While Sky Rim is a great game with vast improvements over vanilla Oblivion it still suffers from some of the same flaws and polish that were prevalent in it's predecessor. I know patches may address some of these things but I know it's likely up to the modding community to make some of the more innovative improvements that would really help improve the game as a whole... I've put in 65+ hours so far, am level 39 and have done my fair share or exploring and questing... Some of the areas I believe that should be focused on are these.

1.) Better and more creative itemization and loot; I want more interesting options available and I want to feel I am not wasting my time exploring dungeons without having a quest to complete. Rarely do I find anything in dungeons or while exploring that I put to good use, there is just too much trash and not enough interesting loot and equipment that isn't tied to quests, as well a lot of quest rewards themselves are pretty useless. I want to be rewarded for exploring and excited about it, not just explore for the sake of exploring. The only time I ever seem to switch my equipment is when the next tier becomes available.

2.) More interesting and varied encounters and events while traveling the world. I fast travel because I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything interesting; maybe 1 in every 10 journeys by foot I'll run into an interesting npc, event or encounter; but for the most part traveling by foot is eventful and only offers random attacks by bears, wolves and weak dragons. I'd like to see far more interesting encounters and more frequent encounters to encourage traveling by foot because right now it's a very boring walk most of the time other then the scenery. It feels like what I am doing in the world has absolutely no impact in anything outside of a specific town.

3.) Re-balancing some skills, magic, potions and perks for more flexibility and better balancing throughout the game; there are currently A LOT of balancing issues with the current system.

4.) Re-balance difficulty and provide better level scaling ranges. The current difficulty system is lazy and I'd like to see this dealt with difficulty with more creativity rather then just giving enemies more HP and deal out more damage. As well the difficulty and level scaling through the game is terribly unbalanced. The game starts out extremely easy, the mid-range of the game has wide swings and spikes from fighting enemies that are way too easy and way too hard, even within the confines of a single dungeon; while late game everything switches back to being too easy. On expert at level 35 I was steaming rolling through all the major quest line finales completely effortlessly, this includes all guild quests lines, main quests and civil war quests.

5.) New spells, items and enchantments!

6.) Improve enemy AI, response and behavior and add in more diverse enemies and combat encounters. 60+ hours I get tired of fighting the exact same enemies over and over again who all essentially do the same things; any mages seem to only be able to know how to cast 2 or 3 spells and melee/ranged opponents have very standard gear. It's also too easy to glitch and exploit AI to get through more challenging encounters. Improve boss or major encounters too be more interesting and epic. The combat system is nothing special in this game so it's very dependent on having interesting opponents to fight and interesting hostile encounters to deal with to keep combat fresh. The dungeon designs and world design are amazing, but the enemy encounters are often repetetive and dull.

7.) Add in more "hardcoe or realism" options to help make the game more immersive.

8.) Improve and expand the follower system, I would like to see what skills they have without relying on console commands; I would like to control what equipment they equip rather then this being seemingly random and I would like them to gain in the skills that they use overtime like the player does.

9.) Better UI in general!

These are just some ideas I would like to see in the future; whether they be from Bethesda or mod makers. Anyone have any feedback, suggestions or comments?

Any comments, suggestions or feedback on any of this?

Much appreciated.

Anyone? ... Anyone? ... Anyone?

With the exception of number 2, I can assure you, in time all of this will be done.

Edit - I imagine someone will figure out how to implement the random encounter fast travel idea, but not as quickly as the others.

I didn't mean add random encounters in fast traveling. I meant add more random encounters in general to encourage traveling by foot or horse. I only fast travel because traveling by foot is often completely uneventful aside from wolf, bear, bandit and dragon attacks. Ant interesting encounters or events are few and far between. In my 66 hours of playing at level 37 I can recall maybe 6 encounters while traveling by foot and I traveled a lot by foot. 2 thieves who threatened me, 2 hired thugs to kill me, and 2 guys who stole an item and had someone chasing them... I want to see more interesting random events and encounters in the world, I want to see more things that occur based on what you've done with your character throughout your journey and I want to see actual signs that the realm feels as if it is at war; rather then just having empire and stormcloak camps where they just sit around all day and do nothing outside of the civil war quest.