1. Combat & Physics.
2. Leveling.
3. Story Depth.
4. Weapons.
5. Cities & Social Depth

From most to least important.

1. Leveling system - no more blanket level scaling. Seriously this is so important I will not buy the game if they don't change it. Scaling within a small level range is OK. Half-scaling is OK. And this is NOT just Oblivion's problem. Morrowind and Daggerfall were offenders, too. Oblivion just made it more obvious.

2. Decent writing. Please no more "demons from hell are invading! Are you a bad enough dude to stop the demons from hell who are invading?" plots. Please no more "The Altmer have powerful wizards", "They have excellent magic trainers at the Mage's guild" NPC conversations. I don't know why you got rid of the Daggerfall/Morrowind writers but find a way to get them back.

3. Game balance. Find a way to make skills like Speechcraft and Acrobatics worth having. Don't leave obvious exploits like being able to run at full speed, backwards, while firing a bow in.

4. Skill/class expansion - The skill selection in Oblivion is so meager it feels downright claustrophobic. Classes don't feel like they're fleshed out at all. Thieves have no dagger skill? Warriors can't use bows? Daggers are the same as huge dai-katanas? An "Archer" class will be no better at archery than a thief? Also: Don't let the intern pick the skills for the 21 set classes this time. Nightblades should have Sneak and Illusion.

5. Vast, open, unique world. Oblivion got the "vast" part right, but the blanket level scaling ruined any potential it might have had. Hand-craft your dungeons a little more. The cells were fine, but put a little more variety in monster difficulty and treasure. OOO solved this just fine, take a look at his changes.

Honestly Oblivion's graphics were more than fine. All "improved graphics" will do is force me to buy a new laptop to run TESV properly.

I have no illusions. I know 80% of TESV's effort will be keeping up with the graphics curve no matter what I say. But I'm not going to change my opinion about it

It's a little bit of copypasta, but it's what I'd like to see. In no particular order:

In a nutshell; I'd like the vastness of Daggerfall, the depth of Morrowind, and the eye candy of Oblivion.

-----I'd like for my character to not be a sidekick in TES:V. This also means a fantastic story will be needed. No more generic, "DAEDRA! DAEDRA! DAEDRA!"

-----I'd love for there to be no morally right choices in most quests, guild quests, and possibly even the main quest. I want choices for everything. I want to make decisions, but I don't want strict good/evil in everything, and I want there to be consequences. Not just a simple effect of the choice. Make it snowball. One effect leads to another, which leads to another, etc. Give different perspectives, and don't make it good guy/bad guy. Oblivion was severely lacking in this department.

-----I'd also like to see diversity of culture and customs. This, along with the difficult navigation of Vvardenfell made the island seem even bigger. References to lore and encouragement to understand lore and history within the game also helps with immersion. Imperials and the various dunmer, and the great houses all at each other's throats/attempting to spread their influence kept tensions between all of the factions high, which also helped feel a sense of diversity in the game. Adding this diversity with all gray factions (no good/evil) could potentially make the game feel incredibly large and accomplish the task of replayability.


-----Also, I think the cookie-cutter dungeon trend and the leveled enemies/items is at an end, but just to make sure, please don't do it. There should be reason for going into a dungeon rather than loot. In previous games, you entered a dungeon to see what was inside. In Oblivion, you entered to grab its riches. Make it more like previous games. As for items and enemies, they should be predetermined. From the start of the game, that Daedric gauntlet should already be sitting in that dungeon. Make the items rare, too. I shouldn't see every schmuck running around in full glass armor. That's ridiculous.


-----The skill system must be fixed. The benefit every 25 levels thing. It was laughably bad in Oblivion. I'm not saying Morrowind or Daggerfall had perfect systems, but something more along those lines would be much better. Anything but Oblivion's.

1.More fun&interesting world
2. Better NPC's
3.Better Combat
4.Larger World
5.Gimme a job or a reason to stay in town, make quills and parchment usable, lemme fish, lemme be a farmer or miner

1. I would like Beth to make TES V for an advlt audience. I want them to do an inspirational exercise every morning whereupon they all chant: "stuff the kids! stuff the kids!". After all, the only thing guaranteed to make kids want a game more than designing it for kids, is designing it for advlts...

