Including pay the exhorbitant amount of money needed for such a realistic graphical system, I hope.


It's not really about the real-world comparison. We know the animals in TES have souls, because we have a spell that's specifically made to trap them. I'm fairly sure that the reason you couldn't trap human souls before was a missing gameplay mechanic; after all, you could grab Vivec's because the game classified him as a creature. I would find it hard to believe that his soul wasn't at *least* as "special" as a playable humanoid's. We're looking at a fictional world with actual explanations for things on what the stuff of the universe is, where souls come from, where they go, so it doesn't quite fit with a real life comparison. I'd be fine with totally different creatures having different requirements for trapping their soul, but the "this is worse!" feel of suddenly slapping black soul gems on the situation feels like the same enforced morality as things like "necromancers are evil" and "daedra are demons" that also oversimplified things in Oblivion for easier moral consumption.

Well, the dev team for God of War III whipped up a program so that when you slice open an enemy, the guts have their own physics. :mellow:

:)

I'm betting those guts spewed out in a pre-defined animation. As in, every time you slice open that Centaur, the guts come out exactly the same way.

I have always thought about a combat system that has one-hit kills when sword blows actually connect with flesh, but still utilizes a health bar. And I think it could be achieved with http://www.naturalmotion.com/euphoria.htm. Anyone with knowledge on how Euphoria works care to shed light on whether this following scenario is possible?

Enter combat with a Marauder. Combat mechanics are the same as Oblivion - first person view, left click to attack, right click to block. Enemy HP bar is visible above the crosshair as normal. Every time you swing your sword at the Marauder and connect, the damage is calculated like normal, factoring in your weapon skill, the weapon stats, the Marauder's armour value and armour skill. If the attack reduces the Marauder's HP to 0, then the sword swing animation connects with a weak part of the enemy's armour - either it pierces a gap in his plating, slices his neck, hits his helmet with such force that it kills him, etc. But if the attack would just reduce his HP slightly, then Euphoria kicks in by showing the Marauder deflecting the attack with a parry, or with the sword bouncing off his plate armour for example, but with the damage of the attack still registering like a normal attack would in Oblivion. The only difference is how it looks.

In Oblivion the Marauder would take multiple slashes and stabs from a sword before collapsing. With Euphoria, and this set-up (if it's possible), the Marauder would seemingly put up a realistic attempt to survive before finally becoming too weak and exhausted to raise his sword in time to parry another blow. So I suppose Hit Points would now convey 'Energy' rather than 'Health'. Possible or not?

We couldn't trap the souls of men, mer, or beastmen because Arkay protects them from being trapped. Grand Soul gems changed during The Shade of the Revenant could override his protection or something like that. Vivec and Alma were both divine so they were not protected by Arkay, and their souls are too strong to be held in a normal soul gem. And as for them being evil. I would feel that trapping the soul of a animal would almost be as bad as trapping the soul of a sentient. All soul gems are are sick devices. But I have to agree beth really slapped "THIS IS EVIL OH NO OH NO" on the black gems.

However, neither NECROMANCERS nor conjerors should attack random people on sight.

As for those death animations and animations in general, they are not relevant to TES series, in my opinion. Bethesda should focus less on animations, and more on making the game deep, full of new lore, and interesting. Resources are limited.

Maybe not out in the middle of the road, but I like the Mage caves.

Though I'd like for Bethesda to not single them (necromancers) out as "bad." I would be very interested in being able to have a necromancer character, or maybe even a guild for those who want to study "darker" arts. They could be rivals to the Mage's Guild

ive thought about that before and while i dont really like oblivions style of combat i hope they focus on the world more in the next game rather than give the game another combat overhaul like in oblivion which svcked up time being spent on other aspects of it.

I want to have to run away! In Oblivion one of the think I loved the most was attacking a guard and resisting the arrest just to flee them by jumping everywhere and stuff. So yeah, could there be quests where you'd be swarmed by ennemies or attacked by something really strong and you'd have to flee for your life?

I would like higher level enemies to be replaced with lots of low level enemies. This would make most battles feel more epic.

Mage's guild is kinda dead now.

The necromancers that followed manimarco I would say were bad, but either way, Beth really pushed you to think that the art is TERRIBLY EVIL OHGOD.

I would like to see dents in armor, if i hit a guy in his helmet with a sword i want to see the dent i made

if youre hit with an arrow it should cause a small percetage of damage untill you have time to take it off, kinda like in FarCry2 when you get shot just not as extreme.

more water based enemies, Morrowind was full of dreughs and fish, i loved having to make a choice to either stand and fight the Hunger while at 20 health or run into the water hoping not to get seen by a dreugh. In Oblivion i found myself swimming to where i needed to go as if rivers were roads.

more trees, i can never have enough trees

more people in the game, Cyrodiil sometimes felt lonely for being the capital of the empire.

Human eating plants?

birds

Nope, they individually actually obey the physics, it's not pre-defined. That's what makes it different from the way gore worked in the previous games. I can get the details from the article in the Game Informer magazine, if you'd like.

