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Anyone familiar with Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and its upcoming sequel Shadow of War should know what the Nemesis system is, where randomly-generated NPCs are given different ranks, abilities, attributes, and personalities to set them apart from each other, and the game actually tracks these NPCs and their progress so that they don't just disappear after a while, and remember you if you met them previously.

Well, Arena and Daggerfall had countless randomly-generated NPCs populate dungeons, settlements, etc. with their own given names instead of just being called "Villager" "Sentinel citizen", etc.

So what if TES VI did something like that, instead of just relying on either a handful of unique citizens or faceless masses with no names?

Think about it: You go into a town, and there are countless people walking around the streets. Then you go into a shop, and kill the owner. Then a few days later, a randomly-generated NPC of whatever race the game chooses takes the first shopkeeper's place, allowing you to still conduct business there instead of it being empty for all eternity. Except now the replacement shopkeeper has a different inventory than what the previous one had, with different prices and a different disposition towards you.

Or you get a bounty, and you're arrested by a guard you previously resisted, and he remembers what crime you commited, and would know how dangerous you were. If you're a small-time offender, he'd try to subdue you. If you're a mass murderer, he'd call more guards to fight you.

Get what I'm saying? As much as I'd like to turn whatever province I'm in into a lifeless wasteland, it does seem a little silly when a major city can be so easily purged of everyone but the infinite guards. Small settlements could have a fixed number of hand-made NPCs, but major cities should have randomly-generated masses aside from anyone that's relevant to a major questline.

It is an interesting idea and I would like to see things like reputation and how you interact with the world impact how people deal with you in general. It wasn't great how it was implemented in Morrowind, but I do like the idea of what factions you are part of impacting what members of other factions think of you. Personally I'd like to see a Disposition system similar to Pillars of Eternity where how you generally treat people builds up a reputation for your character and the assumptions people might have about you when you first meet (so if you're really Benevolent some people might like you more, but others could assume you're naive or that you don't need a reward when you help them.) And it would make for an interesting random encounter with an NPC trying to avenge the death of a family member you murdered. Although hopefully better than Skyrim where my neighbour hired a mercenary to kill me because I read their books without their permission.

Unfortunately a problem with the Nemesis system in particular and how you'd adapt it to TES is that unlike in Shadow of Mordor where dying is an event that happens in universe so the NPC who kills you remembers you and you them, dying in TES just makes you reload the game. While from what I understand this is the case in ESO, I can't see death and resurrection as common occurrence happening with the protagonist of TES 6. As such I'd say the vast, vast majority of fights in TES end with either you dying and reloading or you killing all the enemies that are there. It's very rare that you flee a fight you can't beat (unless you're under leveled or playing with permadeath) or enemies you are fighting escape. As such a key appeal of the Nemesis system of creating rivalries with enemies either wouldn't exist or may as well not exist because of how rarely it comes up.

Well, maybe we could get a TES game where you play as a Daedra, such as a Dremora/Golden Saint/Dark Seducer. They tend to come back after their bodies are destroyed, though it's never clear how long it takes for that to happen. They should've had that happen in the Shivering Isles expansion of Oblivion, after you become Sheogorath, instead of only doing it on command when you're in in the Shivering Isles.