Every Elder Scrolls game somehow improves on the previous iteration and with Skyrim subsiding into the yawning maw of time I'm curious what people want to see in the next game. These are my thoughts:

I think it's safe to say that Bethesda has the whole open world thing down, but I've isolated 5 main areas where they can make improvements is in the polish and quality of the content.

1: Environmental interaction

Smashing wooden braziers when you swing your battleaxe through them, freezing, electrifying, and making water steam with fire spells (instead of the fire just clipping paradoxically through lakes) would all make the world seem more present and less like a fantasy RPG simulator, with it's coding hanging out.

2: Imrpoved Combat

I know this is quite easy to say and undoubtably hard to do, but for the good of the series it should be done. If Bethesda can make equipping weapons, spells, and powers flow in real time in game without having to navigate a menu or favorites panel than the combat will dramatically improve. Juggling this with the wide array of spells, weapons, and items will be a tall task, but one all the more worth it if Bethesda can pull it off. I think the directional normal and power attack system worked for Skyrim, but I would still like to see new and different ideas that could improve Elder Scroll's gameplay.

3: Balance

This is also a difficult, complex task by its very nature, but, if Skyrim is any indication, Bethesda really needs to spend more time balancing their game. It shouldn't be a chore or difficult to have your character dual-spec between two handed and destruction or illusion and archery. Playing a spellsword in Skyrim I found it hard to stick to frost spells (which felt like I was only freezing bandit's toes off one by one) instead of just slicing my enemy's head off with chillrend. There are countless complaints of destruction's underpowered nature in Skyrim (especially frost magic, due to all the frost resistant enemies) and they really should be remedied in the next installment.

4: Intelligent Humanoid Combat AI

Since they are the most plentiful enemy type in Skyrim and likely future TES games humanoid enemies really need a better combat strategy than hang back and cast / arch or run up and swing / block. Other enemy types like wolves, saber cats, dragons, and steam automations I felt worked well and had engaging attack patterns. Humanoids, however, are simply too basic, they need more depth and variation.

5: Varied Music

There is no doubt that the gameplay content replay-ability of Skyrim is there, with thousands of weapons, armor, and spells to choose from, but around the time I made my 10th character build I noticed that I hadn't been listening to the sound at all. Yes, the one or two repetitive combat themes had gotten to me. It's not that the sound design is bad, or even lackluster, the music is great, but there's just not enough variety to accompany the many hours of gameplay one can get from an Elder Scrolls title. The main problem is the combat music, there is so much combat in Skyrim that it needs at least 5 different songs to reduce the samey sounds. I loved the nighttime peaceful theme and many other songs as I explored the vast wilderness, but the combat sounds definitely need more variation.

So that's my list I appreciate it if you read it.

Please tell me your thoughts and what features you want to see in TES 6.