Excellent idea. Should of thought of it meself.

I dunno if it's been mentioned before, but visible damage to worn weapons and armor, and battle damage to your character when his health is low would be a nice touch.

Also, the repair skill should be more like FO3 - actually needing raw materials in order to repair weapons and armor. How can you repair chainmail with just a hammer? You'd realistically need similar material to patch in the damaged spots. You should be able to combine pieces from various damaged armor suits, and visibly see it on your character - such as repairing a damaged Dwarven cuirass with some Orcish or Bonemold pieces, and visibly seeing the mismatched pauldrons on the character.

Perhaps at expert levels the PC could forge his own weapons and armor by combining items collected in the game. This process could include melting down raw metals and reforging and mixing them into more potent varieties. For light armor, repair could include actually constructing fur and leather armor from creatures you kill. Even daedra skin to create a sort of daedric leather.

That is some good suggestions!

You have some very well thought out ideas. If these transformations do appear in the next game, I hope they're presented in a way similar to yours. Awesome.

1.building your own house and or village is a great ideal because it adds a little personality and attachement to your property same goes with raising mounts also would love to furnish and design it also let me bring in decorations like bodies -_- also would like to see economy which would influence houseing for peasents and other people

2.better looking weapons/armour cause the current armour and weapons well weapons arnt 2 bad but there nothing special but the armour is just gaudy and ugly

3.wagons and caravans and trading also maybe some giants to put caravans and wagons on like 1000 gold to hire a one for one trip and flying mounts and wagons and bandits roaming the skys roads montain ect.

4.other adventurers not necessarily humans but ai's like bounty hunters and what not

5.better charecter design theyre all pretty bad looking

6. optional hunger system also deer instatly killed and more abundant

7. more fantastical creatures aka golems werewolves ect...
thats all for now.

this. all the way.

My idea could be used on whatever type of creature we'll be able to ride, I just used horses as an example.

If it makes sense, sure. Like siltstriders.
I don't know if mammoths exist there, do they?
How and why would a werewolf want to give you a ride?!?
What are these big cats you're talking about?
Aren't cliffracers too small to carry a few hundred pounds?

the cat's are called senche, lemme get a link.

EDIT: yea, here: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Tamriel:Khajiit#Sub-species_Notes

Mirander, drinks are on me for the rest of forever. I love you.

At the risk of sounding a like a stalker, I'm going to talk about Necromancy.

Necromancy has far too long been the ONE school of magic that all games have represented, yet none have allowed the player to partake in. Conjuration of undead is, and has always been, a hold over. Those spell slots could be better used for new spells that deal much more heavily with daedra and things not of this world. Necromancy itself should be created and, obviously, deal with the creation of permanent (At least until they fall apart from rot, age, and damage) undead slaves, but ALSO deal with other aspects often associated with "dark arts" like blood magic, death magic, and curses.

First, let me start with the most basic concept of Necromancy: Control of death and the dead.

The player must find a corpse, any corpse, although values for strength, endurance, intelligence, etc vary from species to species and individual to individual. The corpse can be prepared (or not, depending on the need and situation) by the necromancer through various methods. Acid baths are popular and easy for skeletons, although simple, and cheap, methods like leaving the corpse out on a beach work just as well. Zombies are simply corpses used instantly for minions. All minions can be augmented with items like leather straps to keep bones together, to leather hides to keep flesh from flaying and falling off.

Bodies must be placed within a ritual circle and a ritual done (which fades away to black just like sleeping and takes some number of hours to complete, depending on the minion being crafted) to create permanent minions. Temporary minions are as simple as an animation spell being cast on a corpse, although the magic must be more and more powerful to animate larger and more powerful creatures. These minions are often extremely mindless and can only attack, defend, or complete single, simple tasks. Permanent minions are not as useless, however. Creatures that are intelligent in life (Mc-DerpaHurpa the Orc, for example, is not intelligent, while Imso Suprsmtarht the High Elf, is intelligent) can perform complex tasks like locking doors, patrolling areas, and even simple speech to relay messages. Intelligence is both determines by the general species and whether the necromancer binds a soul to the corpse, and if so, how intelligent that person or creature was in its life (based on intelligence score, obviously).

