The Next Elder Scrolls Game, what should it have

[Therumancer]

Hmmm, well I'd like to see more skills returned to the game along with increased complexity. Bring back things like the "spell maker" and encourage it's use, ditto for custom crafted items. Have say long blades and short blade be separate skills again, perhaps even put language skills in the game and make it so the character needs to know certain languages to talk to certain NPCs, or at least gets a more positive reaction if they can speak a native language.

I'd like to see the next game set in Sumerset Isle or Valenwood, something a little more traditional and perhaps picking up the developing storyline by showing things from the perspective of the elven races for a change to add a little more depth to the game. Likewise if they went in the right direction Black Marsh, the home of the Argonians could be interested, dark swamps with lovecraftian monstrosities lurking in the depths...

I also think the game could use a large bestiary of monsters, one problem with Elder Scrolls games is that there never seems to be much variety, you just keep fighting various combinations of the same very limited collection of monsters... or of course bandits and other humans.

I'll also say that while multiplayer should be avoided, some community features might be interesting. I liked the way they did the "Pawn" system in "Dragon's Dogma" for example and it would be nice to build and lead your own party of adventurers the same way, especially if the AI could be improved greatly from either DD or Elder Scrolls. As annoying as it was to hear repetitive dialogue, I had more fun with my band of pawns in Dragon's Dogma than I ever did with one of the NPC henchmen in Elder Scrolls.

More factions would also be nice. It seems like we get less and less of them every game. I remember when there were things like Orders of Knighthood and the like in Daggerfall if I remember. It would be nice to say have multiple options for different kinds of characters even if you have to choose between them. For example if I want get get the most out of an assassin/quick kill character I'm pretty much encouraged to join "The Dark Brotherhood" and as the name implies they tend to be a group of evil twits. I have some serious issues when a game pretty much exudes heroic fantasy but then the needs of character advancement and the achievements pretty much direct me to basically be the most vile person you can think of with no other real solution. Basically in playing Skyrim if you don't want to gimp your character and it's options and work towards your achievements your pretty much encouraged to say... lure poor schlubs to a cave to be devoured by you and some other cannibals. I guess the point here is that at the very least there should be some alternatives to the Daedric relics and such for people who don't want to be complete jerks, and say perhaps some kind of stealth faction for someone who doesn't want to be a thief or assassin (as odd as that sounds... maybe like some kind of agent for the crown or whatever). It gets even worse in Skyrim when joining the equivalent of the fighter's guild pretty much entails lycanthropy (even if you can cure it later)... you know that kind of thing. In particular I guess part of it is that I'd like to see some top end rewards for being a good guy and a hero, rather than pretty much being showered with power and benefits for being an evil twit, which usually seems to come with no real downside.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

1. More life to the NPCs. Skyrim was an improvement over the fucking lifeless people in Oblivion, so much is true, but it still doesn't feel quite like a real, living world yet. The first game in the Gothic series accomplished this back in 2001, I fail to see why it's taking Bethesda this long to get NPCs to feel like living people doing real things.

2. Fewer yet larger cities. Only a couple of the cities in Skyrim actually felt big, and even then, they were glorified towns with some fortifications. With the advancements in technology, I was hoping every city would be to the level of detail and largeness of Oblivion's Imperial City, but alas. Maybe if they had a game focus around only 3 or 4 cities, but made them large and detailed, it would feel better. A major problem every game since Morrowind has had is its feeling of scale. You never feel like you're in a large world because the places are so damn small.

3. A more complex combat system. I understand The Elder Scrolls is rather casual, but surely it can afford to have a combat system with a little more depth than just hack and slash. Maybe some inspiration by games such as Mount & Blade, Chivalry and the upcoming Kingdom Come: Deliverance would enhance an Elder Scrolls game nicely.

4. Less linear quests. The Elder Scrolls games are very open in everything except quests, which are about as straight forward and inconsequential as you can get. They really need to throw on some polish and depth to the questing system here. Skyrim had one of the few regressions from Oblivion in this regard. Oblivion's quests were still linear, mind, but at least they were interesting.

5. More logical enemy placement. It has never made sense that there are hundreds of bandits in the world, yet only dozens of people living in the cities. Again, it's a problem with scale. Less focus on the same enemies over and over would be a plus. Get some variety going, have a large plethora of interesting animals and creatures and when you do put in some bandits, at least make their placement logical. In Skyrim, there are several bandit locations right on well-traveled roads and I don't mean ambushes but actual camps and forts on established highways connecting cities. Come on, now.

6. Unpredictable enemies. Have some enemies leave their spawn points for reasons unknown, have them wander around. If there is a bandit camp somewhere, have them send out small patrols to make sure the area is clear, or send out raiding parties to go to a road or bridge, wait awhile to see if anyone comes and then return to camp. Shit like that, you know? Add some tension into the game. If you're spotted by an enemy, allow them to raise an alarm so that you fight the entire camp or dungeon. This would add more usefulness to stealth and remove some of the general ridiculousness that can come from attacking fortified enemy positions, or allow you to lead a small group of allies to even the odds.

