Alrighty then. Two arbitrary thing's I'll list here; a sort of concept weapon list, and an idea for a new faction:

1. Weapon List. This lists all the weapon types that should be included for this time around, all available in various materials. The different weapons have different properties that make them more effectively used in different styles of combat (which would tie into a fighting style system.)

There are some things to keep in mind here: Heavier weapons will obviously do more damage, and be more slow. Longer weapons also tend to be slower and heavier, but trade it off by having more range. Weapons can either focus on inflicting blunt or goring damage, which work better against certain enemy types (a hammer works better on a skeleton than a sword would). In addition, some weapons can favor either swinging or thrusting. Swinging weapons tend to have a wider lateral range, hitting in an arc. Thus, swinging weapons cannot be dodged by strafing, and need to be ducked, jumped, or blocked. Thrusting attacks have more range than a swing, but also require more precision, due to the absence of a strike arc.

Swords: Skill here is based on your Blade skill.

Dagger - Small, pointy, double-edge blade. Made primarily for stabbing, but can also do some slices pretty well, too. Very quick, with low damage capability and short range.

Knife/Tanto - Small, single-edged blade. This one is more suited for making slits. Because of this, knives actually can strike a bit more quickly and fluidly than daggers, but also suffer from a shorter range in some cases.

Short Sword - Your average short sword. equally good at slashing and stabbing; has a generally good balance of damage, range, and speed.

Wakazashi - This short sword is geared more toward slashing. They're a bit lighter than short swords, do a bit more damage, but are also limited in their range.

Cutlass - Basically, a heavier Wakazashi. Has the same range, more damage, but less speed. Is also swung.

Broadsword - A sort of average sword; can slice and stab well, has a medium range and some pretty nice damage, but is also a bit slower than the short sword.

Rapier - A thin blade made mainly for thrust attacks. Has great range, fair damage, and fast attack speed. Because it's thrusting, though, it suffers from being somewhat easy to sidestep.

Saber - The rapier's counterpart. It's a bit heavier, and has less range, but does good damage regardless, and still has quite an impressive attack speed. This weapon takes swipes instead of thrusts.

Longsword - Ah, the good old longsword. It can slice just fine, but has a bit of a stabbing affinity; longer range and more damage, with just slightly less speed than the broadsword. The broadsword and longsword weigh roughly about the same.

Katana - The longsword's counterpart. It's the opposite of the Longsword, in that it does have some stabbing ability, but mainly focuses on slices. Some fighting styles prefer to use the Katana with two hands; with such a style, the katana's speed and power effectively double!

Urumi - Now this is a very cool real-life weapon; the urumi is an indian whip-sword; it has several thin, flexible, and razor-sharp blades. It's a very advanced weapon to use, and as such, can only be used by experts of the blade. However, the benefits to using this sword are quite numerous; the urumi is lightweight, has excellent range, is fast, and does decent damage. Styles that use the urumi usually favor using slices to drive away multiple opponents.

Greatsword - Probably one of the most gimped weapons in Oblivion, the Greatsword is back in action; it has a slight slicing affinity (it would be very unwieldy to try and deliver a stab with this thing, really), and does loads of damage. Has a great range, and is actually quite fast for being so heavy! Of course, it's two handed, so one can't use a shield with this weapon.

(Of note, a way to balance out two-handed weapons: As it is, nobody wants to use them in older installments because there's no real advantage; you lose access to your shield, you can't block properly, sneak attacks don't work, you attack VERY slowly, etc. Out of all the problems, though, the inability to really block attacks effectively is what truly breaks the two handed weapons. Thus, I suggest a slight blocking tweak for weapons; only shields can truly block an attack. However, if you don't have a shield, your block will be traded out for a parry, which can deflect enemy attacks for no damage and sometimes badly stun your opponent! The downside is that you have to time your parry correctly. With a high enough block skill, your parry can actually become a damage-dealing counter attack! Thus, basically, to opt to drop the shield will actually potentially provide better defenses in melee combat, providing you can time your blocks correctly. Anyways...)

