What would be most fun, cool and "best" to do:

- Whenever you approach an enemy, a menu pops up and game freezes, showing different options, like melee, ranged, magic. And you click on that option and a damage number pops up. When the health point reaches zero, enemy dies and game unfreezes.

- Real-time combat with animations.

The comparison is exaggerated a bit for effect. But I'm sure you get the point. This is basically the "improvement" I see it by having a menu choice like you said, and having real-time animations. If you can't see the improvment there, I'm not really sure what to say... :mellow:

The concept of mini-games sounds fun and new, but I agree they can get tedious and time consuming. I like how Runescape handles sub-skills like these, where you watch your guy hit the tree, and depending on your skill level, is the amount of time he'll take to chop the tree down.

You'd be surprised... I've played games like that, and they were pretty good.

***The number one thing that I would never want in an RPG, is pure simulation of what I would actually see if I were actually there. It totally defeats the purpose of making a character, and even on a time scale of 10:1, it just seems like a waste of my time.

Wood chopping would be a waste of my time (even if it only took three chops ~which IMO is worse, as its an attempt at realism in a jarringly unrealistic way.)
I would much rather have the game let me choose a tree and have the PC step up and start chopping it down while the game fades to black, and returns to a cord of stacked wood (and X number of hours passed ~based on my PC's stats and possibly skills).

It reminds me of the way Dark Messiah handled what "crafting" there was in the game.
You did it all by hand, and it actually wasn't bad. It was even mildly enjoyable, because it was easy to do, but you perform actions, not navigate menus.

Like I said in fast travel threads, I would pay not to have to go into menus.

I think I see your point. But I also have to say, you're very very lonely with it. Few few devs make games like you say, which would be: an RPG with bad graphics so you can never mistake it for looking real + a full-scaled menu-system on many many things.

I haven't played Minecraft, but from what I know, not even that very "extreme" game fulfills that criteria... since it has some cool physics.

Perhaps Skyrim isn't the game for you at all then. Maybe no game at all around this time. Because, to perfectly honest, what you describe sounds like something made in 1995 or so.

I think the purpose of having... more similar "simulation" of a reality, is what makes the difference from saying "I'm playing a game", and "I'm in a different world", where the latter is what I by far prefer.

A minigame was never mentioned.

I think it would be far more awesome if you just swing your axe at it, and the game automatically picks up that its a block of wood and plays the appropriate animation to chop the wood in half.

We should only have to punch our trees to get wood from them.

_{Kudos if you get the reference! :miner:}

I'm neutral; Whatever works smoothly is fine by me.

I could play a game like Gothic 2, Morrowind, (or perhaps even Skyrim) as they are, or with graphics like http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj125/Gizmojunk/adom1.jpg, http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj125/Gizmojunk/poolsdarkness_1092713832-000.jpg, or http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj125/Gizmojunk/ADOM-2.png.

Yeah, im just saying that the system in Dark Messiah sounds terrible, but it was mildly enjoyable actually. It was quick (a little too quick for me), and it was, dare I say it, immersive.

But for things like that, I would ask for a slider so player can change the duration of things like that. I might want to take 3-6 chops, maybe more, some players could be in a hurry and just want 1. Some may even want to go in for the long haul and get a more realistic time...

I only played the demo for DM, and never saw that part I think. Was it Far Cry 2 that showed the PC using a socket wrench to fix a jeep engine? Some game did.

I liked the reloading bench in FO:NV, and I really liked the alchemy menu/method in the Witcher.

I duno a minigame would be fun if there was a chance of body parts flying about...

I think if you are holding an axe while standing next to a tree and there are no enemies near by you should see your character shift his hold on the weapon and stand ready to chop the tree then you swing like you are attacking an enemy but the animation would be different because it would be context sensitive, that is what i would like.

You do realize that things like this are already done, right?
The time for Skyrim suggestions is over, that ended a long time ago. They're already making the game how they want, and have for the most part. It's almost done. Just internal beta testing, voice acting, etc is left.

Let alone the fact that no one ever said that wood cutting was a mini game. Its funny that people are even this worried about it honestly. When he said "If you want your character to spend 8 hours a day chopping wood, the option is there" I never thought that people were actually going to do so.

Chopping wood is one of those cool, tiny, overrated features that helps add to the overall realness of the game. With that said, I will probably 'chop wood' once if even in Skyrim. Talk about a lame way to spend your time.

Oh by Barenziah no mini games, no no, please.
Speechcraft and security in Oblivion svcked cause they were not RPG. They depended on player skills, not character.

I regret to have bought Fable 2, because it was a few years old and marked down and cause I kinda almost liked 1.
Argh Argh. The only way to make any money there was stupid, repetitive, boring, annoying, vexing minigames.
I dont want my success relying on how well I push a button.
I want it to be character skills.

