So it's 8:30 at night skyrim time, i'm at the tavern in whiterun and it feels like a funeral. no one's speaking, no ones drinking, some homeless guy is eating bread, every one is just staring at the fire... and it's occurred to me that every tavern is like this... it really ruins the experience if you ask me... there needs to be some laughter, maybe some drunk brawls would be really nice. I mean you can sometimes hear some banter between the inn owner and the begger, but that's it... no... life in these places...

thoughts? PS3 NOT COMPUTER NO MODS!

i agree it should be like more like Pirates of the Caribbean Tortuga bar rather than a fancy bar in England where everyone must obey the rules

That would fit the Nord lifestyle and be utterly fantastic.

I wish there were random bar fights, that would be perfect.

Even better, those annoying bards would be replaced by drunken Nords chanting drinking songs.

Yes!!

Oh, the taverns are boring. People come in, sit quietly, eat, drink, leave.

The taverns should all be different. Fine, let one of them be upscale, quiet, peaceful.

Let another be full of drunken miners brawling. And another full of drunk off-duty soldiers singing songs and throwing things at the bard.

Boring bars close where I come from.

and also the taverns should have [censored]s don't forget about that part

Tavern brawls is a standing promise. Tjek out Q:14:

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1207390-skyrim-fan-interview/

I'm still waiting

I had to laugh! While the tavern in Whiterun is always packed it does seem strangely quiet and, now that you mentioned it, like a funeral. Even just some ambient noise such as laughing, burping, and pvssyr played in the background would help (and would be preferential to all the characters trying to speak to you at once just because you go near them).

Did you say [censored]s or [censored]s? Whichever, I concur.

How about that Sinmir guy? I feel like he was supposed to be related to some Briggand quests or something.

that would be whiterun according to the barmaid there.

I've had several brawls in taverns. Random Nords and Orcs call me a milk drinker, and then the fight is on.

My favorite one was in Riverwood, because the fight spilled into the basemant and it ended with the Nord lying lifeless on a table.

What is even worse than the standing/sitting around doing nothing is when several patrons are standing around waving their arms like they are celebrating and having a good time yet not a single sound is heard. Must be all in their heads.

Some background noise would be ok as long as it doesn't sound like the pvssyr, singing, and laughing of 100 people while only 3 people are in the room.

The Witcher does the inns/taverns right. Crowded, noisy, a lot of people singing or drinking, gambling, smoke... I wish Bethesda starts from there.

And don't forget the prosttutes as well all things that add realism and immersion to the game in my opinion.
Skyrim inns are less animated than a nursing home

I don't know about prosttutes... but i'm sure the taverns and inns need to be updated by allot.

THAT"S what missing!!!! It never occurred to me until you mentioned it, why don't you hear any drunken singing/chanting??That would have made the taverns feel a heck of a lot more like a tavern and it fits the game perfectly.Every movie made through out time that involved vikings or nord's has at some point in that movie a drunken viking singing number, hell I can't even go up in the woods or a friends place( in real life) without one of my buddies busten into a drunken serenade, but most of my province is of Irish decent.

Obviously they were more interested in putting ants on trees.

The problem can be traced to there not being enough people in towns, period. There can't be people who just appear in taverns in the evening, they have to come from the town. If towns were bigger and had more people than more people would go to the tavern, get caught in conversation with each other, and thus the taverns seem more lively. The only problem is I don't know how many more people can be added to a town and still have it run smoothly on consoles, especially with the lag that comes with save file bloat.

Every NPC added brings more potential instances of items and corpses, especially if they have a house and don't just appear out of nowhere. That adds even more cells to record and more loose items that can add to save file bloat. Finally, they would need to stave off the complaints of "There are so many places and people to talk to, but nothing to do with them." That means quests, shops, and other little odds and ends that further increase game size and potential save file bloat, as well as requiring better minimum hardware to process more NPCs in a single area. Not to mention the potential bugs that arise from having multiple things happening on their own schedules at once.

They need to strike a good balance. I don't think they have hit it yet and I agree that the taverns and towns are kind of dead. But they also have to deal with a lot of overhead to make it all work.

Okay, well, let's see. Your King has been murdered, the Emperor has banned Talos worship, Thalmor are stalking the land killing your people, bandits are killing your people, wild animals are killing your people, you have to sacrifice a cow to stop Giants from killing your people, the Dark Brotherhood are killing people, in the Reach the Forsworn are killing your people! Anything I forgot? Ah yes, Dragons have reappeared in the middle of a Civil War.

I can't see much to be joyous about, can you?

All the more reason to get pissed and start a barfight.

All big reasons to go to the tavern and get sloshed,be marry,sing and start bar fights.And I'm sure console could handle just a hand full more NPCs in the towns, look at Fable, IMO the towns in Fable had just the right amount of NPC's in them to make the town feel lively.

Because no one goes to the bar to get away from their troubles in life? I could have sworn that's why most people go to bars.