This. Lach makes a good point with regard to the practicality of running two systems concurrently, however I would vastly prefer that directions come from NPCs rather than markers.

Having a less specific version of markers wouldn't be a good solution for me. If you put in markers in to cater for the player that perhaps doesn't have much time to play and wants to get straight into the action, as Skyrim did, that is one thing; if you have written directions referencing landmarks and compass points, catering to the player that wants to be rewarded for intelligent navigating and have a more immersive experience, that is another. Any solution that lies between that caters to neither party.

To my mind the choices are to either have both systems or pick one and commit to it. I for one hope it is the more cerebral, directions based approach similar to Morrowind.

Also, regarding the point about that quest in Balmora where you weren't told exactly which house the Orc lives in, how is it immersion breaking to need to go door-to-door looking for someone? Yes I see your point with the psychic floating box telling you who lives in that house but all you have to do is imagine that you are knocking and asking if the Orc lives there. Just a tiny bit of imagination and suddenly that objective is much more authentic than any quest marker can be.

Ok, I've thought about this A LOT. Here is -my- list of things that -I- think needs to change/improve for the next game. It's long, sorry about that, and it might be similar to some others, but, oh well.

First of, smithing and enchanting needs improving. For instance, when I smithed a glass sword and armour, I would grind gold objects just to increase my smithing to craft the next armour, and never bothered with more glass-epuipment. There should perhaps be multiple degrees of crafting things, even if they just use the old -fine- och -pure- bla bla bla. Edit: I don't mean the same as improving into flawless etc through gridning stones. I mean multiple weapon/armor per materiall. In Dawnguard you had to craft a Crossbow and then use that crossbow as materiall for the nest version, Enhanced I think and so on, which would be neat to use on every type of equipment. Enchanting is probably obvious, it needs more freedom.

Spells need expanding as well. Many miss the make you're own spell-thing, but I fell it isn't necessary, just so long as you have enough spells to make up for it.

Stamina should be important. I just started playing morrowind for the first time, and it is quite fun and part of the fun is conserving stamina. They went a little over the top at times, but all in all a fun system.

hardcoe mode. It was there in Fallout Vegas and it was fun. I like to be led by the hand a little the first time around, but it's nice to be able to make the hole thing more difficult and immersive. Those who complain about fast-travel and what-not can have it removed in hardcoe mode for instance.

Underwater combat and exploring. This is why I was looking forward to argonia which I believe was but a rumor? I usually HATE water levels, but it is at the same time a love-hate-thing. It wasn’t good in Oblivion, but it was there. I get it, immersive-wise, why Skyrim didn’t have that, cold water and all, but the next game should really have it.

Fame-infamy-quest relation and faction advancement. In the companions for instance, one needed only to do one raidant quest or job or whatever thay are called before recieving a major quest. That is just to fast. And it is to easy to join guilds. You should have to have a certain amount of fame or infamy before they let you in and have fame from the work inside that guild as well. Often I meet NPC who compliment me on joining the Winter Collage in Skyrim, even though I havn’t done even the first quest there, only joined for entrance which is required in the main quest.And the main quest should not require you to mingle with other guilds!

Better follower AI. That’s it. They trigger every trap, svck at sneaking and attack enemies I try to avoid. Stop it. Tsst.

Better transform powers. I didn’t like the werewolf, any of it excpet the idea. It was a cool thought, but without DLC it was only fun the first few times and with it still felt kinda… meh. I loved the vampire-tranform, even if the animation could be a bit clunky in my opinion. But I felt as though I –should- be overpowered in those states, yet I felt stronger in my natural form. Vampirism och lycantropy shouldn’t be a weakness. Sure, walking around in daylight should weaken them, but in their true form under the night, nothing should stand in our way, muhahahaha-

More important deadra. In Oblivion, one of the lords or whtanont (cant remember) wgaed war on Cyrodil. Still no other deadra hade any importance I felt. They should affect more, perhaps earning their favour could be one of the main plots or something. I just feel that they don’t have any real importance, despite being (Gods? Not into the lore to be honest). And the actuall gods should have something akin to deadric quest. Talos may be the cause the wars in Skyrim, but the gods have no impact otherwise. Their blessings dosesn’t even do much. Speaking of…

