I want the game to take place in not only Skyrim, but also including portions in Morrowind, High Rock, Hammerfell, and Cyrodiil. I made my own map of what area I think should be included in TES V and its related Expansion Packs. http://i817.photobucket.com/albums/zz94/TheVuvuzela/OnlyinDeams.jpg

The game would take place after the Infernal City. Morrowind has essentially been destroyed. However in recent years, many unique and valuable resources have been discovered and the Argonians of Black Marsh have conquered much of the southern and western portion of the ruinous province. Skyrim has made attempts at the western portion, but clashes with Argonian militants and native Dunmer tribes and rebellions have hindered any major gains. The Empire, which still exists in a much weaker form, has attempted to make a presence and halt the conflict, but they have suffered heavy losses. Many Dunmer refugees have settled in regions in Skyrim, to the dismay of the locals.

Inside Skyrim, a feudal system is in order and many of the major cities are in dispute with others, some politicians wanting to secede from the Empire, others wanting to focus all attention on conquering Morrowind, and a few ambitious politicians want to seize full power of Skyrim. Your actions and the factions you are involved with will determine the flow of power in the province.

Your character winds up getting involved. He is forced to join the Blades (in a manner similar to Morrowind), which essentially has evolved into the secret army of the Empire, but his individual actions can weaken the Imperial presence. The legion is the Imperial Army that people see, but they are usually very unpopular, and their numbers are few, usually restricted to a few Forts and Imperial-friendly towns.
Every faction has a number of anti-factions, depending on their popularity, which are joinable, and their sole purpose is to hurt or destroy the faction they are opposing. These include guerrilla Dunmer tribes and terror organizations which are against the occupation.

The game should end with the return of the Nerevarine, clad in Akiviri Armor and an Army from Akivir ending the occupation, finally fulfilling the prophecy, and promising to re-build Morrowind. The Empire will be weakened in that the world now knows that they were incapable of solving the problem. The "final boss" or foe should be determined by the player's actions throughout the game.

• I just read that with New Vegas, you'll be able to kill every single person in the game. There will be no essential characters. The designers took this into account and it seems you can even resolve the game by doing this, as an alternate path. Please do this Bethesda Game Studios for ESV.

We need tens of alternate paths that all connect at the same couple places, and those places should be possible to happen while the others do. This is to preserve future lore.

I would like to be able to see my feet and my lower body when looking down in first person mode.

I'd like one of the developers to come into this thread and say "hi" and that's all.

I'd rather they get to work. No slacking, devs.

how about all non-magical, not elemental damage would come from collision damage: Your weapon would be swung at a certain speed and have a certain weight and sharpness, and the same exact equations used for colllision damage (which they also need to add) could be used to calculate damage. Jumping onto something soft would hurt less that jumping onto a pit of spikes, but running into a vertical pointing spike (for example even if you didn't fall on a spike in an Oblivion tower it hurt) wouldn't do any health damage because you weren't hitting the sharp part. Blunts would make up for their dullness with weight. strength would let you hit with a weapon harder but less accurately, agility would help you hit faster with more accuracy, and speed would help you hit much faster.

This could be coincided with advanced locational damage and animations: hitting any of these should lead to constant damage health at a slowish rate, hitting these would paralize that part of your body, and hitting these would lead to instant death after a set amount of time, but they would have to be hit hard (to either pierce or bash in the rib cage or the skull) It would make getting hurt much more serius and the ability to heal oneself through either restoration, alchemy, or medical skills very important.

This is a revised rundown of the skills I'd like to see based on today's discussions on the board.

