How should the next Elder Scrolls Game be handled?

[trophykiller]

However they do it I just want to fight the Thalmor, those high elves only won the war because I wasn't there. Yes I am racist against elves.

Agreed. Literally every battle I fought in that game revolved around me. Every other soldier was useless. Makes you wonder why whichever side you were on couldn't just realize "oh, the dragonborn is invincible" and throw you at the enemy heartland like a pyro on an anthill.

As for the OP, I would like someone who could fight daedra lords successfully. Just don't kill sheogorath, I love that guy.

 

[BakaSmurf]

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This is incorrect on so many levels
1. The Aedra don't give two flying fucks about the technological level of the races.
2. The Dwemer wiped themselves out when they merged their souls into the giant robot Numdium, the Aedra had no part in their disappearance.
3. The other civilizations are actually studying Dwemer tech and trying to remake it, they just suck at it, nothing "scared them off" of technological development.

I don't remember ever coming across this information, was this revealed pre-Morrowind? 'Cause I've played neither Arena nor Daggerfall.

Going to click around and see if you're right about that, because I remember the Aedra being implicated in the disappearance of the Dwemer at one point, can't quite recall where though.

 

[Longstreet]

On the guild part, mostly because it makes no sense at all. One guy to rule ALL guilds? it been a while since i played it but from what i recall the companions and the thieves guild were not exactly best buds.

In one way you are wrong though. for the crown of benezia(?) quest you NEED to join the thieves guild to finish it

To become a werewolf you NEED to join the companions.

But logically you shouldnt even be ABLE to join every guild.


On the mariage part, it is fun if you want to use it, i guess, but the benefits are so low. If you are a werewolf you wont have the bonus as far as i recall. And each time i need a rest i wont fast travel home just for a nap and cash, ill press the wait button. In my case the skills went up fast enough along with the pace of the story for me to able to take on every enemy. Hell i think the only stone i ever touched was the thieve stone in the beginnen to get my thievy skills up even quicker.

-The Companions and The Thieves Guild are neutral to each other, furthermore, The Companions wouldn't know you are in the thieves guild so they have no reason to not let you in.
-You don't have to do the Crown quest, and in fact, you dont have to do ANY quests in the game except the one were you escape from Helgan, so again, no one is making you join a guild for any quest.
-You don't have to become a werewolf though, it is entirely your choice or not.
-Actually, logically, you should.
--The Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood is a rather secret organization and would LOVE to gt their hands on a higher ranking member of any other guild so they can use them to get the other guilds to secretly do what they want.
--the Fighters guild and mages guild are neutral to each other have wouldn't know you are in the evil guilds so they have no reason to not let you in.
There is literally no logical justification for any of the guilds to deny you membership based on what other guilds you are currently in.

So the factions dont know that you are in every faction out there, but EVERY. SINGLE. other npc (mainly guards because they wont shut up about it) do?

Logically speaking yes you should be able to join the thieves / assassins, both 'evil' factions. But not also the companions and mage guild. since these are, relatively, good.

The being able to influence other factions by the DBH/TG is a nice thought, buuuuuuut you cant do it.

Also, a heavy armored battle axe wielding nord, with all the lowest levels in magic, become headmage of the mage guild is a bit of a strech

 

[ffs-dontcare]

Some good ideas in this thread.

