This thread is for ideas and suggestions for future Elder Scrolls games, and to keep all the discussion in one series of threads.

We also have an official thread specifically for http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1408168-tes-vi-location-and-setting-official-speculation-thread-3/ suggestions for future games.

Now that Skyrim has been released the number of suggestions and ideas for the next ES game are starting to show up. We have a long way to go before we get another ES game and all topics like this will be closed and either transferred or referred to this one.

Please keep any discussion of Skyrim in the correct forums.

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1424961-official-beyond-skyrim-tes-vi-16/

Please read the introduction before advancing, thank you.

Hi all, I've created an idea for an Elder Scrolls game based in Hammerfell, it's still largely a Work In Progress (WIP), but I'll keep expanding it. I'm looking for critisism and praise on the pros and cons of my idea. If you do take the time to read this, THANK YOU very much, all support is welcome, but if no-one likes it then hey, I took a shot.
Well Copy+Paste from Word.. here I go

Edit1: Fixed Spelling Mistakes

Zehq’s TES: Hammerfell idea’s

Hi, so I’ve come up with a few ideas about an Elder Scrolls game based in Hammerfell. Now, considering Skyrim came out a year ago, I’m going ahead and presuming it would be the next game and would take place just 40 odd years after the Dragon Age.
I’m going to take a plot items into effect.
- Dragons are still around, but their numbers have been reduced drastically
- The Thalmor are making advances on Hammerfell again and would be the main plot point of the game
- The Redguard’s control the entirety of Hammerfell, aside from the Orc’s in the Dragontail mountains
- The Thalmor have just starting making advances into Hammerfell*
*how the game starts as well

Starting off in Hammerfell

So, the game will start out as you registering in a local inn in the city of Rihad, the southern-most city in the Hammerfell province and an obvious starting point for the Thalmor to attack. As they originally wanted to gain Southern Hammerfell as part of the Dominion’s territories, it would seem logical to start their invasion here.
Now you pick your character and such and after a while bells will ring and the city will plunge into chaos, the Rihad will gather a pitiful defence force and the citizens start to flee into the surrounding desert accompanied by a small guard who will, eventually, die trying to save everyone.

As you escape you notice Rihad’s walls being breached by cannons and offshore fire from Thalmor ships. You’ll be forced into a sort of scripted event where you can acquire a Longbow and Iron Arrows, defending the main gate and can grab a choice of melee weapons, but you already have a few Destruction spells available depending on your race. A very small Thalmor force charges through the main gates and attack, you will have to defend it with your newly-found weapons/magic but the Redguard’s will help you tremendously in your battle, however they are forced to abandon the city.

As you leave you will be fighting the occasional Thalmor raiding party, and weak wildlife such as coyotes or the Alik’r version of Dingos ( ). You flee to Chase River bridge crossing, where you are forced to run across to bridge and jump into “evacuation carriages” where it will take you to the near city, which will be Taneth. The Chase River crossing will be destroyed and access to Rihad will be off limits… unless you have a death wish.

Hammerfell biome map: (a really bad one)

[img]file:///C:/Users/Liam/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.png[/img]

Legend: (clockwise from left)
Light Green: Alik’r Desert
Dark Blue: Mountainous Alik’r Desert, still a desert but merges with the Dragontail Mountains.
Grey: Dragontail Mountains
Light Blue: West Reach Mountains
Orange: Halkiri Plains
Purple: Cortea Mountains
Light Purple: Nothing of note
Black: News Bane
Dark Green: Stros M’Kai

Detailed Map: (Not to biome scale, slight changes have been made… poorly)

[img]file:///C:/Users/Liam/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image003.jpg[/img]

For a full detail and large scale map, please, follow the link:

(link removed)

For added detail, here is a detailed map of Stros M’Kai:

(link removed)

What is survival and combats role in “Hammerfell”?

Well, as I’ve previously said in my MUCH shorter description, that I disliked the role of disease and weather in Skyrim, among other things such as balance of the combat triangle (Melee, Archery, and Magicks).
In Skyrim, I’ve liked the concept of disease, but it’s played out poorly and rarely happens, overall, I’ve been affected by ONE disease in all my 300 hours of Skyrim. It should’ve been that if you’re bitten by, say, a spider, you should suffer venomous consequences. If you walk blindly into a blizzard you should be affected by frostbite and suffer from say, “No sprinting, all combat suffers from a 60% mobility loss, no power attacks and 80% damage loss”. Harsh consequences you say? Well then why the hell did you run into a blizzard wearing rags?
In Hammerfell, I don’t want snow here at all, aside from say at the eastern-most point at the West Reach Mountains bordering Hammerfell and Skyrim/Cyrodiil. So, the weather will be the harsh desert heat, sandstorms, flash floods, and more.

Clothes, weight, sleep, food and water will all be major factors in surviving the desert. You must wear the required attire, armour will be fine, but it will require a ton of waterskins, whereas if you wore “desert clothing” (for a lack of an official name, it’ll be just called “desert clothing” for now, simply imagine a simply white ‘dress’ worn by men and women that consists of four “armour slots”, head, body, hands and feet. White would be an obvious first choice in the desert) you would require drastically less waterskins than previously needed.

