TES V, New Ideas

[nightmare_gorilla]

honestly as much as people complained about oblivion the combat really made a mage class usable as your main combat choice where in morrowind the magic was more for playing around. i'd like to see the expansiveness of morrowind come back with the combat and some of the other speeding up factors of oblivion, i can't really suggest a story simply because the main quest and humor in bethesda's games are beyond what i'm capable of suggesting, but the biggest suggestion on the elder scroll forums seems to be making a game centered around the argonian homeland. i think it'd be neat to have the other races at a disatvantage for once.

i would HATE a elder scrolls mmorpg it would just ruin the experience, however making it two player though really difficult might be fun if they did it from the ground up with the intent of making it a two player game where your fates are intertwined, though it would make the whole "random past" a little difficult to pull, i think doing a bethesda game where it was made for two guys would be nice, it would lend some credibility to the support magic that seems to be fairly useless most of the time. like maybe make it impossible to heal yourself, only your partner can heal you so you have to work together. and you could take shifts sleeping so one little scrib won't wake you up. i'm kinda tired of being a lone hero, if i'm gonna be an outcast at least let one of my friends tag along. actually thats not a bad idea for a story, you wind up in jail after witnessing a murder of a high official by some all powerful being and being framed for it. you and your friend could pick classes based on what you need to escape, i supose they could make you split the major and minor skills between the two of you so neither one of you is overpowered, but that might be irritating even if it's an interesting concept.

one thing i love about bethesda is that they read their own message boards and pay attention to what their fans want and what they are doing with mods. so suggesting things is always good with these guys.

split screen probably wouldn't work for this concept so it'd have to be online co-op or system link. but that'd make it difficult to actually get your friend together to play everytime you wanted to... it might be possible to work out some kind of drop in/drop out system, but maybe just choose two player or one player and have seperate characters, i mean it's not often you only play an elder scrolls game one way, you almost always play again and again to see different abilities and story arks. of course if they did it kinda like champions of norrath where you save the character itself and can take your character into two player games but always have to start over at the begining unless you have a save with that particular player.

i dunno i'm mostly just rambling ideas here, but as i said bethesda actually listens to it's fans so if they like even one of those ideas i don't doubt they'll consider it.

 

[Theori]

For dear heaven's sake, let it be less of a hack&slash-fest than Oblivion was. How did we go from Morrowind to Diablo-wind?

Second, for Christ's sake, give me locational damage. If I just nailed a monster straight in the head without it blocking, I'm fully expecting it to die promptly, preferably with its head falling off. I am NOT expecting it to need about 7 hits like that.

Third, take some notes from other games. Ok, so I'm in the thieves guild and have acrobatics up to 3459 points. So why the hell can't I climb a wall, go in through a window and loot the place cat-robber style? (Think Assassin's Creed, gief rooftops.)

Someone mentioned this already, so I'll just reinforce it. If I'm a master bloody swordsman, why do I only have 4 moves at my disposal? I should be a veritable sword-whirlwind-thingy by now. And I wanna look flashy while kicking ass. Something along the lines of "look, I'm a ninja, I can frontflip all around this dude while poking him with a sword in the voonerables (Terry Pratchett pun)".

I'll reinforce this as well - NO bloody level scaling. I'm the hero, why can every guard whoop my ass all the way across Tamriel? And for that matter, why aren't THEY saving the world if they're so kick-ass? (Edit: Yes, I know this was fixed with various mods, but it shouldn't need to be fixed in the first place. Letting your fans do your job for you is bad decision-making.)
More edit: For that matter, why am I perfectly capable of slaying anything in my path even at level one? You'd think that some hellishly evil monster might be a bit (or a lot) tougher than I am, so I'd probably have to steer clear for the time being.

How about giving us something to do asides from quests? Like, say, an archery competition?