Personally, I'd like to see:
- The Thalmor having a presence.
- Keeping the Skyrim class-less system so that I can evolve my own play-style instead of feeling like I'm trapped in the class I chose at the beginning of the game.
- A better engine.
- Tied with above, better aesthetics! Skyrim just looked so bland, mods really fixed it for me. Thank goodness for mods.
- Spell creation if possible. There are SO MANY POSSIBILITIES. Skyrim's enchanting system could be a good inspiration for how the spell creation system works in the next ES game. I like the idea of creating customizable runes.
- Keep Athletics/Acrobatics separate from the leveling system. Let those two skills grow the more you use them, but don't have them give you leveling experience. Logically, players who enjoy an agile class of play (ranged combat, stealth, etc) would benefit more from Athletics/Acrobatics than someone who walks into a crowded yard encased in heavy armor and brandishing a giant axe. He doesn't need to run around, and it's not like he can anyway.
- More variety in dungeons. I didn't like how all of Skyrim's were basically chosen from, what, four or five different aesthetic templates (cave, ice cave, castle keep, burial dungeon, really long and boring dwemer city). It got boring after a while.
- More weapon varieties. Without getting too far into the future in terms of technology, I would like to see rifles that operate in the same way crossbows did in Dawnguard, pistols, spears and glaives, throwing knives/axes, etc.

Not so important:
- You don't start out as a prisoner. I know it's a tradition but maybe you could try to change it up a little bit? Maybe have it so that, for example, you're trapped in a boring political-type meeting that you can't really get out of (or whatever other ways you can be a "prisoner" of sorts) when the crap hits the fan. Said political meeting might also serve as your character creation sequence.
- Or perhaps the character creation sequence can take place during your mandatory escape-from-whatever-gets-in-the-way-of-you-being-a-prisoner in the beginning of the game. Be creative, developers!

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

They should leave Tamriel end explore Akavir! For the love of all you might hold sacred Bethesda, show us Akavir!

 

[SajuukKhar]

I don't remember ever coming across this information, was this revealed pre-Morrowind? 'Cause I've played neither Arena nor Daggerfall.

Going to click around and see if you're right about that, because I remember the Aedra being implicated in the disappearance of the Dwemer at one point, can't quite recall where though.

It was post-Morrowind actually, Bethesda did an interview called called The Skeleton Man's Interview with Denizens of Tamriel with the website Hall of Adventurers.

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/interviews-skeleton-man

"Ah. I will tell you the truth, because you will believe none of it. The Brass God is Anumidum, the Prime Gestalt. He is also called the divine skin. He was meant to be used many times by our kind to transcend the Gray Maybe.

The first to see him was the Shop Foremer, Kagrenac of Vvardenfell, the wisest of the tonal architects [Mechanists - MN] Do not think as others do that Kagrenac created the Anumidum for petty motivations, such as a refutation of the gods. Kagrenac was devoted to his people, and the Dwarves, despite what you may have read, were a pious lot-he would not have sacrificed so many of their golden souls to create Anumidum's metal body if it were all in the name of grand theater. Kagrenac had even built the tools needed to construct a Mantella, the Crux of Transcendence. But, by then, and for a long time coming, the Doom of the Dwarves marched upon the Mountain and they were removed from this world."

It was later confirmed to be true by Elder Scrolls series lore writer Micheal Kirkbride, also known as MK on the official Bethesda forums.
http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/482103-made-up-word-round-up/page__p__6918676#entry6918676

"Kagrenac was devoted to his people, and the Dwarves, despite what you may have read, were a pious lot-he would not have sacrificed so many of their golden souls to create Anumidum's metal body if it were all in the name of grand theater. Kagrenac had even built the tools needed to construct a Mantella, the Crux of Transcendence."

Okay. So now everyone can stop posting about where the Dwarves went. I TOLD YOU EIGHTY YEARS AGO.

Filthy with it, I am.

The entierty of the Dwemer race had their souls meged into the body of their giant god-robot Numidum in an attempt to escape the mortal realm, they managed to achieve fusing themselves but Numidium didn't activate and ascend mortality.

So the factions dont know that you are in every faction out there, but EVERY. SINGLE. other npc (mainly guards because they wont shut up about it) do?

Logically speaking yes you should be able to join the thieves / assassins, both 'evil' factions. But not also the companions and mage guild. since these are, relatively, good.

The being able to influence other factions by the DBH/TG is a nice thought, buuuuuuut you cant do it.

