You will start the game as a Dragonborn. That makes you someone, gives you a role. This is why I think we will be playing an action game and not a RPG.
I agree with the rest of what you said to a certain extent, but this is just silly. Were the Fallout games action games because you had a "role" in the storyline? Baldur's Gate? Planescape: Torment?
You didn't have a role at the Fallout 3 game. You were just a kid looking for his father. At Fallout:NW you are a guy who survived a shot to the head and seeking revenge. Sure it changes when you move further into the storyline. IF you choose to do so. What are you at Skyrim? Slaughter of Dragons. I'm not saying every RPG should be a sandbox but if you want to RP then you shouldn't have a strict role given to you by devs.
I was talking about the originals. And yeah, BG and PsT. The latter which is often considered among the best RPGs ever made, perhaps one of the best games ever made. It gave you a role. A definitive role. Having a role defined by the storyline has nothing to do with whether a game is an RPG or not, which was your original statement.
I wouldn't say anything about it if they were removing needless skills. Well, acrobatics can be exploited and athlzetics is difficult to train and both of them are RP-killers but seriously... Spears, "blunt" axes, no medium armor. Were these skills really trash? I saw a mod where axe became a "blade". Axe is not a blade nor a blunt weapon. This is just dumb. We used to have more variety.
Spears were not cut because they didn't think they needed the skill, it was cut because they didn't want to spend time implementing spears. Medium armour, however, was completely useless. It served no purpose at all, it just created a another line of armour that needed to be filled, often with armours that made no sense at all to have there. Many of them could easily have been fitted into light or heavy. Keep in mind, though, that I say this as a person who would rather see "Light Armour" be changed into a "Dodge" skill, and thought the concept of armour skills was overly gamey to begin with.
Spears were cut because Bethesda lacks the skills to make the animation. I don't even rembember the last game with good spear animations (Diablo II maybe?) I like variety in a game and I want to see varied armor too. Medium armors in Morrowind weren't "light" or "heavy" they were just "medium".
Thus, cut because Beth didn't want to "waste" time on them. And
good spear animations?
And I don't think you really understood what I said about medium armours. On the other hand, I didn't say it to argue about it either so maybe I should just leave it like this.
In Oblivion you were only a witness to the Emperor's death. If you didn't follow the main story you would stay that way.
In Morrowind you were only a stranger who have arrived to Seyda Neen. If you didn't follow the main quests
In Skyrim even if you don't follow the main quest you are the guy who slaughters dragons.
In Oblivion you were prophesied to become to become the CoC, the Emperor saw you in his dreams. In Morrowind, regardless of whether or not you were the Nerevarine, you were never just "a stranger" but an important pawn in both the Empire's and Azura's power games from the start. Pretending something else required you to ignore this as well as break away from the main quest and the story that had been lined up for you.
First when I heard the whole "Dragonborn" thing. I thought races were getting removed too and be able to become only Nord. This is just too much. In Morrowind in the start you were just "a stranger" IF you didn't follow the main story. They just left you at Seyda Neen and told you to go meet the Blades guy. In Oblivion, well yeah you were something but you still didn't know what you were. You only had to deliver an amulet that you (your character) doesn't know much about. However, I didn't like how was it in Oblivion too. You were in Oblivion (Oblivion itself!) after 20 minutes from your prison if you only did main quests.
And in Skyrim you will be able to not do the main quest as well, just like any other TES game. It's exactly the same.
Level scaling cannot be done right in a RPG.
This is an absurd statement. Would you mind backing it up with something so I can better understand what you are saying?
Sure
You are level 1. You only have a iron mace and iron armor set. You encounter some bandits. They are equiped with leather armor, one of them with iron bow, captain with a two handed iron warhammer and others with iron maces/daggers.
You are level 35. You have a daedric armor set and an enchanted daedric claymore. You are going to the exactly same place where you were going when you were level 1. You encounter some bandits. They are equiped with glass armor, one of them with a glass bow, captain with a two handed glass warhammer and others with glass longswords/maces
You are level 1. You complete a quest and recieve a dagger which inflicts 10 damage with 3 fire damage as a reward
In another game you are level 35. You complete the same quest and recieve a dagger which inflicts 15 damage with 7 fire damage as a reward.
See what I mean? There won't be anyone stronger or weaker than you. You rewards and loot will always be "good enough" for you. After some quests you don't really care much about the reward. Even in the Fallout:New Vegas kind of scaling, "adjusting things for the player" is a bad idea.
And that is bad level scaling. I'm not going to say Oblivion did it good, it was ridiculously crappy and perhaps the worst part of a game I consider rather bad, bland and boring in general. But saying "Level scaling cannot be done right in a RPG" is silly as well. Most games, even RPGs, feature level scaling to some point. Beth's just gone overboard with the concept.
Axes fell under blunt weapons becouse they are used in a manor more similer to blunt weapons than blades
You don't swing an axe like you swing a club. It may seem same but it's different. A double axe is slightly similiar though.
You don't use long swords, sabres, short swords, katanas, or any other of the swords that fall under "Blade" the same way either. It's just an abstraction.
Still, axes aren't blunt.
Which is completely irrelevant. They are arbitrarily grouped together because they are weapons made (simplified) out of a shaft and a head. Swords are arbitrarily grouped together, regardless of how little sense it makes, because they have a hilt and a blade. Hell, though I admit I haven't got much knowledge on mace martial arts, I'd wager they were used in much more similar ways to axes than an arming sword and a katana were.
As for "Blunt Weapons", this was just what they named the category, not implying that "axes were blunt". It's just a bad name. "Helved Weapons" would have made much more sense in context of the attributes they based the grouping on, but it doesn't change that "axes aren't blunt" is irrelevant.
EDIT: Also, I've heard something about unlimited number of dragons, so at least most of them are random, I think.
randomized and randomly placed.
Which I personally don't believe at all. At most, pre-designed zones were there is a random chance of meeting dragons.
If I had to guess they're probably only going to start appearing after some point in the main quest. Similar to the Daedra invasion in Oblivion (although maybe later, as dragons are likely more dangerous than gates...)
God I hope so. But I don't think it's very likely. Third main questline quest at most, I'd wager. Player around level 2-5. Chosen Ones gonna Chose, dawg.