In my excitement and anticipation for Skyrim I have been playing Oblivion a lot recently. I feel that a massive contributor to RPG attraction for gamers is the unique aspect of customization, essentially the look and feel of your character.

With this in mind I would like to list a few things I feel would increase character customization.


1. http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://img-fan.theonering.net/middleearthtours/images/strider_tos.jpg&imgrefurl=http://fan.theonering.net/middleearthtours/aragorn.html&usg=__362q5iAoE1zZO68av1FYCHDZXlQ=&h=210&w=200&sz=40&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=e0PnkMtWZm0w6M:&tbnh=161&tbnw=153&ei=G7WJTaSWFou5hAeq7N3EDQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dstriders%2Bcloak%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1680%26bih%3D935%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=620&vpy=104&dur=122&hovh=168&hovw=160&tx=108&ty=79&oei=G7WJTaSWFou5hAeq7N3EDQ&page=1&ndsp=46&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0

I know we had these in Oblivion but instead of looking shrouded, mysterious and just plain cool you ended up looking like a http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://images.asadart.com/sources/com/halloweenexpress/images/products/FW1198.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.styleceo.com/apparel-search/ns/3/monk/&usg=__-d3xjXbREEpM1EehpC8p3VwkNNM=&h=800&w=332&sz=97&hl=en&start=0&zoom=0&tbnid=KYIudkMYXgMb7M:&tbnh=143&tbnw=59&ei=1LaJTbzrA9G0hAflwtXEDQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpriest%2Bhooded%2Brobe%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1680%26bih%3D935%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=996&vpy=621&dur=964&hovh=143&hovw=59&tx=94&ty=75&oei=1LaJTbzrA9G0hAflwtXEDQ&page=1&ndsp=60&ved=1t:429,r:43,s:0...which is defiantly not the ranger/ woodsman look I was going for. Having a wider variety of options for these would be great. In terms of realism most adventurers would have some form of leather (waterproof) over coat or cape to protect them from rain and cold weather. Maybe some heavy thick fur cloaks, moving away from the Oblivion Mongol style furs.

2. Numerical sliders

When creating your character in Oblivion you only had basic sliders, for example when selecting the age of your character there was no real indication. Now that we can change the height and weight of our characters I would like to see numerical bars so that you could make a character for example with, Height: 6ft 4inch's Weight: 250lbs Age: 36 or in Cm and Kg. I known this is a fairly trivial thing but it does help considerably with character development.

3. Hair coloring tool

Peoples hair colorings in reality differ greatly. You could have 5 people with brown hair but they all have different shades. In Oblivion you could pick a color and then tweak the RGB sliders. I found this tool really difficult to use as I ended up producing some very luminous hair colorings and not the desired effect I wanted. A tool that allows more realistic shade change would be great.

Also interms of scars and ageing I think this should effect the hair coloring. For example I would like to create a dark haird veteran with a salt and pepper http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://cdn.buzznet.com/media/jj1/2008/12/bana-afi/eric-bana-afi-awards-2008-03.jpg&imgrefurl=http://justjared.buzznet.com/photo-gallery/1584761/eric-bana-afi-awards-2008-03/&usg=__qxtZL3oGEipkedCZ2feGmPb8DtM=&h=1222&w=996&sz=226&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=GNn1w04NUJ3yiM:&tbnh=160&tbnw=134&ei=d8CJTaGLIcephAedna20DQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsalt%2Band%2Bpepper%2Bbeard%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1680%26bih%3D935%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=134&vpy=63&dur=42&hovh=249&hovw=203&tx=92&ty=139&oei=d8CJTaGLIcephAedna20DQ&page=1&ndsp=44&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0. Scars on the face and head also tend to discolor the pigments leaving white around the scars, which I feel adds character.

4. Scars

As stated above in relation to hair I think I would be great to have the feature to give your character scars. When you start the game you start as an advlt so the chances are your life before this would have been dangerous and left you with permenant reminders. I am not suggesting the Fable approach of play and earn because this has its own issues (for example say you have just completed a long quest which has left you potionless with wrecked armour, then on the way back to a town for a resupply you have a random fight with a dragon, you survive but bairly and now as a result you are a mess of scars and burns and no longer look like the dashing hero). Picking some during te creation period would be ideal.


