What do you want to see in TES VI?

[WolfThomas]

I was thinking about Fallout 4, The Elderscrolls Online and TES:V Skyrim and I was wondering what I'd like to see in any future Elderscrolls game.

I think Fallout 4's settlement building would be neat in an Elderscrolls setting. Being able to craft a long house, wizards tower, castle, etc for your character. Laying out crafting areas and placing stuff for display.

I think the idea of racial motiffs for armour was sweet in Elderscrolls online. Basically you can armour in styles of each of the different race. Breton heavy armour is medieval plate, Nordish is fur and mail, Altmer like something out of LOTR, Khajits designed for mobility, etc. This way you can have armour like iron-steel-orichalum-ebony for quality tiers but vary the appearance and bonuses.

I think the way Fallout 4 has outfit and clothing. Some clothing that armour can be placed on, others that can't. This way you can have your gear on top over clothing, gambesons etc, but larger unique costumes can still be found/worn.

I think the way F4 handled leveling was the smartest Bethesda has so far. The geography = danger. Makes sense. If for example it's set in the Black Marsh, the areas closest to civilisation should be safer. But the real rewards are gained from getting deep into unsettled territory.

Also legendary weapons, daedric artificates etc that scale to your level as you level up. I get frustrated by unique weapons getting outpaced by one's you can create/enchant. It makes sense that Umbra sword wielded by a Swordmaster would be deadlier than if held by a novice.

What do you want to see? Or not see?

 

[I can't enter my old name]

1. Culture
The point of NPCs is not to give you quests through scripted conversations that you just 'happen' to overhear. The point is to create a sense of a living population. I want to see the culture of a people, their honor code, their social rules, their written law. I want to come to understand these people, how they behave and how they fit into a social structure. In SI, practically every NPC was different and memorable, I would expect something similar for at least groups of isolated people.

2. Bring back Radiant AI
It needs to be brought back. NPCs should be able to do things other than work, stand around, or sleep. Todd Howard don't you lie to me again.

3. Bring back Radiant Conversations
In Skyrim, I see NPCs just work the mill, forge, or plow at the ground, and then go home, and the entire time there is this eerie silence. Honestly, there are only the scripted conversations that happen only once, and a line when you get too close to someone. And it's the same with Fallout. I don't care if it's mudcrab conversations, there just has to be some noise. Just make it dull idle chatter or a foreign language.

4. Sandbox Story
I don't want to play a sequence of highly linear quests. I expect to be able to kill Ulfric Stormcloak right after I escape from the beginning sequence. If I can figure it some trick or exploit to beat him at level 1, the game should let you do it and end an entire questline right there. Quests need to take into account how the player will play and what they would do to some degree. If the player accidentally stumbles upon the Dark Brotherhood secret entrance, he or she should be able to go to a nearby guard and say "Yo, I found this weird red glowing entrance", the devs should take into account that reasonable player action, and bam "Quest Added: Destroy the Dark Brotherhood". Also, at any time during the Dark Brotherhood questline you can talk to a guard and betray them. Stuff like that.

5. Audio, Lighting, and Weather
Every game there is a mod that adds indoor lighting that matches outside conditions. Every game there is a sound mod that adds something like the sound of rain hitting the roof indoors, or howling winds during a snowstorm indoors, and it always bothers me that something so atmospheric was missing from the game. In the vanilla game it was as if interiors existed in their own world. Then there are the weather mods where NPCs can seek shelter from the rain or wear heavy clothing during the snow, and I can only see the wasted potential for something as immersive as weather.

 

[BlackJesus]

Akavir. I want to go to Akavir, or just a different continent than Tamriel. I mean, Tamriel's cool and all, but it's getting a bit stale after 5 games. Or maybe set the whole game in the various realms of Oblivion, having to run from realm to realm getting hunted by the Daedra gods. Just somewhere original and unexplored, with lots of cool scenery and loot.

 

[s0meNo0b]

I want to turtle up and use two shields at once for the ultimate defense.

In all seriousness I just hope they stray away from decisions made during Fallout 4 and let us have our own character, with no voice as to let us have our own.

EDIT: Maybe bring back Unarmed? The idea of running around punching everything tends to be fun with me.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

I want to see the Khajiit Lunar Colony that they created by getting the biggest cats to stand on top of each other in a huge tower until they reached into space.

Hell, just some cat Khajiit will do. My biggest problem with the later Elder Scrolls games is that their older lore is so full of the weirdest, coolest shit, yet post-Morrowind they've been going down the more serious route with things. I mean, c'mon, they canonized all their endings with a 'fuck it, let's call it the Warp in the West', lets get more of that shit in on TES VI.