Strength: Greatsword, Mauls, Large Mauls, Staff, Marksman

Agility: Sword, Security/Tracking, Acrobatics, Stealth, Dodge

Speed: Concealed Weapons, Theft, Chain Weapons, Polearms, Athletics

Endurance: Hand to Hand, Equestrian, Shield, Outdoorsman, Climbing

Personality: Dominate, Streetwise, Etiquette, Mercantile, Diplomacy

Willpower:Illusion, Enchanting, Torporism, Destruction, Thaumaturgy

Intelligence: Mysticism, Daedric, Necromancy, Alchemy, Medical

Torporism as described by Schnell Olfy would be telekinesis and several alteration effects like shield, levitate, and open.
Restoration is split into the magical aspects (covered by Thaumaturgy) and physical aspects (covered by Medical and Alchemy).
Illusion would now only cover the magical aspects like becoming invisible and creating light or night eye.
Dominate would make up the other aspects of Illusion, like Frenzy, Command, Demoralize, Rally.
Concealed Weapons is still the thrown weapons and small hand weapons, like rocks, daggers, and throwing stars.
I'm not joking about Marksman being a strength skill, nor was I out of places to put it. That's where I feel it should be.

Don't cover for them!!! >_<

I just want one to say hi. Let us know they'r watching...

Great stuff. I especially like the ideas of playable pasts reminds me a bit of the FO3 introduction sequence, only more personal because you get to choose key events rather than be forced into them. That would also allow a lot more potential for multiple unique characters (not that the game won't already have plenty of cause for that). And I like the idea of different beginnings as well. An Imperial Nobleman could wake up from his dream in a plush suite, only to find that something has gone wrong in his house/neighborhood. An Argonian slave could wake up to his friend arousing him in reminder that their escape attempt is about to begin. A Nord drunkard could wake up from a particularly "good" night to find local law enforcement complaining about his behavior. etc, etc.


It's been a while since I've posted here, but I managed to dig up my old [uncompleted] list of ideas. Since it's summer, I plan on playing a good deal of TES in the coming months, and hopefully hearing some news about the next game. In the meantime, here is my outdated and unfinished list of suggestions...



TES V Ideas and Suggestions
-- By D4rk 0ne --

Table of Contents

• Variety
  
  • Weapons
    
  • Armor
    
  • Housing
    
  • Environments
    
  • Books
    
  • Tasks
    
  • Locales (Sprawling Castles, etc.)
    
  • Quests
    
  • Guilds
    
  • Shops (Competition, Supply and Demand, etc.)
  
  
  
• Immersion
  
  • Weather
    
  • Environments
    
  • Decision-Making
    
  • Emotions
    
  • Diseases
    
  • Revamped Money System
    
  • Random Encounters
    
  • Dynamic World
  
  
  
• Customization
  
  • Real Estate
    
  • Body Types
    
  • Races and Their Relationship with Abilities
    
  • Spellbooks
    
  • Weapons, Armor, Clothing, etc.
    
  • Tattoos
    
  • Facial hair
  
  
  
• Landscapes
  
  • Realism
    
  • Variety
    
  • Weather
    
  • Anomalies
    
  • Transport
    
  • SINGLE CELL
  
  
  
• Animations
  
  • Jumping
    
  • Climbing
    
  • Spells
    
  • Sneak attacks
    
  • Balance
    
  • Reactions to Environment
  
  
  
• Perception and Interaction
  
  • AI
    
  • Fame/Infamy
    
  • Recognition
    
  • Bounty
    
  • Disguises
    
  • Outfits
  
  
  
• Rewards & Questing
  
  • Variety
    
  • Fair pay
    
  • Consequences
  
  
  
• Skills & Attributes
  
  • Changes, Additions, Revisions & Observations (levitate, mark/recall, push, realistic combat, H2H changes, etc.)
  
  
  
• Guilds & Factions
  
  • Changes, Additions, Revisions & Observations

_________________________________________________________________

Section 1 ~ Variety
Perhaps the most essential component of TESV in my eyes should be variety. Most of the knocks against Oblivion come from the loss of variety from Morrowind, in some form or another. In this section I will discuss different aspects of the game that require some work in terms of variety.

