One thing that has gradually gotten to me in the Elder Scrolls games is how you can't rest if enemies are nearby. In Arena and Daggerfall it only seems to forbid you from resting if they're aware of your presence, but sometimes in Morrowind and Oblivion you'll run into difficulties finding a place to rest in the dungeon because some monster in another room is running into the wall trying to get to you.

Personally, I think you should be given the chance to rest whenever you want, but the player should be notified that they may be disturbed at any time a manly man like all us hardcoe oldsk00l RPG gamers and have the responsibility of deciding for themselves whether it's a wise move or not (hlvr).

If your rest is disturbed by an enemy engaging you, your character should wake up in shock: with low stamina, for example. Perhaps your character holsters their weapon when sleeping, and then you need to draw it again before you can retaliate. Not only would it make for some potentially interesting ambushes in the wilderness and other dangerous areas, but it would mean you wouldn't have to run to the other side of a dungeon to get some sleep when it's clear that there's no imminent threat.

I mean, if I encounter some rat in a room of a dungeon but cast a lock spell on the door, I highly doubt they're going to manage to gnaw the door open and run me through: so I should have the chance to rest at my own discretion.

Thoughts?

You: Ahh time for a nappy...

Crab: Tee - Hee

(Epic music)

You: Son of a b*tch.

I also think that the player should have the possibility to rest at any time and any where he/she wants to, but I don't think he/she should be notified. The player should be able to figure out for him/herself when it's unsafe to rest. Like... in the middle of the forest at night, in a cave or forgotten tomb. We don't need to be hand-held here I think.

And when we do get "disturbed" while we rest, I think like you... that we should wake up in shock, with low stamina and while lying on the ground. These (or other things) should be the disadvantages we have to suffer for risking sleeping in such an unsafe place.

Good idea. I'm so used to the mindset of Bethesda throwing status messages everywhere in their games that I didn't consider simply having to rely on your own intuition. :read:

Love the idea of low stamina, In the wilderness however maybe you could be caught or enslaved and taken to slave camps or just simply wake up with some things missing from your inventory.

(I am not 100% with my Lore but slaves i have not seen so maybe are not around by Imperial Law??)

But i like the idea i think its great.

Do you just wake and fight with a stamina de-buff, or do you wake up after the enemy has the first hit? I also think there should be some kind of passive skill check, maybe sneak, that would lessen the negative effects of being startled.

That's a good question. It would kind of svck to be immolated, paralyzed or launched off a cliff as soon as you awaken. Perhaps there could be some skill check here too, comparing your character's sneak ability with that of the attacking combatant's. If they have the higher value, they attack first. Something like this would be a great incentive for non-stealth characters to consider investing some training into the sneak skill.

Good points, it would certainly make for some interesting ambush scenarios.

There is a difference between resting and sleeping. I can't recall if you 'rest' in Oblivion or sleep but if it is the former, you can't really be surprised any more than when you're just running around.

In Oblivion, you could only "sleep" when using a bed. Everywhere else, I think you just "waited". It was idiotic.

I miss the immersion of being attacked in my sleep when playing NV/Fallout 3, and I approve of this idea of scarier sleep ambushes.

Not being able to rest when enemies are nearby never really bothered me. Seemed like a common-sense feature. What did bother me a little bit was how often things in the wild attacked you unprovoked, triggering the standard battle music. I found myself using 100% chameleon a lot just so I could stroll around in peace.

By the sound of it though, they've solved this problem in Skyrim by making some enemies neutral and unlikely to attack unless threatened.

Another question could be... exactly what effect should sleeping/resting have?

I find it dumb that you can just "rest" up your health. If you come out of a really hard battle with low hp, I'm assuming you would have deep cuts and such. A simple "rest" wouldn't magically fix this.

The whole sleeping/resting thing is another thing that definitely should be rethought.
I hope it has. Imo, there should...
1) be no seperation of sleeping/resting. It should be the same thing, lol. I'd call it sleeping.
2) be no notification of when you can't sleep whenever you want. If you are willing to take the risk to sleep in a dungeon, then you better be prepared for an ambush, with you having a disadvantage from the start (low stamina, lying on the ground from the start)
3) be no full magical hp recovery from sleeping. If cuts are deep, sleeping isn't going to help, only make things worse, as you'll bleed to death. Sleeping should restore stamina, not health. Health should be gained from herbs, food, potions, spells, etc etc.
4) be no restrictions from sleeping in other peoples' houses or beds or w/e. You should be fully free to try and do so, but be prepared to be woken up, and be prepared to be faced with angry people once woken up.

If I don't know there are any enemies nearby and I want to take a nap, I should be able to. You could also exploit it by trying to nap just to find out if there are any enemies left nearby. If you're not in a battle and don't know of anything nearby you should be able to rest.

Unless the enemy punches me in the face I don't want to wake up. I don't care if he's two feet away and is trying to kill me. If I make a bad decision I should be penalized, but I shouldn't be restricted.

IIRC: Under Imperial control slavery was abolished between MW and OB, and even then Morrowind was the only slave-owning province. But now since the provinces are seceding, slavery is probably on a province-by-province basis, because we already know that the Argonians invaded MW and are taking slaves.

I do think that if you're going to rest in an unsecure location, then there should be a chance of some sort of hostile stumbling across you. Especially in a dungeon. I don't think their presence should stop you from resting, though. You know, sleep at your own risk and all.

I just wish it would stop warning me. In the past games, I often found myself spamming the rest/wait button every few seconds to check if I should get ready for combat.

That's a very reasonable way to see things, though, if it is possible to sleep when enemies are nearby, though, it would hardly surprise me if Bethesda puts in a warning of that fact anyway.

But I'd agree that it should be possible to sleep when enemies nearby, at the risk of being interrupted, because it was kind of annoying that I'd find myself being unable to sleep because there's a rat in another room that is trapped in there by the door and cannot threaten me (Not to mention I have no way to know it's there.) Obviously, if you're in combat, you shouldn't be able to rest, but if there are enemies who don't even know of your presence nearby, there's no reason that should stop you from sleeping.

I think that rest should not automagically cure your wounds unless you have a healing spell. Sleeping for 8 hours is not going to lessen any sizable cut or injury. There could be a potion you used that gave you a full recovery before rest (but it wouldn't give you any benefit unless you rested). This would have to function differently from healing.

I think being able to rest pretty much any time and any where, but with the very real possibility that if you're doing it somewhere dangerous you're going to wake up to a nasty surprise is a great idea.

I would also guarantee that there's no way it will be implemented in the game. Absolutely no way at all.

I used that feature as a radar for enemies I couldn't see