Since we're talking about stealing stuff.

It is annoying if you "accidently" steal something, either by overlooking the red cursor, or trying to take something legal but somehow grabbing the illegal stuff. Or simply just getting caught intentionally stealing.

I would like a skill/attribute check, that let's you give back what you have stolen, and then victim wont report it.

Examples:

- I'm sorry, I was only studying [Insert Stolen Item], I did not mean to offend. (Speechcraft > 80)

- Is [Insert Stolen Item] really worth the lives of your family? (Speechcraft > 70 , Infame > 50)

I dont really think that returning an item should be a speechcraft requirement tho it would give that skill some actuall value within the game. I think maybe you should be able to return the item and then convince the victim not to report you or as you put it intimidate them into not saying anything

Great ideas. I especially like this one. Always bugged me how I couldn't use ruins and caves for more than just storage.


These should also be value related.

It will be easier to get away with stealing a piece of cheese than a 1,000 gold ring, for example. It could, perhaps, take around 5 speechcraft for every 30 gold worth of an item stolen?
(I've never been good with values, but you get the idea)

I would be able get the option to make an excuse for stealing with the speechcraft levels, and Personality would determine the chance of success, with a higher chance of suceeding with cheap items.

Also, In both Morrowind and Oblivion, it really bugged me how I couldn't go inside the Dwemer/Ayleid ruins I could see. If I saw a dwemer tower, I couldn't go up it. I could only go in the underground parts of the ruin.
I know that occasionally I could, such as the area with Keening, but in general, I couldn't, and it annoyed me.

Pretty much everything I've wanted is said by someone.

Just in case or to add to a tally:

* Environmental Interactivity. Burn trees. Burn Forests. Either by spells or going on fire and running into it.
- Flammable, fire-proof and volatile objects

* Morrowind's clothing and gear system. I liked it alot. Clothes under armor and a robe on top etc.
- Separate pauldrons and gloves
- Belts, other accesories that show. Earings, rings [on other fingers and thumbs], piercings

* Bodily changes.
- Tattoos
- Perhaps something that is part of an initiation rite of a faction. Like cutting a left ear off, scarring on the body. Tattoos.
- Some attributes and maybe some skills affects some details of the body? Strength = muscle/muscle tone; High magic skills = Arcane tattoos (Ripped off Fable lol);

* Larger, more busy cities/towns.
- The Imperial City was pretty small for a city.

I don't know about that. There is the time I was caught lifting a cheesecake in Manchester, but I got away. Then later, while I was in Liverpool, I stopped to ask an officer for directions, and he had my description and hauled me in to the station for cheesecake theft. Oh ... wait. That didn't happen. Yeah, more believability in the law enforcement system would be great.

I've been caught during my cheesecake sprees many times... If only those fools in Manchester didn't value thier cheesecakes so much!

I couldn't agree more. Having level caps at 100 for all races kind of makes it pointless which race you chose once you get to the later stages of the game. Choosing a race and class should definitely matter more. Not only should you be more adept at certain things in the beggining of the game, but you should be almost supernaturally better than any other class or race by the end.

I disagree. What If your a Nordic Mage or a Breton Knight?

I also disagree, not that much that I want the freedom of being anything with any race but the game forcing me to choose a certian race simply to be good at something. It sort of ruins the RPG feel with every race looking different but essentially offering the player with equal opportunities.
Race should be an estetic matter not gameplay matter

then your nordic mage shoudl svck balls at casting pretty much everythign cept frost spells which they could problably get a bonus on.

im not opposed to being able to max out everything but some races are by definition supposed to be better at things than another race. bretons and altmers are always mentioned as being the best at magic while nords and orcs and redguard are always propped up as the greatest warriors. in game however with the exception of the early lame bonuses you get there is no difference whatsoever. if you want to be a nord mage i think it should be a longer tougher road and same with being a bosmer who dual wields warhammers in full daedric armor while skipping along. hit the weight room.

an orc warrior should ALWAYS have the advantage over an equally trained bosmer warrior. ALWAYS.

One the racial strengths and weaknesses issues I'd suggest my fluent level caps and "100+ skills" system.

In that you're skills are at "good" when you reach 100 but mastery means 100+. Skills brought over 100 can drop again however back TO 100 (not lower).
For the different races they don't have different caps, but the "flexibility" of the level cap is different.

For example take strength, a Imperials strength could go to 100 strength but also relatively easily go to 110, that would be like the capabilities of a powerlifter so still humanly possible. Going over that IS possible but it levels very slowly and from that point on the flexibly cap starts pulling harder, meaning if you don't keep training your strength it will drop again easily.
So lets say you really trained hard as hell to reach 120 as a Imperial but then stop training strength, it will drop relatively fast (maybe 2 in game weeks) to 110 again, however from 110 to drop back to 100 it takes about two in game months since from that point the flexible cap pulls a lot weaker.

