I may be picturing it being more difficult than it actually would be. If the movement of the horse is restricted to the left anolog stick, and the aiming of the bow is restricted to the right anolog stick, then it may not be so troublesome a task. Basically, what would normally be the player moving the camera to look around while mounted, would become the player moving the camera around in order to point his bow in that direction. That could work.

I'm sure most ES players who use a mouse and keyboard are proficient enough with them to handle just about anything Bethesda throws at them. I was thinking/speaking more from how it would affect console players.

I'm not counting on Bethesda putting any effort into implementing mounted combat in the next game though, which I'm glad, since they apparently need to get horses right first. Or just go to a province that (I imagine) doesn't have horses, like Black Marsh or Summerset Isle. I would like to see climbing, but won't be heart-broken if that doesn't happen either, mainly because, although it would be cool (especially considering that levitation probably won't return in the next outing), there's other things I'd rather they focus on, like a really good story for the Main Quest.

I've long felt that the two most important people, the two people who should have the greatest amount of authority on any game development team, are a writer and an experienced game designer. Someone who has a way with words, and someone who knows their way around engines and source code. Getting both in one person is nice, but obviously a lot to hope for.

As far as I'm concerned, if you're neither a Tolkien or a John Carmack, you have no business telling others what to do when it comes to making games.

Yes, just imagine....Dream Team
Bringing Carmack into BGS....

Oh, the thrill...
The Glory....

I too fear that the instant gratification crowd has forever changed (meaning, ruined) Bethesda's approach to story-telling. Not that they've ever been masters of that craft, but without the massive success of Oblivion, I do believe they would've been motivated to go deeper, rather than bigger, when it comes to their Main Quests. They would've improved, or at least had an opportunity to.

Here's what I would be okay with in terms of a Main Quest for any number of possible game settings for TES VI...

Black Marsh: The various tribes aren't getting along very well at the moment (would be nothing knew to the region, I'm sure), and for unknown reasons that may or may not be related, the Hist are behaving strangely (something that is new). There's no civil war about to erupt or anything, but the tension combined with unexpected actions taken by the Hist, and possibly some other tree race we're not aware of, and possibly one of the tribes that seems to be gaining in power with no discernible cause, is making for a situation that could be easily exploited by an outsider looking to stir up trouble, or change the way things work in Black Marsh for many years to come. Basically, I'd like to see the player become a force to be reckoned with if they so choose, rather than be born special. I'd also like to see some facilitation within the overall story for the presence of foreigners in such an inhospitable province, some explanation that isn't as simple as "the Argonians decided to open the place up more because it would be good for trade" or some crap like that. The Hist could potentially help out with that in a number of ways, I'm sure. Any MQ in Black Marsh is going to involve them anyway. The player's character simply being someone who ended up in Black Marsh for whatever reason the player can come up with would be well in line with ES tradition, I suppose, but I think Bethesda can do better than that. Maybe the player was to be punished for committing some crime by being dumped in the middle of a swamp? That would work for me.

Summerset Isle: The hierarchy of the Aldmeri Dominion is prepared to make its biggest move yet against its biggest enemies (I don't know who this would be, but I'm guessing the Imperials to be the best candidate), and the player can either help it succeed (and position themselves to benefit from it greatly), or risk their life to stop the Thalmor from inflicting great harm to a great many people. Or something in between, like position themselves to benefit from efforts against Cyrodiil, but decide to delay the big plan in some manner in order to simultaneously save lives. I don't know, something to that effect. I like the idea of being able to be as involved as possible in the wicked machinations of the Altmers of Summerset Isle. They're so deliciously messed in the head.

Hammerfell: I don't know what to do here, actually. Something involving something left behind by the Dwemer probably.

High Rock: Don't want to go here, but if we do, I'd like an opportunity to get involved in what is sure to be conflict between the Bretons and the Thalmor. Orsinium rests within High Rock, and the Orcs getting involved would be nice too.

Valenwood/Elsweyr: The more I think of these two both being featured in the next game, the more I like the idea. Especially since the former is part of the Aldmeri Dominion, and the latter is unlikely to be happy about that. In RPGs, that can make for some real fun when you're free to visit either territory. Think of the possibilities in quests...

At best, what I really hope for is a story where I don't see future events coming a mile away. I want to be surprised, pleasantly surprised. I want to be challenged, and not just in terms of how many enemies I can take on at once. I don't mind the MQ being big, I just don't want to know how bad things are likely to get until I'm in deep enough that it's at least very difficult for me to turn my back and walk away, not because something will annoy me if I do, but because it just looks like there's too much fun I'd be throwing away. I don't want to know I'm destined for anything monumental right from the start. I just want to be involved in whatever interesting events are about to take place. If I end up saving the world, so be it. If I end up condemning it, then shame on me.

I was reading your black marsh ideas with interest, and then saw you starting to get into the idea of "how you get there" and thought to myself "dont worry! bethesda will just make you a criminal anyway! they have for 3 games in a row!!" but then, then you ended with that anyway!! LOL

I would like to not be in the status of "arrested or imprisoned" at the start of the next ES game. Makes it harder to role play a true gentleman and honest stand up guy when you are behind lock and key to rot forever or in line for execution at the onset.

Or just go to a province that (I imagine) doesn't have horses, like Black Marsh or Summerset Isle.

