Ok, Some things I'd love to see implemented (If not by the Devs, then by some talented modders shortly afterwards)

1. Better combat.
Morrowind's combat was crap and although Oblivion's was better, it still came down to "I SWING MY SWORD BACK AND FORTH HURR DURR"
I would like to see melee fighting like in Dark Messiah; Where fighting with daggers or a bowstaff feels completely different from fighting with a longsword or katana.
I would also like to see a change in how melee skill is gauged. Even with a skill of 10 you can still slice and block like a boss, all of it coming down to numbers, and always ending with ether you or the enemy grunting and going limp. When fighting a bandit, I want a my low level character to be shown clumsily gripping the blade, making spastic swipes and blocks, and more importantly, not actually kill the enemy. An unskilled character should not be able to make clean wounds or cuts. A low level character should only be able to leave that bandit mortally wounded (Using location-based damage) and screaming on the ground, where you have the choice of ether putting him out of his misery or taking his money and running. And likewise, I feel like a character with a skill of 50 should be able to make a clean cut, or manage a clean stab, while a skill of 100 should allow you to chop that motherf***er in half with little effort.

2. Bigger and better Gameworld.
According to http://unrealitymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/large-video-game-worlds2.jpghandy map, Cyrodill was in fact smaller than Far Cry 2's gameworld. IT WAS 4 MILES ACROSS. If you look at the side, to the worlds too large to show, the largest gameworld ever was that of Daggerfall, at over 62,000 square miles. Now I'm not going to suggest Skyrim be THAT big, but having a larger, more varied world than Oblivion would definitely be great. Also, Seasons, Holidays, random (And extreme) weather like blizzards or snap-freezes or even earthquakes or meteor impacts would be a treat to experience.

3. Expansions.
I loved Shivering Isles. And the fact that its still one of the top downloads on the Xbox Live Market shows that I'm not the only one. When I got FO3 I thought "Wow, I wonder what they'll do now". Instead, I got a group of Small, Single-quest expansions that felt more like missing pieces than anything else. Even if it takes longer for each one, I would definitly prefer the "Large but few" expansions rather than the "Many, but small" DLCs that we got for FO. and although I think visitng Akavir would be a bit TOO big, somewhere like the Summerset Isles or the homeland of the Sload would be cool.

4. Bigger Variety of weapons, and other equipment.
I'd like to see more, and more unique weapon types. Bring back the spears, and throwing stars, and crossbows from Morrowind. But also add completely unique weapons like a Spiked Chain, or a Daedric Blunderbuss that don't just have a unique skin and effect, but that play completely different. Also bring back bone and Chiton armor.

Thats all I can think of now, I'll just keep watching the trailer over and over until more comes to me

Food/Drink as currency for fast travel, as well as resting or waiting.

Morrowind Style Merchants as that would limit the amount of gold that you would get no more 1 million gold files. I liked it in Oblivion but the more I think about it the more I like having Merchants with a limited amount of Gold.

Bring back the guilds: Four in Oblivion was simply not enough, compared to Morrowind.

Bring Back the Size: It may have just been me but I swear Vanderfell was 5 times the size of Cyrodiil.

Less leveled creatures: Beating Oblivion at level 3 was completely boring.


Aka as a whole, make it like Morrowind instead of Oblivion.

It was not even close to bigger, but it seemed so because it was WAY more unique than woodland all around.



This is an awesome idea.

And got me thinking of Morrowind trading again, we should be able to select all we're buying and selling before actually doing it.
That way in Morrowind we were able to actually TRADE, I could get my share of scrolls and some food for 0 gold but would give a piece of Iron chest armor, while in Oblivion I could only sell and buy stuff instead of actually trading it.

What I want: better combat,

What I don't want: combos and "special moves".

