I don't see why we need the Dark Brotherhood or the Morag Tong. Yes, we should have some assasin guilds in the game but the Dark Brotherhood and the Morag Tong and Camona Tong all belong in Morrowind. Think up some new names and new ideas please, I was greatly disturbed when I found out the Dark Brotherhood was in Oblivion as it showed a major lack of imagination.

How about The Creed, Two Brothers and Peoples Choice as assasin guild names?

Stephen.

I'd suggest limiting ourselves to factions drawn from the novels, in game rumors and books, or stuff from dev postings, even if they were made completely sober

That said, a single, very big wish: content for characters past level 25 or 30.

Why? Why set limitations on what might be good ideas simply because they aren't in a book? How do you think the book got written?

Stephen.

I honestly hate the idea of nameless people. That's something that TES games (or at least Morrowind) did so right. I didn't even like the nameless bandits and other enemies you faced in Oblivion. I think it helps immersion for each NPC to have at least a semblance of an identity. I would want more than what we saw in Oblivion though, too.

I wouldn't mind if the schedules weren't quite as fully-realized as in Oblivion. Actually, though pretty cool, their schedules annoyed me a lot, especially people in guilds and chapels. Could never find someone you were looking for, and if you did they might not be offering services at that time. Bah.

Yeah that was another thing. Give NPCs personality. Every NPC in Oblivion had exactly the same personality, except for maybe that Argonian that makes jokes about Kajiit licking thier own butts. but everyone else is exactly the same.

Something I suggested a while ago but should really be considered is a function that can randomize landscape textures. A big problem with big games is visible texture tiling. Having a texture randomizer can prevent this at least to a certain degree.
Now I don't mean that the texture is randomly loaded over and over again, this is more when drawing the textures on the landscape it uses more than one ground texture. For example, drawing a grassy field it doesn't just use one grass texture but chooses randomly from a library. That way when looking at it from a distance you wouldn't see checkerboard edges or repeating patterns that easily, you'd just see some mare varying types of ground.

Some ground textures could however really be generated on the fly, for example sand or mud. They'd only need a algorithm to follow and generate the texture as you go. This would need a bit of processing power but less space for texture storage and, again, would prevent tiling.

Something else that is a problem is that you can only draw textures in squares, this makes paths drawn in the landscape look very blocky. You should be able to cut the corners and smooth them out more. This would be helpful for ALL ground textures as that would allow you to not just put squares down but actually define shapes better.

Finally, for paths on the ground it would be good if you could actually draw them on the ground and they are generated, NOT just as a texture but a actual path. CryEngine2 has a function like this where it generates roads and automatically updates the landscape so they don't float.
Beth has a BIG problem with making paths that actually look like you could walk on them. All the did was more or less draw a ground texture on the floor and called it a day. That way almost all paths winded and twisted horribly.

Schedules were a good idea, but with the accellerated timescale reducing a day down to just enough time to hit a couple of shops before closing, it turned into more of an annoyance than an immersion enhancement to me.

One of the first mods I added to OB was one to change the timescale from 30:1 down to 8:1. That gave me about 2-4 hours of actual playing time to a "day" (depending on time spent in menus, taking breaks, or in conversation mode), which came out to just about a full "day" per playing session. With a necessities mod, that meant that the character typically "went to bed" right before I turned in for the night, and started his new day's activities when I fired up the PC the following evening. That was enough time to head out, clear a ruin and scavenge everything worth carrying, and still have time to hurry back to town to sell it all off before the stores closed, rather than making a 4 day outing to go just down the hill in plain view of the city walls.

I do pretty much the same in MW, for pretty much the same reasons, and also made the same change after a few days of trying out FO3. A timescale of 8:1 feels like a "day", not like the sun is racing across the sky every half hour or so. Granted, for those who prefer to play in half-hour sessions, the 30:1 rate probably makes some sort of sense, but how many players call it quits after just 30-45 minutes of play?

What the IC market district in OB needed most were a few outdoor market stands, and a couple of NPC "shoppers" milling around those stands commenting on the goods and services. I always got the impression that the handful of NPCs in the market district were just "passing through", even though they occasionally dropped random comments about the stores and merchants. The rest of the IC (and most of the other locations in OB EXCEPT the fine wineries and fields around Skingrad) again had that "passing through" feeling, since nobody was actually tending their gardens, working on the house, farming, mining, smithing, or doing anything except milling about aimlessly and exchanging monologues until their "schedule" sent them off on the next leg of their circuit around the city.

The total lack of schedules and meaningful NPC movement in MW can be excused to some degree due to the age of the game, but was again one of the awkward points. The stores were all open 24/7, as were all the Guilds and other buildings (except Holomayan and another particular location during the MQ), and the same NPCs stood there the entire game without so much as a nap or a bathroom break. Perhaps the most immersion breaking part of the whole thing was that the slaves in the mines and on the plantations just stood around on permanent break, just like everyone else. Unlike modern highway crews, though, you'd think they'd at least have a pick or shovel to lean on in the mean time.....

