we need a new skill system that improvises on learning and developing your prowess in a certain skill, rather than gaining experience as you fight or do some sort of action for a length of time...

to emphasize:

• why not make it so that sneaking is realistic enough that skulking in shadows isn't the only thing you do...think about deception and other elements of stealth and let's say your being chased in a cave or a ruin or some other site and you took a corner and went down a corridor and hid in some large niche on the wall...the ai would be more realistic by looking for you in certain spots...

• an example of a skill that is learned and developed: another idea about combat prowess is that as you progress in combat you would learn how to use the weapon that your wielding over time...how you can see that your character learns to master the weapon is by using it enough times (not like swinging it or attacking an enemy however many times)...the idea is that your experience with a blade in the beginning will consist of very weak and indirect swings or parries and will look like that also...as you progress over time you will LEARN not UNLOCK the various combat moves that can be used to accent a move and see that the blade will make swings that are controlled and balanced and even more direct

I think mounts, of any kind, should be treated like vehicles in sims. Make it difficult* to go fast around bends and it will be much more rewarding to ride from point A to point B. Payers tend to feel good about themselves when they've just proved how skillful they are. Also adding shortcuts made unsafe for normal travel by a variety of obstacles like gaps, fallen trees, etc. and you could make veritable obstacle courses. There could be a few quests that require you get to your destination before conventional methods of transportation arrive, essentially races against the clock.
This wouldn't work in Oblivion since all you'd have to do there is move like in any FPS, and therefore can turn on a dime even though you're on a horse.

Now I'm not too thrilled about flying mounts, but IF they are implemented, they'd be really fun if you could feel good about yourself for not crashing into the ground/cliff side. Like being able to hover only for a short amount of time before the mount becoming really tired, and maybe landing on it's own. Or using vertical air currents to gain altitude (just some places on the map where you rise gently while flying in them) and diving like falcons to gain speed and do visually impressive feats like flying through narrow valleys really fast.
It's why players enjoy flying around even without any real purpose in pretty much any game where this presents at least some degree of difficulty (Vice City, Battlefield 2, not to mention all the sims).

EDIT: In fact, I'll just drop this here to make myself clear http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-_RHRAzUHM


*Difficult but fun at the same time, think Colin McRae.

Here's my two cents:

I hope location damage is implemented, especially for ranged combat.

Don't over simplify the skill system or soon our only skills will be Fighting/Magic/Stealth

DT could be used in addition to fatigue to make a more interesting Armor system. I think that a portion of the damage blocked by DT is turned into fatigue damage. When you or the enemy runs out of fatigue they could collapse (like HtH in MW) allowing for a finishing move or simply a critical strike similar to a sneak attack. for blunt weapons more of the damage would be converted to fatigue. If blades are good against unarmored/low DT enemies and Blunt weapons are good against high DT enemies it would give benefits to using both classes of weapons, axes could be in the middle.

More unique/hand-placed loot (also loot that is not quest related. in OB I found Amellions Sword fairly early and used it for a while before selling it, not knowing it was part of a quest)

No level scaling please . I liked playing as an archer in OB but had to use horrendous amounts of arrows to kill enemies. My solution was to not level up past 5, which worked but was just plain silly.

More marksmen weapons like javelins, knives and axes( I mean come on, if we have Vikings we've got to have Throwing Axes). New vegas had these but they were kind of lack luster imo ( They had awkward throwing/flying animations and the disapeared on contact with anything ). They should have physics like arrows from OB, and should be seen stuck to the target as well.

Plants appearing picked and chests opened if you've searched them.

A different system of getting attributes, I didn't like that leveling major skills gave you less attrbiutes per level.

additions:

[*]AI intelligence definately needs to improve
[*]physical journal: something you can look through to chronical your events, like a phyisical book, not just something in the menu
[*]handcuffs for the guards/shackles like the beggining of Oblivion but actually binding
[*]more enticing secrets, such as hidden things and quests
[*]public execution, hangings basically, something you might have to escape from?
[*]recruiting: more people like the adoring fan in Oblivion, but they are actually USEFUL to you
[*]trophys for killing legendary/super people/animals (things to add to the trophy room)
[*]chance to come back to life (when you die, if you have a special circumstance, you are in a purgatory type world, you must escape, and when you do, you wake up in your own grave; or depending on your circumstance, somewhere else)

