What's with the emphasis on six bro?

Have you seen the mods made for skyrim?

Apparently Elder Scrolls is the largest "six simulator that isnt a six game". Its creppy, and it gets more creepy every TES game.

I do have some marriage mechanics added in mind, and business ones as well (they'll be added in later sections). However, since you can't really get laid (beyond the somewhat pointless "fade to black" mechanic in New Vegas), I see no point in including store-bought six.

That, is definitely true.

Having the same amount of armor pieces in Morrowind in Skyrim would have been more than possible. It comes down to design.

And all your above posts are purely opinion, just like mine. In my opinion, your character was better in Morrowind/Skyrim because the RPG elements actually felt, well, like RPG elements.

Skyrim is a good game, but its an FPS with RPG elements thrown in rather than the otherway around.

I would like more things like random encounters and side quest events happening in the present. I know books, letters and still life composition are powerful storytelling tools that require less resources, but I sometimes feel that my character is like an archaeologist digging for past relics that tell about past events just because john doe from Whiterun suddenly wants his grandfather's grandfather's half a sword back. I would like to see bigger projects happening now so I could be an active or pasive witness, life, communities, public opinion changing visibly as a response to the main events. It would be cool for instance to see a new village being gradually built over time from scratch, a severe disease outbreak kills almost the entire population of a town and the shady people of the poor outskirts occupy the rich quarters, all sorts of things that change naturally, in time, quite visibly, with or without the player playing an active role. Same goes with the guilds, I would like to see more RADIANT programming allowing npcs to spontaneously form groups and go to missions independent of my questline, the guilds look like quest hubs where everybody's waiting for the player to solve their problems and be their leader asap.

With the way the industry always tries to innovate, normal ES games won't be around much longer.


2013 ~ Next-gen consoles are released / final consoles.

2016 ~ Elder Scrolls VI - last traditional Elder Scrolls game.

2023 ~ Consoles cease to exist ~ evolved into General Purpose Multimedia Hubs.

2024 ~ Elder Scrolls VII - 3D Virtual Reality based world

2034 ~ Elder Scrolls Tamriel - Neural-based Virtual World / Plugs into your brain. ~ Last ES game, will be persistently updated. Subscription-based.


That is, Bethesda doesn't go bankrupt in the meantime.

I know I may seem old-fashioned but that future sounds grim to me...

Don't be too sure... a lot of things people thought would happen didn't... picture phones, colonies in space, synths replacing instruments, electric cars, laser guns, and personal hovercraft to name a few. Often, tech reaches a plateau. Cars aren't that much faster than they were in the '60's. Guns still use the century old 9mm and .45 ACP and the even older 12 gauge. And you still often see old style C-9 Christmas lights on houses.

A small group of characters that the main character's friends with (Easily recognisable, cliche, personalities that are sure to be hilarious when interacting with each other) Are magically transported to modern Earth, where they have a series of hilarious misadventures whilst trying to find a way home.




P.S. There'd be a khajiit playing the role of crazy, foreign, comic-relief guy.

Don't forget the dubstep soundtrack.

And the villain with the long curly mustache.

Also, Guns.

And fart jokes.

OK. Merry Christmas, and here's your gift from me. For some of you, I know, the equivalent of a snazzy gift bag containing underwear or a sweater that doesn't fit. But I hope that some of you enjoy the journey I have concocted.

I'm not done, BTW, I also have a list of altered or new game mechanics, plus other miscellaneous things. I hope to have it all up before this topic hits the 200-post mark.

ELDER SCROLLS VI - Dominion - Synopsis Part 3 of 3

You get the parts you need either from Turenene or from Bryn after the dissents go down, and repair the Dwemer sub. It gives you the ability to access the previously unavailable city of Skywatch, where the Invisivle Hand's base is. Gravius is eager to your new ability put to good use (he is just as unaware as any of Tidril's true mission, unless you have ratted her out). You do several missions for the Hand: robbing a courier of his message and planting a false one without being noticed, copying some important battle plans, listening in on a conversation, and dealing with a group of bandits who know too much about the Hand's network of spies. If you have agreed to aid the Thalmor at this point, your missions are similar: you copy the plans incorrectly, let one bandit escape, et cetera. Again, you can continue to work for them, and complete the faction's questline. Your missions outside the main quest are the same regardless of which side you choose, and will not affect the final outcome.