Also, a heavy armored battle axe wielding nord, with all the lowest levels in magic, become headmage of the mage guild is a bit of a strech

Technically, zero NPCs out of a very select few guards who are in the Dark brotherhood also know you are in the Dark Brotherhood, there are "rumors" but rumors don't prove anything.

Also, technically, neither the Thieves guild or the DB are "Evil".
-The Thieves Guild was actually permitted to exist by The Emperors of Tamriel because they have a no killing law, and because they kill off other, more violent thief organizations.
-The Dark Brotherhood on the other hand is considered a necessary political balancer.
None of the guilds in the elder scrolls are written out to be "evil" just chaotic neutral.

Just because you cant do it in game doesnt mean you dont do it in lore

A game series where the main characters have the ability to pause time at a whim, bring themselves back to life from death, and rewrite the entirety of the games world at a whim is a bit of a stretch also. The entire Elder Scrolls series is based around you, the main character, being god who is able to do anything he wants. There is no stretching a games logic when the game has literally written loading save games, and the modding tools into its very lore.

They should leave Tamriel end explore Akavir! For the love of all you might hold sacred Bethesda, show us Akavir!

Bethesda said in the past they will never do Akavir, or any of the other landmasses besides Tamriel, because they are not important.

Tamriel is the only place on Nirn that matters, it is where Akatosh landed in his divine ship, it was where Lorkhan was unmade, and it is where the final Battle between the gods will happen.

All other life on Nirn has tried to invade Tamriel because they know tamriel is the only important place on the world.

 

[BakaSmurf]

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Interesting, I wouldn't have known about this had you not called it to my attention, now I can stop inadvertently spreading misinformation, thanks.

 

[jamesbrown]

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it should have to do with something meaningful to the world, I mean in the games it seems like your just fixing history or whatever problem is happening, the world should advance somehow; and the character is a major component to it; they've already tread those roads. Make something new and different for A SEQUEL; like you are the person who has been chosen to advance the world by the gods, you're an unknown, but alter things from behind the scenes, and over the course of the game the world would change as you do and alter more and more things.
THAT would be interesting, not some loophole that only fans whom have been playing since the early games would get

As an end-note: Saving the world is meaningless if it doesn't do anything; you want the world to advance; I mean they have been in the middle ages for 4.4 thousand years; that is literally the time from the bronze age to today; the games themselves span over 1000 years; and what has changed, only the political situation, not even in a meaningful way; just kings taking power and clans fighting; I don't want more of the same, if I do I will just replay Skyrim with enhancement mods, and not waste 60$

The major civilizations of the Elder Scrolls have yet to move past medieval-era tech because they can't, the Aedra literally take technological advancement as an enormous challenge/insult to their power and wiped out the Dwemer for having the gall reach steam punk levels of technology. Or that's what they believe, anyway. The disappearance of the Dwemer as a whole can't be properly explained, even by that lone surviving fellow in Morrowind. Regardless, the possibility of the presented scenario being true scared the other civs so bad that they just decided to not risk it.

That aside, allow me to pose to you a question; why would one bother with learning how to handle black powder, machine rifles, and operate the resulting guns, when literally anyone can learn how to throw fireballs with their MIND? The Fable series handled this question well, in my opinion, technology didn't really begin to pick up and advance until after magic began to fade from the world and became exceedingly rare because as long as magic is a common thing nobody needs to learn how to build guns (because FIREBALLS) or advanced construction equipment (because telekinesis), etc.

True dat, but still; it was shown in skyrim; esp. if you played through the winterhold arc you learn some surprising things about magic in the elder scrolls. First is that a large number of people distrust magic (unless thier reiligon has anything to do with it), and most people can't do magic (there are less and less people doing magic in every successive game), which is partically why (in my opinon) that the wizards guild fell and they had to become more inclusive of all wizards. Plus most people are upset with thier lives; so what if someone actually made something amazing; and people started to see that as a way out. If an really powerful being; or someone rose to be incribly powerful (Protagnaist anyone?); suddenly took hold of that tension and used it against the Aedra. You could have an civil war of gods on your hands, with some coming to your side of course. And you would be the one at the forefront of this massive war. Talk about using modern day graphics to your advantage, That would be an epic worth 60$.