The time of day would also be important in the desert, while night time being the coolest, so clothing and water wouldn’t be as necessary, creatures would come out and attack constantly, whereas the safest time being early morning or afternoon. The middle of the day would be the hottest, and almost all animals wouldn’t be out aside from creatures such as “Kalik’r Saed” (just made it up, means Giant Worm in the common tongue, it’s virtually a giant worm that tunnels through the sand and attacks at will, very powerful, your best defence would be to run for your life) and Fire Elementals (go figure).

With weight, I’d like it to be more realistic, (however this would only be optional, but you get an achievement for completing the game on all of the hardest difficulty settings on Xbox and PlayStation) you could pretty much only carry what you could if it was real life.

Item limit… something I thought about… well you obviously can’t hold 40 items in your hand even if they weigh 1kg and your weight limit is say… 50kg? So I thought about it and came to a conclusion. Item slots and item limits. They’d be for different items, certain items can be held in pouches, others, such as waterskins, need specific holders. If you wore solid heavy armour you could only hold one or two at your belt at maximum (without perks), whereas if you wore desert clothing it would be built to survive the desert heat and could hold up to 16 waterskins, however that is without a sword sheath, shield or any equipment really. A shield would be worn on your back so that’d completely remove all waterskin “slots” on your back. If you had to wear a slot it’d require a sheath, meaning it’d only take away ONE slot. If you had multiple sheaths it’d take one slot each.

Food, water and sleep… something that’ll be challenging to do to still make the game fun, but survival based as well. So, I thought, why not make it that food isn’t as necessary but make water very much so, and sleep… well only 4 or 5 hours a day/night should do, and if you don’t, your screen will start to shake and blurred until you collapse on the spot and then it sleeps for you, if you die in your “sleep”, if you don’t, you don’t, but vultures will always gather around you if you collapse in the desert, attracting desert lions, bandits, looters and more.

I’m going to start a new paragraph for water, because it’s going to play a minor/major role in “survival” (survival, could be a skill, I’ll talk about that later), waterskins will carry a ton of water but there will be different types of waterskins. As they are obviously made from “skin” (in actual fact, an animal’s bladder), I thought that as you gain power you can kill more powerful things such as Kalik’r Saed’s and harvest them for their bladder as well (ie. a 1/10 chance to ‘drop’ a bladder when you kill it with magic, a 1/5 chance with archery and 1/100 with melee. Obviously an example…). A cow waterskin will hold the least water for the least weight, but still takes up the same “waterskin slots” as a dragon waterskin, which weighs more and carry’s a ton more water, but takes up the same waterskin slot as a cows waterskin. Waterskin’s come in different sizes as well, if you want a large waterskin, it would require the shield slot, and if you want a small 1L waterskin it would require a single slot or a “sword sheath” slot, etc., etc.

[img]file:///C:/Users/Liam/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image005.jpg[/img]

(link removed)

The Combat Triangle and Balance

So, in Skyrim, melee DOMINATED the combat triangle, if you used melee you could win every fight with ease, if you used magic or archery it’d be good at first but as you levelled up the creatures and people would get harder to fight until they all meant nothing except melee. I’ve thought about this and came to a few conclusions on the levels of creatures and how Hammerfell would be played out.

Creatures, animals and levels, how they’ll work out:
I’ll be blunt here; the fact is, as you level up, creatures will NOT level up alongside you except essential characters (eg. Bosses and followers only, not dragons and bandits, etc.). To some of you, this will prove quite a shock as this has been in (all?) TES games, so just hear me out.

So, I’ve never liked that as you level up, creatures level up as well, it was a ruining aspect for me, I mean c’mon, how is that because I decided to crouch, that a bandit for some strange reason can now OHK me and take huge amounts of damage, when just before my firebolt could decimate the same character? Well it goes both ways, why is it, that when I’m a level 1 with no skills whatsoever, that I can slay a dragon or the hardest creature in the game with ease?

My solution would be that each creature has its own specific level that doesn’t change. Straight after I escape from Rihad and I get attacked by a Kalik’r Saed, I should NOT be able to kill it because it’s a level 70 creature (say there’s 80 levels in the game, another thing I’ll discuss soon enough), I should have to run, the same goes for a dragon and even a level 13 bandit should be hard to kill when you’re level 1. However once you pass their level or even beforehand, they can acquire armour and advanced weapons, such as if level 13 bandit finds a full plate set of Orcish armour, he’d be MUCH stronger than if he was wearing iron.

Combat levels and Total levels:
Something I’ve gotten some inspiration from “RuneScape”. Well basically, you have two levelling systems now, “combat level” and “total level”. Creatures acquiring armour and difficulty and such will be governed by “combat level” rather than “total level”. Your combat level will be an invisible level you can’t see but is governed by combat skills such as “One-Handed, Block, Stealth, Destruction, Conjuration, Archery, Survival, etc.”

