I personally think voice acting needs the most improvement and I think that Bethesda will change this aspect for Skyrim. What do you think needs improvement?

If I had to pick one thing, animation. I would rather pick them all though...

Definitely combat. I'm not going to talk the dragons to death.

Animation, the total world size, the punishment system (crimes, i mean) and VOs for sure (more voices, also).

Improve leveling. It's current method requires grinding or planning WAY in advance. I'm not saying it needs to be the traditional RPG style, but it really needs to be improved. That, and level scaling...

Diversity, in every aspect.

All mentioned need improvement. I guess the story and storytelling are the most important for me.

Combat, Storyline, and Leveling.

Just because i say that though doesn't mean i did not love Oblivion. I think Bethesda will try their hardest to make this the best game they can.

Gads, choose just one? More in depth world, but I don't have clip for that. So, I'd say combat. It's way too much like a video game; I'd rather just target the attack and push a button to let the dice do the trick. None of this swing, parry, dance, bash, spin thrust stuff a la Daffy Duck http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xarb2_robin-hood-daffy-scene-2

We need more eye-candies; NPCs that look more pleasing to. To do this, there needs some improvements in face texture and overall face-gen improvements. Of course, we'd need better looking clothings for ladies. TES4 was pretty good in most other aspects, I think.

Other. The game needs RPG mechanics which will make a difference. It's a broad category so it covers leveling, combat, character creation and partly quests from the poll.

Edit: And agreed with Davor below.

I voted other. To pick just one thing seems so wrong. I wish they get rid of voice acting. My son likes it, so I guess being 10 years old, that is why he likes it. Combat needs to go back to it's roots and be a roll play and you are not always successfull. That would also go back to casting magic spells as well.

We need to be able to fail. Come on, we are mature enough that we don't cry when we don't cast a magic spell or if we hit we don't damage the enemy. We are smart enough, aren't we? :whistling:

Animation needs to be done better. The reason I don't go in 3rd person too much, is I don't like watching my charcter walk. He looks like he has a pickle up his butt. Espically in Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Just seems so wrong.

We need better quests. It gets tiresome of being a courier and deliver this to that location. We also need that if you do a quest for one faction, another faction may dislike you. For example, more quests you do for the Theives guild, and if know, the Fighters Guild will like you less and less.

I would like to be able to kick. I would like to have more combinations when attacking. Just hack and slash is getting stale. I am starting to think Bethesda can't do anythign new now. Come on, almost 20 years now, and our characters still have 300 health points? They can't think of a differnet way of how we deal damage and recieve damage? Also I want to be able to kick, and punch if I so choose, or use my sword and kick an opponent down. Just hack or slash, and use shield to block is so old. We should be able to do other things as well.

Also we need more choices for character creation. Daggerfall was great. I can see change for changes sake like Morrowind has done, but for Oblivion to be almost the same as Morrowind? No creative thought on Bethesda's part at all. We need more Daggerfall and less Morrowind/Oblivion character creation.

Timescales, and time needs to matter.

I really don't think there were any issues with animations or any other visual effect in the Elder scrolls as of Oblivion. For the time of their creation and what game engine they had they are great. Things like visual effects and animations shouldn't even be an option in these polls because they inherently get better as the technology gets better. When have you ever played an Elder Scrolls where the visual effects and animations weren't outlandishly better? I don't think the main quest needs to be improved, it was just one instance that they tried out a shorter main quest and put more love into the side quests. Now that they have tested it I'm sure they will keep the side quests at their incredible standard in Oblivion and then make a main quest with the incredible standard of Morrowind. The only thing I really think needs to be improved at this point is the fast travel system needs to only let you travel to major cities and no creature leveling and then the game will be perfect. Oh and dungeons and night need to actually be dark on the PC.

Remove the crazy level scaling! A little bit of it is good but the craziness of Oblivion level scaling is ridiculous.

Hmm I wonder how many will realize that it says "Elder Scrolls" and not "Oblivion"...

