On the problem of names for your character in dialogue:

How about being able to buy titles/nicknames like in Fable2? Of course you will also be able to earn them.
It can be easily done.

It was fun in Morrowind, but on the other hand you were able to exploit it too much. Good thing would be if levitation would be available only as potion or scroll, to be used once, because if it can be learned as spell, you would find yourself too much using it, therefore cheating.

just because you were able to exploit a specifc spell in morrowind doesn't mean you will always be able to exploit it in a future game. i simply disagree with the reason why levitation should be limited to such an extent.

Exactly how is excessive use of levitation a cheat? That would be like saying that excessive use of fire damage is a cheat. It has legitimate use in the world, and to rob the player of it on grounds of cheating makes absolutely no sense.

And on the issue of balance, while I did not find the magicka cost of levitation to be unbalancing in Morrowind, it's something that could be tweaked and fixed by swapping out a number.

How about some dragons!!!

lmao just kidding it would be cool to see more npc's interact with the environment such as npc's actually raiding caves. its strange that there are many hunters doing nothing just standing when they can be getting loot from ruins and caves or forts. And if you have a disease maybe you can give it to another npc and so forth (like vampires) that would be cool to see but most likely not going to happen but its a suggestion

gee848, I agree with most of what you said, although about the culture thing, of course everyone in Cyrodiil would be integrated into Imperial culture, more or less. Morrowind was a great example though of variety, you had the primitive, nomadic Ashlanders whose culture was completely different from other Dunmer. Also, Telvanni for instance acted differently than Redoran, etc.

But my biggest disagreement would be to stop using "passive" wildlife as enemies. Yes, in today's society it is extremely rare for animals to attack people. Mostly because there are a lot less of them, and the ones that are left are behind fences, either in zoos or parks. Also, they have been conditioned after centuries of encountering people with guns and cars and in large groups to fear us. But extending back into prehistoric times, and even as late as the medieval period, a wolf or bear or mountain lion might see a lone person in the woods as a much tastier meal than a deer which is faster and comes naturally equipped with horns and hooves. Plus, it's a fantasy game. Wild animals are wilder. Just sayin'.

While I understand that most of the cultures would be integrated I would much rather play a game where they are not. I think it would be much more interesting and add more to the possibilities.

To be perfectly honest with you, wolves and bears (the ones featured in oblivion) would almost NEVER attack a human, even during mideval times. The only bears that would attack more often (not nearly all the time though) would be brown bears and polar bears. And while there are a lot less of them around today than there were back then that argument is actually completely flawed. While the population numbers are down humans have been encroaching on their habitat so much that the animals have come into contact with humans more frequently.
Bears are scavengers and wolves are opportunists (feeding only on much smaller creatures, or sick or wounded animals, NOT HUMANS (maybe a baby)) and more than that they only actually hunt when they have to. Bears nowadays eat trash left over by tourists or even venture into town to find a dumpster. In medival times they stuck to their own food rich environment for the most part, so bears would seldom ever approach a human out of hunger or intent to cause harm, they would much rather flee back into the food rich wilderness and not risk getting hurt.

I didn't mention mountain lions, but they too are opportunists, they won't attack a human unless they are defending themselves or retardedly hungry.

I know its a game but if people want better AI, better graphics, cooler environments then the wildlife would be more likely to act like they are supposed to. One would think

Right, cuz Fable was so awesome. :thumbsdown:

I never said that.

I said it "cuz" it would be an achievable way of getting your "name" in dialogue

It would be nice to have its own pet i mean buy a lion to help you fighting or other animal.

ranger guild would be nice too i mean in oblivion there is fighter guild mage guild and what about range???

like in fable 2 have a wife would be fun

elderscroll on xbox live i mean you can make a party in a city then you go out of the city and only you and your party can see each other.

make your own guild

work for the guard (guard or legion quest)

you can go in all contry like cirodyll morowind sumerset isle etc.

make your own wepon and have a smithing skill

thats all

You do realize that half of that stuff is impossible, right?

Especially since you needed a higher proficiency with Mysticism to use levitation, which was difficult to level without training, and the spells cost so damn much to make on your own.

I hope this College of Whispers is different in a good way. The Mages Guild was really lame and desrved the axe. I don't know if I'd want a guild that's more selective with who it serves ("if you've got our money, we've got your goods" is a smart policy), but definitely one which is harder to join and rank in. They sound secretive about who they admit into their inner circles. Imagine walking into a guild hall, and seeing the peons lining up for spells which might just kill the caster. A mage cloaked in multi-hued robes, boney fingers ornamented with jeweled rings, ushers you past the riff raff and into the inner hall, where the well payed, well connected customers receive only the best service.