Dai-katana - Yeah, yeah. It's the greatsword as a katana. This one is limited only to slices; it cannot stab whatsoever. You are also forced to use it with two hands. The Dai-katana attacks a bit quicker than the Greatsword, but also suffers from a shorter range.

Zweihander - The big daddy of all swords. It's roughly the same length as the greatsword, but much thicker. That said, it strikes at the same range, but for a much bigger punch. Unfortunately, it's also quite sluggish. It's high weight and great power makes it an ideal weapon for high-strength characters (a high strength character, naturally, would be able to swing weapons faster, no?)

Axes: Skill here is based on your Hafted Weaponry skill

Hatchet - A very short, single handed axe. It's actually more of a tool than a weapon. That said, it has very short range, a decently quick attack rate, and some decent damage; it's actually a middleweight weapon to be precise.

War Axe - Single-bladed one-hand axe with a longer haft. A little longer range, in exchange for a bit of speed drop in comparison to the hatchet.

Longbearded axe - This axe model is lighter than that of the war axe, but about the same size. As a result, it does just a smidgen less damage, in exchange for more speed. Same range.

Battle Axe - The big, two-bladed axe we know and love. It's actually quite short ranged for a two-handed weapon, and because of that, it actually strikes pretty fast and does a lot of damage!

Long-handle Battle Axe - Basically, a battle axe with a longer handle; wielded with the hands spaced further apart. This battle axe, depending on the fighting style used, can either opt to have an even shorter range and higher damage than that of the battle axe (widely spaced handling), or for a much longer range with a much slower swing (close spaced handling). It's a pretty powerful weapon, nonetheless. Just the kind of weapon I could see a berserker using!

Polearms: Skill here is based on your Polearm skill

Spear - Undoubtedly the lightest two handed weapon. It has a gigantic thrusting range, average speed and power. Pretty good at keeping enemies at bay.

Halberd - A heavier polearm, which can deal both stabs and slices with its axe head. Slower than the spear, but gains a bit of damage in the process.

Glaive - Lighter than the halberd; similar damage and also a quicker strike, but it has no stabbing capabilities.

Lance - A somewhat awkward weapon to be using on foot. This is basically a very heavy spear; can only do thrust attacks, is slower, but has a bit more range, packs a lot more punch. It can be used to some effect on foot, but really shines when used to charge at enemies on horseback.

Lucerne Hammer - Our first blunt weapon! A swinging one, nonetheless. It needs mass to be effective, and as a result, it's a bit slow, but also does more damage than the halberd.

Quarterstaff - This blunt weapon is just a tinge heavier than the spear. It does pretty terrible damage, and has shorter range, but it attacks very quickly, and is ideal for parrying. Some of the fighting styles adapted to the quarterstaff are actually very powerful.

Blunts: Skill here is based on your Hafted Weaponry skill

Mace - Classic mace. Has the same range as the war axe, but is also heavier; as a result, it does more damage, but has less speed.

Flanged Mace - This sort of edges on slashing damage... Maybe... But anyway; the flanged mace is specialized to pierce heavy armor. It weighs about the same as a normal mace and has the same speed and range, but does more damage.

Flail - This is a pretty fantastic weapon; it can swing up to build up damage. It's got moderate speed and good damage capabilities, as well as better range than the mace.

Warhammer - One of the heaviest weapons. It has decent range and does monstrous amounts of damage, but is also ponderously slow.

Maul - The heaviest weapon out there; a huge, spiked, two handed club that is just made to crush skulls down. Has better range than a warhammer, is slower, but does tremendous damage to enemies.

Punch: Skill here is based on your hand-to-hand skill.

Knuckles - The lightest blunt weapon available. Also the only blunt weapon to deal out attacks in thrusts instead of swings. They're extremely lightweight, and pretty much have the same attributes as your fists in terms of speed and range.

Nunchaku - A lightweight blunt weapon; sort of a super-baton. Anyways, Nunchaku have some really bad range, and do moderate damage for this weapon category. However, with some proper skill, nunchaku strike lightning fast.

Katars - Very fancy punchblade weapons; they have a comparable speed to that of your fists, but have extended range. It's significantly better at doing thrusts than swipes.