I don't want to feel like I'm playing an arcade fighter. There should be directional attacks that affect your opponents dynamically. I want to be able to deliberately choose when I want to stab, when I want to do an upper cut or slash left/right or bring my weapon down onto my enemy's head. And if these hits connect, they should either cut into flesh and armor, dealing lots of damage, or rebound off the armor and do very minor damage. If I stab, the end of the sword should go towards wherever my mouse is pointing, so I can seek out that weak spot in an Orc's armor and take advantage of it. I don't want to press 4 for a "whirlwind" strike or some crap like that. I don't want to have combos where you land three attacks and then get a damage bonus because...third attacks are for some reason more powerful??

Better voice actors please. Ones with different accents, like scottish or german accents for nords, irish accents for bosmer, english for imperials, french for bretons etc.

Also, I would love a lobger main quest line, something more akin to that of nehrims, with exiting twists and such rather than the boring, go here, collect this, kill him.

Most of all, I want a more varied landscape, like morrowinds, in the place of the boring and repedetive forests of cyrodill.

More voice actors would definitely be a plus, but maybe with unique accents, like variants of ones we have, so it feels like TES, not real life.

Also, more varied (and kickass!) landscapes would definitely be welcome.

Remembrance Day = Vereran's Day in US

I would like a more animated world. I want the NPC's to feel more real, (a good start at this would be animations).
Once again a good example of this is the Assassin's Creed world (though it is highly unrealistic to replicate something of that scope, its just the general starting block).
I want to see people travelling on roads more often and be able to see ships sailing down rivers.
Just these sort of subtle but ultimately realistic touches would make the game awesome imo.

A more toned down version of Assassin's Creed's acrobatics and assassinations would be great for stealth characters. Maybe some rope arrows, invisibility cloaks, etc.

Great game but to make it better they need to add on more enemies and make them alot tougher, seemed like they were really easy, they also need bosses or random special creatures that are tough to find and extremely hard to beat and thus rewarding you with advance loot, and not make them leveled. better lore too, make it so some of the books are actually useful and maybe give you clues on how to find treasure or legendary beasts.

last they need to have spears, crossbows, and dual wielding(sword and stafff to). maybe some weapon mods like NV

You don't need high polygon counts or fancy effects to make a game look good, and it allows the engine to support many, many more characters and enemies on screen at once. I read somewhere, that you guys were happy about the number of characters in the battle outside of Bruma... that battle was pathetic...

Bethesda, your animations svck. I feel like I need to have an intervention for you guys. It worked for Morrowind, but Morrowind is old. Euphoria is the future. If not Euphoria, than just spend more time making a reactive alive world with better animation AI and work.

Things like player choice, character development, the plot, your interactions with other characters, and just the whole game-world should all be interconnected, co-dependent, reflexively reactive, and immersive. I want to keep this concise but I want to explain what I mean. In order to get (and use effectively) a suit of heavy armor, your character had to join a specific faction, and rise through the ranks of that faction, and get specific training from a specific trainer that you wouldn't have access to if your weren't in that faction... and joining that faction might mean that you can't join certain others, or at some point in that faction's quests you make a choice to give up other options. If you want to be a mage you have to join and work your way through a monastery. That means you can't be a knight... but it also means you have access to stuff knights don't. It means you have a certain prestige among the people, and this changes the way they interact with you. It means you get robes that you couldn't get otherwise, and these robes let people know who you are and what your station is. I guess in a very quantitative way you might label what I want in a TES game as economics (as in choice under scarcity), and a social identity.

Economics (choice under scarcity): You can choose something, but then you don't get to choose something else. What does this do? It makes what you did choose more important, meaningful, and special for your particular character. If you become the head of the Telvanni, you sure as hell can't become head of the mage's guild. It also makes the larger gaming world more reactive and immersive as your decisions carry over large distances since they are intricately connected to not just your character, but to how your character can interact with the gaming environment and society as a whole.

