While reading the Gameinformer article last night, it occurred to me how intricate the town of Riverwood (Featured on pg. 52) is, although it is not one of the five major cities. This leads me to believe that while there may only be five major cities, there will likely be numerous towns that have services, stores, and other points of interest. This is a change from previous TES games where you had major cities that needed the presence of a full blown guard unit, and tiny towns that had no services (with the exception of an inn) and had little need for law enforcement.

Assuming that we will see a significant increase in medium-sized towns, what sort of law enforcement should be present in these towns? Certainly a town that has shops, a blacksmith, and an economy (such as woodcutting in Riverwood) would need a law enforcement presence. I would like to see a law enforcement system that had "sheriffs" with possibly a few "deputy-like" characters to assist them depending on the town. It would be similar to the old west in the United States where towns needed some form of law enforcement, but couldn't justify having a formal police department that would equate to a guard unit. These "sheriffs" and deputies- for lack of better terms- could have significant personality and add to the overall character of the town. They could be part of a group similar to US Marshall's, that could even be treated as a faction. :wink_smile:

What do you think of the law enforcement system should look like in these medium sized towns? For that matter, should the large cities have full blown guard units like OB, or should they have another form of law enforcement?

I was thinking guards should be like http://www.cops.com/

I don't necessarily agree actually. In Bloodmoon, a lot of the settlements on Solthsteim were self-sufficient, including in security. If a werewolf attack happend, all the villagers would pull out silver weapons and slaughter them. Now with Cyrodill, it was more of a civilized province, with Imperial rule present. Skyrim is different in that regard, and I would prefer to maybe see town militias if anything, or perhaps the citizens can take care of themselves. This is a harsh environment after all. On top of that, a civil war is going on, so who knows what implications that may cause.

They should unerringly home in on you saying "HALT" at regular intervals and try to kill you.

In addition to guard units, I would quite like to see civilian lynch mobs. So, you're caught doing something serious, like thieving or murdering or wandering around in little girls' bedrooms, all the local Nords pick up arms and come for your head. That's real frontier justice. We don' need none o' your steenking deupties.

But a mixture of law enforcements would be great. In the major cities, the failing remains of the Imperial Legion. In the wilderness, Nord militias / rebels or whatever there is going to be could form the law enforcement. Mind you, the Nords and Imperials might have different ideas about what is or is not illegal. The Nords are far laxer when it comes to the 10 Commands from the 9 Divines, while the Imperials base their law on them, after all.

I would also like to see the personal troops of local lairds / nobility laying down the law. That would be sorta awesome, especially if each of the nobility had their own miniature quest lines that could be followed, as with Dunmer Great Houses.

So... 1) Imperial Legionnaires, as per norm. 2) Local guards, so rebels, or deputies as you said. 3) Troops belonging to local Nord nobles and lords. 4) Civilian lynch mobs. Can also apply to witches.

I'd like to see a clan system, where maybe the wealthiest individual person in town has a retainer of body guards, who act as town security, if only to protect the interests of the wealthy landowners or warlords. So killing a person, even a "guard" in one town might not be a big deal the next town over, other than your reputation.

Big cities however, with kings and so forth would probably have a more regular military, akin to the huscarls or Varangian guard.

However guards may work, I wish they'd implement hanging. You fark up too badly/kill someone/get too notorious, you run the risk of getting hung. Oh, and I'd LOVE for it to be something you could actually take part in. Like, you fade into the Gallows, and can look about but not move. Then a minute or so later, lever gets pulled and you black out slowly while swinging.

It'd be cool yet lame at the same time as one would just load up their last save without any real consequences.

it's the land of the nords, lawless brawls and witch hunts by the brawny nords should abound. i'd also like to see a dunmer city/village on the border with morrowind kind of like bruma was a nord city in oblivion. but it's the middle of civil war so any local gaurds should all be part of one faction or the other and all fighting each other. in fact i smell another dragon egg break coming in the course of skyrim

I see the logic in what you're saying, but the settlements on Solthsteim were comparatively small, isolated and homogeneous relative to what I'm hoping we'll see from these medium sized towns in Skyrim. The small settlements could probably do without law enforcement, but if my assumption regarding these medium towns is true, I think there will be a need of some form of law enforcement. Even if it is similar to what these guys are thinking.... (see below)





I like what both of you two have to say. My hope is that there is some unique form of local law enforcement that could possibly be used as a faction. It would be cool to have unique personalities keep order in different towns.

Implement a "fatality" mode you can enable in the options - when you die, you die. You can only load from the main menu, and only the latest save, and on character death the save gets deleted. I've wanted such an option for a long time.

All I know is they shouldn't be psychic, that's for sure.

If I kill someone in the middle of the woods the last thing I want is fr a guard to jump out from behind a tree and shout at me.

:cryvaultboy:

I hope the guards or someone move the dead bodies [ checks there are no beggars to accidently hit then casts yet another weak fireball at Arnora ]

i'm sure the guard system will be fine....i like some of the posts i've read.
Aslong as the guards dont magically know you killed or robbed someone without being seen,alls good

1. Leaning towards mercenary units organized by regional factions/clans etc.

2. A more punitive approach to murder. Income based fine with a minimum, and a seizure of the murder weapon (not sure how this would work with "death by summoned scamp" or whatever. But this is where I would like to see a rune system implemented).

3. A more reasonable "all points bulletin" that has some sense of time, not an immediate gang-bang by every dike with a badge.

You have violated the law! Your thread is now forfeit. You can pay the fine or face the new punishment system that you created yourself!

if they say "STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM" I will have a nervous break down.

anyway they should NOT BE:

1- Omniscient.
2- Unkillable.
3- Annoying.
4- Physic.

I'd like to see each city have separate law enforcement. If you committed a crime in one city, you could take refuge in one of the other 4 without the guards hassling you (unless your crime was very serious, and the cities in question had a good relationship.) Essentially each city should act as a sort of independent city state, with the town guard enforcing the laws.

The guards in the more civilized cities need halberds. They're just so guard-esque I really want to see the return of Roman Legionary influenced guards in maybe one or two cities but I think I might be waiting in vain for those :/

Pretty much that.

It will be interesting to see if some of the concepts from Reneer's mod in Oblivion find their way into the game - for example each city having its own bounty; the possibility of bribing guards; the availability of disguises etc.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.....

lol

You're against gang-bangs in TES:V? What's going on with you Miles?

if it was like solstheim, with the villagers being able to fend for themselves, that'd make being a thief scary...

...you try stealing from a little nordic girl's room, she wakes up and beats the hell out of you. :laugh:

then as you just manage to escape, the entire town is waiting for you, with axes and hammers... better run, thief! :bolt:

Please... both genders and not every damn guard being a Nord. This is a must.

If NPCs are going to be going about their day, encompassing a multitude of tasks in a more realistic manner than depicted in IV, then their should be designated guard units in cities/villages. Their presence necessitates more strategy. It would be very difficult to steal from a shop with a trader + guard, rather than just a trader who might be doing trader-like things. In the interest of making this challenging there should absolutely be guards in every community, with small villages getting fewer.

IMO, however, bounties should not carry over to other cities. I would like to be able to wipe out an entire village and then go to a nearby city like nothing happened.