The Survival Skill

A new skill I’ve just invented. I thought through this and considering survival is a semi-major factor in Hammerfell, I thought it would require a skill tree. Now what this would govern is weight (scrapping the weight governed by Stamina idea), and survival in the wilderness (pretty vague lol).
Survival is how well you can hold items, your item slots

WILL BE CONTINUED, W.I.P.

If they wanted to, I could see them finishing this in two or three more games. I doubt that would occur, but hear me out.

TESVI could (and I say should) take place in Hammerfell, one of the few nations of Tamriel completely unaffiliated with the Empire or Dominion in any way. It would be the starting strokes of the second Great War, and so both groups would attempt to get the Redguards on their side, the Dominion so that A: they could pincer the heart of Empire between the fearsome warriors of Hammerfell and their own wizards and B: Because Redguards have the Aldmeri worldview as regards Lorkhan. That would make the pattern of games as regards local Lorkhan views go Elven mavericks (Dunmer, Morrowind) unimportant filler game (Oblivion) typical humans (Nords, Skyrim), human mavericks (Redguards, Hammerfell) and typical elves (Altmer/Bosmer, Dominion, more on that later). Further, the Redguards are unique among humans for their appearance, cultural origins and means of fighting wars. The storyline could go either nonviolent or violent depending on player choice, where (and this is the bitterest pill to take in this idea) it will be the Empire who wins, but the means and ease of their victory is up to you. The game would begin by fixing one major error in Skyrim's opening moments: the Empire were the ones trying to kill you in Skyrim at first, whereas in this the Empire would save you from a Thalmor prison camp hidden on the southern border of the country, making you like them more and the Thalmor less. It gives you a character motivation and a background, however slight, with both sides before the real MQ begins. Later on, you can be a political genius who manages to succeed without bloodshed, someone who never gets their hands dirty, someone who does do their own murder, or you can eschew the political method for the more direct one in a more typical sword-and-sorcery adventure along the lines of the last few games. It would have to be awash in mythic symbolism, of course, a lot of snakes and scarabs both as enemy types and on heraldry. The devs should all re-play Redguard while reading a lot of African, arabic, japanese and nateve american literature to get in the zone before designing any of the writing or visuals.

Game VII would be called Dominion. It would be a much more active game, and easily the largest. It would cover the entire Aldmeri Dominion, all three nations, and each would ideally be at least the size and detail of Vvardenfell. The second Great War will have started, and as, in this idea, the last game it would embrace multiple endings. You would start off on the border of Cyrodiil and either Elsweyr or Valenwood (you would get to pick). The game would begin in the chaos of battle, with the narest settlement being destroyed in the crossfire. Both sides would be unleashing the big guns, making it impossible to say who actually destroyed the town, granting no favoritism to either side. As before, you can be violent or nonviolent in the MQ, playing at politics or war as you see fit. The endings could range from the Thalmor succeeding in unmaking all of reality (either losing as Imperials or winning as Thalmor) to taking over the Thalmor and making it a normal political empire, to having the Empire stamp out the Dominion forever and reunifying Tamriel or anything in between. Only one of thes eendings would prevent further play with that character, but naturally there would be a point where that would become obvious allowing you to save and complete any sidequests beforehand.

Of course, if you wanted you could just cut the "Thalmor win" side of that game and then have the series continue along a new line for games eight and beyond, as well, but as I said it would be a good place to end it thematically. EDIT: Although ending it on game 8 or 9 would also be thematically satisfying, in it's way. Maybe a "reunification" game taking place in all of Tamriel after Dominion could be fun as well, but this is all just what bounces in my head.

In any case, we need more lorebooks and the avidance of real-world normalcy would be a must.

EDIT: secondary thoughts.

I'm editing these in. I said this elsewhere but it's extremely relevant to what I want and hope for in future TES games:


As I've been prone to say, despite the panicked cries of "video games are too long so people won't play them anymore!" if someone buys a TES game they both want and expect a timesink.

Let's look back in time at Morrowind. A great deal of early quests and a few midgame ones existed almost entirely to set the stage, to give you well-woven exposition into the nature of Morrowind, the Tribunal and the Sixth House so I, the player, actually cared about the conflict between these groups and what it meant for the land and its people. Seriously, there was a major early quest spent entirely gathering information for Caius Cosades that was secretly a way to exposit to the player without being clunky. It made sense for the story and served a narratiive function. If there is one major thing that could be improved in Skyrim and all it's questlines and DLC, it is this. They jump into the conclusions of the quests without giving us enough reason, unless you've played the other games and already fallen in love with Tamriel, to care about what happens. While there was an information-gathering quest in Skyrim's MQ, it was just one and very narrow in its focus, giving information on the Blades and only scraps of anything else. Imagine if there were a second quest to gather information specifically on the dragons, and a third to gather information on the Blades that was needed to find Sky Haven, rather than one lump quest that was to find Esbern, who knew all this stuff but wasn't really sharing it.

