How should the next Elder Scrolls Game be handled?
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LET OBSIDION MAEK IT HURR DURR!
Well, with that out of my system, I'd say that Black Marsh or Elsweyr would be good candidates for a world enviroment this time around. Plus, the hints we've gotten about Argonian and Khajiit culture would make for an interesting change away from Ol' Humanland. Morrowind was about being a stranger in an Alien land. It evidently worked, it's probably high time to recreate that feel.
Now, what I really liked about Skyrim is that they finally had the heart to break up the Empire and give it some contenders. It made the political side far more interesting than a benevolent world government. I hope they continue on that line. Another reason to go for either Elsweyr or Black Marsh. Elsweyr is a divided puppet state of the Thalmor (ripe for a resistance movement, perhaps we get to see what caused the moons to disappear and reappear and how the Thalmor could take credit for that) and Black Marsh is an independent nation on the rise, and eager to settle old scores with the Dunmer. Both would make interesting scenarios to toss our destined hero into.
And while I don't disagree completly with simplifying things (even if we do end up with rather big sacrifices, like spell making), I'd say we've hit the bottom with Skyrim. This is as simple as things should get, in my opinion.
And last, but not least; while we create our character, it'd be neat if the also got to fill in what our character from the previous game was. It's a bit odd when the world-saving hero of yore is never mentioned by name, gender or race. This way, we could at least see the Dovakhiin mentioned by name in the history books, or even in statue form somewhere. The official lore would have to be open-ended, but that doesn't have to be the case in the player's own pocket dimension.
Well, with that out of my system, I'd say that Black Marsh or Elsweyr would be good candidates for a world enviroment this time around. Plus, the hints we've gotten about Argonian and Khajiit culture would make for an interesting change away from Ol' Humanland. Morrowind was about being a stranger in an Alien land. It evidently worked, it's probably high time to recreate that feel.
Now, what I really liked about Skyrim is that they finally had the heart to break up the Empire and give it some contenders. It made the political side far more interesting than a benevolent world government. I hope they continue on that line. Another reason to go for either Elsweyr or Black Marsh. Elsweyr is a divided puppet state of the Thalmor (ripe for a resistance movement, perhaps we get to see what caused the moons to disappear and reappear and how the Thalmor could take credit for that) and Black Marsh is an independent nation on the rise, and eager to settle old scores with the Dunmer. Both would make interesting scenarios to toss our destined hero into.
And while I don't disagree completly with simplifying things (even if we do end up with rather big sacrifices, like spell making), I'd say we've hit the bottom with Skyrim. This is as simple as things should get, in my opinion.
And last, but not least; while we create our character, it'd be neat if the also got to fill in what our character from the previous game was. It's a bit odd when the world-saving hero of yore is never mentioned by name, gender or race. This way, we could at least see the Dovakhiin mentioned by name in the history books, or even in statue form somewhere. The official lore would have to be open-ended, but that doesn't have to be the case in the player's own pocket dimension.
Those are good ideas in-and-of-themselves, and if we were talking about some other game I might agree with you. But I really don't want to see the focus shift to the player-character like that. Let Bioware handle the Bioware games. It's a very common request for Bethesda to start copying Bioware but if they do it I'm going to rage so hard. Everything doesn't have to be the same. I wasn't aware anyone liked the companions for anything but inventory management. I keep trying to use them because, well, they're there. But they annoy me too much and they aren't balanced into gameplay well.kyosai7 said:
My first exact thought, thanks for that image.L0dest0ne said:Damn casuals ruining the series...
Pic: If I ever meet Todd Howard
OT: Well I guess I can foresee the next TES storyline. You are perhaps some sort of mercenary or soldier in the army. Hell maybe even the Dragonborn. Then for the whole game you will be derping and herping around Cyrodill and possibly other places trying to fight back the Great Aldemeri Dominion onslaught which they had been hyping up the whole game. Then I would guess that maybe they will allow you to side as with the Empire or help out the Elves. I don't know why I just see this becoming like the Civil War questline only on a bigger scale.
Now about features:
I would like to see some more human reactions from NPC when I just went into the shop and butchered their family.
Better combat as in why do the cinematic kill cams which make the game awesome have to only trigger randomly?
Even though 'there's a mod for that' I would like Bethesda not to let others fix their cock ups.
Some more interaction to the marriage options. I was happy I could get married in Skyrim but all I got in return was 'Hello, love', open shop and some food.
Oh! And another thing!
Remember that questline from Morrowind where you got to build your own stronghold? A bit like hearthfire, but less gimmicky. Perhaps that'd be an idea for the main quest of VI, a sort of concrete reward for doing well. Or at least a faction reward.