Here's what I want in Skyrim in no specific order

1. Better Daedric shrines (already listed how this could be done earlier)
2. More weapon/armor types then Oblivion
3. More unique items on NPC's like named blades and special misc item's for realism
4. Make giants rare semi-boss creatures (like super mutant behemoths, or whatever they were called in FO3)
5. Have Morrowind style armor sections (separate pauldrens, separate gauntlets/bracers)
6. Spears, crossbows, more sword types, separate blade skills, battle and war axes returned to ax skill, and all those other weapon returns people keep talking about.
7. More diverse sea life
8. Were creatures, sharks, bears, wolves, and maybe boars depending on how close it is to Hammerfell
9. More original creatures then Oblivion
10. More creatures altogether, feel free to include prefix ones like different skeletons or diseased creatures/humanoids
11. A more Morrowind style level scaling system
12. Better combat systems with more character involvement beyond "A button" = swing
13. More magic spell effects, like greater fireball sizes, maybe vines or something coming from the ground, and some of the stuff in Midas's Magic
14. Tailer parts of the Construction set for us modders with folders and good info pages explaining how to do certain things (You've done a nice job with it, I am just hoping you keep up the good work)
15. Bring back Morrowind type guilds, with each city having unique quest chains, although make some big guilds with major quest lines and other small with 5-12 minor quests
16. Bring back the guild rep and attribute based guild system.
17. Have another Arena, because it was one of my favorite parts of Oblivion, although have more enemies. Some can be nameless combatants if you are continuing to have some generic enemies. Just don't make the ones you need to advance in guild rank generics and have them at set levels were you can't beat them all at levels 1-15
18. Implement a more natural ecology. Have all creatures remain, but make lower level ones spawn less often and higher level ones spawn rarely (but still spawn in certain areas at all levels), also include passive wildlife like deer, rabbits, etc. . . On a side note, if you run into a level 3 wolf at level 20 then it should run away and not attack. Not all animals are mindless brutes and some know not to attack things that are stronger then them.
19. Bring back Ogrims and Winged Twilights, on that note, other Daedra that have been swept under the rug and some new ones as well
20. Include race variants even if they are not playable, maybe even half races :shrug:
21. More artifacts and have them in well guarded places and not just handed out by the gods. I don't care how they got there, that is what lampshading and imaginations are for
22. I want crafting in TESV, enchanting should be under the enchant skill (which should be returned), forging under armorer, transmutation and cooking under alchemy, and fletching, staff crafting, and bow crafting under a wood crafting skill
23. Make the streets of cities thrive, even if not to full scale, have an occasional nameless or randomly named npc wander through them like the MCA mod did
24. I want to see Volkihar, and some other vampire types as well
25. Return Chop X-Y, Slash X-Y, and Pierce X-Y based weapon damage
26. Give armors protection from Chop X-Y, Slash X-Y, and Pierce X-Y based armor protection (it adds complexity, but it makes things more fun and challenging)
27. Give alchemists the ability to make projectile potions that work like bombs. This will make a viable combat option for a mage without any magicka or restore magicka potions. Although one might say if they have those potions then why not restore magicka potions? Not all alchemy ingredients have restore magicka properties and shops shouldn't have infinite supplies either
28. RETURN M'Aiq The Liar (even if never actually implemented, just make an npc with his name, looks, and linguistically skills and put him in the npc folder for modders to find)
29. Include many small towns with 6-20 houses and npcs
30. Include many hidden easter eggs only a well ventured explorer would even take a second look at, let alone notice what it truly is
31. Like many people have been saying have opposing factions, they don't have to be at war with each other, just decrease dispositions because you're in faction A and not B
32. Add many books from outside of Skyrim as well so all of us TES fanatics can catch up on the events that have unfolded between the games IV and V
33. I want functional mines and maybe a mining skill, but that isn't totally necessary
34. Have it so modders can add skills and spell types the same way normal skills/spell types are implemented so we don't have to script them in and have them not show up on the character facts menu
35. Have open cities, I don't mind loading between interior and exterior, just make it go faster
36. Also have shacks and cottages outside cities walls (if they are walled) because some might be able to afford city property, but still might want their protection. Having slums and villas outside city walls adds to realism and it makes the city seem more alive and thriving (or poor and overcrowded)
37. Have certain areas cause frost damage if not properly protected. It gives people reason to wear cloths and not just armor
38. Following that comment, allow people to wear cloths under armor like from Morrowind
39. Add a climbing skill, equestrian skill, necromancy skill, dual wielding skill, and herbalism skill
40. Have more mounts (different species of horses and/or other types) as well as mounted combat. Your riding speed, handling skill, and weapon proficiency on a horse would be based on your equestrian skill
41. A climbing skill would be speed of accent and slope which you can climb, or something along that line. It would allow thieves and fighter to not have to use levitation, which seems to be in the jurisdiction of mages.
42. Add a necromancy skill can be both the summoning of undead and creating your own. This can be done through spells that turn the dead npc into either a zombie, skeleton, bonelord, etc and those follow you around permanently, until they themselves are killed. Have it so you can revive both your undead and the enemies (give enemy necromancers the same ability :chaos: as well)
43. Make the herbalism skill alter the percent chance of successful harvest, having some with naturally lower chances and others with naturally higher ones.
44. Allow dual wielding and make it a skill that modifies your weapon damage based on prime or off hand multiplied by weapon skill type proficiency. A formula for this could be | (Level of dual wielding skill \ 50) X [(Primary weapon X (Weapon type skill / 100)) + ((Secondary Weapon X (.5 + Level of dual wielding skill \ 50)) X Weapon type skill / 100)] |
45. Put Morrowind's barter system back in, I dislike Oblivions cut and dry sales system and much preferred Morrowind's barter and haggle system
46. Return the system were you have 5-10 minor skills, and 5-10 major skills to level you up and get bonuses on

