true man what svcked is when u were placing a book on a shelf and it fell right threw and knocks down all the other books bellow

No, not alien as in "little green men" but as in different and not like any place on Earth. For example, Vvardenfell could be described as an "alien" environment: the creatures are exotic (scrib, kwama, guar, kagouti), the vegetation is unique (trama root, glowing mushrooms, ampoule pods), and the assortment and placement of the different climates has no readily identifiable anolog to any location, currently living creatures & vegetation on Earth.

However, Cyrodiil looks like a fairly typical place you might find on planet Earth. The vegetation is pretty much the same (in name and appearance) as Earth plants and fungi. There is nothing particularly outstanding about its climate - it looks like a piece of landscape lifted right out of the mid-to-high latitudes of North America or Euraisa. The non-fantasy creatures are all earth stock: rats, wolf, bear, mountain lion, horse. Even the fantasy creatures derive from Earth imaginations and mythology: ogre, troll, minotaur, will-o'-the-wisp, unicorn, zombie.

That's what I really hope they change in TES: V. I played Morrowind when I wanted to "escape" and it certainly worked. It was like entering a whole new world and that was why it was far more immersive than Oblivion was. To me, Cyrodiil looks like Northern California and the creatures were basically the same. It wasn't new, it was more "Been there already."

The next game needs to change things up. Make it look completely different than what we'd expect. Take the time to make up new animals and plants. I don't want to look at ingredients and know, "Sammich." I want to imagine how they would be cooked and how they taste. Same with creatures. Are they carnivores? Aggressive? When hunted, what is it for, other than food? Can they even be eaten?

To me, its so much more fun to learn about these new things rather than see what I already know about

REAL ESTATE & INTERIOR DESIGN:
There are always houses around town for sale and rent. Just look at the sign in the window or above the door. The location, size and amenities of the house, and your bartering skill, will be important to negotiating fees. And remember, houses get snapped up, so don't leave a good deal too long!

Now you have a house, make it a home. At a carpenters, peruse a wide range of upholstery and place items in a plan / elevation preview of your home before confirming the final purchase. You may also select existing upholstery here to sell to the carpenter. Once you have purchased a cumbersome item (like a bookshelf), it is delivered to your home for free or for a fee to other towns.

Items available from a carpenter:
-Bed: Spending more Septims on a quality bed and mattress will increase energy restoration from sleep.
-Bookshelf: Activating a bookshelf will allow you to take or place all the books in your inventory, or sort your collection by alphabet, subject matter, value or skill books / non-skill books. You may also drag and drop individual titles from your inventory to the bookshelf.
-Desk: Desks can store small to moderately-sized items.
-Glass cabinet: By activating a glass display cabinet, you can place items inside using point and click.
-Larder: For keeping perishables cool, usually pre-installed in most homes. All food placed in a larder will take much longer to spoil. Try to keep larders away from windows when placing them.
-Wardrobe / dresser: Activating a wardrobe to view all the clothing you possess on hangers and attire your character accordingly.
-Stands: Activate weapons and armour stands to place or retrieve weapons and armour.
-Trunk: Wooden trunks can be used to stock any type of item.

Many hate the fact magic is so open to everyone, while pre-written lore doesnt give you much room for change. I'm beginning to wonder if the reason the game is dated to be set so far ahead in time is so they can make better adjustments to certain aspects of the game without disturbing the lore we've studied and come to love. To have magic become rare and outlawed in Tamriel, while Necromancy has officially become legal for the purpose of the imperial armys growth and immortalism seems a feasible plot for our next entry. See you all in the rogue mages guild ^_-

whatzit, um...

ok...

the thingy.

instead of good and evil, instead of a bar that goes up and down, try the mass effect system, you have paragon/good, and renegade/evil, you can raise both at the same time, and if you pray at shrines of aedra (all of them) then you lose your renegade score, if you pray at shrines of daedra (all of them) then you lose your paragon score.

Stephen.

See, that wouldn't excite me at all. I don't enjoy spending a lot of time "just staying alive". I already spend 11 hours out of my day dealing with "crap I need to do just to live", and it's not particularly what I want to do when I'm trying to escape RealLife (the ultimate in realism games!).