Reporting to Gravius after your last mandatory mission reveals good news: both groups of mages, the Rangers, the Khajiit, and the New Stormcloaks are prepared for battle and moving toward the Capital City to launch their final assault. Your Coalition is now complete, and you have weakened (or pretended to weaken) the Dominion considerably, but there is one last play to make. The Dark Brotherhood and other assassins' guilds were wiped out a century ago, but the Argonian Shadowscales were reborn a few decades later, and they are in Summerset, secretly allied with the Hand. However, most of their operatives were lost in the purge, and they cannot get through the formidable defenses placed around the Imperial Palace. Your Dwemer toy, on the other hand, can.

Gravius introduces you to On-Wan, their leader of the Shadowscales, and her pint-sized aide Vereeza. They are planning to assassinate the Altmer general in charge of the military, as well as the Aldmeri emperor. When you speak to Bryn (which you have to do if you have sided with the Dominion), you are told to fake the death of the general. The emperor, however, is elderly and paranoid and dangerously ineffectual, and you are told to kill him for real. Since he has no heir of his body and the general has little interest in politics, Bryn himself will be able to engineer his own rise to power, and promises that he will be a far more adept leader. If you are siding against the Thalmor, you don't have any dealings with Bryn. You simply kill both the emperor and his general to generate both a power vacuum and chaos in the military. You return to the Shadowscales to report success, and then proceed either to the New Stormcloak base of operations to take your place in the fight, or the Altmer capital to complete the factions' destruction.


A protracted battle now occurs. If you are with the Dominion, it begins on the steps of the Imperial Palace and ends in the New Stormcloak staging area in the woods outside the capital city. You battle your way to Hodlin and slaughter him, putting the coalition to rout. If you are a true-blue member of the Coalition, it is essentially reversed, with the battle starting just outside the staging area and ending in the imperial palace throne room: you kill Bryn and bring the crumbling Dominion's surviving leaders to their knees. Either way, your debt to Gravius (real or imagined) is repaid in the process; if you are supporting the Dominion, he dies trying to protect Hodlin, and if you're supporting the coalition, he dies protecting you.

When the dust settles, the world changes: depending on who won, Bryn or Turenene takes the throne. Some factions may disappear, others may grow powerful. Whether you chose to do each faction's questline will affect this. The citizens of various cities and surrounding regions will suffer or prosper, depending on other actions of yours. Certain questlines, if uncompleted, will become unavailable, others will remain. More to the point, you have the opportunity to build a new life for yourself, in either a cruel but now stable Aldmeri Dominion, or a land whose provinces are once again independant and free. You receive your choice of two abandoned houses (a house on a beautiful beach near Firsthold or a manor in the garden paradise of Sunhold), either of which can be turned into a beautiful estate. You can also get married to certain NPC's, and even adopt children.

However, your troubles and adventures need not be over. If you sided with the coalition, Thalmor remnants will periodically attack you. If you chose the Dominion, you will face members of the Invisible Hand, which presumably survives to fight another day. And if you've done bad things without atoning, even if your bounty is paid, you will be a prize for bands of mercs who are hungry for blood money. You can finish a few of the questlines, though not many (since many of the factions have ceased to exist). You can also do various radiant quests for profit, either quashing rebels for the Thalmor or killing bandits of Thalmor remnants for the new regime. Or if you prefer, you can do honest work,or level up your crafting skills and sell the results to make honest money.

In short, you were once a humble innkeeper, scratching out a living and oblivious to the amazing destiny awaiting you, but no more. You have the power to have a home bursting with joy and love, or full of sorrow and neglect. You can make the land of Summerset a place of contentment and prosperity, or be a source of misery and want. And you can transform Tamriel into a land of liberty, or ensure that it remains under the iron boot of tyranny for centuries to come. The power to change the world is yours.

OK, I was a mod for eight years (in a smaller community; I don't know how the mods here can cope with the volume of posts here), so I don't like doing things like double posting, but if I didn't, some of my posts would just get too unmanagably large.

Elder Scrolls VI - Dominion - People and Places

Characters

The Innkeeper - A player character of unknown age and race. He/she ran a small inn somewhere on Tamriel with his/her widowed father. They unknowingly gave shelter to an Invisible Hand agent who was directly involved with the New Stormcloaks. As a result, the inn was assaulted by Dominion soldiers. The Innkeeper's father was killed, the inn burned to ashes, and all possessions forfeit to the crown. The Innkeeper was taken alive, but has been dispatched to the interrogation center on desolate Culuma Island, a place from which few return. However, he/she escapes, and ultimately winds up in a position where they can either support the Dominion, or bring its leadership down. Or, alternatively, just leave it alone.

