you are probably playing another game, not skyrim...
in the skyrim I'm playing you can do the main quest without joining any guild or side in the civil war

Just some minor gripes with quests:

• Time limits on a few quests, not all, but at least some. If the quest giver says for example "Please rescue my son, he is to be executed soon!", then waiting to take on the quest longer than a week should result in the son being executed and the quest fails.
  
• I want to be able to cancel a quest. If a quest is automatically added for me, I should be able to refuse the quest without having it linger in my "to-do" list forever.
  
• More quests with multiple-endings and multiple solutions.

And some NPC interaction:

• I want to be able to gift objects to people. For example some clothes to beggars, or a really nice dress for my wife.
  
• I want a reputation system. My good and/or bad deeds should modify how people react and interact with me. If I am known to be a thief shop owners should never let their eyes of me etc.

The single event in the game that bothered, nay angered me the most was the Burning of King Olaf. That was supposed to be a "festival"? Why not add lots of decorations to the place, a beer stand, some people walking around selling treats, or just ANYTHING that would make it seem like a festive event.

Then how did you get into the College of Winterhold without using the "Unlock" command?

Make the terrain matter more. - animals can climb steeper slopes than spriggans,wolves can go through passages that trolls can`t etc - so that climbing up a rock isn`t always the answer to evade enemies.
Make it less LINEAR!!!!! - What happened to sneaking up on enemies (or attacking them) from different sides??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Where did the strategy and tactical elements go?

I completed the main quest without joining any guild or civil war side, after you demonstrate that you can use magic to the mage lady, she sends you to speak to another lady, just don't talk her and you are free to go.
now explain where exactly you are forced to take a side in the civil war to complete the main quest, 'cause I did join a side AFTER the MQ

Technically, if by chance you found the guy you needed to help you already then you can go straight to him. It might also be possible to use the back entrance to the college, if you can carefully climb the rock.

That's a plausible way to get around it. But that doesn't work for me due to the way I RP my characters. Any Nord warriors under my control tend to avoid magic of all forms, because they don't trust it. Knowing that the Thu'um is an ancient form of magic, they only use shouts when only in the most dire of need.

Hence why I said it was challenging (but not impossible) for me to RP this game.

my bad, I meant this: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Elder_Knowledge
you can persueade her to let you in.

For me:
More consequence
More different enemies
More spells
More factions(I would love to see more of the Vigilants of Stendarr)

More quests, fewer bugs, bigger variation on what nps says, and lots of other stuff is changes I would like to see.

I'll just like to point out that a lot of the points here contradict with other commonly-raised issues. You can't have consequences if the guilds and factions are kept separate, you can't have guilds and factions kept separate if you have a world that does not revolve around the player, and a real economy would not work in a world that did not revolve around the player: imagine going to the Belethor's General Goods expecting to buy some scrolls, but can't because the player was near a courier delivering paper and they got killed on the road as a result. Yes, it would be dynamic, but people would complain of the game being unplayable or their immersion being rooned before you could say 'patch.'

That said, I would like to see more weapon variation, though. There is no logical reason for there not to be spears, crossbows, or cannons, seeing as spears are easy to make, and crossbows and cannons are already in the game.

More spells that effect the environment. Bethesda should take a look at the Midas Magic mod and revisit some of their ideas, both from the Skyrim mod and the Oblivion one. Some of these spells - vines, bugs, and shapeshift - are useful for stealth characters, others are just downright bizarre, and some are hilarious. How about 'change weather,' to cause a combat disadvantage to heavily-armoured troops, or 'darkness' so that archers can't hit you? They've done all it would require in the game already. Make these once-a-day powers, attach a weather script, and make that weather have an effect on the skills or stats of characters.

On a similar note, environment effects combat. Heavily-armoured warriors should get a boon on open plains, lightly-armoured should be stealthier in forests, claymore-wielders should be nerfed in close quarters, etc. Also, two-handed weapons should swing faster. They are not that heavy in real life. Through constant practice, you can learn to swing a claymore almost as fast as you can a normal sword. Maybe the swing speed should get faster as the character skill improves?