However, Necromancy is not all about the undead. It is also about death itself. Blood magic focuses upon the life giving parts of the body, especially blood, organs, and even diseases (can't have life without death). As such, absorb health (and other absorbs) are now in this skills list of spells. Many of the spells in this tree, however, do not use nearly as much magicka as they use health itself. Blood magic can shoot razor sharp darts of blood from one's finger tips, or put a deadly curse upon an enemies heart that staggers their movement with what nearly resemble heart attacks. Curses can also be cast as a ritual from many many miles away from a target, but they require an item close to (in terms of how important it is to them), or off of, the target, and you must know their true name. Such curses can be many different effects, but can not be something that could directly harm a person (10 points of fire damage a second, for example). Instead, curses focus upon weakening, subduing, and altering the conditions of the people they afflict, often for political, economic, or purely combative advantages. A ritual, however, takes many strong ingredients that take a while to collect, and in some cases parts, blood, or souls, so they are not to be preformed lightly against normal targets.

Necromancy is also tied into the spiritual realm of naturally occurring undead and ghosts. A skilled necromancer can converse with spirits and are good at using them or driving them away. Spirits can be summoned for advice or questions, especially in places considered haunted. Being attuned to death, a necromancer can set up barriers and wards against the dead which prevents undead up to a certain level from entering, so powerful undead like Liches are still a match against such barriers. Turn undead is also moved to the Necromancy tree, reflecting the control that necromancers have over them.

Some spells play upon the cycle of life and death. Shattering a skeleton into deadly bone splinters is not uncommon, nor is exploding the corpse of a zombie to let sickly rot cover a room. Necromancers, because of such abilities, are often heavily reliant upon their thralls without another school of magic to lean upon. Although, such spells are not limited to allies of the user, as some rogue undead have had the misfortune discovering.

Oh, ok, thanks. So I guess the cat would work as transportation.

And I agree with the Necromancer thing. They should assume the player might want to be a part of it.

Now I know that this would be "A task to difficult to attempt." As some would put it, but i think that they should have you be able to have a unique name that the NPC's said whilst talking to or about you. It would make it that much more interesting and immersive. I think that it would be cool. It would take hours of extra dialogue, but what the hell? Right? I think it would be interesting.

Don't judge me!!! :slap:

p.s. they should also enhance necromanncy. I would love to perform a ritual, be outlawed, have a personal daedric slave, all whilst being in the mages guild. It would be amazing! :rock:

p.p.s. What if your players actions were talked about from NPC to NPC. Like so;

"Oh, have you heard. So-and-so was killed by a vampire on wednesday."
"Oh my really? The only person who might be a vampire is %PCName."
"Oh, but do you really think %PCGender did that? %PCGender is such a nice person."

So on and so forth.

Oh, another thing! We need a body clean up crew. Like have a low life crew that works for little more than dirt and they would clean up dead bodies of NPC's or animals. If these things(NPC's or creatures) were out of a town then they would slowly deteriorate. You would be able to see the slow effects.

Please Bethesda? Please?

heh, washington.

Greatest. idea. ever.

Or get hired to be one of the cleanup crew members and secretly bring the bodies to your underground cave where you slowly have begun collecting and creating an army of undead!

One bad thing I noticed 'bout Oblivion was you were a hollow figure; you never received special attention (Part from that Adoring Fan [censored]) Some guy or girl who openly or secretly adores you, like you see at the Arena/Mage's Guild. When you approach Him/Her they run away in fear.

On another note, I would like bribes to have proper meaning. Like you could put a few Septims into one of these body cleaners would greatly help your Necromancy. This is one of many possibilities. For example bribing a Battlemage could give you the keys to a room where you could backstab a guard and work on his body.

:cryvaultboy:

I was thinking about Fast Travel, and how Bethesda could compromise with the people who are both for and against it. What if fast travel was kept in, but you were only allowed to fast travel between major cities? Look at http://www.imperial-library.info/maps/obcodex_skyrim.jpg map of Skyrim and look at the cities. The player could fast travel to any city he chooses, but to actually go somewhere out in the wilderness, they would have to fast travel to the closest city to that location and walk the rest of the way.