Don't use the excuse of having many dungeons to make a game bigger. I don't want to go through 20,000 dungeons just to find the one that has something good in it. 10 hellishly hard and innovative-ish dungeons would be much, much better in my opinion. But make sure there's something nice in it for me at the end of it.

Scale the quest types or something; why am I, the renowned hero, being sent to fetch something for someone? I'd stab the first motherf***er that told me to fetch something when they know I'm busy saving the world.

End rant, I hope I've made some good points people can agree with, I'll probably think of even more later.

 

[Cooper42]

Either they need to really scale down; heavily reduce the number of locations and NPCs and craft everything in fine detail (which they've been usually strong on with the landscape, good to mediocre with dungeons / caves etc. and often very poor with the NPCs and especially poor with the variety of quests) and make the game incredibly immersive and detailed in all respects.

Or they need to scale up. Go back to daggerfall with a /massive/ playable area, silly numbers of dungeons to explore (and similarly silly numbers of variations of items to collect) vast numbers of NPCs, and huge scope for varying playstyles (be a mushroom farmer if you want...).


Morrowind and Oblivion tried to be both, and thus failed by not being immersive enough, and not being as open to different playstyles as they might have been.


Personally, I would much prefer a 'sandbox' style Elder Scrolls. Where exploration is more than just dungeon crawling and hacky slashy, but where there are a whole variety of options of items, tools, locaions etc. available to the player who can use them in improvised ways as they wish.

 

[Natural Hazard]

location damage, larger variety places to visit instead of what oblivion did with major cities and only a few towns, add a few more towns if possible make the world less quiet. More people around would be nice you know people out hunting, not just pre-determined bandits. I know thats a lot of ask for, but thats what would make it better in my opinion. Think oblivions scale not to big not to small and add more towns, people and interactivity in.

Oh and get rid of level scaling and add real economy.

 

[monodiabloloco]

Firstly, I will agree with some of the above posters to nix the level scaling. Actually, just linking the HP, MP to your core skills would do away with levels alltogether and give a more 'realistic' approach to the whole deal.
I would like to see more people and children. I hate running though a capitol city and there are like 40 people. Also, WAY larger cities. I liked the fast travel in the capitol and that should be kept simply for ease of navigation, but a capitol city that I can run a full circle around in a couple of min is way too small. If the cities are to be instanced, that should be possible. Also, while in the cities, make all the buildings true to scale and all part of the main city instance. This would mean no loads when entering a house, being able to look into a window to see if anyone was home, seeing lights though the windows, etc. Todays tech should make that easy enough to do.
Guards that are not magically sentient and apparently linked to a hive mind. If you steal something in city A, you should not automatically be wanted in city B unless the crime was pretty big. If you murder a person in city A, yeah you should be eventually wanted in city B, but only after a mail rider makes it there to post up your wanted poster. While that's at it, Bounty hunters should be after you also. After all, the fighter's guild is always hiring!
You could be a hunter, or be hunted by one.
Making all the races actually usefull would be great also. I love the concept of playing a sentient lizard that can breath underwater, but would rather play nearly any other race for the stats. Oh, and please make the race's have minor bonuses that are always on! Why would a cat person have to cast an inherant spell to see in the dark? WTF!?
No cap on magic power would be great. I hated hitting that limit in Oblivion. I felt that it was ridiculously low.

 

[Parallel Streaks]

Woh, last time I go to sleep and then College, looks like I've started a sort of movement for irate Fanboys. Viva La Revolution! What do we want? "Our Spears Back!"... Ok, enough of the bad jokes, time for my view:

First of all, if a game like Crysis is possible in this day and age, what with the fact that it looks like a cross between the Garden of Eden and Burning Man, we could easily raise the Standards for TES V, such as, as I originally suggested, a massive city. Something along the lines of three Mournholds put together, albeit it wasn't massive but it was a damn sight bigger than the Imprerial City.

