This is how I think enchanting should work:

First of all, no more of those enchanting alters, or whatever they were called, along with the required need of soul gems.
It should, and most likely, depend on how high your enchanting skill is and you should be able to enchant items at will with a press of a button.
When you choose an item you would like to enchant it will bring you to a menu where you can assign spell effects to the item.
You should be able to raise the damage, health, etc. depending on your enchanting skill.
If you assign a flame, frost and shock spell to a weapon for example...it shouldn't just show one effect when you use it. Should be random on hit.

Thoughts?

With smithing, you're probably going to need a forge and anvil.

With alchemy, you'll need all those various tools that I forgot the names of.

Why should enchanting require nothing but your bare hands?

Because it makes sense to smith armor and weapons with an anvil.
Because it makes sense to use a retort for creating potions.
And it makes sense to enchant items with your magical hands.

i would say from a lore standpoint, almost any game you can think of that has enchanting requires a 'source of power' to enchant into the weapon/armor. what will be your source of power?

But we're talking gameplay here, smithers and alchemists have to do more work than enchanters, I think you should at least require some kind of regeant for echanting rather then just waving your hand over your sword and BOOM flaming sword!!!

Definitely not an enchanting alter and soul gems. I mean come on, really? Bethesda can think of something more creative than that. I'd have to say using your bare hands would be the most realistic.

How is that realistic when every other RPG that I can think of requires a source of power to be used for enchanting? Not only that, we're looking at this from a lore viewpoint, as someone said earlier.

Using your "bare hands" would just not fit, and no offense to the OP, but maybe you're just a little lazy and don't want to do all the extra work for enchanting

I'm just trying to look at it at a realistic view. Obviously, smithers and alchemists would have to do more work because they'd be doing physical work. Mages use a mystical force...alot different than physical labor. But maybe you're right about using some item to help enchant an item. I just can't think of anything.

Yeah, soul gems are a TES staple though.

I dont want some kind of magical rocketlauncher with infinite ammo, thats just silly.
I really dont think soul gems and charges are out, and I dont think they should be.
This is an RPG, not a shooter.

They should go back to named soul gems though, as in Oblivion I missed having a collection of souls.

Enchanting altars or an enchanter is fine, as long as the cost isnt as ridiculously low as in Oblivion, and it isnt as stunted.

Morrowind enchanting suited me fine, though Daggerfall had its interesting features too.
I like having the ability to recharge magical items, but maybe sometimes an item could break, or an enchantment you do yourself could fail, releasing the captured soul wich then attacks you. Daggerfall style.

With enchanting as its own skill I really hope its more customisable than Oblivion.
Id like to decide for myself if something is on touch or target or self.

In TES, magic items have to have had a soul of a creature or the essence of a god/daedric prince to power the enchantments. SInce your character will not be a bonafide god/daedric prince you will more than likely need the soul of some poor random creature.

Soul Gems should return, but altars should not. That way you actually have to have something to make the weapons more powerful. Who wouldn't be an enchanter if there was no cost or degree of challenge to doing it? Plus it will be added for a degree of balance, each crafting requires materials, need to do certain things to get them (soul trap, mining, harvesting), so on and so forth.

Personally I like Soul Gems, and also believe they should return. But again, there should be a couple tweaks from Oblivion in my opinion:

1) Don't Make Us Invincible - Invariably someone finds a flaw in the crafting system and either makes themselves indestructible/invincible (e.g. 100% chameleon) or uses the system to create godlike weapons (e.g. Soul-Trapped, 100% Magic Weakness, 35 Fire Damage, 100% Fire Weakness Swords). The core game engine simply shouldn't allow players to do things like this. Mods and console commands exist for that when people want to use them.

2) Randomization - Crafting an item with a certain set of materials doesn't necessarily have to always produce the exact same item every time. If I take a hootchnagger, a polywhiffle, and an emerald banana to the crafting enginge, who's to say that I should always end up with Whatchahoozit +15 Fire Damage? Why not make it a small range of possibilities when doing the craft, perhaps even with a very small chance to make an exceptional or "perfect" combine that has stats well beyond the standard range available when using those components? I think that could add some fun and an element of suspense when doing crafting that is somewhat lacking in previous systems.

The items dont make you be invicible, You enchanting and using the item make you invincible..................Dont do it



I kinda like this idea, but if I am 100 enchant and have a grand soul gem, I want to be successful in creating my whatdoyacallit +15 fire damage if I want to. This should just happen at lower enchantment levels specifically

We already know enchanting smithing and alchemy each require a workbench in town to do. MKuch like the workbenches in fallout 3 and new vegas.


