This thread is for ideas and suggestions for future Elder Scrolls games, and to keep all the discussion in one series of threads.

We have a long way to go before we get another ES game. In the meantime, similar topics will be closed and referred to this one.

Note there is a separate thread specifically for http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1602936-tes-vi-location-and-setting-speculation-32/ suggestions for future games. Please keep discussion of Skyrim in the correct forums.

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1604048-official-beyond-skyrim-tes-vi-83/

The last thread was derailed off topic.

To those involved, consider yourself reminded to not derails threads. People that continually derail threads will be warned.

Thank you.

For TES VI something I would like to see implemented is Morrowinds method of fast traveling. The games seem to rush you across the board fast and you fly by everything and suddenly you get so frustrated you just start fast traveling everywhere and it becomes a habit sort of. And it takes away a lot from the game.

Sure you could just not use it, but what if they only made fast travel available by way of carriage, or any other type of traveling? Like skyrim had rowboats and carriages, even dragons.


Personally I would like that feature much better, and have them placed only sparingly In the world, so that you had to Atleast walk around a distance before you were able to zap across the map.

That's not the issue, in my opinion. I don't fast travel anyway to feel immersed with my characters, but it does get frustrating. The problem is that the quests are too far away. Morrowind worked because most quests were close by to the person who gave it. You could do loads of quests in Balmora and would never have to leave the area around it. Oblivion didn't have the problem either with the Fighters Guild and the Mages Guild.


Fast travelling should be allowed for players who don't want to be fully immersed and just want to hop in an out of the game, but it should be made better for fans that want to put time into the game and feel immersed. The way to do this would be to have quests given be near the person who gave the quest, with some exceptions. It doesn't make sense in the lore anyway for you to trave, from one side of the province to another for every quest. Say an NPC who lives in Falkreath tells you they lost their family heirloom in a cave near Solitude and wants you to fetch it. Now, doesn't that seem strange? Why would they be up near Solitude when they live in Falkreath? Why not just say go to a cave nearby?


For quest lines, Oblivion got it pretty spot on with the Mages Guild initiation. I remember one quest in the DB where you had to travel to Markarth to find a woman who tells you she ran away from Windhelm (what?) and wants you to go there to kill her sister and some guy who ruined her life. That's insane. I'm walking from Falkreath to Markarth to Windhelm to Markarth to Falkreath for one quest? Yeah, I could use a cart, but I prefer walking. If we go back to having a guild hall in most cities or just having a person from the guild run quests for that area in most cities, we can feel much more immersed and won't feel bored walking back and forth for hours. Morrowind got it right because most quests unless they were important were a two minute walk from the quest giver, and Oblivion was good with the Mages Guild because all issues were either in the guild hall or next to the city. It feels real if most problems were local.


We should be able to fast travel, but we shouldn't feel like we need to. How do we fix it? Put a guild member in most cities and have them give you a number of quests for that 'hold', and you don't have to do quests in order; you can go from knew city to another and finish each set of quests in any order (do half of Solitude's quests and then do a couple of Windhelm quests, et cetera). That way problems feel more realistic and local and we can walk to the dungeon without feeling like half of the gaming time is spent walking. If a guild is important to that province, we can do it like Oblivion and have a whole guild hall in most cities. It would also feel realistic to have a hold with no guild members where the quest line is hardly ever active.


We only feel an urge to fast travel because dungeons are across the whole map. And I don't like using a cart because it feels like it doesn't cost anything so I could just fast travel.


The only quest line that should defy this is the Main Quest.

-To customize armor like painting it and customize the way i want the armor to look. Like add different parts for armors. Like for an Iron helmet add 50 extra parts to choose from. Also include different versions of an Armor. Kinda of like in Morrowind where you had 2 different version of Netch Leather Armor. Well in this one add like 50 different versions of an Iron Armor or Steel Armor. Being able exchange small parts of an armor to another armor and also being able to decorate the armor like adding gems to it or adding a cape and being able to customize the cape as well (color etc)

-Voice dialogue. Cut the voice acting Beth. I don't need that many voices. Put it this way. Give us an option to disable voices and enable text dialogue. Even though if you do that you will be bloating the game alot of data. I prefer you keep voice dialogue out of the game! Ok alright maybe use it on some of the quests npcs. But not on every single npc in the game. Think something out. I know you can do something about it.

