Bring back chitin armor, I beat Morrowind wearing only chitin.

Also if there is going to be some people who are supposed to be nomadic, then make them nomadic. Don't just plop a camp down and say "These are the nomadic people of ______ but for the entire time you play this game they wont leave this camp or move it." I'd love see a tribe of people move around a certain part of the world every so often, like every month or two.

I agree with you about nomadic people it'd be nice to also see their hunters out hunting nearbye too.

While playing Oblivion and Morrowind, i couldn't help but feel that i was beating my victims with a baseball bat no matter what weapon i had used. I would really like to see the realism of combat be expanded. Some things i would add:

1: Dismemberment of course. (but nothing equivelent to the 'Bloody Mess' perk in fallout 3. you know, realistic dismemberment).
2: When you swing a sword at someone, it'd be an enlightening experience to see the sword go 3 or 4 inches into that area of their body and then have your character yank the sword back out. or impale them, slash them, AND be able to see the scars/wounds afterwards. what good is killing the hell outta someone if their dead body looks like a shiny new doll? and the same with all weapon types. bruises and knockbacks for hammers/maces ect ect.
3: When you hit someone, your weapon should come in contact with theirs every once in awhile. it gets boring just seeing them flinch their weapon up and your sword just bounces off with an unsatisfying 'clang'.
4: bleeding. the neatly placed stains really dont do the trick. running blood or even just squirting blood from wounds wouldnt be too bad.

PS: also heard one of the other members say something about using Image Metrics for the new Elder Scrolls game. i totally would love this idea, and i would like others to look into it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwAV2fXoy6E

Input, opinions, corrections. All welcome and would be appreciated!

I think the whole "when you swing your sword and it gets stuck in them so you can see your character yank it out" thing would be okay. But I feel it'd slow down combat, maybe you could do that for the last blow.

But some armor and weapon damage, to help you judge how damaged your equipment is. Like if your sword breaks in half thats a sure sign that you might want to repair your weapon. I'd also like to see more ways to stylize your character, with maybe tattoos. Oh yes please add a barber or something like it so you can change your hairstyle, I'm not asking for realistic hair growth here just the ability to change my hairstyle.

Also if your going to add the Adoring Fan again, please please please let me make him steal or for the good of the world imprison him since he seems to resurrect himself every time I kill him.

i think TES V should just be the same like TES 4 but a new story line. why would we want to change anything. the graphics were exellent the sound/gameplay was exellent the magic/wepions were exellent why change things. so all together why change. this is coming from a long time elder scrolls fan. :violin: :facepalm:

So you like the level scaling?

Best suggestion list ever. I think everyone should read this in detail because simply having the magic be like this but nothing else changed in TES V would still make it the greatest video game ever.

Alright guys, customization. Oblivion had it on facial features, but we all love that feeling of knowing that no other TES player has a character like yours. I think that adding stuff like body paint would be nice (where you can paint it on yourself like in the wii rabbids game, haha). Definitely pursue the body type customization. Fat, skinny, short, tall ect. Also there should be a dye/coloring system for armor like In Guild wars to create originality. Lastly I won't ask for more races, but to give the races that extra oomph. We want to get creative!

A few things others have brought up that I support:
- perks for skills. ( leveling up is way more Fun)
- unique architecture for different cities. ( unless of course your only doing skyrim)
- please get rid of the whole robot animation thing. The fact that you have modders trying to remake your animations should hint.
- give us some nice weather. Heavy rain storms that rock the trees and send everyone in their houses. Godrays of light In The morn.

Finally, to give Bethesda a break, a few things I'd love to keep:
-I think the loading screens in between entrances is part of your originality so keep it. I love the pictures and words of wisdom!
-I can't even say how much I loved the beautiful skies in morrowind and sheogorath's realm. I would literally stare up for a whole game day.
-Bethesda, I love your music. I will even say that I downloaded it onto my iPod, lol. Truly amazing.

Haha, what?

Size of Gameworld

As we all know, TES games is about living in a world big enough for the player to explore for hours. This means that making a huge gameworld isn't just good enough if all sorts of things gets in the way of making the world seem big. These things acually make the game feel smaller! (Oblivion) so to make the player feel that the world is larger than it really is (Morrowind) here are some things that would help.

