Are you satisfied with the life you find in the world of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim?
I'm thinking about the NPC's, animals, how everyone react to things, what they do and how their animations are.

I don't know if you've seen how some of the different animals in Far Cry 3 behave, but it's awesome to watch a shark attack you or a tiger.
It's a very different experience, for sure.
Maybe it would be a more thrilling experience to see a wolf biting my arm, not letting go.
How could you fight him off? Well there is magic, shake him off with magic or use your weapon or shield.

I mention this because I want to ask you, do you feel that Skyrim has reached the limit on how well NPCs, both human and animal behave?
Hm, they could had gone bit further to make the world come even more to life.
It's like we got the basic pack, the foundation, what should be expected but I wanted them to blow my mind.
So what would you like to see improved and how could they had improved it in Skyrim?

But they did a good job!

I'm actually really happy with the life in the world, especially the NPCs. Their animations and behavior are much more realistic and interesting than in past TES games, and just make the world come to life more IMO.

However, I certainly don't think that Skyrim has "reached the limit." There's always room to improve. But I'm very satisfied with the life in Skyrim, I think that's one of the things it does best.

Perhaps more could have been done with NPC schedules, but I'm thrilled with the life in the world.
Non-Hostile animals, travellers on the road and aggressive animals (that is, animals that are a part of the world as opposed to ones that exist to annoy the player) add huge elements to immersion. Combine these with the hugely detailed world, and it really amazes me.

Deer are generally too slow to react, as well as pretty slow all around. Rabbits don't look very good if you happen to watch one up close.

There could be more variety as well.

They did a good job on this game, I do agree with that.

But still, I don't feel it has evolved that much since previous game.
Would love to see more evolved characters (NPCs) in the game because their movements or animations are all very stiff and unatural.
Perhaps natural for a military person but not for a common person.

I don't think I have seen any real interactions with characters in this game such as hand shaking, hugging or lifting someone that is wounded in combat.

For example,
when you escape from the dragon and you follow Ralof back to Riverwood town and you get to see Ralof and Gerdur together.
They have not seen each other for a very long time but still you don't feel the moment, right?
Sure, you hear the voices but that's it. Ralof and Gerdur remain very stiff and doesn't show much of a natural reaction.

Maybe I'm the only one who feels this way, I don't know. I just thought it was a good subject to bring up.

People's interactions are indeed rather limited. Spouses talk, but don't hug or kiss. Parents treat their children exactly as they do random passers-by. That would be a good refinement to add in ES VI.

Always room for improvement but I'm pretty pleased. More physical expression would be nice but I don't feel thelack pulls me out of the game. This stuff improves with every game IMO.


Animal variety and AI I can't really comment because mine modded so heavily I kind of don't remeber what's vanilla and not.

I think they did a pretty good job with the people this time around although they do have their glitches at times, ie drinking out of a non-seen mug. Serana from Dawnguard was a huge improvement in npc followers. I wish they all could be like her.

The animals were a big improvement over Oblivion's, especially the horses. I would have to agree with Day_Man about the deer and rabbits being slow to react. Dare I say, I love the way animals are done in Dragons Dogma ... the way the wolves attack in large packs seem especially realistic in that game, as do most of the animal reactions.

We need roaming werewolves/wandering lunatics, and vampire hunting parties.

Other than that, it's great.

I think it's great and I usually enjoy wandering the wilderness among all the wildlife, however when a dragon attacks and a bear, instead of running for dear life starts to attack me, I'm not so impressed.

Theres always more to be done and added to the game. But, unless im horribly mistaken, this isnt the last TES game. So theres the future to look to yet. For me, its the life i create in the game. I feel the more i put into the game, the more i get out of it.

Lumping all animals and people and enemies into the Generic NPC class, I will say the only thing that bugs me, and it bugs me about all games, is at some point, I would expect some enemies to take my measure and decide that I am not a good target. I mean I do it with Deathclaws, why can't Gecko's do that with me? Why won't Thief's leave the head of the Thieves alone?

As for various attack styles by animals, we have that. Wolves circle around behind you to hamstring you, sabre cats stalk you etc.

Would be good if the game developers decided to do some research on natural human interactions and then try to bring this into the game.
That would at least help to make the game even more believable and more full of life.
Because right now it doesn't seem like the brain is sending signals to the body when out of combat in daily interactions with people.

You have NPCs who can become happy, angry, afraid or sad and you may hear it in his or her voice, but you will not see it in their body language.

One time I ran into this girl that had escaped from some bandits and wanted to know the direction to the nearest town.
Her body language did not show me that she was scared or anything out of the ordinary. She just looked like a beggar. That's it.

And when NPCs are in an attacking position, I don't think that would count as an animation that show someone is angry, except in a combat situation.
Because I don't think any of us would be going into an attacking position if we would become angry or sad during a discussion (just sometimes).

And Skyrim isn't a old game, so kinda dissapointed that the game didn't have that kind of human interactions\animations.
So I do hope that the developers will think of this for the future!

But I'm not saying that the game is bad, I just think there was something missing that could been done for Skyrim.

The NPC's have never been better in terms of being animated within the towns, walking talking and doing stuff. but I'm no longer satisfied by this, I wish their "working" amounted to something tangible and subject to player influence rather than being for show.

I wish People talked about more things but both them and animals behave in interesting enough ways. I like that both things no longer attack outright all the time now. Many wait until you get too close.