What I enjoy is having a lot to do and see without having special mechanics involved. For example, I would love it if there was a long, deep, and dangerous cave that contained a unique and useless item at the bottom. Because utility is something I want out of my weapons and armor, but uniqueness is what I like in my "rewards for excessive stupidity". If I'm going to crawl through a gauntlet of the nastiest of nasty creatures, slash my way through hordes of daedra, and spend three hours navigating a maze, what I want is something I couldn't get elsewhere. I don't care if it's a dagger that consumes magicka to deal damage, armor that protects from lightning, a set of threads that makes me mostly invisible, or a ring that makes people like me more. As long as it can't be gotten elsewhere, it could be armor made of lead, a bowl made of wood, or a book of terrible jokes. It's the one-of-a-kind I enjoy about such excursions.

Or, it could be simply the fun and challenge of leaping from building to building to get to the highest point in a city, then doing medieval base jumping, because Oblivion cemented that as a Tamrielic sport (side note: this is why I don't like Levitation!)

But what I like most is going places and finding notes, stories, and "stuff to do".

I want a quest where you have to play multiple roles to steal something... OUTSIDE the Guild. Make me infiltrate a location and steal something, and barge in somewhere else and beat people senesless, and charm someone into spilling secrets, and use magic to disrupt the mystical protections around an object or person, and make me outwit an investigator in the process. Not ONE style of thievery, but many. All for one quest. I want notes everywhere. Old scraps I can't read, new scribblings I can, inscriptions on buildings, paintings that reveal secret messages when using Nighteye. Every place should have a story of some sort, whether explicit (notes), or implicit (trails of blood leading up to a wall, then when you find the opening to the secret way, there's a skeleton/zombie/corpse where the trail led... or there's another dead end). Just something to reward me for going into a dungeon. Maybe it could be goblins worshipping an apple, or polar bears in Skyrim that are sitting around with bottles of beverages nearby. Every location should have something to read, do, see, or hear. Profound or mundane, it gives each place a sense of individuality.

I think Bethesda has "got" the need for little gags, amusemants, and stories, given Fallout 3 and Point Lookout. But that's what I play for: go where I want, do what I want, with minimal requirements upon me. That's why a survivalist bent to any and all travel rubs me the wrong way. It requires me to do things unrelated in any way to what I want to do. That's why I say "optional with reasons to want to do it" is better than "make it core gameplay". Simply put, my biggest accomplishment in Oblivion is "90% book completion". That is, I confiscated volumes of most of the books in the game (and whitewashed any stolen volumes!). And I enjoyed getting together a list of places from UESP and goign on a rampage of theft to complete a few series. What I'd really like is the ability to use informants to keep the "finding stuff" part in-game.

Say, "I'm looking for a rare book". A begger might say "The Count had a very rare book, but it was stolen". Darn. Guess I got that one already. But then I ask an innkeeper, and he tells me "Word is that the bookstore has a volume that isn't out on the shelves.", and I can now try to go buy it, or failing that, steal it. But I probably don't want to steal it right away, because that SHOULD make people suspicious.

Not quite what you're looking for, is it? But it works for me.

well i loved Cyrodiil and it was ment to be more like the real world since its home of the Imperials the most human race in the games.

But the thing is, I, including many others, don't want to have to stick to roads and inns just to avoid having to eat to keep our stats up.

well not me i love the fact that many people can use magic this is a fictional world, i don't want to have powers that other cant do.


magic outlawed and the necromacy idea is terrible.

No. No alignment system. Thats one thing I'm glad TES doesn't really have. There's fame and infamy and that's good enough. Daedra aren't evil either...it's kind of hard to attribute moral characteristics to personifications. If you go by the Aldudaggas anyways, Akatosh turned Dagon into the prince of destruction he is today, so what's that make him?


I really want a change in the ambient sound/music. If it's night time and I'm outside of town, I don't want happy explorer music that suddenly transitions to blaring horns when a mudcrab sees me. Night time in a foreign land filled with creatures that'd kill you as soon as look at you should not sound like a trollop through a field of daisies. Daggerfall had this down perfectly. Night time was eerie, dangerous, and you typically hoped you were in a city when it happened. There were odd sounds that kept you wondering if something was chasing you. If you were in a dungeon, far away sounds sometimes echoed through the halls, keeping you on edge. Change the ambient battle music trigger. Don't let it start unless either you hit your enemy, or your enemy hits you. People don't usually have a spidey-sense to know that something is creeping up on them and wants to kill them.