Permanent buffs. I like the permanent effects like Prowlers profit etc and i think they were loads of fun. But there were so few. Perks made up for that, but I think there could be more permanent buffs. Instead of giving my swordsman a two-handed axe for a hard mainquestline quest-reward, give me a buff related to the quest

Customaization. I play on Xbox and i would like my next game on console as well. Modding is impossible for me so I can’t wait for someone to add a nice RaceMenu or something. Vanilla game should have a lot more customization, not to say I didn’t like Skyrims. Not just physical apperance though. Clothes that does nothing would be nice to wear over or under armour. Those types of equipment shouldn’t be enchantable though, unless the game is extremely diffifcult.

Clothing. Now that I’ve mentioned that, cloth or unarmored should make a comback. Mostly because wearing mages robes seems pointless. Unarmored could perhaps decrease magicka cost or increase damage, or wearing other armor could do the opposite without the correct perks.

Menu UI. Again, I play on console and the sorting was a bit lacking in Skyrim. The ability to sort by weight, value etc was nice in Oblivion. And favorite menu could be improved. I’ve seen modded games with favorites that was sorted by magick, weapon etc and that would be usefull.

Persuasion. I noticed it was different in Morrowind from Oblivion in how persuasion works but I liked them both. The Oblivion persuasion wheel with the ability to taunt someone into attacking you from Morrwind is a fun idea that was for some reason dropped. Perhaps I’m the only one to enjoy it?

Creatures. Having a larger world is fine and all, but I can live with a Skyrim or Oblivion-sized world in exchange for more creatures and NPC-bandits etc. After a while, it gets boring in Skyrim.

Controlled leveling. In Oblivion I liked to hold of on leveling till I’ve trained for that level and gotten all gear I liked. The sleeping in order to level deal in Oblivion was nice. It doesn’t need to be sleeping, but you should be capable to controll it. And you should be able to chose how to tackle obstacles. For instance, in Skyrim you either need a key or lockpick to open chests. Using magic should be an option, as well as a warrior styled thing, perhaps bashing it open somehow.A warrior or mage shouldn’t have to use stealthy skills to get to the loot. But skills might be a needed thing to join some guilds? Not sure about that, but it might be a good idea. Joining the thieves guild in Skyrim was annoying for me, cause I hade no experience in pickpocketing.

Immortal NPC. Many have problems with this. I understand why Bethesda made some NPC impossible to kill, though many glitches ruins quests anyway. But I still think they could’ve worked around it. For instance, there are ghosts in Skyrim. Instead of making ghosts hostile, make them ”immortal” (that –would- make sense) and make it so when an NPC dies, they come back as ghosts. Or is that to much? I don’t know much about programing, but it seems possible.

Oh, one last thing. Quest items should be removable. Not sellable, but should appear in sell list. When you try to sell the NPC will say something like, that looks important or i want nothing to do with that, and if you try to drop it a warning window should appera perhaps, but you should be able to drop or remove them.

I'm not expecting much, but these are some things that could be in the next game, in my personal opinion. Though, in all honesty, even if the next game was perfect and had all things people want in it, some will still find things to complain about. I take it as it is, knowing that the next Elder Scrolls WILL be awesome, no matter what anyone says.

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1513983-official-beyond-skyrim-tes-vi-50/?p=23894858

To respond to captainfez3:

What you mentioned about the martial arts-esque battle mage is quite interesting and to an extent part of the direction I am leaning when I think about where I'd like magic use in the game to go.

Summoned or magically created shields and weapons make sense and are quite obvious, but, what you said got me to thinking about the way magic could be used in a shaolin monk kind of way. In the same way magic could be used to create armour, is it not possible that magic could be used to turn ones fists and feet into a weapon? or to enhance ones speed, agility and strength through telekinesis?

