Make it less Nord oriented, ie:(argonian walks into alchemy shop, shopkeeper:"I bet a strong Nord like you wouldn't need a health potion" Me:"You idiot do i look like a Nord to you!?!?!?!?" and extend the length of the main quest and faction quests. companions whelp-harbinger college apprentice- arch-mage theives guild theif- guildmaster. Dark Brotherhood new assassin- listener. All of these things took 2 hours gameplay tops, in Oblivion it took like 6 hours for each one for me, and i became so much more emersed within the storyline. I didn't see that in Skyrim, and i was disapointed. But, THE GAMEPLAY IN SKYRIM IS AMAZING!!!!
Hmm...Different and more outcomes to your decisions. Consequences so to speak. More options when speaking to npcs (Right now, you know eventually you have to pick the last one to get what you want. Sometimes there's a little too much verbal, meaningless dancing. Smarter AI in the sense that they really know who you are from your decisions/choices and react accordingly. More so than already....
And actually there could have been cut-scenes at the completion of each faction questline. Nothing too dramatic, but a little something. Come to think of it, maybe they did, it's been awhile.
Like the "Rank" system in guilds
My list is quite extensive (in no particular order):
That's my short-list.
1. More armor
1. More armor
2. More weapons
3. Spears
4. Throwing knives
5. Being able to put armor on your horse and make it act as a companion
6. Name your horse
7. Be able to buy other mounts
8. Be able to make your own house
9. Travel across Tamriel for certain quests, then after you finished them you can go there anytime you want
10. And finally, REALISTIC WARS, I mean go on a big battlefield and make it so you can actually kill 500 enemies and make it more challenging!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
More recognition of what race you've chosen really. A farmer in the middle of nowhere meets an Argonian probably for the first time in his life, doesn't bat an eyelid. Sure they obviously know these other races exist but still, if you'd never seen one before it could be a bit shocking.
The giant thing is a glitch based on how Skyrim calculates damage. Just as in Oblivion, any blow that kills an actor (You or an NPC or an animal) has damage that goes to waste, because it is "overkill" damage: That is, it is more damage than is required to bring the health bar down to zero. What Oblivion and Skyrim do is that for certain attacks (arrows, some melee blows, projectile spells), the left over damage is converted into momentum. That's why when you shoot someone with an arrow, one of two things happens: If they aren't killed by the arrow, they don't recoil (or, in Skyrim, they might stagger), but if the arrow kills them, they tend to go flying (This was REALLY noticable in Oblivion, where an arrow shot from sneaking would send an NPC flying across the room)! The thing with the giant club is that the smash attack does SO MUCH damage that the amount of damage converted into momentum is just absolutely MASSIVE. It only does the "Send you flying" animation because when you die, the game generally waits till your body stops moving to reload, and the momentum is directed upward, so you're flying for a while. Bethesda has actually said that the reason they left that glitch in the game after it was discovered is because it is funny.
Your list is awesome, but I have two things to point out. For 3., this could cause a problem with people who don't want to level Speech, though I agree, there definitely needs to be more opportunities to level it; as it is, you only have two options: power-level, or have saintly amounts of patience.
Regarding 4., I think that's an awesome idea, but with a caveat; maybe essential NPCs are harder to kill, so that you know that they're essential before you strike the killing blow; for example, they take a knee, get back up with full health, rather than a little, like other NPCs do, and then they take a knee a second time, and they're vulnerable to the killing blow.
Regarding 12 and 13, I'm pretty sure that those were deliberate story decisions, rather than gameplay ones, and I like them. While it does make the Civil War questline rather hard to stomach, it gives the game more flavor. Cyrodiil, we've been told, is a cosmopolitan province, and that makes sense, since it is in the center and home to the capital of the Empire. If Cyrodiil is more cosmopolitan, than the other provinces have to be less accepting of outsiders, by the same token; not necessarily bigoted, but less accepting than Cyrodiil. Don't forget, too, that the Nords have a long history of wars and betrayals with outsiders, and it is in the midst of a civil war; those two things don't breed acceptance. The bigotry is realistic. Of course Nords hate the elves: They just got done fighting a massive war with them. Their reasons for hating the Dunmer are less clear cut, but if anything, I felt that Altmer and Bosmer players should experience more racism.
13. I would have loved a more charismatic Ulfric, but most wars aren't "one side good, one side evil". If that was the case, very, very few people would join the "evil" side, and wars would be short and quick. The reason we see so many wars as "good vs. evil" is because, well, the winners tend to write the history books.
Yes, but with a heavy penalty to every race but the Argonians. Seriously, ever tried to fight underwater? Anything physical would have its effectiveness almost halved, and archery would be completely unusable, since bows do NOT work when wet (The bowstrings cease to work properly). Compound bows (Not featured in the game, but still something to note) actually fall apart!