Claws - Lighter than katars, and focus on doing swipes. They do lower damage than katars, and have a shorter range, but can swing quite fast.

Ranged: Skill here is based on your Marksman skill.

Darts - The lightest ranged weapon available. Darts can either be thrown or loaded into a blowgun. Either way, they fly very fast and do low, low damage. They are ideal for poison application.

Shuriken - A light ranged weapon. Shurikens, or stars, are thrown out with a very quick flick, and can be thrown rapidly. They fly fast and quite straight, but suffer from low damage. Skilled users of shuriken can throw out multiple shurikens in a single swipe.

Throwing Knife - Another fairly light weapon. Does more damage than the shuriken, but has a bit more prominent of an arc to its throw, meaning it flies a bit slower. Like shurikens, throwing knives can also be thrown in groups.

Throwing Axe - One of the heavier thrown weapons. Unlike the previous throwing weapons, this one can't be thrown in sets. Throwing axes have an extremely prominent arc, meaning their range is very short. However, they do lots of damage!

Javelin - The heaviest thrown weapon. The javelin is basically a somewhat light standard spear, thrown with one hand. Javelins actually fly farther than thr throwing axe, since they're more aerodynamic, and also do around the same damage. However, they're big and unwieldy, so not many javelins can be carried at once.

Bow - Just your average bow; made of one substance throughout. It does alright damage, has shots that arc pretty prominently, and can fire shots out quite fast. Of course, each shot needs to be pulled back by holding down the mouse, but it's still the quicker of the two heavy-duty ranged weapons.

Recurve Bow - A bow that curves away from the archer at the ends of the bow. The result of this engineering manuver is that the bow has more power; fires faster shots that do more damage and go farther.

Composite Bow - A more expensive alternative to the basic bow. It has even more power, and also weighs less. By default, composite bows also have a recurve in their design.

Crossbow - The crossbow is the heavier of the two heavy ranged weapons. The crossbow's advantage over the bow class is that its bolts are fired very fast for great damage, have no discernable arc, and are lightweight for easy ammo carrying. However, the weapon itself is very heavy, and in addition, the crossbow takes a long, LONG time to reload. Whereas the bow works by charging up a shot by holding down the left mouse button, a single click will fire off the crossbow.

Repeating Crossbow - This model of crossbow overrides one of the two main disadvantages of the crossbow by adding a repeating fire system to the mix. It doesn't fire anything like a machine gun, but it still doesn't need as much time to reload. It's even heavier than the crossbow, however.

Improvised/Civilian: Skill here is based on various different skills. These are all very weak weapons; have no alternate material types, do sub-par damage, and are generally not worth a lot to stores, either (since most are mainly daily implements). There are a few fighters that specialize in making techniques that focus on the usage of improvised and civilian weaponry.

Stone - Yeah. It's a stone. It's a really lame thrown weapon that lightly damages the enemy. A lucky shot might stun them, but don't count on it. Prominent arc, low range, and low damage. It's the only ranged weapon that does blunt damage. Stones can also be used as melee weapons. In that case, they're goverened by the hand to hand skill instead, and act like very weak knuckles.

Baton - A weapon that's usually used by bouncers; counts as a hafted weapon, and it's very light. It strikes quite fast, but has terrible damage and range. Like fists, they also do some degree of fatigue damage.

Sickle/Kama - This little farmer's tool counts as an axe/hafted weapon. Out of all axe weapons, this one has THE worst range. It does average damage, but also strikes very fast. Some techniques do have some things to improve the sickle's guarding capabilities.

Scythe - Another farmer's tool; basically a longer Sickle. This weapon counts as a polearm, but has a pretty short range (since you need to draw things in to really do damage with a scythe). It's unique property is that enemies hit by this weapon will not be knocked away, but will be drawn in closer to you. It's speed and damage are average.

Pitchfork - Yet another farmer's tool. This one is basically a mediocre spear.

Pickaxe - A cruddy waraxe. The pickaxe does have a benefit; it's cheap and it does good work on rocks. Granted, every other weapon can also break through rocks, but it does some pretty terrible damage to the weapon in the process. As a result, pickaxes are ideal for digging through rocks on their own.