And while I'd like to see all aspects of the game evolve constantly through the games, I'd have to say that what Beth need to focus is MQ/Overall Quests, because:
Voice Acting were really more or less implemented first in Oblivion (Unless you actually count the little that existed in Morrowind, in which case this might be the most important aspect.), and to make voice acting in an open game world is very hard so one cannot whine too much over 1... decent ... try.
Character Animation: Was relativly good for it's time. Once again concidering that this is an open game world we're talking about, it was actually impressive when it came out and we can't let the magics of the later and not-open-game-world games Mass Effect, Dragon Age or their like blind us here. (Also concidering that this improved quite well into Fallout 3, I believe Beth got this one by now)
The Environment: Remember that his is The Elder Scrolls we're talking about, so don't come screaming that Morrowind had over 9k times better environment than Oblivion... which actually had a very good environment. While improvement is always great, I really don't believe it need to be focused.
Combat: Oblivion's combat was quite amazing when it came out, and really brought forwards the wonderful mix of FPS and RPG combat, so this might be the part where they have to work the least... But it still need improvement, no doubt. Or they can strip back to an extremely improved version of Morrowind... Do note "extremely".
Number of NPCs: This is a multi-sided issue, because in one hand we can have tens of thousands of NPCs with viritually no life at all or a fewer amount but much better made. In any case I'd really not take this as the main issue, regarding as both Oblivion and Morrowind (not to mention Daggerfall or Arena) had so many NPCs that you probably hadn't found them all after playing the game for over a year.
World Size: Unless they shrink the size, this shouldn't be an issue. Oblivion was large after all, and it's predecessors were even larger... Some vastely so.

But the Quests in TES I have often found lacking. Even though some could be interesting, they sure as hell wasn't the second time around because there wasn't more than one way to do them. Beth could learn alot here from other games. Because even if the MQ of Oblivion was quite awesome the first run, you felt very little for it afterwards and on your second run you really just wanted to skip it. On the other hand there was the Dark Brotherhood which was very well done (even if there only was 1 way). Morrowind on the other hand had these a little backwards, where the MQ was superior to most other quests even after a few runs. But this doesn't say much since most normal quests in Morrowind were simplistic at best. I've not played enough Daggerfall to speak for that game, but I guess it's free to assume that all TES fans trolling this forum know by now that Daggerfall had multiple endings (or 1 ending, depends on how you see it), and Beth should take more of this to heart with TES.

So Quests if there neds to be one single thing chosen. But on the other hand if they only focused on improving one thing, then Quests may not be my choice.

As I mentioned below, animations will inherently get better as the technology gets better but what is your issue with Voice overs? They immerse you better into the game and why would you give an aspect of immersion up if you had access to it? If they had access to it for Arena, Daggerfall and Morrowind they would have I guarantee it. Now before anyone says "Well they could have voice overs in Morrowind." Well no, not complete voice overs. They did have voice actors for the ambient conversation they have when you passed them but Bethesda just came out of near bankruptcy. Why would we need to read text that says what someone says when we can hear it? It's not the 90s, it is more realistic to have characters talk. Now I'm not saying this because I don't like to read. I love to read. I read all the books in the games when I come across them but I don't see a point of needlessly reading text instead of hearing the actual character. I guess if you really want to read text you could mute your game and read the subtitles.

As for combat failures, that was just tedious and annoying. Yes I believe the npc shouldn't take damage if they block your swing or they dodge to the side but I don't see how you can miss someone when your right in their face swinging at them, it doesn't make sense, thus is why Morrowind is not held in such a high esteem as others have it. Spells should fail but only if they are too high of skill for you. If I'm a master and I'm casting an expert spell, it shouldn't fail, I think I know how to use that spell well enough to keep it pulled together and launch it.



Yeah but then they throw in problems that is typical of Oblivion instead of bringing up the problems in Morrowind. Thus it is inherent to respond to it as Oblivion. Sadly it shouldn't be people that hate a game that has no reason to be hated. I have to step up and be the champion for Oblivion even though I started playing the series with Arena but I will defend a good game that doesn't deserve to have it's name dragged through the dirt. I am glad that there is someone else who isn't biased totally in favor in one game that they have emotional attachments to because they started the series playing it. Your correct about the game worlds being larger than Oblivion in predecessors except for Morrowind. Morrowind actually was smaller but they made you move at a snail pace even when running that it felt like the world was 10x larger.

Voice acting for me, and I would like to see companions as in Fallout and BioWare games

I could live with companions in TES if and only if they have a personality so that you can get attached to them like real friends and if they get killed they die for good. That way you have more incentive to feel like you should protect your "friends" or they really die. That way the increased combat abilities due to having another person is a double-edged sword of also being a burden of trying to keep them alive as well.