Similarly, look at Dragonborn. How much bettwe would it have been if the Telvanni quests wove into the MQ, and Neloth was both the Guide and the Threshold Guardian. You would need to find information so he could help you, and in so doing a player who wished to do so could take and anolyze this information (on Miraak, Apocrypha, ancient Solstheim history or anything else, really) him or herself before Neloth used it to add a new quest marker to your compass.

It would be best if Bethesda removed the idea of having a MQ nd just have an open-world to explore. Makes more sense that way.

Nah, I think it's good to give people some direction. I would prefer that, as related to my above post, the opening was slower so players don't feel pressured into doing the MQ immediately (because, let's face it, not going for Martin makes player characters come off as apathetic dummies), and, again like Morrowind, rife with points where the player is encouraged to take a break from the main plot and explore for themselves. I feel that would satisfy both the "free explore" and "get through the quest" people.

Bring back Jagar Tharn.

I think he'd make a great antagonist as he is one of the most powerful mortals on Tamriel. He's also mysterious, meaning a lot of lore could be made up about him. Though he's an Altmer he has red eyes suggesting either:
1.He's half Altmer/half Dumner
Or much cooler:
2. Daedric influence, it'd explain his great power like being able to disguise a whole daedric army as Imperials. Personally I think he was Mehrunes Dagon's chosen one as he was chosen to do a lot of tasks for him.

Maybe if he's brought back show that he got kicked out of Oblivion by Mehrunes for failing him. Then he begins to cause a stir in Summerset Isle and attracts Molag Bal's attention who realizes how powerful he is. Tharn is sent to corrupt the Thalmor and they fall for the bait as they believe Tharn would be the perfect weapon against the Empire. Tharn soon rises up in the ranks of the Thalmor and is slowly trying to turn the Aldmeri Dominion into a Daedric empire and his magic is hiding this fact from the rest of the Thalmor (That is the Aldmeri council's name right?). All is going to plan until a random "peasant" uncovers the plot and tries to start an uprising against Tharn. That peasant is you.

Your system is very good, especially beginning and enemy leveling except a few proposals:

Don't have Rihad closed off at the beginning as it's one of the most important towns in Hammerfell, do it similar to Helgen, make a new town never heard of in lore to destroy/close off.
The survival system might be too hard for some people so maybe a hardcoe mode similar to Fallout: New Vegas which I'm surprised Skyrim didn't use considering how popular it was.

Slightly serious: It is not an Elder Scrolls game if you are not captured at the beginning so have maybe you are freed to help stop the Dominion.

Ah but that's the beauty of it, Rihad's closed off because it's a major city, and that's what I wanted to strike home, the Thalmor aren't just going for small towns, this is a full on invasion, that's what I wanted to try to tell to the gamers. Soon enough Rihad will open back up, just with Thalmor leadership instead.

The survival system is optional (including the skill), some people would rather it without

Oh and I knew about the captured bit, that's why I thought checking into an inn would be the best, stop that tradition of being captured, it's getting old and unoriginal, I wanted something new. I also wanted to convey that you're not special, nor did you do anything wrong, you're just a visitor to Rihad and was just in the wrong place at the wrong time during the Thalmor invasion.

Updated the Hammerfell idea, finished (sort of) the Survival Skill, added in a pack mule system, and started the Alik'r Desrt.

The Survival Skill

A new skill I’ve just invented. I thought through this and considering survival is a semi-major factor in Hammerfell, I thought it would require a skill tree. Now what this would govern is weight (scrapping the weight governed by Stamina idea), and survival in the wilderness (pretty vague lol).
“Survival” is how well you can hold items, your item slots, how often you need to sleep, eat and drink, how well you cope with the temperature and weather, disease, swimming skills, and stamina.

To start off, in order to level up the skill all you need to do is use all these things effectively. Ie. Crossing the desert in a short amount of time, etc.
Survival’s perk tree will be things such as more item slots, sleeping is required less, eating is almost never required (until you unlock a perk at say, 80 where eating isn’t required), water will be used less, more weight can be carried, diseases will affect you less (I never want to fully get rid of diseases, you should still suffer consequences), you swim faster and you have more stamina overall.

A fully unlocked perk tree will be a couple more item slots, can carry 50kg more weight, armour doesn’t affect your speed, neither does weight, a single cow waterskin is enough for an in-game week in the middle of the desert, food isn’t required at all, diseases affect you 80% less, swimming is 100% faster and isn’t affected by weight or armour, stamina increases per survival level gained and sleeping will be required up to 1,000% less (so 2 hours sleep is enough for 3 days of in-game time, trust me, 1,000 may seem a lot, but in fact, that’s just 6 hours of sleep per day and each time you use a perk it takes off 200%)

Will Survival be required in every difficulty of the game?

No, Survival will only be included in the top two difficulties, however, for optimal experience, it is recommended.
The game will also be based on Survival; every mission will be built as if you only had a certain amount of items and such.