Tragil - A 120-year-old male Altmer, arrested for outspoken criticism of how the Dominion government treats its citizens. He aids the Innkeeper in his/her escape, but is unfortunately devoured by eels when he foolishly tries to swim to freedom from the prison.

Jo'Rak - A 53-year-old male Khajiit who operates a small transport vessel. He rescues the Innkeeper from the eels, then transports him to safety. Until the Dwemer Sub is unlocked, he is the player's sole source of inter-island transport.

Hodlin - A 56-year-old male Nord who is the senior surviving member of the New Stormcloaks, which he named after another group of freedom fighters who dared to oppose a mighty empire (ironically, not even he is quite sure whether they succeeded or not). A fierce warrior and a capable leader, but compassionate and good-hearted.

Yadbaam - A 36-year-old male Orsmer. He is far less trusting than Hodlin is, and can be more given to (sometimes brutal) expediency. Still, he respects Hodlin and works well with him, proving a valued advisor and second in command.

Lairah - A 41-year-old female Redguard. In charge of the Redguard detachment on the New Stormcloaks. Tough and determined, but diplomatic. When Hodlin needs someone to negotiate, she is the primary choice.

Eiruki - A 27-year-old female Nord. A lifelong sailor and a fearsome warrior, and a war hero who exhibited incredible heroism in the destruction of the New Stormcloak fleet. She's dubious about following an outsider, but changes her mind once you get her the ship that the New Stormcloaks need.

Bryn - A 260-year-old male Altmer. Cold, harsh, vengeful, and absolutely dedicated to the Dominion: he believes that most people are like children, and allowing them freedom of choice is a recipe for disaster. However, he unfailingly looks out for his own.

Bedrel - A 68-year-old male Nord werewolf. He killed over a dozen Thalmor and escaped from their hellish prison, then somehow managed to get across the ocean to the Summerset mainland before collapsing. However, he received mortal wounds in the process. As the last survivor of the Companions, he offers you the opportunity to continue their legacy with the "gift" of beast blood.

Glatho - A 108-year-old male Bosmer. Wary and secretive, the perfect thief and ranger, but believes absolutely in opposing the Aldmeri because of what they've done to Valenwood and its people over the last two centuries. Full or stories and lore. Although he wasn't there, he knows more about how Cyrodiil fell than any other character in the game.

Zahraji - A 25-year-old female Khajiit. Friendly, irrepressible, an excellent salesperson. Eager to help, but painfully aware that she possesses little real power.

Ermand - An 88-year-old male Breton. Elderly and no-nonsense, somewhat prickly. He's been teaching young wizards while being treated like a second class citizen because of his race all his life, often by wizards vastly inferior in skill to him.

Vabbar - A 42-year-old female Dunmer. Still bitter from being forced to leave the college, and carries a huge chip on her shoulder. Dubious about siding with strangers, but reluctantly comes around.

Turenene - A 178-year-old male Altmer. A scholar in (for an elf) early middle age. He is mistrusted by the Thalmor because of his belief that all races have the right to life free of oppression and receive equal treatment, but his vast intelligence and charisma enable him to be at least tolerated. He secretly supports a group of Altmeri dissidents who hope to ultimately turn the Dominion into something like the Septim Empire: strong, but free of prejudice, cruelty, and oppression.

Tidril - A 71-year-olf female Altmer. Once a dissident, but she ultimately changed her mind for unknown reasons, and is now a double agent. Quiet and enigmatic. If you side with the Thalmor, she becomes your handler. If you don't, she disappears from the game quickly.

Gravius - A 54-year-old male Imperial. He has been an operative for the Invisible Hand since childhood. His spur of the moment decision to spend the night at a small country inn has had far-reaching consequences. He is genuinely sorry for the suffering that he caused you, but still believes in what he is doing.

On-Wan - A 99-year-old female Argonian. The oldest of the New Shadowscales. Trained from birth to be a deadly, remorseless assassin, and has trained many others. Though deeply saddened at the death of most of her fellows, she is determined to finish her mission.

Vereeza - A 10-year-old male Argonian, named after the famous Shadowscale whose exploits with the Dark Brotherhood led to the rebirth of the order. Don't be fooled by his young age and diminutive size; this lad has been trained to kill since he was old enough to crawl. He guides you through the sewers on your mission to assassinate the emperor.

Miles - A 46-year-old male Imperial. If and when you accept one of the game's two large manors, he is assigned as your steward either way.

The Emperor - The 387-year-old emperor of the Dominion. Old and in poor health, depressed and paranoid and surrounded by enemies even within his court, but game to the death in a fight.