Or, if you want to take out Fast Travel altogether, just put means of transportation that the player has to pay a small fee for in each city, so the player can travel between them.

Fast Travel makes things feel too easy, and makes the map feel small. No fast travel makes the player walk the same paths over and over again, which can get boring. Bethesda needs to find a balance between the two, and I think my suggestion would be a good compromise.

Note: I don't want to start another fast travel debate, I just wanted to put my suggestion here.

All hail to the Queen of giant rats! That sounds like a great idea, though quite hard and tiresome to implement. But it would be great nonetheless if they did.


I love those werewolf ideas. Especially the "scent"-thingy. Been playing Twilight Princess?

Those are the best ideas I've seen around here in a long time.

Magic. Too useful to ignore, but too weak to depend on exclusively. So what can be done to make magic better?

1. Spell efficiency stat: individual spell merchants sell spells with a particular efficiency. Bargain spells use substantially more magicka for the same result than master-taught spells. EACH effect can have its own efficiency rating (although in general, vanilla spells will have all of their effects be of the same efficiency). Efficiency can go up to 200-300%, but that should be rare and for a few legendary spells.

2. Spells have skill levels to cast at all, but they are not tied specifically to "mastery" levels. Destruction of 37 becomes a valid requirement, and such spells should exist in quantity. Give the player more to look forward to for each level gain. Under ideal conditions, the magicka cost ought to be "all a character can manage" or close to it, but that's too difficult to quantify. The main thing is that we don't want a spell to have a required level of 50 Restoration, yet a cost of 18 magicka. in any event, give me something to look forward to between mastery levels. getting 25 levels to open up new spells? Not compelling. Gaining 2 levels to open up a new spell = something I can sheathe my sword over.

3. Spells should have a small textual description. Not only do you have requirement level and cost, but a flavor text that tells you that your newly-learned Feather spell is, "A common everyday utility spell", while that healing spell you learned in the Temple of Stendarr is "elite" and "almost miraculous". These descriptions can be derived from skill required, efficiency, and the basic mechanical stats (ie, weakness to fire on self is "strange". weakness to fire on self 100% for 30 seconds is "perverse", but weakness to fire on target with large area of effect is "pyromaniac"). In addition, special spells created to be far more powerful and efficient than you could otherwise create should be specially set aside as "Legendary", and should be difficult to obtain, etc. (I want this because it'd make for a nice element for a re-imagined speechcraft skill*)

4. Limit of 8 effects (or 10 or 16 or whatever, but a hard limit). I generally hate doing hard arbitrary limits, but this one has a root cause.

5. Engine change: on a spell cast, the spell stats are stored in a global variable set (hence the fixed effect count), and mod scripts can read back the effect, school, point cost, and efficiency of a spell. This allows modders to make some incredibly complex and unique mods to overhaul how magic skills level. And we all like modability, right?**

6. Limit the maximum effect of Fortify spells to something much lower than 100. Better, make it a %, allowing you at most to double what you have NOW (or less). I personally prefer removal of fortify as a castable effect (enchant only), but I can't see winning that argument, so...

7. Fortify Magicka goes bye-bye in favor of a somewhat more unsavory means of increasing magicka: special soul pendants that function as a magicka pool, and can be used to boost magicka or as a normal soul gem. Better pendants are not easily obtained, but you can potentially gain several hundred magicka through the best pendants. Of course, the pendant doesn't recharge over time, so you have to manage your reserves carefully.

8. Player-created spells are of "variable" efficiency. That is, if I create "Fire Damage 10 pts on touch", the efficiency is based on my destruction skill at the moment I cast it. Not sure how I'd allow drain skill/fortify skill to affect this, though. So what happens is that as you gain skill, you might shift from "use 2 points of magicka per effect point" at Destruction 4 to "use 9 points of magicka per 5 points of effect" at Destruction 5.***

* Basically, Boast -> actually talking about in-game deeds. Including skill-related accomplishments, such as learning a Legendary spell
** If you play on the PC, anyway
*** this is applied before the cost metrics that Oblivion used, so all spells decrease in cost over time, but player-created ones decrease faster overall due to svcking at low skill levels.

