I am trying to think of ways Skyrim could expand on in-game professions. In Oblivion, that aspect of the game (IMO) was severely lacking. It could be much improved, and I have an idea.

For example, owning property. Instead of simply owning a shack in the middle of town, I would like to own a house with actual land. Like in Oblivion, some NPC's had a little vineyard or a small ranch – why not me, too? This could even be a method of income from producing crops, wine, cattle. The more you "farm", the better and more potent/higher yield your crop becomes. See where I'm going with this?

With the addition of a "Ranch House" capability comes a host of opportunities to receive/steal/buy items that can vastly improve on your land. Services, equipment, labor, land, capital, and well, you get the idea.

Or…

Invariably, your character becomes the guild master once you finish the quest line for that given guild, but why stop there? It seems the only thing you get is a sweet weapon/perk and a fancy title. Why not turn that into a profession and run a business somehow?

Any thoughts?

Don't the events of the games take place under a few months to a year tops lore-wise. A farm, orchard or ranch would need a lot longer than that to become profitable.

You assume you must follow the MQ. You can always totally ignore it and center on roleplaying.

And why not? The whole town economic system provides a nice ground for it. Or for mods to do it, in any case

Maybe since they're adding the whole smithing, woodcutting, etc. skills, you could turn that into a "job." Nothing along the lines of Fable jobs.

Don't crush his/her dream :sadvaultboy:
I agree with the OP,we should be able to do that.
Yes people love the lore and main story etc.But i bet just as many if not more love the freedom to roleplay,be it a farmer,hunter,whatever.
Those options ( if they can do them ) does not harm anybody in any way,or break their game.
It's just extra choices for people who like to roleplay,and play the game many times over

it takes time to implement extentions like that too I'd imagine....

cool and all, but maybe not worth the time allocated.

Elder Scrolls: Farmville

Magic could be used to make crops grow faster, that problem is easily solved in a world with magic.

I don't see any problem with this idea at all, it fits nicely with a quest idea someone came up with around rebuilding a town or repairing/fixing damaged properties in a town as a quest. Having a farm that produces crops every game-month that the player would have to transport to market (and get attacked along the way), sell them in the market to cut-throat merchants, hold back attacks on the farm/rescue it from bandits,etc. Lots of angles there.

In general I think professions would be Great, but they may be too much to implement for a single-player experience.

Multiplayer naow!

I would like to be able to rent places out that I own. Then the people decorate it with their own belongings... and I sneak in and rob them blind :hubbahubba:

Why is it not worth allocating?
Yeah there is alimit to a game ( in content ),but it is worth allocating.
1: it add's alot more to game length,or replayabilty.
2: Could also increase sales,because of it's openess,options etc.
3: Could add more to dlc etc.
I see where your coming from,as in time spent on other things,but something like this (if possible) is worth allocating time to.
Just my view

That would be very fun to grow a vineyard in your back yard, then take the crop to the market and sell it for a profit.

Let's not take the realism route when talking about a video game filled with magic, centaurs, gods, and where I can walk coast to coast in 30 minutes.

Also, it doesn't have to be a farm, per se, but some kind of hobby that is dedicated to making some cash.

Players so inclined could apply this idea to hunting, fishing, collecting furs, alchemy and to other items that involve crafting that we already know will be in the game.

Planned in game purchases too please

Seriously tho i think something like this could be awarded at the end of the MQ, so as not to break lore but also to allow the user to keep playing. A small keep or vineyard would be a cool reward for saving the world

Know what I would like to be, especially after I have saved the world? I would want to be a lord. Own my own castle, oversee my own village. Why not become king of Skyrim after saving the world?

I roleplay in Oblivion sometime. I have the Battlehorn Stronghold dlc. So one of my favorite roleplays is to play a lord, with my own soldiers and my own castle. I use the woman servant in Battlehorn Castle as the wife of the lord, and I use the adoring fan as the lord's son. I would make a few settlements mine, collecting taxes through item duplication.

I spend my days betting in the Arena, visiting Counts, Countesses, and other aristocrats. I spar with my combat trainer. I take my soldiers and hunt down the bandits and creatures that threaten my settlements.


EDIT: Ha, ha! Just read your post Average Lord after posting mine. You speak my mind, lol!

I work 60hrs per week. I don't want to work in game as well. I wan to kill stuff, I want to cast magic, I want to rule the world and bring it to its knees.

Well then go do it...a majority of us do want to be able to work in the game.

It takes as long as you want, you have a calendar. You can play for 100 years, although that would mess with the canon if you did it in Morrowind....

I don't like the idea of having a business in ES games. The idea is that you earn your income through adventuring, which is the main focus on the game. I have no trouble with a little on the side, but I don't think you should be able to live off a farm crop or anything.

There is no way to prove or disprove what the "majority" wants. The fact that you or your friends want it, or that some people on this forum might want it means little as it is hardly a statistically representative sample.

Professions and the like in RPGs tend to degenerate into tedious, repetitive and ultimately pointless mini games. Of course, that does not mean it is impossible to make them interesting, but that would require for professions to play a bigger part in the game and take up a lot of your (and the developers') time. Personaly, I'm not really into professions and I am skeptical about how Beth would implement them.

Just imagine, you start up your own farm. You wake up every morning, go out into the fields and water the crops, hoe the soil, whatever else. Then one day you realise that this is all boring as hell so you decide to go off and do some adventuring. But then you realise that you will need someone to watch the farm and tend to the crops, so you must stay there and keep working for your money. OR you get someone else to do it and pay them less. Now, you don't have to deal with this boring element of gameplay you wanted for some reason, but now, you are getting money for free at a consistent rate. What is your drive to plunder anymore? You're just getting it automatically from your profitable business. Just make some more farms and hire some more workers to increase the flow of income. Are we really playing a 1st person adventure RPG anymore?

It doesn't have to be at a constant rate, maybe bi-monthly?

frankly this just goes to far into business sim for my liking, it′s another that your character does some work in say a blacksmith to earn a few coins, that works in the context of a wandering adventurer.

Plus I still have a foul after taste after how utterly broken Assassins Creed 2 became once you got the town business thing going.

Ehm, no. I delivered the amulet at level 44, and had only about 100 days played on my latest build (only cosmetics and gui mods). I'm sure there are quests I haven't done (I deliberately skipped the factions, as noone really suited), but I had done a lot of side quests to the point I had a hard time finding anything else to do. So I think there should be mechanics in the game to slow it all down a little. Forced to sleep longer (only in game time, not in real time), etc etc.

I'm not against professions, but they would have to make sense and serve a game purpose. Things to do and interact with, yes, sure. Becoming a full time farmer? What for? If for reason to help out economy, then I think other solutions to "fix the situation" should also be there, like going somewhere and get a professional farmer to do it instead. Like in FONV, there is always a sense of sacrifice/cost to anything you choose to do, but rarely (if ever) is there only a single solution to a particular problem.