I think that's about it... It's a BIG list, yes.


2. The brawler's faction! This faction is a bit of a modification of the Arena faction from TESIV: It takes the base premise of fighting other fighters under supervision, and changes two key elements:

A: It's not a fight to the death. Instead, the goal of a fight in the brawler's faction is to either get the opponent to surrender to you, or to knock them out by depleting their fatigue. If they're downed for more than 10 seconds, or knocked out three times in a round, the round is yours. Winning a match nets you some extra gold and potentially rise in the rankings (which are dynamic; there might be a different grand champion each playthrough), whereas losing one causes you to lose gold and fall in the rankings. This all plays directly into the next big point of the brawler's faction...

B: There are no weapons, armor, magic, or potions permitted in a brawl. In a match, all you bring with you are your fists, and whatever outfit you might want to make up, whether it be a simple pair of pants, or a team uniform. As long as you have an armor class of 0, are using your fists, and don't use a single spell or potion, you will be permitted to fight. If you do accidentally use such items, you'll be disqualified for the match (not the entire guild, just the match.) Because of the nature of bare fists, a fighter is usually not expected to outright kill an opponent (if that does manage to happen, the killer will be disqualified from the guild. However, it's usually not a problem, because the referee will either spot the opponent's low health, or the enemy will surrender before he dies.) and will instead knock out his fatigue, thus obtaining a knockout on them.

The faction usually draws in members at pubs, and its operations usually go on in the back rooms of various pubs they are allowed to operate in. Joining inserts you into a local brawling league, with you starting out on the bottom position. Winning matches will allow you to rise in rank until you're at the top of the local league, at which point you'll advance to the provincial league, which encompasses the best fighters from three different cities and any other vilages that might also have brawling centers. Winning in the provincial league finally bolsters you up to the national league, where the best brawlers from each city will be pitted against one another. Whereas the other leagues were conduted in a simple ranking style, where you can challenge any fighter to a match to raise your rank at any time, the national league is one continuous tournament; keep fighting against each opponent until you reach the top of the tree, and challenge the grand champion. Winning against him will garner you his respect, the title of the grand champion, and the ability to hold matches to defend your title. Oh. And also an adoring fan.

Because of the fact you can't really die in the brawler faction, there is a chance you might lose against a challenger for the grand champion title! Of course, the best way to avoid this would be not to hold matches to defend the title; of course, doing that will cause your fame gained from the faction to steadily deplete until you make a comeback with a match.

Matches consist of up to 3 rounds, and are won by a best 2 out of 3 system; if you win two rounds, you win the match. A round can be won by either knocking your opponent out for 10 seconds, or knocking them out 3 times. You'll automatically win a match if the opponent surrenders to you. All matches are overlooked by a referee, who can use holds to keep you from beating an enemy to death, count out knocked out fighters, make sure you don't keep beating on their unconcious bodies, and supervise equipment, spell, and potion rules.

Rewards for each match range from rewards in gold, usually low for small league matches, and large for big league, medals, which sometimes have enchantments, and other times can be sold for a pretty fine fortune, and respect from trainers, who can help boost your hand to hand combat abilities.

I would love to bring up something totally unrelated to the H2H in that link:
The magic combat you mentioned. Wow. I've never thought of it like that.

"Backward creates a wave of fire that spreads around you." really caught my eye. However, what I think is important is the ability to do any of these regardless of direction. I have always felt that directional attacks are a clunky mechanic in a fully 3 dimensional game. I would absolutely love if I could master control over an element, creating bolts, steams, jets, and waves of it all on will, just with a single spell.

But perhaps that is too much to ask. When creating suggestions, especially ones that require new control mechanics, one must also think out how the controls would be laid out for such things. When I think of it, there are 6 possible control for spells, same as for melee attacks. Held bumper/whateverthehellitwasonPC + 1 of 4 directions, a simple press (regardless of direction), and simply holding it (no direction being pressed).

The controls would be as follows:
Bumper: cast spell, vanilla style

Held bumper: begin to charge spell. As long as you press the button (then make sure to wait just for a second so that the game registers it a simply a power magic attack) the player will charge their spell and make it more powerful. This uses the previously discussed over charging mechanics that I've discussed before.