It seems survivalism and energy points would bring great satisfaction to some and great frustration to others in equal measure. Maybe on such a polarising and potentially crucial game play element, the option to simply switch it on or off is desirable?

TOWNS:
Towns are brought to life by sound. You can hear the constant rumble of people talking. Sole voices rise above the din, proclaiming the quality of their services, or inviting the start of a new quest.

There is an increased number of NPCs walking the streets, but a more focused interactivity. You may activate a random NPC, but they say only one line about a hot local rumour or their opinion on a topical issue. You can only interact with characters relevant to a quest, characters who offer a service, or otherwise might have something useful to say. When you aim your pointer at such a character, a translucent arrow appears briefly above his or her head.

What? Redguards, Nords, and even Bretons are humans. Imperials only became a race in TESIII; traditionally, Cyrodiil was inhabited by Bretons, Nords, and Nedic peoples (umm... also ancestors of the Nords, if I recall correctly). "Imperials" are just probably a new hybrid of Bretons and Nords, hybridized to a degree that they aren't quite enough like either to fall into the "Breton" or "Nord" race. It happens - the Bretons are the mixing of Nedic (=human) peoples with their Aldmeri slave masters (until they got all overthrown and everything).

It still makes no sense why a humanish race has to live somewhere that looks positively generic Eurasia/N. America. Humans on earth live in places far more exotic and diverse than bland temperate zones.

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I don't want a good-evil alignment system, because it is hard to roleplay when an action you consider "neutral" the dev's only interpreted as "good" or "evil." Similarly, "praying" at shrines for Aedra and Daedra has nothing to do with good/evil.

I like MW's reputation system. Maybe expand on that to have visible reputations (positive and negative) with factions - so, like, you can view your reputation with certain factions (joinable and unjoinable), and NPCs in those factions respond to your presence accordingly.

The more you interact with the world, the more the world will recognize you and interact with you.

Landscape & Wilderness.

I just wish that no matter where the next game is placed, they will not make the landscape boring. I don't even care if we get another human forrest landscape again but plese dont make so much open landscape. Look at Risen or even Morrowind, there were huge cliffs and valleys and no compass that made you the game world feel big. Both Risen and Morrowind has a gameworld way smaller than oblivions Cyrodill, but it felt like it was x3 bigger. It sometimes makes you feel like your lost in the wild.

Please Bethesda, making huge gameworld like oblivion was, does not work when the landscape is so much open that you can see all the cities no matter how far in the wilderness you are.

Beth, Please don't listen to this guy^ But, I know it's probably impossible, but seasons would be cool.

Even if it's very similiar to Gothics, I find G2 and G3 to have even better landscapes.

In TES4 the sea shores look like pond shores: even a slight rising tide would sweep a kilometer inlands. Maybe there ain't a tide thanks to several moons. Anyway: here's how seashores should look like: http://pixdaus.com/pics/1215795861nBdjb8g.jpg In Gothic 2 and 3 it's close to that. Makes you want to have climbing skill again, doesn't it? And the caves. They're huge openings in the mountain side, not a neat pack of tunnels closed off by a sturdy door. G3 caves continued to amaze me, they were so far above anything in TES series.

True, even if people sya that Gothic 3 was bad, I find the landscape and cities better than oblivion cities and landscape. First of all, no compas, no interior, no fast travel, and best of all, the tress, mountains, cliffs and all then nature us so well created that I didn't find it boring at all even if it was a human-like forrest.

i want no leveled quest rewards because, it let people not to take the quests till they become stronger. so if i get a great reward at early lv that will not ruin the fun for me because i have the option to use it or not. to use it

Yeah, to some extent I agree, but how about instead of good and evil we use fame and infamy, that way we can be both famous and infamous, then by praying to certain gods or daedra we have the ability to decrease our fame/infamy to zero. That's what I was trying to say when I mentioned mass effect's moral system.

Stephen.