 

[SajuukKhar]

True dat, but still; it was shown in skyrim; esp. if you played through the winterhold arc you learn some surprising things about magic in the elder scrolls. First is that a large number of people distrust magic (unless thier reiligon has anything to do with it), and most people can't do magic (there are less and less people doing magic in every successive game), which is partically why (in my opinon) that the wizards guild fell and they had to become more inclusive of all wizards. Plus most people are upset with thier lives; so what if someone actually made something amazing; and people started to see that as a way out. If an really powerful being; or someone rose to be incribly powerful (Protagnaist anyone?); suddenly took hold of that tension and used it against the Aedra. You could have an civil war of gods on your hands, with some coming to your side of course. And you would be the one at the forefront of this massive war. Talk about using modern day graphics to your advantage, That would be an epic worth 60$.

Actually Nords distrust magic, most other people don't.

The reason why there are less people doing magic every game is because of where the games are set.

-Morrowind is often consdiered THE most magical place on Tamriel and thus has a high level of magic users.
-Cyrodiil is less magical, though the head branch of the mage college being thee does keep a higher level of magic users around.
-Skyrim is full of Nords who hate magic because of their ancestral hatred of elves.
The diminishing appearance of magic is solely based on geography of the the games, and not an overall trend of people in Tamriel.

Also where the Mage's College fell two other organizations, the College of Whispers, and the Synod, took its place, both of which are quite powerful.

furthermore you cant start a war against the gods because the main characters of every game are avatars of Lorkhan/akatosh, you ARE a god incarnate.

 

[jackinmydaniels]

I don't want another dragonborn, but I think you could fix the 'no more dragons' thing if you add more giant monster types. Dragons were cool giant boss battles for a while, but I think they should take a page from Dragon's Dogma and come up with more giant monsters to run into out into the wild, other than that, more weapon types, and deepen the magic system.

 

[randomsix]

It should be more handcrafted. In morrowind there was a daedra ruin with no entrance. Nearby there was a burial tomb. You go inside and see that atronarchs have tunneled through the walls from the daedric ruin. You go in, through some caves, and finally get to a ruin which has begun to flood. You traverse the ruin until you finally come upon a room with a pool of lava with a structure built around it. You climb the skeleton of the structure to find a chest floating above the lava. Inside the chest is a legendary hammer, one of the items in the book of Tamrielic Lore.

And you just stumble upon this ish.

 

[SajuukKhar]

It should be more handcrafted. In morrowind there was a daedra ruin with no entrance. Nearby there was a burial tomb. You go inside and see that atronarchs have tunneled through the walls from the daedric ruin. You go in, through some caves, and finally get to a ruin which has begun to flood. You traverse the ruin until you finally come upon a room with a pool of lava with a structure built around it. You climb the skeleton of the structure to find a chest floating above the lava. Inside the chest is a legendary hammer, one of the items in the book of Tamrielic Lore.

And you just stumble upon this ish.

Actually you are told to go there for a quest.

 

[demoman_chaos]

For those that don't know, using a hand axe isn't that different than using a sword. There are quite a few overlaps between using a greatsword and using a dane axe. So the 1-Handed and 2-Handed setup is more true to life than using a 1 handed swords also letting you use a 2 handed one easier.

The combat NEEDS overhauled. I would LOVE a system more like Mount&Blade in the sense that fighting skill can overcome statistical skill. The only melee style that requires any amount of real skill is good old sword and board, but even then it is limited to using shield bashes. The others are just using power attacks on the right goons and flailing on the left ones.

Sneaking needs a lot of work. With low stats, sneaking slowly through the shadows often doesn't work. With high stats, you can be crouched in broad daylight nose-to-dick with someone and they won't notice even after you slap their willy with a giant warhammer.