 

[Mister K]

So this comes from a person who is not a TES super fan, but just a guy who played a bit of TES IV, then played TES V and found latter to be better:

- Add at the very least a bit of a choice. The only way to complete this quest when one of the Daedra tells you to kill a priest with a mace? To do so. The only way to complete Blades questline? Kill Alduine. No, don't ask him to cut off a tip of a tail, or something, just kill him. I fully understand that this more of an action sandbox now, but come the heck on, it's still RPG somewhere at its heart.

- DO NOT add voiced protagonist. I was adamant in my dislike of Fallout 4, but thanks to Team Four Star I am warming up to it. What I cannot warm up to is voice of the protagonist. Emotionless, dry, dead. OK, it works if you are making just a guy, but what if you want to make a batshit insane drug-addict who speaks with british accent? Just forget about this idea please.

- Do NOT force a family on me, like it was done in Fallouts 3 and 4. I'd rather let my character make their own.

- More chances to use speech skill for something more than bartering. What if I don't want to kill a dude, but want to help him to come clean, to become better person?

- What TES IV did right was allowing me to use magic while wielding 2-handed weapons. In TES VI I want to be able to hit enemies with a huge hammer while throwing fireballs and feel like Shao Khan.

- Speaking of 2-handed weapons, they need a buff.

- Minor one, but I'd like to see the return of stats.

EDIT: OH, and I'd like to be able to create characters whose main weapon is their fist and unarmed combat is actually viable.

 

[JemothSkarii]

Don't make it like Fallout 4?

Yeah, okay, I'll go in depth:

- Remove that blasted Bioware wheel. I want more than four responses and dialogue with more depth than a teaspoon.

- Don't voice my protag. In F4 they sounded so bored and needlessly dramatic at points.

- Don't force your emotion pieces on me. Don't try to make me care for NPCs in five minutes because I know you can't write a character worth a damn.

- Bring back something like Morrowind's level up system. The one for Skyrim was pure ass.

- Learn how to make combat have impact. Swordplay felt floaty and archery was complete shit outside of sneaking, and that's because sneaking was broken.

- Can you please, PLEASE not try to fuck with the lore? The Cabot House quest chain was insulting on so many levels. Were you really that mad at Obsidian for New Vegas? I just want some internal consistency.

- GET RID OF THOSE RADIANT QUESTS. You seriously stopped putting effort into plot and quests because you could just give us 'retrieve X' or 'kill Y' ad infinitum .

This one's not really necessary but:

- Give us the option to choose a starting point, like Live ANother Life or any of those mods. Sure, give us your default glacier paced tutorial plot opening, but give sopme players the option to skip being tied into your garbage main quest.

 

[immortalfrieza]

I'd like to see just about everything Fallout 4 added or improved put in ES6. Companions, Smarter Enemy A.I., Making Sneak not a gamebreaker, building stuff... all of it really.

One thing in particular that greatly enhanced the game and story in general was the EXTREMELY well done Main Character voice acting. It just added so much emotion and value to the story that the silent Player Characters could never have. Fortunately, Elder Scrolls never had much in the way of actual player choice in any of it's quests and as much as I'd like to see that I don't expect it, so the issue of having to voice act player choices isn't really an issue. In fact, though it's not something I expect Bethesda to do if they just used Courtenay Taylor and Brian Delaney again and continued to do so they could build up and continue to build a range of voice acted lines they can then subsequently reuse in future games to give players more dialog options.

The most important thing is they finally need to kill the Elder Scrolls leveling system already. The whole "usage=skills improve" system was novel back when Morrowind came around and nobody had seen anything like it before, but it's been grindy and exploitable it's entire existence and continues to be. Instead of actually having to accomplish anything to get better, the player can just stand there and let mudcrabs take a million potshots at them while healing or just hitting and healing that thing over and over or whatever to raise skills. Actually, it was mandatory to do stuff like that because the raising of skills was never efficient enough just doing whatever. The simple "get experience=gaining levels=skills go up" that Fallout used for most of it's games is far far more convenient and much less grindy.

The engine works perfectly fine, all Bethesda needs to do is keep improving upon it. Gamebryo was already an very versatile and effective engine to begin with and it only continues to get more so as Bethesda keeps modifying it, particularly when compared to most if not all of the engines other companies use. Getting or making a new engine from scratch would just retard the development process as everybody on the team had to learn exactly how it works all over again, and if one thinks there's bugs NOW(a VERY overblown reputation BTW) just imagine what it would be like with an engine Bethesda's programmers are just figuring out how to use.

 

[Jandau]

A combat system that isn't complete outdated garbage. I honestly don't think much needs to be added here.

As little as possible from Fallout 4, which would include (but not limited to) extreme dumbing down of the RPG elements, the gutted dialogue system, the atrocious settlement construction system...

A setting that's at least somewhat interesting. Oblivion was so dull and ultra-generic, Skyrim was a bit of an improvement, but still a far cry from the exotic charms of Morrowind.