-Add like the missing armor pieces that you took out the greatest Elder Scrolls Morrowind (example Paludron) also bring back Armors from Morrowind especially the Daedric Helmets heck include all the Armors from Oblivion and Skyrim as well, and add repair hammers again so that i can repair my armor and weapons so that it can feel like i am actually role playing the game.

-Being able to wear clothe underneath the Armor. Or on Top of the Armor like a robe like YOU did have in an ancient 15 year old game.

-Bring back Levitate. For gods sake it's been over 15 years already.

-Being able to tame some creatures and mount them and keep them. Like Horses.

-Being able to customize the way a flask from a potion looks. Like the color etc.

-Being able to make our own farm with all plants so that we can harvest them for ingredients. Watering the plants will be necessary.

-Customization again. This time weapons. Little things like being able to add object like a ruby or choosing engraving designs on the sword.

-Books. Add like a big test at the end of the book. Like for example a book on Alchemy then add 50 - 100 questions about the book pass the test and you get a bonus to stats AND you get an ability magic whatever AND you get an item like a Weapon, Armor, Loot. Don't pass it you can just try again. But depending on the score if you get all the questions right then you get a better item/rare item get a low score then you will get a low item. The reason why i want something like this is because well ... why can't I? .. It adds more content and it makes reading books more interesting and it gives me a reason to collect them all over again.

-Weapons. AGAIN! Add Spears, Crossbows, Halberds, etc etc. Also add double bladed spears. Add throwing blades like you ..... did have in ..... Morrowind.

-Boat. Sometimes i hate swimming. So add a boat to able to sail. Customize boat as well including the inside like a bed and table etc. Also maybe canoes for use on rivers and waterfalls.

(Two Worlds 2 had something like that) It's time Elder Scrolls has it. (talking about swimming) bring back water walking.

-Fishing. Being able to aquire fish and finding loot while fishing as well.

-Mini games like a Card Game like the old Final Fantasies had. Some sort of mini game you know it doesn't have to be a card game but i prefer a card game.

-Customize Horse armor etc

-I don't care about fast traveling. But if you can try to make feel lost in the game whenever i go out to a quest or explore. Also. Please. Don't add a 3D Map like one in Skyrim. Make it 2D but detailed.

-Customize house further like making several castles/towns etc. Budling it piece by piece. Being able to form your own Guide or whatever you want to call it like if your mage that you have a clan of mages with you. A Knight then you have knights or a mix of both but you have to hire them and they are actual NPC's living in towns that you have to talk to and make them join and they are only some but add vareity like some are mages, some are archers, some are knights some are monks etc. So yes. Yes. In some way. I want something like a team. Similar to Final Fantasies. Also the friends you aqurie have stories to tell and quests that you have to do. You can customize their armors as well and their weapons and you have to have beds for them and have food for them also be checking on them like for diseases etc, and you need to level them up and build their skills. Yes. Yes. Like Final Fantasy. Of course. This will be opitonal for those that want to play solo.

-Being able to marry like in Skyrim being able to make love but not showing anything of course maybe just like a scene where they are getting ready that's it. Also to able to kiss your wife anywhere. Ordering you wife to make you food. etc etc. Dialogue options at getting angry and your wife or cheating and your wife finds out and gets angry and starts a fight with your new lover. Same goes for a female player.

-Being able to dance when some music plays in a tavern etc.

-Add like a hard core mode like the one in Fallout New Vegas. Make it WAY harder LIKE WAY WAY harder. lol

-Add like super rare creatures and make some incredibly difficult to defeat. Like if anyone that has played FF12 you will know what i am talking about. lol

-Add like a hunt list like something similar again from Final Fantasy 12. For example kill 50 wolves and collect 50 pelts and get a reward from the petitoner the higher you progress the more challenging the hunts become.

-OPTIONAL for gamer to choose. Add a mode that allows turn base combat system in 1st person mode or 3rd person mode

-Bring back different weathers. Like a dust storm this time add like a Hurricane weather system where it makes combat much difficult because there is so much wind and rain. Maybe add Tornados? Hazards that you have to avoid if you don't you will get killed.

-Summon different creatures like different versions of Dremoras and Golden Saints etc. New creatures as well. Include like rare summons that you can only obtain by defeating some of the rare creatures.

-Being able to get either fat from eating to much or skinny (Anorexia lol) from not eating. Also being able to build muscle by running and lifting logs, swimming, jumping, and the more you carry the more you will grow muscle. Fighting will also increase muscle. So if you do that you will be super ripped.