Oh, I also agree with everyone who says we need a lot more variety in the environment, not just one european land but an entire set of ecologies spread into different areas within the game, so that if I walk from one town to another I get the feeling that the whole environment has changed, even the music and wildlife sounds, different insects, different beasts, different plants (some of which may choose to attack me).

Fame = you are widely known and recognized for deeds people agree with
infamy = you are widely known and recognized for deeds society does not agree with

There's an implied good and evil in the concept of fame and infamy. Afterall, infamy is a sort of fame.

My idea is for something much more complex.

You get a sort of "good rep" and "bad rep" - but it isn't global, it's with factions. Kind of like how faction dispositions worked in Morrowind (you join the Imperial Cult, the Temple hates your guts, that sort of thing). However, instead of modifying NPC disposition, these "reps" would also modify dialog reflecting how well "known" you are to a faction (joinable and unjoinable factions). For example, if you get caught stealing from a merchants, your "rep" with guards will decrease, as will your "rep" with merchants. Your "rep" with commoners might not be as impacted. The reputation value would, of course, affect disposition values (it makes sense, right?) dynamically - whereas those faction disposition modifiers don't change whether you are an initiate or a guildmaster. On the other hand, perhaps this "rep" system could incorporate faction dispositions altogether, so that it does make a difference with other NPCs whether you are a newbie to a faction, or its grandmaster.

An added layer of complexity and realism would mean that there isn't just a single Commoners faction. There's the Commoners of City A, Commoners of Town B, Commoners of Outpost C, Guards of Town D, and so on. This would prevent the whole "psychic" guards thing. Of course, it makes sense that the reputation you have with your Guild would carry over into different guildhall locations.

Yes, this works well.

I'd like though, that if my fame in a certain guild is high and my infamy is also high in that guild that my guild members will sometimes mention things like "this guy is a really great guy, but you have to watch out, he's a bit crazy" and the conversations amongst themselves will alter according to how you are percieved via that groups perception of your fame and infamy.

Stephen

An interesting idea.... but, I would imagine that maybe you'd get kicked out of the guild for doing "bad" things (actions that warrant a "bad reputation"). Maybe if you get kicked out, but then rejoin, NPC guild members would remember that. It makes sense that they wouldn't instantly forget that your character killed/stole/broke the rules.

Instead of reputation, I could also use the word "reaction" to better link all this to NPC interactions ("good reaction" "bad reaction").

I agree 100% with this guy. I am one of those people who levels up high enough just so I can get that item, whatever it may be, (It could be totally irrelevant to the type of character I'm roleplaying) and I may not even use it at all, I would just want it at it's best just knowing that I have it. But more to the point, I agree with this guy because it also brings more challenge, meaning after beating this quest with my level 7 character when this level should be completed by a higher level, (we'll say level 12) I am gonna get a much better reward because I got it at a low level. And all of this can be vice versa as well.

On the whole fame/infamy thing I'd rather have a system where every NPC can decide on their own if they see my actions as good or bad and that IS possible.

If you look back at the very beginning of this thread i mentioned some systems how NPCs can work, among that was personality sheets and preferences/dislikes. Based on those a NPC can directly observe your actions and decide if that's something they find good or find them bad. If you fight and kill someone a lot of NPCs will fight that horrifying but there might be some that find that appealing so in those few eyes what you did was something good.

There's one thing I don't recall seeing in any RPG for a while, and would really like to see. When I played Dragon Age: Origins, I was expecting an RPG with lots of choices. I started a mage character, and played through my origin story. Then the time came for me to join the Grey Wardens, which would start the main quest. I was given the option to either join them, or stay in the Mages Circle. For the hell of it, I chose the Mages Circle, but I was essentially forced through dialogue to join the Wardens and start the main quest. Which brings me to my suggestion. I want the choice not to start the main quest. I want to start the game, do something that stops me from participating in the main quest, and play the rest of the game, never being able to "finish" the game.

Some people don't want to be, for example, the Champion of Cyrodiil, and just want to be a regular guy doing side quests. To do that, they have to not deliver the Amulet of Kings to Jauffre. But what if we had the option to give the Amulet to him, and leave it at that? You could tell him that he can have the Amulet, and that you don't want to be involved anymore. After a while, you would start to hear about all of the events in the main quest, but you'd never be involved in it.

This would be a very nice option to have and would give players more choices.