Held bumper + forward: The spell would be undirected and very aggressive. Fire would come out in a jet, like a flamethrower. Lightning would arc from your fingers, Dark Lord of the Sith style. Ice would be a cold stream, almost ghostly, but very deadly as groups of enemies would get caught, be slowed by the snow and ice, and then continuously take damage.

Held bumper + backward: The spell is thrown in a defensive area around the caster. Fire would be a wave, arcing from left to right to fend off enemies. Lightning would arc wildly within a wave in front of the caster, similar to the lighting arc spell from the sorceress in Diablo 2. Ice would work similarly to fire, but move much more slowly.

Held bumper + left/right: The spell is cast vertically in a lined wave to pinpoint and attack aggressively toward a specific area. Imagine if a person was attempting to cross the room. A spell cast in this way would force them to retreat or walk into the line of fire. It is effectively a way of denying an area to a person.


As long as all magic movement contexts are applied to a direction AND the cast button being held (just as it was with melee power attacks in Oblivion) then it will work fine. I just wouldn't want to lose the ability to cast my bolts while moving backwards.

I found that the 4 elements for destruction spells did exactly the same thing. They cast a ball of bolt of fire/ice/lightning forward. Now cmon, Fire Burns, Ice Freezes, Lightning stuns. why were these things ignored? the only thing which differentiates those spells is the graphics. The whole spell system could do with improving on.

In Oblivion there were improvements, although small. Fire moved more slowly, but predictably. Casting it while moving was easy and allowed a mage to be mobile. Lightning was fast and inaccurate. Firing it while moving was difficult as, due to it's speed, if one was not directly pointed at the enemy then the spell would miss. Snow actually covered an area regardless of whether you told it to explode in an AoE or not, so you could hit multiple enemies.

Lightning also had a larger chance of knocking enemies down, if I recall. I don't remember if fire or ice had any specific afflicting properties.

However, I agree. Fire should always immolate it's target, regardless of any "x over y" effects on the spell. Lightning should have a chance to stun the target, knocking it on its knees. Ice would, obviously, slow an enemy by some degree.

Oh! Oh! Like in that one trailer for Warhammer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKOhzfkCdbY

Look at that hot elf chick at 3:12 who freezes the guys and busts them apart like Sub Zero would do. That's what it should freakin be like, huh?

Yeah... You're right about that. I immediately noticed when I first played oblivion that lighting seems to move way faster than either of the other projectiles. To me, though, ice spells seemed to fly the slowest, but I've seen enemies fire some BIG ice projectiles that hit a great radius, so... Yeah.

Just a small question, who'd like to see the barter system come back from Morrowind for TESV? I realize now that it allowed you to do business very quickly in both directions; you didn't have to click multiple times to sell stuff individually. Instead, you could just choose what stuff you wanted to buy, and also trade some stuff back, and do the entire transaction in one fell swoop. In my opinion, it's a lot more effective, and has some practical applications in selling over price items (got an item that's way too expensive for a storekeep? You can buy a lot of his merchandise and thus still get the full value of the item!)

I like the idea of picking up a bedroll and taking it with me, then lighting a campfire under a tree, or in a cave, or on someone's dining table and laying out my bedroll and going to sleep. If I get arrested for sleeping in someone's kitchen that's my problem, and I'll deal with it, I just want the option to be able to if I want to.

Stephen.

Honestly, I never knew why they got rid of being able to sleep on the ground or in someone else's bed. It just didn't make sense, especially if I just killed the guy who owned it. Who's going to walk in on me? Their mother?

Just part of the "Oh hey, let's remove property ambiguity and property freedom at the same time by adding restrictions to unowned things" move, I guess.

What killed me was the removal of the distinction between waiting and resting (aside from level increases) and how one could not rest in the wilderness (not that there was much point anyway, as waiting heals you completely within the hour). I'd like to say that FO3 fixed this to my satisfaction, and while they got rid of the waiting-regenerative exploit, they didn't factor in being able to rest and recover out in the wilderness, much to my chagrin.

