I have searched for these, but I couldn't find anything, so here it is.

1) Dragon shouts seem pretty cool, and they seem versatile for all play styles (Dragon "whisper" for stealth, etc.), but I really hope they don't turn into Greater Powers and Lesser Powers. If I am playing a pure warrior, I don't want to have to go to my spell list to access my dragon shouts. Do we know yet how we actually use dragon shouts?

2) The new Radiant AI seems pretty cool, and actually seeing people at their jobs would be awesome, but I really hope that they don't have the random, nameless NPCs that you couldn't even initiate dialogue with like they had in Fallout 3. Does anyone know anything about this?

What do you guys think about these two (imo) issues?

1. I'm sure Dragonshouts will have their own power access page where you manage them all. And they can also be hotkeyed.

2. I would be happier having most NPC's with names, some no names, and some generic names(i.e. beggar) to make cities actually feel larger and more populated. Especially since children are in now, too. Keep in mind as well, that just like real life, there will be people that won't talk to you.

1) I don't recall hearing how the Dragonshouts will be accessed and used in the game. If someone else has, I'm sure they'll chime in. Either way, you should still be able to hotkey it (or the system the consoles will be using) so that you can quickly access the ones you want, just as you would any weapon.

2) From what has been said about the new conversation system, it sounds like Skyrim will have them. Only the important NPCs will have anything to say or any sort of dialogue tree. The rest are probably going to be just like FO3.

1. Hopefully Dragonshouts won't overshadow the rest of the gameplay and the only way to become powerful is to slay lots of dragons. [Dragonshouts work by holding down a button RB,R1 for consoles, and then somehow selecting up to three words]
I imagine it will be like Zelda:OoT, where you play songs on the Ocarina.

2. I'm glad for more differentiation between filler NPCs and important NPCs with quests, but I don't see how Radient AI is going to be such a breakthrough, either there will be a ton of repeated voice-work and very basic quests storywise, or at best it will be unnoticeable compared to equivalent scripted quests.

I don't buy that quests from people you know will be dynamic, why wouldn't they just make a second quest from the same character? The dungeon idea has merit, but hopefully it won't result in cookie-cutter dungeon templates with the same basic design.

1) Bethesda made a big point of saying that these are not in any way affiliated with magic and are useable by any character, so I assume they'll have their own section.

2) I want to be able to talk to everybody, and I want them to have more to say than the latest rumor I've heard a million times. All of them better also have a home, or stay at an inn or something. I want every NPC to be fully realized. Ooh, and it'd be cool if NPC's also had distinctive personalities, so it doesn't feel like your're talking to the same, emotionally void, person over and over again. Am I hoping for too much?

If it were a choice between random, nameless NPCs and more-fully-developed NPCs, then I would agree with you. However, because the choice is between random, nameless NPCs and nothing at all, then I am 100% behind random, nameless NPCs. Bring 'em on!

What about random, named NPCs, with something to say, even if it was just 'Rumours'

Actually the choice is between random nameless NPCs and fewer but fully developed NPCs.

I hate random NPCs except as random enemies.

That. It was just plain stupid in OB when you could "talk" to everyone and then they didn't even have anything to say.

Yeah, in real life people don't always talk to you, but this isn't New York City we are talking about, these are small towns/villages (yeah there are some big ones too, maybe have some random npcs in those) where if someone were to stroll into town in full Daedric armor, you'd think the guy chopping wood wouldn't be like "Yeah, whatever".

No, the choice is between random, nameless NPCs and nothing at all. I think that the amount of time required for creating a template for numerous random-and-nameless NPCs is insignificant compared to the amount of time required for creating a fully-developed NPC. In Oblivion, I happened to really enjoy all those nameless watchmen, and guardsmen, and Imperial Legion soldiers. Without them, Cyrodiil would have been a duller, more barren place.

Names and homes for all NPCs. They don't necessarily have to talk to you. Nothing gives me a "let's kill these anonymous piles of bits just for the hell of it" response faster than someone named GENERICPERSON or somesuch. And that kind of reaction is a prime example of a break in immersion. Massive crowds are not necessary to make a believable city.

Even if there are FO style 'random' characters, there will still be just as many if not more people to initiate dialog with as previous games. Think OB, plus scores of random people that populated the world making it livelier. I certainly wouldnt mind that.

Thats purely speculation though.

