I like the idea of manual blocking and automatic blocking at the same time, thats a good balance and is far better than some stupid "computer says no" crap like Morrowinds system.

Actually, magic is their technology. Technology means tool.

I'd like to have to choose a few traits when generating my character, the traits would have advantages and disadvantages and could be mild or major based on how balanced you want to be. For example choosing 'nimble' increases your agility and speed but decreases your carrying capacity or 'sneaky' would increase your sneak skills but drastically reduce NPC dispositions.

We all know that the two best combat system incorparted in video games are Assasins creed and VATS. Assasin's creed type combat is extremly hard to get right, especialy since the same game managed to fail epicly with it in the sequel. So, a way to incorpatate VATS into TES is chronomancy. It was mentioned in SI, and therefore I would like it if part of the tutorial dungeon included a Jill (I also just want lesser Aedra explained better) giving you some stone that slowed down time is exchange for you preventing (insert bad guy's name) from (Insert Bad guy's plan.) Vats would be very helpful with Ranged attacks (Magic and arrows) as well as melee attacks ( just to choose what body part to target.) If this is done right, the combat of TESV could be amazing.

I think the combat system in Assasin's creed is horrible :shrug:

EDIT: Well, 'horrible' is a bit strong, I guess, but I certainly didn't like it. And I don't think it would suit TES at all.

That's the first time I've heard someone say that, I found AC combat pretty realistic, or at least more realistic than any other video-game featuring swords that I've played.

I love the combat system of Assassin's Creed but I agree that it does not suit TES games.

I disagree with it's horribleness, but I did say that it wouldn't work for TES. My post suggests a spin off of Vault Assisted Targeting.

I think the next game should have bunnies in it.

It's important!

Re the VATS thing, it was certainly a great idea in Fallout 3. Perhaps a "bullet time" spell would be a cool addition? Like in Vampire TMB.

Daniel_Kay, I think it sounds awesome with the potions, shield and weapon in offhand. Id like too add something to that, maybe a spell book could be in your offhand. All the scrolls that you can find can be use to make a spell book. You can then have this spellbook in offhand, so if you have 7 scrolls, you can put them all in 1 book, and put them in order and when you press the "offhand" button, you will cast 1 spell at a time, untill all the 7 pages are used.

The thing is, it wouldn't be meant only for mages. This Is why I suggested getting it in the tutorial.

Nay!

Characters with high agility/speed and the appropriate perk should have a similar "bullet time" ability. The idea being that your character, as an extremely fast/agile person can react with insane speed to situations.

Which leads me to "abilities." Abilities would be under the "Powers" tab (which also holds daily powers, magic spells, and enchantment spells). You select an ability just as you would select a spell. Abilities would be like the aforementioned bullet time spell, or perhaps a far leap (with high acrobatics) ability, etc.

Common things that all should be able to do, like shield bash, kick, grapple, etc, would be controlled by button combinations that we've discussed far too many times in these threads before, mainly using left bumper in context sensitive situations and combinations of that and left and right trigger (also being context sensitive based upon whether you have an open hand, two open hands, a shield and weapon, or double handed weapon, etc).

It really sounds like you guys are brainstorming ideas for an action game

I'd want it set in the amazing year of Four Hundred Billion.
We could go for that Buck Rogers/Rocketeer kind of setting. But with VATS, wands, guns. If the graphics are top-notch, what's to dislike about it?!? That's all that matter, right?

Why blocking should only be manual by default*:

1. It absolutely svcks in Morrowind when a sleeping five-year-old could see an attack coming, but because of a dice roll, you can't even attempt to block. Meanwhile, the attack is so telegraphed that a real person would have time to ease their way down to one knee, drive their shield's edge into the ground, brace it with branches ripped from fallen trees, curl up, and fall asleep. But the dice roll insists that a character can't block. "Huh?"

2. It's equally dumb when the rat I didn't see and is not in view anyway is blocked because the dice roll said so. "How??"

3. In Oblivion, there were times where it was worth the risk of getting knocked about to NOT block, particularly when you could finish an opponent off if you succeeded in "just taking the hit".