Social Identity: In this game-world there exists a living and breathing society of humans (and khajits and argonians and elves and orcs), um... well... sentient creatures. And in this world you have a place. Maybe you are a mysterious wanderer belonging to no faction. Maybe you joined the mages guild and are a local chapter head. Maybe you are an aristocrat or politician and work for the local governor. Who knows. But in real life, and in a game society, people have roles and positions and titles. And these things are a huge part of defining who that person (or role-played character) is.

To have the characters of the world react to you differently based on "who you are" and "what you do" would go a long way to improving the depth and immersiveness of the game. Only, hide the technical mechanics of it. Don't make them unfathomable or mysterious, but make it seem real. Get rid of the like bars. Get rid of the faction meters. Get rid of the horrid persuasion mini-games. Make their interactions dependent on how their personality meshes with your character's personality, how they feel about what your character does, or how he acts (their knowledge of you dependent on what they hear (rumors), what you tell them, what you are wearing, etc.), or what position he holds (or what position he is pretending to hold) (impressions are an important part of interaction), or what he says. Well, people are shallow, maybe some people are prejudiced against your race... Make the interactions with people reactive to everything that makes your character.

No unrealistic enemy leveling: Having enemies level with the player is a mistake. Gothic II got this right. Certain areas/quests/creatures are just too difficult for a character before he reaches a certain level, or is skilled enough, or has good enough equipment. What does this do? It gives the game world a consistency, such that the world seems to persist beyond the player playing the game. It also gives a player the sense of accomplishment and gaining power. Perhaps the player explored into a very dangerous region and got his ass handed to him. He decides to leave it well enough alone. Later, he comes back after having adventured elsewhere as a much more powerful character, now he takes on the enemies with a challenge and comes away victorious. This is much more meaningful and rewarding than constantly fighting leveled battles your character is automatically supposed to be able to win every time, and gives the player a real sense of accomplishment and advancement of skill/power.

Where Gothic II was an excellent example of a concentrated RPG game-world-reactive experience, Gothic III get's something else right in the "large-scale" game world reactivity.

Always more to do: Let's get epic! In Gothic III you could change the very scape of the land by conquering towns and villages for certain factions... I even believe Morrowind included this once... (quarreling between the great houses). Where does this belong? At the end of the game.

So, you've quested your way up the ranks to the head of a faction... and now there is nothing left to do...

This is not where the game should end, but where the game should get epic. If you allow the player to become the leader of something, then allow the player to be a leader. Hell, if you have the resources, turn it into a pseudo-RTS. Let the player tell his underlings to do stuff, set faction policy, strike deals with other factions, go to war, set up a trade network, I don't know. Have issues arise that need solving. Let the player exercise this leadership role which you have allowed him to toil so long and hard for.

If nothing else, then design the guild quest lines so that about half of the quests lead up to becoming leader, and half the quests actually occur after you ware leader, and that have to do with actually exercising the power and responsibility of your position and role as leader.

6. Morrowind
Why?
Lot's and lot's of reasons.

Richly historical, non-traditional, varied, "hand-crafted", and inventive architecture, society, environment, and game world.

Bring back:
1. Greater faction and societal variety: socio-political factors add a lot of humanity and power to the story.
2. Stronghold building: Being able to build your own stronghold was one of the coolest and most rewarding parts of the house quest-lines. Sure, buying a stronghold or house is sorta cool, and filling it with junk... but building your own, now that's awesome. And there is a particular opportunity here made possible by TES's awesome modding tools. What if players were not just able to build strongholds, but with the money and influence and correct procedures (buying land, getting permits, hiring construction companies, getting the resources, hiring workers/guards, or "borrowing" faction units), could design and build anything (within reason). Shops, homes, castles, whatever... What if you included a subset of the TES construction set IN THE GAME. The player can buy certain sets of land (or inherit them as some level of faction leader), and then talk to an architect which will take the player into a small subset of the TES construction set which allows the player to design his very own building "in game". The game then calculates the required resources, the cost, the construction time required, etc. The player gets these things together, and gets them to the spot, then the game actually builds it in a Morrowind strong hold fashion. The workers are seen working around, and in certain set times the walls go up, or the rooms get fleshed out, etc. I mean, maybe this is too complex... but at least include some sort of stronghold building into the game.