Locations

Culuma Prison - A tiny island to the northeast of Summerset, where those accused of treason to the Dominion are taken, and few if any ever leave. You start out here, as a prisoner awaiting torture and death, and later return here as part of the Valenwood Rangers section of the main quest.

Firsthold - The northernmost city in Summerset, a flourishing port town and fishing village. The city is currently occupied by the New Stormcloak Army. Because of Hodlin's gentle and compassionate nature, the locals have been treated with respect and allowed to go about their business unmolested, something that the Aldmeri overlords did not do. As a result, the occupying army is being regarded as liberators by many of the citizens. The city suffers greatly if you aid the Dominion.

Ottercrest - A large but long-abandoned beach house outside of Firsthold that used to belong to a wealthy Altmer merchant. It can be acquired by the player as a reward for completing the main quest.

Kingshaven - A small port that serves as your entry point to the mainland. It is close to several seaside caverns, including the one where Bedrel has gone to ground.

Shimmerene - A city similar to an elven version of Riften, but without the thieves' guild (which does not exist in Summerset; the Rangers and Invisible Hand take its place). It's built in the middle of a tropical forest. Also a port, but serves the Dominion's lumber industry. Times have become hard there. The Khajiit of the Anaquinian Merchant's Guild have their headquarters here, and the Rangers dwell in the woods southwest of the city.

The Desolation - Marshlands that encompass the extreme southeastern portion of the mainland. No major settlements, since few Altmer are fond of swamps, a few residents here and there. The Shadowscales have their base of operations here, underwater.

Cloudrest - A city built in the mountains, essentially a city atop a city, since the foundation consists of paths to treacherous dwarven ruins. Because of its location, on the slope of a mountain, this city has a great many stairs and possibly restored Dwemer elevators as well.

Yzrnguld - Ancient multilevel Dwemer ruin located underneath Cloudrest. The Dunmer dwell here.

The Crystal Tower - This is the site of the province's large mage's community, wrecked in the Oblivion Crisis and rebuilt in 4E241 as part of the province-wide celebration of the Empire's defeat. Although only the archmages (who are all Altmer) are allowed in the Crystal Tower itself, the surrounding area includes a guild, a library, and a college. The latter two are managed largely by Ermand and his fellow Bretons.

Sunhold - The southernmost city, and the capital of the southernmost barony. It is a city of flower-lined streets and gardens and orchards. Summerset's produce industry operates out of it.

Cherrytree Manor - A towering three-story estate in northern Sunhold, somewhat run down but definitely restorable. Taller but less sprawling than Ottercrest, and surrounded by beautiful orchards and woodland.

Alinor - The oldest, largest, and most elven of the cities, dwelling place of the emperor. Populated almost exclusively by respected and high-ranking Altmer (unlike the rest of the province, which has a generous number of non-Altmer dwelling throughout). A few dissidents dwell here as well.

Lilandril - The central city in the northwestern barony. Has no current part in the main quest, or any faction associated with it.

Skywatch - The city on the southern part of the smaller island. It's unavailable until the later phase of the main quest. The city is under martial law due to the occupation of Firsthold, so no boat can approach it (on the surface anyway). The Invisible Hand has a presence in a small inn outside of town.

Next game should be a small, but full scale area of a province.

Like this: http://i.imgur.com/gESGK.jpg

So, here are some of my ideas (these are ideas, NOT predictions):

Elder Scrolls VI: Artaeum

• It would be set on the Summerset Isles. (The name would be reverted back from 'Alinor')
  
• I would have the plot centre on the return of the Isle of Artaeum, and the Psijics.
  
• A return of the School of Mysticism (given the return of the Psijic Order, which would be a joinable faction)
  
• I would have the Thalmor back, although in what form I'm not sure. (as rulers, or just a faction)
  
• King Orgnum of the Maormer would be involved to some degree (Main Quest or maybe Side Quest)
  
• The Dreaming Cavern would be unsealed. (Central to the plot.)
  
• I would have a story that fits, regardless of what Race you play as.
  
• Reverance of Auriel, Trinimac, Syrabane, Phynaster, Magnus, and Y'ffre would take prominence over the Eight Divines.

What do you guys think? Would this work in your view? What ideas would you add?

Thanks for reading.

Yo Oddish, if you are gonna make gigantic posts like that. Put em in spoiler tags.

There should be a button on the editor or you can simple type
[ spoiler ] -text- [ / spoiler ]
Minus the spaces and just place whatever you like in the same area as the -text- part and between the spoiler tags.

That looks [censored] amazing. If they could make games at that world scale I wouldn't mind visiting just a fragment of a province.