Some small (and not so small) things:

-The AI of enemies should be different depending on the enemy. A mountain lion should sneak up on you, try to dodge your blows, and run away if it senses a fight it can't win. Human enemies don't always have to fight each other to the death. A bandit (in most situations) could just knock you unconscious and steal your valuables. Human enemies shouldn't be hostile or should run away based on your power and renown. A zombie or controlled undead will just lumber at you and ignore blows or projectiles. Mages and rangers should try to avoid hand-to-hand combat. Bears (and their equivalent) shouldn't attack you outright most of the time and will only do so if you piss them off.

-More non-hostile creatures (rabbits, squirrels, foxes, etc. and their mythical equivalents)

-Creatures like wolves should hunt in packs

-Blood trails and animal tracks

-Rain shouldn't go through roofs

-Magic should affect the environment. (A fireball fired at a bale of hay should set it on fire, a ice spell on a puddle of water should freeze it, etc)

-If you have a high enough speechcraft skill, you should be able to persuade merchants in buying things they usually won't buy or sell things they usually won't sell.

-Different opening times for different shops

-No psychic guards

And that's all I can think of right now.

I agree with much of what you mention! :nod: Very well articulated. And I do agree with you about the culture thing. Even though a country is supposed to have a single culture, in reality there are many regional subcultures and differences. Even an Empire will have a great deal of diversity - and also tensions.


Agreed, but maybe not about an abandoned house. Why would the town/city allow an abandoned house to sit there unoccupied? Either fill it or raze it.

I imagine that, like in ye olden days, a person built his/her house - in other words, you didn't hire some dudes to come and build it for you, you went and made it yourself and it was your home, your kid's home, your grandkid's home - heritable. So, 1) you get a lot of people occupying one house, 2) a relative will move in if someone croaks, 3) it seems odd that someone would sell their house like a modern-day housing market. I dunno, it just seems like an odd anachronism sort of thing.

True, but if you have a city infrastructure complete with a ruling administration, then the city likely owns the land, and concepts of buying and selling property in a more modern sense starts to seem less out of place.

I'm new here but ive had some good ideas and some of my friends agree
first i have the elder scrolls games for pc and there seems to be a lot of dual wielding mods for oblivion so i think that they should add the option to have different fighting styles ( like dual wield, left handed weapons, and reverse blades) there should also be more realistic physics. if you kill some one with stealth the guards should not know about it right when you walk out into the street. More armor and weapons should be added, such as armors from other provinces, since there are rumors that 5 will be placed in all of tamriel.

for me, what would make the game better is this:

creatures get hungry and thirsty, so they arent just programned to attack you on sight (i think red dead redemption is using something similar to this).

more people travelling in the countryside

bring back werewolves!

getting married and companions, companions probably will be in as they were in fallout 3


the game doesnt need collossal changes to its predecessors, just some upgrades and features.

Required reading for culture and story developers: http://www.amazon.com/Uppity-Women-Ancient-Times-Vicki/dp/1567312497/ref=pd_sim_b_3 by Vicki Leon.

Awesome book, my favorite non-fiction book ever. It brings these ancient cultures and people to life, and you really learn a lot about how they lived (and died!). Plenty of politics that are positively fascinating compared to the boring stuff nowadays and that you learn in history books. I think this is a gold mine of inspiration for creating realistic politics, back-stories, plots, and relationships for NPCs in TES games.

With regards to non hostile creatures such as squirrels and rabbits, mice and butterflies, cats and friendly platypus, I want them to attack me on sight!!! lol, just kidding...

Stephen.

EDIT: Ok, I like the idea of blood trails, along with footprints this would lead to a nice ability to track creatures, and instead of all creatures attacking you, they may be on the run from you, say a wolf kills a rabbit, you find the body, the wolf knows you're more than a match for it so it runs off at the first whiff of you, you follow its trail (whether by sight or by tracking skill) and it leads you to a forest, in the forest you either find the wolf or a pack of wolves ready for a fight.

Rain on a tin roof, if it's raining and you can step under a stable roof or an overhanging balcony it would be a really nice effect to have a dry spot. Also, I'd like the wet weather to actually have an effect on my speed, and the ground type, so if it's raining I'll lose 5 speed and if I'm walking on dirt/mud I'll lose another 5 speed, until the weather clears and the ground dries up.

Stephen.

I've scanned through and don't think this has been suggested yet:

The one thing I'd really like to see are some form of combat gauntlets (or knuckledusters) that could allow hand to hand specialists to boost their punching power with some magic. Adding fire, frost, lightning etc to unarmed attacks would be very useful.

