Poll: The Elder Scrolls VI: what do you want?

[Hugh Wright]

I've sunk over 1100 hrs into Skyrim and while I'm still discovering things and enjoying all the modding community has to offer, but my mind turns to the future and what comes next. Will Bethesda make the next TES game with a new engine for the next gen of consoles (and PC) incorporating all the new shininess it can offer, revamping skills, magic and combat as well as graphics or will they use their experience with the Creation Engine making Skyrim and its DLC to create a game, while not as pretty, that is more stable, possibly more complex, that a completely new build . Also with all the mods as experiments looking at how people have changed the game to 'improve it' (I don't see how freaky andro children or MLP dragons improve the game but different strokes and all) can give a much shorter turn around time for the next game.
Thoughts?

Captcha - sound out

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I want a new RPG revolution. I want something that I can't even imagine right now. Something that will shake the very foundation of how we see RPG's and blow my freakin' noodle.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

I reckon the engine they have is fine. If the mods are any indication, it's capable of some truly beautiful visuals already, I just hope the AI can be improved.

I want the stealth AI, in particular, to be a lot better next time around. I want enemies to realize that the "wind" didn't just headshot their mate with an arrow. I suppose it would be too much to ask for NPCs to notice suspiciously opened doors and my character's shadow creeping up on them, though.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I just hope the AI can be improved.

The processing power of new consoles should make that possible. I think that AI and physics are the two things that will improve the most in the future games. That is, if the programmers are good enough. They're no longer limited by the 8 year old hardware.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Stop making characters essential. When I go on my little crime waves half the population shouldn't be invincible.

 

[Lunar Shadow]

Summerset isles, a return to Morrowind levels of living worldness (IE: Skyrim is like a large shallow sand box, where sure there is alot of area but you can't really do anything with it vs Morrowind's smaller deeper sandbox)

 

[SUPA FRANKY]

Copy Paste from a previous thread:

I want the ultimate fantasy game, with interesting things to see and people to meet, locales to explore, secrets to find and hardships to endure. I wanna game that will be brutal but rewarding.

Improved Combat

make combat have more depth.Make it so you can shield bash, disarm opponents, and block attacks by turning your blade at a certain angle, and dodge out of the way of attacks as well as use the terrain ( If your being pushed into a wall and you have high athletics, then you could wall run over your opponent). Also, it would be cool if you could damage certain body parts by cutting off someones arm or smashing someones kneecap in with a war hammer. Finally, it would be cool if they had an "Arts" system, where you choose a particular combat style by studying under a master and then you get bonuses for using that style ( The Way of the Dual Wield Swordsmen would get an animation change to fit a unique style, and also get a boost for swiftness of attacks, but at the same time, to get the full benefits, you must adhere to a rule or something ( Maybe never using your swords to kill a women or Not wearing Heavy Armour) Studying under masters net you the ability to use the art, as well as continuous training under the master will increase its effectiveness.

More Weapons and Loot

Skyrim I felt lacked in that regard. it had beautiful items, but a bit to few. They should make the load out set look like this: Helmet, Cuirass, Left Guantlet, Right Gauntlet, Grieves, Pants, 2 Rings, and a Accessory ( Like Capes, Feathers, A Skirt, something to add more flair. They should also make more types of Armour types ( Copper, Gold, stuff like that), as well as make the most powerful Armour types more rare ( You'd only find something Daedric if you REALLY search for it.) Also, more weapon types. Crossbows, Spears, Flails, Maybe Muskets, Chakrams, Battle Staffs.

Magic
They should give magic a more mystic feel. Make it feel like some powerful unstable force rather than another game play type. I want magic to feel like a character could just stick to one School of magic and still be able to kick ass. ( Like an Illusionist can turn invisible, Give People Nightmares, Puppeteer people for a short period of time, Make people go insane or even make people kill themselves. A Destruction Mage can focus on Area of Effect Spells that Destroy the most powerful opponents or he could focus on being a quick shot that incinerate people before they can draw their weapons. A Downside is that the Spells can fail or backfire, as well as producing an opposite effect maybe at random. Rather than just learning better spells later, it would be cool if you could just keep practicing the use of the spell to make it stronger and less likely to fail. This would mean less Fortify XXX bullshit spells that no one uses as well as give people the idea that they are a strange ability. Also, Levitation, Transmuting, as wel as more summons and elements to use ( Water, Earth, Crystals?). Finally, it would be cool if you could enchant items to have particular abilities ( Like A Sword enchanted with Lighting could create a giant blast of thunder. A Flute you enchanted with Sleep will make all the people around you go to sleep.