The rest of my top wants have been covered somewhat, and it's good to see that a lot of people are on the same page.

2. A bigger, more believable world. Whatever setting they choose, it must be a vibrant, fully functional place before the player ever steps foot into it. For the most part, the player should have the impression that the world does not revolve around them, and if they die, that world will keep on turning just fine. This encompasses economics, politics and religion at the top end of the spectrum, and npc personality and dialogue at the bottom. Levelling at all points of the spectrum!

3. Freedom of career choice. This encompasses two parts. Firstly, every quest should be designed from at least 4 vantage points: Combat (magic) combat (non-magic), stealth and diplomacy. Everything in the game should be intuitively doable using each of those basic approaches. Secondly, there should be enough to do in the game world to keep unorthodox characters busy. Traders, miners, fishermen, healers etc. Nail the second request on my list and suddenly warriors and battlemages won't be the only desirable characters to play... Morrowind got close to cracking this. Oblivion choked on it.

4. Completely overhauled combat. TES combat is monotonous and boring. Always has been. It's time to add tactical flexibilty other than "hit enemy until dead, drink potion as necessary". This includes overhauling the magic and conventional combat systems, as well as making sure that enemies have a decent selection of options and the brains to use them. Epic enemies should be epic. Pull another Mannimarco stunt and i won't be a happy chappy. TES games have always had a scientific approach to magic, and this is a VERY good thing. Keep the formulaic style, just add a lot more variables to it. It is magic after all, and completely within the realm of imagination. If it can be imagined and if it can be made to fit within the scientific system without too much of an implausible explanation, put it in. Make it so that a novice of any given weapon doesn't wield it exactly the same as a master does. Include all-encompassing fighting styles that have pros and cons for each weapon type. In short, bring back the chess factor. A battle should be like a good game of chess, and the player should feel like they've accomplished something significant at the end of a particularly good battle.

5. Will think about 5. Edit: Having given it some thought, i have to kick myself for not thinking of it earlier, especially when i've argued for it many times previously. I could have actually bumped this further up the list, but anyway. I want Beth to include an options page. A master list full of on/off buttons, sliders and drop down lists where the player can customise the myriad of small game features to their preference.


So many of the things that get argued about in this place are a) stupid, and B) easily fixed with an options page...

1. More joinable factions (inc. mutually exclusive factions, such as Morrowind's Great Houses)
2. NO FAST TRAVEL
3. More customisation opportunities - more clothes, more armours, better face gen, more hairstyles...
4. Less linear quests - more decisions to be made, not necessarily 'good' and 'evil' but just different choices, branching quest lines, that sort of thing. Also the ability to fail quests.
5. Better Combat

1: don't make it an MMORPG
2: don't make it an MMORPG
3: don't make it an MMORPG
4: don't make it an MMORPG
5: don't make it an MMORPG

1. Better magic, I think Morrowind's was better than, '2 minutes ago, I couldn't cast this spell at all, now I can at any moment.' I wasn't too much a fan of mana regen, so I think just spells that would cost less would keep magic useful for more than a fight. More spell effects too, I liked mysticism useful.

2. More choices+Failure. You should have more to do after 1 play through, doing everything (Mania and dementia was something, but more). It shouldn't be, 'this is the obvious good path' or 'this is the obvious stealthy way to go'. More of, 'the guards just want you to help them protect the people, but the rulers are tyrants, would you be a better person helping the bandits, risking the safety of some people?' And those choices would need consequences too, helping the bandits would blacklist you among less informed people outside of town, and maybe even change the structure of the town itself, with harsher laws (and of course you being attacked on sight) should you fail, but more benevolence should you and your bandits take over.

3. No leveling enemies. It's already been discussed a lot here.

4. No fast travel. It breaks immersion, and although you can choose not to use it, the game expects you to, most quests don't really use many directions in OB.

5. Dungeons that aren't boring/make sense. Can't the empire keep any of its mines open anymore? I want more surprises, not 'kill inhabitants, sell most of the (completely not unique)loot.' Morunhold museum made me happy.

