THings I want from the Next Elder Scrolls game

[Canadamus Prime]

I'd like to see a main quest line with the same depth as Oblivion, but with gameplay and progression similar to Skyrim. The main quest line in Skyrim was rather underwhelming. Esp. since there was no intro or ending cutscenes to bookend it. I know it's incredibly hard to one up an intro narrated by Patrick Stewart, but come on at least put the effort in.

I know I sometimes have a kind of seething animosity towards Oblivion, but... Oblivion's MQ had "depth"? Where? I found only a 'demons are invading! kill demons!' story.

I'd say both Oblivion's and Skyrim's [and Fallout 3's] MQ's were all awful, and all absolutely braindead. Morrowind certainly had less flash, and a lot of faffing - I'm not saying it holds up completely now - but jeese, that MQ had real thematic depth and complexity.

Maybe "depth" was the wrong choice of words, but compared to Skyrim I was far more invested in Oblivions's MQ.

 

[Saelune]

I'd like to see a main quest line with the same depth as Oblivion, but with gameplay and progression similar to Skyrim. The main quest line in Skyrim was rather underwhelming. Esp. since there was no intro or ending cutscenes to bookend it. I know it's incredibly hard to one up an intro narrated by Patrick Stewart, but come on at least put the effort in.

I know I sometimes have a kind of seething animosity towards Oblivion, but... Oblivion's MQ had "depth"? Where? I found only a 'demons are invading! kill demons!' story.

I'd say both Oblivion's and Skyrim's [and Fallout 3's] MQ's were all awful, and all absolutely braindead. Morrowind certainly had less flash, and a lot of faffing - I'm not saying it holds up completely now - but jeese, that MQ had real thematic depth and complexity.

Maybe "depth" was the wrong choice of words, but compared to Skyrim I was far more invested in Oblivions's MQ.

I think it is because of dragging around Martin and making things more 'personal'...to Martin. Skyrim's MQ is more standard "Chosen One" to save the prophesized coming evil.

My main problem with Oblivion's plot though...is how much importance they put on Martin OVER YOU. You're the hero, you saved him, saved whats left of Kvatch, saved Cyrodiil and ALL of Tamriel...but hey, lets praise Martin. All that fucker did was die so that Akatosh could fight Mehrunes in avatar form.

So yeah, Skyrim may have a more generic plot...but atleast it acknowledges you as the hero.

And obligatory praising of Morrowind, it manages to do both.

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

My main problem with Oblivion's plot though...is how much importance they put on Martin OVER YOU. You're the hero, you saved him, saved whats left of Kvatch, saved Cyrodiil and ALL of Tamriel...but hey, lets praise Martin. All that fucker did was die so that Akatosh could fight Mehrunes in avatar form.

So yeah, Skyrim may have a more generic plot...but atleast it acknowledges you as the hero.

Yeah, I had issues with the entire MQ, but that did also bug me at the end. Its writing and staging isn't smart enough to cast it as some kind of deconstruction or subversion of tropes, either, it just feels deeply unsatisfying and rather out of the blue.

And obligatory praising of Morrowind, it manages to do both.

I loved and admired how it allows the player to be a Chosen One, but more along the lines of being a pawn. So much of Morrowind's MQ is about history, the roles key individuals play, and how those individuals are remembered and by whom. And yeah, I harp on about this a lot... but compared to Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim are just infantile (their culture, from the writing to the hand-holding game design).

The Nerevarine could've been a pawn for the Empire, for Azura, for the Ashlanders, and so on. And, more than that sideswipe at typical Chosen One narratives, the end result is not just bland 'saved the day' ego puffing; the hero has turned back the Blight and stopped Dagoth Ur, but ultimately the only victor by the end is Truth, given the Tribunal's reckoning will undo generations of societal structure and meaning. By the end, you've exposed deceit and doomed false gods. When the Ghostfence has gone, there is a brief moment of triumph, but after that it never felt like a truly - blandly - heroic resolution.