I would be interested to hear about what ideas other people have, not matter how small for imporovements based on what we experienced from oblivion.

Thanks

I like the idea of the height and weight sliders. If at all possible in games, I try and make characters that look as close to me as possible. The result is that I don't want an average height average build guy. Plus, it allows you to really identify your character in their class. If you want a great big warrior tank, you'll definitely want him to be a different build to an assassin or theif, who would likely be thinner and more agile.

In terms of scars, I like the idea of getting scars actually in battle, as long as there is some way to have them removed - perhaps by praying to gods at temples/paying someone etc.

Bethesda has already revealed that you can customize your characters body type and height.

Awesome. Short and stocky ftw!!

:goodjob:

1) What i would like to see in ALL cRPGs is a slower progression of character damage, health etc. That is, leveling up should give character new option rather than making him stronger. Now i am not saying that characters should not get stronger as they gain levels, its just that they should get less stronger in numbers then they usually get, and instead get more new options.
Example:
Level 10 Fighter should not have so much bigger basic damage or health than Level 1 Fighter, but should have, disarm, power strike, critical strike, knockback, bash, cleave and such other things.

2) I would like to see spell attributes (damage) who are based on character abilities instead fixed numbers, so that any given spell is as useful on late game as early game

I see what you're saying, but if the damage doesn't really go up significantly then there will be almost nowhere which is not immediately accessable. I say this because, although you will have less tools, you can essentially win MANY battles by abusing the system and hit and running until you win. Tbh this is how I got Umbra as the first thing I did in Oblivion.

Levelled areas/enemies also svck, there should be places noobs fear to tread until later levels - it adds longevity to the game.

1.) An enjoyable leveling system. In Oblivion imminent outscaling meant efficient leveling was forced upon the player. There was no casually playing Oblivion as by level 10 you would be one hitted by a mudcrab. It is practically impossible to play Oblivion immersively, level naturally, and actually "get better at the things you do most" as it was always advertised. Also it is quite ridiculous that in order for a specific character to work you should NOT select your major skills as major skills. Also having every bandit and marauder in Rockmilk cave wear respectively full glass and full daedric at higher levels is just ridiculous (see point 5.).

2.) Spears, or rather polearms to include a wider variety of weapons. Spears are the most common used weapon in human history and e.g. in Asia were frequently used to slash as much as stab. Nordic peoples used so called "winged lances" to grapple the enemy's shield or disarm him. Spears are not hard to balance. For example: they practically can't block.

3.) Usefull accomodation. In Oblivion it is just to easy to find a bed: Mages guild, Aleswell, etc. Limiting the availability of beds should force players to actually use inns and increase the usefullness of owning a house. In general you should be able to do more with your own house than just store stuff and sleep, like giving dinner parties, invite ladies, or providing shelter for fellow Thieves Guild members.

4.) Immersive action. No more instant alchemy and eating an entire cheese wheel in a millisecond. In Oblivion we could see NPC's eating food, but whenever we did so ourselves we didn't even held it in our mouth long enough to taste it. Funny, as Oblvion didn't have a gulping alligator race.

5.) Horrizontal rather than vertical item levelling. This was done much better in Morrowind than in Oblivion. In Oblivion higher level weapons and armour were inherently better than lower level gear. Have higher level gear be lighter, more durable, more valuable but not necesarily stronger; in summary have various versions of light and heavy armour provide better or worse alternatives to eachother, rather than distinct improvements. In Morrowind steel armour provides immense protection at low levels, even more than higher level light armour, but it was also incredibly heavy. The numerous types of light, medium and heavy armour with paralel rather than linear statistics meant players had to make choices. The "full daedric marauder" phenomenon is the direct result of a vertical item system: equiping the marauder with anything less would make him a pack of butter. In a horizontal system the marauder can get by in full steel, though he will be fighting more clumsy than the player.