That part doesn't seem difficult; lots of games have ragdoll or other physics. If they can apply to a body they can apply to objects that come out of it. However, the way the body is injured is still set, with a handful of "wound types," if anything. Most games just have blood splatter around when something gets hit despite the lack of visible injury. What I was referring to was the comment on "seeing the sword penetrate flesh." The technology to make one object collide with another, and realistically cleave it, as the engine renders the "soft" material to split in that spot in the right way, is pretty advanced. Generally what's done is to paint some kind of wound texture over the model, hopefully in the same general area where the attack landed. Realistic , spontaneously generated wounding is something I have yet to see, including in GoW3, and that's a game that's all about the violent action. I doubt Bethesda is going to devote that much effort to a gore engine in a sandbox game that (hopefully) is not going to be all combat.

I'd like for there to be more options for using Soul Gems in the next game...such as the ability to heal one's self or restore magicka with one, rather than exclusively using them to recharge weapons. If you really wanted to go in depth, it could increase your infamy to consume humanoid souls as it's a form of necromancy.

I'd like Speechcraft to play a much bigger role, rather than just for informational or bartering purposes. I'd like there to actually be alternatives to combat in certain situations, where you can intimidate weaker foes and cause them to surrender. It would be nice to actually arrest certain criminals rather than dishing out the seemingly mandatory death penalty on every two bit necromancer or bandit lord.



I'd like Fame and Infamy to play a bigger role in how citizens react to my character. As with Speechcraft I would like for lesser bandits to run in terror from me if my fame level is high enough, and I am guild master of some organization etc. Likewise I'd like for beggars and laymen to run from a truly infamous character, and for guards to refuse information, etc.

Healing? Heehee, reminds me of Raziel in Soul Reaver. Tasty, tasty souls. Nom nom nom.

I wish the whole soul thing was still on the 'omg, dat's evil!' like it was in Daggerfall (or so I gather). I've read that enchanting was tougher too - there were weaknesses added to the enchantment, and if the item broke, the daedra's soul was released. Maybe such dangers would not occur for lesser souls like those of beasts.... but the more powerful the creature, the harder it should be to wrestle its soul into an enchantment. That's one thing about Morrowind - my noble Imperial Knight was squeamish with the idea of trapping souls (doesn't that defy Arkay?).

Which reminds me, I think this was supposed to work in TESIII, but adding a negative effect to one's self in addition to positive effects should reduce the overall cost of the item. For example, if Cure Poison costs 50, then Cure Poison + Damage Magicka on Self should cost, like, 20 or something.

This could actually be exploited to some degree..you could put a very weak negative effect and still drastically reduce the casting cost.

I completely agree with this, i've been imagining something along these lines for a while. Combat is everywhere in TES so it might as well look good, all it would take is some scripted animations, it wouldnt even take up that much time to make.

Maybe Openable chests?one that you can actually open and take stuff out of without openning a menu and be able to put stuff into it by laying it in there like dropping a pile of gold into slamming the lid shut and lock it.Hope noone steals it. If the AI is that good in that they can travel from town do some dungeon crawling and maybe find your loot and become rich taking your stuff

That seems unnecessary, and much more of a hassle than just clicking on a chest and putting your stuff in.

Unnecessary?Yes A Hassle. Maaybe If they go with Oblivions Grab controls maybe something a bit more control could work even Morrowind could easily pull it off with little trouble as it is now.Other Ideas.. Maybe Camp Sets? Not much use asside from RPing reason but things like Bedrolls, Blankets. Fur cloaks,Tents for camping maybe moveable furnature that can be picked up and sold or bough buy using some kind of activator to "Disassemble" It into a crate and carry the create to you nearest store and sell it. So do the same in reverse Buy a bed from a trader and get a crate carry it in your inventory and place it down click the lid of the box or something and assemble the bed. though it would e heavy obviously discouraging any hopes of using it as a portable system, Or Hammocks for those like me who would prefer a cosy Cave over a house just drop two stakes within a certain distance.and you got the place for your hammock.or other portale furnature. Chairs, Tables, Chests to make yourself a little home or hide out where every they want.

But cooler... And, you can't store a room's worth of objects into a crate, unless you use the power of physics to make a "hole", in which the objects will just fall.

Have you ever tried dropping things in any TES game while getting them to stay in a small area? If you wanted to put things in a chest, first you'd have to jump on top of it, then you'd have to drop things, but if it's something long like a sword or a staff, it may not fall in correctly, and would take up more room than it's supposed to, and if it's something big like a shield, it wouldn't even fit. They'd have to make unnecessarily big chests to fit some of the bigger items in the game. It would be nothing but a hassle.

Most of those issues can be removed or reduced by better physics, which I would hope they include whether there are boxes or not. A simple chest that can be opened/closed would be an extremely easy thing to add, at any rate; the exact same or similar has been in games for many years. We already have doors that move on a latch mechanism, just put a smaller version on top of a box.