Dragons could fit into other games, but preferably only as a big boss of some sort. Having them pop up randomly to annoy the piss out of you is not fun. After 4 or 5 dragons, I was bored with it and spent most of the time saying, "Okay, hurry up and land so I can get this over with."

 

[SajuukKhar]

Dragons could fit into other games, but preferably only as a big boss of some sort. Having them pop up randomly to annoy the piss out of you is not fun. After 4 or 5 dragons, I was bored with it and spent most of the time saying, "Okay, hurry up and land so I can get this over with."

With the Death of Alduin Epoch-Eater the dragons lost the one way they can come back to life after being killed.

Now anyone can kill a Dragon and it will stay dead, I expect the Dragon population to thin back out over time.

 

[randomsix]

It should be more handcrafted. In morrowind there was a daedra ruin with no entrance. Nearby there was a burial tomb. You go inside and see that atronarchs have tunneled through the walls from the daedric ruin. You go in, through some caves, and finally get to a ruin which has begun to flood. You traverse the ruin until you finally come upon a room with a pool of lava with a structure built around it. You climb the skeleton of the structure to find a chest floating above the lava. Inside the chest is a legendary hammer, one of the items in the book of Tamrielic Lore.

And you just stumble upon this ish.

Actually you are told to go there for a quest.

True. I actually looked this up for that post. Nonetheless, I had done three playthroughs before I even touched the Imperial Legion. Even then, I never went so far (as to even want go look more like) as to get this quest.

 

[SajuukKhar]

True. I actually looked this up for that post. Nonetheless, I had done three playthroughs before I even touched the Imperial Legion. Even then, I never went so far (as to even want go look more like) as to get this quest.

I've found plenty of caves/ruins in Skyrim that have similar experiences of finding some item in an odd place you would never expect to.

I remember the Lairs retreat, a place in the middle of nowhere that has the door of a keep built into a mountainside and when you get in there it turns out to be a bar run by bandits but the bandits have been overrun by Falmer from a cave passage that existed behind one of the walls, and after fighting through the Falmer, and reaching the deepest part of the cave you find the barkeep Rahd and his unique weapon, the Longhammer, on an alter at the very end.

Or the maze in Labrythian where, once completed, causes you to teleport to this odd realm and fight a Dremora who has a unique circlet.

 

[The_Lost_King]

The next Elder Scrolls game will be the Elder Scrolls MMO.
I would handle it by cancelling it.

Hopefully it won't be an MMO.

*gets caught up on semi-recent news*

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

Ahem.

There will be more TES games other than the mmo(can't say that much about KotOR :_( ). Plus Bethesda aren't even doing the MMO. They are only helping with the lore and that is it. Oh and it isn't even close to being semi-recent. We learned about this months ago.

OT: I don't care about shouts. They were just fancy spells. Now what I want is to get spell creation back. I don't understand why they didn't have it in the first place. That is what ruined destruction magic. Also I want spears because spear men were the most common soldiers in medieval times so why should they not even be somewhat common in Tamriel. Also theey need to bring back whoever did Oblivion's quests back because they were much better than Skyrim's quests, well they were more varied and interesting. Oh and I like the idea of having skill limits on guild ranks. Why would a warrior who uses no spells what-so-ever be the archmage. Oh and make it so you aren't always the leader. It didn't even make sense in Companions or the College of Winterhold! I mean what qualified me to be Harbinger?! Vilkas should have been Harbinger! What did I do in the College that qualified me to be archmage?! Sure I saved the world but that deserves a slap on the back and a metal, not an archmage position. If a hero helps save the realm you give him a lordship you do not make him king.

 

[SajuukKhar]

OT: I don't care about shouts. They were just fancy spells. Now what I want is to get spell creation back. I don't understand why they didn't have it in the first place.

