The Future, I had to do it. Options

[Channler]

So I have an invariable amount of time a day to sit down and reflect. And today I sat down at my computer and decided to type in a few letters that haven't graced my computer in a long 2 or 3 years. Morrowind.com

We all know this just leads to the TES main site, but it reminded me, before the release/announcement of Oblivion, the fervor that which I checked those forums every day, and the absolute excitement I received when the Daedric runes came up when I visited the site.

Well I don't know why, but I feel a little bit of that excitement again. I almost feel like I'm about to jump into the goon rush that is the elder scrolls forums and jump into one of those "TESV" threads. Interesting stuff guessing the future.

Anyways so I think I'll be the first to open up with the grossly general question..

What do you hope for, for TESV?

[jack cloudy]

I haven't played Oblivion (yet), but a place to rant is a place to rant so here I go.

I'd like to see more options of non-lethality. In Morrowind, it was kill or be killed. (or run away, but that is not the kind of non-lethality I'm looking for.) Even Hand to Hand couldn't be used to actually finish a fight while letting your enemy live. Sure, you could knock people out, but they were back on their feet and swinging their stuff in five seconds. Only beating them to dead could stop them. Oblivion made a step in the right direction with the yielding, but it is still not enough for me. Basically, when you yield, you say: ,,Ok, I give up, now stop beating on me!"

What I'm looking for is basically this. Being able to finish a fight without killing anyone, without running away and without surrendering. And I'm not talking about some rare scripted instance in a quest where some character surrenders at x% health. I'm talking about regular gameplay here. Disarming causing the opponent to surrender. (unless said opponent is the brave/foolish/stubborn type or simply doesn't need a weapon anyway. In that case, go ahead and keep fighting.)

Maybe a 'stun meter' that activates during combat, fills up when you get hit and slowly lowers if you're not being hit, lowering faster when not doing anything and standing still. If the stun meter maxes out, the victim is knocked out (give or take, for two minutes?) If you keep up a constant barrage with a less than lethal weapon, like fists, you can max out the stun meter before the opponent's health is depleted, resulting in a knockout rather than a kill.

And for the mages, Stun spells. Thieves, a sort of chloroform or what have you that triggers during a melee sneak attack. (won't work on Atronachs or skeletons. Sorry, but I don't see a floating pile of rocks being gassed.)

If the player is knocked out, I'd rather see some options. Now, you're just dead. But what if you got defeated by a bandit or the Legion? They'd rather strip you of your stuff and leave you for dead, or strip you of your stuff and haul you to jail. Getting them too mad will have them continue waling on you, ala Morrowind's death warrant.

The perks to knocking out? Not much, other than making pacifism an actual option without instantly locking out most of the combat. Of course, it would be even more awesome if ropes were added to the game for tying up knocked out opponents with. Hey, when I joined the Legion in Morrowind, I was hoping to beat up some criminals and then haul them to court, alive. Now I just ended up having to kill each and everyone.
And while we're on the subject of ropes, I'm going to be unreasonable. Grappling hooks, for those who can't levitate or jump like kangaroos.

Finally, on the subject of the court, either death penalties on everything or NPCs placed under arrest as well. Seriously, I break the law and I get to pay a fine or spend time in jail. I kill someone, or three someones, jailtime. NPC picks a flower in someone else's garden? OH NOES, EXECUTE HIM!!!! Seriously, that just doesn't make sense at all. Where is equality?


Oh, one real last finally. Intimidation. No matter what you're wielding no one gets intimidated. Ok, I noticed like a 5 points disposition decrease in Morrowind with my sword out. That's pathetically low, considering the scale goes to 100. I guess the same thing is there in Oblivion as well. But I would absolutely love it if I strode into a camp of some simple farmers, coated in full Daedric and wielding a flaming Claymore of the same stuff, and all those farmers crapped their pants and ran away to hide. Hey, you're trying to look like a badass for a reason here, not just so you can admire yourself in the mirror.

This is probably where fame infamy should come into play as well.
High fame (multiplied by the knightly armours like silver): Simple bandits and other crooks avoid you like the plague. Only real big bads, like the higher ranking Dark Brotherhood, will challenge you. (In their own way, with poison and stealth)
High infamy (multiplied by the bad armours like Daedrid.): Good people will run away, the Legion will crap its pants and require extensive persuasion from a commander to attack you even if you're outnumbered. Heck, what if some priests tried to cleanse you off evil with a prayer and a shower of holy water? Awesome!!!!!



OK, and that ends this rant. Looking back up, I see that I've fallen into further regions of things that are cool but add little. Still, one can only dream.

This post has been edited by jack cloudy: Jan 7 2008, 08:09 PM