Making The Game Feel Big:

1 - Remove fast travel, and let the player use other methots to travel around.
2 - Decrease the running speed.
3 - Do not let the map reveal any locations from the beginning. (It kills the exploring part)
4 - Do not overload land with caves/ruins. Oblivion could easily loose 30% of the non-quest caves/ruins.
5 - Reduce the marks on compass.
6 - Don't make one city visible from another city.

Thats all I got for the land, but feel free to comment.

Each cities look noticeably different from one another.

Response to your points TzToppDogg.

Suggestion: Remove fast travel, and let the player use other methods to travel around.
Response: I could agree with that. Add some boats and stagecoaches that we have to wait for and catch, and later horses when we accumulate enough $$$

Suggestion: Decrease the running speed.
Response: Not necessary if the world is large and fast travel is restricted or removed.

Suggestion: Do not let the map reveal any locations from the beginning. (It kills the exploring part)
Response: I agree with this. I would wander into an area and all these map points would appear on my map (ie. ruins, caves) and I couldn't even visually confirm it.

Suggestion: Do not overload land with caves/ruins. Oblivion could easily loose 30% of the non-quest caves/ruins.
Response: How does this make the map seem bigger??? :blink: It would make it seem smaller! I say keep the caves and ruins. In fact, make them more expansive underground.

Suggestion: Reduce the marks on compass.
Response: See above response

Suggestion: Don't make one city visible from another city.
Response: Feel ambivalent on this point.

Considering that your character is from that world, they probably have some general knowledge of where major cities are. I don't think it is it necessary or realistic to omit major cities from a map at the beginning of a game. In Morrowind, Balmora, Vivec, Sadrith Mora and Ald'ruhn should have been there. Not that you could fast travel to them, but it is likely that they would be common knowledge. The cities on Oblivion's map were obvious ones.

Except the main character in Morrowind was a new arrival. Having been born in prison, if I remember correctly and never freed until their eventual trip to Vvardenfell. They certainly wouldn't know much at all about where they're being sent.

In fact, the main characters inability to recognise the Emperor in Oblivion makes me think same circumstances. (Born to to prisoners and never released) Either that or memory loss (Didn't know why they were there)

I don't care how logical it is, I don't want to ruin the exploration because of realism.

Skyrim, I would assume, would have relatively consistent architectural styles do to the fact that it's basically all snow, ice mountains, glaciers ect. But if they were to do all of tamriel then they would have to distinguish between the different provinces architecturally.

Conquest:

Add a conquest option to the game, the player joins one faction or another and systematically takes over the region.

This would involve preparing for the event with the hiring of goons at first then actually doing trained soldiers and possibly recruiting more later on when some die telling the recruiting officer (give him or her money so they can do so) to get more.

Maybe gaining taxes from conquered ares to help with recruitment and when its all done the possibility of putting down an uprising.

Dealing with major law enforcement problem of bandit groups raiding towns might be another thing leading a group of guards or soldiers in to clean the bandits out.

On the contrary, I think Oblivion went too far in giving the cities unique architectural styles. Instead of having a "Cyrodiilic" look to the cities, we got eight cities from seemingly eight completely separate cultures with no real connection between them.

This is what sadden me the most about the cities. I can see how forigners have influence the style of the major cities, but this was overdone too much.

As you say, there isn't really any "cyrodiil" architecture besides the Imperial City (wich is infuenced by the Ayleids).

Ayleid architecture is Imperial architecture, so the Imperial City truly is purely Imperial in its design. Bethesda seemed to want to place an emphasis and the watered down mix of various cultures that makes up Imperial culture, though. Cyrodiil isn't Morrowind, so don't expect the same feeling. Imperials are not xenophobic jerks.

...and he/she was never educated and couldn't tell that he was in Vvardenfell when told to go to Balmora.



I don't think knowing where a few cities ruins the exploration. The real exploration is outside the cities anyway, the cities are just landmarks. In Oblivion I could say that having a few cities to fast travel to aided in making more exploration possible earlier. FT to Skingrad/Anvil to explore on the way to Anvil. [My first time was a walk from Chorrol though and I stopped at multi-level Mythical Creature lair along the way]

Character's homeland and general knowledge of cities is a logical argument, I am not allowed to disagree.