I chose environment because that is the biggest problem with the games and the reason I only seem to ever play them for a little bit. I am not talking about atmosphere, physcal environment or world environment because those are always spectacular. I looove the forests and mountains! However, people... the worlds are beautiful but always seem so empty... empty... empt...emp....em...e... pty....

I didn't choose NPCs because just randomly throwing in a bunch of people wouldn't do it, but villages and travellers and actual culture and life to the world would make this a game you could, you would, get lost in for a very long time. Interpersonal interactions. People/creatures living lives and doing things outside of you in the game, bring that to us. Please.

That lack of interaction is why I always end up back with other rpgs. Yes, we can get that through mods, at least in Oblivion kind of you could but it was such a huuuuge pain in the butt to mod the game to where it felt like an 'alive' world that I just gave up on it and went to other games. Definitely character improvements in NPCs and how they 'make' the environment.

And NO AUTO-leveling. (<-that was a period) I completely agree with the above, give us a world where we have to be careful, where if we go running off joyously singing of the monsters we shall kill as we dive into a random cave or dance through a forest somewhere without preperation, caution or thought, the monsters hear us. And then things go downhill... seriously...

Character Animation
Combat
Leveling

All Bethesda games I've played have had pretty awkward humanoid animations.
Combat has always been on the clunky / mindless side.
TES games in particular have had some glaring issues with leveling and skill/attribute gains, particularly levels simply not being relevant to a character's combat capability at all - Oblivion was probably the worst because the scaling made it actually matter. Add that to no real character identity at high levels when all your skills end up near max anyway.

I think leveling is probably the most in need of improvement of the three.

Other: physics. No, I don't mean rag dolls (tho that they added them was great). I mean when they develop anything, they should consider the real world physics of it. Not just physics either but everything should be done with half a mind on common sense.

Why do I take damage when I'm wearing armor? What is happening here? Swords go THROUGH plate? Then how is it I'm not dead after 2 or 3 whacks? Armor should effect magic: Things like Faraday's cage should apply, all clothing should affect hot/cold damage. Fire/ice damage should be hot/cold damage. Fire is an oxidation-reduction reaction, not a modern mystery, you need flammable matter before it can exist (fireballs are unrealistic, unless you create or fabricate fuel in mid air). Heat is just energy. If you can do telekinesis, you can add heat to something -- basically, just push particles randomly instead of pushing them all in one direction. This is why schools of magic is a little odd to me (fire = destruction, telekinesis = mysticism, shield = alteration? aren't these all the same thing? Just moving matter in different directions?)

More armor: Better quality armors (and weapons btw) should be lighter, not heavier. If you want to argue about it be my guest, but this is already going to be a long post.

Shock: we have empirical data on the speed of lightning, USE IT. Lightning is different than Hot/cold. How? Think about it. Go read some textbooks. How should it act? Does this line of thinking unbalance the game? Too fast? Or does it add another option to the mage's arsenal? As it stands fire=ice=shock. This should not be. From a game play perspective and a realism perspective.

When I absorb magic what is happening? Am I not redirecting the other mage's energy? Or am I absorbing the heat? This is an important distinction. Am I interfering with his energy or using the resultant world reaction to his energy? If former than dispel = reflect = absorb = magic regen (and if MP = fatigue like I advocate...). If latter than Absorb spell should be different for absorbing fire than it is from, say, absorbing drain [attribute]. ( I mean, there should be "absorb fire" spells and "absorb drain" spells.)

Spells? What is a spell? Disambiguate it. What is magic? does magic = spells? Spells, to me, mean "cast this, that happens" cut and paste DnD, Charmed (yes that tv show), a bit like a bullet, it has 1 use, lasts this long, and then its gone, not flexible at all. Magic, to me, seems like more than just spells. More like "the ability to affect unexplainable change" "an invisible hand from the mind" an overarching group of abilities that includes spells. Spells = Invisibility for x time. Magic = I can pop in and out sight at will. follow? Am I crazy here? Spells are old school, archaic, and obsolete (they were in Daggerfall's time), let's move the spell maker right into your characters magic menu. (think a little like MW's enchanting.)