Secondly, I think that different Heights and Weights could be a great improvement, it wouldn't have to be complicated, just a two little bars on the customisation screen, much like the Age one in Oblivion. Maybe put a cap on for Certain Races, like the maximum for a Wood Elf would be about the average for an Imperial? It would be incredibly easy to program it in, plus that means that I could make my Tall Dark Elf character.

Continuing from my last sentence, return the Grey Dark Elves! I don't want my awesome Warlock character looking like a member of the freaking blue man group! I wouldn't be so irate if the Colour Bar let you be freaking Grey, but no, it goes Blue, Dark Blue, Ridiculously Black. No middle ground, is there?

Also, now I'm officially engaging in my rant, let me just say that a little depth would be appreciated in the Story Line, it's just : Rescue Generic Heir who doesn't know he's Heir, take him back to the base to find the damn object you need him to use is gone, kill lots of nameless minions, infiltrate Secret Cult, watch the Object that's nearly in your grasp disappear with the Leader, do a lot of pointless stuff, blah blah blah get ingrediants for Gourmless Heir, Go to Leader's Realm, kill him, get thing, get to the near end and get attacked by a damn great red git, then said Heir tops himself to save himself. Have you noticed your character didn't get much choice? I would have killed for the chance to say "Screw you Sean Bean, I'm outta here" or at least say snippy little sarcastic comments every now and then. So, yeah, please give us the Creative Story Lines that Bloodmoon, Tribunal, and Morrowind brought us, and no, I didn't mean to say them in reverse chronological order. ((By the way, to that guy earlier, The Dragonspine Mountains are the home to the Orcs))

Speaking of which, I still think a story set in Elsweyr, which I now see as the bad pun it really is, would be awesome. Your hero riding through the desert and some sort of Camelesque creature, joining bandits or villages, going to the Big City, anything is possible! Also, please oh please set it in Black Marsh if you reject Elsweyr, the Beast Races ((Well, the scary animal creature with strangely normal feet, as I call them in Oblivion)) are seriously played down, imagine, starting as some sort of Slave at an imperial Garrisson, seeing them getting slaughtered by crazed Argonian Revolutionists, who're planning on resurrecting some sort of big scary Lizard to kill everything, you either A.) Respect them and join them or B.) Seek revenge, simple as that isn't it?

Well, I'm gonna cry by the door until my new Morrowind Disk arrives, never play fetch with your dog, and throw your favourite game by accident. The scars never go away.

 

[Zoomy]

I've only played Oblivion, but anyway.

Better voice acting, or none at all.

At character creation, don't bother with the ability to let us adjust the wrinklyness of our skin on the face when the wrinklyness below the neck stays the same. It's really odd when NPCs have a 90 year old's face on a 20 year old's body.

As other people have said, no level scaling, or only partial level scaling where enemies have minimum and/or maximum levels (i.e the arena champion's level is at least 20, or bandits can't go beyond level 10.)

NPCs I could give a darn about.

NEVER freeze my character again. I could have easily saved Urinal (or whatever the pike his name was, see my above point) from that assassin if I wasn't rooted in place.

Now I know this point will start a flamefest and probably get me banned, but I found that the NPCs lack of discrimination rather...off. Racism (or perhaps speciesism) and mysogyny/msyandry exist in the real world. I'm not saying it's good (in fact I feel discrimination in any form is disgusting), but it's there, so why not have it in the game world? Television, film and literature do it all the time, whether it be sexist characters in soap operas or the racial tension between Dwarves and Trolls in Terry Pratchett's Discworld. Besides, having your starting stats defined by your race and gender is a form of stereotyping in itself, so why not go the whole way?

If anyone out there's played Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magic Obscura, then they'll understand that discrimination in games CAN exist without gloryfying it. In fact, some of the most interesting things in that game were only possible because Troika didn't piss around the bush (sleeping with the owner of a men-only club to allow my female character access still ranks as one of my most favourite moments for some reason).

