I think it would be nice if Skyrim had the ability to knock on the door of a person's house. While this may seem like a pretty lame addition, think about it. When you need to talk to someone in real life (who you don't know as a friend), do you just walk into their house and start talking to them? No, you knock on their door and if they answer they may invite you in or you'll realize no one is home.

Now if this was in Skyrim, it would add a lot of realism. It could be used for burglary (casing out a house), in quests when you need to find someone, or ding dong ditching. The way I imagine it, since the interior of houses are generally a separate cell, so you can't have the house owner just open the door and talk with you. The game could do it similarly to a conversation, where you can hear them talking from the other side of the door. If they like you they'll invite you in and you accept the invitation and your character will appear in their house. If they don't like you they may just tell you to go away, maybe if you continue to annoy them they will come out of the house and confront you.

Let me know what you think. Ideas, suggestions, comments are all welcome.

p.s. - Obviously most of these suggestions are too late to be added into Skyrim, but possibly implemented into future games.

I suppose they will eventually add this to a TES game. Who knows, maybe this time.

This is something I've thought about often, because it's not very realistic to just walk in, like you said. I would love to have the ability to knock--and it would be useful for those cases where the door is locked and/or entry is illegal, so just knock and hope someone opens up!

Exactly. It just makes sense and in a world where everything is so realistic, it does seem funny to just walk into someone's house.

Every time you are about to post an idea you are having and it starts out like this


you should remember that SK is a fantasy game so realism just does not matter enough to add things like, knocking on doors. don't get me wrong, I am not saying your idea is invalid. I just feel that is necessary to point out to people that the quality of TES games is (edit) not relative to how realistic it is. btw, its not too late at all, the game is still under development and will be coming out at the end of the year.

Even Fable has this. It's long overdue to be in a TES game.

It's an issue that's come across my mind, actually. I've been on many-a-quest when I need to find someone, but they're inside their house with the door locked. Usually this is with an honest character, so they won't have a lockpick/like breaking into people's homes. While it does seem like a silly suggestion (not to shoot ya down), I would be very pleased if it was implemented.

I don't know, I kind of disagree. Oblivion (and I'm guessing Skyrim) has been very good at creating a believable world, and I think this is due to the game's realism. Maybe not realism as in how we do things in present day 2011, but realism as in human nature. Bethesda seems to strive to create game worlds and characters that act more and more 'human', having separate conversations apart from the player, each having their own dispositions towards the player and other NPCs, and in general creating a world where the player feels apart of. So I think that realism definitely plays a part in TES games.

I sort of agree, all about npc's behaving believably, but that has more to do with varying degrees of suspension of disbelief. so yeah, I can suspend disbelief when I am trowing a fire bolt but its not believable if npcs just stand where they are waiting. thats all fine concerning realism, but realism should not have to apply to the actual human playing the game. It may be realistic for me to have to knock on some ones door and have them let me in before I actually can go in but thats not very fun for me when I just want to check out this quant little shack real quick. realism is fine as long as it does not constrict the players ability to go through the game traditionally, other wise its just real life and I get depressed.

I agree with that. But in my mind when knocking would be necessary is only when you want to keep good disposition with the house owner. So if one would like to, they can simply walk into someone's house, but the owner should consider this trespassing if they don't have a high disposition for the player. If the house owner does not like you he may try to fight you or call the guards. It would just add another dimension to how you interact with the game's NPCs.

well there were some cases where going into npc's houses would be considered trespassing and they would ask you to leave, I don't know if it lowered disposition, but I am thinking maybe your issue with all this could be solved with a knocking sound effect when activating the door. but what I dislike about the whole knocking scenario regardless of realism and suspension of disbelief, is that you'd have to knock and then wait a few seconds for the npc to come out and go through a brief dialog before being able to get in. doesn't sound like alot, and it isn't, but it accumilates and it really svcks the fun out of exploring the smaller and astetic shacks and houses.

I would hope when you open a door:

• With your weapon drawn, you'll shove the door open.
  
• In stealth mode, you'll slowly open the door a little bit.

*Fable flashback* No! No please! Make it stop!!!

This.

I don't think you quite understand. You still would be able to do that. You could still break into people's houses and suchwhat, just if you don't want to barge in and possibly lower someone's disposition by breaking in, you could knock on the door and after small dialogue, they may let you in. It would in no way 'svck the fun' out of the game.

This is a great idea.

Doesn't it make sense to knock on someone's door at nighttime if you deem it urgent enough to get that person's attention?
Perhaps if you annoy that person enough by waking them up all of the time, they will develop negative feelings towards you.
And a friend of your character would be much less annoyed, perhaps even concerned about what you needed?

Ya, I live in a small town...pretty much just walk in and yell hello if I have business there. If the doors locked I just come back later. Even if I don't specificly know the person, just walk in and yell hello. Obviously that might be different with dragons flying around the countryside, but still. Probably so far down on a list of things to add that I really couldn't care less. Much rather have them add something else to the game.

I agree. There are a lot of things that I would like to see before this, but regardless I thought it was something that would add another element to NPC interaction.

Todd mentioned that in skyrim, chat is now in real-time and no longer a mode on its own. This could still be implemented, but I wanted to fix "The way you imagine it"

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6Xn0GbweAE&feature=related (skip to 4:26)

lol can you imagine?
You, "Knock knock anyone home?"
Resident, "Who is it? Go away!"
You, "What did you say? Speak up, I can't hear you through this solid oak door."
Resident, "What?"
You, "Just open the door."
Resident, "Why should I?"
You, "Because this game feature was a bad idea, and we should have just made the houses in the same cell as the rest of the city."

I like the idea.

me and friends are good enuff friends so we just walk in if we cant they are not at home,
in TES its called trespassing

I'd seriously doubt that adding 'door knocking' in high on the list of priorities for the Devs

One simpler but quite immersive idea would be for the inhabitants of houses to react much more diversely to your forced entry. For example if they don't like you (dispostion check) then they refuse to speak to you and tell you to leave. If they really don't like then they call the Guards who fine you 10 gold (or whatever) for trespass.

The onus would then be on you to try to meet up with them in a public place, like the Inn or just in the street, and raise their disposition with speechcraft, bribery or by giving them gifts. That would make then make them welcome you into their houses

Perhaps walking into someone house unannounced isn't considered rude in Tamriel?

I think this is a good idea. The only downside I see is it would add a little time to simply entering someone's home. Despite that I'd welcom the feature.