Competent writing. Yes, we get it, you all love the Lusty Argonian Maid, but a few lines of amusing fluff don't make up for shit story, forgettable characters and overall low quality of writing. Also, the Dark Brotherhood questlines don't redeem the rest of the game (Oblivion or Skyrim) in this regard, they just mitigate the damage slightly.

 

[BarryMcCociner]

Well, what I want is gonna rustle the jimmies some people who started with Skyrim and REALLY fell for the Imperial propaganda regarding the Stormcloaks.

A little backstory. The Elder Scrolls, since TES3 when it started actually being a thing with an overarching narrative, has been about the fall of Humans and the rise of Elves with the beast races being a spectator to this whole mess. (Khajiit are watching for the giggles, and Argonians/Hist are technically the closest thing you can get to aliens in Nirn so they're watching out of curiosity.)

Why is that important for what I want? Because I want Bethesda to FINALLY bite the fucking bullet and kill off the Empire. Since Morrowind, you can see the set up happening, your Blades handler in Morrowind scared shitless about Uriel Septim dying because that will be what finally starts the decline of the Empire, then how does Oblivion open? Uriel Septim's assassination.

Now in Skyrim we see the empire severely weakened, in its death throes, with the greatest threat to the very existence of all creation (the Thalmor, whose endgame is literally "unmaking" the world) gearing up for another strike against it, an enemy that has militarily and politically outmaneuvered them so hard that even Thalmor haters have to be impressed.

No hate to Imperial supporters, you're roleplaying your characters like everyone else, it's all good. I just want Bethesda to finally drop the hammer on something they've been hinting at for over a decade, that has exciting ramifications for the story of the game world. They are killing the empire, but it's taking too long for me.

You can only tease someone with the idea of something cool happening for so long before they lose interest.

 

[Saelune]

Everything great from Morrowind that was removed in Oblivion.

Such as: All the removed spells, no fast travel, no magic quest arrows. "We cant find this bad guy hiding in the mountains" *Bing Quest Arrow to his exact location*...., factions that require actual skill. The archmage should be well, a master mage, not just the greatest errand boy.

If not its removal, atleast the ability to turn quest protection off. The idea that you can completely bork the main quest because you can literally kill anyone was pretty cool. Plus I just hate when quest items get perma stuck in my inventory.

Less cornholing into certain reactions. Maybe let good and evil ways of completing the same things. I like how that Redguard Woman quest lets you help her or betray her. More stuff like that.

Companions more in depth than Skyrim. Doesn't need to be New Vegas level, but I want companions who aren't just pack mules.

Hearthfire from the start basically. I like that in Morrowind you could feasibly RP out non heroic roles. Lets continue that. Let me be a farmer or family person, why not...also non human children. Is it that hard to slap some pointy ears and blue paint on a kid to make a Dunmer child?


And just for the hell of it..co-op. Maybe will never happen, but I will always hope. I want to wander Tamriel with my brother.

 

[Benpasko]

One thing in particular that greatly enhanced the game and story in general was the EXTREMELY well done Main Character voice acting. It just added so much emotion and value to the story that the silent Player Characters could never have. Fortunately, Elder Scrolls never had much in the way of actual player choice in any of it's quests and as much as I'd like to see that I don't expect it, so the issue of having to voice act player choices isn't really an issue. In fact, though it's not something I expect Bethesda to do if they just used Courtenay Taylor and Brian Delaney again and continued to do so they could build up and continue to build a range of voice acted lines they can then subsequently reuse in future games to give players more dialog options.

No no no GOD NO. I'm going to put this as nicely as I can. I think you need to go away, and play a different series. Fallout 4 was terrible, and the voiced protagonist was no small part of that.

 

[The Ditz]

1. an engine that can run a bunch of mods on max settings for more than a few hours.... haven't played skyrim too much, but it had the same problem that oblivion had right? I don't want to wait for enb to make a patch to allow me to play an extra hour.

2.more interesting races. There are like 5 white men/mer races, how about Tang Mo or Maormer...and if they're keeping all those white human races, at least diversify them. Sickly and scrawny bretons, movie star/ model-esque imperials, lithe and lanky high elves, kinda childlike woodelves, and big nords.

3. more shivering isles!

 

[RanD00M]

Good gameplay, something that the Elder Scrolls series has been lacking since its inception.

 

[deadish]

Stable game engine: Ask id Software for help if required.

Better combat: In Skyrim, combat is mostly spamming your attack until the mob dies and drinking a potion when low on HP. Zero thought required.

Decent 3rd person mode for better situational awareness: Skyrim's is laggy for some reason. Action MMORPGs have been doing this since forever, so don't tell me it's impossible.

Better tuned difficulty curve: In Skyrim I frequently hit difficulty brickwalls.

 

[RaikuFA]

A Sony programmer, cause Bethesdas a bunch of lazy dumbasses.

