More side activities

[Temnik0v]

Here's a list of my suggestions:

1) Feasts with challenges (throwing knives at pots or shooting bow for a prize); --- something like in training grounds but while being at festivals in towns.
2) fist brawls 1vs1; (same mechanic as arena tournament, but in villages - and works only at night)
3) massive fist brawls in villages for fun;
4) horse racing;
5) hunting (on battle maps, but with sneaking and animals);
6) fishing;
7) treasure hunting (pieces of map to collect or random maps with random locations);
thievery; (in dialogue or with holding F in towns or villages at night time)
9) headhunting (some kind of board of bounty in city menu or in city itself).

 

[Heafodban]

For sure. Players need side activities to break up and accentuate the action. Here are some other random ideas:
10) alchemy (gather plants, make salves and such with minor bonsues)
11) player-owned library and books that are collectible and readable (deepens lore and serves as a collectables mechanic)
12) customisable manors
13) unique item sets (maybe the pieces are hidden around the world)
14) ways to expand banner options (buy rare dyes from certain merchants, and such)
15) discoverable landmarks (one could have a tattoo-giving NPC in the far southeast, another could have a piece of a unique item set)
16) random encounters (like in Fallout 1 and 2 but without any zany encounters)
It almost doesn't even matter what the side content is so long as it can mix things up. Sometimes players find a way to make their own fun from this stuff. For example, I'm planning on making a Morrowind character just to read all those lore books I largely ignored. It gives me an excuse to play the game again.