Guess that's enough, although most has already been said (well probably all). I guess I am just saying I like these ideas and they should be in it although many might disagree on a few. Still it's not like you have to put them in or anything, although #14 and #34 should definitely be in the game (even though they would technically be in the construction set).

I really think they should use Steamworks for the PC version and include achievements.

Unique Landscapes...oh wait...I'll stick with modder-made ULs!

Levitation.

Random loot, not leveled with handplaced loot in the world.

Gimme clothing/armor layers back. If I want to wear clothes under/over my armor I should be able to.

Armor should be in separate pieces again.

Levitation.

Spell creation/Enchanting system from Morrowind.

More quests.

More factions.

More diversity in the world, not cookie cutter from Oblivion.

Leveled and handplaced enemies but I don't want to see ONLY high level enemies at later levels like Oblivion.

Enemies are armored to their type. Sure, some bandits might have a full daedric/glass suit but not all of them.

Daedric and glass should be rare again.

No Oblivion style fast travel.

No babysitting compass. Make NPC's give directions like in Morrowind with map markers.

No dice rolls/skill checks for combat but make it less hack n slash like Oblivion was ( if you would fail a dice roll, instead of completely missing the target that is in your face... like Morrowind... you would simply do no damage but the contact is still made/heard)

Traps on locked doors/containers.

Morrowind lock/trap system with skill checks.

If I think of more I'll post.

EDIT: LEVITATION

Minus sanity: LOVE THE DIVERSE SEA LIFE IDEA, that was just the first thing that jumped out at me, i think thats wonderful, also Foobie, what do you mean by pole-arms?

here are a few more things i was thinking of:

[*]mountanside villages, such as communities carved into mountain sides or in valleys surrounded by mountains
[*]self-hurting (like sacrifices that require blood)
[*]training weapons so you can actually train with people without hurting them or without getting hurt
[*]more rocks! i remember in Oblivion, some parts with falling boulders that crushed enemies, id like to see more of that
[*]animal skinning for trading/fur making, like customizing armor with fur to protect you from the cold? like the quest in Oblivion where you had to find those tears and the cold hurt you? id like to see more of that because its obviously cold in Skyrim, but the fur customization could protect you
[*]suicide hill, i loved it in Shivering Isles, id like to see it again
[*]i forget who suggested this but i like the idea of giants and other large things
[*]denser forests
[*]earthquakes
[*]underground dragon egg trading?
[*]Minus sanity also mentioned half-races, i love that idea
[*]large scale fights/wars
[*]ambushes, but this also circles back to intelligent AI
[*]insanity? this could play a big part of the game, your character could turn insane and see/hear things that arent there, or npc's could be insane

thats what i got for now, please tell me your opinions!

