Unique spell artwork and more advanced NPC with daily changing dialogue.

hahahah, seriously, this is a must

• If ESV is going to have capes, please apply proper physics to them please.

Yes.

I'd like some more intense melee fighting. Anyone who fights, whether a fistfight or if you train with weapons, can say that fighting is intense. You start panting and sweating and getting hit hurts. Mix that with physics capes and you have [censored] machinema waiting to happen.

On that subject, the option to have a guest camera would be nice. Say what you will of halo 3, the guest camera is awesome.

Boats, that sail, boats that move. The boats in Oblivion were just static, like buildings. I wanna row a boat into the midle of lake rumare and catch slaughter fish. or take a nice scenic tour on a boat down river, and watch all the imps toss fire balls at me as a float past.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking ?

:thumbsup:

I think I am, B1.

"Its Movie Making time!"



but yeah thats not a bad idea. It woule be so legendary if they actualy made combat more realisitc, like swaying the camera to various sides as you dodge and parry attacks and get hurt. the combat in Oblivion felt very very rigid, because after all you were just arms and a camera. It could do with alot more animation. Like the side slash power attack could be that you block to your left, step in, and chop down at your enemies legs, then hit him in the head with ur shield, step behind him and stab him in the back. Thats what martial arts is for. Rather than just swing, block, swing, block, swing, block, swing, block... If you fight like that in real lfie you would be dead in seconds.

• As part of a unique non-scripted AI schedule, give NPCs the ability to change their apparel and weapons.

• It's understandable that the team will only be able to do a limited amount of guilds, such as the amount from Oblivion, and that's fine with me, but PLEASE deepen them much more. The guilds/factions are unrewarding, and bland for the most part in Oblivion. And with DLC, the addition of join-able guilds would be very nice.

And allow for us to request that they wear armor that we have available for them. If they like/trust us they would probably put it on, and if they're smart they'll probably only wear it if it's an upgrade, and politely turn you down if it's not.

If they don't like you then they'll probably just tell you off or w/e.



Oh, and this.

There are a few issues that I wish to address via this message:

1.) Weaponry, Spells and ranged attacks
2.) Game Play, Good or bad?
3.) Movement, UI etc.

Let me start with

1.)
First of all, In oblivion I believe that a few aspects are missing but strangely enough, are present in Morrowind. Weapons such as thrown knives/daggers, Ninja discs and darts, are absent from oblivion, this was really disappointing, I enjoyed the use of these weapons, for instances where a bow and arrows can't be drawn fast enough, but a sword isn't the weapon your character is trained to use.

Spells that aren't present in any of the elder scrolls games (that I am aware of) are a must for the next installment of the elder scrolls, these spells include Midas' Freeze, rock wall, rock ring, ring of fire, and some other spells that can be used defensively. Some Attacking spells that I would love to be in the next installment are spells such as Tsunami, Meteor and spells such as geyser, that attack area, all around you, but not like the area effect of vanilla spells.

The only ranged attack or weapon that need to be added are crossbows. No other comment.

2.)

There aren't too many game play issues that i want to address, but one is the idea of good vs evil, why is it that your character must help the good side? Why can't there be two story lines, one where you help the emperor, and another where to fight to get the amulet and use it for evil. Actually, maybe there should be a side quest that lets you do evil deeds for people (like dark brother hood) but more extensive.

3.)

Only a few issues I had with the movement was that the jumping style, it need to be a little more like two worlds, the true jumping animation, another mod that should be integrated into the game would be deadly reflexes, you should be able to duck, flip, dodge and strife, these are movements that are a must in a combat game such as oblivion, again, these shouldn't be easy to obtain skills, a quest or training should be used to access these skills. Also, there should be a option in the menu to toggle between morrowind and oblivion inventory inferences.


4.)

I know I had no intention to write a 4th idea, but really I just remembered it from talking to a mate at school, This would be relative to the area, Imperial city. Once you complete the area, you fight up to 3 minator lords, yes it's hard, but maybe you could, once a game week, a foreigner may come from far away and challenge to fight you in the arena, you don't actually slay him, but once beaten you get his rare armor.

Bring Back Levitate!

yeah levetate was rad, going to play morrowind now.

how about a "observe" button which gives you a description/explanation of what your crosshair is on. maybe have a more detailed description if the skill related to that thing is high. this could be used for that tracking idea pretty well i think.

I'm 100% with you. Archers are soldiers, so why is archery a thieving skill? And how is mercantile and speechcraft also thieving? I agree no groups are needed at all, but I still put them in my suggested skill list: 7 weapons skills, 7 physical skills, 7 magic schools, and 14 mental/knowhow skills. You find the skill list in the sig


I understand. Didn't bother me in M&B though, but while TES is 1st person all the time and the world is visually realistic, it might not fit in.
Still, I'd rather take a nice tracking system with arrows than no tracking at all.

Oh and don't forget

• No level caps

• No scaled Leveling / Loot
  
• Don't make all cities available for fast travel from the go
  
• More random "Wilderness" Quests
  
• Diversity in Terrain (Oblivions diversity was alright)
  
• Add Generic Townspeople (Like they did in Fallout with "Megaton Settler")
  
• Gameplay wise it should resemble Oblivion, Story wise it should be closer to older games, such as Morrowind
  
• Keep the Breton Voice Actor (I loved that guy)
  
• Necromancer Guild
  
• Don't mess up the formula for Falling Damage/Acrobatics level
  
• Unlock ALL spells for spellmaking/enchanting at the respective altars.
  
• Since it's coming out on Xbox, release it with an install disc for additional content, to have most of the game on DVD and part of the game on HDD

I miss the good old challenge in rpgs.

Whatever happend to trapped doors in Tes games? Or being interupted while resting in the wilderness? Or even failing at reparing items?

I miss those good old things, that make you think twice before you did your move!

Agreed

Maybe. I'd just like more realistic, intense combat that stays true to RPG roots. For example, the way skill perks would work wouldn't be the rigid, 1-dimentional way of Oblivion but be more like a feats system based on skills. So there are five perk chains, each with four levels. Something like this:

Long Blade perk sets:
Disarm- chance of disarming oponnents
Knock back- chance of pushing an opponent back out of range
Wound- chance of causing opponent to bleed for continuous damage
Finesse- chance of ignoring armor
Strength- increase damage

Every 25 levels in a skill (that system should be kept but modified so that individual skill levels matter more) you get one point to use on perks, plus one you start with. Therefore you can get five perks, which is to say a little of everything or max out one or some combination of that. Each point spent on a perk increases your percent chance of the effect taking place. Example: one point in finesse means there is a slight chance of ignoring a person's armor, maxing it out means you almost always ignore armor.

But wait, there's more!

Some quests should give points for certain skills. For example, the Grey Prince quest wouldn't have given you extra skill points but a perk bonus in either long blade or block, depending on what you choose. This allows customizability and makes the RPG elements matter more.


Trapped doors were replaced with physics traps, which were a good idea they just need to be more dangerous. As for the rest I agree completely.

When a person dies, any nearby person should be alerted and run to the guards at the sight of a body. Also, plz remove supersonic yelling made whenever you attack somebody, it makes no sense that if you attack somebody in their house the nearest guard comes running no matter where he is. The ability to choose to be good or evil, and bring back the lore thing, loke where in morrowind if you kill Vivec or somebody it says "By killing this character you have xruined lore, load a save game orr continue in the doomed world you have created" and in oblivion say you kill someone involved in a quest in most cases it will just say "Person is unconcious". And through reading the unnoficial oblivion wiki, maybe add the ability to get into Moonshadow (Azura's Realm) or Coldharbour (Molag Bal's Realm)

Refernces:

Molag Bal: NO REFERANCES, I WILL NOT PROVIDE A LINK, BUT THERE IS AN ARTICLE ON HIM, SEARCH: LORE: MOLAG BAL ON http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Main_Page TO FIND IT.

Azura: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Azura

No DLC's! Make a game with lots of quests rather then realising lot's of DLC's like in Fallout 3. It would be ok with a long DLC but no short one's like in fallout, would be much better if they where in the game from the start.

Ok since this was apparantly not important enough to be it's own topic or simply not "tollerated" as it#s own discussion i'll post it again here:

Seriousness:
Idealistic or serious, how much?

This is a important topic to consider, how "serious" should the game be.
Now people tend to mistake seriousness with "blood and gore", but that's not what I mean with that. Sure it is a part of that too but a lot of blood and gore can actually make a game look LESS mature and serious.

But there are various topics that count into this.


Relationships and six:
This is a hot topic, especially in gaming. People often say "it's not necessary to have this" or even "it should NOT be in games". However, in a game like TES that is supposed to feature a believable world, this SHOULD really be a topic.

Now it doesn't have to be in the form of six minigames or even six scenes but people actually showing affection towards each other for example. Or even topics like "six for sale" like prostitution.
In Oblivion even basic relationships where missing, people didn't show ANY affection towards each other. Even couples that where supposed to be married, in love or worried where nothing more than people living in the same place.

There is a lot where games can improve here. Simple things like holding hands, actually showing emotions towards each other, getting worried when the other is missing etc.
Or to get a level lower even just looking for pleasure, this could even go as far as [censored], not necessarily in the game directly but being mentioned by people. After all there even was a "god of [censored]" back in Daggerfall (look it up in the wiki so you don't get a false impression).

And it doesn't even have to be on an intimate level, what about those just looking for comfort?

Anyway, a problem in there is the "hyper sixualized" character, ones that are rendered unnaturally sixy looking and then put into "just enough clothing". They result are females with huge briasts and v-necks down to the navel.
While I don't say I hate those they are not really a good representation. The game world should have all kinds of different looking characters and not just either "super sixy or ugly as sin".


Nudity:
Kinda a sub topic of six, why is it still such a huge no-no to have nudity in games? In fact it ISN'T, games like "The Witcher" had nvde characters and HEAVILY implied six and, look, civilization hasn't fallen apart.
I'm not against the "permanent underwear" thing but I don't see how actual nudity would be such a problem. TES is NOT a kids game and I think EVERYONE can handle nudity really.


Emotions:
In Morrowind the people walking around there basically walking encyclopedias, in Oblivion they where talking advertising pillars. While they had basic facial expressions and differences in their voices it never felt real, they often failed to really show emotions.

A good example was a woman who's husband died in the cause of a quest, even though she was supposed to be really sad it merely came over as "somewhat saddened".

Here's a lot of room for improvement again, the call is "simply" give NPCs a bigger spectrum of emotions. Instead of "happy = smile" have them really ACT happy, if they are sad let them cry or even break down, have them become depressed. If they are angry make them lash out at people, bang doors or yell.

There's so much that can make them seem less like robots with invisible tape recorders but actually people.


Guilt:
One point that's ignored in MANY games is, well, making the player feel guilty for certain actions. Sure some might feel guilty to do certain things already but, honestly, oftentimes there seems to be no reason to. "Oh my husband is dead, oh well".

Many games attempt it the wrong way like with a karma system, but this doesn't make one feel "guilty", it just makes you feel punished.

What I mean is, for example, have NPCs, even "filler" ones like random bandits, seem less like they're just poofed into existence there. When you sneak up on them you could catch them chatting or sitting around the campfire, talking or trying to pass another day.
They could even talk how this is the only way the can support their families, what got them so far to start a life of crime or even just about how the day went. Something that makes them more alive and not just cardboard cutouts at a shooting range.

The same can apply to all NPCs, if they lose someone they love or care for they can actually show sadness and even hate towards the one who did it. Imagine killing someone in a fight, it wasn't your fault but the family of the deceased still hates you, their friends could stand somewhere in between not knowing how to talk to you or trying to avoid you.
Hell it could go as far that a whole village reacts like that, people trying to avoid you or talking behind your back.

However, similarly good reputation can spread that way. Though one risk is that it could backfire, if you play a saint and then have to reject someone they could even accuse you of favoritism.


Suffering:
Morrowind really seemed like a dark and dirty place in many aspects. Oblivion on the other hand seemed kinda... clean.
You pretty much only had one homeless person per town and even they seemed like placed actors. There was no real poverty, slums, ghettos or such, towns where a ideal happy sunshine place. The only one that seemed kinda poor was Leyawiin, but here it was the whole town and not just parts of it.
Similarly diseases and injuries where "poof and gone". Oblivion really had no suffering unless it was killing.

Again, lots of room for improvement. How about homeless people actually seeking garbage to find food, stand or sit on street corners begging for food or money.
People with diseases or heavy injures sitting in hospitals or in their beds going through long treatments till they are healed.

While this would demand a overhaul of the game world it again could transfer a lot of feeling.
To Bethesda themselves, take a look at one of your older games, "Call of Cthulhu: Dark corners of the earth" how you designed the poor house or generally the streets of Innsmouth.


Oppression:
This is a big topic and was actually more present in Morrowind than in Oblivion once more. Governments oppressing their people and abusing power, corrupt police forces, prejudice, racism, sixism. While all those are very hard topics in a world like TES they can't be ignored.

In Morrowind you had topics like racism and slavery, the ordinators in Vivec that treated everyone like scum and the governments and great houses that all seemed somewhat fishy. In Oblivion you had the countess of Leyawiin but otherwise such topics where missing.

It is said that many of the races hate each other and it can be somewhat present in the world still, towns having "quasi ghettos" for example or shop owners charging different.

While this is a hard topic it also allows more room for the opposite, people trying to fight injustice. In a "ideal" world this is simply not possible.



There are many more points about this and they're all important to making a not just believable but interesting world. Sure they can go for a over idealistic world too but those are mostly boring and all conflicts seem constructed rather than actual conflicts.
Bethesda shouldn't shy away from those just because they are somewhat controversy. It's about making a great game and the atmosphere. And they DID do it back in Daggerfall and Morrowind so why not once more?

PS: I know there are also some "forbidden topics" but they really need consideration, after all TES is supposed to be a deep game experience and not "just a toy"... right?

PPS: I really don't get why this isn't allowed to be it's OWN topic, i mean this IS important and will probably just get drowned in here.
Plus look around, we got so many trivial discussion running that are allowed to stay and this actually concerns the very base feeling of the game.
If it was just about certain points in the thread then tell me that, otherwise i really don't see why it was locked when much more trivial or even out of topic threads are allowed to stay.

i agree that NPC interaction and relationship was incredibly disappointing in Oblivion. This is one thing that the Fable series has that TES needs to learn from. A simple 1-100 disposition relationship is incredibly shallow. And the speechcraft skill needs to be expanded on or replaced by a more sophisticated model of relationships.

Another idea:
In addition to the HP, Mana and Fatigue bars, what if there was a survival bar (or incorporated into the fatigue/health bars). A survival bar that decreases when your character goes without food or sleep or are suffering from sort of disease.

Originally I was thinking of some sort of system the Sims series uses, but I quickly realized that TES shouldn't become a Sim type game. But I still feel like eating, sleeping and disease need to become more crucial to the way the game is played.

YES! :thumbsup: I am tired of games treating me like a kid. It was okay when I actually was one, but I expect games to at least grow up as I do. Beth has always shyed away from anything more than an allusion to romance/six and that needs to change. Games like Mass Effect already have six scenes, and Bethesda needs to understand that some six can make a game more believable.

But on the subject of blood and gore. If it is realistic but not gratuitous and combined with increased seriousness, realism, and a believable world in the rest of the game, it can enhance the world.

One example of too much seriousness in a not serious enough game is the airport level in MW2. Because the rest of the game's story is like a bad action movie (though the game is still pretty awesome), the level fails to deliver any real emotional response.

My main point is if a game is to be a serious world, it needs to be believable through and through.