Pack Mules, Followers, Carriages and Weight. How it will all work out

Yes, I know you’ll be wanted to carry everything in a dungeon or cave and be willing to loot every nook and cranny so I’ve come up with a pack mule system.
If you go to a city you’ll have the option to search around and purchase pack mules, followers who will work as body guards and defend your carriages/pack mules/etc, and once you’ve cleared a dungeon/cave/etc of enemies, they’ll go through the cave and loot it and place in the carriage for you which will hold chests full of the looted items.

You’ve been waiting for it, “what’s the catch?” Well the catch will that you need to pick the people you hire carefully. The cheaper people will loot it for you, but if they find extremely valuable items… they might… keep it and return it to their home. You can however, just barge into their home and steal the item back, but if you’ve accidentally hired bandits (something else I’ll discuss in a second), then you’re going to need to kill them at their lair. Fortunately, you’ll get your item back as well as all the other items they’ve looted from other less fortunate people.

Ah, here’s something very unfortunate… if your carriage gets raided by bandits, orcs, even the odd Thalmor raiding party, heck you might be just screwed and a Kalik’r or Dragon will simply destroy the carriage and kill the guard, well then you’ve got to find your carriage, find out what’s happened, check to see if the raiders have left any of their fallen behind, search for clues and figure what’s happened. If a dragon attacked they’ve probably taken the chest/s back to their lair. If a Kalik’r attacked then it’s probably underground in a cave system in its lair. If a bandit force attacked the chests would be in their lair, you see where I’m getting at?

I’m still thinking of expanding this idea. The entire thought of pack mules and stuff is underdeveloped, so I’m going to stop it here for now and wait for some constructive criticism.

The Great Alik’r Desert

I really love deserts, well in video games, I love doing things I hate in real life. I hate heat but enjoy the cold, I hate water (I actually despise it), but I love the concept of Rapture, but the Alik’r Desert, something about it just draws me in… it’s so mysterious, so ancient, so forbidding… and I get to tell the story… this should be fun.
The entire area east of Taneth and north of Gilane/Hegathe I’d like to an Empty Quarter like area (I’ll include a picture of the Empty Quarter in a second), barren, sandy, with the occasional oasis and nomadic Redguard camps surrounding said oasis’.



WILL BE CONTINUED, W.I.P.

I think that next Elder Scrolls game should be about the return of the Dwemer. There's a big hole in the lore, namely the disapearance of the Dwemer. So in this game we find out they were either sent to one of the planes of Obliviion, or they were living in massive cities under the ocean, or living on another continent (Atmora maybe?) and have return to concour all of Tamriel.
Dwemer forces are crushing the Empire and Altmerie Dominion but there's an Elder Scoll that fortells a posible future of the Dwemer's downfall. So the player task in finding an Elder Scroll that shows how to defeat the Dwemer war machine.

Sound very interesting, and something I would enjoy playing except for the aspect about weight limit.

While I know that there are many who feel or insist that the Elder Scrolls series must adhere to Earth bound physics, I still feel that in a world such as that where magic plays such a vital role, even for those ethnicities that don't trust it, Earth physics need not apply. Afterall, there was levitation in one game and even spells and potions of Feather. It is more or less a forgone conclusion that magic still exists, so unless they decide that the player character is hardened against all magic, which would alienate droves of fellow players who do enjoy the magic, the "no weightlessness" or light/heavy issue would not necessarily enhance the game. Just leave such nuances to personal style of gameplay. Those that hate the ability to carry tons just need not do it. Want realism, Earth based physics, then play it that way. Shouldn't be forced on the masses really. Just my feeling on it.

On the creatures and threats leveling with you, wouldn't the game start to feel a bit lackluster if you just had the abilities to thwart every single threat that comes across? Sure, for "grinders" this would be ideal as they can run through the entire land opening up trophy after trophy (which for me as a P3 player, I never cared for. Takes me out of my full on immersion as much as watching hit points accumulating on screen that I have seen in other games..), but sooner or later, killing everything with ease will make the game a lot less interesting, unless you can balance that with riveting role playing or truly engaging stories. For me, and some others I would imagine, we actually like it when the threats level as well, especially the random nature of it. If I, my icon or player, can aquire certain skillsets to protect myself, then why shouldn't the general NPC's be able to as well? Other than large bosses. Like I mentioned in an unrelated thread, I was truly surprised in Skyrim when I could dispatch an armored Orc by slicing off his head with my axe, and yet when I was beset by two Forsworn gals in the Reach, one of them jumped, spun, and with both her blades removed my head leaving me with that "!!!!!!!!" moment of watching my headless body fall to the ground. That was shocking and pleasantly surprising, because since I play deep, I imagined that she was just "the very best" of her little band of Forsworn. KInd of the "door swings both ways" kind of balance.

Wow, if your character caught one disease in 300 hours of Skyrim, you were LUCKY. My characters not only get disease easily from bites and such, but they have even caught diseases from the certain traps that can give it to you. It was getting so bad, that to offset the constant getting Ataxia/RockJoint/Whitbane I started to make a SERIOUS dent in Skyrim's hawk population, since using a hawk feather for a cure weighs far less than carrying a sack full of Cure Disease potions. The disease issue was pretty intense in Skyrim, at least for me.

