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[Ampersand]

No matter what the result is, if Bethedsa keeps on keeping on, TES-V will more than likely be broader in scope than oblivion. Keep in mind that in Morrowind, the primary reason it seemed that the main quest was so much longer was that progress couldn't actually be made without gaining higher levels of power. Yes, you ended up being able jump over the Ghost Gate, but that's not the point.

In TESIII, being at a higher level was beneficial to you. In TESIV, it is not. Most enemies scaled up, including major boss characters. At a low level, Mannimarco is relatively easy to take down, but at high levels, you might as well be fighting Vivec from TESIII.

What made Morrowind grand was that there WERE actually enemies that, try as you might, you couldn't just beat by hacking them with your sword while circle strafing, because they'd just snap their fingers and your head would explode. There were places that you did not want to go because you'd be quickly surrounded by angry transdimensional horrors that will happily rip your face off.

[Neonivek]

I hope they fix guards

It was sorta weird watching Homeless people get better equipment than they do. (In fact... everything scales but the guards... so while they are nearly impossible at the start... even the homeless end up being able to destroy them near the end)

[Jack_Bread]

They should make the houses more useful than storage and eye candy. Maybe a TES Construction-style home editor? Also a more available selection of homes than just one per city along with the ability to lay down bedroll, pitch tents, and build huts.

[Mephisto]

Also a more available selection of homes than just one per city

Possibly involving a previous homeowner dying under suspicious circumstances? That would be kind of cool if, when homeowners died, their houses were put up for sale.

[Jack_Bread]

Also a more available selection of homes than just one per city

Possibly involving a previous homeowner dying under suspicious circumstances? That would be kind of cool if, when homeowners died, their houses were put up for sale.

And at night, if you killed them, their ghost will try to kill you. 
Also, you shouldn't be able to have 100% chameleon. My friend has TES 4 on the XBox and he runs around in 100% killing and stealing as he pleases. Also, scaling is very annoying. 

[Ampersand]

It was easier to get absurd enchantment effects in TES3, really. Why? Because you could wear clothes, put armor over them, and every piece of armor was individualized to the body part. Not Iron Gauntlets but Left iron gauntlet and Right iron gauntlet. This meant that you could have every piece of jewelry enchanted, every piece of clothing enchanted, and every piece of armor enchanted.

It was quite easy to get 100 percent chameleon, 60 points to speed, and permanent flight wrapped in one, and be able to utterly rape Dagoth Ur without anything ever reacting to you.

[Antioch]

but you still needed a lot of money and souls to do so, and the ammount of constant effect enchantment a pauldron or pants could have wasn't that impressive.

[Duke 2.0]

but you still needed a lot of money and souls to do so, and the ammount of constant effect enchantment a pauldron or pants could have wasn't that impressive.

When you have a robe, pants, shirt, helmet, pauldrons, curiass, greaves, left gauntlet, right gauntlet, boots, amulet and ring, you can enchant a few pieces below 10 points.
 Also, wearing all this at once.

[Puck]

if I remember correctly, the trick was to enchant a weapon (should even work with the ranged ones) to cast chamaeleon on self on hit for as short as 2 seconds (I think anything lower was iffy, anything higher was a waste), and to attack sneaking.

That way you would vanish after every strike, which fooled to AI into retreating. You can take on hordes of enemies that are way stronger than you with just some proper timing.

The best part of it is the low cost of the enchantment, you can keep it up for so long, it ain't pretty anymore. And coupled with the effect it has on the AI it's really really strong.

[Virex]

Seems like the main problem comes from 100% chameleon. Perhaps they ought to have made it an asymptotic effect instead of a linear one?

[Servant Corps]

You will need a minimum level to enter.

Just saw this, and, oh gawd no...

I don't like monsters. I don't like running around, trying to find a monster to kill. I'm scared of them. In TES3, I'm scared of rats! Rats can kill me, that's how scared I am. When I see one of those land stingrays, I run, run away.

If I have to...gulp...get a minimum level, that means I have to, gulp, fight these monsters over and over to get up a level. I have to, gulp, grind. And I don't like to grind...especially when I get scared stiff because of it.

Maybe Oblivion might be useful, in that sense.

[Granite26]

The problem there is the consistant insistance of video games to only grant experience for combat or limited quest rewards.

Imagine if you could get XP for sneaking past enemies or completing other non-combat tasks (this gets into minigames like alchemy).

In fact, in these games you CAN do those things, and sneak past all your enemies.

Except, it's a video game, and the final boss is still a fight.  There's no diplomatic solution (raising an army, maybe) or spell solution (cast the ritual to banish him back from the safety of your tower) or sneaky solution (steal his heartstone and hide it away, so that he withers and dies)

[Servant Corps]

There are diplomatic solutions in FO1 and FO3, convince the bad guy that he's a moron.

Easier said that done.

[Duke 2.0]

You will need a minimum level to enter.

Just saw this, and, oh gawd no...

I don't like monsters. I don't like running around, trying to find a monster to kill. I'm scared of them. In TES3, I'm scared of rats! Rats can kill me, that's how scared I am. When I see one of those land stingrays, I run, run away.

If I have to...gulp...get a minimum level, that means I have to, gulp, fight these monsters over and over to get up a level. I have to, gulp, grind. And I don't like to grind...especially when I get scared stiff because of it.

Maybe Oblivion might be useful, in that sense.

While I agree with you about grinding, there are two issues:

 1. This is not done to make the game longer. This is done to give the feeling of progress that was missing on Oblivion. You never got stronger. the enemies were the same difficulty. No work-reward.
 2. These are mighty massive rats.

 Still, one does not expect a computer nerd to wrestle down a bear. Oblivion required no grinding, and thus you could just toss away the leveling mechanic and win the game at level 1. It appears some amount of training is needed, as long as you do things you normally do. You have a thief-like character? There should be a good list of sneaky options to do. Fighters should get a bunch of fighting options, and magic-users lots of magicking opportunities.

 Speaking of which, the Oblivion Mage Guild quest chain was... underwhelming. Half of it was just getting in the dammed guild of people who provided me useless crap.

[Granite26]

Good Game = Increase in power level and options for the player as he becomes more proficient
Good Story = Increase in the level of danger to establish that the character had better be better than he was, because that good isn't good enough anymore.

This is handled with widely different ability in games.  Think Zelda:  Each successive boss required proficiency in 1 new skill (item) and in that dungeon you got 1 new skill (item).  Everything increased lockstep.

It's REALLY hard to balance those conflicting needs in an open ended game.  That's why level scaling is so popular:  The stakes keep going up lockstep with your power going up.  Unfortunately Oblivion blew it, because Character Levels were a poor metric of Power Level, and it had no method for players to disagree with the calculation (I.E. grind if you found yourself out of your league in an area).


Edit:  Imagine a game with scaling dungeons as random, repeatable encounters (I.E. when you first enter a dungeon it scales to your level, but plot events, towns, and outside areas don't.)  That way if you get over your head, you have the capability of training, but not the necessity.  (If you can't beat a dungeon, you know that your character is a bad build or you suck, but you have the option of fixing it by fighting outside or persuing plot or something else)