As for what enchanting will do.. id imagine its mainly focused on the needs of mages just as smithing is focused on the needs of warriors. Doesnt mean there wont be cool stuff for warriors or rogues im just saying what it does will likely be geared to what a mage needs and what they dont want a mage to have prolly wont show up in enchanting.. namely armor or defense like stuff.

I want a nerdy, completely immersive system for enchanting, with many enchanting options, strengths, durations, constant, charge based...etc

with perks

and stuff

1st, I really would like to get my hands on a Whatchahoozit +15 fire damage. That would be cool.

2nd, and more serious, I don't know if I really would like randomization as I think most players would like to know exactly what they are getting when they enchant, not just at master level. Also, this could lead to saving before enchant, enchant, don't get the "perfect" or "exceptional" result, reload, repeat because they feel like they are being cheated if they don't. Now, of course, you will say that's up to the player, but I really think we should know what we will get if we spend the time to enchant. I would like more control and more options though. And not the OB default, weapon gets on strike, clothes/armor get constant effect. I prefered MW's system that way.

Agreed, which is what I did in Oblivion. Still, I don't even think it should be possible. I don't even want to be able to accidentally make something that's uber powerful. I ended up selling some of the weaons I created because the game ceased to be fun when I could just one shot everything.



Hmmm, yeah I see what you're getting at it here. Pairing the randomization with your skill in enchanting is probably a good idea. I still think there should be some element of randomness to it, but it should skew towards the higher end with better enchantment ability, and perhaps give greater chance towards making that "perfect" version of the item that has even higher than normally possible stats.

That's a good point. I didn't originally think about the **save, enchant, "crap", reload, enchant, "crap", reload, enchant, "sweet I got it"** problem. Come to think of it, I may even fall victim to that myself. I guess I was just trying to think of a way to add some suspense to the crafting process, but maybe it doesn't need it. :ermm:

Enchanting requires soul gems. I want to keep it that way. It would be nice if you were a skilled enchanter you could have a chance to reuse soul gems. The strength of the soul gem determines the difficulty of using it without breaking it.

iNo more stupid batteries. I just want to be able to shoot lightning out of a stick like I can with my hands. Also, I'm not a big fan of having to equip spells to your hands. Why can't you take one hand off of your claymore for 2 seconds to shoot lightning? Seems like a strange system with some issues.

So you would spend magicka to use enchanted items? Do you want to use it for free? I don't see an improved alternative to the "battery" system.

I'd prefer having a "safe" range where you can specify whatever you want to make, within your skill limits. Trying anything slightly above that could result in some random variation: good or probably bad. That +15 Hoozamawatsit could end up as a +9 Hoozamawatsit or a +16, because you're not entirely sure of what you're doing and can only make a +14 item without taking a risk. Anything WAY above should be impossible (no more "CE Restore Health 5 points per second, or Fortify Intelligence 100 points for 3 seconds), but not have a sharply defined "cutoff" as in OB, where things went from "can't try" to "can't fail" with one skill point.

Morrowind's frustratingly high rates of total failure at low level aren't acceptable in today's games, because most of today's players aren't into the same "try until you succeed" style. Still, without some "less than desired" results being possible, and with no chance to "push" the limits slightly, it's a "can't fail" pass/fail system that fails to be challenging, and not really a "game" in my opinion.

As for recharging, I much preferred MW's very gradual regen, with the ability to use soulgems to speed the process if needed. OB's "no free charges" made Enchantments either incredibly tedious or expensive. The ability to make enchanted items in OB using Sigil Stones, without requiring even a shred of a clue about Enchanting, made enchanting pointless to take as a skill, and made it seem less than "magical", because any illiterate barbarian could do it just as easily as a professional enchanter.

100% chameleon is an intended game feature and not a bug or exploit.

Considering the game knowledge and effort needed to achieve it, its not only 'dont like it dont use it', but also 'dont google it if youre gonna complain about it.'

Have you ever baked?

If you went right now and got out a cookbook and looked up a recipe and baked something, do you think it would turn out perfect even once, much less every time?

Do you think that baking is more or less complicated than enchanting?

How about casting a spell on a weapon (like a soul drinker spell) that enables it to acquire an enchantment after a certain number of kills. Perhaps making it to where you can add multiple enchantments with differing levels of soul drinker spell. The first one could be 10 kills and an elemental attribute, 20 with something else etc.