BUT, what does the aforementioned translate into wrt gameplay and the initial state of the world map?

My guess would be at most, the main cities and larger towns are exposed in the map but the medium to smaller towns are not. Naturally, all additional points of interest are not exposed as well.

My other point in that response also concerned the discovery of miscellaneous points of interest ie ruins, caves, etc. I disliked how these points of interest automatically manifested on the map just by your being in the general area. This I disagree with and would rather that interest points be discovered via a more direct inspection of the site...or some very small distance from the 'entrance point' of the site.

Yes I do agree with this because cyrodil was one province. I was speaking more along the lines of them creating all of tamriel ( if they did). Then they would have to work with different cultures. But yeah, the cities of cyrodil should have conformed more to it's imperial style.

A few suggestions.


Alteration: Bending

Stifling Inertia: Decrease melee attack speed and casting speed

Dampen Inertia: Increase melee attack speed and casting speed

Take out Animate Golem from Alteration: Bending. Doesn't seem to fit and perhaps could be an opportunity to implement a cross-school mechanic. This would mean that the golem would have to be a badazz.



Alteration: Reversal

Levitation: I'm against levitation (probably one of the few), rather just keep feather and allow player to glide for a short period of time.

Kinetic Wall: Potential to be overpowered. Make it so there are two limiting factors implemented to keep it balanced.
A. As you already mentioned, allow it to be prematurely broken by a powerful enough force



B. Very short duration, ie 2-3 seconds max. Introduces a twitch factor in the spell's usage...ie you cast it just before the spell hits you.
Also repeated usage will also drain your magicka reserves. The caster could wave their hand in an arc and the arc forms the Kinetic Wall.

Passwall: this spell looks like will be a headache for the devs to program encounters and levels around. Unless I am misunderstanding the spell, I think it should be removed from this list.



Alteration: Cancellation

Shield: Needs a time limit in addition to the durability points you mentioned

Barrier Shape: Seems a bit redundant to Bound Item(s)...needs additional defining feature besides the lower difficulty / higher magicka cost. Perhaps since this is in the Cancellation subtype, consider adding these features in addition to what you mentioned.
A. Attacks and parries from the Barrier Objects have a chance to disrupt target's action (melee attack or spell cast)
B. Since objects are a 'physics manipulation' of sorts and not really physical objects, these objects have a greatly increased weapon speed or parrying speed. Since they are not true physical objects, they cannot be poisoned.

Elemental Shield: I think having one shield that covers you from all elemental types is a little unbalancing. I favor a shield spell for each specific elemental type.



Conjuration: Summon

Animate Golem: Yep, cross-school mechanic as mentioned before.



Conjuration: Banish

In general, I feel you are trying a little too much here in this subtype and adding too many dimensions to it. Keep it simple

Reject Daedra: Single target daedra removal

Banish Spirit: Single target spirit removal

Turn Undead: Area Effect spell, either undead 'die' or causes a 'fear' effect on those who were not 'killed'

If you want to push the boundaries of this subtype, consider
Fear: Makes humanoids run away from you

Emancipation: Your idea..but frees any soul from enchanted item, not restricted to daedric souls

If you want to get even a little more expansive
Planar Anamoly: A slow moving void to another dimension travels some distance from caster. Any projectiles, physical or spell, that enter the path of the planar anamoly gets transported to another dimension. Larger objects such as humanoids or beasts are pushed aside (note...not knockdown,..but a knockback pushing them out of the way but they retain control of their character.)


Ok, that's part 1 of my critique. I'll look at the other schools in a near future post.

It seems that everyday that goes without an announcement, the more silent this forum becomes......

I just really hope that the new TES will blow our minds. Bethesda should not focus too much on making the game feel like one of the past elder scrolls. Instead, they should throw new ideas on the table wich haven't been made in The Elder Scrolls before, or any role playing game yet. When it is released and show a few demos and trailers, I don't want to think that it can be beatend by other rpg's like Dragon Age 2, Witcher 2, Fable 3 or other games. TES:V must not show any weakness. It should be unexpectedly overwhelming in every aspects of the game, be it dialogs, graphics, story or anything else that rpg's should contain. I don't want to have my doubts about not winning the "RPG Of The Year" award.

Please Bethesda......Blow our minds!!!!

Do anyone feel me?