I agree with your post, but earlier games than MW had complete NPC daily schedules. Ultima 6, 7 and 8, had NPC's with schedules and it worked to great affect.

The Dark Brotherhood does not "belong" in Morrowind. It is an assassins' guild that operates all over Tamriel. And there is something wrong with you if you think that the Dark Brotherhood lacked imagination or creativity in Oblivion.

Something that kinda has become a MUST at this point is environmental shadows.
While they where not really necessary for Morrowind the graphics have moved on, they got a lot "shinier" (a bit TOO shiny in fact) and they need something to counter act that. For that at least static environmental objects like houses, rocks and the like need to cast shadows. Plus it needs some ACTUAL darkness, Oblivion was way to bright.
And i don't necessarily mean soft shadows, hard edged shadows would do just as well, at least to HAVE shadows in the game.

Some very good idea these past 142 threads :celebration: and i love most of them.
I like that people are practically boycotting for larger cities. I agree with them.
I would like, like many people have said before, a real working economy and politics system.
Using Oblivion as an example:

If I destroy Skingrad, the other cities should have either, or very limited, wine- they are the main source of wine after all.
If I destroy Anvil, maybe no kind of a certain food.
Etc.

As for the politics, people, unique or uselessly generic, should have an opinion. Maybe politician1 is more popualr than politician2. Therefore politician1 is voted for, resulting in him becoming prime minister, president, or whatever. However, he does not live up to promises and politican2 is growing in poluarity. So therefore every 6 months in game time another vote will be held. =
If the player is important, such as a guild leader, he hold alot of power. For example;

He is the Fighters guild leader. He can give talks about how Politican2 is better.
He/She is Mages guild leader. (S)he can send dremora, or other summons, to 'convince' a politician to do something.
Etc.

I'd like the castles (or wherever the leaders are) in each town to be much more interesting. In Oblivion, sure, there was some okay loot to steal, but there really weren't storage rooms of weapons and armor, or money, or anything like that. I'd like there to be a reason for my stealthy character to take the time to sneak around a castle.

I'd also like the guild halls to have more loot that I can steal, or be tempted to steal. In Oblivion, I was really looking forward to infiltrating the Mage's Guild, and when I had gained their trust, robbing them blind. But there was barely anything to take. I want some rare scrolls, and more than one rare staff. Maybe some rare books only found in that guild hall. The same could be said for other guilds, like the Fighters guild. More rare weapons and armor. A guild should have some of the rarest items out there.

I just want to say that there should be some small touches. I know this thread is usually about big stuff like story, gameplay, factions, etc., but let's not forget the little things. For example, one of my favorite things in Oblivion is finding retired adventurers who mark good dungeons on your map and tell little mini-stories, like the Orc lady in Cheydinhal. Let's have some more of that!

Please please please no more re-setting chests and stuff. I'd love to live wherever I please. Yeah and sleep in any bed like morrowind. I saw a mod for it and it was great, no more psychic guards as well. If i'm not seen I doubt the victim would have time to yell for help whether my bow is enchanted or not. and if the poison kills them instantly then same thing. More diversity in dungeons, caves and ruins and such.

ALSO please can we have more than 5 voices for all the charecters.

Does Beth actually look through all these or is it just for fun?

It's been said by moderators that they do, so I assume so.

Sometimes I see devs in the members bar underneath, and back in the double digits someone said they knew someone who had an uncle who'se sole job was to read these. Fan input is a big thing for games nowadays.

My suggestion is that instead of famous names for voice actors you hire three normal actors and give those voices some variety and personality to characters.

I saw Gstaff lurking in celebrity voice acting thread yestaday, so they are definitely here.

• Since Bethesda wants to make character behavior more natural (which Todd Howard said), I'm sure that will include more natural movement and facial animations.

I think nameless bandits and people actually add immersion, after all, how the hell do you know everybodys name without ever asking? Knowing bandits names doesnt make sense, a bandit is all they are to you, nothing more. This is one of the many things people conveniently forget was bad in MW *ahem, nostalgia bias, ahem*.

They say that if the game takes place in Skyrim, will show what happened to Dunmer in Solstheim after the Argonian's Morrowind invasion.

These threads seem to be slowing down a little, repeating themselves, and honestly I think most if the core gameplay aspects are probably already set. Dont mean to be a downer though, I still love hearing all the ideas.

*ahem*

Playing as a Personality 100+ / Speechcraft 100+ / Illusion 100+ char from time to time, who says I never would? And yes, you can talk with most Bandits and Marauders and the like in Oblivion, they don't always attack you on sight.

NPCs in Deus Ex had a name and a basic description. You can only see the description, like bandit, farmer, knight, until you talk to them for the first time. After talking to them you can see their name.
It could be expanded so that you have to ask for their name or they introduce themself. The names can be randomly selected out of a list with names, surnames, middle names, nicknames and titles. The game should make sure not or only rarely to use the same name twice.