Ehhhhh. One of the many problems I have with Oblivion's (Not how dialogue was handled per se, but how the NPC's interacted) was that it often times felt stilted and unnatural. Its one of the biggest things that bugged me about the game and one of the reasons I never went back to it, unlike Skyrim or Morrowind. Everything about it was just so...ew. I honestly think Fallout 3 handled it better then that, and it was sorta kinda bare-bones as well. Even if Skyrim its the same lines of dialogue (Honestly, I honestly don't think Oblivion was much better at this anyway), at least it doesn't render every NPC as a laughing stock.

Yup. Kills the sense of exploration when you can dart towards every unmarked location you find on you're compass, which inevitably leads you to more unmarked locations nine times out of ten. As for the rest of your points, I'm in total agreement there.

I've been thinking of something akin to a perception skill that would let you "know" and hear where an enemy might be lurking...but ehhhhhhhhh. Detect Life spells and the like sorta make that obsolete, and I don't know if it'd really work well to be honest. Closest non-magical equivalent I can think of is something like marking a enemy in Payday 2 which let's you keep tabs on his position for a certain time, but that's kinda wonky for this series. I would like to see some form of perception, but that screams a bit too much of Fallout, even if it could have a fairly wide range of utility.

Probably not the right place.

Either way, check BethBlog for the most recent updates. If there isn't something posted there or stickied here, it isn't official and it's just a rumor.

When we do get something official, the boards here will explode about it; you won't need to ask.

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111117205945/fallout/images/f/fe/Megaton_destroyed.jpg

I imagine when the first official announcement is made the forums will almost immediately go down and this will be the maintenance image they use to let us know we broke their thing.

CES is a Consumer Electronics Show, game developers don't have a presence there.

Could the power of a spell be directly tied BY THE PLAYER to the amount of mana they have?

For people who feel a particular spell is underpowered, it could help ameliorate that feeling while still imposing a 'penalty' on that player, since their mana would need to recharge sufficiently before they could cast a similar supercharged spell.

The idea of an enemy 'radar' is neat - but not for this style of game. My preference is to not have it. I'd rather rely on visual identification. Feels more natural and less 'techy.'

LOLOL!

Well done.

Agreed!

Personally I think the radar makes up for the fact that I'm not really there to use my RL senses. The trick is making the radar where it doesn't give too much away, but makes up for playing a 3D game inside a PC.

Having booted Oblivion back up once again, something I'd forgotten about...

The Oblivion Style Magic system - aka "C to Cast" even with a sword and shield in hand. Oh my goodness, I forgot how *good* this system feels.

As for the Compass, I think enemies should be shown on it, but as others suggested tie it to a perception skill - which means bringing back a stat based gameplay engine, but heck...it's worked well enough for the Fallout games. I'm a fan of Skyrim, but even I have to admit I feel almost too strong out of the gate, with the lax take on stats.

An optional feature for the Compass could be the ability to manually disable the map markers as one so desires. Personally, I'm a fan of the markers. People tend to forget that Morrowind had its fair share of quests with terrible directions. Heck, one of the most immersion breaking quests in the game is an early Fighter's Guild quest where you have to kill an Orc in Balmora. No hint as to where she lives, and asking people will merely narrow down the quadrant of the city to look. You still have to manually go door-to-door, and look at the little psychic pop up that tells you what this building is named.

Quest markers? Location markers? Undiscovered location markers? If the first two, yeah, I'm mostly fine with them. The latter, not so much

Quest Markers. My apologies. As I said earlier, I'd rather *not* have undiscovered location markers (in little icons as to what they were) on my compass. A little Fallout style "blip", I'm all for.

I don't care if map markers and quest markers and floating object markers are in the next game or not. I just want all of them all to be optional.

I agree with this, but if they make it optional they need to give better descriptions for quests if you have the option turned off. You can't have no markers with Skyrim's quest journal because it doesn't give any info on where to go.

This is true. This was a problem in Oblivion too. (Where the heck is Weynon Priory? The game tells us to follow the red arrow on our compass). And, as everyone knows, Morrowind had its own problems with directions.

