well I like the karma idea since the gods are a major part in the elder scrolls, and incorporating there wants into your character would be nice.
so it would be more of what god do you follow, and you can change depending on whether the gods allow for that.
also if you choose athiesm it could be put on random selection for how much of those 20 points you get.

Ahem, you're leaving out some notable characters... the Daedra Princes. The God's ideas of good karma and the Prince's are quite different. Besides, it shouldn't be the game telling you that you are bad, it should be yourself as well as civilians. You would range from "..... scum" to "hail there!" in the people's eyes.

I agree. There should be no Karma system. Instead, you should have a reputation with different factions. I could be loved by the Bandits, and be one of them, yet shunned by the generic citizens and guards. I could be loved by poor citizens, but be hated by the gurds and nobles, in a sort of "Robin Hood" kinda way. I could be hated by Citizens and Guards, yet loved by followers of Hircine. The list goes on.

Of course, some faction relations could be hidden. Citizens may not realise me as a follower of a Daedric Prince until I make myself known as one.

I would also love for people to rcognise me according to what I'm wearing. A dark, creepy "Dark Brotherhood" style outfit would make people fear and avoid me. Wearing a Guard's uniform would make people think of me as a guard. Wearing Bandit clothes (only if thy have something special - would be annoyiing to not be able to wear fur) would make guards/citizens fear/hate me, but Bandits may accept me into thier ranks.

i hated being told "You have lost Karma". I felt bad when i got that message, And I allways chose the good/bad option because of how it affected my karma, rather than what I actually wanted to pick. So it was either all good choices or all bad because I wanted thoseacheivements on GFWL. Which ruined the game for me because I wasnt role playing or playing the way I realy want to.

I say there should be 2 sides to TES V weapons and armor: Fantasy (your over-sized axes and hammers, plus odd armors like Daedric and glass), and realistic (small-headed battle-axes and hammers, plus normal iron/steel armors without intricate patterns). It's fun turning people to bonemeal with a huge warhammer, but putting giant dents in armor is just as fun and realistic.

I think for hammers the closest to fantasy size but still somewhat realistic one where the hammers of the "hammerites" in Thief, they had very long handles and a hammer head that's about two fists in size. And from what it looks they're made of solid metal so they must have quite some weight. They are quite borderline what a average human can wield and they likely also have the training to wield them (regular hammerites with hammers do look rather beefy, priests don't wield hammers but magic staffs they also use as clubs).

But really anything bigger than that seems more ridicules than useful.

I apologize in advance if my idea has come up before. Something I always found a bit frustrating with Oblivion was that for the most part, melee or ranged combat and magic where so separated by a brick wall, the only time a ball was tossed between the two was the fact there is spells that summon armours and weapons.

I would love to see different spells from the different schools of magic that infused your armour and weapons with different effects, essentially acting as a temporary version of the enchantments you see on magic weapons and armour, both the ones we seen any any new ones Beth comes up with for TES V. For me that would throw in another element of magic that help integrate the different combat styles.

Oh, it's probably too late and already been mentioned and shot down, but I'd like to have lanterns as objects again. They looked better than those stones and were much better for marking things. When I got the mansion on the hill just south of ... the central base city in MW, I lined out my sidewalk up the hill with them, set up party lighting, etc. Of course, they might need some sort of tag so NPC's don't pick them up, and placement wouldn't work as well anymore thanks to physics and gravity

I'm hoping for more individually unique weapons and not weapon series/categories like Daedric, Steel, Iron, etc.

Also, I want hood and cloaks that don't automatically pull your hair back, I want my long hair to still be seen.

Speaking of bloodmoon, what happened to werewolves? That really made me angry that they were taken out in Oblivion. I think that they should be brought back in TESV.

http://www.theknightshop.co.uk/catalog/images/larpwarhammerthumb.jpg is a realistic warhammer, its actually better to have a light, dense warhammer than a heavy one. The really nasty side on this is of course the long curved spike, that could easily go through a helmet, and it curve follows the natural arc of a swing allowing for more powerful and deeper penetration

Edit: http://medieval.stormthecastle.com/images/productimages/warhammer
Edit #2: Oh, your talking about realistic fantasy. Nevermind.

There wasn't a karma system in Oblivion, or are you talking about older games? Fallout series has a karma system.

Edit: Double post.

Agreed. The karma system in FO is really lame.

Yea I'm generally for more realistic weapons instead of fantasy ones. The hammerite hammer example was what I see as the maximum size for a "oversize" hammer that still looks somewhat handleable.

And it should be noted that even then, they weren't specifically made as weapons. Hammerites are constantly building and forging as part of their religious beliefs, it's just a convenient addition that the holy tools they carry everywhere are also capable of breaking the skulls of unbelievers.

Yea and also theirs, while used for combat, are not weapons of war. They're pretty much an addition to the city watch but never really leave their sectors in the city, so they don't walk very far carrying such a heavy instrument.
Generally Thief's world is pretty realistic in many aspects, hell they even work magic into there in a quite believable way. The Pagans for example using magic to accelerate plant growth which is quite usable for their cause. And also that technology is used for progression like electric lights and mechanisms (elevators, the clock tower).

Any item should be able to be used as a weapon. A butter knife isn't made as a killing device, so it isn't that great for doing the job, but it's still possible, and in some situations is better than using your fists. A dagger, a knife made specifically for combat, would do the job great, and would be much better choice, but not everyone has one, so you'd settle for the butter knife if you were to be attacked. Another example would be a sledgehammer. Not the greatest hammer for combat, but it can still be used as a weapon if needed. That way there is a lot less of fighting entirely weaponless people.

Ooh, another example would be the cliche angry mob weapons, the pitchfork and torch. Not intended as weapons, but can still be used as one to some effect.

A simple idea i liked from red dead redemption was the fact that riding a horse off a path would result in a slower speed. a small idea, but, it definately added realism.
Also, as has been said, climbing, and more vertical environments. if the game is actually set in skyrim, it could easily be integrated into vertical cliffs and the like.
More ambient animations. people really just walked around in previous games, i want to see shop keepers going over their merchandise, people sweeping, carpenters building, etc.

An unarmed person should be able to pick up.. anything and use it as a weapon. Like a drunken bar brawl smashing wooden stools over peoples heads.

I would like to see first person animations for everything:
Reading Books
Opening your journal
Making Potions
Sleeping
Eating
Drinking
etc.

In Oblivion they had those animations for NPCs, but not the player.

Definitely! It would also add some much needed liveliness to taverns. All of Oblivion's taverns were just a bartender standing around doing nothing, and people drinking nonstop without doing anything else. There was little to no conversation or gambling or music. No liveliness at all. It was just like a fireplace without the fire. Know what I mean?

The reason Oblivion had no actual cliffs and other vertical or concave surfaces was due to the way the environment was calculated. It's just one big algorithm describing a collation of curved lines wrt an axis. Those lines can't maintain mathematical integrity if they curve back on each other; the equations of a curved line go false if you try it. They might be able to pull off a true vertical but it would not look natural.

OR

Beth can create hand built envrions instead of using the procedurally generated one per Oblivion. But these have to be hidden behind zone walls somehow.[edit]or annoying popup onto the terrain seemingly out of nothing as they do now.

Only two improvements I want for TES 5:

Dual Wielding daggers or dagger and a shortsword.
More voice actors.

Other than that, go nuts Bethesda

Larger soul gems than 1600 or just 1 special one which has a store of 3000 but is like azura's star as it never disappears.

Crab/lobster/scorpion carapace armour.