Choice and consequence: The immersive sim. Harvey Smith and Warren Spector, while they were designing Deus Ex, labeled their design philosophy as the "immersive sim".
"Harvey Smith: I want to be able to fully explore and interact with an environment in as immersive, self-expressive way possible. If something occurs to me in the game world, I want to be empowered to try it. And I want the results of the action, even if they are not always what I expected, to be interesting and plausible."

This is a design philosophy to live by, and its potential in an open world like TES is astounding.

Why?
Choice and consequence: Game-world reactivity
The things these games did great was make the player's decisions in the game world have repercussions and affect the game-world in many interesting and plausible ways.

What not to do: Make the big game changing decisions obvious.

What to do: make the big game changing decisions part of "playing the story", subtle and simply an extension of the player's seamless experience inside this simulated world you have created.

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To sum up:

1. Choice and consequence.
- Economics (Choice under scarcity) Give up something to get something else
- Game world reactivity
- Small scale
- Large scale
2. Strongholds versus purchased "homes"
3. Greater socio-political conflict and variety of groups/motives, etc.
4. Social Identity that affects interactions with other people (prosopography)
- Interactions with other characters is more subtle and realistic
- Rumors, personality, appearances, actions, etc.
5. Quest-lines beyond become head of faction... about 50% or more worth of quests to do relating to your role (responsibility and power) as leader of the faction.

Boats that actually sail and horse-drawn stuff would definitely go a long way to make things feel more connected. Having guys at the docks loading and unloading cargo. Siege weapons would be really sweet too, even if they were just used against enemies. Imagine if there they had a ballista or a catapult along the walls of cities.

There needs to be romance options and make the girls look more feminine. I'd rather not be dating some chick who's jaw is, well manly.

Everyone else is like.. better this, and better that. Better is extremely subjective... and can be quite cost consuming sometimes. I suggest for everyone to follow my lead and actualy talk about why and how the devs can make the game better, not just "better this, better that."

I want Morrowind style Daedric ruins, with worshipers and Daedra filled halls. Having the bone (I think that is what they were made of based on Boethia's comment) ruins isn't necessary (but still cool). I just want to have to have a challenge to get to talk with the gods. The gods in Oblivion just asked that you brought random junk to them and it felt unsatisfactory. Plus the whole Daedric quests needs to be more flushed out. Some were cool (like Sheogorath's) but most were like go kill these three people and we will give you artifacts so powerful they have rewritten history many times before. I mean do you not see how that is a little lopsided. Plus bring back the Scourge for that matter and make it have an enchantment that actually banishes Daedra. You had one that summons them in Oblivion so why not one that banishes them. It isn't an overpowered enchantment because you don't get anything from banishing them.

If you don't implement Daedric ruins then at least hide the shrines better. Why would the monument to the gods that has a link directly to them be outside to be weathered and beaten, and totally unguarded except for three to five low level commoners. Daedric princes should each have their own factions even if they have no quests and some are unjoinable. That way you need to have certain dispositions to their factions to not get attacked. Like if you joined Sheogorath's Daedric worshipers you can go to his shrines without being attacked and some others as well, but followers of lets say Azura would have a naturally lower disposition of you because you worship Sheogorath and ultimately attack you on sight. You could just kill all of the followers resulting in the anger (or in some cases amusemant) of the gods causing harder quests bestowed upon you, or you could join their faction and get an easier quest from them. Doing this makes getting their legendary artifact both easier (in some cases) and rewarding knowing that you had to put in a little extra effort to get said item.