I guess, in the end, I would rather put up with Morrowind's sometimes-bad directions than put up with unimmersive, meta-game markers telling me, the player, where to go. A genuine roleplaying system would use dialogue, notes, scrolls, books or other in-game methods to tell my character where to go next.

The problem with a system that lets you turn markers on or off is that you need a mechanism to give directions without the Markers. As such, you are essentially looking at two seperate systems that do the exact same thing. That's not exactly great resource or time management when designing a game. The more reasonable option is something that falls between both, offering guidance without honey my right in. Again, most games with RPG and map elements already have this, marking areas for search instead of right to the ring under the pot on the bookshelf in the back.

Maybe tack on an ability to turn off the compass from the HUD, and you've got a comfortable middle ground.

I really hope that the next Elder Scrolls is LANable! 2-4 people would be outstanding! I don't think I would ever go into a MMO again if I could find a game with the depth that TES typically has and that would allow a friend or 2 to come a join in the fun from time to time. This could be by a true LAN or by way of STEAM.

In regards to vendors levelling with us; I'd like it better if "richer" cities had blacksmiths that levelled a bit higher than "poorer" ones. And they should start just a little higher with their stuff. A town like Riverwood shouldn't sell stuff much higher than maybe Elven weapons/armor and the equivalent with spells/enchantments, but they could have the VERY occasional rare item. A town like Solitude should reach Ebony status, maybe selling the occasional dragon stuff and its equivilant.

And if you complete a quest like Balimund's, he should be able to create/improve weapons/armor at a higher level level than before.

Stuff like that would be cool.

There are some serious issues with multiplayer in a game like TES than would need to he addressed. Decision making, tracking bounties and actions, zoning, quests, loot, General interaction... So far none of the solutions I have seen really work for TES. in Far cry they simply prohibit you from doing story missions, and in Dying Light it treats every thing like there's only ever one person around. Both games also use a radically different loot system which simply would not work in TES.

These problems aren't insurmountable,one you, but dealing with them would require time and resources, and lead to sacrifices elsewhere. What are we willing to give up to play with friends? Decision making? The TES loot system? The ability to form relationships with NPC's? There are ugh better places to invest the resources than in solving the Multiplayer equation right now.

You are right to a point but Skyrim did so well with companion npc that if your "friends" joined your game then they could be treated as NPCs in the simplest of modes. Loot could be given to all ... easy. Now yes there are more complex issues if everyone wants to be equals in "your" story. I would be willing to pay for a "LAN" add on.

I think you may be the first person I've encountered who thought Skyrim did NPC companions well... But a problem still exists there. NPC Companions don't level. How would you handle customization and leveling? Would the NPC have access to the same skills and perks? Using Skyrim as an example, what about Shouts?

And for Loot... Do you mean a system like Far cry and Dying Light where loot is individual? Because that model doesn't work in the full-loot dynamic of TES. Would both players be able to strip a vanquished enemy, effectively doubling the loot? Would it be First-Come-First-Served, and whoever loots the body second gets the scraps? Or would you adopt the Far cry and Dying Light model and just loot gold and some simple items, without actually accessing a bodies 'inventory'?

And this still isn't deals my with the very real technical issues of building multiplayer capabilities. They don't run on the same code as single player, and it's the type of thing that really needs to be integrated from day one.

Many things considered, I'm with Lach on the issue of keeping multiplayer/online functions out of TES' main line of games. I really think they should stick with the strengths they've already built in at least the last three main line games and continue to build on it, without making any unnecessary sacrifices.

If I had to choose between something like superior dialogue options/NPC interaction depth or being able to have a function like this, I would choose the former in the blink of an eye.

Apologies if I've misrepresented anything.

I'm not against Multiplayer. In fact, I would rather like to be able to play with my brother, or other friends. But I don't consider TES elements based on my perfect game, I consider them based on appealing to as many people as possible, and prioritising features based on 'deal killers'. Generally speaking, I think more people are likely to not buy the game over poor RPG options, limited equipment and hack gameplay than would pass it over because there's no multiplayer. So, multiplayer gets put lower on the priority list.

And since the former considerations are getting a little close to the wire... It may he low on the list for awhile

Bye-bye moddability. R.I.P TES.