LOVE the aspect of having to pick one's followers and such carefully. I thought that was one of the aspects of a few of the Morrowind mods from some time ago that should have been implemented in the later games. One of the mods had a companion that would help themselves to items like that. Having it in a game would be a hoot, especially if it comes down to where you can't get or convince them to give it back.

If it were set in Hammerfell I would at least want some "on the sea" quests. I still do not understand how the company that gave us Sea Dogs has totally denied us any real water or sea quests that weren't stationary boats getting hijacked. Heck, if The Bards Tale can have a raft adventure that was truly something, why can't the people that had one time had a riveting sea attack? That we have small boats, ships, and longboats in Skyrim and nearly all of them underutilzed was a shame. We could have had a rowing animation between fast traveling, and a real time one for the various rivers or riding around the shore.

Weight is an option only for the "hardcoest" of players, and I was intended on spells to increase your weight carrying capacity along with the survival skill helping as well.

The levelling system is something that's open to debate, but why I also added in armour for the race NPC's as you level up as well. When you first start off, every single thing in the game will be at least one level higher than you, so everything will be extremely tough to beat, as you level up you'll gain skills and perks and everything will "sort" of level with you, but you'll still have those extreme foes which you'll literally not be able to kill until you reach their level such as Dragons and Kailk'r Saed's. You said it yourself, you found it BS that a fully armoured orc was easy to kill but then you came to an unarmoured Foresworn and it killed you almost instantly? I mean c'mon, they may be formidable foes, but when they wear absolutely nothing while you wear Daedric Armour, it's ridiculous.

I'm planning to add in naval missions, but it won't be a solid idea, I'm going to give it a bit of time until I can come up with a really strong and hardened plan for naval combat and exploration, perhaps a tutorial to come with the main quest which I'm writing now, already finished part of the Alik'r Desert, my next post will be it.

I don't really have anything to say on the disease problem either...

Obviously it isn't completed, I've gotten a bit carried away with the plot, a few idea's I couldn't miss and had to write down, so I haven't finished the Alik'r yet. I do have fantastic ideas for the Dragontail mountains and inner-city combat, as well as a fort and town raiding "mini-game" which I'm trying to make fun without being too repetitive sort of like Assassin's Creed's mini-games (except Naval missions, they were EXTREMELY FUN).

The Great Alik’r Desert

I really love deserts, well in video games, I love doing things I hate in real life. I hate heat but enjoy the cold, I hate water (I actually despise it), but I love the concept of Rapture, but the Alik’r Desert, something about it just draws me in… it’s so mysterious, so ancient, so forbidding… and I get to tell the story… this should be fun.

The entire area west of Taneth and north of Gilane/Hegathe I’d like to an Empty Quarter like area (I’ll include a picture of the Empty Quarter in a second), barren, sandy, with the occasional oasis and nomadic Redguard camps surrounding said oasis’. I imagine there to be Dwemer ruins in the sand, with only the tip of the tallest towers protruding out of the sands decipitating how old these ruins actually are, almost lost to time itself.
Picture of the Empty Quarter and Oasis’ so you can see what I’m picturing in the western side of Hammerfell…

[img]file:///C:/Users/Liam/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.png[/img]
Link: http://i.imgur.com/aSpyk.png
[img]file:///C:/Users/Liam/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image002.png[/img]
Link: http://i.imgur.com/g2TJ0.png
[img]file:///C:/Users/Liam/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image004.jpg[/img]
Link: http://i.imgur.com/4kfRb.jpg
[img]file:///C:/Users/Liam/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image005.png[/img]
Link: http://i.imgur.com/x3snL.png

As you have just seen, the western Alik’r Desert will be a sandy desert whereas the west will be rocky. Hews bane will also be a source for the main plot as that will be a mountainous desert, very rocky like a Hamada with little to no sand.

That'd be true if it wasn't entirely false. It was alluded to heavily in Morrowind, and later given more clear explanation by a writer of said game. They're (probably) a giant robot, and they (definitely) are not coming back.

This is assuming the next game is in Hammerfell
The PC is just released from prision,Just like in every game(almost)...He/She is left in the outside of town with rags and a couple of septims(or Hmmerfells equivalent as they aren't affliated with the empire anymore) The recruiters from the army from both the sides swamp you(The Thalmor in the guise of Bosmeri monks) and you can say you'll join one side immediately or you can say you'll think about it. Either way you will be told to go to the respective castles to join up(Just like the civil war in skyrim)
But you can prolong this as much as you want and this will give you the option to finish any guild related quests or side quests you want to do,befor doing the MQ.
Once you start you are sent to the respective frontlines and there you prove your worth and get requisitioned by the general or the Dominion equivalent to do special missions for them,The elves path would eventually lead you to overall victory against the men and vice versa for the men.
You'll be allowed a couple of chances to switch sides in the MQ if you choose to.
The final couple of quest are to be faction neutral to stop rouge Thalmor agents trying to pull the plug on existance just for themselves and even before the Dominion wanted them(Thalmor) to..This results in the Thalmor becoming slightly weak,which leads to the empire declaring war on the dominion(which could be the expansion pack or a very large DLC with the PC leading Hammerfells forces into battle against the thalmor or against the empire depending on the ending of the MQ of the main game)

orrowind was straight forward. You get off the boat, make your character and stats, grab the papers and BOOM welcome to Morrowind!

