Welcome to TES V Ideas and Suggestions # 152

This thread is for ideas and suggestions for TES:V and to keep all the general discussion in one series of threads.

To discuss major issues, use a separate topic, such as the levelling topic.

Other general topics on this will either be closed or moved here.

Please at least try to read the previous few threads to avoid too much repetition: Note, there has been a lot of off topic and unnecessary discussion in past topics, please ensure that any posts you make in this thread are suitable to the subject being discussed. The moderators will be keeping a close eye on the content.


http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1023937
http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1025326
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I think most of us came to the conclusion guns are not needed in TES thanks to magick.

Lets discuss something else like: Boats!
Yes we need boats, and the ability to own your own one.

I haven't really followed these threads in a while. Can anyone provide a recap of what was agreed upon in the last 50 or so threads?

Magic is so widespread and commonplace in oblivion that technology isn't needed at all. Restricting magic practice to only "gifted" people, would create a new social class, that of wizards, who would obviously be wealthier than other people. As a matter of fact master wizards would be out of the context of society completely as they would be able to satisfy all their needs without its help. Wizards would be regarded as the technology substitute in such a world, but still slow technological advancement would exist as poorer people would still need creativity to overcome everyday difficulties.

What do you think? Widespread magic or restricted to the gifted?

In the TES games until so far magic was largely widespread so unless something really significant happened to change that I don't think restricitng it would be justified.

Well in Oblivion, everybody and their brother could do it. But with Morrowind, less people could unless they were mages. However, in Morrowind, magic was still an important part of peoples' lives thanks to potions and scrolls. So the idea that it can be restricted from the common people would not work. The Mages Guild will provide people with magical goods and services, for its own benefit.

Well on magic there is still something missing, so far it really is just a weapon.
Where is the magic that actually helps to BUILD things? Where are the people that use the magic to actually benefit their society and i don't mean by killing others.

If you say magical items are so commonplace everyone can use them then WHY are just "kill each other" items so common but not "help cut rocks to build houses" or "help control water for farms" tuned magic?
Otherwise the only "benefit" magic could have is to easier enslave people to do your work and we don't see that either.

EDIT: Or why don't we see any of the already existing magic used in practical ways like stoves that work with fire magic or a cupboard turned into a fridge with ice magic. There's NONE of that, face it so far magic IS just a weapon.

Multiple layers of clothing?- it wouldn't be very comfortable wearing chainamail next to bare skin! Also more than w ring per hand. It might mean enchantments wouldn't be as strong to balance it out.

Boats, should not be static, make them sail, maybe ability to buy a boat, or when you travel by boat, you should have two modes, fast mode, which would be like Morrowind, or free mode, which makes you move though the ship while it's sailing, that would be cool, cause then pirates can attack you, and we will have sea battles,

I'd love to see more "telekinesis" spells. Like controlling water, or air, or earth.

And more variety of spell types other than "target" "self" and "touch"

I also want a gondola. A gondola in TES through a swamp would be awesome.

So I agree with what djaa-jee said. Boats!

And I want a caravan pulled by horses that you can sit in, and other people will sit in too.

I also want NaturalMotion to be used because I downloaded euphoria, and it'd be amazing if people could react that way in TES: V.

Wait a second, , maybe

As a healer I know there's more than destruction magic.

It's not just a weapon, but I understand what you're saying. It isn't utilized in the in-game world as anything but a weapon or a bandage.

Do you think there will be bigger badder bosses in oblivion the bosses where your size in dungeons and i would like to see epic bosses that drop insane loot but extremely difficult to slay.

Exactly, i constantly hear "they don't need that, they have magic", "magic is everywhere and anyone can use it", "easy available", but you never see it put to PRACTICAL use. There are no hospitals that have healers, there is no seafaring that hires mages that can control water or wind, no people that can use their powers to cut rocks and transport them over several kilometers. Hell why not used undead for dangerous labor like in mines, they don't need air, heat is probably no problem and it doesn't matter if they get buried in a cave in, you can simply break the spell and they disappear then dig a new tunnel.

This actually is a problem that goes through a LOT of fantasy, they build it like the "real world" and then toss easy magic in which could do so much more but is simply never used that way with ZERO or absolutely BS explanation why it's not used.

Easily available fire spells, why not make scrolls that create a long time fireball you can place in an oven? You'd have heat for an entire day without needing wood or coal. Why not make lanterns that have a tiny and persistent spark of lightning in it? Why not use invisibility or chameleon spells in THEATERS to move props around unseen and make the plays better that way?
Hell if you really stretch it you could even use healing spells to provide food by tranquilizing a animal, cut a leg off and then simply heal it so the leg regenerates nearly instantly and the animal lives like nothing ever happened, you could feed off that one animal for YEARS. I know that really takes the concept far but HELL healing spells can bring you back from being nearly dead so why not THAT?

I'm slowly starting to ramble but it IS a gigantic plot hole that magic brings with itself and if it's not adequately fixed or explained it WILL remain a plot hole that's just forced to remain open by lack of creativity.

Summer in Skyrim would be hard time for vampires.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdTduSstXVM <- shot somewhere north of the Arctic Circle.


Daniel manages to amaze me again. Good thinking! Teleportation, mark/recall and all that stuff needs to be rare or hard to use, other wise why would they HAVE boats, silt striders, horses, anything...

That might be cool. It would also provide a deus ex machina for what Daniel_Kay is talking about.