There's a few anyway. Really, I'm mostly just asking for more depth and complexity here.

 

[Maxtro]

Actually Coop play could work in an Elder Scrolls game.

First off, it would have to be limited to one friend/companion at a time. Basically the coop player would replace the AI companion. Basically, the coop person would control Lydia, or any other companion.

Then the coop player would be unable to interact with NPC's and would have to remain in the same area as the main player.

When playing the game online, pausing wouldn't be allowed and the world keeps going while you're browsing through menus.

 

[llsaidknockyouout]

10 really good dungeons instead of 100 horribly made ones

 

[Plasticaprinae]

Less or No dragons. Seriously. I get so tired of fighting dragons.

More variation in general. Like.. In skyrim there are always "Types" of places. There's underground dungeons, ruins, and religious relics. And you know what you're going to find when you go into these types, because you've already seen them before. So more random and unique places. Random unique creatures and mini bosses!

Add more personality. Make some characters sultry, some weak, some firey. Just give me something other than the sterotypes. And let me interact with them.

I'm not a very good looter. I dont strive to be the best in skills and armor, I like going after storylines. I honestly don't care if the world size gets bigger, if the graphics get fancier, or if the fighting mechanics change; just give me more story and memorable characters.

 

[LadyLightning]

Go back to what made Morrowind great:

1.) 27 skills instead of 18. Attributes. A complex, non-idiot-friendly character creation and levelling system that kept the dumbshits out of Tamriel, or at least dying horribly at the tiny talons of cliff racers.

2.) NO QUEST MARKERS! Have NPCs give me directions by street sign and landmarks again, please. Make the world feel like a place to explore, where your immediate undertaking often leads to other, not necessarily related quests.

3.) Remove fast travel. Nobody who matters likes it. It detracts from the story and world that the game exists to present.

4.) Make NPC interactions make sense. Guild members should never ever just somehow, automagically ~know~ that you are the PC, and offer you guild membership on that qualification alone. My Stendarr-loving paladin does not want to join the Thieves' Guild, and would probably challenge him to a duel then and there in the streets of Riften for insulting her honor in such a brash manner.

For that matter, getting the guild's main story quest right at the beginning is a little dumb, too. You're brand new to the college and you're already the savior of all magic, as foretold by the Psijics. You barely do a few jobs for the Companions and already they're pulling you face first into the whole werewolf pack thing. Some closely-guarded secret that turned out to be.

This seems to be the longest one, so is probably the most important. I suppose I could sum it up with one sentence by saying: "Please, please, PLEASE, bring the role-playing back into the RPG genre."

 

[Mikejames]

Better quests. See Oblivion for how to do quests that don't involve me going into another Darugr cave for the 8 millionth time this week.

I really need more of Oblivion's quest variety. Oblivion had me enter a painting, travel through a man's nightmares, and explore the Shivering Isles.

Skyrim gave me fetch quests. Lots of fetch quests.

 

[WoW Killer]

1. Better combat. The current combat has a pretty good style, I mean it's weighty and it controls well, but it needs more depth. You've got a good number of different attacks that can be pulled off with just the basic buttons, but there's not really a fat lot of point to most of them. It needs more movement; a regular strafe attack should be countering the enemies lunge purely by it's shape and movement. That's very simple stuff that would dramatically improve the current combat while keeping the same style. And the numbers are way out, with some really obvious mistakes in the way the stats work (e.g. hyperbolic returns on the stacking of certain effects). I think if the core gameplay mechanics were better it would be a massive boon to the modding community too; currently it's very difficult to balance any kind of content mod, because there's so many different balance mods out there that different people are using. If there was some sort of challenge standard set by the vanilla game then there could be all kinds of interesting content additions people could come up with.

2. More procedural generation with regards to NPCs and quests. One thing that stands out to me in the series is how empty some of the areas are, particularly towns. That's because most of the NPCs are distinct personalities with pre-written functions, and it's simply not feasible to create a bustling town environment with that kind of detail. What they could do, is keep that same level of detail for the proper NPCs (in the same numbers they have right now), but then fill up the areas with additional generic NPCs over the top (with simpler randomised behaviour, e.g. wandering around a market, trying to pickpocket people, etc. but not needing full conversation options). Similarly with quests; they hinted at this in Skyrim with the radiant quest system, but they could go a lot further. Same idea, keep the more detailed quests as they are, but bulk it out a bit with some randomised content so the world doesn't feel quite as lifeless.

3. Hardcore mode. The obvious answer to the dumbing-down accusations. Let players remove hand-holding features if they so desire. In particular, the removal of fast-travel and compass markers should be an option (with the world correctly designed with this in mind; NPCs giving you directions in words, with suitable landmarks to look out for). And sure, I'm well up for having a proper food/drink system.

4. Coop? Meh, not the biggest of deals, but I sure would love to play a TES game two player. None of this MMO stuff, just peer-to-peer and split-screen. And for goodness sake don't lock anything out of single player; don't be putting any super powerful items in that can only be found in multiplayer.