-Bring back the Arena. Make it more big. Fighting monsters and warriors and mages etc. It gets dificiutly and as you progress you unlock weapons, armor and items.

-Make this the biggest most detailed Elder Scrolls ever. You know what? Combine all continents. Don't even go with one contient. It's time Bethesda. It's time. This is what you have been watiing for. Forget about The Elder Scrolls Online. Make this the biggest game of all the richest most detailed game ever. Add ideas from other games (dont be scared). Man you are going to sell alot! You might even make it to biggest selling video game ever. Of course you are not going to do everything exactly the way i explained above. You will do it YOUR way. The way of the Elder Scrolls. I swear you will SELL you will get many awards and you will known as the father of true open world RPGs in the future. You will be bigger than all those other developers. And obviously of course. Not all of this might might make it to the game (or nothing at all) lol But miracles happen and if possible. Make it come true through updates and DLC.

And also.

Don't you forget about my Morrowind remaster for consoles.

Make it happen Bethesda. Make it happen. I know you can do it.

This will be the best. game. ever. created.

And for talos sake! Don't mess UP the Playstation VERSION!!

On the contrary, Oblivion had the problem in spades. Fighters Guild quests sent us all over the map. Mages Guild quests sent us all over the map. All of the joinable factions in Oblivion send us all over the map.

The Mages Guild was one of the worst, in fact. One quest sends us across the map to Vahtacen. The very next quest sends us right back there again to Dark Fissure Cave...right next to Vahtacen! This is no problem for people who use fast travel, but if you are a person like me who avoids fast travel, that is a lot of running back and forth across the same terrain. One sequence of quests sends us to Skingrad, to Bruma, to Fort Ontus north of Kvatch, to Fort Teleman near Leyawiin. I could go on.

Fighters Guild was obviously also designed with fast travel in mind. Most us us will join in Chorrol (at least in our fist play through). But there are no quests given in Chorrol. No we are sent across the map to other Guilds and then we have to come back to Chorrol later. And, as with the Mages Guild, the Fighters Guild sends us all across the map too. A Cheydinhal quest sends us all the way down to Waters Edge. The very next quest sends us down to Bravil. An Anvil quest sends us to Bruma. I could go on.

Oblivion's quests were designed with fast travel in mind just as much (if not more) as Skyrim's quests were.

I did say the Mages Guild initiation, which I talked about throughout. That's why I kept referring to getting quests from that guild hall. Everything past the initiation got it wrong.


Fighters Guild was a mistake on my part, as I realised later on when I tried to think of an example.


Generally you have no arguments on where I want the quests and quest lines to head, though?

Speak for yourself. Fast Travel is a large part of what maintains my sense of immersion, because without it, I'm confronted full-force with how small the world is. This isn't just a problem with TES either. Wild Hunts world felt tiny to me. Bear in mind, of course, I started with Daggerfall, and play a lot of infinite (or near infinite) world space games, but a lack of fast travel makes it impossible to detach the act of traveling from the time it takes to reach anywhere. Morrowind felt like an amusemant park, because even with its few travel nodes, everything felt like a 5 minute walk from a bus stop. At least with Fast Travel I can imagine the trip from Whiterun to Iverstead took a week.


Immersion isn't a one way street, and not everyone gets immersed by the same things. Morrowinds skills didn't immerse me, because many were simply restrictive repurposing of the same thing (it's combat skills in particular). Oblivions Radiant Dialogue certainly didn't immerse me, because it was delivered by a juniour high drama dropout most of the time. But it's lack of immersion for me doesn't mean those things weren't immersive for others. Pseron for instance would likely support their immersive qualities, and there's nothing wrong with that.


Trying to design for immersion is inherently going to fail for at least some of the audience. Take Wild Hunts cities, as an example. There's a split on whether they were jarring, or immersive. Tying to be immersive isn't a good design philosophy. Instead, you should focus on solid mechanics and offering choices in those mechanics, because immersion ultimately comes from how involved the player is with the game. And the more interesting choices you offer, the more reliably involved they become.


Anyway... More models of inter-city travel would be nice, though it depends on the region and geography. Hammerfell is likely to rely mostly on shipping, while Valenwood would use more over-Land caravans, and teleportation would be more common in Summerset... But don't remove Fast Travel. Offer options beyond legging it for people who don't WANT fast travel (particularly to secondary settlements, Skyrim only linked the Hold Capitals) but returning to Morrowinds lack of reliable Fast Travel shouldn't be viewed as an improvement.