The same example with a wood elf, here the flexible cap is 100 (humanly well trained), going to 110 would take the same tough as bones dedication as for the Imperial to reach 120, going to 120 for the wood elf is nearly impossible. And for him it will drop down from 110 to 100 in the same time as for the Imperial to drop from 120 to 110 since it's again far over the flexible limit.

Now taking a very strong race like Orcs, for them reaching 130 takes some dedication but is very possible, here the cap starts stretching at 150 maybe.


You can imagine it like a rubber band at the end of a measuring scale, for the different races the rubber bands simply have different lengths so stretching them to the same length takes more force and has a stronger pull. That way you CAN go over the "humanly possible" if you dedicate yourself but for some it's just easier to achieve.

Take a Orc and a Woodelf, the woodelf has trained and exercised all his life and maybe made it to a strength of 115 which would be super" human" already. The orc didn't (maybe we was a painter or so) and only has a strength of 70 or so. However if the Orc starts training he can easily reach the same level or even surpass the woodelfs without having to really crunch it too hard because he genetically has better factors to gain muscle.

Then you should pay for it. Altmer and Bretons are the best mages out there. Deal with them not being as good as an Orc warrior.

A List of racial bonuses:

Nords: Strong
Altmer: Offensive Magic
Bretons: Defensive Magic
Imperials: Personality and pretty good warrior
Khajiit: Agile
Argonian: thief/mage-ey Should have bonuses for both
Dunmer: Versatile
Bosmer: Marksmen
Orcs: Strength
Redguard: skilled warriors

Every race has it's own abilities, and should reflect that.

Then you are a nordic mage or breton knight?



Wha?...you can be a good nordic mage, you just wont have the same magical potential as an altmer mage.

well said.

perhaps an easy solution to leveling advantages would be less exp to level or more exp per day. I love the "over-100 limit" idea, because, realistically, having all 100's shouldn't mean that you are done. Records are to broken all the time, because people surpass that 100% often, setting the bar higher.

It's also a good idea to have it degrade over time. Realistically, if you don't lift after you bench press 300 lbs, you won't be able to after a while, and you'll have to work your way back up rom 250 or 275.

Here's a small side idea on daedric armor.

In game there could be one or two complete sets of it but maybe it should also be possible to gather it, killing a dremora doesn't get you armor, the "dissolve" after being killed (I know they didn't in Oblivion but this could be assumed).
Also the armor is "merged" with their bodies so it can't simply be taken.

Now a way to acquire it is you have to remove it from a still living dremora, this would pose quite a challenge of course, and it's not just cutting it off but removing it carefully and then also binding it to the mortal realm so it can't disappear again.

Of course you wouldn't get a entire armor that way, you could maybe remove a single piece that way and it's still hard, the armor could also "suffer" that way and not have high quality. There could be a few skills tied into it like conjuration and enchant that, when high, get you a high quality armor piece.

I like this very much actually.

Maybe at the beginning of the game all races will have generic starter attributes and skills, with only class specialties affecting their base levels.

Yes, may the era of Lamarckism come to an end!

In OB it still makes a little sense.
In their own realm their stuff stays in the realm. When they willingly traveled to and lived on Mundus I imagine that it is much like the two characters who moved to the Infernal City, and they became a part of that realm. So the portal set up seems to factor in whether the material will stay in whatever realm.

If it is through a spell, like conjuration, then the stuff returns to its realm when the spell in over.
And like enchanting, the sigil stones and Mundus made Deadric armor is secured the armor in the other realm through a more permanent magic.


[edit] I wonder if that is going to happen to the Infernal City, the top mage guy is going to gather enough souls or whatever to bind the place to Mundus and rip Umbriel out of Clavicus Vile's territory.

Yea, I'd actually prefer it if being a specific race does not automatically give you a skill bonus, all skill boni are acquired through what you did in your past (That's why I'd like to see a system where you can list events in your past and it calculates skills, attribute boni and some character traits).

And the races attributes could all be at a same level at the beginning too but have differently strong modifiers, like a orc levels strength and endurance faster but is just "normally" fast in learning magic and stealth skills while a Khajiit for example levels strength normal fast but skills for stealth have a bonus (I may have tossed around skills and attributes a little but it can be similar in both).


That way it's NOT predestined what you can become as which race but it's easier to follow a certain path, doing a different one simply takes more dedication.


Additionally I'd really like different races to have different individual abilities. Like Argonians water breathing, Khajiit toggle-able night eye ability. For Woodelfs for example this could be a natural "eye zoom" ability to emulate superior eye sight, while not fully realistically this is how it could be emulated for a games.

... damn I always think "I'll write 3 - 4 sentences as a answer" and end up with this much

Though that would be cool, it'd probably conflict with our absolutely beloved prison starts in some way.

"I was a peaceful farmer who lived miles away from even the smallest inn."

"I went to bed one night and... woke up in prison...?"



lol.