Remember that questline from Morrowind where you got to build your own stronghold? A bit like hearthfire, but less gimmicky. Perhaps that'd be an idea for the main quest of VI, a sort of concrete reward for doing well. Or at least a faction reward.
I have made the same argument several times. We really didn't have more choice before in practice. We had less, and badly structured choice. Spell-making is a good example. People were using less and less interesting spells because of it, not more. And in Skyrim we have all the different effects that provide a lot more choice in practice. In practice, all attributes did was provide an opportunity to break your character by leveling wrong, overpower it by doing a bunch of tedious horseshit, or just ignore them entirely. They had to go and good riddance. The way the weapon skills are structured in Skyrim is the way it should have been done from the beginning. It makes a lot more sense then Oblivion. Having a dagger and a claymore tied to the same skill just felt wrong. I do miss spears, and not just for myself. The Imperial soldiers just don't look right without a pilum or short spear or something.Rack said:
But I think it's time to turn things around in the next title. They have been trying to identify what is really making the game better and what is holding it back. Now they have figured it out, and it's time to use what they have learned to start adding to the games again.
People said Morrowind would suck because it's just empty ash fields. They said Skyrim would suck because it's just snow, snow, and more snow. Ironically, out of the 3D TES games the only one whose world sucked was Oblivion. The subject matter they choose isn't as important as what they do with it.Metalhandkerchief said:
I know a lot of people are calling for Elsweyr but I think the time is right for Blackmarsh. They have had developments in their own political system we should see. They have an ongoing conflict with the Dunmer that (I have no doubt!) is making life in Blackmarsh itself very complicated. And finally, this is a good time for Blackmarsh to thicken the plot a little bit by influencing the conflict between the Empire and the Thalmor in anticipation of the next Great War. I want to see what Argonian architecute, culture, politics, and religious life are like and how it all fits together. I want to see a society of reclusive lizard-people whose culture reflects dark undertones and hints at something insidious beneath the surface.
Maybe if I bought Todd Howard a fruitcake or something...
I'm not crazy about putting marriage in the game just in principle. But if they must, it's essential they depict the region's marriage ceremony and practices in an interesting way that teaches me about the place and culture I'm experiencing. If they fail to do that they should just cut the feature. Same goes for the stupid chores like chopping wood. If I wanted to play a boredom simulator I'd play Fable.Yokillernick said:
1) Yes dragons are very big. The larger and more complex a model is, the harder it is to properly program it to move and detect collision.charge52 said:
2) Dragons can fly. No other enemies (outside of a few in Morrowind) do this, and never fly as fast or as far as the dragons in Skyrim.
3) Dragons not only fly, but find space to land on the ground and attack. Their attacks are also different when they are on the ground and in the sky. Again, no enemies in the Elder Scrolls have ever done this. Most enemies either shoot arrows/spells or attack with melee and occasionally heal themselves or others. The combat is very basic. As I said later in my post, combat is one of the weakest parts of the Elder Scrolls series.
1) Spoken dialogue has two huge problems associated with it, disk space and money. The more dialogue you have, the more space you need to store it, and more dialogue means more actors or more recording time, or both, which is very, very expensive.
2) Not to mention writing the dialogue and programming the correct lines to be spoken at the right times. Unless you're perfectly fine with huge textboxes (a la Morrowind) spoken dialogue has a long way to go in any game, not just Skyrim.
1) I agree with most of this, the pathfinding and combat intelligence of the companions is pretty terrible, but compare that to previous Bethesda games' companions and you'll see that they have many less mistakes than others. Artificial companions are just below sentient AI and are very difficult to do, especially in such a large sprawling world.
Yes I am.
It is so rare that a game as ambitious and large as Skyrim is made to completion with so few major hiccups. There is no such thing as a perfect game, but I think on the whole, they did what they set out to accomplish with an astounding level of execution. I'm not saying there aren't things to fix. I'm simply admiring the work that they have done so far. This thread was supposed to be about what you would like to see in a new Elder Scrolls game, not what you hated from the last one.
I agree with this. People always post long lists of flaws with Elder Scrolls games and then act surprised when I still like them. I often say "there's nothing else like The Elder Scrolls" hoping someone will prove me wrong. People invariably rebut with a bunch of old 2D top-down titles, Arx Fatalis, 4x space mining sims and STALKER. Like I always say, I will shit all over Bethesda's series when someone else does the same thing and does it half as well.Cerrax said:
No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!
It is way too early to talk about another TES game when we still need FALLOUT 4!
It is way too early to talk about another TES game when we still need FALLOUT 4!