Right......., except for beggars, thieves, street urchins, traveling mercenaries, random guards, servants/slaves. Many, many people in TES don't have their own homes in a given city, therefore, they should at most just be a name. If they actually have something useful to say, we should be able to talk to them. If not, then they should just be labeled or randomly named. Do you really care about the name, backstory, and dialogue every random street urchin child who pickpockets you and runs off? Or every beggar? Or guard? :confused:

The devs should devote time and effort into the NPC's that matter, and add more generic ones in addition to them. If Radiant AI can handle having all NPC's in a city having personalities and meaningful dialogue, great. I highly doubt that would be a wise allocation of resources for Skyrim, however.

Also, I hope you don't get the same "kill frenzy" when you walk down the street in real life and don't know everyone's name and address.....cause that would really break the immersion when you're sent to prison.

And why not? Why should he care about another stupid adventurer wandering into town to screw up the local economy by selling all of the loot from his latest grave-robbing? You want attention? You want adoration and love? Piss off to the brothel up the street. This wood's not going to chop itself.

1) I'm not 100% sure but I remember reading that on consoles dragon shouts will have their own button on the controller

Well, if they can randomly generate names and schedules and just put them in houses or have them sleep in an inn or bedroll each night, I'm fine with that, but there is no way I want to see "Solitude citizen" walking around with nowhere to go.

Personally, I hope that the inventory and spell system in Skyrim is tilebased (with mouse-over for detailed description), because that way I won't have to scroll forever through a redundantly informational list just to find what I'm looking for. I think the item/spell menues in Oblivion were terrible, and I've always wondered why they moved away from the highly successful Morrowind layout that, after all, was A LOT more organized and it was easy to use. Why not just improve on that - combining the Morrowing gear system with the Baldur's Gate spellbook system, for instance. X*Y Spells per page and sortable according to School, Alphabet, Magicka Cost or otherwise. Premade spells could have their fixed position in te Spellbook, while the custom spells could've been organized separately. Since there won't seem to be custom spells in Skyrim, this should be even easier to do.

Actually, if you were the guy chopping wood and some strange weapon wielding, daedric armor wearing, blood splattered brute starts to head your way you would probably run inside. I know if irl some gun toting man started heading my way I would be finding something else to do besides chop wood. Like get to cover and call 911.

OB had generic NPC's as mentioned like all those Mage Scholars, guards, etc...I just hope they don't go too far like most RPG's where you know you can skip 99.9% of the population because they don't have an actual name. Sure, those named NPC's might not have had anything to say, but least you didn't have a city full of "citizens" and one guy named Joe to talk to.

I want more crowded streets. Something more similar to Assassin's creed. The NPCs should have no name and be "filler" NPCs until you meet them IMO. after you meet them, they get a name. problem is, i also want them to all have homes/ lives. that would mean large cities would have to be LARGE to have a densely populated marketplace during the day.

so i guess it's probably gonna be one or the other.

densely populated streets during the day
or
everyone has their own home/job

I wouldn't be surprised to see Dragon Shouts implemented as powers. I'll just hot key them to the D-pad so I don't have to go into the spell menu.

My take on point # 2 is, have you ever just stopped a random person on the street to talk to them? Most people, they don't have anything useful to say. Sad but true. They're either going to talk about [censored] you already know (the situation with Libya) or [censored] you don't care about (the price of rice in China). Again, it's sad, but it's true. I would imagine that things would be similar even in a fantasy world. Personally, I'm good with having lots of NPCs you can't interact with.

have you ever asked people for directions? locals are usually useful for those kinds of things. i think we should be able to talk to random NPC's no matter how little they have to say.

many of the NPCs in Morrowind had like two conversation choices (including "Solstheim") but i'm happy i wasn't denied access to talk to them

I would prefer it if every NPC could say something about themselves if you got to know them well enough.

lots of people will resist a stranger getting to know them. I think they should avoid you if you don't know them and your trying to be way friendly. but yeah, if you already know them they should talk about their work or their family or interesting places they've been and whatnot.

Armed travelers are not rare in Tamriel, nor are adventurers. Only an idiot would wander aimlessly around the monster-infested wilderness without a way to defend himself.

Look at it this way: a smaller number of higher-quality NPCs is better than a huge number of mediocre ones who only have only one thing to say to you apart from canned rumors. That guy chopping wood doesn't matter and has nothing interesting to say. You want the latest rumors? Go to a bar. Don't badger some random miller about it. And you can't seriously tell me that you fondly remember all the great times you had with Algot the Northerner, the way he told you that the Imperial City is big, and that one time he said they have good magic trainers at the Mages' Guild.