Thoughts?

Imo I got too much special attention: it's unrealistic to everyone suddenly starting the conversation by admiring you strong shield arm, or remarking any other stuff that makes absolutely no sense. If I'm extremely sneaky, no one should notice it or especially not to mention it. Also people have annoying tendency to stop whatever they're doing when I'm nearby, and act like I was approaching them or willing to talk.
And no matter if you're the Champion of Whatever, not everyone should be psychic and know about it. There's no internet and stuff in Tamriel, and lonely peasants in the middle of nowhere should mainly react on your appearance rather than achievements they shouldn't know about. You're wearing a archmages robes and arrive by levitating? They greet you as a high sorceror. You're hiding beneath a hooded cloak, look like a ranger. Deadly but peaceful. They should greet you with some caution. You approach wielding a bloody claymore and there are peasant heads hanging on your belt. They should know to run.


And Mirander, great post!

From a previous discussion:

A Paradigm Shift:

In the previous games, the magic skills tended to be defined by what they could do; Destruction was for attack spells, Restoration for healing spells, and Conjuration for summoning things. I'd like to see the definitions of the magic skills shift a bit from 'what they can do', to 'how they do it'. Under this new definition, Destruction wouldn't just be the attack skill, it would be magic for manipulating energy (heat, electricity, etc), Restoration is the direct effecting of living things, not just healing, and Conjuration is the magic of Oblivion, so the undead-affecting spells ought to go. The old set of abilities are largely still present under this new definition of the skills, but defining them this way allows the skills to branch out in interesting and unexpected new ways.

The Magicka-Health Disparity:

One of the things that really needs to be fixed for the next game. The disparity I'm talking about is that your magicka pool is purely dependent on stats, while health is determined by both stats and level. This often led to situations in Oblivion at higher levels where there was such a huge difference between your magicka and the enemy's health that you'd have to empty your magicka pool at them multiple times to kill them. The next game needs to be consistent in how health and magicka are determined.

Spell Tomes:

Oblivion introduced these in a DLC. It played like an unimportant little tack-on (mostly because it was one), but the idea was a good one. So, I wanted to come up with a way to more fully integrate spell tomes into the next game. I have two ideas on how to do this: a less extreme one, and a more extreme one, so I'll present both here:

-The Less Extreme Idea: spell tomes function the same way they did in Oblivion, but rather than being a rare piece of dungeon loot, they become the cornerstone of learning magic. Spell merchants now sell these books, rather than teaching the spell directly (this also means that, as long as you hold on to the book, you could learn the spell, delete it, and then re-learn it from the same book, if you have a reason to). Spell tomes also become much more common loot off of mage enemies, and out of mage-themed dungeons (necromancer and conjuror lairs); boss mage NPCs would be guaranteed to carry at least one spell tome on them. Certain major mage characters (in Oblivion, this would include Arch-Mage Traven, Mankar Camaron, and Mannimarco, among others) will have special spell tomes that contain multiple powerful spells.

-The More Extreme Idea: all the stuff in the above paragraph applies, except for one thing: in this version, spell tomes wouldn't teach spells; in fact, nothing would teach spells. Spell tomes would instead act like spell scrolls with infinite charges; so as long as you have the book in your inventory, you can cast the spell, but if you remove it, you can't cast anything. I think this serves three good purposes: first, it further plays up the whole 'mages are scholars' thing, which always existed in TES, but without a lot of explanation as to why, since magic was never really shown as requiring a lot of book learnin'. Second, it gives mages more reason to care about their equipment, which was lacking compared to warriors and rogues. And third, it provides an easy way to disarm a mage when the game calls for it (I mean really, why would guards even bother with throwing a powerful mage into jail? Open Lock + Invisibility = easy escape).