Yeah, that is unfortunate. But maybe the like half blood prince says, but not for past games, of course.

But if that ends up not happening, adding some practical and everyday application of magicka makes alot more sense, and there is little reason for not having it.

But you are right, Bethesda is kind of inbetween with magic. Its not underground but is commonplace. Yet, it has mostly just found application in combat, for no apparent reason. They need to fix that.

I've always wanted to enter the house of a High Elf or a Breton and seeing magic brooms floating around sweeping.

Yea, but also as i said before there ARE some technologies that could develop that can fill some gaps. As i said in the last thread take mills (windmills, watermills), they work on their own independent of anyone operating them so it wouldn't even require somebody using magic on them to grind wheat.
And I'd REALLY encourage actually using some "magi-tech" because fusing both can be even MORE efficient, like the windmills when no wind is blowing they could still be powered magically. It's kinda like the Dwemer machinoids that are steam powered but create the heat by magic means. If you'd have a steam engine that can create perpetual heat and perpetuate cooling you'd have a machine that can create steam and cool it back into water endlessly and therefor work as long as it doesn't break, something like that would be ideal for purposes that need to run constantly like clocks in clocktowers.

Actually if you want to see good examples of applied "magic" and "magic working WITH technology" watch "Avatar: The Last Airbender". They actually use their talents to create, firebenders can use their abilities to power enormous machines, earthbenders build towns and great defense walls easily and even use it for public transport (large tram carts built of rock they can simply push around) and waterbenders that actually built entire towns of frozen water. And in that world those talents are NOT simple to use and require long training and talent and STILL it's integrated a lot better than in most fantasy.

I agree with your Avatar example. I was thinking it too, but I didn't say anything, lol.

Another great use of magic, would be for entertainment. Just little low-magicka spells that entertain people, maybe even raise their disposition, or lower it if you create the illusion of a giant red dragon flying over the city and it sends the whole town into peril.

Speaking of illusion, that area went largely untapped. I couldn't look like I turned into somebody else, or a different shape with an illusion spell. I couldn't scare people off with the illusion of a bear running at them, or draw people closer by making myself look like a pile of gold.

Not to mention the visuals that could go along with illusion magic...

I really do hope they add more spells, and actually add some visuals to them instead of the person turning green and sparkly when they're supposed to like me more.

If guns are not needed because of magick; how are boats "needed" when magick can make them just as obsolete as firearms?

So true, and yet I never thought about that. For example here in northern Sweden, at the Summer Solstice the sun never even dips below the horizon (kinda like in the video). Now that would give the vampires some serious reason to be grumpy. But the winter must be wonderful for them. I can't remember the last time I saw the sun... okay, yesterday I think, but the days are starting to get brighter by now. Thank God.

Anyway, I hope Beth pays more attention to details like this. During the winter-part of the year days should be at least a bit shorter. I don't think the majority of the fanbase would appreciate the "5-minute-days" (slight exaggeration) that are usual north of the Arctic circle, but some difference between summer and winter would be nice.
But there are other things they should think about too. Like, snow during the winter, and rain during summer. I take it that Skyrim isn't the traditional clich? "never-ending winter" kinda place. And I really, really hope they manage to squeese in some sort of annual celebrations too. Events that would occur at special times each year, like New Life Day, First Planting and whatnot. It would be awesome to see people in the streets during festivals and such.

True, Water-Walking.

Skyrim is on the same latitude as Vvardenfell. I think the altitude (mountains) is why it is reputedly cold and snowy, rather than a high geographic latitude (which would be close to arctic circle, land of the midnight sun, etc.). For all we know, Tamriel could be situated in the southern hemisphere of Nirn.

Boats already existing is exactly my point. If magic can do all these things for people, why have they developed the technologies that they have? Why don't they all live in magically constructed mushroom houses and fly/teleport everywhere, like the Telvanni?

Fact is, though the use of magic is available to anyone, it can't be nearly as commonplace (or as easy) as the games make it out to be. Houses are still constructed of brick and mortar, or timber, as a result of backbreaking labor; not magic. Farms are still tilled by slaves, or farmhands with mundane tools; not magic. Mines are still dug, and minerals still extracted by guys with pick-axes and lanterns; not magic.

So while we, adventurers, might see that seemingly -everyone- can and does use magic (primarily because we spend most of our time interacting with soldiers, adventurers, mercenarys, and mages), the fact is that the vast majority of the people in Tamriel are not magic users and have need of technology of a more mundane nature.

Additionally, no one seems to be considering the cultures which are less magically inclined. I doubt there are alot of mages in the Nords homeland, or the Orcs, or even the Red Guard. While I'm sure there are a few, it seems unlikely that magery would be as integrated into their cultures as it was in Cyrodiil or Morrowind simply because it's not really a primary practice of their people. These races would almost definitely be developing newer technologies; especially those which mimicked magic if for no other reason that to counter the use of magic on the battlefield.

He's right you know. About the everyday citizens. (I make mods that take place in cities, and far out in the countryside, and most of them are lacking spells)

However, with a very small amount of gold, more gold than it would cost to do half the stuff they do, they could learn a spell. There's a mages guild in every city, not to mention a chapel. Both places have spell casters.

The everyday citizen may not have it, but they could easily acquire the services of a mage by yelling out of a window.

I see your point, there would probably be a little advancement, but unless Mages and Non-Magical People start fighting, there won't be much.