I imagine Black Marsh with weird mounts like reptilians, snakes, turtles, worms...anything would do, especially if they are water rides. Or maybe if Bethesda can do a really interesting underwater life the "mounts" could be our boats that we navigate all over the map.

So let Beth change it. I can think of a tre-zillion ways to circumvent the ?exit from dungeon's last chamber? problem you mention. In fact, Skyrim already utilizes one of the simplest: door locked with a bar. Done.

Look, the climbing thing is not a call to reinvent the wheel. It's been done before, Tomb Rider, Assassin's Creed, and many other games.
But it does require Beth to account for it from the ground up.

While I agree that Story development is paramount - I just can't stop endorsing the seminal ?Story? by Robert McKee - it seems to me the writing department personnel do not double as the gameplay personnel, so to speak. I would guess they're on different teams and so we could have the best of both worlds:

A great MQ story where one has to climb.

The problem with climbing is that it has to be just a possible playing style, so it couldn't be done like Assassin's Creed or Tom Rider since both those games are based around jumping around. Most situations that could be dealt with by climbing over them would have to be solvable through walking around them - especially the main quest, cause we don't want to making all characters without climbing ability unable to accomplish the game. Climbing has to be a skill/a choice the same way that choosing between mage or warrior is - your spellwarrior might know restroation, but in the end (s)he will wear armor.

If what I know of Carmack is true, I do imagine he and Todd would butt heads until one of them went bye-bye. Not that that would be a bad thing in my mind.

On doors and chests:

• Lockpicking in real time with lockpicks of different qualities
  
• Open and lock spells
  
• Bash the doors and chests open, with requirement of strength and/or weapon weight; there will be a noise penalty (npcs will hear you), proportional with how many hits are necessary, and a damage penalty for the fragile loot in the chests (potions, soul gems, jewelry...)
  
• The player can place traps on doors and containers using alchemy and/or enchanting; disarming traps requires certain levels in the respective skill(s)

On doors and chests:

• Lockpicking in real time with lockpicks of different qualities
  
• Open and lock spells
  
• Bash the doors and chests open, with requirement of strength and/or weapon weight; there will be a noise penalty (npcs will hear you), proportional with how many hits are necessary, and a damage penalty for the fragile loot in the chests (potions, soul gems, jewelry...)
  
• The player can place traps on doors and containers using alchemy and/or enchanting; disarming traps requires certain levels in the respective skill(s)

I've gotta say, I like your idea Vadagar and strongly agree with your point comparing MW and Skyrim, but I don't think it's possible that easy. Spoken lines use up far more disk space than text based dialogue.

But since in 4 years, I think most of the games will come out on Blu-Rays or via download (a trend that is already showing), it should be possible to get more topics.

A computer program or more bucks spent on professional voice actors shouldn't be necessary either. I mean, they don't even need the professionals with that many fans out here, who probably would love to voice a character and have an impact on the game.

Hi all

I have reached my 13th playthrough limit XD and I can honestly say that yesterday and today I did not play skyrim (for the first time in almost 3 months)

its been an amazing experince....

strangely I reinstalled morrowind yesterday and I find myself playing it a lot now ..... its been years (almost 7 or more no idea...) but after playing MW again I can see why the game had its "charms" that are still there....

and now I think I found out what Bethesda should work on for the next TES and that is.....

voice overs ....

yep I think what gave MW the edge (that is still holds even now over many other games even skyrim) is the amazing amount of quests that were interconected and complex and deep and honestly wayyyyy more than skyrim.... but they were all text based (almost all)

although skyrim's quests were much more ... well ALIVE.... MW still has that story-esk feeling to it that gave it much needed mystery and awe.

what I mean is that Bethesda should find a way (maybe a new tech) to voice over text content as massive as MW without paying 1billion $

and also they should maybe keep the MQ a secret for the next title

what do you think??!!

is it realistic to make a program that does voice overs without sounding like a [censored] robot??!!

and do you think if ever the tech was available will it affect the next TES....

as in give it more quests and more complexity (as in all quests can affect each other)

lets talk..

So changing voice actors to computer based voices isn't a solution. Just adding more dialogue won't make a deeper story.

No it won't but it will allow for adding more NPC's with more unique dialogue and more quests. You can't currently add 1000 NPC's since most will have to have the same repetitive dialogue. Now if you could generate good voiced dialogue that won't be a problem.

I think it might help moving forward to further break apart the different types of NPCs, in terms of how the game itself treats them. For the longest time, NPCs have either been Essential or Non-essential, and near as I can tell, it's never gone beyond that. If they're marked Essential, the game, at least nowadays, prevents their being killed, and if they're not mark Essential, the NPC is given no protection. I think their should be more categories for the NPCs to fit into, with different rules, and types of dialogue, being assigned to each category. That way, you can better keep track of just how many NPCs have generic dialogue, so you can minimize the number of them as must as you want/need to, since that dialogue was assigned to them specifically because they're generic.

Obviously, having every single NPC in the game be as full of life and personality as, say, Divayth Fyr, would be better, but clearly a much more difficult task.

On doors and chests:

• Lockpicking in real time with lockpicks of different qualities
  
• Open and lock spells
  
• Bash the doors and chests open, with requirement of strength and/or weapon weight; there will be a noise penalty (npcs will hear you), proportional with how many hits are necessary, and a damage penalty for the fragile loot in the chests (potions, soul gems, jewelry...)
  
• The player can place traps on doors and containers using alchemy and/or enchanting; disarming traps requires certain levels in the respective skill(s)