1.1 -- Weapons

Firstly, variety needs to be established in terms of weapon types. In melee combat, beyond just swords, daggers, axes, and maces, we need scimitars, flails, small hammers, scythes, pikes, halberds, katanas, spears, and any other prominent types of melee weapons. In ranged combat, there is a serious need for diversification outside of bows and arrows: bring back throwing knives and stars, and also crossbows and javelins. Maybe even a sling-like weapon for hurling projectiles at enemies.

Also, we should be able to improvise. Why not use a rake or shovel as a weapon (or a makeshift shield against a sudden attack)? Regular kitchen knives should be usable as weapons in a pinch, and we should be able to throw small objects at enemies for a small bit of damage or at least a distraction.

Also, there needs to be a wider variety of unique weapons. There was a pretty good selection of powerful unique blades, but not much else. Firstly, unique weapons should be truly unique, not only in strength or enchantment but also in appearance. How cool would you look carrying a flaming sword, a scythe made out of enchanted ice, or rare throwing stars that explode on impact? Make the special weapons truly special; make those legendary artifacts feel sacred. At the same time though, establish a balance. Give people a reason to stray from using blades as the primary weapon type. Maybe create a lightweight and speedy blunt weapon with an attractive enchantment, and to get it one must go through some daunting ruin and defeat an ancient Lich or something.

In short, make it so that if someone took a random test sample of TESV players, there would be an even spread of the weapons being used; no one or two weapons would be favored like Goldbrand and Umbra were in Oblivion.

1.2 -- Armor

In Oblivion, once you hit level 25 or so, you're pretty much relegated to either Daedric (heavy) or Glass (light) armor. Nothing else compares (except perhaps a random, eclectic mixture of unique/enchanted armor pieces). I understand that the "standard" armor types are structurally different, with Glass and Daedric being specifically stronger than the others by definition, and that this is part of the lore, and I don't want to change that. I think, however, that there should be some more unique armor types that offer different incentives to wearers, to help stray people away from those "natural choices" of Glass/Daedric.

I am a guy who likes to look clean and trim, so I don't mix and match armors if I can help it -- it looks cluttered and messy. I don't think I am alone on this matter, and honestly if you look at real knights, their armor would be made in matching sets rather than random, mismatched pieces. Therefore I think there should be a greater focus on unique armor sets in TESV. Make Daedric rare like it was in Morrowind. Create a few other unique sets (a la the Brusef Amelion armor in Oblivion ... only actually useful -- so more like the Morag Tong armor).

Make it so any player type has several relatively equal options to choose from when it comes to armor. Assassins should have an eastern "ninja" type of armor, an assassins faction armor such as Morag Tong, a Dark Brotherhood suit of course, and maybe some other unique set (e.g. something that belongs to a notorious independent assassin, only obtainable by killing him or breaking into his lair).

Mages should have several different robes to choose from, and robes should offer different advantages and disadvantages rather than simply looking good. Robes should be able to carry stronger enchantments than armor since they are magical in nature. Also they should be extremely lightweight -- significantly more so than light armor and even standard clothing -- and never impede movement or action. Certain special robe sets should also carry other special unique benefits, such as boosting intelligence naturally or increasing the rate of magicka restoration.

There should also be some higher defensive options for archers, since they're really only relegated to either leather, assassin garb, or light armor ill-befitting of their natural character. If you are a woodsman, you're not going to wear glass armor and you're probably not going to wear a Dark Brotherhood cloak either, but the current Leather armor is just too weak for a high-leveled archer. There should be a couple of high-level, ultra light armors designed for ranged characters (in terms of appearance and functionality -- i.e. they should boost Marksman or make beasts less concerned by your presence or something).

Overall there needs to be a greater variety of armors to choose from, so that high leveled characters aren't always forced into choosing the same sets. There should be balance between different sets of armor, with each unique set offering different pros and cons. This way, each player will be able to choose a different set of armor without sacrificing defensive strength.

1.3 -- Housing

Being able to own a house is a very useful commodity in the TES universe, but there are a lot of ways the system could be improved.