4. Therefore, I want my character to have that tactical decision open at all times.

5. Therefore, any automation of combat should be optional.

6. Optional, for me, is like options on a car: you want it, you put in the extra needed for it (cash/effort). Optional features should default to off, and should be per-character. Want them presented as part of character creation for quickly getting into them when starting a new game? I can accept that. Want the ability to REVERSE the default state of an option? the INI is a decent place for that (this would be global). Want to set the defaults on install? Sure. That's great. We can have options, but the default should ALWAYS leave the player as in-control as possible.

* Default does NOT necessarily imply that auto-blocking should be UNAVAILABLE. Default just means "what you'd get without changing any options".

There should be more off-hand items besides just shields.

Perhaps for caster characters there could be orbs, spellbooks or even skulls (for evil necromancers) which would fortify certain attributes while held in the off hand. This idea is used in many MMOs and would fit right in for Tamriel, too. It would limit the person to using a one handed weapon, meaning less armor, but would grant them better abilities while held. You could even go one step farther and wield no weapons at all, and wield one big relic like a staff or two small ones which would magnify your spellcasting power but leave you vulnerable up close.

I also think it's high time for a dual wield feature, but at a cost - perhaps a reduced armor penalty, or a chance to miss while dual wielding - similar to the spellcasting penalty for wearing armor in Oblivion.

usually how dual wielding is implemented in other games is that they suffer a 50% dmg penalty with the offhand weapon until they do something like get a feat that steadily decreases the penalty

Then perhaps it could be its own skill, and that could be the skill perks as you progress towards Master. The obvious downside would be that a person has to use up a precious Skill slot to take Dual Wielding - so if you wanted to be a master dual wielding swordsman you'd have to take both Blade and Dual Wield, and if you wanted to be really good at parrying you'd also have to take Block.

thats why they should introduce feats so players have the option to have more bonuses to their skills that is indirectly related to the skill itself.

I would like interiors like houses in towns to be in the same "room" as the world is, so you can be outside, and peer (or break) in.

Also A telescope would be great, allowing you to spot far off landmarks and the like.

Thread and posts are too long, so not sure whether or not this has been mentioned, how about some kind of cleave/area attack for melee combat, it does get annoying when you are surrounded and your attack with the sweep animation only hits one target.

remove level scaling for creatures and npc, unless of course they are powerful enemies like.... Mannimarco? cant think of anyone else at the moment.

give the damage spells (fire, frost, shock, health) some unique characteristics, you know maybe skill mastries can provide some unique effect for each of those spells, like... frost damage can encase the target in a block of ice with master destruction. and maybe fire damage can burn light armor and cause durability damage, and shock damage do extra damage against targets wearing heavy armor, since metal conducts electricity.

Yeah I agree. Oblivion was very much a point and click game. It didnt matter what your sword hit, only that ur cross hair was over ur target. Which is just wrong. In Star Wars Jedi academy things get hit or damaged if they even touched ur light saber, and that was made in the Quake 3 engine, which is what? 18 years old? Theres no reason why realisitc physics and combat cant be in TESV.

Mannimarco shouldn't have been level scaled, he should be at least level 50-ish and have a combat AI worthy of the "I" part. He's a GOD, on the same level as Mehrunes Dagon, and should be about as "easily" killable.

I want creatures to behave realistically. There should be various AI packages randomly assigned.

Animals will often use body language and/or vocalizations to warn away what they perceive as a threat. If you don't back off, then they might run away or confront you.
Animals that do not fear humans will see you as a threat or as food - you won't get warned, you will be charged or hunted/stalked.

I'd also like to see predators hunting prey. I don't like it when I'm exploring the land (in the TES games), and all the hostile creatures are just waiting for me to come by to attack me and only me. They have other things to do, you know! They should be roaming, looking for food, attending their pack members (if applicable), patrolling their territory, fighting intruders (creatures, not just NPCs), and hunting prey.

For another off-hand item that wizards could use, there's some mods that Oblivion add defensive staves that you can block with. I was thinking it'd be nice if they had staves like that, but meant for countering spells. For example, it could be enchanted with a much higher amount of spell reflection than if you made a constant effect item with the same soul, but it'd only work while you were blocking with it. Maybe it could also have an equivalent for "shield bashing". Like if you block enough fire spells it adds to its charges and when its full you can cast a powerful fire spell from it.

They could also make it just a new type of enchantment called "cast when blocking", so you could use it on regular shields, gauntlets, or rings and give them different stats for whether they're better for physical or magical defense. A shield would be weaker for blocking spells and a ring would be useless for blocking weapons.