1. More character creation options such as strength and weaknesses, reputations among different groups from the get go to give a new character some background, a random background history based around ones skills so a battle mage would have a warrior mother and father mage as part of their history story, a dice roll for some random starting stats one can accept or ignore. All of these things were done in TES 2 DAGGERFALL.

2. A UI interface where the character doesnt have to scroll all over the place to find stuff in their inventory. Would be cool if they brought back the MORROWIND interface which insanely comfortable to use.

3. Voices for the starting character to choose like in DRAGON AGE ORIGINS and NEVERWINTER NIGHTS.

4. More sixier seductive armor and clothing especially in the light category like in TES 2 DAGGERFALL. After replaying DAGGERFALL this past summer i couldnt believe how revealing and sixy alot of the armors and clothing were.

5. A FALLOUT NEW VEGAS type of hardcoe MODE where one has to sleep,eat and drink with degrees currently needed but displayed onscreen instead of on a different screens similar to the health , fatigue and magic bars.

6. More choices in hair,eye color and beards.

7. Different body types represented visually with weaknesses and strengths. So a big muscular warrior would be strong but slow while a skinny scraggly body type would be faster and better suited for a rogue character.

Localized area specific animals (ex. minotaurs that are closer to the mountains having white fur, drop different type of horn and minotaurs that are closer to the city normal fur)

Localized custom armor and weapons (ex. a steel helmet would look different from one city to another, maybe have different engravings and stuff, but still the same stats i.e. defensive stats, weight, etc.)

there should be capes!!!! :drool:

What about these...
The higher your strength is the more muscle you have,and that when you eat much you will get fat. Dual Wielding,blood magic,be able to sleep wherever you want,spears,to be able to mine and smith your own armor and weapons,to be able to make clothes,to be able to own a store,more guilds like Blood guild or something,to be able to move furniture around your house,some sort of a zombie mod,and please don't place guns in these game!

A necromancer's guild would be nice, along with improved conjuration. Real companions, not just ones that follow you during quests, is also one of the things I hope to see.

The ability to choose body shape would probably be new to the genre, and it should also affect the character's stats, in a way. (Running speed, melee damage, etc.)

Definatley i think they should split conjuration and make the dead summoning into a necromancy category along with a lot of new "death" spells

Make it more violent? Not too much but it should be more dark and mature in some ways.

I keep on having more ideas lol

Definatley make the nights and caves somewhat more dark so torches have more of an effect

I would like not to be universally known to any and all infamous factions that I am free sport to be hunted, and fought with. Its nice to run into a dungeon and slaughter some necromancers, but I would like some more depth... like being able to interact with them or even join up with them.

P.s. if anyone has played Amnesia: the Dark Descent, you would be familiar with the amazing tunnel vision, shaking camera, corner peaking effects. I think it would be great to see something like this in Skyrim

In the end I'm sure I'll be happy with what they deliver, but here's what I'd like to personally see...
>More realistic character models - as in a better meshes and MUCH better skin textures. No reusing the same basic model for both male and female characters. It's not that hard to separate animation for 2 body types instead of just 1.
>FaceGen Bodies! - It's nearly impossible to convey masculinity or femininity if all that is different between the two is clothing and a face.
>Proper, complete, and believable 1st person visuals and more intuitive camera options - Remember this is supposed to be an immersive experience.
>Additional or expanded graphics options for PC versions - Many of us have PC hardware that can readily handle 3 times what an X-Box can.
>Consider implementing a mature option with disclaimer - Not all of us are enthusiastic about slogging through yet another "politically correct", "morally acceptable" example of compliance.
>Preserve the adventure and exploration feel of Morrowind - Oblivion had it too, but it got tempered by too much emphasis on combat.
>Bring back the overpowering, random weather - Near zero visibility, frostbite, hypothermia, go nuts with it.
>Much higher player leveling numbers! - Give us a break, Max level 20 in FO3, maybe 30 if you add a DLC.. not nearly high enough, and not enough difference between the first and last.
>No enemy leveling! - Most of us are NOT 12 and don't need a babysitter. Use difficult or "nearly impossible to beat" enemy placement to determine what areas characters should or shouldn't go at their current level. If we manage to get passed them, then we've earned it.

