Opinions on the following being hugely improved:

Swimming underwater - didn't really have a point in oblivion, any got any cool ideas for it? Anyone agree it should be put to better use?

Guards AI - "Steals Item" every guard in the world knows. I bet you've all stressed this a million times! but how annoying was it !

1. sort of mentioned but the way i see it, underwater goodies that have been dropped there by a sunk ship or caves that are used for smugglers but have flooded would make underwater better.
2.been mentioned in various threads( We all agree it is dumb)

In morrowind outside seyda neen I was attacked by slaughterfish. A guard came running, went underwater to get the fish, and he was stuck somehow and drown himself. I got a neat imperial armor and a silver spear at lvl 1

But over to topic : Add more fish types underwater, make the water more clear. More shipwrecks with valuable loot. But also make the seas around Skyrim much more dangerous and scary. If the player want good loot he must face ancient creatures deep beneath the waves. In lakes and so on, make more caves. And in some of them the native vampires in Skyrim.

Guards, well not much to say other than make them act more realistic. They are not psychic police -___-

If anybody has played Champions of Norrath will remember the underwater level. What if Skyrim had an underwater level where you have to equip some type of armor that will make you sink to the bottom and a water breathing spell or potion? It would be cool to traverse through an underwater cave using both swimming and walking on the bottom of the lake/sea/etc.

Also I think it would be cool to see some more underwater caves with large internal openings. It would be awesome to be swimming around underwater and come up into a large room with maybe some baddies or even an isolated city with creepy inhabitants. I see a lot of room for creativity as far as more underwater attractions.

It's easy to give swimming underwater a point.. just have larger underwater areas, even sunken cities maybe.

As for stealing.. I've always though your "sneak" skill should be used to make a stolen item "not hot", that is no longer "stolen". And you can un-hot up to (Sneak * 0.1) weight of stolen goods per day.
This way my Thief character will actually be better at stealing than my Battlemage.

I tried to get away from the guards in Oblivion by hiding underwater since the guards did not have water breathing. The result was pretty funny, the guards swim after me and dived down but had do go up for air usually before trying to hit me.

I thought this thread was going to be about the stupidity that is Guards diving after you and slashing you with their sword completely unencumbered by their giant armor.

This topic was nothing like I expected it to be, I was more thinking this:

That we should stay hidden in water, sort of auto sneak mode. In OB you couldn't sneak on anyone if you came from the water, this needs to change.

The original question number 2 is still a big ?, I for one have not heard anything indicationg that the guards and their knowledge of your crimes have been updated. But I sure hope it has.. It would be a huge disappointment if it weren't.

I'd like stealing in Skyrim to take a cue from Fallout 3 and New Vegas where if you accidentally pick up a spoon or some other less-than-valuable item and the guard or owner sees you take it, they just say something to the effect of "Hey, that's not yours." and move to try and take it from your inventory. If you try to run or keep stealing stuff, you'll get the usual bounty (well, in the case of Fallout, they'd just attack you since there wasn't a true crime/punishment system but you get the idea.)

NPCs should take off their armours, or at least the chest plate before diving down. So that I can steal them, and laugh.

Yes! I loved the description of the Volkihar who live under haunted lakes.

I hated Oblivion's fog underwater. I prefer having clear water. I'd like no fog or very minimal fog (and starting at a distance) so that I can see things.
If anyone uses MGE with Morrowind think of having the fog the same above and below water, that's what I mean.