I've been thinking that Elder Scrolls is a good series for this kind of skill, what with all the time you spend in the wilderness and all.
So far, of course, we haven't seen it. It might be in Skyrim, but I doubt it.

Now, I wonder.... would people want this skill in, and how would they want it to work?


Personally, since I generally like to play characters who belong in the wilderness, such as barbarians, I think it logical that such a skill
should include activities such as swimming and climbing.
But also general wilderness knowledge, such as knowledge of animals and plants, how to find food, how to track animals and so on.

At the very least, I hope some of this might be covered by perks. But again, I doubt it.

I just think it would be pretty neat.

Imagine if you play someone "civilized", who spent most of their time in the towns/cities. (Low or no Wilderness skill)
He goes out in the wilds, and eventually, he is suddenly charged by a bear.
No warning whatsoever.

Now, imagine if it was a character with high Survival/Wilderness Lore.
He goes out in the wilds, to the exact same place.
But instead, somehow the player is notified that there is fresh evidence that some animal passed through.
Higher skill might make this more specific, instead telling you it might be a bear. (Or troll or whatever)
This way, the character might decide to be cautious, drop to a crouch and proceed silently.
Then he spots a bear through the undergrowth, which has not yet noticed his presence.
Now he has the advantage, and can choose what to do. Take it on or avoid it.

Also, if drawing closer to a creature, without having spotted any tracks to give it away, the character's
Survival skill might manifest in more acute senses, maybe even a form of "sixth sense".
Nothing too specific, but merely giving you some indication that your character is feeling some kind of
lurking peril, and should be cautious.
(Anyone who's read R.E Howard's Conan know what I'm talking about)


These are merely things I wish to see, and again, I highly doubt we'll see it. But am I alone is wanting something
along these lines?
Really needs to be a useful skill which gives Wilderness-oriented characters a proper advantage over
city-bred dogs while hiking in the wilds. :tongue:

And which of the few remaining skills (since they've already removed some for Skyrim) should we remove to make room for it?

Put that way- Do Not Want?.

Out of potions.... Better drink my own piss.

I love you.

I would like to see it.

we still have a few missing slots in the Warrior and Rogue archetypes....

More than likely, this is what they are:

Warriror:

One Handed
Two Handed
Heavy Armor
Smithing
Hand to Hand
Block

Stealth:

Light Armor
Marksman
Speechcraft
Alchemy
Sneak
Security

we are already missing 3 skills, if they add that we will just be missing another one, also the game doesnt have to match up with the lore, if it did children wouldn't existed for 2000 years

My city bred mage just uses a detect animal spell - doesn't need to have fire making skills due to a fire spell (kills and cooks at the same time) and can slip silently through the woods due to invisibility or chameleon

The trouble with barbarians is they have more ego than intelligence and have to everything the hard way

Back in the days when the only discussion of "Skyrim" (since it wasn't known then what the game would be called) took place on the speculation board, a sort of "survival/wilderness lore" skill - essentially a skill for ranger builds - was one of the more popular ideas that would pop up from time to time.

For whatever reason, it seems certain that such a thing will not exist in Skyrim.

So, I guess we'll go back to discussing how nice it would be on the next speculation board for the next game, and see.....


*edit* coming out of this thread, I saw OP's registration date, so I assume you already knew all of that. So.... yeah.... still, I think about all we can do is hope that something like that gets into the next game.