Don't change a good thing. Change the setting, but not the mechanic. I have heard Boston was the next venue, but think that's a horrible idea. Personally, I would love to see London or Tokyo. But thats me.
thiss69-5 said:
dragons never really caught my interest. in fact, the main reason i enjoyed Skyrim so much MORE than Oblivion was because of the werewolves. and i'd LOVE to see them take that supernatural-racial-tension further in a future Elder Scrolls game/DLC (hey if Vampires can get a whole "save the world" sub-plot in Skyrim then SO CAN WERES DAMNIT!) i always felt throughout playing Oblivion and Skyrim that that area was never really explored to its fullest potential. if i'm a wussy Vampire i wanna have a full quest thing for it and be able to go out and get blood-cattle and stuff. if i'm a werewolf (and i will be every time) i wanna be able to go on hunts with my "pack". dodge hunters in towns and stuff. they could play around with it and give it a lot of depth and fun. (hell even ADD a Vamp/Were hunter faction so those people who don't wanna be either have something extra to do)
i play a Kahjiit, always have, and unless a more canid species crops up, i always will. but nothing really ever made me FEEL like i was __RACE__ in Skyrim. hardly any responses or comments were made. which was a step back from Oblivion where guards actually NOTICED your race. and the level system was kinda bland. in both the games (i'm only running off of Oblivion and Skyrim knowledge. i never played Morrowind. the later games ruined it for me by spoiling me with better mechanics and graphics)
multiplayer would be cool, but with the Elder Scrolls Online coming out i think it's unnecessary and redundant.
i WOULD however like to see some advancements made in combat. Skyrim did great by adding those Execution animations. but i'd really like to see more added to that. like when you climb onto the Dragons head to kill it, i'd like you to be able to do that on a whim (not necessarily a dragon either. giants too) jump onto and grab/grapple your opponents. throw smaller ones to the ground/into walls or spikes. climb over large enemies like Dragons Dogma or Shadow of the Collosus. basically turn that animation into something you can control. it'd likely be forced 3rd person, but it'd be interesting to see a take on that from a first-person angle as well. (minor gripe about 3rd person, but sneaking around dosn't look quite right in 3rd person. even if it's just aesthetic an ability to take "cover" behind a wall would be nice. (i say "cover" in quotes because you likely won't ever attack from it.))
Bethesda has a great game series going for it. an intricate and interesting world and a near infinite number of directions to take it. their graphics have reached the point where improvement isn't really necessary, just a little touching up to get rid of bugs and clipping and stuff. their mechanics work great (though get rid of the Skyrim/Fallout lockpicking thing. it takes a lot of luck and not real player skill like Oblivions. sure it was annoying but i could pick a Vhard lock at super-low Lockpicking skill with 1 pick because i had good timing. this one... requires a lot of luck and guesswork.) and they have a dedicated fanbase. now that they don't have to worry about making it "look amazing" because they have all the stuff for it already, we should see the series swell with more story and content. more stuff to actually DO rather than prettier things to look at and spill blood on.
also the moving stuff around your house to decorate it has always been a pain in the ass. that really needs some work done on it. like the ability to enter a "mode" or something where the controls are JUST for moving stuff around. (think Halo Forge mode) it's at the point where i just pick up all the food and plats and crap off the desks and put them in a cupboard. it's gonna end up on the floor anyway. then i won't be able to put it back.
sorry about the WALL of text. The Elder Scrolls is one of my favourite games and i usually have a lot to say.
1) Ok... are you saying you're impressed that programmers can do their job again?Cerrax said:
2) So because the programmers can make the Dragon fly "faster and farther" it's some technological miracle? Another case of someone doing their basic job, nothing impressive(not to mention how many times dragonflight has bugged out, remember when dragons flew backwards?)
3) Hate to break it to you, but setting locations for Dragons is no more complicated than setting pathfinding for most NPCs. They establish proper code, set out the multiple paths, and input some algorithms that will cause it to choose one landing zone over another.
1) They set out to create radiant AI, make people feel alive, they failed, you can use the excuse that it costs tons of money, but the fact of the matter is, they chose to do it and failed to do it.
2) I would be fine with the huge text boxes, because maybe then Bethesda would be able to create NPCs who feel alive because they could program tons more dialogue with out worrying about all the time and money it costs to voice all of it.
1) Just because it's(barely) improved does not excuse all of it's flaws. Again, they set out to make NPCs feel alive, and this is just another way in which they failed.