On another but similar note Vamperism is in the domain of Molag Bal and not something some witch should just magically be able to cure. I mean it is similar to killing a Daedra, they are immortal and only temporarily banished and not destroyed. Why should a few shoots of bloodgrass and a pinch of garlic be able to erase a gods curse. To cure Vamperism you should have to speak with the big guy himself like in Morrowind. Give Molag Bal another shrine in some forgotten mine (filled with lava natural or magical) that you get its cure from. Also implement multiple Vamperism types. I want to see Morrowind style, Cyrodil style, and Skyrim style vampires. Also werewolves, werebears, and maybe wereboars depending on how close you are to Highrock. Have the cure for Lycanthropy be given by either Hercine itself or by a Glenmore Witch.

A quick shout out to return the other weapon types simply because variety is awesome. Beyond that the artifacts shouldn't be all in the gods hands but hidden in thieves dens, rouge mages hideouts, Daedric shrines (if returned), ruins of old civilizations and cities, or bandits/marauders/pirates bases. Add a larger base of unique goodies that you find on NPCs, like named blades, special enchantmented (I know it's not a word) items, and diaries or other personal goods. Finding those items that connect you to the person you just killed is a fun way to send a neutral character on a guilt trip. Just kidding, but it seriously adds to the depth and feel that every NPC is a unique person and not pulled out of some random name/character generator. Another thing to spice up the depth of the game would be families (children would be cool and all but I don't see that happening) like siblings and parents in other towns or villages. That would be nice because it seems like everyone just pops out of nowhere and has no ancestry the way it is currently done. Plus you could have like blood feuds with the character for killing a person and getting away with it by bribing a guard or paying some minuscule fine or serving less then a month in jail. That would piss me off and make me want to hunt down and kill the perpetrator so why not an NPC.

Putting in ruins and caves with back stories would be really cool as well. Having Labrintia (or how ever it was spelled) would both be exciting and awesome. But making other places have the same kind of history and prestige as it would be ever better. I loved how places in Morrowind were filled with unique NPC's (not that every NPC has to be unique I love killing nameless bandits that level with you, it is just not every enemy should be that way) many of whom had Sanguine artifacts or unique inventories. Which brings me to the point that having everything scaled and autolevel makes leveling a hassle and worthless. I like facing level 30's at level 1 knowing I will die. It makes it so I don't go back there until I am ready. Weapons shouldn't level either, I liked Morrowind's Slash X-Y, Hack X-Y, and Chop X-Y system. Although I do prefer Oblivions combat system although it still needs much work. Plus Daedric should be epic rare equipment, same with glass and ebony. I like that fact it takes forever to piece together a Daedric set and that it cost 100000+ drakes for a complete set of glass knowing most characters never get that much. Quick side note, bring back Morrowind's trade system as well. Probably some more stuff but I can't even remember what I previously wrote so I guess I am done. For now at least :chaos:

What I’d like to see in Skyrim
I would love to finally see the following playable races in a RPG:
a Dragon Race, Werewolves, Nagus, and other strange mythological creatures being playable, besides the same boring race that is humans.

Number 3, the game has to show me a world that I’ve never seen before and have interesting characters and creatures and an original story.
Number 4! Seriously I am not seeing any originality to the design or games or stories you are making currently but who am I to judge really. This could change over time.

I'd like damage by numbers to be gone completely...but that won't happen, because people say "But it's an RPG!". An RPG is a role playing game! Role playing means playing a role, it doesn't dictate that things must all be calculated and un-immersive. Sure, make it so that bigger races can bleed more without dieing. Make it so that more experienced players/NPCs can function better even after sustaining damage, but an arrow through the head, a sword through the hear, that should ALWAYS kill! Weapon skill should mean that when you stab, the sword deviates less from where your mouse is pointing, that you swing faster and have a bigger chance of penetrating armor, and less chance of getting disarmed or fumbling. That kind of thing would be truly awesome to play!