Compare that to the rather embarrassing slow-claps and meek shouts after you defeat Alduin (who, genuinely, often ends up being easier to kill than a collection of particularly angry mudcrabs). The final chat with Paarthunax is nice, but that's little consolation for its lackluster MQ almost entirely devoid of imagination or nuance.

A man named Martin, of all things, stealing the glory in Oblivion in no better (I at least enjoyed the fancy skybox of Sovngarde, as well as its music).

 

[Xprimentyl]

12 Years At The Bethesda Store

Me: ?One Morrowind, please.?
Bethesda: ?Oblivion??
Me: ?No, Morrowind; it?s right there behind you.?
Bethesda: ?Oh, Horse armor for Oblivion; here you go.?
Me: ?NO, MORROWIND; behind you, bottom left.?
Bethesda: ?Sorry, my mistake; here?s Fallout 3.?
Me: ?M-O-R-R-O-W-I-N-D. Bottom LEFT. Right fucking THERE.?
Bethesda: ?Pretty sure that?s not how you spell ?SKYRIM?, silly-billy, but here?s Skyrim!?
Me: ?For fuck?s sake, gimme Morrowind!!?
Bethesda: ?Fallout 4??
Me: ?MORROWIND!!!!?
Bethesda: ?Hmm, I don?t know if we have any re-releases of Skyrim left at a full $60 retail price point despite it being 6 years old?. Ah! Here we go; three of ?em! Just like you asked!?
Me: ?? Thanks.?

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I'd like to see a main quest line with the same depth as Oblivion, but with gameplay and progression similar to Skyrim. The main quest line in Skyrim was rather underwhelming. Esp. since there was no intro or ending cutscenes to bookend it. I know it's incredibly hard to one up an intro narrated by Patrick Stewart, but come on at least put the effort in.

I know I sometimes have a kind of seething animosity towards Oblivion, but... Oblivion's MQ had "depth"? Where? I found only a 'demons are invading! kill demons!' story.

I'd say both Oblivion's and Skyrim's [and Fallout 3's] MQ's were all awful, and all absolutely braindead. Morrowind certainly had less flash, and a lot of faffing - I'm not saying it holds up completely now - but jeese, that MQ had real thematic depth and complexity.

Maybe "depth" was the wrong choice of words, but compared to Skyrim I was far more invested in Oblivions's MQ.

I think it is because of dragging around Martin and making things more 'personal'...to Martin. Skyrim's MQ is more standard "Chosen One" to save the prophesized coming evil.

My main problem with Oblivion's plot though...is how much importance they put on Martin OVER YOU. You're the hero, you saved him, saved whats left of Kvatch, saved Cyrodiil and ALL of Tamriel...but hey, lets praise Martin. All that fucker did was die so that Akatosh could fight Mehrunes in avatar form.

So yeah, Skyrim may have a more generic plot...but atleast it acknowledges you as the hero.

And obligatory praising of Morrowind, it manages to do both.

If I recall you are still hailed as a hero in Oblivion even if you weren't the one to defeat Dagon personally. I guess I was more impressed by Dagon and the Mythic Dawn as antagonists than Alduin. Also the lack of intro and ending cutscenes in Skyrim was disappointing.

 

[Trunkage]

I also wonder if making the game streamlined or simpler happens because they are trying to stop bugs from occurring.

-Fast travel. The travel options in Morrowind are mostly teleports, so they function in the same way fast travel does in Skyrim. There is a greater need to handle NPCs or piles of crap that might occupy your destination spot, but this case still needs to be handled in Skyrim.

I didn't like teleporting in Morrowind at all. But extra fast running/jumping was great

-Skill trees. Skyrim gives you a large number of discrete bonuses as you level up. I would argue that this is more likely to hide subtle bugs than increasing seven stats as you do in Morrowind.

