On map design... take a page from TES4:O on that subject. Big world, freely explorable, dungeons everywhere, quests scattered around, multiple towns, scaled monsters to your level, respawning loot and regions repopulated with monsters after a while... I'm not too crazy about the interface / combat system / character development of that game, but just love the game world structure.
As for non-combat skills, I'd really like the idea of being able to improve equipment as you go, so if you like the look of a certain armor / weapon you can keep it for more than a couple of levels without nerfing your character...
On map design... take a page from TES4:O on that subject. Big world, freely explorable, dungeons everywhere, quests scattered around, multiple towns, scaled monsters to your level, respawning loot and regions repopulated with monsters after a while... I'm not too crazy about the interface / combat system / character development of that game, but just love the game world structure.
As for non-combat skills, I'd really like the idea of being able to improve equipment as you go, so if you like the look of a certain armor / weapon you can keep it for more than a couple of levels without nerfing your character...