How should guards be implemented in Skyrim?

Post below with thoughts and ideas not covered by the poll.

10-20 lol, more guards than citizens!

That always gave me a chuckle in the imperial city, there seems to be two gaurds to every civilian on the street.


For petty town gaurds, it might be nice if they were fairly average dudes. For royal gaurds, or gaurds in a large city, they should probably be elite soldiers with quite a high level (and the skills to go with it)

3, 5, 2

Which is a more likely explanation for the Empire's collapse than anything else haha...the poor citizens just couldn't support that much infrastructure

But hopefully in Skyrim, there'll be a large population of npc's in the city.

I want strong guards, 20+ guards with a slow respawn to reflect new guards having to be hired and maybe if a towns guards keep getting massacred no one wants to sign up anymore because it's too dangerous and the town turns into a lawless slum! Also I'd like them to be suspicious and very observant but not catch me if I kill someone in their own house or out in the middle of nowhere. Someone actually has to see me kill someone or hear me kill someone please.

Agreed.

50 spawn in a circle around you yelling http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18CGW9P5Y9M until you break down sobbing.

As long as we don't get http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://images1.memegenerator.net/oblivion/ImageMacro/1043373/PICK-UP-A-ZERO-VALUE-SPOON-NOT-ON-MY-WATCH-CRIMINAL-SCUM.jpg&imgrefurl=http://memegenerator.net/oblivion/ImageMacro/1043373/oblivion-PICK-UP-A-ZERO-VALUE-SPOON-NOT-ON-MY-WATCH-CRIMINAL-SCUM&usg=__4lVuKOIUHFBSO-5naHPhA6LClGU=&h=405&w=407&sz=97&hl=en&start=1&zoom=1&tbnid=AUOX1kDMWsaNnM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=125&ei=ba1ZTa7uF86HhQfsh73GDA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpick%2Bup%2Ba%2Bzero%2Bvalue%2Bspoon%253F%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GB:official%26channel%3Ds%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D810%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1, I don't mind.

Agreed! Nothing like being afraid to steal something worthless.

Technically worthless or not, it's still stealing.

I don't like the chooses. I want a mix, I want some extremely strong veteran gaurds and some weak new recruits. Slow respawns.

This. But I don't think the guard should be extremely observant, only fairly since IMO guards are cops and as such don't need to be specifically trained for that, only elite troops should be extremely observant (the Palace Guards in OB).

you forgot can I bribe them or not option.

i really like that atmosphere in the cities where you can't do anything because your being watched, it just make the "breaking the law without being caught" thing very enjoyable! :teehee:

As long as they are not psychic and every guard won't know of your crimes instantly across the entire continent; it's fine with me

I think that an NPC should have to physically run to a guard to report wrongdoing. If you're in their house, and they don't make it outside, then I don't think a guard should take notice, at least not until later on when someone stumbles on the body.

In addition, it'd be pretty cheap if an NPC can just book it past you out the door. If you're standing in the way of the door, I think an NPC should logically have to go through you first, or at least sustaining periodic damage prevents them from making it outside.

i want them to be lvl 25-30

i want there to be 10-20 (depending on the size of the town) and a decent respawn rate... not fast or slow but somewhere in the middle

and i want them to be observant but not like paranoid to where if you draw your sword or pick up a apple they freak out and all of them come after you.

if seen by the same guard on the same day drawing a sword in town when not defending yourself or another should be a light warning "hay there's no need for that put it away" second time a little more stern "look buddy you keep doing that and your going to have some trouble" third time they do something about it "thats it ive done told you 1 to many times to stop that now im going to take you in".

if seen by a different guard they have they're on seperate count. if seen by a different guard and another guard that has previously warned you the new guard will pick up the preciouses count so that he wont be at 1 while the other is at 2, they'd both jump to 2.

Yeah but, even if your just touching it...
"Stop right there criminal scum!"

i hope guards are actually how they would be in medieval society. corrupt, drunk, and slackers.

Yeah, feeling up someone elses spoon in public is against the law criminal scum!

When you do a crime the guards should have investigations or sub missions to find you have people asking questions, looking for clues offering rewards for information etc, but you can also take part in these missions by making sure the guards don't find clues or framing a npc for the crime and they go to jail. Which can link up to a random npc trying to kill you for that by radiant story.

Apart from a few exceptions I would prefer if TES guards stay noble and just...not knights in shiny armors but mostly people who are there because they want to defend the land and it's people.

I think there should be a good number of strong guards however they should only be fairly observant, but not dim witted. I mean what guard will be extremely vigilant and stop every suspicious looking person when he's walking through a cold town all day or night earning small wages? Even our cops today are somewhat lazy, almost every week I see people speed right past cops , or forget to use turn signals or run stop signs and they never stop them.

i think thats good for imperial towns in oblivion, but since these are nord towns without a lot of imperial influence and nords are drunks by nature it works a bit better to have guards that don't care about anything.

on that note, i think it would be cool to have certain towns have stronger influences from the law than others. like one town will have the witcher style guards who will arrest you and take your money because they can, one will have imperial city "stop right there criminal scum" guards, and another might have the "wild west" mentality with almost no guards to enforce laws (this is the town with drunks scattering the street and brawls every day).

edit: or even better! how about since you can effect the economy with your actions, the law style reflects the towns economy.

Well just because they are nords doesn't mean the guards can't be honest. There will always be corrupt guards here and there, Oblivion had some too but just because they are nords doesn't mean they can't have real guards that are actually good people. Some of you guys are starting to sound like racist redguards hmy: