You know, that's a really good point.

There is one NPC that I've met in the Imperial City market, who claimed to be a musician, I can't remember his name though...

Yeah, he talked about performing a song for the Emperor in the Arena or something. But yes, music would be a great immersion enhancer, as long as they did it in a non "tacky" way.

Yeah, but I'm thinking on the lines of composers who are now dead. Like you know how we have thousands of dead composers from centuries long ago here on Earth? They should have that in Nirn. Like, you could go to a giant theatre where they're performing an opera by one of the great Altmer composers of the 2nd Era named Fanildil Merdreth. You know, stuff like that. Or perhaps the province the PC is in can go to see a symphony or violin concerto by a Breton composer from the beginning of the 3rd Era or maybe a performance of a selection of Nordic choral works from the 1st Era in one of the cathedrals.
I know that most classical pieces that are choral are centered around religion and praise the Lord. So likewise, these choral pieces could be in Aldmeris and be of praising and begging for forgiveness from the Aedra or Daedra, depending on the composer.

Bah, I can bet money that Bethesda would never go that in depth with the music world ever in their games. This is more of a mod thing. Maybe I should come up with some more ideas.

I kinda like that idea. It would really give the player a sense of a thriving culture. How about plays, non-gladiatorial games/sports, carnivals, and festivals on the holidays?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skald

If they would do that, they'd have to put all their effort into it, or it would turn into a half-assed job that takes away immersion rather than adding it. I would like more subtle ways of adding music: not full concerts, but individual people playing instruments. Or maybe just having instruments as clutter. :shrug:

I was also thinking more along the lines of just books that talk about past great composers. Or even scores. Not sure how they'd get music notation font in the game but I'm sure it could be done.

That could be done quite easily, so I hope they do that.

How about this for fast travel:

Remember back in the Baldur's Gate game, everytime you traveled to the next location, there was a chance of a random encounter. I can still remember the "You have been waylaid by enemies, and must defend yourself" announcement, lol. And they used that mechanism to start quests as I recall.

I read your post and usually I agree with you Daniel but unfortunately I just don't really agree with lock on. I'm not sure I just think it would be far too much work for what it is.

Morrowind's system of fast travel greatly surpasses oblivion's method. From how i read your post, you want an oblivion style with random encounters.

I would probably shoot myself in the left foot if that happened

That would just be irritating IMO. And if you ran into as many creatures in Oblivion, it would happen every 5 seconds.

I don't think it would be THAT much work really, after all a lot of games use a lock on system. If you mean the "work vs. payoff" ratio i say it's STILL quite worth it, just saying "some people probably won't use it" isn't a real way too as that would mean a lot of the side quests could be removed.

Plus we have to think about "might it be too much work" for ANY suggestion. The thing is would you like that option or not and, personally, i say it IS a very good idea to havem it would work, it could add something to the game and even make it feel more dynamic, less "sluggish" and feel less like a FPS multiplayer.


EDIT:
Oh yea and basically every NPC has a "lock on" system too, this would essentially just give you as the player something NPCs can already do by default.

My issue with it is still the same; I just don't "get it." I can't really fathom any benefit at all, which takes it below the priority of most every other work vs payoff suggestion. Maybe it's just me, but I have literally never had any issue whatsoever with mouse swerving or manually following, and I've done probably almost everything in the game, which involves a lot of combat. It seems like it would hinder specific targeting instead of helping it. Hence the optional perk compromise, though I still lean toward it not being worth the effort, like adding Water Walking in a game with no water.

Not quite related, on the note of allies getting in your way, I'll repeat an older suggestion of the player having an invisible "danger zone" when in combat mode. For example, a cone-shaped area that points in front of you in the range of your weapon. Ally AI would take priority toward moving away from that range, so that they could flank an enemy without getting in your face. With ranged attacks the priority would "fade" over greater distance, since over long range your accuracy will decrease while their ability to dodge it (add that to AI too, please) increases, making it less urgent. It would also remove the effect of scattering people left and right with your invisible bow wall as you turn.

On the subject of music, at the very least the laziest option is a soundtrack option like some other games have. Usually it's an option at the title screen to select tracks. A similar function could be added as a theater or arena orchestra. Obviously you don't command an orchestra to start and stop any song you wish, but there is a way to make that more immersive; say when the character sits down, you can use a paper item by the seat, the program, like those pamphlets telling you the acts in a play. Select songs from that, and it wouldn't be unlike attending a show. I don't know a lot about the process when making the game, but if there are any "extra" tracks that are composed but never fit into the game, that would be a good place to put them. Be easy to mod in player-made music, too.

Well i can say that, i never TOO really had a problem with it, i just feel that:
1: There CAN be better ways
2: It does HORRIBLY feel like you just play a online FPS match with slipey-slide moves

Plus, for the benefits, i DID mention some like being able to have faster paced and more weighted combat that simply isn't possible with the current system, or at least not a good way.
And as mentioned in the original post they could revise the combat system to actually have motion controlled weapons without it getting too stiff.


Uhm i did say if you DON'T use lock on it's exactly as the current combat system... really there is no difference then, if you don't use lock on it's just exactly as the old system, nothing added or taken away.
As for the perk, i'd go AWAY from perks again, they are a fake leveling reward to me. As for the "water walking in a game with no water" example, while the water walking might be true you DO have combat in the game. And the lock on would NOT just be based on combat but also things like long distance communication (shouting) or "anolyzing" a item from a distance.
Also think about non projectile based "on target" magic like a lightning strike.
Or shorter enemies that are hard to hit, those could be easier to deal with with a lock on system.

If it's in Skyrim, then I want frozen rivers, frozen rivers that thaw, although not necessarily while you're there. And rivers should actually pose a boundary. You should have to look for a ford or way to get across/around the river, rather than just swimming across it in a matter of seconds. Making some of the rivers in Skyrim cause damage because of the extreme cold?

Good idea I've wanted freezing lakes/river/bodies of water for ages as well as having river currents actually present and affecting the player.

And on that note, the coasts in Oblivion were pretty unrealistic. I would like to see waves as well.

An appearance ingame(easter egg)

of the drunken argonian!

Some breakable objects like tables, chairs, doors that don't lead to another cell, barrels, and chests. If you brake a chests or barrel open then you could get a broken item instead of a real one.
When you get to drunk then you walk around like it, it was in GTA 4 so I'm sure it could be in TES 5

Actually the drunk walk is due to the Natural Motion Engines (Euphoria) creating animations on the fly rahter than have pre-made animations.
There might bea compatibility problem with Gamebryo but i heard those problems have at least partly been resolved so it might be possible.

And personally i'd GREATLY urge them to use those (as evident from my signature) as, honestly, animations aren't Beths' strength really. That and it would allow a lot more dynamic feeling as how you move really adapts to WHAT you do and in what situation. Think of aversion moves, dodging and dynamic combat control.

What happened to the Morpheme part

Upgraded that to "N.M. Engines" a while back, morpheme is a animation maker tool but Euphoria can create "on the fly" animations, so i'd say they should use at least those two, Euphoria to have adaptive animations and Morpheme to make "solid" animations for sequences.

I don't mind if they don't use Euphoria. It's likely they'll do motion capture, and that's fine by me. As long as the animations look fine and transition fine.