Leveling

I don't really like Level Scaling, so it would be ok if they put you in the area with lesser creatures, but at the same time you could run into a Level 3000 Daedric Mage that would kill you before you even got close. Hell, you could even make up stories like A powerful monster lurks through these woods at night, don't go out! make the lore centric and antagonist All powerful, while making Normal Bandits and Goblins there too. It would be an awesome feeling after coming so far, and defeating such a powerful opponent rather than just beating everything at level 1. Also, rather than just level grinding ( So much for Level Scaling, remember), it would be awesome if you could defeat opponents by utilizing a weakness or using your ability to outsmart them ( Something akin to how the people in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Fight) Example: You and your party are fighting an all powerful mage who can enchant the floor with deadly destruction magic. He is also immune to all attacks aimed at himself. SO in order to defeat him, you would have to levitate, throw your sword, Arrow, or Magic spell to an ally or a mirror or whatever, and deflect it off them or it, and use it to hit the enemy. I really wish this was in a game.

Quest and Lore, Gameplay, Misc.

Make companions , but improve their AI( Not only could you tell them to use certain skills, but they would be smart enough to hold their own, heal themselves and party members, defend the mages in a group, offer support for double team attacks, figure out the weaknesses of enemies, without having to sithe through a tactics menu or baby sitting them etc.), and give them their own quests,Personality, Thoughts on particular events that happened in the world or recently, as well as offering ways of improving their abilities. They should each also have a unique voice for them. ( Something akin to Bioware.) They could also be used for team up attacks. ( A companions grasp an enemy, and then you finished it off by cutting your sword through it. So yea, make them more like Vilja. Dragon Age Oriigns did this perfectly, but the dialogue seemed to infrequent and scripted. I prefer if it was more natural.

Also, if a war is to happen, make the battles bigger ( 5 people? Seriously?). Tyranniconn has the righht idea. Also, bigger, Fiercer monster types ( Stuff like Griffins, Hydras, Giant monsters would be cool two. More mount types can also be cool.

Also, they did say the Elder Scrolls we're more a realistic fantasy, but they should really increase the fantasy in the games. Wizards teleporting around the towns, Daedras serving tea and cookies to restaurant customers, A town at the bottom of an ocean, A Tribe of Skooma drinkers with the ability to levitate. Skyrim was epic, but I found it a bit to realistic for a fantasy game.

There should be more in depth factions. The 4 dominating Factions are The Mages Guild, The Fighter's Guild, The Thieves Guild, and the Dark brotherhood. But it would be really cool if you have like sects or mini guilds in each faction ( The Fighters guild could have a sect in some town that are known for hunting down Warlords. Another town might be known for Monster Hunting. In the Mages Guild, there could be a sect that specializes in a particular Spell or have some gimmick that helps them differentiate.

The AI is for the most part ok in towns, but needs improvement. It would be nice to see NPCs rushing when it begins to rain, or Laugh when they see something funny. Random attacks on towns would cause all the NPCs to run in terror, and if you help them, they would remeber you. ( Defending a young boy from a Daedra will make him like you, even though fighting the Daedra was never part of a quest.)

In terms of the Quest, they seem mostly alright. But since this is to be the biggest game ever we need an overhaul here too. Maybe there could be about 50 Quest lines, and a whole multitude of miscellaneous quest. 6 Quest of the Quest Lines are main Quest affairs that affect the very course of the world.( maybe 1 involving Political Intrigue or rebellion, Another revolving the Resurrection of some Invincible Enemy, Another Involving Discovering more about the Dwemer, etc. While the rest could be side stories. Maybe each major city has a quest line attributed to it. Each guild has a multitude of Quest lines attributed. A Quest line could be attributed to each Companion Companion and your actions during there quest affect their abilities, how they feel about you, your other companions, and the world itself and such.

So making my dream game would be quite an undertaking. Skyrim still a preety good game though.

 

[SajuukKhar]

a return to Morrowind levels of living worldness

You really could do much with Morrowind's world either. If anything, it was more static tehn Skyrim's.
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But anyways, as for the Op's question. Some stuff I would like to see in the next TES would be

-In regards to perk trees, I found that Skyrim did most of them right, the weapon trees, most of the magic trees, so on and so forth, with each having a fairly logical system of perk progression. However, some trees, like lockpicking, or alchemy, were just shit, with random perks flown all other the place. What I would like to see is them fixing the few perk trees that didn't make sense in Skyrim.

