I have had a long hard think over the past god knows how long and i came uop with a few ideas on how we could improve fantasy games as a whole, however i feel these would fit perfectly into skyrim.
I would like to get your feedback on these ideas, and also any additional idea that you may have to improve the fantasy gaming experience.
And yes for the later points, i DO play 3rd person, but they can still apply to the first person view.

Just to clarify i LOVE these games, but there are points which i feel we have fallen into the trap of 'cos thats how its done' on some aspects.

1) First and i fell MOST crucial to changing these games for the better. Change the health bar. Hear me out! we know that these games all stem from Table D&D where damage ios done by nicks and cuts, but the animation and style of games on consoles doesnt fit with that in a realistic sense. Seriously, how many times can a guy in furs take a flamin sword to the head?!?

SO... simply change HP (hitpoints) to PP (protection Points) or DP (defense Points) - This does lead into my 2nd point bear with me.

This is THE most important thing in my mind to changing the way RPG combat is done.
ALL damage is still done as currently, using D20 or whatever they use behind the scenes

2) Change all hit animations/strikes to dodge/parry/grazing wounds (except huge bosses would could legimatley take tons of hits with a broadsword) - and example of this done well in my view is assassins creed, not an RPG i know but combat is infinatley more engrossing that the current Elder Scrolls style.
Please remember this is PURELY ANIMATION, not saying to change RPG combat into AC, that would make it not RPG and also too easy.

3) Enemies die they die well!
none of this random rag doll physics stuff. Skyrims has now started on this with the executions but we can do more! - again assasssinscreed is a good example of decent kills. and again PURELY AESTHETIC AND ANIMATION!

4) Different Melee Styles! as in ACTUAL style differences, the example in my head to show this best is a dualist (not a dual wield, but this may apply to them) any RPG guy knows these, the light armour high dexterity type fighters who for some reason hve the exact animation as the heavy armour guy with a similar sword! and in TES still stands in front of the enemy trading blows.
(yes i know you can run back and forth but is this really the best we can do to really FEEL like a dualist?)

Again i am going to point to AC for a guide start on how to do this, they have Battle axes that really swing like battle axes, Swords that can do medium speed and damage, and knives that are quick, and above all COUNTERS and Evasions!

These can slide nicley into the BLOCK skill aswell! have a seperate branch with evasion or counters as the perks, higher skills give higher chance of success.

which bring me to ..

5) More details on these 'Counters', cos quite frankly i dont want people screaming ' go play AC if its so much better!' (which it isnt) or saying i wanna make RPG's something else. I dont, i just wanna be able to play the character the way that character should be. So....

The counters would not be game breakers or anything like that, you could as stated above have them in a skill tree, with say.. 3 perks?
Perk 1 - Ability to counter, this will only block the attack and allow you a punch, or kick in retaliation, low damage to enemy, not a killable. if enemy has such low health then it will still counter, but you need to finish them yourselves with a strike.
Perk 2 - Ability to do higher damage counters with possible knockdown effect. a trip? judo throw? slice to thigh?
Perk 3 - Ability to do execution counters, this would only work on people with less thatn a given number of PP/DP left, say 15-20%?

Also bigger weapons/heavier weapons would have a penalty to them for this, so its easiest to counter/dodge with a knife than a giant axe.

6) For multiple enemies i know this becomes harder to do animations for if you have 4 guys all swinging at once the how do you animate to avoid/block all of these?
Stagger the anemies attacks, we all know that behind the scenes this is don on a turn based table anyway to calculate damage etc, just stagger the animations a touch, think more jackie chan (2 or 3 can attack at one time) than bruce lee (one at a time, form a line ,thankyou) styles, but still stagger them. and have some animations specifically for the 2-3 person charges.

7) Let the enemies move and judge attacking moments! RPG's have a habit of being stuck in one place, standing still and trading blows.. why dont the enemies try to circle you? try for a better angle? wait for the moment to swing? if they swing and you manage to evade, why dont they stagger? they try for a power attack and miss, they should stagger past you giving you and chance for a backstab! this would also help point above, enabling other enemies to take thier 'turn' at attacking without tuining the flow.
(again, AC do this reasonably well, however they do tend to get into a mexican stand off with 20 guys.. dont do that)




All of the above points may extend the length of the standard grunt fights, but they would mean so much more and be so much more immersive, we can do more with our RPG's, Bethesda can address the issues that they have in everygame they do by taking some of this on board. (BTW i LOVE Bethesda games)

Oh and one thing just for fun... can we have a pck mule or something to lug all our stuff when we go dungeon raiding?
Something that runs away when combat starts (and doesnt get attacked) and comes back afterwards so we dont have to go to towns all the time after every dungeon?
this can have several times our own carrying capacity or inifinite.. i dont mind

But yeah, opinions? feed back? any additional ideas?
i wanna help my favourite companies get better at making the games i want to buy and to play. help out.