Something? I can point to what specifically is wrong with dual-wielding in Skyrim - it has the Morrowind mentality. Run up to the target, spam the attack key, and pray that your opponent's Health runs out before yours does. Placed against the canvas of the other melee combat styles it feels like it came from the stone age. It needs blocking and/or other tactical components.

That is the case until you get the Dual Flurry perk. Then you attack faster.

Um, except that the perks don't create any variety at all? You have one Firebolt before the Augmented Flames perk and one afterwards?
The real reasons they axed spells is "look and fell" and balancing.

Never gonna happen. Why? Because marketability. And the modders do a good job, anyway,

Your logic implies that TES cannot exist without consoles? Oh the ignorance...

Not the least of which is: a lot of people thought the Internet was just a fad in the 80s, something that would be replaced by something else very shortly. Your argument is invalid, Luke Skyrimmer.

And you! Your mistake was talking to Ghartok in the first place. You know he's done when he starts calling people "kid" to try and pretend he has any actual authority or position with which to argue against other people. It's quite amusing from the outside-looking-in perspective, actually.

All this talk of console specifics and whatnot is pointless anyway. It's early enough in the sequence that I feel the best option right now would be to aim high then whittle down as new details emerge. For example, right now we should assume that the game will be released on next-gen hardware, and that it will be a few (at most three) years old when this happens. That means that even though the console may only be as good as a really good PC from today or next year, developers will have had practice at optimizing for the machines.

My suggestion: There should be no more than four dragons, they should all have names and all be hugely difficult optional bosses.

I can't do it yet (I can only paste in text on a library PC, since my home one isn't on the Net yet), but 'Dominion' features some alterations to the dual wield system, including a way to block.

They tried to do something similar in Dragon Age 2, Turn the game from a large province spanning game, into one city and its surrounding areas, and everyone hated it.

Meshing all of the cities from Skyrim into one, to make one super city, and it's surroundings, only kills the player's ability to see anything more then a highly limited, and thus highly similar, area of a province.

People already complain enough that the cities, and areas in general, are too similar, and now you want to take away what little oppritunity that Bethesda has to make cities different by limiting the total overall area the game takes place in?

Everyone hated Dragon Age 2 because it was a bad game.

Cities can be varied and interesting. Also there will be surrounding towns and villages. Sorry, but the good outweighs the bad.

No more of this.
"Oh look at our grand capitol city with 10 buildings and 20 citizens."

Yes, Yes, and yes. Someone should send this to Todd Howard or Pete Hines.

Ehhh...that isn't why they hated it. It is because DA2 did a completely [censored] job of making one city and reused countless resources to do so. They also made the city feel restrictive as hell with stupidly imagined fights right in the middle of a bunch of non reactive NPCs. Besides it didn't really have surrounding area. It was like two alternate places that just svcked ass.

Uhmmm...look around your area that you live in. It can be quite varied. It would make sense for certain areas. Poor areas, rich neighborhoods, merchant districts, foreign districts, docks, military barracks/forts, old city, new city, etc etc...then add different architectural periods and different waves of immigrants, building projects, disasters, etc etc... and it can be incredibly varied. The terrain could even vary from cold mountains to temperate forests to hot plains quite easily.
Towns can add a huge difference in architectural aesthetics as well. Towns could be the size of cities in Skyrim. Villages the size of towns. Forts could be self-contained and protected towns.

Why are you so determined to find problems instead of solutions? It is mostly common sense. Cities have history and thus have gone through historical change. I bet the Imperial City during Skyrim's time looks quite a bit different than the one we saw during Oblivion. Rebuilt temples around the by-now-holy-Akatosh-as-Martin Statue. Think of how a said city could be constructed and rebuilt/renovated over thousands of years and you get a wide variety of aesthetics.

And part of what made Dragon Age 2 bad was its shift from going to many places, and insted just staying in one.

But its still one city, with one homognious architectural style.

And the good does not outway the bad, the only good we get from it is that cities look more like cities, but we also end up stripping away a large part of the exploration factor, the diverse landscape, people, and different architectural styles, and a good deal of the dungeons. The bad far outweights the good.

We are left with one large city, and maybe one small villige, and a lot of blank land with little in it, as it would be unrealistic for one area around the city to have as many locations as Skyrim does now.

Walking around mostly blank land in a vain attempt to find one of the like 30..... locations wouldn't be fun. Nor would it be fun if an entire game looked like Whiterun hold, or any one hold for that matter, the different landscapes are nessessary in keeping exploration fresh and exciting.