1. Thief like stealth. (this is a graphical request in disguise. Bring SHADOWS already.)
2. Flying mount. (this is in disguise too. This means levitation -> true open world. (3D worldspace))
3. Make everything modable. Everything. No hardcoded stuff.
4. AI. Introduce a little anarchy. AI is chaos.
5. Surprise me.

1. Better beds: Like real sheets and blankets that people (NPCs) sleep under.
2. Stuff in books/rumors/conversations matches the actual game. (See: armor repair, Skjorta)
3. Marksman Velocity/Denock Arrows included in some form by default.
4. Aquatic Life.
5. Larger creature variety. I'd like to see in excess of 50 TYPES of creatures, and then variations within each type.

Alright, here's my list; top five things important to me regarding TES5. This is my elevator pitch to the devs, if I ever had the chance.

• Be the "Mass Effect 2" to Oblivion and Fallout 3's "Mass Effect", that is, a sequel that improves the game in every way without making radical departures from mechanics and features that worked previously. Take a look at mods released to tweak rather than replace or remove vanilla systems.
  
• Construction Set, supporting documentation, and accessible filetypes for models and textures, in other words, continue the excellent support of the mod scene (I'm sure they will, but its important to me)
  
• More texture and model variety, think equal tier swords that don't all look exactly the same (some steel short swords have fancy pommels, others plain, some maces have banded wooden hafts, others metal), as well as stuff like the 'rusty iron curiass' and 'ruined fur boots' added in OOO and other content mods.
  
• Improved graphical fidellity. To me, graphics matter. I played Obliv on a high-spec machine with a variety of mods that improved the lighting, weather, vegitation, model detail and other graphical improvements. I know the cool kids say graphics aren't important, but I disagree. Bring the eye-candy in TES5, make it a spectacle like Oblivion was when it was released.
  
• User-managable realism/immersion options. Built-in support for things covered by sleep and hunger mods in Oblivion, and other things to step up the granularity of the experience for those interested, or rather to turn down what some see as hassle and micromanaging, so players can tailior their own experience without having to learn the construction set (you already let players set combat difficulty on the fly)

Consequences of choice.

More choice (like factions, and class emphasis)

Smart AI

Static leveling, meaning I don't want enemies and loot leveling with me. Some things will be easier when I am at a higher level, and others will be more difficult when I am a low level.

Deep engaging story and some mystery

..but in the mean time, thank goodness for mods.

1. Deep storyline
2. Enhanced combat. Ex: When stealth killing, the ability to stab.
3. Larger dialogue variety
4. More interesting side quests
5. Greater cultural differences between cities

The most important things to me are usually the stuff that makes you feel more immersed in the world. Little touches here and there that let you interact with people and objects.

I'd like,

The ability to cross dress.(and make prettier boys. :3)
The ability to make long lasting relationships.(friends, lovers, etc)
Seasons to change with the months.
Festivals and holidays being celebrated by people.

I think it would be cool if when you own a house people can live with you. Like say you make friends with someone or they fall in love with you. You can invite them to live with you and you can take them on adventure with you if they are the type to do so.

And for the character creation tons more options like beards and body sliders.

d): Alll of the above.

Well, you guys have covered all of the basics pretty good. So I'll just add some simple things for fun.

1. An interactive journal that you can write in.

2. An interactive map which allows personal map markers and the ability to make notes regarding each location. In Oblivion it would have been nice to have been able to change the color of the markers to indicate which gates were closed or any other location which had already been explored completely.

3. More unique and rare items including weapons, armor, ingredients, collectibles, and artifacts.

4. Randomly placed treasure maps.

5. The ability to change a foe to an ally by saving their life and being able to have and command a companion, animal or person.

1) A better system for levelled/scaled/static adversaries and loot with regionally specific placement is urgently needed.

2) No automatically guaranteed respawning locations after 3 days; either some time variation, "gradual" respawns over time, or other alternative is needed to prevent both "farming" and lack of makeshift player storage (I was very fond of taking over an ancient Dunmer Fortress as a "player home" in MW, although it would have made sense to have occasional "incursions").

3) Meaningful character stats - no more "automatic success" regardless of skill as in OB, but not the "uncontrolled" failure rates of MW's alchemy, etc., and drop the stupid Speechcraft minigame.