Perhaps some mages, skillful enough in alteration and mysticism, could use their alteration spells to block and grab blades and axes with their hands, their magic shielding their body and protecting them. Maybe use telekinetic magic to lift up their foes and heavy objects and hurl them with great force.

Ideally I would want this kind of magic to be for the very elite, but it would be very interesting to explore a school of thought within magical combat that puts almost all of its faith within magic itself and does not seek the "easy path" of forging weapons out of materials. Perhaps these people could be content to wear simple clothing and maybe carry simple staffs which, to the untrained eye, look like unimpressive sticks but through careful magical enhancements could be transformed into weapons capable of delivering devastating attacks.

Imagine if in the same way a mage can use magic to armour their body, they could also cast a temporary alteration spell on a weapon or even a simple staff which imbues the object with a spell akin to an enchantment, which could work even in addition to an enchantment.

I also like the idea of a mage being able to use alteration to magically form and wield weapons of pure, molded elemental magic, like a fire blade or an ice blade.

I've got quite a lot of ideas about the way magic could be handled in the game, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I think it's hard to argue around the notion that mages really are the most powerful class in the game. If you really want to be as powerful as you can be, it's pretty hard to avoid getting involved in magic. This seems to be in keeping with the lore too, and I am actually fine with this. I simply hope that this potentially immense power should be hard to acquire, perhaps with the very powerful spells, in addition to being highly demanding in terms of magicka, should be extremely hard to acquire, perhaps requiring that the player solve quite complicated puzzles or have to figure out how to an in-game made esoteric script in order to find instructions through which to find the tomes and items required to gain access to these special puzzles.

Think the atronach forge and them make it more cryptic, complicated and helpful and you might get an idea of what I am thinking.

In game, kinda (Morrowind at least. This is less true in Skyrim and Oblivion), and in lore...well, not really. If we're being technical, the most accomplished mages in the setting (Mannimarco, Sotha Sil, the Psijic Order from which both of those two come from) are all extremely powerful, but it tends to balance itself out well with the others so to speak. On the other side of the spectrum you have demi-god freaks like Pelinal literally wiping out entire settlements and citadels single handily (Which is a refrence to the PC's themselves), Wulfharth, so on and so forth. Thieves/rogues are a little more obscure, but Vivec himself actually encompasses that branch, and there's also Rahjin the thief god of the Khajiiti.

But all of these people from my understanding were heavily involved in magic. The becoming gods thing was a pretty significant magical trick i'd say. The gods and demi-gods thing does open up a lot of doors though. They are almost inherently mage-like and magical. Even pelinal was a magic user, but I've also heard he was a cyborg or robot...

Part of me gets the impression you are thinking in terms of the mage, warrior, thief trinity, which, while interesting(I would argue that there is a fourth archetype but whatever), is not the perspective I am adopting for this. I'm talking about mages as being magic users.

From the mortal perspective in the game, if you want to attain as much power as possible, be the best version of yourself you can be and have the best stuff, you tend to walk a path that basically turns you into a mage. You may not be wearing robes and be some sickly book worm type, you could even look like some brutish warrior(in keeping with the context of the conversation with captainfez3), but if you are mixing up powerful potions, creating powerful enchantments, casting powerful spells and sifting through tomes to accumulate as much magical wisdom as possible, how can you really avoid being called a mage?

In terms of the lore, I would use the likes of Ahzidal, shalidor and augar of dunlain as pretty good examples of this.

It would be nice to see a super-powerful mage some time depicted in a future game. Something on the level of shalidor.

I think we have a difference in opinion on magic and spellcraft proper. Utilizing magic in some form does not technically make someone a mage in-universe. Ignoring that for a moment, meta-gaming in order to be "All you can be!" (Playing up on certain enchantments and things being the only viable route for things like post game content and tier listings and all that) and is sorta in poor taste. Sure, perfectionists will want to max out every single skill, but focusing on one aspect of gameplay over another to truly feel powerful is a poor choice in game design IMO.

On a different topic, something I'd like to see back would be degenerative diseases. That'd be neat.