I like it, I wouldn't mind if the new lands were full of dwemer, or some race we haven't heard of yet.

Stephen.



Oh, so pessimistic...

Stephen.



So you side with Mehrunes Dagon and destroy the world of men and mer, then you rebuild it in the manner best befitting your nature. Or you side with Talos and destroy the lands of oblivion to rebuild them in the image of the gods. Or, you side with Mehrunes Dagon again and instead of taking over Tamriel you take over the heavens of Nirn, turning them into a horrid suffering land. Either way, if you change hell to heaven or heaven to hell, the attitudes of the people in Tamriel will reflect their changed gods.

Stephen.




I would like to see some major changes to the magic system, especially in relation to damage effects. I would list the changes I would like to see but I don't really have any suggestions for them unfortunately. Although, when shocked or undergoing shock damage an opponent should sieze and be kind of paralyzed but be shaking, more realism.

Paralyzing my opponents with a slow damage effect was my favourite self created spell in Oblivion, especially as I was a vampire and use my imagination while playing.

I would also like to see certain guilds of magic train different types of magic, and be specifically dedicated to them, such as a guild of alteration, a guild of destruction and a guild of mysticism, enchanting, illusion, etc, etc, etc. So that when you want to learn illusion magic you must seek out the appropriate guild, and learn from them to unlock your latent ability and be able to cast spells within that school. So you will be unable to cast a single destructive spell or protective spell or even light a candle magically or call a light field around you or walk on water, etc, without finding the appropriate school and completing initial training.

Stephen.



I would like to see the barter system from Morrowind return, and I'd also like to be able to visit an imperial bank trader to sell my more expensive items at a closer value to their worth. And I'd also like to be able to bank my gold.

Stephen.

Rhekarid, I dont like being told how to play the game, and neither do you. Yet there are many who would try to control our experience in the game world. six in the game would make it have a 18+ rating, but killing people in games has been around since Super Mario Brothers.

I'm suprised Mario doesnt have a M rating.
It has Mushrooms, Drugs, Animated Violence, kidnapping, etc.

I have deleted a lot of posts discussing child killing, there will be no child killing in the games and the discussion of it is not permitted on these boards.

I have also merged a few posts, rather than post consecutively please use the edit button. Oh, and don't play at moderators please, all that does is exacerbate a situation, if you have a problem just press the report button and state your concerns.

One thing I never understood in Oblivion is, if I steal something from someone's house I can't sell it to a vendor in a city the other side of the province.

That is a very interesting take on it. And now that I think about it would make it kind of viable for you to be able to sort of bring up the tiers of your hand to hand ability the same way that getting a more powerful sword has allowed you to immediately be better at sword fighting in TES games so far. By making it so that you can take on increasingly more effective styles, or by maybe just making the one you have more powerful, it'd simulate the effect of getting better gear as you played on by taking risks and heading into dungeons where there's powerful loot. You could even make it so you could only learn specific techniques or styles by fighting other hand-to-hand orientated foes or something to that effect.

In TES V, I'd like to see more accomplishment. One way is to change the level scaling. I agree that some enemies should be scaled to keep combat interesting, but many should also remain at a pre-set level, making certain creatures hard or impossible to kill at first, and easy after leveling many times. Also, in Morrowind, there was a much greater sense of accomplishment. Things took a lot longer, traveling, training, enchanting, etc, but this made the accomplishment of reaching the goal so much greater.
There should be a fast paced side to the game when dealing with combat, but I think there should also be a slower side for those of us that want to flesh out the world that Bethesda offers us. For example, I'd like to see enchanting and general spell casting become more difficult, but make the rewards just as great. I liked Morrowind's system of failing at spells more than Oblivion's tiers that you unlocked via skill level. Also, Morrowind's enchanting was much more difficult, but if you took great effort to get a large soul, you'd be able to make some pretty sweet items. In Oblivion, enchanting became exceedingly easy after getting into the Arcane University, and even then I was never able to make powerful enchanted items.

