Elder Scrolls VI: Yet another improvements / ideas suggestion thread

TL;DR: Stuff.

What I would like to see in the next Elder Scrolls game:

INTERFACE

• Take Skyrim's style, add Morrowind's FUNCTIONALITY. Less scrolling and more getting things done.

WORLD

• Open world, open towns.

• More towns (Morrowind size towns, but not as wastefully designed as Vivec)

• More permanently manned strongholds (In Oblivion, Cyrodiil was the shining centre of the empire, but every second cave was a fort fallen into disrepair. Where was the fabled Legion we all heard about? Where was the MILITARY STRENGTH and beaurocracy that was so visible in Morrowind?)

• More beaurocracy. More squabbles between noble houses and factions. More Morrowind.

• More interesting useless tidbits / items. I covered every surface of my Morrowind house with Ash Statues, because I could. Bring that back.

• More crossover between dungeon types.

• Once an NPC dies, allow the player to purchase the house. If the player does not purchase the house, after a few days / weeks, spawn a new NPC with a different look but the same dialogue options to live in the house. (Fable)

MOVEMENT

• Better horse AI and horse combat for both player and AI (Shadow of the Colossus)

• Horse whistle? (Zelda)

• AI pathing that can navigate terrain as the player can (parkour style animations? Assassin's Creed?)

• More realistic player movement (Mirror's Edge)

• Remove Fast Travel and bring back Divine Intervention / Teleport / Mark & Recall

COMBAT

• Proper hitboxes. Damage based on weapon skill as well as hit location. Possibility of crippling opponents with specific attacks.(Bring it back from Fallout 3?)

• After wounding an enemy stealthily or firing an arrow past their head and missing, etc, they should not stop looking for you. They should alert others, form search parties, etc.

• If wounded they should seek help and healing.

• 'Large' battles between factions should be more epic in scale or at least designed in such a way to make the player think such a conflict is epic. (Have small pitched battles of 20 vs 20 AI under the assumption that this is one small but crucial part of a larger concurrent effort.)

FACTIONS

• More factions, with interconnected quests / rivalries (Morrowind Telvanni vs Mages guild and other Great Houses, etc)

• More stringent requirements for advancement (Morrowind again)

• Unlawful factions (Bandits, Black Mages, Maurauders, Vampire covens) that all war with each other and the Legion / Thalmor / <Local Variant>. Consider STALKER's A-Life.

• Join a bandit clan or build one?

AI RECOGNITION OF PLAYER / DIALOGUE

• AI recognition of player feats / station should be based on a number of factors such as:

• • Clothing currently worn (Mages guild official attire / Archmage uniform should convey rank to local people)
• • Distance from base of operations (Do the people in this fishing village have enough exposure with said faction to recognise the clothing?)
• • Feats completed by player (Have you killed an evil demon on Mages guild contract? Telvanni contract? Have you defended a town under the banner of Fighter's guild?)
• • Distance from location of feats (In that same fishing village, do they know YOU were the specific member of said guild who completed said feat? Do they know about the feat?)
• • Time (Has anyone spread the news this far? Have couriers / travellers brought the story this far?)
• • Type of faction / local bias (Thieves guild quests need not have you recognised, unless you failed / were seen)

Voice acting unimportant. Better to have 50 unique silent conversations than one continuous arrow in the knee...

SPELLS

• Bring back all spells from Morrowind and Spellcasting. All Elder Scrolls games are inherently exploitable. That doesn't matter in single player. Let players decide thier own level of exploitation. Bring back the fun.

• Allow several different types of casting beyond touch / target (Bounce to new target, homing / guided, continuous or instant(Skyrim flames vs fireball), cloak, ward, etc)

• Create a larger randomised spell set for enemy mages, with some specialisation (Fire mage with some conjuration ability and wards? Less predictable damage amounts per cast spell?)

• Scroll creation using Spellmaking + Soul Gems? Greater focus on scrolls for high level / unique effects?