There are also a lot of things in TES lore that are magic but not really magic, like tonal architecture and thu'um. Even the most strictly non-magical characters use powerful enchanted weapons and armor and/or have some sort of divine or daedric intervention in their favor. So yeah, most of the greatest people in Tamriel's history have been involved in some sort of magic or pseudo-magic, but I agree that does not make them mages.

I would like to see diseases take a bigger part in the game in general. They felt completely insignificant in Skyrim, with every major city having ready access to shrines that cure them all immediately with no cost or restriction.

Well most of the games (Sans the cost and restriction bit, but IIRC it was all rather poultry) never made diseases too difficult to deal with save Daggerfall, which is where degenerative diseases came into effect. The issue with trying to keep the player from easily curing diseases would be that...well, they'd potentially lead to death as they did in that game, and if you saved the game at a certain point, the play through is fubared. Not that I'm against that myself, but I don't think its something most people dig.

What I'd like is that diseases eventually deteriorate the players attributes/skills/whatever over time (Like Daggerfall, where the points debuffs became larger over time), but it'd be possible to both survive it and have it eventually runs its course, disappearing at some point or another.

But our character has a map, heck even Morrowind actually came out with a quite detailed map. So, to me, it seems far more natural that a npc would tell me to search in this general area and show it to me on my map than to describe it to me word by word when I have a map (lets hope) in my hand..
What I want them to tell me though is some description about what I'm looking for. For example finding the escaped criminal radiant quest in Skyrim, where you only have the marker telling you where the subject is and who he is and no other clue whatsoever made the whole thing trivial.
About finding someone in Balmora though I agree with you, it was fine IMO.

Actually, yeah. Fair point with the map

One thing that I'd personally enjoy would be more immersive jails/prisons. It would be nice if, instead of being locked in a single jail room, they expanded it to where you could talk to other NPCs while inside of a jail, and the jails themselves are bigger. Perhaps they could make it where you could get quests from inside of the jail, initiate a riot, or even have some elaborate system of escape from them. If you were caught trying to escape or engage in any illegal activities, maybe they could input a thing like "solitary confinement" that the player would go to afterwards.

Then, if one were to choose to escape, they would be wanted heavily in the town and word might spread. From this, they could bring back the reputation system and expand on it, by causing some NPCs who see a wanted poster or haev hear to view you as "criminal scum," while others might like you more and give you certain quests that only someone who is a known "escape artist" or is known for committing crimes would partake in.

They could even create an NPC or "higher up official" in each city who would be able to extinguish bounties by paying off the right people for you, for a hefty fee.

All-in-all, I just tire of the current TES jail/prison system and think it's handled a bit boringly.

Spending actual time in jail was always supposed to be something of a penalty (Skill acquisition being wiped away, all that jazz) so...eh. The Cidna Mine quest was alright, but I don't think there needs to be too much expansion on crime/punishment, unless we bring back Daggerfall esque courts and all that.

We aren't dealing with a modern jail system though. The fact that you aren't just flat out executed for half the crimes you can commit is a clear gameplay mechanic. For theft, you'd be chained to a post or have a limb cut off. There's no time in the yard, no socializing with other. inmates... They're being rather generous giving you a cell and a bucket to [censored] in, instead of just hanging you in a cage. Cidna mine gets something of a pass, because it's a forced-Labour experience, bit for the most part the jail system in TES is as it should be... If a little too gentle.

To be fair, it looks like they do a lot of that too, albeit not to the PC. We tend to be the exceptions because, well, obvious reasons.