Just a bit before I mentioned how Argonian "hair" styles could be combined together. Now thinking about it this would work for normal hair quite well too, instead of many hair styles being in one pieces they are in "segments" that can be combined together.
For example, one segment is a hair ring so just choosing that one makes you look bald on top but with a ring of hair left. To make a complete head of hair you can add top hair on that. Or just having a Mohawk haircut and adding a ponytail to that.

That way you could have several different hairstyles just by combining single segments together. Of course you should be able to determine the length and also coloration of each, normally they'd all have the same color of course but you can have certain ones colored or grayed out. Plus there can still be different styles for each segment giving even more variety to how it can be combined.

Beards can work similarly, simply segment them n mustaches, chin, cheeks, sideburns, brows etc. All too with variable length, different version and colors.

That system would allow you to have a lot of different styles with relatively few models.

Damn, boy. You sure know a ton about weapons! However, the repeating crossbow is a historical modification of the crossbow's design, so it should be lighter, have less range and do less damage.

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/3402/hairzones2.gif. Also you should be able to chose more than one style per zone at a time, sure you'll have some that don't mix well but others that do. Simply leave it open to the player to select which style fits best so just leave them all open to be freely combined and don't restrict it.

Bethesda make people look good in TES 5, don't let those high quality graphics go to waste

While we're talking about appearances here, there's one fundamental property I'd like control over: height! Give different races a minimum and maximum, and let players play with a slider.

It's kinda freaky that everyone is the exact same height... :blink:

Except for those puny bosmer.


Which is good, because if not the Adoring Fan would have some VERY unfortunate implications.

Since the different elements of Destruction spells came up on the previous page, I figure I might as well pull up what I had on it in my giant magic post:

-Fire: fire spells have a percentage chance to do additional damage over time to their target. Also, fire spells burn away minor landscape elements, like grass and small shrubbery. When cast underwater, fire spells would instead manifest as a pocket of boiling water.
-Shock: does extra damage based on the amount of metal armor worn by the target. When cast into water, it automatically increases the area of effect, as well as the damage done.
-Frost: has a chance to temporarily slow the movement of the target. When cast at water, it temporarily creates a solid block of ice that can be walked upon.
-Energy: fires a blast of pure energy. Energy has none of the special features of fire, frost, or shock, but it has a lower magicka cost. Also, resistance to energy would be much more rare than resistance to fire/frost/shock.
-----------------

Since I'm talking about magic, I'd like to also mention perks for the spellcasting skills. A lot of people weren't happy with Oblivion's perks, which simply gave you access to more powerful spells. The idea behind Oblivion's perks wasn't bad, but implemented poorly, I think. How would you feel if, instead of providing access to new spells, magic perks gave access to new spell effects? I basically see this as a middle ground between what we got in Oblivion, and what we got in Morrowind.

To give an example, let's say that you have a character that's a novice in Alteration. In my system, Open Lock would be a novice-level spell, so you could cast 'open very easy lock', just as you could in Oblivion; however, you would also be able to try and cast any other version of Open Lock, although with a chance of spell failure proportional to the difficulty of the spell being cast. On the other hand, Waterwalking is an apprentice-level spell, so you wouldn't be able to cast any version of it until you become an apprentice in Alteration.

I think this accomplishes two things. First of all, it brings back some of Morrowind's ability for mages to try and push beyond their regular abilities, if they're willing to deal with the risk of spell failure. Second of all, I think it makes hitting those perk levels for magic skills more exciting. I mean, which is more exciting: "you've gained a skill level, you can now cast a 75 point fireball, versus you're previous 50 point fireball", or "you've gained a skill level, you now have access to an entirely new set of spell types to call on"?

You're pretty smart.

Honestly, I wonder how much the devs look at what goes on here. There are some spectacular ideas!

Political influence would be cewl

I don't see why the enemy doesn't think outside the box a bit, why didn't the Mythic dawn think about opening a gate inside of Bruma like in Kvatch or at least attacking it while you were fighting; or maybe they should have made all the beggars in Oblivion sleeper agents as well *Martin walks through Bruma as a crowd cheer for him, suddenly two beggars turn into Mythic dawn agents and attack him, then more come and the blades have their hands full* it would have been a great disguise