I swear people here TRY to get offended, almost on a Tumblr level. I mean, it's not like I was saying 'I'm you fast travel you're not immersing yourself'. Jesus. Had nothing to do with my point. I'm giving an opinion on how I think quests should work and somebody had to go on a rant about an offhand comment that just didn't need to be brought up.


Immersion wasn't my point and I'm not getting involved in a ridiculous argument over a phrasing. Go for a walk and chill a little.


Quests should be around the quest giver for people who don't like fast travelling. That's my entire point. Is everyone okay with that?

No, I'm not. Quests should be where ever relevant for the story they're telling. If the Fighters Guildmaster gets a contract from a noble on the other side of the province, then it should be on the other side of the province. If an Imperial Legion Commander needs you to retake a fort deep inside enemy territory, it shouldn't be withint spitting distance of said commander. If a Mill-workers husband had to wander way up into the mountains to meet for some shady deal to try and provide for his family, his skinned carcass shouldn't just be down the street.


Placement for missions, both the quest giver and where said mission takes place, should reflect the story that mission is trying to convey. It shouldn't be bound by geographic restrictions that exist for the sake of gameplay mechanics that some may prefer not to use. We're not talking about an MMO here, and a focus on efficient leveling. Where a quest takes place and who gives it should make sense for the Quest, not be part of a formula.


The games have always had a tendency to have you ranging too far, too often, but that's an issue of planning and world building. Its not a fast travel problem.



And you'll know if I'm offended. Just because I disagree with your statement, doesn't mean it offends me.

No, no, I actually agree with everything you wrote. We're totally on the same page. I think map-based fast travel should be kept for those who want it. But in-game fast travel (Silt Striders, Carriages, Guild Guides, ect) should a bit more convenient. And, unless there is a very good story-based reason for not doing so, quests should absolutely be designed so that we do not have to hike halfway across a province and back. I should have said this in my post. Apologies.

My only objection was to the notion that Oblivion did any of this better.

Traveling is one of those areas that I think is rather easy to appease all sorts of fans in.

Fast travel should absolutely be kept, but there should be a decent variety of options by which to travel otherwise. In Morrowind, you had Silt Striders, the Mages' Guild, Divine/Almsivi Intervention, and boats, but no fast travel. Oblivion and Skyrim barely had any options apart from fast travel. Why not incorporate both? Some of your travel options will depend on where the next game is set (e.g. if in Black Marsh, according to the lore there is a transportation system of worms that swallow you and let you get out whenever you reach your destination).

As for where quests should be set in relation to their guilds, they shouldn't just be placed locally for the sake of making them local, or far away for the sake of being far away. Whatever works for the quest in question.

Do you guys thik TES could benefit from a heavier and punishing simulation of melee combat like Dark Souls, or should remain hollow, contactless, weightless and pew-pew so more people could enjoy their invincibility?

Way to weight the question.


Frankly, I find Dark Souls combat to be ponderous, exaggerated and sometimes outright silly (it's rolls are entirely absurd). It's also extremely limiting and based way too much on driving it's Weapon Styles to allow for any really interesting combat dynamics or decision making.


Frankly, it's just as bad as TES's, but from the other direction.


There are far, fat better examples of decent combat out there. Dark Messiah, Condemned, Chivalry, Mount and Blade, Dying Light, to name a few. Even considering 3rd person combat, Dark Souls isn't that great, with far more dynamic examples like the Arkham games and The Witcher.


As per usual, Dark Souls really has little to offer TES.

This is a loaded question if ever I heard one.

EDIT: Dang, ninja'd.

I am like a shadow in the night. Silent, and with very little to do.

lmao! Dark Souls hands down. Especially the need to slow the [censored] down and observe the behavior of the enemy. Oh, and ladders, the [censored]in ladders that allow beautiful vertical design.

Ps A good start to make the combat more weighty is to put some meat on the character first, right now it's more like a floating ball with hands.

Sweet Vehk no. How about some Intelligence with our AI. We're not playing a game of Simon here. Dark Souls style Pattern-Combat is the absolute last thing we need. Better AI, not worse.

AI will be great, when it will be created. Until then I can settle for more advanced patterns for npcs and the necessity of good timing for the character.

We have AI. In fact, we have games with really good AI, and have had them for some time. The AI in Condemned will actively try to flank you, adjust to your weapon (whether its slow and heavy, or quick but not that damaging, and whether or not you have a gun), and enemies in FPS games have actively reacted to your weapon choice and movements for more than a decade.


