I want the Thu'um to replace the Nordic Battle Cry. It's a symbol of Nordic history and power. As a racial power, I'm OK with it being used only once per day.
It seems kinda strange to introduce something central to the game, and not have it appear in the next one. But hey, I'm not a game developer. I'm just a fan.
Bethesda has time and time again stated that they intend, and have, to make each game totally separate in terms of original approach. The Thu'um will most likely not be featured at all in the next game as it would diminish Skyrim if they were to do that. Battle Cry is a "tip of the hat" to shouting powers anyway.
No way can I pick just one!
But honestly, I think they need to bring back character attributes, birth signs, and classes. It just felt so cool to specialize a character and "know" who you character was set out to be, but could potentially branch out of the class if need be.
There is a slight downside to this sometimes, as pointed out in that Morrowind fan video thing, that this kind of specialization would take away from some freedoms. I just prefer to go all in on a character and if I wanted a different play style, I would make a new character, not just "LULZ reset!!" all of my perks.
While we all know that the canon Dragonborn is not necessarily a nord; I really do like the idea of the thu'um replacing nord racial power in TES' next installment.
I would like to see a bit of customization in the racial powers of all the races. In the case of Nord perhaps one choice of three shouts or similar.
Having the Nerevarine, Hero of Kvatch, Dragonborn, or other playable lore characters appear outside of their game, when you're not controlling them, ruins the point of them. In lore or stores there is enough vagueness to account for your individual actions as them. But when they appear and you can see they don't have the scar you got fighting that troll or learn that their version actually turned Saadia in instead of freeing her that immersion is shattered and players realize, disapointed, that it's only a game.
The player characters are specifically designed in the lore to only really matter in their time, in their specific province. Changing that would ruin that.
That said, I'd love to see a Dragonborn emperor in Cyrodiil.
I just though of somethings. How about real time bruises, cuts, and optional long-term scarring where that appear as a direct result of enemy attacks. It doesn't have to do ultra-realistic annoying mechanics like broken bones or bleeding to death, but just the visual responsiveness would be cool. Plus you'd feel like a badass when, after a battle, you walk into town and people are afraid of your bloodied form.
I would also like small trees, bushes, and grasses to be able to be cut, burned, and trampled. A realistic ecosystem simulation would be really cool in combination with this, where if you burn a lot of grass maybe one less mammoth than usual spawns and if you killed a few mammoths more wolves and rabbits spawn, etc.
There are a lot of features I would like to see that have already been mentioned, but one feature that I would like to be improved is the Illusion school of magic. In every TES game I've played, it has this weird tendency to be OP in some situations and useless in others, mostly due to the way the spells are restricted based on enemy levels. Rather than the black-and-white yes/no system (either the enemy is vulnerable to the illusion spell or it isn't) I'd rather it be set up so that weaker enemies could be easily manipulated, whereas stronger enemies would be resistant to it. So maybe against a boss mob, you could fury it, but the spell would wear off prematurely, maybe after 5-10 seconds as opposed to the usual 30-60.
Also I wouldn't mind it if they toned down the stealthy aspects of it, it's so ridiculously OP when combined with sneak that it ruins the game. Maybe ditch invisibility but bring back chameleon, but with a 50% or so cap in place. Just a thought, Illusion seems so cool conceptually but the reality always seems to fall flat, either due to uselessness vs. certain mobs or extreme OP'ness in certain situations.
Equipment maintenance to come back. Presto, another way to help level smithing without grinding if you like.
More incentive to use Food/Cooking - be that survival requirements or better bonuses from cooking. have never used it because it seems worthless and extra weight to me.
more effort on the part of a more indepth environment. "Filler" NPC's with only one topic to discuss and only 1 line of dialogue may as well not even be there. lets have more factions, and dispositions you have to work at to maintain/improve. Make speechcraft have a purpose other than buy/sell/very rare persuasion check.
Keep the house building - but don't turn it into a pay for it DLC. Hearthfire was a bit cheeky IMO, perhaps not as bad as oblivions horse armour but it should have been included in the base game.
Better horse combat. Give me a reason to want to use horses. make them faster and more nimble, skyrims horses seem like driving a four legged forklift.
Magic Damage to be balanced out a bit more to keep it effective at higher levels.
Mai'q.
With Elder Scrolls incorporating more and more puzzles and Zelda going open world we're approaching the Legend of the Zelder Scrolls singularity. This is an absolute good.
I want ES combat to feel less static & number-based and more fast paced, fun, and balanced. I wonder if they can manage that with the current breadth of options.