More armour slots, like in Morrowind. One-slot armour would have been alright if there were different types of each armour style - there are four types of fur in the game, for instance - but it isn't, it's just something else that they decided to cut back on.

More dynamic combat. Again, there are knives and forks in the game which can be used as weapons, if I'm not mistaken. I've downloaded a mod that allows me to use flutes as weapons. Why not buckets, brooms, and empty wine bottles, too? Why can't there be some chairs you can pick up and swing at someone's face? Why can't you slam them against walls, or throw down your weapons and throttle them? A real fight isn't nearly as formulaic as the combat in TES would have you believe; there is room for some really interesting combinations if Bethesda thinks it's up to the challenge. Look at what modders did with Deadly Reflex in Oblivion - tell me, why couldn't one of the best game development companies on earth not come up with that, especially since hordes of fans - veterans and casual gamers alike - have been calling for it?

Arena.


Um, strategy is in there. I play a lightly-armoured raider on expert difficulty, with a bounty on her head in most of the holds. You need to know what to use, when, and where or else the guards can and will kill you. Maybe you need to ramp up the difficulty a notch?

You don't have to join any of the guilds in order to complete the main quest although Beth doesn't do a good job explaining that though, so you don't find out until after you do it for the 1st or 2nd time.

Which was my point about the game not forcing you to do anything.

It just threw me off a little when, during my very first play through, my warrior was all of the sudden a Thieves Guild and a College initiate. I can circumvent those situations now, but it was a little rough to RP through those situations on my first go around.

But the entire point that I was trying to make was that Bethesda could have designed the MQ without having to introduce/induct you to the guilds in that way... which would have made the game better from my particular point of view.

More clothing and clothing pieces-shirts, pants, skirts, capes. Non-magical fighting staffs. Bookstores, please. Better implementation of horses--first person riding, horse and cart, packhorse.

NPCS--more children of different races, children that don't look like clones. More npcs that can be married, of each race.

There are mills, let us use them, flesh that whole food procuring and cooking out more.

Thank folks keep them coming, love some of these.

You realize that what you suggest is going back and brushing up new (broken) mechanics, right?


Problem with your anology is that almost every single Final Fantasy is it's own game. XII and XIII aren't connected and thus can have completely different mechanics.

What also throws your theory out the window is that even with each new Final Fantasy being it's own game, there are several Final Fantasy games that share mechanics, to the point where they use quite nearly the exact same system. How many Final Fantasy games use a job system? How many of them let you have a Main Job and a Sub-Job? How many of them allow you to switch jobs on any of your party members?

Feeling idle, gonna copy/paste from a post in another thread :

"I suppose someone fetches the mead for you now."

"Well, that's the last of the Imperial posts wiped out."

[You have acquired a temporary bounty of 40 in all holds. This will revert to 0 when you remove your Dark Brotherhood armour.]

"Ah, Arch mage, obviously I have nothing in the way of spells you would need, but I have a good stock of staves and soul gems. All at good prices for you."

"I know you are in charge now, but if you are bored, there is a matter that I am having trouble trusting any of the rank and file with."

[You are now disguised as a Stormcloak.]

The world recognizing you?

BLASPHEMY!

Like kill some farmers and have the price of grain go up in the surrounding region?

Or vegetables in that area become scarce.

I've been saying that since Morrowind, brother.

There's just a complete lack of consequences apparent. We need more to get a deeper game.

I would have loved monster raids on villages in retaliation for the player's actions.

Like trolls would begin infesting the area, or hell... even Bandits would raid a town because you raided one of their keeps so they sought revenge.

Disable an NPC's spontaneous dialogue after the first time it said it, unless

a- You click on him to hear it again or
b- A certain number of in-game time has passed.

"I work with Belethor in his shop."

20 days later.

"I work with Belethor in his shop."

Still annoying.

But considerably less annoying than what there is now.
I choose any smithing spot but Whiterun. That woman just wont stop talking. The same lines.
It would be great if she only did it once a week, or month.
I dont think they should do it once and then forever stop. The world would become very silent after a while.