So, yeah, woodcutting, crafting, fine.
But no minigames.

On the contrary, I would happily spend long hours alone in the woods chopping wood if that was my job. (providing its no mini game)

Its called roleplaying my friend.

90% of my time playing TES games is spent doing menial, day to day things. The non epic world saving shenanigans is where TES shines imo.

1) Just because you say no offense doesn't mean that I don't get offended. In this case I did and you have been reported. You should stop telling people by itself that their ideas are ridiculous, that they need to grow up, and to tell them to do the work themselves. This is completely irrelevant, quite "attacking", out of topic and out of this forum too I'd say.

2) Don't strawman fallacy me. I'm saying that you should be able to cut down every single tree. Never said that. I'm saying that the trees that you cut in any regard, should have animations and be done by destructible environments.
Destructible environments has been done for many many games. Almost every single game nowadays have it, one way or another. It can be done by applying the technology to the mesh itself. It doesn't matter how many trees there are.
But if you do cut down 100 trees within one area, it kinda hurts the performance. I doubt that would happen though. You'd need a real sawing machine for that

3) As I said, lots of games already have destructible environment, and have had that for a long time. It's not magic. Just because a game is an RPG doesn't mean it can't have it. A game doesn't need to be an axe-game to have destructible trees. No matter what kind of game it is, it can have it.

I think destructible trees, with a very long restoration time, would be perfect. Far Cry 2 had this and I've heard no complaints but coolness about it
It would also make battles epic. Especially with dragons. Ex: you shoot a dragon in the heart with an arrow from the woods, and it crashes into them, destroying lots of trees at the same time

This is where I see the need. Im skeptical of woodcutting, because I think its a gimick they added to make it sound cooler than it is, but this example gives a good reason to it, and provides a reason for depth.

Pretty much this

Funny, because one could say the exact same about your posts in here. Rude, argumentative, and both begin with "No offense." So 'report' returned.

Lol. Moderators!!! Itsgrady disagweed with me and said I should gwow up . Im not sure if you thought tattling would help your cause, but Im gonna have to reiterate what I said. IF YOU THINK THAT ALL THE TREES IN SKYRIM CAN BE CUT DOWN IN REAL TIME, GROW UP. If you didnt agree with that, then it wasnt directed to you. Read closer instead of just assuming someone is attacking YOU personally.

Hey but seriously, nice try. I guess not all of us can be advlts around here (myself especially). But honestly learn some self control. Anytime someone calls you out doesnt mean you have to run to the authorities and cry foul play.

hlvr and itsgrady - constructive discussion is permitted on these forums, attacking each other is not, either stop now or hear from a moderator.

This is going completely off topic, and it saddens me when I read your post.

Anyway, because of the irrelevancy of your post, I'm just gonna bring up what's relevant for the topic:

Trees can be destructible in Skyrim. They can be destructible in a shooter. They can be destructible in Mario and in any other RPG than Skyrim. It is not related to the game-type at all.
The technology has developed a lot as the years have gone by. It's really cool and liked by a lot of people. That's why it has become so popular.
It makes things more fun, more realistic. Battles and otherwise meaningless events (like woodcutting and dragon's crashing!) can become more fun and cool.

I think it would be a great addon for woodcutting in Skyrim. It's obviously not the hardest thing to do and it can also be done so trees are "restored" after a period of time.
Destructible environment is made in real-time.

Like I said, the dragons falling into forests give a perfectly good reason to have destructible trees.
Or do dragons either fall through, or lay on top of trees, or do they only spawn in areas where they couldn't fall into trees...

Most epic woodcutting. Kill dragons in forests, pick up logs from fallen trees...

Fair enough.

Like I said in my original post which has been deleted?, I dont mind the idea of real time cutting. I dont care about it, but I dont mind it.

I still dont see what the main appeal to wood cutting is. I play TES for the fantasy aspect, to play in a world that is not my own. If I wanted to cut wood however, I could go out and do so now. So waiting for Skryim to be released so I can spend time cutting wood......meh. No thanks. Its great that its an option for those who cant cut real wood in real life though, so now they can do it in game.

Once again, woodcutting has not been confirmed to be a mini game or otherwise, and in the meantime any thoughts we come up with are just as much speculation as ideas. Lets wait for more details before we come up with ideas and post our thoughts about them.

And also, just because minigames failed in other games doesnt mean its a horrible idea. I dont mind the idea of minigames at all actually, and prefer that if there is a wood chopping feature that it is a mini game. Otherwise I am just mindlessly chopping wood with no challenge/reason for doing so. If there is a mini game, it at least could switch up a otherwise boring motion of chopping wood, and make it into something that is fun, and requires a little thought to do.

Realtime tree growth?