(to be continued)

An Idea I dont know if its ben suggested Chargeable and Holdable spells. Such as the ability to charge a Fireball. the longer you hold it the more powerful it gets.How long its charged could depend on the power of the spell and the Magicka you have. such as Holding and charging the spell until it reaches its max. level increasing the damage done and increasing the chance to do Max damage the spell allows.Charging a spell drains magicka constantly until the button is released or you run out of the magicka. Another Type the Holdable means you can cast a spell and hold it for constant damage untill you run out of magicka or release the button. the more powerfull the spell the more draining it is of course. So a Highlevel spell would drain magicka faster then a lowlevel one. or the user can just press and release for an instant casting.. Also. Not original but still I think would make it more immersive. Something like New Vegas's hardcoe mode. Forcing the player to eat and drink. or theyll die. And if the game takes place in Skyrim. Thermal conditions. If its cold you would need to wear armor/clothes that provide warmth or wear something like a cloak to ward off the cold.even Potions or drinks that that can provide temporary warmth if one cant wear or doesnt wanna wear the armor made for cold terrain.

Continuation of my last post...

1.3 -- Housing

Being able to own a house is a very useful commodity in the TES universe, but there are a lot of ways the system could be improved.

Firstly, as a console player myself as well as an enthusiast of construction/architecture/general engineering and creativity, I have found myself quite saddened by the lack of a CS or similar feature on the 360 and PS3. Now I can understand why it makes sense not to include them for console users; it would be much more complicated to operate on consoles, it would probably have to be recoded from scratch, and console players do not even have access to mods. However, I think that for the next installment, ALL players regardless of platform should be able to build their own buildings, at least to some degree.

Now don't get the wrong idea; I know many players have no interest in taking the time to design a house for their character . . . this isn't the Sims, it's the Elder Scrolls. And I'm not really asking for a system to rival the Sims. It could be as simple as buying a plot of land, picking from a number of predesigned buildings, and placing furniture and display cases in the rooms. Basically I just think it would be nice for players to feel like their houses are at least somewhat unique… It would be especially nice once you earn some special items to display in your house, or even better, special items that you can place in your house that bring certain benefits.

Also I think that regardless of how in-depth the customization is for houses, there should be a greater variety of available places to live. It should be possible to buy multiple buildings in each town, if you have the money and the connections. Oblivion's system got old really quickly for me; there were only a handful of places to live and only a couple that were nice enough to actually want to inhabit. Housing is a pivotal aspect of role playing in my opinion, and Oblivion did not cater well to that. There should be several viable places to live for any type of character, ranging from a "free" abandoned hovel in the wilderness or a cave or something, to a full on castle for those ultra-rich players.

Finally, I think there should be a more convenient way to "move" from one house to another. In Oblivion, I tended to use a cheap house in the beginning of the game, but eventually I would want to move into a nicer one. The problem with this is that I always ended up filling my cheap house with gear that might be useful or at least sentimental, but then I'd have to make many trips bringing items back and forth, which generally was not worth doing, so I'd basically just leave a ton of items collecting dust in a house I didn't use anymore. It would be nice if there were a way to move all the items from a specific chest in your old house to a specific chest in your new house, all at once. It could even be something that you pay for, like a moving service in real life.

1.4 -- Environments

One of the greatest criticisms Oblivion faced, particularly by TES veterans, was its relatively bland environments as compared to Morrowind. Shivering Isles was admittedly a marked improvement, but I think that TES V's environments could be even more impressive than anything we've seen yet in a TES game.

I think the ideal world would be lush, vivid, and lovingly crafted so that each location is unique and beautiful. Colors are a major part of this; Oblivion's earthy tones were a bit too mundane in my opinion. It is entirely possible to make a believable and immersive world without attempting to mirror the colors and textures of our own world. Trees can be vibrant and twisted and massive, rocks can be jagged and jutting and colorful, water can be rich and flowing.