World:

-larger variety of enemie(dragons stiil appear but they're very high level)

-something similar to the nemisis system from"Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor"(enemies can come back)

-more cities/settlements

-larger cities with more people

health and Injuries:

-In addition to a general health bar, each body part has it's own health bar which when depleted that body part becomes vulnerable to injury(burns, broken bones, deep lacerations, nicked/severed arteries,etc), there is also a chance of dismemberment which(with exception of decapitation) you can survive if you have high enough skill in restoration/alchemy or you reach a healer before you die from blood loss, in the instance you lose a limb you can get a prostetic (which can vary from a none funtional wooden ones to a macanical dwarven one).

skills and attributes:

-the effectiveness of skills increase naturally without perks as they level up(perks still exist they just aren't manditory)

-also there are different character animations based upon the level of their skills, for example characters with high one/two handed skill make tighter more accurate swings, characters with high achery/marksman skill are capable making small more accurate movments when aiming in order to hit their target in the right spot(also they can see further), characters with high block find it easier to follow enemy attacks making it easier to to block, dodge or even deflect them.

-the amount that the overall effectivness of skill increases is based on level(going from levels 10-15 is going to be more dramatic than going 5-10), by the time you reach level 90 in a skill(the highest point you could be trained in skyrim) the improvments become so dramatic that by the time you reach level 100 you will be on a completely different level of overall ability from so called masters(not just slightly better).

-there should be more to trainers than just paying them to increase your skills, they actually teach you techniques or styles(it isn't required but it's faster and having a basis will improve the speed inwhich your skills improve). you can also techniques from books

-bring back the acrobatics skill, except rather than increase the height and distance you can jump it effects your ability to move through areas in varity of way(basically parkour).

-bring back the hand to hand skill, in addition to the effectivness of you punches increasing, as your skill goes up you become physically tougher(your bones are harder to break).

-bring back attributes with additional effects like strength and agility effects the height and distance you can jump and intelligence effects your ability to learn.

-abilities that require multiple skills to unlock(like being able to enchant a weapons and armor as you forge them making powerful and unique enchantments like the ones on the dawnguard rune weapons.

magic:

-enchanting is more like morrowind where using enchanted items can increase your enchanting skill( also your enchanting skill effected how many times you could use an enchanted item before it's charge is depleted).

-you place "cast when used"enchantments(once a gain like morrowind).

-when it comes to casting spells not only does the cost of the spells go down as your skill in that type magic increase but also the time and effort. for example if your character is a novice in destruction magic and they try throw a fireball they would need to use both hands and do a series of movments(much like casting a master level spell in skyrim) in order to create the fireball, but as there skill increases they will be able to create the fireball without doing all of those movements but they will still need to both hands and afew moments to charge up the spell, then they will be able to do it with one but still need to charge it up and finally they will be able to cast it instantly(or charge it up to make a more powerful version of the spell). also certain spells scale up in power (like telekinesis, at first you can only move small objects but eventually you will be able pick up and throw large objects and even enemies).

or

rather than buying spells, you can learn how to do different things with magic through practice( like create a fireball that explodes on impact) or have a trainer teach you different techniques(as metioned above),the power of the spells you cast is a combination of skill and overall mana

races:

-each race should have abilities that make your experience with that race different from the others(some are stronger or faster, others have sharper senses or they have learn certain skills faster).

-each race should have several variations( like bretons have have high rock bretons and reachmen).

-racial abilities increase from use.

vampires and werewolves/creatures:

-as you feed your abilities increase, like your attack power increase, you can run faster, jump higher and farther.

-different types of vampires and werecreatures

-vampires being undead are not effected in the sameway by injuries(it's more of a nuisance)

-fights with vampire are long and hard, you have to wear them down until they can no longer regenerate(which is determined by how well fed they are) and even when their health is depleted(they become little more than a charred skeleton) they can still be revived if provided with blood.

-werecreature while still living creature who can die from injury(though they still recover faster than normal), they have overwhelming strength and speed.

factions:

-like morrowind your required to have certain skills in order to move through their ranks(you can't progress through the mages guild as a warrior).

-your given responsibilities based on rank (such as dealing with lower ranking members).

- when you join a faction they test your abilities to determine what your best at which will determine what sort jobs you will be given(you take further test in order to get more jobs which will inturn help speed up your progression through the ranks.