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Just to let you know, if you had played the other TES games, you would care about Uriel.

 

[Zoomy]

Just to let you know, if you had played the other TES games, you would care about Uriel.

Probably, but all I saw was a poodle-faced old whiner that tried to be mysterious but just sounded daft and annoying. Although he did have the sexiest voice in the history of everything (even if said voice sounded really, really bored).

 

[QckslvrGrl]

I don't know about anyone else...but I would like to see the werewolf aspect come back. I thought that was fun.

 

[Cousin_IT]

I don't know about anyone else...but I would like to see the werewolf aspect come back. I thought that was fun.

It was fun, but its been done. The problem with TESV is if they want to make a new game without simply making a rehash of the previous installments (which has been more or less the case so far-not rehashing that is) there is very little, if anything, left for them to do that wouldnt simply be extending something already done. As interesting as the sidequests, expansion packs etc have been the main driving force in TES games has always revolved around the reign of Uriel Septim whether hes directly involved or not. I personally dont want to see TES go the way of longlived franchises such as the Bond films where they finish their main driving plotholder, & simply become a series of unconnected sequels. Unless Bethseda pull something spectacular out the bag, I think they should let the franchise end.

The only thing I might be interested in them doing is revisiting Areana to Redguard. But re-releases/re-makes are considered (rightly or wrongly) a cop-out in this day n age so maybe thats best not done.

 

[Razzle Bathbone]

Now I know this point will start a flamefest and probably get me banned, but I found that the NPCs lack of discrimination rather...off.

You would also see plenty of that if you'd played earlier games in the series, especially Morrowind. Not only do they hate foreigners, but the Dunmer behave toward other Dunmer from different factions with hatred and prejudice.

The province of Cyrodil (where Oblivion takes place) is far more cosmopolitan than any other place in the Empire. Here the different races get along because they pretty much have to. They see each other all the time, and the only way to avoid perpetual warfare (and subsequent beatdown from the Imperial Legions) is to get along.

 

[Krazyraw]

In addition to the antilevleing stuff (hence you cant become arena champion at 2), I would also liek to see a better combat system created that would allow the hero to specialize in certain combat styles and possibly extremely cool combos that would be very difficult to master. Also, like said above not as many dungeons, but IMPORTANT DUNGEONS that actually contain incredible loot, but are extremely difficult to kill anything in unless a very high level. Further, Bosses! One thing that Oblivion really lacked was intense boss battles; the battles were mindless spamming of block and hit or cast spells and dodge, needless to say it was LAME. I say lets see AI that tricks, feints, dodges, and just all around gives you a good damn fight. Some combat system that forces the player to utilize new and different moves, something that required you to improvise your combat moves!

Also, on a different note, make a world that makes you truly feel the weight of your actions., and make the world you live in react to you and not just vice versa.

AHH!! its so difficult to express everything, so il leave it at that for now.

 

[Raan_Amano]

How about a TES game that offered the entire world (even worlds you could gate to a la Oblivion), or even set on one or both of the moons (don't know the back story, so I apologize for my ignorance if the story doesn't allow it). There would be a main story, but players would be able to bypass the main story if they want, effectively entering "sandbox" mode (or, perhaps, the story is going on without them). Add in the capability to have status in the game world, where you could actually raise an army. You could hire specific NPCs to be your captains or lieutenants in your army, and you could hire other NPCs to provide your army with supplies or raw materials. You could open one or more businesses to make money, or even start your own town.

I feel that there is a lot with both Morrowind and Oblivion that could be improved upon to create a much more epic, immersive experience.

I recently finished the Fingers of the Mountain quest. I was rather disappointed that after I had finished it, I already had a spell that did better than the one the quest rewards you with. My only real complaint about any quest is the fact that some of them have an anti-climactic feel to them.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

I'm not quoting it all, but Eye Spider's idea would be awesome.

 

[Saskwach]

I'm not quoting it all, but Eye Spider's idea would be awesome.