Speaking of water, I think that is one part of the environment in particular that could be vastly improved. Oblivion's water was not necessarily bad to look at, but I think TES V could easily revolutionize water in video games. Rivers are a great place to start: make water an entity affected by gravity. Rivers should have a source, and the flow of water should vary seasonally and possibly even by weather. Water should flow differently based on the steepness of the slope it travels down, and whether there are any rocks or other obstacles in its path.

There should be rapids and waterfalls that are actually running in real time based on the physics of the water. There should be rivers with rapids so dangerous that attempting to cross them can hurt or kill the player. There should also be more natural affects on the surrounding environment (e.g. visible affects of erosion, varied types of beaches and embankments, etc.). Beaches should be more picturesque and natural, with waves that actually lap and break on the shore. When the player swims out into the ocean, he/she should be affected by the current, and if a big wave hits the player, it should possibly knock him off balance depending on his stance and strength.

There should be mountains that are actually as large as mountains ought to be, not just glorified hills that can be scaled by a jogging player in 2-3 minutes. Also high mountains should collect snow, and snow levels should alter seasonally. Snow runoff can create rivers and lakes, so if a mountain doesn't receive a lot of snow for a period, the bodies of water to which is is connected should be affected appropriately.

Walking in snow should have visible effects (footprints in light snow, trenches in deep powder). Some lakes should freeze in Winter, so that the player could walk upon them. (This can open up potential for certain special places that can only be accessed in the right season, such as an underwater cavern that is only accessible when the lake is melted in Summer.)

Walking through plants should affect them; stepping through brush should flatten it, walking through a field of tall grass should lead to the grass being parted by the player, etc. Trees should react to the player as well; if he climbs into a tree it should bend with his weight, and if he is too heavy a branch should break off. Slashing at a plant or tree with a sword should have a visible effect. Casting a spell at a plant should also have an effect. Maybe an accidental flare spell could start a massive forest fire that, if not prevented with an ice or dispel spell, could destroy a section of the forest for months.

In short, environments should be more interactive. Things should react to foreign influences, whether they are induced by the player, by NPCs, or by nature itself. During a storm, for example, maybe a lighting bolt could destroy a tree or start a fire. If the wind is particularly strong, plants and even people should react to it. I'll get more into the weather later on, so for now let's just close out this section and move on.

1.5 -- Books

One of the great and often unappreciated aspects of TES games is the books. Books are major sources for the lore upon which the games are built, and they also help to make the game world more realistic and immersive. I don't have a whole lot to say on the subject, because in general Bethesda does a pretty good job with the books in TES games.

I do want to say though that I'd like to see a wider variety of book in the world. I sometimes get a bit annoyed when I see 10 copies of the same book on every bookshelf in Cyrodiil. There should be more unique books, more rare books, and more detailed stories. Also there should be an incentive to collect or read books. Maybe an old librarian who rewards you if you find certain rare books, or an eccentric collector who wants a copy of every book by a certain author.

Books should teach the player valuable information, such as secrets, useful tips, beginnings of quests, special locations, etc. They should also be easier to handle. Rather than using the "hold" button to manually place a book on a shelf, which usually takes forever and can be quite risky if there are other objects on the shelf, the player should be able to just activate a shelf and select a book to be automatically placed on it.

The player's journal should have a physical manifestation, and could perhaps even be sold, given away, upgraded, or exchanged for a new one.

I have a suggestion. DO NOT make the game take place in Skyrim. Set it in a province as incredibly foreign as Morrowind. Elsweyr? Summerset? Black Marsh?

Why not? Morowind's already been done, I doubt you've noticed a game called 'Morrowind'? Elsweyr is a tricky one, with barely anything aside from a huge desert, several tiny jungles and the occasional town/city. Actually now I think about it, Elsweyr would do great with Black marsh. As one game.

As for Summerset Isle, I'm not sure that will have its own game. It's tiny.