Combat System

1. Varied types of attacks with different weapons.
This was sort of implemented in Oblivion with the different attacks given at different skills with your weapon (disarm, knockdown etc.), but maybe have holding a direction on the left stick perform different attacks like a slashing attack, stabbing attack, power attack etc.(or using the right stick to perform attacks (think Fight Night style ) )

2. Make armor matter when attacking other characters
If the person you are fighting is wearing chain mail, slashing attacks will do considerably less damage than piercing attacks etc. People using heavier armor are harder to injure/kill with slashing weapons (unless hit in certain areas... blunt weapons more effective for breaking armor/bones). Also, heavier armor should noticeably encumber your fighting style (Dagger + Daedric armor = nonsense)

3. Area damage
Incredibly important to stealth classes... all armors have weak areas (under arms, head/neck, etc.)... while sneaking if you aim at such an area, you are more likely to kill/significantly injure other character. If you hit an area that is unprotected by armor, it shows (i.e. arrow to the thigh, NPC has a noticeable limp). This also makes a bow a more viable primary weapon. A well placed shot the the head should kill, chest should take 3-4ish hits etc. Maybe have some sort of stopping power to projectile weapons, like the enemy being staggered by being shot in the chest while he is rushing at you.

4. Enemy Differences
Goblins for example should be shifty and hard to hit, but if you get a clean shot on them, they pay for it. But if you go to smash its head in with a warhammer, it should be able to dodge/counter attack. Likewise, heavier foes are less agile/quick, but come with more damage and defense.

All of this will make you think twice before you fight every foe with the same weapon/spell combination.

Hoping for better water physics, maybe waves and such depending on weather. maybe the ability to set sail, because the fact that some one can swim normally in the water with tons of Armour on them, scares me based on realism. I'm hoping for the agriculture and alchemy systems to make a comeback but in a new way where you can actually plant and manage farms. Better third person walking, so as if you actually look like your walking and the terrain has pebbles and mud that influence that, As well as a better Fire system, like if your on fire, your Armour will look scorched or charred, depending on its durability.

Just one thing for me, as I'm sure that finished game will be amazing.

ABSOLUTELY NO EXCLUSIVE DLC FOR ONE PLATFORM AT THE EXPENSE OF THE OTHERS..

Exclusive DLC is killing this gen of consoles. I hate it.

This
Aswell as being able to talk to some one, with out them completely freezing, when you talk to some one, and in an urgency, you pace around and move your hands, you scream when your angry and make diffrent faciel movements. I want to be able to walk in to a bar and just hear massive conversations. I dont want to be able to know every ones names like in OB, but i want the ability to find out by hearing it from other conversations. I loved that in oblivion, i would walk by to people having a conversation, and then a dialogue option would be added.

I feel like hits that deal no damage due to DT, should stop the animation and reverse it sort of, as if it really bounces off the armor, instead of going through the character's body anyway. Blunt weapons could have like a "vs DT" bonus, where it affects their damage less. This could be cool when trying to fight rock golem or something, where swords would be pretty ineffective, but a warhammer could take care of it.

This is more of a game engine suggestion than that of gameplay. With more people adopting 64-bit systems and having 4-8GB of ram, more memory is being made available for use with games. I'm more of just hoping and wondering if its possible for bethesda to implement a flexible map/level loading scheme. Like an option in the game setup wherein, if enabled, it would consolidate the small maps into large levels and do the proper door animation what whatnot, and also perhaps add more actors or objects into it. It would make for a more organic game.

In morrowind, while traveling around the world, you can just basically walk into small towns and interact with the occupants. In oblivion however, towns have been separated form the outside world and you've got tons of loading screens and not that many NPCs. The imperial city for example was a bit sterile. Considering it's supposed to a the capital city with a lot of inhabitants, you'd expect there to a lot more NPCs in it, especially in the market district. I did love Oblivion though regardless. But I hope bethesda tries to take advatage of some new tech on the rise. I don't really care if they use tesselation or not, but that bigger ram would mean a bigger canvas for them to work their programming magic with.

Just my thoughts here.