Patterns are exactly the problem, and taking inspiration from a pattern driven game isn't doing anything to address the issue.

A roll is a roll, it can't be silly. A simulation wouldn't allow rolling in armor in the first place, so Witcher is silly too.

Has the combat in The Witcher improved greatly? I only tried the first one and thought it was atrocious, with the camera all over the place and the cursor that told you when to apply a combo.

If I could pick just one inspiration from your list that would be Dark Messiah of M&M because it managed to be diverse and fun.

Oh absolutely, a roll is silly regardless of the game. It's possible to play Wild Hunt without ever rolling, mind you. And yes, the combat did improve, 1 and 2 had generally rubbish combat, but in 3 you have much more control, and the Camera isn't a piece of junk.


The main advantage Wild Hunt has over Dark Souls in combat, however, is in its speed and fluidity, and less Pattern-Driven actions. Enemies aren't as prone to acting in predictable ways, and more frequently react to your own combat decisions than you see in Dark Souls, which is frankly little more than an edgy game of Simon when it comes to fighting. The two way reactivity is what makes it better, but even then it's only marginally so.


Of course, reactivity can go too much the other way, with games like Arkham being amkst entirely reactive. To the point where you can't even be considered fighting, you just press a button and Bat man does the fighting in what ends up being an over glorified Quick Time Event. But it is visually fun and very dynamic.


This isn't to say that Skyrims combat is good. It isn't. It's the best TES has ever had, and it's still bare bones functional. But modeling it after another deeply flawed combat system isn't addressing the problem, it's just swapping them out for entirely new ones.


Functionally, Skyrim needs 3 things. Better control of your attacks (abandon the sequential attack entirely and overhaul the Directional control mess). Better responses from you opponents (the aforementioned better AI and better impact response). Dodging (not rolling, dodging).


Those 3 things set a foundation for far more complexity in approach, equipment, enemy types (including resistences) and even Skills. Even without a 4th component (better hit direction to accommodate location damage) it already allows for a far better combat model than anything Dark Souls uses, and without the problems of trying to work around an entirely new set of shortcommings.

I addressed all of this in my original comment. Guilds would have members in most cities that get quests for that area and there would be a few special quests that require a trek. But it's definitely unrealistic to have a woman tell you she lost a ring in a cave up near Solitude and she's in Whiterun. That just wouldn't happen. It'd be like your mate telling you he's busy and asks you to fetch his phone that he left at his parents' house, which is down in London while you live in Edinburgh (Tamriel is about he site of Europe, so it'd actually be further than that). If someone asks you to do something, it's exxtremely likely to be local, and if it's implemented into the next game people who don't like using fast travel won't get bored from walking from one side of the province to the other for one quest.

Yes, in general. But it's not something that can be used as a hard and fast rule, not is it a philosophy that should define the stories that are represented. It creates a mentality that drives the creation of local objectives, rather than trying to write stories to tell. It becomes 'Go to A because A Is local' instead of 'Why are you going to A and what does A mean for the story'.


It's a great philosophy for Radiant Quests, but even then it's something that can be broken relatively easily. A local young'n could ask you to get some flowers for his sweetheart, but wants the kind her Grandmother used to grow, which can only be found half way across the country. Or a Merchant send you to look for something he lost on his last trip from Middle-of-Nowhere (probably a cowardly dog).


Quests are ultimately about telling a story, and the where needs to be related to the story, not kept local out of convenience for people who dint want to have to walk somewhere.

I hope they expand on the romance/marriage thing instead of cutting it. Despite all criticism that the whole process was half-arsed, I like to have this for RP. I wish they improve the dialogue options and more aware and reactive characters. I think Fallout 4 is a step forward in this regard, but still lacking a good dialogue that usually makes good characters.


My suggestions would be:

- npc disposition that can be altered with meaningful dialogue options, gifts, amount of time spent together, amount of quests completed as companions, on top of basic compatibility issues between the player and the npc such as race, faction/religion/politics allegiances;


- build solid background stories for the characters available for romance and give them personal questlines to help bonding in time (need more than an amulet );


- make divorce possible both ways: the player and the spouse can leave and become available to remarry if the compatibility parameters are altered severely by the player's actions (ie a spouse with high morality will protest the player killing civilians or joining the assassins guild, then warn him/her, then simply leave)