i think i may have said this before. and others probly have aswell....but....i would love to be able to summon multiple monsters at the same time. maybe even in combination's. example....at lvl 50 conj. i could cast 1-3 skellies of the more i cast the lower their level would be. or a skellie and a zombie. something along these lines. would be incredible. and uhm how bout a raise dead type spell that lets you control the dead person you cast it on. so we could truly play a necro.

Craftable items from the environment etc, I am a team member for craftybits and we've got a bunch of good ideas that were limited by the engine, but if crafting were worked into the game itself? That would be epic. It would be nice to make money without having to always be fighting. That said,

Crafting using items found in the environment
Blacksmithing
Craftable and movable tents/home
Crossbows
Throwing weapons
Assassination moves (why play an assassin elsewise?)
Necromancy
The ability to own real estate etc
A ravenrock/settlement (something like the fortress you made in TES III with the great houses)
Become a lord and command subjects
Much more involved vampirism
Werewolves
hardcoe mode (like New Vegas)
Beards! If we're in Skyrim, we're gonna need em!
Useful telekinesis
Apprentice System - work with a master to gain new skills and abilities as bonuses
A tool to make porting mods easy would be optimal, something to move scripts over I guess.

-Keep things generic enough so we can define our own characters purpose
-Better Magic Effects (I like the ones in Bioshock 2 as far as fire, ice, shock go. Spells are dull in Oblivion)
-I want to earn spells at new mastery levels instead of having to buy them
-Lots of enemies and variants of enemies to keep things interesting a while
-Throwing weapons (knives and axes at least)
-Variety of environments
-I want to buy robes and hoods in shops instead of having to find one set in the whole game.
-Better looking cloths
-More voice variety or less voice acting
-Even more face options than now (Want to make good looking people)
-Need to be able to change the characters appearance any time we want
-Anything that gives the game more variety and lasting appeal is welcome
More
-Allow porting of mods from pc to xbox (probably more microsofts decision)
-Improved stealth
-Rebalance the level scaling
-Removable Enchantments (enchanted stones that can be switched between items)
-Multiple enchantments for clothing
-Multiple ways of making money
-Change magic from being something bought or taught to something that grows from within
(Still could have mages as trainers though to help the player down their path)
-Enhanced combat (even if it means more buttons need to be pressed)

Wow, this game came as a total surprise to me and I have to say that I cannot wait. Oblivion was by far the best game I've played and I find it to be really hard to try and pick things from it that could have been improved. So instead of trying to give suggestions on what should be improved I'm going to just make a few suggestions about a possible community aspect of the upcoming Elder Scrolls.

Though The Elder Scrolls have never been suited to multiplayer gameplay, I believe we could incorporate a few elements of other games like Call of Duty and countless others.

1. Like in Call of Duty Black Ops, I feel it would add to the game if players could scroll down their friends list and check on their friends character, progress, items, quests, and maybe even send messages through Skyrim that players could recieve when they log onto their account. This could make for item trading between players which would add a whole new element to the game and create sort of a worldwide marketplace through oblivion. They did this with the Global Trading Station in the new pokemon games, so why not incorporate something like that into Skyrim.

2. Simulated Battles????? I know I'd be asking for a lot if I asked for 2 players to be able to either quest together or duel each other in the arena, but a simulated battle where the game takes a friends character,(stats, weapons, armor, spells), and pitted them against you would be pretty cool.

3. NPC's will speak of your friends characters in the game?? Ex. "I Heard Nightshadow destroyed the black prince over in that town" Idk what I'm talking about

4. Leaderboards!!!!!!

5 . No idea how this would work, but a theater mode??? With a freecam?? Just a thought

Overall I basically just wrote some ideas that came to mind, they really arent anything special, but they are a few things that I think would help to bring the whole world of Skyrim gamers together in a way.

I like this idea but it's going to be really hard to incorporate on PC due to console commands, mods, etc.