There's a bit in that post I kinda want to critique, but I'll just draw attention to this bit. Experianceing how each race is "different" isn't really valid because...its really the individual that matters first and foremost. Going beyond that, its more of a cultural thing then a racial thing, beyond the Altmeri increased resistance to diseases and all that. That kind of idea just doesn't really work, since it sorta shoe horns whatever race we choose into different arch-types, and isn't really that applicable in lore.

Not actually against this myself, and I rather like the idea. Its a little difficult to pull off in a equal capacity though. For instance, while you get neat divides like Colovian/Nibenese, "standard" Nord/Skaal, Crown/Forebear Redguard, other's break down into much more difficult to pin down groups like with the Dunmeri Great Houses, the Altmeri social castes, the vast array of cultures and sub-cultures of the Breton's, and so on and so forth. I can see something being done in similar like a "class" selection, but eh, its finicky.

Regarding combat and injuries, I think the idea of getting limbs hacked off and getting prosthetic's is hoping for a bit much. I do think injuries (debuffs when struck by a critical blow, different methods of trying to mend said wound, with standard healing spells not capable of the job) could work, and I think could tie in nicely with vampires being capable of regenerating and fixing said wounds naturally over time. Haven't thought of a system beyond that at the moment though.

Ok, for a change of pace...


I'm gonna talk about these. I call them 'Afflicted' but it doesn't really matter too much, since we. all know what we're talking about...

Now, first of all, I would like to say that I do not necessarily agree with the simplistic 'Feed to get stronger' thing. I much prefer Skyrims model, with some added characteristics... I prefer the idea that there's no real 'best' state, but that various gradients of an affliction have different advantages...

For instance, Vampires. The more you feed, the healthier you are. You get some bonuses to speed and damage, don't combust in sunlight, and can hide amongst normal folk easy enough. As you become hungrier and hungrier, however, you become more deadly, more likely to inflict critical hits, and even regenerating health when you kill someone. The trade off? You take penalties or even damage in sunlight and will had a harder (or even impossible) time dealing with mortals. Essentially, the idea is that if you want some minor boosts, feeding regularly is good, but if you want to be an unholy killing machine, abstaining will unlock more potential.

Werewolves, on the other hand, would be more direct. Some simple bonuses like increased Stamina regeneration nd slightly faster run speed most of the time... But a powerful transformation which takes away the benefits of your gear, but... Well... Turns. you into a werewolf... They're basically the simple, more direct affliction. Power without much subtlety.

Then I would include Liches... Similar to Vampires in the need to feed, but instead on the souls of others. At base, they would get increased magicka regeneration, water breathing and an immunity to poison, at the cost of being unable to gain any bonuses from sleep of marriage (no blood flow). As they starve and become withered and dry, though, they become more resistant to Frost, wile vulnerable to Fire, and become real magical powerhouses, with decreased spell cost and increased damage. They suffer from tuebse stigma as Vampires though, and if they want to blend in they need to consume souls regularly (either with a spell, or by 'eating' soul gems).

Now, as per the specialisation scheme I support for Skills, each Affliction would have its own perks... Some generic, which simply empower theorbbase characteristics and abilities, and 3 speciallised trees which hone and refine what kind of unholy menace you are.

For Werewolves, examples include; Huntsman- a stealthier Hunter designed around stalking it's prey. Abomination- rapidly regenerating pure combat monster with poisoned, filthy claws. Hound of Hercine - fast and ferocious for running down prey or catching enemies by surprise.

Vampires; Mistwalker - An illusion based stealth assassin that distracts and outmaneuvers opponents. Savage -a more combat oriented vampire that rips into foes with blade and fang. Ancient - the leaders of covens and commanders of Molags faithful, more of a conjugation vibe...

Liches; Ravager - pure magical damage, baby, fireball and lightning bolts for days. Wight -an evil, soul duck my Battlemage whose touch is lingering death. Worm Prince - favoured servants of the God of Worms, commanding the undead as if they were 'companions'.

I would definitely like to see NPCs vampires fight in a more unique way. Perhaps different attack animations and movement AI. I disliked the way the fought just like normal NPCs in Skyrim, just with an extra channel spell. They need more finesse, swiftness and agility.