Since you say few hiccups, I'm going to assume you don't count the shit ton of bugs as hiccups. They didn't even accomplish half of what they set out to do. Examples, NPC AI that I've mentioned, they set out to make Dragons feel alive, but they still have the same problems everything has, bugs out and is limited to about 20 actions, all of which play out the exact same way. They set out to make every dungeon look unique, but still retained about 5, maybe 6 dungeon tile sets. They set out to make Skyrim feel like a unique and real world, but instead ended up with a stale game world that felt more artificial than their AI. They set out to have dynamically randomly generated quests, which amount to kill bandits in this dungeon for the 20th time.
What should be in the next elder scrolls game? How about more skills, like in previous games, a return to attributes, like in previous games, a return to the class system, like in previous games. I would like them to add spell making back, add back removed spells and add even more, I would like them to add more variety between weapons, and make locations and dungeons more unique, I would like them to add a halfway decent story that isn't incredibly generic. I would like them to stop simplifying the games to pander to a more casual audience, I would like them to use an engine that doesn't force a loading screen as much as it does know, I would like them to try and appeal to the audience that got them where they are today, I would like them to add spears and throwing weapons back. I would like them to add more things than they remove. If you want me to say more just ask, cause I can.
This is exactly what I am talking about lol. Great games, I'm sure (except Gothic 3), but they just don't scratch the same itch. The only good answer I've ever gotten is STALKER, but that's not even an RPG.charge52 said:
I don't like it because it is unique, I just like it. I'm willing to forgive a lot because it is to my liking and because it is unique. If there was a game called Schmeyrim that was basically the same concept but it fixed all the complaints people have, I would play that instead. But there isn't.
As long as they dont dumb it down any more. I was gutted when they got rid of the acrobatics skill for example- sure it didnt do much for the game in the grand scheme of things, but being able to jump over a cliff or fortress wall opened up more stealth approaches, and made general traversing easier. Not to mention it was just bloody good fun.
At the rate theyve been going, looking back to morrowind and oblivion, TES6 will just have a weapon, stealth and magic skills and we'll basically be playing Fable!
At the rate theyve been going, looking back to morrowind and oblivion, TES6 will just have a weapon, stealth and magic skills and we'll basically be playing Fable!
Xbox exclusive? More like PC exclusive!nikki191 said:
Anyways, I've said it before but it's about time they went bigger. For two console generations now the game has been set in a single province roughly 16 square KM's in size. How about for TES VI they give us two provinces to play in, each one being the same size as the previous games, and the story revolving around a conflict/war between the two. In this manner you would have different starting points in the game, pick one of the local races the game is centered on and you start there, pick an Imperial and you start in the Imperial Legion attempting to keep the peace, and the rest of the races can be dumped into a more flexible mercenary category. Looking at the world map something between Summerset-Valenwood-Elsweyr or High Rock-Hammerfell would work.
The next Elder Scrolls game could be set in Hammerfell, and involve a main hero who discovers they have sword-singing powers.
For those of you who don't know Sword-Singing is basically the Redguard equivalent to the Thu'um, its a form of voice/spirit magic that's so powerful it allows people to split atoms.
Sword-sining was practiced by the ancient Redguards but mostly lost when a band of sword-singners used the forbidden atom splitting technique to destroy the Redguard homeland of Yokuda.
Sword-singing can be passed on via stone cubes, similarly to how the Thu'um can be learned via word walls.
It would allow Bethesda to make another games with the Thu'um, without having to actually use the thu'um again.
For those of you who don't know Sword-Singing is basically the Redguard equivalent to the Thu'um, its a form of voice/spirit magic that's so powerful it allows people to split atoms.
Sword-sining was practiced by the ancient Redguards but mostly lost when a band of sword-singners used the forbidden atom splitting technique to destroy the Redguard homeland of Yokuda.
Sword-singing can be passed on via stone cubes, similarly to how the Thu'um can be learned via word walls.
It would allow Bethesda to make another games with the Thu'um, without having to actually use the thu'um again.
1. Out of curiosity, did you play Gothic 3, or did you more hear about how it was bad, because I remember when it was released it was bashed because it had a buggy launch and because it was easier than the original Gothic.Rooster Cogburn said:
2. The thing with the games, they really have the same design as the Elder Scrolls games, with the only difference being that the story is more important(WAY less though in Gothic 3, which is another reason some Gothic fans didn't like it) The only reason they wouldn't itch the same scratch would mainly be because of the person playing would approach it seeing the heavier emphasis on story, and thinking that you're supposed to due main quests over side quests. Though the main ones that applies to is Gothic 2&3, because Risen has heavy emphasis on Story, and Gothic 1, oh man it's hard to say that game is good anymore, it has not aged all that well. Good game for a laptop though, keyboard only controls.