Actually it doesn't, it never explained the circumstances HOW you ended up in prison (could very well be you where in the wrong place the wrong time).
Now I guess people would argue with the "your character is supposed to have a mysterious past", well a OPEN past maybe but you just have to look how many people made up a past for their character. A lot of Morrowind players actually made one where they started as a slave, this could very well be in your chosen past as well.
What choosing your past does is it's a more RP friendly way to create a character.


Plus, you start in prison is NOT a staple of the series especially if you include the spinoffs, in Daggerfall you actually started as a good friend of the emperor, the start was in a dungeon after your ship crashed. In Morrowind you don't exactly start out in prison, you're still kind a prisoner of the empire but you where sent to be release so technically you where out of prison already. Neither Battlespire nor Redguard started in Prison so you could say they have a 50-50 rate of starting in prison, in short, it doesn't HAVE to.

Actually I had a idea where the game could actually start out differently depending on your chosen past, if one of your final selections was that you where in prison the game could start with you just becoming pardoned and having a known criminal record, if you had several sentences you could even start out being brought into the local prison where you then can "wait" till you're released or talk your way out of it somehow, maybe even by bribing the guards there and essentially having to bring them cash so they keep it a secret for your beginning.
Would be pretty immersive if you choose to be a thief in your past and then having to steal and make money to bribe the guard who let you out to keep it all covered.

I hate the way race dramatically affects your character. It doesn't make sense at all. Completely flawed. Yet, at the same time, I don't feel compelled to order it's change. It worked for me :shrug:

Ok here's a nice idea that just came to me regarding Items in general. The thing that bothers me slightly, is that the rpg hero, almost always spends his/her time searching to collect items. All he/she cares about is stuff. At every item encounter comes the inevitable check: Are its stats better than what I have? Yes->Take. No->Leave.

Solution 1: Reduce the weapons/armor/special items. Having such an abundance of them makes them too ordinary. Even in a fantasy world weapons/armor/enchanted stuff can't be THAT common.
Solution 2: Create some kind of bond of the item to the player. Not a physical bond of course (you actually can't get rid of something), but more of an emotional. This could be tricky though. A player could be persuaded to keep an item only if he/she owned it for some time. To build on that, create some kind of bonus to stats of items that the player owns for some time. Such a thing could simulate that the player learned how to use the item and became more efficient with it.
Solution 3: Make the items customizable. Take them to a blacksmith and have him change: Its appearance/ its weight (which changes yield speed and damage)/fuse them with some rare stone/metal you found. Take them to an enchanter to ,well, enchant them. That way they will be tuned more to a players style and new items would also mean effort to customize them.

On the theft thing: Theft is too easy. I mean the FIRST reaction of the player (the easiest one) is to take an item and put it into the inventory. That is wrong. The easiest button to press, should be GRAB. Grabbing items shouldn't trigger any serious guard involving reactions from the NPCs (well only on rare occasions). It should just trigger a "Put it down" or "Do you like that?" (if we are talking about merchandise in a store).

Definitely levitation and fly spells, and jump

I really like what you re trying to do with this idea however I think it might be a little bit too specific at this point if you know what I mean?

I agree that there should be a reduce in high value armors, instead of leveling and getting more valuable armor everywhere I would basically take leveling out of the equation and just make each higher group more rare. For example the game would start with you getting a set of fur or iron armor depending on your major skill or race; these two armors would respresent lets say 40% of all in game armor so thats 20% each ( thats quite a lot and it would put a realistic feel of how hard it is to get higher quality armor), the next level armors are leather and steel these would present lets say 30% of all the armor so 15% each next Chainmail and Dwarwen at this point we need to really decrease the amount so lets say 12% giving a 6% each, Mithril and Orcish would be lets say 9% thats 4,5% each, Elven and Ebony would have 7% total and 3,5% each and finally Glass and Daedric with the remaining 2% now im not sure if i would divide these two evenly maybe give glass 1,5% and daedric only 0,5% (idk comment on this ratio)

So basically with this system you would be able to get Daedric armor right off the bat or never even find it, to further my armor overhaul system I would propose - as many others have - different armor construction. I would bring back the one from Morrowind.

And add one more thing which is Smithing, basically what I mean by this is you would be able to mine or buy ore which you would then refine to get pure metal and then use that to form an armor set by yourself. I really dont want to use armor quality systems since it only over complicates things, any armor of its kind should have equal qualities, so smithing would work on a skill level basis; so at X level I am able to craft the Y part of Z type armor. Also remember how much customisation you have available when you're making potions and spells in Oblivion? Well this would be the same lets say theres a maximum of 5 metals in an alloy and different ores would provide different qualitites just like ingredients in alchemy so you could actually customise your alloy and armor set and thus make better armor than is already in the game from the start.
This would be a nice add on to the feeling of freedom, to do whatever you want - in TES series. Also if you were determined enough you could just make your own daedric armor isntead of looking for the 0,5% of it within the game.