 

[Treeberry]

I'd like to see different varieties of Khajiit or even a couple that are masquerading as Bosmer.

As somebody else mentioned it'd be nice to stumble upon non-hostiles in random caves or areas. Given the state of the world it makes sense that people who've lost their homes or have a lot of to lose might flee to strange places. Something I liked about Oblivion was the fact that ever now and then you meet a live non-hostile adventurer in dungeons.

I like the quest markers for clarity but it'd be nice for NPCs to give me directions anyway or to point to someone - or somewhere - that could help me out.

More opportunities to avoid battle with NPCs. I got sick of killing in Skyrim - which is highly ironic as someone who loves the Dark Brotherhood - I kept wishing for more opportunities to talk people down or have them talk me down from a bloodthirsty rage.

 

[go-10]

1. more monsters in the over world, walking for hours without fighting anything worth the while is really boring

2. better rewards for completing quest. I hate the fact that the only way to get the best weapons and armor I need to craft it

3. this one is by far the more important, a better 3rd person mode. When TES goes into 3rd person mode, you know since you might want to look at your character that you spent hours creating and not to mention hunting all those armor sets, the game shouldn't penalize me for wanting to look at him,,, specially when the Legend of Zelda exist! Just copy that Bethesda

4. more modding options, can stress enough how much better the game is thanks to the mods

5. and lastly, locomotion. Trains, trolleys, etc. it's time to introduce coals and steam powered vehicles to TES, at least one city should be sporting the looks of the future

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

All I ever ask for are Orcs, Two handed weapons, heavy armour and a pretext for killing things. I'm a simple man of simple needs.

 

[garjian]

Some actually decent quest lines would be a start.
Every minute playing Skyrim was spent looking back at Oblivion, yearning for something to actually happen. Even when things do happen it has no impact on anything... you, the world or otherwise.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

One glaring weakness of skyrim is the lack of multiplay,

That's one of my favorite things about it.

 

[Sable Gear]

Setting it in Valenwood and Elsweyr(which together make up about the same area as skyrim) and have it be about the end of the Aldmeri dominion.

This. The Khajiit have some amazing lore behind them and it would be really cool to see that put into a game.

Also GIANT MIGRATORY TREES IN VALENWOOD. Need I say more? =D

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Nononononononononononononononononononononononononono!!!

Bethesda games are one of the last bastions of single-player focused triple-AAA games out there! Watch http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/6718-Only-The-Lonely to put my opinion into better words. There are games that exist to play with a few friends (Team Fortress 2, COD, HALO etc. ) and games that exist to immerse you in a world (Skyrim, Fallout etc.)

You know, it doesn't matter if they implemented a co-op feature or not. You can still ignore it completely if you like and play it just as you normally would.

And BTW, Elsweyr would NOT be a great place to do the next ES. People are saying, "Oh look, Khajiit live there! It'll be great with deserts and stuff!"

But let me tell you how it'll actually go down.

"Khajiit see you."

"Khajiit wants to sell you something."

"Khajiit hates you."

"What does Khajiit want with you?"

"Khajiit will leave now. Khajiit."

You hear about 10 mins. of that and it'll be the Shivering Isles again.

 

[Doom972]

I want to see something that isn't "generic fantasy land" like we had on Oblivion and Skyrim. I think that Summerset Isles could be interesting to explore.

Other than that, everything the OP said except for the co-op. The reason for excluding co-op is because it will only work well if dungeons are built for that kind of gameplay. I would love to see an Elder Scrolls game that's built around the idea of co-op gameplay, but TES VI should be a single player game in my opinion.

 

[Blaze the Dragon]

I don't get the knee-jerk reaction people are having for the idea of co-op play. I think when most people suggest it, especially myself, I mean something like Borderlands Co-op. The game can be played perfectly fine on your own, but the idea of being able to at least just walk around with your buddies for a bit in a big massive world is awesome. Just do what Borderlands does and turn up the difficulty as more people join your game. Although given the nature of the game, it should probably only do that when the players are close to each other. Hell, a cool idea might be a smaller scale of ESO, with the ability for small numbers of players to purposely share a world. Obviously there's plenty of room for dickishness, but the point is that this would be a thing you have to set up, so it's not like some random guy from the internet could go into your world and jack your shit.

Ideally, if you wanted to play alone you could and not lose anything from the experience, but if you wanted to load up another save and play with friends or something, you could. Just having the option to do so, even if it's just so that you can fight each other to see who has the more badass character. Maybe you could talk to each other to establish to the world whether you're working with each other, or are playing as enemies, so that then if say he tried to go near your house, your companions would fend them off, or vice versa let you in to explore.


Other than optional co-op play, uh, maintain the ability to mod the game to shit, cause that's really big, and I guess just keep doing what they've been doing for awhile now. I've played over 300 hours on a single character in skyrim. If they keep making similar styled games but with even more to explore and more realistic NPCs, then I don't how I'd find time to eat.

 

[kingthrall]

Wont be touching another elder scrolls until its totally back to Offline singleplayer. Then i will actually consider watching a trailer and reviews on it.

Down with MMO.