So was the areas surrounding the Iliac Bay, and yet it made for the largest gameworld of all time. Size of the game is determined by scale, not province size.

Here is an idea for Bethesda, no FALSE ADVERTIsemanT. Happened with Oblivion, better not happen with V.

After intensely playing through Red Dead Redemption, all I could think about was what it would be like if TES V was the same standard...

For example, little things like animations of the character skinning an animal, picking flowers, stealth takedowns. All those random events that occur around you, the travellers actualling TRAVELLING, etc.

That would blow my mind if Bethesda could add things like that to TES V.

they could adopt the dragon age strategy where each type of armor has different stages e.g iron, grey iron, steel, dragon bone etc
but they would have to edit the stages, instead of changing the material completely just change the condition
like with the leather it could go worn, normal, padded, studded, hardened, reinforced, faultless
or with steel it could go rusty, used, normal, shiny, reinforced etc you get the picture.

BUT please if they do change to a similar set up DONT just change the colour, make it so that there are visable differences so when fighting an enemy you can tell which grade of the armor he is wearing.

As much as most people will probably hate it but my suggestion would be more realism in some fields.

For example, animal and creature behaviors. Right now they're all attack robots, spot the player and attack until death. There are no conditions under which an animal attacks or retreats, there are no behaviors aside doing nothing or attacking, no threatening for example.
I'd rather like to see it that animals don't attack as often but if they do are harder opponents. And of course that they have different attack patterns, not repeatedly jump up and down in front of you, actually do stuff like get distance and do a hard attack leap that can knock you on your back or try to bite into an arm or leg.

Also for things like locational damage and armors, and yes I'd also be for instant kills.
In fact a lot of people scream for more challenge when they have a high level character, having locational damage would give you that, no matter how high your level is you ALWAYS hover in danger, and all that without making enemies artificially harder. That attack dog you fought at level 5 is still just as dangerous now that you're on level 25, the difference is by now you learned better moves and got more suited equipment than back then.
You "energy" could still play a role simply as how "hardened" you are, a blow later on in the game that would have killed a low level character could still be survivable but still leaves you heavily wounded, the difference is in one case your dead, in the other you stil got a chance to get away at least.

Also to get back to animals, there should be creatures where the better tactic is not "level a bit and come back" but pretty much ALWAYS "run as damn fast as you can".

I just have to say that by locational damage, I hope you dont mean crippled limbs like Dragon Age. The concept sounds cool, but its a pain that the player has to heal the limbs after every fight

I actually do mean crippling to a degree, however different than most other games you should not be a "damage sponge" but actually try to PREVENT getting hit.
Usually in games it's Take hit - take hit - take hit - take hit, till you die. It should rather be avoid hits and injures and actual hits counting more instead. If someone jabs a sword through your arm it should have some effect and not just be "Pft, i got 500HP left, whatever".

I guess by locational damage he probably means something similar to FO3, not VATS per se, but the ability to target individual parts of your enemies which is not a bad idea at all. Of course if that applies to your enemies it is only fair that it also applies to yourself but I don't really think that this is a problem. You got crippled limbs in FO3 but that was never an issue with all those stimpacks around. In Dragon Age it requires a bit more micromanagement since you have a whole party to care about instead of a single character but it's still not too bad.

If so, I think heavy armor should play a role in this, like being better to protect against injuries or something.

Hye, maybe a fighter-like race like Orcs could have a natual ability to resist injuries bu 10% or so!

I actually was thinking something like this, they naturally have tougher skin meaning they can resist some injures better.

All armor and clothing should have a certain degree it can block out and feather damage, if a blade can't penetrate armor it won't cut, but the force of the hit still carries over. Blunt weapons are designed to carry that force over meaning they don't need penetration power (except with spikes), axes are a combination meaning the blade can punch harder and make it through thicker armor.
Less armor generally means less protection but higher mobility which can prevent damage too.

Sound ok so far.....but what does the injuries do? Damage attributes or something?