Enchanting:

I'm largely neutral on whether Enchanting should return as a skill, so I'm going to present ideas for doing it both as a skill and as just a service:

-No Skill: if enchanting is just a service provided, then it needs to be more widely available than it was in Oblivion. You don't need to be a member of the Mage's Guild to get things enchanted, but you will get better prices if you are. I'd also like to see the return of cast-on-use enchantments. I can understand why Bethesda chose to restrict certain enchantments to certain items, as Morrowind's enchanting could be a little intimidating, so I don't begrudge them a little simplification here and there. So I would set up enchanting like this: weapons get cast-on-strike enchantments; armor, clothing, and foci (more on them below) get constant-effect enchantments; and amulets and rings get cast-on-use enchantments.

-As a Skill: All the stuff above still applies here, as well as the following. First of all, it should be possible to un-enchant something; drawing the magic out of it and storing it in an empty soul gem, allowing you to re-enchant the item, and use the now-filled soul gem for enchanting. With enchanting as a skill, there should be three ways to enchant an item: first, do it yourself, with no monetary cost, but a chance of failure. Second, get an NPC enchanter to do it, with no chance of failure, but this costs money, and you can't actually use your own spells to enchant it, you have to use the spells the enchanter has access to. The third (and new) option would be to get an NPC enchanter to help you enchant the item; the cost of doing this would depend on your character's Enchant skill (higher skill = lower price), but it would remove the chance of failure, and allow you to enchant with your own repertoire of spells. Enchanting the last way also counts as training in your Enchanting skill, just as enchanting by yourself does.

Foci and Reagents:

I intend these items to basically replace the staves that were present in Oblivion. Foci and reagents have different mechanics to them, and affect different spell schools, but they both exist to improve the mage's spell casting in some way:

-Foci: foci are used to improve your spellcasting for Destruction, Restoration, Mysticism, and Enchanting (if Enchanting returns as a skill); basically all those spell schools that have lots of instant-duration spells in them. They are objects that the mage equips in place of a weapon (although some can also be used as weapons), and include things such as mage staves, wands, totems, ritual daggers, and so on (and for Enchanting, maybe an enchanted smithing hammer, or something like that). As a base, all foci reduce the magicka cost of all spells in the above schools (for Enchanting, it would increase the success rate, or the cost). Beyond that, some foci can have enchantments placed upon them that further improves certain spells (maybe one that increases how much healing spells heal you for, or the amount of weight a telekinesis spell can lift, and so on).

-Reagents: these improve your spellcasting for Alteration, Conjuration, Illusion, and Necromancy (again, if Necromancy appears as a skill); those spell schools that focus on spells with lengthy durations to them. Reagents are consumable items that will greatly improve the duration of the duration of a spell, if you have the reagent in your inventory when you cast the spell. Each reagent would be specific to a single type of spell (possible reagents could include a feather for slowfall spells, bonemeal for a skeleton summoning spell, a daedric rune for daedra summoning spells, and so forth).

Destruction

The magic of manipulating energy. This skill wouldn't seriously change under my ideas. It's mostly just a case of finding new ways to toss energy around. Also, providing special properties to each type of element.

Spell List:

-Fire: fire spells have a percentage chance to do additional damage over time to their target. Also, fire spells burn away minor landscape elements, like grass and small shrubbery. When cast underwater, fire spells would instead manifest as a pocket of boiling water.
-Shock: does extra damage based on the amount of metal armor worn by the target. When cast into water, it automatically increases the area of effect, as well as the damage done.
-Frost: has a chance to temporarily slow the movement of the target. When cast at water, it temporarily creates a solid block of ice that can be walked upon.
-Energy: fires a blast of pure energy. Energy has none of the special features of fire, frost, or shock, but it has a lower magicka cost. Also, resistance to energy would be much more rare than resistance to fire/frost/shock.
-Projectile Spell
-Touch Spell
-Area of Effect Spell: fire is a fireball that explodes on impact; frost sends out a cone-shaped wave of frost; shock is a lightning bolt that chains to multiple targets; and energy is an explosion similar to the fire spell.
-Stream Spell: a continuous stream of fire/lightning/whatever
-Radial Spell: an explosion radiating out from the caster.
-Imbue Weapon: temporarily enchant your weapon with the element of your choice.
-Illuminate: activates all fire-based light sources in the area of effect (campfires, candles, etc).
-Douse: deactivate all fire-based light sources in the area of effect.
-Resist Element: I like this better here, rather than in Restoration.
-Weakness to Element

Alteration

I see Alteration magic as being the magic that deals with changing inanimate matter: levitation works by creating a cushion of air under the caster, waterbreathing transmutes water into air, and opening locks works by altering the tumblers in the lock.