Oblivion and Skyrim on the other hand had tutorial dungeons which were really long and very annoying.

For their next installment, I think they should just go Morrowind style and actually have players look up the commands. You can't say mainstream players don't go for it because Minecraft pretty much plops you in the world and you're left to your own devices without heads or tails on what to do.

Also, in regards to character customization, I think characters should be allowed to choose pre-selected backstories that can change the variables of my game. Thus adding more to Skyrim's idea of "Never having the same game" ideology. HOWEVER if you do not wish to have a backstory, you can simply op for the "I'm a simple traveler" method and simply state whether or not you want to be associated with a guild for have pre-determined relationships. You can have a clean slate and go Skyrim style if you wish.

Let's say my character is a thief. Is he a freelance thief or is he associated with the guild? if not, the TG might send thugs after you or if you are associated with the TG, then you start off in their home base with their questline. Also, if he's part of the Theives Guild, then unless he has an infiltrator backstory, he will not be able to join the Fighter's Guild or the Merchant's Guild etc.

You could also choose whether or not you have family members. They will be your race and have pre-set faces, but they're entirely optional. If you want to have family members, you may encounter them in different factions or what not and you will be unable to join those factions depending on whether or not your backstory states you have a good relationship with them (again optional). Perhaps if your sibling is on good term with your character, then they may be able to join the Fighter's Guild even though you're a member of the Thieves Guild because they vouched for you etc.

I think pre-made backstories would allow us to make even more wildly different characters if they implement faction involvement, different NPCs (one could be your sister or brother and they will be the same race as you.), location, etc as variables associated with those backstories.

Though I understand if they cannot do this simply because of the complex coding and player reception.

It may sound like a good idea at first, until you actually witness someone get frustrated by a lack of instruction. I had a case like that, where my friend dropped a game just because he couldn't figure out its workings within the first 15 minutes. You might say "well, pfff, how impatient", but then you take a step back and realize that there are people who play games to enjoy them, not to be frustrated by them. So if you don't include a tutorial, that's a chunk of potential players that are needlessly alienated.

That said, the option to skip the tutorial would be nice.

I've also been thinking about this, and I think it would work if it's done Mass Effect-style, where you have a small set of possible pasts that you choose from. The selection would be something like this:

Choose your past:

• Traveler - You came into this land seeking something only known to you. You've yet to make a name for yourself, therefore the locals are indifferent to you.
  
• Criminal - You've committed a crime that warranted jail time. Your sentence has just expired and you are about to be set free. Even though you have no more charges, people will be inherently suspicious of you because of the fact that you're fresh out of prison.
  
• Amnesiac - You awaken in a small town, completely devoid of any memories of who you are and what you've been doing prior. Residents of the town will be willing to help because of a sense of compassion. Other people will be mostly indifferent.
  
• Exile - You've fled the land you've previously been in and cannot return. Though the locals are not yet aware of who you really are or the reasons for your exile, they are reluctant to trust you nonetheless, expecting trouble if they do.
  
• Upstart - Your name is well known across the land, but is surrounded in controversy. Most people see your arrival as a pompous pursuit of glory and fortune, and therefore are slow to trust you. Some, however, see value in your fame, and are willing to take their chances.
  
• Hero - You have a long career behind you, with tales of deeds of valor decorating certain points of it. Noone knows why you came to this land, but the word of your career has spread to here and everyone has an opinion about it. Some are more willing to trust you, others see you as a loose cannon, a potential obstacle to their plans and ambitions until you've sworn allegiance to them. Others still are not convinced until they've seen you in action.

That could be fun. Given the world reacted to you based on basic stereotypes.

Is there really much point "designing" a whole new game? Bethesda isn't going to scour this and say "YES, WE WILL MAKE THAT." If they read these threads surely it will be to gauge general feelings and maybe pick up a few ideas they may not have thought of. "Designing" a complete game surely must be TL;DR, except as an internal exercise for your own imagination.

I've been a big supporter of putting some sort of character backstory feature into chargen. Mount and Blade was pretty good, IMO. The questionnaire you take in Morrowind and the G.O.A.T. you can take in Fallout, and the interview w/ the Doc in New Vegas are also great ideas to gravitate towards.

I would also like a way to skip the rather repetitive tutorial stuff. I assume most players are like me and create many many characters to get a feel for the best fit, and so the tutorial portions of the the games get played WAY too often, lol.