-In regards to combat, I want it to feel more weighty. Skyrim made combat so much better then in past games, by making it more bloody, and adding in kill cams, and better animations, but weapons impacts still feel really floaty, like I'm just passing through air.

-More NPC reactions. Bethesda largely has small scale NPC reactions down, with NPCs constantly thanking you for helping them with their trivial tasks, and possibly giving you gifts and whatnot. However, large scale NPC reactions, to events like the Emperor's death, and the end of the Civil war, were lacking, or non-existant, outside of guard dialog. The Dragonborn DLC shows MUCH improvement in this department, with Raven Rock, Neloth, and the Skall, reacting far more to what you did, and I would like to see that continued.

-Better NPC companions. While most of the town's people were fine in skyrim IMO, NPC companions are something Bethesda needs to work on. Serana, from the Dawngaurd DLC, showed much improvement in this regard, a long backstory, the ability to change her life by getting her to give up Vampirism, so on and so on, and I would like to see this done for the ext TES. Perhaps instead of making every other person you help a companion, only have about 5-6 in the game world eh Bethesda?

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

-Better NPC companions. While most of the town's people were fine in skyrim IMO,NPC companions are something Bethesda needs to work on. Serana from the Dawngaurd DLC showed much improvement in this regard, a long backstory, the ability to change her life by getting her to give up Vampirism, so on and so on, and I would like to see this done for the ext TES. Perhaps instead of making every other person you help a companion, only have about 5-6 in the game world eh Bethesda?

In other words, the New Vegas approach. They really impressed me with Serana. I didn't know they had it in them.

 

[SajuukKhar]

In other words, the New Vegas approach. They really impressed me with Serana. I didn't know they had it in them.

I just think they haven't really tried before.

Morrowind and Oblivion were pretty much followerless, and Fallout 3's companions were only added in at the VERY last minute, which is why they had to make up that "we wont go into the purifier for you CUZ DESTINY" BS.

And given the ES game's previously consistent lack of followers, I dont really think they considered it a big priority for vanilla Skyrim either.

 

[endtherapture]

1. A proper combat system.
2. Better NPC companions and control system - eg. like in New Vegas.
3. Classes, maybe.
4. A more interesting story
5. Longer questslines which I won't finish in a single sitting.
6. A proper war with supply lines etc.
7. Proper impact of your decisions on the game world.
8. Better dungeons - multiple routes, big mazes and labyrinths.
9. Better dialogue and choices for you to make in dialogue so I can really roleplay.

 

[Crozekiel]

The processing power of new consoles should make that possible. I think that AI and physics are the two things that will improve the most in the future games. That is, if the programmers are good enough. They're no longer limited by the 8 year old hardware.

My pc is already miles ahead of console performance and power... I want a game that utilizes it to bring me what the game should be instead of what they had to make it be to sell it on consoles.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

In other words, the New Vegas approach. They really impressed me with Serana. I didn't know they had it in them.

I just think they haven't really tried before.

Morrowind and Oblivion were pretty much followerless, and Fallout 3's companions were only added in at the VERY last minute, which is why they had to make up that "we wont go into the purifier for you CUZ DESTINY" BS.

And given the ES game's previously consistent lack of followers, I dont really think they considered it a big priority for vanilla Skyrim either.

Fair point. I agree too. I'd rather have 6 companions with character than 25+ that have the personality of a fence post.

 

[Genocidicles]

One thing I hope they sort out is the player being able to join every guild, even if they lack the necessary skills.

I mean I was able to become Archmage even though I only knew two spells. I was able to become a master thief by running in and murdering everyone, and then looting their stuff. It's ridiculous.

 

[Joby Baumann]

I'd like to see a less bland world, (copy-pasted nord "cities" with 15 buildings), A less retarded story (alduin wanted to destroy the wold because hurr durr I'm a dragon), none of this dragon buisiness, More monster/ enemy types, and a return to the level of world building that was in Morrowind and Oblivion.

Also bring back the sheer amount of weapon and armor types from Morrowind. Likehaving left and right pauldrons, gloves, clothes worn over/ under armor, having throwing knives, darts, and throwing stars, spears, staves, wakazashis (spelling butchered) and tantos.

