I personally think Skyrim is on the right track. I think the way you develop a character has just enough complexity to let you build a complex character without the system itself being overly complex. I like that they made crafting and other skills build experience. In general, I love how building skills leads to more experience which leads to levels. It just feels more rewarding and realistic....to me anyway. I am gaining through various experiences. Not just going out and fighting tirelessly just to "ding" another level. Really like how perks are handled as well.

ALL that said...

Combat from hourses is a must. Dismouting to a more vulnerable position to battle a foe is lame.

I think a "hardcoe" mode that disables fast travel, removes quest indicators, and creates a more purist experience would be welcome.

Fable had a way of making you feel like a revered mighty hero or a reviled horrible monster. This sense of reputation and people in awe is sorely lacking from Skyrim. If you are the one and only Dragonborn, people shoud react to you in some meaningful way. Good or bad.

Also like how Fable makes is possible to purchase shops and real estate to a point you become a mogul. At the very least I should be able to open a shop in Skyrim that can sell items I have crafted.

And as someone suggested: why can't I decided to take on the Empire, Ulfric, and claim the throne as my own? I AM THE DRAGONBORN. For all the freedom given, it is sometimes amazing the freedom that is lacking.

I think these are the things I would like to see them focus on in the DLC...why wait until next game?

Oh, fewer guards that have taken an arrow to the knee would be nice too

Well this couldn't be added with just a DLC, Skyrim would have to be redesigned but:

1. Branching dialogue.
2. Speech checks.
3. Quest choices.
4. Redesign a lot of quests to not lead you into dungeons.
5. Bring back the Quest Journal.
6. Scrap the current puzzles and design half a dozen to a dozen new puzzles with several different variations which require a lot of thinking to complete.
7. Make it so that you can only pick a stat (health, magicka, stamina) every other level and you can't pick one twice in a row.
8. Overhaul the entire damage, health and degense system for the PC and the NPC's.
9. Bring back weapon detoriation but have it like New Vegas where weapons doesn't lose their effectiveness until you reach 75% below weapon condition and have Smithing be an important aspect of repairing gear.
10. Bring back spell creation, all the previous spells and a ton of new ones.

Dunno how 'innovative' some of these are but these things would improve Skyrim and TES for me.

bump

I would add a topless bar in one of the seeder citys to add an advlt element. Or change some of the inn's so they weren't ALL the same friendly going atmosphere.

Nubs!

1) Get out the code for Daggerfall and study the whole character creation system there. Implement and enhance as needed.
2) Restore the full out reputation system
3) Dump the voice acting save in special cases and return to branching text. If they can read a smartphone screen to tweet, they can read honest to ghu paragraphs.
4) Get Kirkbride, Peterson, LeFay & Rolston together, and lock them in a room until they get a solid TES game design doc and script hammered out.


Unfortunately, they've made too much money off their 'casual gamer experiment'. So get ready for Sonic goes to Summerste Isle in a few years. RPG'ers are pretty much boned in the single player category.............

different mounts other then horses...i think you should have special quests where you tame saber cats, bears, dragons or a new unique creature to ride but doubles as a companion when on foot. You should also be able to attack while riding; instead of sword attacks i would like to have the animal attacks be your attack...sabers should use claws, dragon fire, horses stomp, etc.

Mounted combat of any sort is silly. It is not wise to introduce a secondary combat system into the game. It will either be a substitute for ground combat and be superior, or be shallow and inferior and therefor just being a gimmick.

how is it silly, it opens up new forms of play...i would like to have some sort of mongol style mounted archery, hitting a moving target while riding would be a cool challenge for my archer

I'd also like if the mounts can feast on corpes to regain health or for a feral energy boost

You know, I actually had a lot of fun playing infantry in Mount and Blade. It was challenging dealing with enemy cavalry, but it was fun. Granted, though, it wasn't the 1 on 1 combat you typically get in a TES game.

Like I said above, it is silly because you replace the ENTIRE combat system or you introduce one that is inferior. I know it is a cool idea, it just does not work in games like this. What ends up happening the vast majority of the time is that any sort of Mounted combat (or vehicles) are implemented incredibly poorly. They control badly but it gives you the ability to run circles around everything and kill targets easily. The same goes for games that have ground + vehicle combat. It is always a catastrophe.

Followers would be able to ride horses (and you, the player, would be responsible for providing those horse).

Lockpick perk tree core perks would allow you to automatically open locks equal to or lower than the level of the associated perks. The entire tree would be restructured into two paths, not a single one that has a few branches.

Spell-creation. Staff-creation. Scroll-scribing.

You could occupy any vacant house you wanted if you killed the owner. You could do the same with any of the scenic locations in the game that have a local structure of some kind.

Crafting would *always* have a very low impact on your level. Smithing would be corrected.

Training would not be limited to 5 sessions per level. Costs would be halved.

Vampires. I would basically turn this into TES V: Vampire the Requiem.

Werewolves would be more prevalent and not just limited to the Companions. There would be random encounters with feral weres.

The marriage system would allow for divorce, remarrying, or even multiple spouses (one in each hold).

There would be a rival assassin guild that competed with the Dark Brotherhood (and you could establish and lead one, destroy them both, whatever). Actually, there would be a rival guild for every one currently in Skyrim.

And other things that aren't appropriate for a 13+ audience.

that would only apply to fighting on open ground and thats rare...most fights occur inside or cliffside so mounted combat wouldn't be OP and rarely useful
I do agree that the mechanics and controls would most likely be horrible...the only game that had decent horse riding/combat was red dead redemption

If it is rarely useful, has horrible controls and mechanics - why would you want it added? Don't get me wrong, I don't think you cannot make a game with good mounted combat, just the inclusion of it in Skyrim isn't worth it. Red Dead Redemption also split the two combat systems based on game design. Indoors combat obviously is on foot and most outdoor combat was on horse back. Comparing the two systems, mounted combat more or less entirely consisted of Dead Eye queuing up shots which was trivial.

most tes games have horrible mechanics and control issues but we still love them regardless of their faults...as for red dead, you have to admit that they have the best horse riding in a game to date and i was able to shoot other riders without deadeye, you had to learn that in order to play online

I would also like to have animal companions other then dogs, its a shame dead thrall doesnt work on wolves or sabers as that would be sweet IMO

I would like to comment on this, but not being a "dude from the Ghetto" I just feel incompetent.

My first suggestion is not so much innovation but:

I would use both the new radiant quest system to lengthen each of the Factions and Morrowinds skill level check, to be able to climb the ladder in these factions more realistically. This would get rid of the level 1 barbarian becoming the Mages Guild leader after 5 quests.

You could make sure that each faction story quest is only given to the player after completing 5 random quests and you have reached a level withing the skills associated with that faction then a level is raised withing the guild upon completion of the story quest.

The random quests could have a Faction level leveled list, so early quests are the fetch and carry ones while the later ones are clearing dungeons, attacking the main enemy (necromancers for mages etc)

Dark Brotherhood early quests could be gathering intel on potential targets for higher leveled assassains, you would not actually complete your first assassain until 3rd or 4th level within the guild etc etc.

I posted a topic about this idea but:

I would give some boss enemies phases, but I see they have phases with dragons which makes them my favorite enemy to fight, ground phase and flight phase.