Because all people did with it in Morrowind and Oblivion was create terribly high damage/low cost spells that broke the game. It was the singular most unbalanced feature of the game, and they removed it to impose even the slighest bit of balance back into the game.

Oh and I like the idea of having skill limits on guild ranks.

those were removed because people in Morrowind found ways to get tons of cash and just paid trainers to raise up their levels, they didn't know any spells, nor did they ever use their magical skills.

Skill levels requirements on guilds were removed because they did absolutely nothing, and didn't prevent warriors from become the leader of the Mages Guild or the thieves guild, and vice versa.

Putting up arbitrary barriers like that only causes people to find ways around them and break them, its pointless to spend time making a feature no one will ever use properly and just exploit around.

Oh and make it so you aren't always the leader. It didn't even make sense in Companions or the College of Winterhold! I mean what qualified me to be Harbinger?! Vilkas should have been Harbinger! What did I do in the College that qualified me to be archmage?! Sure I saved the world but that deserves a slap on the back and a metal, not an archmage position. If a hero helps save the realm you give him a lordship you do not make him king.

Actually many real life Kings became so because they conquered some army or drove off some invader, saving the day did cause someone to become King in many cases throughout recorded history.

 

[The_Lost_King]

OT: I don't care about shouts. They were just fancy spells. Now what I want is to get spell creation back. I don't understand why they didn't have it in the first place.

Because all people did with it in Morrowind and Oblivion was create terribly high damage/low cost spells that broke the game. It was the singular most unbalanced feature of the game, and they removed it to impose even the slighest bit of balance back into the game.

What does it matter if someone breaks their game? If they want to break their game they are going to do that. That is a stupid reason to get rid of something in a single player game. Especially because there is no balance in Skyrim what so fucking ever

Oh and I like the idea of having skill limits on guild ranks.

those were removed because people in Morrowind found ways to get tons of cash and just paid trainers to raise up their levels, they didn't know any spells, nor did they ever use their magical skills.


Skill levels requirements on guilds were removed because they did absolutely nothing, and didn't prevent warriors from become the leader of the Mages Guild or the thieves guild, and vice versa.


Putting up arbitrary barriers like that only causes people to find ways around them and break them, its pointless to spend time making a feature no one will ever use properly and just exploit around.

Once again people will break the game and find workarounds if they want to. It at least put a deterent for players that wanted some semblance of realism.

Oh and make it so you aren't always the leader. It didn't even make sense in Companions or the College of Winterhold! I mean what qualified me to be Harbinger?! Vilkas should have been Harbinger! What did I do in the College that qualified me to be archmage?! Sure I saved the world but that deserves a slap on the back and a metal, not an archmage position. If a hero helps save the realm you give him a lordship you do not make him king.

Actually many real life Kings became so because they conquered some army or drove off some invader, saving the day did cause someone to become King in many cases throughout recorded history.

[/quote]
Ok my example sucked. Helping save a nation can show that you actually care for your country and have the ability to rule it. All you showed by saving the world in the College is that you are a brave and valiant person, it does not show that you are the best mage in the College. Say a dumb brute warrior saves an academy of smartness. You thank him give him some medals but you do not make him in charge because there are people who are much more capable.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

What I'd really want is a really small tweak. I'm no locksmith, but I do know that lockpicks aren't designed to just flat-out break when you mess up. I'd rather risk breaking the lock than my tools. It feels more appropriate than having my sneak-thief carry some sort of humongous key ring around that has, like, sixty lockpicks tied to it.

The vanilla mechanic worked for Fallout 3 and New Vegas, seeing as we're talking about modern locks being tampered with by a bobby pin and a screwdriver.

I'd also like social interactions to be more meaningful. It wouldn't mean much, overall. Give me the option to hug my spouse in third-person or a tasteful fade to black when, Speech check pending, he or she agrees to get it on. Give me a sense that these people actually do love me.

The AI does need a rework, though. Rawne definitely has a point.