Of course it's awesome. It was my idea that he stole. Or rather invented simultaneously then posted earlier. Hehe.
It's a great idea Eye Spider, my only worry being that the fans might call it out as "not TES". These games always have several cities and lots of countryside. Though a properly fancied up city could have lots of wildlife areas, dungeons, caves etc, it just might not feel Elder Scrollsy. If you have a solution hit me.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

*smacks Saskwach*. Oh, sorry. Anyway, my idea is to have about three huge cities like that, with some spaces between them. I mean, look what they did with space in GTA:SA, and that was on a last gen console.

 

[Theori]

I second Elseweyr, and raise you solutions to the big city thing.

First, Elsweyr is supposed to be a desert, no? Ok, so you have an entire desert to roam about in on a camel, giving lots of space to explore and such, and all the sand would make for some interesting game mechanics if they were implemented (sand dunes sliding, hiding under the sand to ambush people, sand storms from which you have to shelter, you have to keep water with you because it's a bloody desert, blah blah blah).

But then you've got this huuuuge sprawling city that's begging to be based off something Arabian-ish. Thievery, small street urchins to do your bidding, precious gems, lots of trade. I mean, look at Assassin's Creed (or Prince of Persia, for that matter), that's Arabian-ish, and that's only based on assassinations (or platforming, in the case of PoP, but Babylon looked pretty huge to me in Two Thrones). Throw in some Aladdin, genies and you've got epic win.

 

[Parallel Streaks]

Eye Spider, you took my idea, spruced it up, dressed it up, and combed it's hair. And for this, I thank you immensely ^^ I thank you all for showing support in this, now that we've seen that gstaff guy patrolling around, we know that Bethesda will listen if we keep this thread alive for long enough to be found. I also have several new ideas, if you'd humor me here.

First of all, better rewards. I mean, "You saved the city, the world, and all that is good, here's a title which nobody uses, a suit of armour a bit worse than the best armour, and no store discounts whatsoever." I mean, call me presumptious, but you could at least get a free pastry for defeating the ultimate evil. Furthermore, how about some three dimensional Villains? Not just the old I wanna destroy everything and laugh at you types? I mean, Dagoth Ur had the advantage because he thought he was upholding his orders and protecting Nerevar.

 

[SX_imer]

It's my opinion that a lot can be done in TES V I agree about the big city idea I was also quite disappointed with the size of the Imperial City. I recently played Overlord and I really liked the idea of building a castle up from nothing. I found the houses in Oblivion quite useless yes you can customize them, but what's the point in having a house in Oblivion when it serves little practical use.

I would like to see a quest in TES V similar to the Stronghold quest in Morrowind in which you have to construct a stronghold but with a lot more stronghold related quests. I found the ending of the main quest in Oblivion quite disappointing, you get a piece of armor and life goes on a usual. Imagine that in TES V, once you finish the main quest you get knighted and become a lord and you get your own castle. Imagine having your own HUGE fortress brimming with life, you have your own guards, you have peasants (or slaves ) working on the farms surrounding your stronghold, you have your own stables, your own servants, you compete with other lords, you go to war, you organize your castle defenses, you host archery competitions, you personally choose your bodyguards. It would be role playing at it's finest and for once you wouldn't be the one getting bossed around by every housewife with a rat infested basement but instead you would be the one assigning orders.

I found some of the quests in Oblivion quite mmorpg like. Go to point B, kill everything in sight, bring person/object X back to point A. I did however like the Shivering Isles quests because they were a lot more colorful and the quirky landscape reminded me a lot of Morrowind.

I would like to see one thing in TES V especially. Fear. I would like to see small groups of enemy's actually run away from me. It struck me kind of odd that a overgrown rat would attack a walking tank carrying a 6 foot sword.

The Vampirism was nice but a vampire questline wouldn't have hurt considering they are so cool.