• Spellmaking as in Morrowind (Requires services of spellmaking mage)

ENCHANTING

• Enchantments dull over time (Several recharges)(Daedric weapons not affected by this.)

• Once dulled, no longer possible to regain enchantment. Have to replace weapon. (Uniques not affected, but require the services of an enchanter other than yourself to refresh them. Enchanter level required based on soul level)

• Type of item and quality of item affect enchanting charge (Morrowind style)

• Enchantments gained by breaking down enchanted weapons or buying enchantment effect from an enchanter who offers services.

• Enchanting as in Morrowind (Requires services of enchanting mage)

SMITHING / REPAIRING

• Split armor into seperate pieces as in Morrowind. Allow clothing under / over armor. 2 rings. Come on!

• Bring back weapon degredation.

• Weapons improved by smithing should lose their improvements over time / uses.

• Uses for silver - Infuse weapons with silver to give them the ability to target undead / spectrals

• Weapon design - several different weapon designs / skins for each material, with some crossover (Ebony longsword in the shape of a steel one, Daedric katana, etc) OR

• Infuse weapons with other materials (infuse iron sword with moonstone to make it lighter without changing appearance)

• Different materials degrade at different rates, with different advantages (Iron / Steel balanced durability, sharpness and weight. Moonstone / glass greater sharpness, lower weight, more brittle. Ebony / Dwarven Greater weight and durability, lower sharpness, etc)

• Greater range of materials (Chitin, Netch, Dreugh, Bonemold, Falmer and other local equivalents depending on province, all craftable from available materials)

• BRING BACK DAMAGE WEAPON / ARMOR SPELLS.

WEAPONS / ARMOR

• Damage based on combined weight / sharpness criteria with weight and sharpness affording bonuses againts heavy / light armors

• Bring back Spears, Short Swords, and other weapon types.

• More random allotment of gear. High level weapons (Glass / Ebony) should be available early in towns, on specific characters, etc but RARE. (If you cannot smith Glass yet, you cannot repair glass yet. Therefore your rare shiny weapon has VALUE)

• More random weapon and armor enchantments on found gear (Boots of Blinding Speed, etc) More of the Elder scrolls feel, less of the stats tables we have now. Less '+5 damage in random element' and more 'Silence on hit' and other useful but less combat focused effects. We play Bethesda because there's more to them than the fighting (which is currently less fun than Minecraft)

• Give arrows weight. Bows are currently near perfect.

• Add arrows with unique effects (Á la Thief)

TRADING

• Each town trader / caravan trader has a unique, expensive item (as in Oblivion)

• Less specialisation. Bring back Morrowind's style, with several weapon shops in Balmora, etc with different gear.

• Make higher level gear prohibitively expensive (Morrowind levels). It was a great way to level things, and made pickpocket / stealing have a point beyond anarchy for the sake of anarchy.

SNEAKING / ROGUE PLAY

• Castles should have riches. Riches are kept in vaults. Vaults are guarded. Instant uses for sneakiness.

• Do not allow players to steal the pants off people. But leave something nice in rich people's pockets.

LEVELLING / SKILL TREES

• Make skill trees more unique than purely stat boosts. Add more 'actions' like bow zooming (Different attack types? Deflections and counters? Increased range of movement (scale walls, etc)?)

• Less emphasis on level, more on ability and action Maybe level up Health / Magicka / Stamina automatically and award points for the skill tree at level intervals, but obscure the player's actual level / take the focus off levels.

PHYSICS

• Fix it.

• Allow player to place an object without applying physics to it (As in Morrowind) for decorating homes, etc.

~

Anyone want to add to this?

EDIT: Additions from others.

Ozy-dead: Quest Journal: Flesh out the quest entries and allow for questing without a compass, purely working off the information given, rather than an arrow pointer.

Kazgur Bosses: Bosses that are more than just high level NPCs. Challenging boss fights that are not simply a matter of 'run up and click until he dies'.