The big thing that needs to happen with Alteration is to bring back the spells cut in the transition from Morrowind to Oblivion. Another thing to consider is any elemental-style magic that based on earth, air, or water, as I think they fit well here.

Spell List:

-Magic Armor: the Shield spells from the previous games renamed (I have a reason for renaming)
-Elemental Armor
-Shield: this spell functions different from all other spells. Instead of mapping to the cast button, this spell maps to the block button, as though it were an actual physical shield (this, of course makes the two incompatible). When you block, it causes a disc of force to appear in front of you and block attacks (including offensive magic), while draining your magicka as long as you maintain it. If any of you have played the game Infamous, I'm basically picturing the shield ability from that game.
-Open Lock
-Lock
-Water Walking
-Water Breathing
-Burden
-Feather
-Slowfall
-Jump
-Levitate
-Fly: a very high-speed levitate that could be used for travel. However, taking any damage will knock you out of the spell, making it a poor choice in combat.
-Strengthen Weapon/Armor: increases the damage done by a weapon or the defensive properties of a piece of armor.
-I'm halfway inclined to move Destroy Weapon/Armor here as well, I personally think it'd fit better.
-Push: hits an enemy with a blast of wind that sends them flying back and knocks them off their feet
-Root: causes the earth to rise up and trap an enemies feet, preventing movement.
-Barricade: temporarily creates a low wall of earth in front of you that can act as both an obstacle and a shield.

Restoration

I would use this as the skill for all magic that directly effects living things. Healing is the obvious part, but I would also include a new spell type: shapeshifting. After all, if you think about it, altering someone's stats could be considered a limited form of shapeshifting, so why not take it one step further?

Spell List:

-Restore Health/Stat/Fatigue
-Cure Poison/Disease
-Fortify Stat
-Absorb Stat/Skill
-Damage Stat: I like having all the stat-manipulating spells under restoration.
-Drain Stat: same as above.
-Shapeshift: Animal: spells to assume the form of any natural animal (wolves, lions, etc), or fictional creatures that serve as animals (nix hounds or guars).
-Shapeshift: Monster: take the form of any non-undead, non-daedra monsters (ogres, trolls, etc.).
-Claws: turn your hands into claws, increasing hand-to-hand damage.
-Swiftswim: grow webbed hands and the like to increase swimming speed
-Spiderclimb: increase climbing skill (yes, there should be a climbing skill).
-Nighteye: I think this works best as a shapeshifting spell

Illusion

Magic used for altering the mind, and creating false constructs of light and sound. The big thing I want to do here is create some spells that make actual illusionary images.

Spell List:

-Charm
-Command
-Calm
-Frenzy
-Rally
-Demoralize
-Silence: prevents speaking, as well as spellcasting
-Paralyze
-Blind
-Chameleon
-Invisibility
-Light
-Sound: causes a loud sound to burst forth wherever the spell hits, causing NPCs to go investigate.
-Mark Person: marks an NPC. Used in conjunction with the following two spells:
-Illusionary Attire: your clothing/armor changes appearance to match that of the marked target. Doing this will make you appear to be part of whatever social group the marked person is (so copying a guard's uniform makes you appear to be a guard, a noble's finery lets you blend in at a high society event, etc).
-Doppelganger: you take on the full appearance of the marked target. People will treat you as if you were that person, but if the copied person sees you, you'll be revealed as a fake (and probably get in trouble with the law).
-Mirror Image: creates several illusionary copies of the caster. Enemies will become confused and not know which to attack.

