But that strength isn't going to affect the style of combat. That is entirely training. A Nord trained as a Legionarie may be stronger, but he's not going to fight like a Berzerker out of Winterhold. He's going to fight as a Legionarie. Some of his racial aptitude may show through depending on aspects of his training (2-handed combat, for instance) but it's not going to affect for or action in a discernible way. The kind of impact these racial characteristics have aren't the type of thing represented in animations, they're represented in progression curves and aptitudes.

^^^But that's not true. That entire line of thought breaks down because most Breton's, as common as magic might be in High Rock is, are not great mages. Hell, High Rock codifies the shining knight in armor trope in-universe. Clan Direnni, a clan of Altmer, are also prominent warriors and not as prolific as their cousins in Summerset are with magic. A Nord in southern Cyrodiil wouldn't fight differently enough from say, a Redoran warrior from Morrowind would to justify unique animations. The only way to make that work is to make the action over the top enough so that it actually looks and feels different, and that pushes it into the absurdity of Dragon Age Inquisitions combat animations.

^^I actually liked the Witch-Hunters. Still, I myself wouldn't care to see classes as is make a reappearance, but I would like more influence in choosing my skills of choice and them contributing to leveling, like what the Uncapper does for Skyrim. If Beth wants to give us "classes" that help give players a selection of skills to go with if they don't know what their doing, all the better I guess, but they wouldn't necessarily be set in stone if you choose to do something later.

I use a mod called http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/21512/? to do something like what Dargor describes. This mod mod adds racial perks, among other things. I have the uncapper mod give my character a few extra perks at level 2 so they can take racial (and class) perks right off the bat. I find that this helps to reduce the homogeneity of vanilla races.

If there is gonna be race-specific animations, I think walking/running/idle/sneaking anitmations would suffice. I myself would just like a bit more natural style. I don't run in 3d view in Skyrim 'cause the hands looks so freakin ridiculous. But I don't think combat animations should be that different from each other. Wether you're a Khajit or Orc, if you use a warhammer it's going to be heavy and slow, with little variations. A sword will be fast and, IMO, somewhat elegant. If you were to strike your oponent with a sword as if it were a hammer, in real life, the blade would be ruined, which is just another good reason why some form of repair should return. (On that note, I don't think it should break like in the old game, but the edge should dull. That would mean that the degradation of blunt weapons would be less, which I think would be interesting). A mace is blunt, and should be brutish no matter what race.

As for perks for races, I'm not sure. I like the idea of having faster learning rates for certain skills, like the guardian stones in Skyrim, but not so much as in Skyrim. One percent or two, no more, otherwise it would feel like a waste to learn magic with an Orc for instance, and wearing a piece of Heavy Armor bacuase of a good enchantment or something might make my Heavy Armor increase faste than would be appropriate for my character. It's the same problem with perks and I'm not sure how that would be solved.

I've been thinking about this for a while... honestly I'm kind of worried about the success of Skyrim... While it provided a great atmosphere, and was accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds, I feel it sacrificed a lot of rpg elements and interesting features to achieve this. What I'd like to see gameplay wise in future TES titles, is that they continue to treat each game as it's own, feature-wise, as they did up until now, and not settle for a "formula to success" inspired by Skyrim's widespread adoption.

Basically I just want the world to be more mechanically refined, with added depth... Magic effects and spell-making similar to morrowind, a wider range of weapons, armor and mixing possibilities, true attributes, and perks not tied to skills... That way skills themselves will actually matter and not act as basically a counter towards the next perk...

And perks (if they make a comeback, which they most probably will)... To serve the purpose of customization, not that of powering up, perks should have downsides as well and act in a specialized way (no +20% more effective perks anymore), so instead of being the determining factor to one's success, they would be the special 'quirks' and traits that set one character apart from another in terms ability when comparing characters of equal skill level...

People are not afraid of learning and delving into new gameplay mechanics, diversity is a spice that keeps the game interesting, and adding more depth to that won't change the saying "more than the sum of it's parts" as Skyrim has been described, it'll only make it better...

Well, ditching Skyrim's Skills=number of perks you chuck into it system would eliminate that problem. That and, you know, Orcs do practice their own magic. Like I said, the races "stereotypes" start to break down a great deal if you examine them for about twenty seconds.

On a different note, I've been playing Darkest Dungeon, and I'm having a real blast with it. One really interesting thing I find is the idea of camping skills, in which gives your group various buffs when...well, camping, depending on the type character. I don't know if camping is that applicable in the TES series (I like the idea of it, but I've tried several mods that messed with it, and they're...less than ideal), but having the ability to actually gain some buffs from "downtime" and actually giving your character certain quirks is actually kinda cool.

That is probably true, but in all the games both their starting traits and unique powers have been related to close combat. Even they themself seem rather focused on fighting. But you get ny point, at least, I think.

As for perks there seems to be very many different ideas of that. I kind of liked Skyrims take on it, though I agree they could be more unique. But a perk that increases attack-power seems resonable to me, otherwise having 100 on Two-handed and 100 on One-handed, the difference would be really small, at least in attack power. IMO.

Oh, don't get me wrong. They don't even need perks, not in the same matter, in the next game. I wouldn't mind if they tried something new entirely, I just wouldn't be sure of what. I was merely trying to defend Skyrim, since many seems to have problems with some of the perks system in the game.

The strenght itself, aside more damage ofc, it won't. But, adding race based animations and combat mechanics MAY enhance the gameplay and give the races the distinctive feel and flavour that they so desperately need.

Like I said, There doesn't needs to be a ton other of animations or combat mechanics, but having an Orc for example wielding a 2 handed warhammer in one hand only, because of his prodigious orc strength ( and if you chose the perk for him ) would be a nice- addon.

In my opinion, I think Bethesda is limiting the races far too much, wether it's due to the fact that the ES games are mostly focused to appeal to the massess, and such are more simple in design, or they just can't be bothered to improve gameplay radically.

How silly is that Argonians who are pretty much water based creatures have no option to fight underwater or launch sneak attacks from the water itself? Hey water-breathing is fine, but any race can obtain a waterbreathing amulet or craft one, or use a spell. It's exactly this that kills any feels of distinction that a race has, because in the end they will all look the same wearing a full set of heavy armor, and they will all have exactly the same animations. What difference is there but a single or two racial perk? Not much. How will you distinguish from a khajit or a dunmer in full plate armor with a helmet on? You can't. But with added animations and combat mechanics, YOU COULD.

What I'm suggesting is general overhaul to all skills in game, where they would not be restricted by classess or anything, BUT some unique animations, combat mechanics and so on could be exclusive to the specific race.

As for why a nord in cyrodill would have access to these combat mechanics and animations, who cares? Your typical nord doesn't runs around in full daedric plate and yet it's one of the most commonly used armors in the game. The point is that you create what you want, with some of the logical advantages that lore states about the races.

Skyrim doesn't discriminates btw different kinds of Nords, wether they lived all of their lives in Cyrodill, i don't know Hammerfell or wherever, they would still have 50& resistance to cold. Why? Because they're nords, and gameplay elements would dictate so, not lore that much.

Same, great game isn't it? I have all characters on level 5 currently aside for Jester <.< I think full version of the game should shorty follow.