Throw in the Numidium for good measure too, the best 2 (daggerfall and Morrowind) were based around it.

Also just save modders the trouble and just have vanilla have nudity. Daggerfall and Arena did it, and no shitstorm was had.

 

[SajuukKhar]

1. A less retarded story (alduin wanted to destroy the wold because hurr durr I'm a dragon)

2. Also bring back the sheer amount of weapon and armor types from Morrowind. Likehaving left and right pauldrons, gloves, clothes worn over/ under armor, having throwing knives, darts, and throwing stars, spears, staves, wakazashis (spelling butchered) and tantos.

1. Actually Alduin wanted to destroy the world not because he is a dragon, but because that is literally his job. Alduin is a fragment of Akatosh, torn from Akatosh by the heavens themselves, who exists to eat the Kalpa, the name for the universe, when the Kalpa dies, so that a new Kalpa can form, and Akatosh and Lorkhan can continue their divine plan. Without Alduin the Kalpa would just end, and all mortal life would end forever with it.

Akatosh, and his brother Lorkhan, sent the dragonborn to stop Alduin not because Alduin tired to eat the world, but because they wanted to delay the end of the current Kalpa, because something is apparently special about this Kalpa.

2. They wont because
--Less armor pieces means more NPCs on the screen because the game has to render less objects
--That many armor pieces would make perks difficult, if not impossible to do.
--Having that many armor pieces makes each piece of armor largely worthless.
--All the weapons in Morrowind played exactly the same, there was no difference between melee weapons besides look, and with the removal of all the extra weapon types, they are able to spend time on giving weapons special effects/bonus that the would have time to do if they had so many weapons. They will only add weapons back in if they can find a unique gameplay mechanic for it, like Crossbows.

 

[RipRoaringWaterfowl]

I heard someone on this forum mention the hope of VI being Akavir.

Unlikely, but awesome!

 

[The_Lost_King]

I want it to be set in one of these three places: Elswyr, Summerset isles, or Argonia/Black Marsh. I listed those in order of which I would prefer.

Otherwise, I would like to sit back and watch Bethesda do their thing. I would hope that they make quests more like in Oblivion than in Skyrim. Oblivion's quests were more creative and weren't always, go here kill this. Also Dark Brotherhood was way better with different ways to kill your target and bonuses were awesome.

 

[Cpt. Lozan]

I'd like to see Bethesda put depth back in the franchise. I was really dissapointed by Skyrim's lack of big cities and very generic quests and I REALLY don't want to get started on the guilds, I'd be here ranting all day.

Still, I have hope in Bethesda, hope they can get back to Daggerfall or Morrowind, or even just Oblivion.

 

[Asita]

Based off of Skyrim:

1) If there must be a marriage system, give it some actual content. Not making it a focus is all well and good, but if when it's as bare bones as Skyrim's system, it begs the question of why they'd bother including it at all.
2) If there must be children in the game, make sure the races are properly represented. A lack of Khajiit kits in Skyrim was perfectly justifiable by the bulk of the race being part of a merchant caravan. A dearth of Dunmer children is far less justifiable when Windhelm actually has an established Dunmer alienage.
2a) If necromancy must be possible, make sure the races are properly represented. If I'm casting raise dead on a fresh Argonian corpse, the skeleton should NOT look like that of a Nord[footnote]Yes, there actually is a Skyrim mod for this[/footnote]
3) If the NPCs must react to your achievements, their reactions should be internally consistent. If I hear a guard say "Whatever you need, Dragonborn. Just say the word", then the next words I hear from that guard better not be "Let me guess...Someone stole your sweetroll?"
4) If you must have armor options, there should be distinct benefits to the various armor types. At the end of the day, light armor and heavy armor had the exact same role in Skyrim, and the effective armor cap meant that Light Armor pulled out ahead due to being quieter, lighter[footnote]Yes, you can get your worn heavy armor down to 0 weight, but that requires two skill points that could go to better uses[/footnote] and just as protective. Effectively, Light Armor was Heavy Armor, only better. Giving the armor types distinct roles (chance to dodge vs fully tanking, for instance) helps to avoid this problem
5) If there must be a major sidequest (ala Skyrim's Civil War), you should not be able to avoid it completely. Not participate? Sure. But if there's a Civil War going on, the player needs to see it happening while running about. I'm sure I don't need to say how confusing it is to be told that a truce is needed before the main plot continues...when there hasn't been any evidence of real fighting since your capture before the game starts.