Conjuration

Magic tied to Oblivion. The big thing I want to do is cut the undead-related stuff. It doesn't fit here, I think, and would be better suited to its own separate skill.

Spell List:

-Summon Daedra: yep, just daedra.
-Bound Item
-Command Daedra: the other command spells stay in Illusion, but Conjuration gets the ability to do it to daedra
-Bind Daedra: traps a daedra in place, where it can neither effect, nor be effected by anything else.
-Dismiss: un-summons your current pet. You automatically get this spell when you acquire your first Summon Daedra spell.

Mysticism

Mysticism has always lacked a concrete theme. The one I would give it is being the magic all of all esoteric forces; things that, while they can be affected by mages, their full natures are only half understood by people on Nirn. This includes such things as kinetics, space, time, the soul, and even magic itself.

Spell List:

-Soul Trap
-Detect Life
-Dispel Magic
-Absorb Magic
-Reflect Magic
-Detect Magic: just as detect life shows an aura around living things, detect magic displays an aura around all magical items, all magical parts of the landscape (such as those magic-firing crystals in Alyeid Ruins), and all characters who have magic as their primary specialization.
-Telekinesis: lifts objects and creatures into the air. Throwing them can cause damage.
-Telekinetic Shot: a streamlined combat telekinesis. The spell will automatically pick up a random nearby object and fire at in the direction the spell is cast.
-Telekinetic Barrier: picks up numerous nearby objects and sets them to whirling around the caster. The objects damage anyone who gets too close.
-Mark
-Recall
-Teleport to Location: spells designed to teleport to specific set locations, typically the Mage's Guildhalls, and other major magical locations.
-Blink: teleports the caster a short distance in the direction aimed.
-Haste: speeds up the flow of time for the caster, making the rest of the world appear to move in slow motion.

Some of the things that have annoyed me the most about games I've played recently are inventory management and process-of-elimination searching. I'd like to elaborate on some thoughts I had regarding the latter.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels compelled to scour over every room in a dungeon at least twice in order to make sure that I haven't missed any loot. I also hope I'm not the only one who has gotten frustrated doing this and really doesn't find it very fun at all. Though, I should mention that treasure hunting in FO3 was amazingly more fun than in Oblivion, but maybe that's just because scavenging fit the theme. I suppose someone could tell me that I'm not obligated to search over a dungeon for every item and that is true. But I suppose that I worry my character will be underequipped financially, armorwise, etc if I do not. I imagine that the devs take available loot into consideration for game balancing. That at least sort of forces you into doing it lest you find yourself with too empty of pockets.

The first thought that comes to mind on how to resolve my issue is how items are just floating, spinning containers in Metal Gear Solid (or at least MGS3). I thought that was fine because I just thought of it as an abstract way of informing the player that Snake sees an item. Hold on because I am not advocating this for the next Elder Scrolls. Instead, I was thinking of how something could simply be highlighted in some way such as outlining, etc. However, there's more to it than that. In order to appease our RPG instincts that want to treasure hunt, there would be a search skill that determines what you can and can't find.

Now, what I mean is that some items wouldn't appear in-game at all with a low search skill. The items actually appearing in game would just be a straight-forward abstraction of the fact that the character was able to find them. I know a lot of people are going to think it's a horrible crime to have to miss certain loot forever just because of a low character skill, but it wouldn't be any different than never getting into a container protected by a high level lock. Besides that, unique and/or important loot wouldn't need to play by these rules. Essential and extremely important items could appear to every character.

I guess this all seems very similar to being a "scrounger" on Bioshock and I think there was also a perk that sort of did this in FO3, correct? Where you would find more caps, etc in containers. I guess it would work just like that except outside of containers, too.

There are moments where finding random items is really exciting, but I just don't have love for searching for items overall. I just feel like a game is testing my patience rather than any actual skill or wit. And I really feel a game should do everything it can to keep the gameplay focused on the combat and story, the parts with real substance.

Any thoughts?

For that, I have an idea, but it would only work if they don't do respawning loot. Maybe they could show the chest/box/crate opened.