4) More "meaningful" factions, so you can't be the head of everything without being able to actually "do" that profession's job, and better interactions (both positive and negative) between specific factions.

5) More "complete" CS command set, without which I'm STILL stuck for ways to finish a couple of mods in process for MW. Without a decent CS to allow things like MMM and OOO, I'd have dumped OB after the first week of playing.

1. Realism (scope, amount of people and guilds, lethal combat, deadly diseases, traps and enemies, survival elements, seasons, holidays, real daedra summoning, sinking in water, gold has weight, failing occasionally etc)

2. Better Character Creation (~35 skills, dis/advantage system, ability to play with the numbers, reputations)

3. Story (no good vs. evil, no 'chosen one' saving the world, choices and consequences)

4. NPCs (good AI, well written characters and dialogue, NPCs that can be considered friends)

5. Challenge (no wait, this is already under Realism... don't make unrealistic design choices just to make it easier for the player! Like GPS in Tamriel)

Oblivion's graphics were impressive. 80%?! I doubt it would be that high. And why wouldn't Bethesda try its best in "keeping up with the graphics curve"? Wouldn't you want your game to look as good as possible - everything else being equal? Actually let's clarify that further before anyone tosses in one of those pointless posts about "don't concentrate on the graphics at the expense of the gameplay". The two are NOT mutually exclusive. And remember that Bethesda operates (as do all companies) with limited resources, so the whole game making process is a balancing act...gameplay vs graphics vs storyline vs physics vs etc etc - how to find that perfect balance of each....WITHIN budget.....

I know I hijacked the thread, but it had gone off the boil anyway...... :shrug:

Depends how you define "good". No matter what anyone says, I believe that Morrowind looks far better than Oblivion. I would rather look at large mushroom towers, velothi buildings, and unique plant life than Oblivion's cliché stuff. Unique architecture and wildlife, and textures is what I want to see. photorealism isn't always > stylisation. (pretty hard to get both at the same time)


I smell an oxymoron!

Let's not get caught up on semantics. I have lost count of the number of posts I've read in these forums from people describing how they like to wander and just admire the landscapes in Oblivion, the sunsets, waterfalls etc. I'm not refering to photorealism, rather the overall visual quality and ambiance. I think you are saying that you prefer Morrowind's stylistic design; I'm not referring to that.

Oxymoron......where? I didn't say "government intelligence", "pretty ugly", "butt face", or "get off on", did I.....?

Not in any order of importance.

1) Flying mounts (not levitate) I never liked levitation because it didn't seem right lore wise. It should be something restricted to artifacts (Ministry of Truth) and not something any random person can achieve with a spell or potions. And if they do add levitate it should be restricted i.e. you shouldn't be able to levitate more than a few feet and should be used mostly for descending from high places, not ascending ala Risen.

2) Better character creation.

3) Better combat especially melee combat, also magic should have varied tactical options. More important than that, different classes should have specific specialization abilities that give them an edge over other classes. For instance a Knight might be able to deflect projectiles, a Bard might have a debilitating war song etc etc.

4) Better animations, which ties into other areas like combat, but also giving the players the ability to climb cliff faces or buildings (especially useful to bypass guards). Things like rope bows could be added to facilitate this.

5) Better AI - I couldn't stand how guards reacted so unrealistically, even without eye witnesses. Guards should be physically present and within eye shot to detect things like break ins.

As far as the lore and storylines are concerned, Bethseda have always done well with that. I don't want them to go the Bioware route (they have their own distinct style of world building and story telling, and shouldn't sacrifice that one iota), neither should they be stagnant in their approach. Oblivion had a ton of lore if you bothered to pay attention. Mankar Camron was the greatest villain in TES so far (imv of course), his Commentaries sh*t all over any other villains motivations in TES or most recent RPGs for that matter - that was simply tremendous story telling.

The guild quests were also epic, I especially like the Brotherhood quests and the other guild quests were filled with memorable moments. They will only go from strength to strength after those great stories.

1. Construction Set

2. Mods

3. Choices

4. Consequences

5. Anything else

1. Rated Teen.

2. No leveling like in OB

3. GRAPHIKS!!!!!! jk.

3. Construction Set

4. No more Fast Travel.

5. Somewhere else than Skyrim would be good.