6.) Consistent performance throughout levels. Archery was great at low levels in Oblivion but became practically useless at higher levels especially for stealthy characters. Even a proper stealthy headshot wouldn't do nearly enough damage to kill an enemy, but would instantly blow your cover an alert all surounding enemies of your presence. The same can be said about sneak in general. While sneak was very usefull for Thieves or DB Assassins, an overall sneaky playstyle when exploring dungeons etc., simply did not work: if you faced more than one enemy it was impossible to remain stealthy after you'd engaged the first enemy.

Really? I must have missed it. Do you have a link? I'm not doubting you or anything, I'd just love to see for myself.
Anyway, awesome news. :celebration:

The most important things are listed in my signature.
I'd also like to add that I want an extremely in-depth and detailed, but still easy to use character creator, and levitation.

I am of simple pleasures so ..... I want that dovahkiins horned helmet to be in game

I know we won't get it... but I'd like MW traveling system + a bigger world for me to explore.
I know, it's greedy at best... but it could make my day

Much better lighting than http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/520246-1298584608.jpg

I asked it before, I ask it again.

What's wrong with the picture, I don't see anything...

The transitions are very very square, it is a bit dificult to explain but that is not how light falls on an object.

Personally I don't mind though, it is still a video game, it looks acceptable and the ES series has always put more power in larger scenery than individual objects, which is what you notice most when playing a game like Skyrim or Oblivion.

hmmm...

I see your point.

Do you think it is still correctable? Is it the shaders that are no good? Please be specific. Who knows, you might help Bethesda address the issue.

All things are relative. Battlefield 3, Crysis 2 are raising the bar so that what was acceptable or even good an iteration ago will now be deemed obsolete or mediocre. Still, I think graphics look fine even by today's starndards. Hell, i'm sure Bethesda might manage to have Battlefield 3 level graphics on Skyrim,but that would mean swerving resources to fine tune the engine,

Not an easy dilemma.

Linking with the point about being able to have a larger amount of customization in the game and the capes, cloaks etc I think it would be a good idea to be able to dye or paint your own apparel and armour to give a more unique effect to your character. I've always wanted to change the clothes from how they look in Oblivion or Morrowind.

Okay I'll explain:

Picture: http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/520246-1298584608.jpg

First, areas are over-bloomed. You can see this on the snow to the right-middle part of the screen and on the hero's shoulder/arm.
Secondly, the areas are over-saturated. Same areas as before.
Thirdly, the lighting transition of between these areas and other areas is very strong.

In conclusion, the lighting is really bad and unrealistic. And in my opinion also very ugly. This is what basically Oblivion's HDR looks like.
Lighting shouldn't over-bloom things, and it definitely never ever should over-saturate things like in the picture. Also, there should be a more smooth, "equal" way of how lighting works. There shouldn't be these direct transitions as you see in the picture.


The reasons for this could be:

- Bad and poorly written lighting code/shader.
- Completely wrong HDR settings.
- Or a combination of above two reasons.


In addition:

You can look at this picture: http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/1576751-1298573533.jpg
And this: http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/1221807-1298584521.jpg
Notice how over-bloomed the sky is. And on the last picture in the snow I linked, notice the blue lines showing at the edge between sky and mountains/trees. Also, look at the over-saturated/over-bloomed snow. The problem is there again.


In conclusion:

This most likely indicates very wrong HDR settings. And partly badly written lighting code/shader.
I'm disappointed with this because it looks very ugly according to me. This could look so much better with better lighting.
Bad lighting can make a game look cartoony and good lighting can make a game look like a realistic beauty. Lighting is, imo, one of the most important things in terms of graphics and how the game looks in general.
It can add a lot to the atmosphere and give you a much more realistic feeling.

Yeah, it constantly annoyed me that random bandits would have armour that was impossible for me to get just a few levels before. but I don't mind the scaling if it is done in a smart way.

For example, mud crabs should not level with you, neither should wolves (maybe they can just move in bigger packs as you level up?), etc. I don't mind bandits leveling with you to keep the game a challenge - but their equipment should not surpass a certain lower-middle standard. There can obviously be exceptions...