 

[vashthblackseed]

1) The ability to take the spells I've learned to make new spells or variation of old ones. (Like Morrowind did)

2) The journal records detailed information for quests. (Like Morrowind did)

3) Options for the quest marker such as:
a) Always On (Like Skyrim)
b) Partially On (If you have already discovered the location, the marker turns on. Otherwise read the journal and follow the directions.)
c) Proximity (Marker only turns on while within a certain distance of target location.)
d) Off (For those who like a challenge; throw in an achievement/trophy for having off for the entire game.)
e) Toggle on and off exact location of quest item. (Show me the room the item is in, just don't put a marker right on top of the damned thing, especially when it's sitting out in plain sight.)

4) When traveling with NPCs, they keep pace with you unless there is legitimate story reasons they can not. Such as broken or crippled leg(s).

5) The models of NCPs that are suppose to be old need to be 100% old. If I kill a granny and loot her corpse, there better not be a stock, adult female body with wrinkled head and hands attached underneath her cloths.

6) Make the main quest line more interesting. Of the three Elder Scrolls games I've played (Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim), only one kept me interested enough to complete it.

7) The ability to mark trap triggers, even if only for a limited time. Would prefer at least on minute, but no more than 10 mins.

8) Followers can be given more complex commands, such as:
a) Guard this spot.
b) Stay in sneak mode until I am attacked. So I can stealthily take down more than one enemy.
c) Retreat/Heal if health below x%
d) Avoid traps if I mark them.
e) Return to house and deposit non-essential gear in a predesignated container.
f) Wait for me at x map location.
g) Fetch me x item(s) from home. Limit it to items within the aforementioned predesignated container.

9) Give a few Followers 1 of the non combative skills, Smithing, Lockpicking, Pickpocketing, Alchemy or Enchanting. If provided with the right tools, ingredients, etc they are able to preform at a certain level of that skill. Create side quests to upgrade skill level and/or tiered tools. (This would help give players access to some of the perks those skill have without investing levels into the skill.)[While playing Skyrim, I gained about 15 level straight just working on Lockpicking, Pickpoketing and Sneak. Due to level scaling I had a very hard time killing anything until I was able to get my combative skills up.]

10) Level Scaling doesn't just replace aggressive animals/monster. Skyrim replaced wolves with bears after a certain level. [Let me fight a pack a +20 wolves sometimes instead of just that one tanky bear.]

11) Let our actions have bigger impact on the world. The more quests we complete, monsters and bandits we kill the more people should know about us. I should not be treated like a peasant or a beggar when I own a house in every major city, killed hundreds of dragons and am wearing full deadric armor, but haven't completed quests x, y and z.

12) There are multiple different breeds of Khajiit, let us play as some of the other varieties.

 

[WolfThomas]

What I want

A new fucking engine, one that actually works.
Yes I can tell they just renamed the Gamebryo engine.

Programmers who can actually fucking code
Because I'm sick of having to open fucking ini. files to fix the idiot programmers fucking mistakes. Mistakes that I, someone who had no previous coding experience managed to at least mitigate. If I can do it with no experience or learning in the field than it's not because I'm brilliant, it's because you fucking suck that much.

Writers with at least a brain cell between the lot of them.
Bethesda's writers just plain suck.

An intro that doesn't take until the founding of the Imperium of Man
Because Bethesda's intros are so fucking long, and establish so fucking little. Just get to the fucking point.

I decide who my character is
Because fuck you Bethesda, I don't give a shit about "dad", I don't give a shit about "Shaun". So stop telling "you like these fucking idiots" and let me decide who my character is.

No more voiced protagonists until a computer program that can realistically impersonate a human being is made
Again, I decide who my character is. More importantly Bethesda's voice acting is shittier than a clogged sewer.

Voice actors who don't make me vomit in disgust.
Need I say more?

Functional fucking AI
Because AI in Bethesda games is in less intelligent than the demons in the original Doom, more often than not falling off cliffs and getting stuck in traps in an endless cycle of severe retardation.

A modelling/animation team who didn't fail animation class three times in a row
Because dear god Bethesda does not understand how humans work.

A world that makes fucking sense
Because Bethesda's understanding of world building is "this is a thing video game mooks do".

Audio, lighting and Weather
Because Bethesda's worlds are even more robotic than it's characters.

A competently design UI
Because Bethesda doesn't even understand the basics of UI design.

What I DON'T want

Radiant Quests that I'm unable to turn down
Because fucking hell, stop filling my quest log with pointless shit.

A focus on anything that isn't the main game
No base building or any of that shit. Do the main quest and side quests and gameplay and fix the AI before you add more fucking stupid shit in. Fix the important shit first so that it actually works, make a story that isn't full of holes, make AI that can walk in a straight line. But don't add extraneous shit until the core is fixed.

I don't even play Bethesda games but that was entertaining.