When I quaff a potion, what's happening? *magic* ? No. Everything shouldn't just be written off as magical even tho this is a magic fantasy world. When you Quaff a potion your body reacts to it and it changes. Changes should be in the realm of the reactions that are possible in your body. Feather = no. strength+ = ya maybe. Strengthx100? No. Since, as it's described, feather is basically anti-gravity and that's not a bodily function (belongs wherever they put telekinesis). This has gameplay advantages not just "realistic" ones: changing alchemy from a skill that replaces 1/2 of the magic system to a skill that complements an already well developed magic system.

What is MP? Why do we need it? Why doesn't fatigue work? Is not fatigue a measure of your bodies output over time? If magic costs energy then what does your body extract from food all day long? Am I the only one that sees the overlap here? Why can my Spellsword cast spells until he is exhausted, close, and then swing a sword until he's exhausted *AGAIN*?

Magic is cool, but the law of conservation of mass should be observed. You (you, not the aedra) can not create, you can exchange matter for energy and vice versa, sure but it's expensive (according to wolfram alpha, the energy of 1kg (2.2lb) of mass is comparable to the 60% the energy in the explosion of krakatoa in 1883 (wiki it) or 1/2 the energy the sun delivers to the earth each second (btw, think of THAT. The sun essentially adds 2kg of energy to earth every second?). How powerful is your mage again? You should not be able to use more energy than you have in your body or can handle. (using external mass / ambient energy would be alright)
Conjuration? yes, summoning is ok. you don't create that Deadric axe, you just teleport it. Teleportation? how does this work? Do you open a wormhole? This is the proper realm of "its magic, so anything goes" since we don't have enough data that we can say "this doesn't make sense" as science progresses, this should change.
Enchanting? MW's Enchanted items regenerated. HOW? Where does this energy come from? The soul? The soul regenerates magic, but MY soul doesn't? What happens to the soul gem? It vaporizes? Law of conservation of mass. Where does it go? reusable soul gems aren't necessary, but this is food for thought. The game includes useless clutter like bones. Bones are useless in every way, but they are still there. Why not have used soul gems. I'm not recommending the devs put in MY system here or there. I AM recommending they think about these things.
Archery: E=1/2MV^2. The damage of an arrow should be determined by its mass (shape, weight, size, are valid consideration) and its velocity (how fast). More detail: damage shouldn't be based on this per se, it should be based on how that arrow affects its environment. For example, what does this arrow hit? flesh? bone? organs? steel? is this an ice atronarch we are fighting? Does the arrow Pierce thru tissue? How does this material affect the arrow? Does the arrow bend, break, shatter, become blunter? No I don't expect them to calculate this, but I expect them to consider it when they make their calculation's formulas. If hit boxes are in, they shouldn't be on the skin, or they should at least consider directions and angles. head shots are not fatal by default, there are helmets, skin, fat, bone, and brain to consider as well as glancing blows/ flesh wounds. Bones should be considered armor as much as armor is considered armor in OB (They are the bodies natural defense). Losing your jaw is not immediately life threatening (bleeding from it however...)
Bows: Bows shouldn't have damage stats, they should have output stats. How your bow affects your arrow should be all the bow does. Namely, how much energy does the bow give the arrow. After that E=1/2MV^2. In other words how fast the arrow goes depends on how much it weighs. We have empirical data on how fast arrows go (with different styles of bow). USE IT.
Athletic: People don't get more well rested by running. Even walking is a drain. Also, people don't Sprint everywhere, usually people don't jog anywhere. Do I think walking should drain fatigue? No. Do I think jogging should drain fatigue? A little bit. Do I think running=jogging=sprinting? Definitely not. (hurray for sprinting in Skyrim)
Lockpicking: time doesn't stop for thieves.

These are ideas that a lot of people will say "that sounds like no fun" and maybe that's true. I agree, fun here is the ultimate goal. But no feature should be made without asking "what is going on here? How does this make sense?" No feature should be cut because its not real enough, but every feature should be made with common sense in the back of the mind.

I would love to see the Devs get vampires and werewolfs right..... for once.... Not saying I didn't enjoy them in the other games, but well you know the problems they had.

Leveling still.

We may or may not have attributes.

And I've never tried the leveling system they trying with Skyrim. (not sure)

FO3 type level scaling. The GI article didn't really go into detail on how dependent its on leveling.

Overall atmosphere, which is not necessarily the environment, though that's part of it. Level scaling (enemy types, levels, and items/loot) is a close 2nd.