I would prefer to see the perks you have give you different ways to deal with situations instead of the incremental beef-up. Like in Skyrim, I remember you could pick perks in intimidation and nicely persuading (I cant remember that name). Expand that. You could become a great liar, or authoritarian or being able to use religious or scientific quotes. I may need to workshop this.

Decent writing. No really, 9/10s of the problems stem from boring ass quests with characters I can't care about, to resolve some issue I have no relation to. Heck, in Fallout: New Vegas, a guy shoots me in the face for no apparent reason and I want to know why. That's called a hook; Use those, Bathesda! Sure you fucked it up again in Fallout 4, but it was a step forwards.

Personally, I found the hook in NV the worst of all the Fallouts. What a way to make the game uninteresting. I think Fallout 2 is the worst Fallout but at least the hook is more interesting than a revenge story

 

[Kyrian007]

People always rag on the buggyness of Bethesda games...but they do fix the major bugs atleast. And sure, I do wish they were better about it, but they could be worse, and alot of the bugs are because they make huge, complex games, ones that are bigger and more complex than most.

I agree. The only ones I get are the funny ones, I've never been hit with a game breaker in a Bethesda game. And I've never had one that wasn't patched or that I couldn't correct by a simple console command or ini file edit.

As far as what I want in another Elder Scrolls game. Easy, first... no online multiplayer or at least limited to 2-4 players. It just isn't Elder Scrolls with more players than that. Second... GO BACK TO DAGGERFALL. It was my first ES game and I want to see it realized in a modern engine. I know a lot of people want to see Black Marsh or the Sommerset Isles... but I wanna go back to High Rock. Third and probably most controversial... I want it to end. I hate to say it because I'd love to play Elder Scrolls and Fallout forever, but it is the same argument I have for Anime, TV, Books, movie franchises, etc. If it doesn't end at some point it will never... ever be better than something that ended well.

 

[Saelune]

People always rag on the buggyness of Bethesda games...but they do fix the major bugs atleast. And sure, I do wish they were better about it, but they could be worse, and alot of the bugs are because they make huge, complex games, ones that are bigger and more complex than most.

I agree. The only ones I get are the funny ones, I've never been hit with a game breaker in a Bethesda game. And I've never had one that wasn't patched or that I couldn't correct by a simple console command or ini file edit.

As far as what I want in another Elder Scrolls game. Easy, first... no online multiplayer or at least limited to 2-4 players. It just isn't Elder Scrolls with more players than that. Second... GO BACK TO DAGGERFALL. It was my first ES game and I want to see it realized in a modern engine. I know a lot of people want to see Black Marsh or the Sommerset Isles... but I wanna go back to High Rock. Third and probably most controversial... I want it to end. I hate to say it because I'd love to play Elder Scrolls and Fallout forever, but it is the same argument I have for Anime, TV, Books, movie franchises, etc. If it doesn't end at some point it will never... ever be better than something that ended well.

I want co-op, but just 2 players. Anything more would most definitely lead to a more Ubisoft-esque game, and while I actually like Ubisoft games...I dont want TES to be that way. I just want to adventure across Tamriel with my brother.

My ideal setting would be mainland Morrowind and Northern Black Marsh, but I think it is fair to let every area get its time to shine and develop. I really think Summerset Isle is the next place.

I never want TES to end, nor should it. It is not designed like a direct series, so it never has to end, just as history never ends. I just want them to keep making notable changes. Honestly, The Empire should probably never reform, or of it does, it should be far different. But hey, they brought Dragons back and blew up Vvardenfel.

How could they end it without blowing up Nirn? I just think they need to increase in scope and depth, rather than 'accessibility'. The next TES will be even more popular than Skyrim. They dont need to gain new people, and they have incredible shelf life. If Daggerfall was still sold for money, it would still get bought often.

Really, they should take advantage of their basically guaranteed fanbase, and hardcore it up, take risks and all that.