Animations in general leave a great deal to be desired... But Skyrim and TES in general have a wider range of opponents and creatures than mist games, with a wider range of actions for each. Animation variation can get bloated very quickly if you've got variants for skill level, affliction, fighting style, weapon choice etc.

When you say bloated, what do you mean exactly? Do you fell that an abundance of variation would have a negative effect or that they would simply take up too much space on a disc? Or do you just think that it wouldn't be a worthwhile use of time and resources making that many animations?

I'm ta lking mostly in terms of storage space for the files, particularly with a mind on the more limited resources of the Consoles. On PC, I don't really worry about a 200gb game. Hell, I could fit that on my SSD, but such a thing would crush even the new generation of consoles.

There's also the complication that more animations with more variables is just more room for glitches. Keeping things to the fewest possible annimations, while minimalistic, limits problems, which is particularly useful for a series notorious for its glitches (meanwhile, when Dark Souls glitches, people just claim it keeps the game hard, or its a 'feature' and Tue developers make no effort to address it... EVER.... Can you tell I don't like Dark Souls?).

While the visionary in me would like to see thousands of fluid animations for activities as varied as drawing water, to adjusting ones armour, to dozens of combat styles and proficiencies, in a world where armour doesn't clip and dead bodies don't twist at odd angles, there are some wider concerns and limitations that need to be considered, and in most cases the minimum required to do the job is the expectation we needto set.

Re: Virtual Reality Headsets with Elder Scrolls

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/1/8127445/htc-vive-valve-vr-headset

Dare to dream! It's how ideas for new things happen. : )

But in this case, the game already has voice commands that we can give to our walking cart horse Follower/Companion/Ally.

Source: http://www.xboxachievements.com/news/news-11574-All-of-Skyrim-s-Kinect-Voice-Commands-in-One-Place.html

Youtube of example gameplay can be found here: http://youtu.be/Knf2_TcZGow

I've already posted my hopes that this will be included in the next game, but with the ability to address our Ally by name. In addition to that, I hope that they allow us to use Khajit Speak rather than "Imperial English". ; )

Yeah that makes sense. I have no idea how big an animation might be but if, as you say, it could make the game too big for consoles (I'm on Xbox One) that would definitely be a problem!

If I could choose one area I would have them include animations for, it would be for taking potions, applying poisons and recharging items with soul gems. I would much prefer that these actions take place in real time rather than in the menu. It would really add to the tactical element of combat having to put enough distance between yourself and your enemy/take cover from ranged enemies to take a potion safely.

Imagine how cool using soul gems could look if you have to break the gem on the item you want to recharge. The same can be said for poisons, I can imagine drawing an arrow from the quiver and dipping the head in a pot of poison strapped to your belt before nocking the arrow.

I'd prefer to see these over variations of attacking animations because they would add a tactical element to the game as well as providing an interesting thing to look at.

Eh, animations account for about a 10,000th of total storage space. The heavy hitters are:

- Textures

- Audio

- Meshes

That isn't really true. I mean sure, having a million animations will cause more conflicts than having two, but it's not as clear cut as just that. Usually its the underlying framework behind each individual animation that results in glitches from time to time, such as bad collisions in a certain area. But it's not a result of more animations somehow causing each other to become more unstable or anything like that - it's just statistics that if you have more animations then there'll be proportionally more issues spread out between them. By that logic you could argue that the total game length should be cut down from 100+ hours to 1 hour, as it'll 'remove' 99% of the bugs.

And it's not like these games use any more animations than they have to. I mean, you can't just not have a swing animation, or a walk animation. What they need is just a better animation pipeline - the total number is almost completely irrelevant.

Nor do animations cause most bugs in TES games. That's usually scripting, or occasionally the engine's/renderer's code.

This is true. And I'd say the heaviest hitter among these three is audio. Skyrim, for instance, has three .bsa files for audio, only one each for meshes and textures. The size of Skyrim's audio files is almost equal to the size of meshes and textures added together (approximately 2 1/2 gigs). Animations, on the other hand, are just 40 megs.