(I honestly do not care about spears!)

One of the best posts i've read so far on this board. Thanks.
I'd like to ask you this: are these problems only prevalent in the trailer, or do you see them in the screenshots too?

Let's hope Bethesda checks your post.

You can check my sig if you wanna know what I wanted. Most of it's been confirmed NOT to be in. The Official Ideas and Suggestions threads reached number... 186 I think? With a bit over 200 posts each, but my list was pretty much set when I started the threads

In some screenshots, I think the lighting is really good. In others, not so good.
Here's my take on the screenshots:

http://download3.zenimax.com/akqacms/files/tes/screenshots/CompositeMountain_wLegal.jpg
Looks good as a picture, but there's something odd about how the lighting acts on the mountains and fog. It makes the screenshot look more like concept art, which there have been lots of questions about here on the forums.

http://download3.zenimax.com/akqacms/files/tes/screenshots/ForestHunt_wLegal.jpg
Pretty darn good lighting. A bit too strong HDR though. His arm shines too much. Other than that, my favourite picture of all. The aspen trees reflect lighting almost perfectly. It looks very beautiful.

http://download3.zenimax.com/akqacms/files/tes/screenshots/DragonMountains_wLegal.jpg
A bit of the same problem here. The sky is kinda over-bloomed. It's not a disaster though. The snow though, is over-blooming. The transition is too strong and too bright. It's difficult to do with this snow though, because it's so bright and HDR take us of that. So the HDR settings need to be decreased a bit in strength.

http://download3.zenimax.com/akqacms/files/tes/screenshots/Tavern01_wLegal.jpg
Almost perfect lighting here imo. There's slight over-blooming on the woman's skin on her left shoulder. You have to zoom in in your browser to see it properly.



http://download3.zenimax.com/akqacms/files/tes/screenshots/TrollFireSword_wLegal.jpg
Some parts of the snow and terrain gives off this weird blue light. Probably made by the weather itself. But the HDR is still too strong and we notice it easily as some areas are shining of blue-ness while others aren't. The transitions are too strong and bright.

http://download3.zenimax.com/akqacms/files/tes/screenshots/DragonApproach_wLegal.jpg
There's not so much of a over-bloomed sky in this pic, but the snow definitely is. Notice the huge lighting transitions from certain areas to others. There's definitely something not right here with the lighting settings.

http://download3.zenimax.com/akqacms/files/tes/screenshots/Giant01_wLegal.jpg
Pretty/kinda good lighting with this overcast weather type. Some parts of the sky are brighter than others. The snow on the rocks to the left is too bright as well.
But the Giant shines a bit too much for being overcast/cloudy. It's a decent picture though and fully acceptable in my opinion.

In conclusion:
The lighting looks way off on snow. The lighting looks pretty good on other things. The HDR is still too strong though at most pictures, making too vibrant transitions. On a few pictures it's pretty nice and subtle.

I live in a country with a LOT of snow, and on a sunny day, the snow has 10x more "bloom" than on any of this pictures.
I don't get it, the screens look perfect. That's exactly how snow looks.

Maybe the people complaining here haven't seen snow IRL

Werewolves and levitation. I would also like to know what they have as the leveling system and game scaling if there is scaling. I personally prefer Morrowind's approach, high level enemies in areas where they want you to be high level. Though after awhile you become godlike.

Of course snow is "bloomy". It's white and HDR acts on that. But it's not that bloomy. It's should never be so bloomy that it gets saturated and changes colour. And so there's this really strong transition.
It should NOT look like this: http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/520246-1298584608.jpg

Moreover, his shoulder/arm is the worst thing of all. I'm not sure if this is the wrong HDR settings or simply badly coded.
I'm guessing HDR settings because on some pictures the lighting is great. Especially the fall forest one.
HDR settings can very easily be changed. Just requires some time to tweak. I hope Bethesda will change this before 11/11/11.

P.S: I also live in a country with lots of snow