I'm new to the forum and just feel like getting right into the posting here.

So, what aspects of Oblivion, story wise or game mechanic wise, do you hope that they retain?
If they leave anything out could you envisage the possibility of it being a gamebreaker?
(And before anyone is naive enough to say it's highly unlikely, look at the massively pared down DA2)

Is there anything you'd really like to see within the game that's fresh? Would you like to see any improvement in the story?


Personally, I'd love to see greater interaction between the numerous guilds and secret societies in this game (if they exist in this game, that is.) In Oblivion they all seemed a bit exclusive of each other and unrelated. More could have been done relate their stories through how you interact with the various groups. Maybe it would come at the expense of being able to reach the heights of each guild in the game in one play through, but it would enrich the story.

I really hope they retain some influence in the game for the Daedric princes. Being the minion of the Malevolent, and often times ridiculous, Daedric lords who could bend reality in such bizarre and fantastic ways really was enjoyable. Maybe it's unique to Oblivion and I'd understand if they had little sway in this game in order to give Skyrim it's own unique personality, but I'd love to see them again. Seeing the night sky and creatures all warped in the Daedric realms was trippy.

They also talked about the Dragons being able to speak in Skyrim. I'd love if they had sequences where you could engage them in conversations, maybe even give some Dragons some unique personalities and interactions with the Player. It'd be a waste to reduce them to mere boss creatures that you kill and kill alone.

On a final, and less important note, there is also a small (very small) worry in my mind about the fact that set classes (rogue, Mage, Warrior, Warrior Mage, Bard etc. etc.) are being done away with at the start of the game. While I trust Bethesda to produce the goods pretty much all of the time, it's a big risk to deviate from the standard RPG stalwarts like that. It doesn't ALWAYS work.

If you managed to read all of what I wrote, thanks and post your opinions on what I've said or your own.
Or don't.

Losing acrobatics would be game break-- just kidding. I don't care about that.

I'm playing Oblivion again right now and the only thing I can think of that I do not want them to lose is the exploration. I loved Oblivion for it's open world. I love FO3 for it's open world. I loved FO:NV, but was sorely disappointed in the world. There were buildings all over the place, that served no purpose. They were backdrops, props, they added nothing "materially in my opinion. Though I had already understood that while playing FO:NV, I had not truly appreciated how much I missed it until I picked Oblivion back up. Just walking around and playing it, it's incredible. I've been wandering towards various markers to add to my map, walking to each city before ever using fast travel to get there and exploring it more than I had in the past. It's, liberating? A time-sink, no question.

Any rate, I'm kind of afraid that dragons may screw with this. The Oblivion gates did too to a certain extent, but at least you get some warning by the sky going red and they don't typically pop up out of no where while you wander by. But in Skyrim, you may not notice them, and suddenly you're in a fight with a Boss? I'm hoping that this mechanic simply hasn't been thoroughly described, because I personally dislike the idea of being attacked "suddenly" by such a deadly enemy, at virtually anytime. I've read tons of previews, but I haven't seen anything that alleviated that fear.

Welcome!

I agree with most of your post. The only point I disagree with is about character classes - I tried one once, realised that the major and minor skills of that class were not going to work for me, and have only ever used custom classes since, picking the major and minor skills to suit my preferred play style. Not having to set that at the beginning of the game at all will give me a lot more freedom to develop my class as I play, rather than making a decision early on and realising at level 20 that actually I wish I'd not picked that skill right at the start. For that reason I started to use character development mods for a more fluid experience, so I'm glad that classes are being done away with, hopefully it will allow my character to develop naturally. I hope that eases your small worry a bit

About your concerns over the Dragons, I kind of like the idea of always being on edge while playing the game, it helps to immerse you.
Maybe they can make a setting for how often you want Dragons to pop up in the game. I think that would actually help you customize your playing experience.

I also loved having things all over the place in Fall out New Vegas, I never fast traveled in that game.

Does anyone know if they've retained the same composer? I hope to god they have, his music really added to the atmosphere.

I'd also like to think that they've improved the herbalism aspect to the game, nobody ever bothers with it and it's a shame because it's an area that has so much potential in RPG games.

Less "epic" guild questlines. Of course, it was fun, and those quests really started when you were at a higher rank, but still. Morrowind, on the other hand, was a bit too "generic". Fetch this, fetch that, ain't that boring, but most of them were fetch quests, sometimes with a little twist. The feeling was that there were four fighters guilds, instead of one. The player should get the feeling that somehow all the guilds are tied together, but with their own problems and the one big problem the whole guild is struggling with. Also, the fighters guild was a bit odd in Oblivion. You could get assignments from three guild halls, and that was it. Of course, in Morrowind you had four guilds and four places where the player could get quests. In Oblivion, nine guilds with three places were one could get quests. Yes, the quests in Oblivion were most of the time located in another guild hall district (for example, the quest when guild members don't have work in Leyawinn because of a competitor) but couldn't you just walk into that inn by accident and start talking to them about work?

I'm hoping they return to Morrowind's style of armor, where you can equip separate bracers, pauldrons, and chest pieces, instead of just having a cuirass cover all of that, like in Oblivion.

Well I was hoping for new things to do with spells like traps and cone effects so I can check that on the list.

besides a larger inventory of weapons and armor types, I would like to see potions have more use in combat. sort of like a thrown poisen or healing potion. so I can poisen bandits without a weapon and have a non magic character who can toss healing potions at my allies to heal them.

Actually, I was saying that New Vegas lost some of the wanderer feeling because so many 'locations' felt like place holders. Buildings, but no way in, if you follow me.

As for the dragons, I just read that at least they'll be appropriately leveled to you. It was on one of the pages of this preview: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/previews/8797-Skyrim-Preview.3

Same composer as the Oblivion. The Music section of the GI reveal said so.

I get what you mean about New Vegas.
Horses are something that desperately need to be modified as well, obviously.


One thing I forgot, I'd like Bandits etc. to be a little bit more than just Bandits, if you follow.
Interacting with them is worth thinking about on Bethesda's part.

It'd be cool if you could join the bandits, or some group of bandits!

Maybe, or maybe just give them some AI rather than the brainless shells that inhabited Oblivion.