1- To add: creatures tend to defend their area or cubbs.
2- Agreed
3- Good idea
4- That was the first thing I looked at when I got oblivion, because it bugged me in morrowind... a lot!
5- Another good idea
6- I agree, but they'd have to watch out that it won't be made too easy to get what you want.
7- Don't agree, because it would be confusing. Rather have them open up for you at an undecent time if you bring a lot of money and promise to spend it.
8- don't understand...



1 In real nature, when creatures are drinking, they won't be giving you too much attention if you're not a threat. so agreed
2 But avoid dangerous paths (could make for some nice quests.)
3 don't care too much about that one
4 don't think getting married adds much to the game itself

If the npc's were random generated with random names, and important npc's stayed in towns or in their village homes, then there should be npc's running all over the place, on and off paths, you could run into a group of 4 npc's in a forest, say a family travelling from place to place, they have no real importance, though you can talk to them if you want to and they will have general discussion options available, however if they are mauled by a gang of trolls it won't really matter much because another group of 4 npc's will spawn in the game's memory ready for another journey in the same or a different direction.

Stephen.

Uh, actually the rumor is that it will take in Skyrim... In fact, most people think that's the case since the Skyrim name has been trademarked.

I think elemental damage should have secondary effects.

As it is now, the only reason to prefer one elemental (fire, frost, shock) over another is whether or not the majority of enemies you'll be facing are resistant to the element.

What I'd like to see are secondary effects, the intensity of which is directly proportional to the average magnitude of damage of the spell effect. These secondary effects would last for a short time during and after the initial spell damage; this duration would be proportional to the average duration and average magnitude of the primary spell effect.

That's something I really enjoyed with Bioshock - each elemental damage really did something different to the enemies, and affected enemy behavior.

For example:
Frost: For a spell that does low damage, the secondary effects would be reduced walking, attack, and spell-casting speeds, along with increased chances of failure when trying to perform tasks. For high magnitudes, there might even be temporary paralysis.

I would love to see more realistic diseases being implemented.

In oblivion vampirism (polymorphic hemophilia) was treated as a real disease and it had consequences and that sort of thing. I thought that was a great idea, but I didn't like the limitations of the disease.

Combine these ideas with the great AI tweaking idea brought up by That One Guy because honestly there is no reason in the world for Bethesda to not implement it:




So here is my disease wishlist (haha):
1. Diseases should affect social standing. Diseases should add traits to any NPC which has the disease (including player). Depending upon the diease, other NPC's may treat them in a certain way. So if someone with leprosy walks into a bar where the general populace is afraid of the disease they may say "We don't serve your kind here Leper! Get out!" and if infected NPC (or player) does not leave the guards will be summoned. I realize in Oblivion if you had vampirism and people saw you the personality point score would decrease... In a world where people are terrified of vampires I would have to think they would be more likely to call for the guards rather than make you pay full price for an item.

2. Diseases that turn you into a monster should really turn you into a monster. So if you contract a werewolf disease, whenever there is a fullmoon you should turn into a werewolf (obviously). But what then? You just walk around slightly more hairy than before and thats it? How about making it so every NPC you see appears to you as an enemy, that way you are more likely to attack someone just like a werewolf would be.

3. NPC's with diseases should act accordingly. If an NPC contracts a disease like werewolf disease they should go mad and attack others as well (possibly spreading it).

4. How do we keep whole towns from being overrun with disease infested monsters? Those who are faithful can pray at the church and be cured. So while terror may reign for a night or two the balance would be kept. Plus the guards would be able to dispatch a werewolf or vampire relatively quickly. The biggest concern would be for stray people out in the wilderness (which is more realistic.)

5. Items that are powerful against diseases should always maintain their potency. If an NPC contracts werewolf disease but carries a silver sword during the day it looks stupid as hell. The NPC should drop all the items that they can't stand. Also attacking them with these items would deal additional damage.

6. If this system were in place the role of the church/healers/shamans would be increased, a player could make a lot of money (and have a cool story to play out) if they played as a travelling shaman going from town to town healing the afflicted using herbs and plants they find along the way.

7. There should never ever be a cure diseases potion. It devalues the importance of diseases in the game. If you could just cure it by drinking a simple potion then you really don't care if you catch it or not. Each disease should be treatable by a unique potion specifically made to cure it. The other way to cure it should be through divine means, through a powerful priest or healer. Therefore cities and towns become bastions of healthy people whereas wilderness areas and villages become much more risky.

8. The disease system should work seamlessly even without player interaction. People with vampirism should only come out at night, people who are werewolves will try to avoid being out at night. Diseases should spread and be cured through NPC actions on their own. It should be programmed within the AI.

Basically if you are going to make an open world like oblivion was where everything runs on its own you need to put in place systems that affect all things. It should be integrated into the decision making of the AI: diseases, economy (money, jobs), personal needs (sleep), wants (jewelry), factions (race, guild, town, nation), negative and positive consequences.