent and is penalised whether you're a mage, fighter, rogue, or mix of any / all.
I don't see it being anymore extreme than combat use in Oblivion tbh with minor tweaks.

The last way would be cool downs.
Cool downs are in I think at least for dragon shouts, modders have used similar effects by tagging scripted effects before.
An example would be like a shield that gives X for Y, as long as Y runs X can not be cast again.. bad example I hope you understand what I mean though.

Honestly I think the magicka system we have in TeS is the best for TeS.
Or a tweaked Arcanum one maybe, I would like to try a modders attempt at these though.

hardcoe mode.

More active towns/taverns with NPCs engaging in more activities.

Good characters and companions with depth (though I'm sure Todd Howard said in a podcast that many NPC's are recruitable as companions so I don't really hold out hope for quality companion characters =/ ).

Some mini-games to engage in with NPC's, as someone above said, dice etc.

Skill based dialogue checks.

A wider variety of voice actors.

Bards who perhaps sing about your adventures and choices once you are of some renown, like a TES version of Three Dog or Mr. New Vegas.

-Less loading screens
-Character not gliding against the floor in 3rd person
-Sneak not being completely unrealistic (You know what I mean)
-Guards arresting you for crimes you committed when NOBODY was around.
-Random dark brotherhood members assassinating nameless NPCs during the night
-Jobs/Minigames to earn gold.
-A hardcoe mode (something similar to Fallout NV) where you have to eat and sleep ETC.
-Assassination animations when 1 shotting someone while in sneak mode.

For me, it would be the environment and atmosphere. If I'm going to lose myself in Skyrim, then it's going to have to look real, feel real, sound real (never underestimate good sound design), and act real.

The graphics look good, and the dynamic shadows add quite a bit to making anything look more real. Weather is also important. Different degrees of snow whipping around, from a light snow shower to an all out blizzard. Same for rain... a sprinkle to a downpour.

The weather was "ok" in Oblivion, but the immersion-killer was going in and out of cells. It's sunny outside when I go through the gates into a town. Once the town loads, it's cloudy. I go back out into the wilds and it's sunny. I go back into town and it's raining. The weather needs to stay consistent and transit from one condition to another, not be seemingly random when you move from one cell to another. {I uses a weather mod, so I apologize if vanilla Oblivion wasn't like that, but I believe that it was}

Just because you're "inside" shouldn't mean that weather no longer exists. If it was storming outside when you went into a tavern, it should still be storming outside while you're in there. You might not be able to see it, but you should still be able to hear it. Pattering of rain on the roof, thunder, wind, etc. While inside, you could probably be able to hear distant animals howling (if the building is in the neighborhood of where wild animals live), or maybe even faint NPCs talking "outside" if the building is in the heart of town on a heavily traveled route. Buildings aren't sound proof, after all. Likewise, if you're outside of a tavern, you could maybe even hear the happenings of what's going on inside, faintly, especially if there's some music players in there.

It would also help to have more realistic windows. I'm not talking about seeing into other cells, only the faking of it. Couldn't they throw some blurry image in windows that would resemble what is really outside? Couple that with rain drops crawling down the window if it's raining, perhaps snow on the sill, and flakes drifting by if it's snowing. The windows flashing for lightning (along with thunder soon after). And naturally, a lit window during the day, dark at night. Didn't Oblivion have the same blueish hue regardless of time of day? And speaking of windows, if I'm strolling through town at night, there should be lighted windows in buildings... unless everyone goes to sleep when the sun goes down.

So that kind of stuff would suspend the illusion of disbelief that time never stands still. The world is always alive and changing, no matter where you are, and you're always aware of it.

For the atmosphere, I feel that NPC behavior is vital to immersion. If they weren't all over the place, I'd say not so much. But, they have a prominent presence in the world, you interact with them frequently, so they need to be believable in how they act.

I haven't even mentioned gameplay, combat or story. That stuff is the guts of a good RPG, and can make the playing experience engrossing. If that stuff is set in a believable world to begin with, the immersion is that much deeper.

Now that would be very cool...

There are some really good ones in here. I love the idea of being able to hear what's going on inside of a tavern as you approach to escape the elements and then still being able to see and hear the effects of the storm (and animal noises) once you are inside. That would be really amazing, and would certainly make for a hugely immersive experience.

Bingo!

I think the No-HUD will help a lot with immersion.