Since the point of Elder Scrolls is to make your own backstory as you go, a good way would be an interrogation by the Thalmor at the beginning.
"Are you connected with the Thieves' Guild?"
"Have you ever been in prison"
Etc....

Generally the pre-announcement Skyrim threads were simply places where we shouted out what we thought would be cool. Whether by coincidence or otherwise, a few of the strongly desired points were implemented. And since it is a fun exercise, I feel there's nothing but good to be had from this manner of faffing about on the internet.

I think a few HUGE, CHEAP, EASY and USEFUL addition to the series would be two additional categories in our inventories and a search function. A Junk category like in Kingdom's of Amalur. Where you can just place everything you find in that category as soon as you find it, and it doesn't clutter up the other categories. This allows you to sell everything in your junk category with on click/push of a button. Then have a deposti category. The place you put items you intend to place in storage. This would also have sub categories and you could place entire sub categories into containers. Like all the weapons in your deposit
This would save people a lot of wasted time in menus. Managing inventory has always been a pain in the ass in RPGs.

Here's my thoughts. Part 1 of... well, quite a few. I asked one of the mods for a more appropriate way to post my scenario (which is about 20 pages), he insisted there was none. It's here or nowhere.

PROPOSED TITLE: Elder Scrolls VI - Dominion

Setting: Summerset Isles (AKA Alinor) and Surrounding Islands, Year 356 of the 4th Era, about 150 years post-Alduin

The History (since Skyrim): The end of the Great War and the institution of the White-Gold Concordiat did not end the Aldmeri Dominion's ambitions for securing control of all of Tamriel. Instead, they stood by and bided their time, knowing what the terms of the Concordiat would do to their rival. They were right: Hammerfell broke away from the Empire, and Skyrim revolted as well. Whether the latter revolt was successful is not known, and not relevant considering what eventually happened. By 4E236, the Empire was a fading shadow of its former self, led by a cabal of corrupt incompetents, and Skyrim was managing its own affairs as best it could. A revolt in Cyrodiil, secretly backed by the Aldmeri, chased out the last Mede emperor and ushered in years of bloody chaos that left its cities in ruins. Homes and businesses were wrecked, farms and temples pillaged, and the men and women of Cyrodiil lived in fear of both bandits and the leaderless soldiers. When the province was finally annexed by the Dominion in 4E240, there was no opposition. Much of the Imperial City was rebuilt, but the Aldmeri chose to leave the seat of the government in Summerset.

With the Empire fragmented and its crown jewel absorbed, the Dominion sent its armies out to bring the rest of Tamriel under its control as well. High Rock was unprepared for self-rule, and Morrowind was still recovering from the Red Mountain and Argonian invasion; both provinces went down quickly and with minimal resistance. Skyrim fought savagely, led by the last Dragonborn, who fell in battle. Hammerfell and Black Marsh put up a fight as well, but it was mostly a lost cause; with High Rock and Morrowind taken, they were seperated. The Dominion spread through most of the continent, though it was never able to totally tame Hammerfell's vast and searing deserts, Skyrim's frozen mountains, or Black Marsh's endless wetlands. While all of Tamriel is ostensibly part of the Aldmeri Dominion, it has little influence over what goes on in certain areas. Other pockets of resistance have continued to flare up here and there throughout the past century, primarily due to how the Dominion treats the majority of its subjects, and quietly abetted by the Invisible Hand, a spy network descended from the remnants of the Blades and the Pentius Oculus.

Current Events: A few months ago, in the untamed area around and to the west of Windhelm, a sizable army of Nords, Redguards, and Orcs was formed and trained in secret. Calling themselves the New Stormcloaks, they attempted a full-scale assault on the Imperial palace, the nerve center of the Dominion. They were aided by the Invisible Hand, but despite the Hand's efforts, they were discovered. It happened less than 48 hours before the ships would have made landfall, but this was enough: a legion of Altmer storm mages was rushed to the site, and combined their efforts to create a massive storm. This caused the destruction of all four of the approaching transport vessels. It is presumed that all of the New Stormcloaks perished when their ships went down, either drowning or being devoured by the 70-foot carnivorous eels that infest the waters around Summerset. However, that is not enough for the aged and paranoid emperor of the Dominion. He has ordered the capture and interrogation of anyone who could have been involved in the attack, however remote the possibility or degree of involvment.

You are an innocent innkeeper who has spent the last few years running a small country inn with your father. You wanted nothing more than to continue this busy, simple life. However, since you might have unknowingly given shelter to one of the Invisible Hand's operatives, you have been declared a suspect. Your father has been cold-bloodedly murdered, the humble but well-tended inn you took such pride in is now a charred foundation, and all your remaining possessions have been declared forfeit to the Dominion. In moments, you will meet a screaming end at the hands of efficient Altmer torturers.

You are the Innkeeper, and this is your story...

Was good until the story about the "New Stormcloaks". No-one would name themselves on a cause completely different to the one led by Ulfric, they'd call themselves something different, and because this isn't my story, I'm not going to say any names, but thats my OP.

Also, I didn't really like the bit with the transports and storm and eels... just... err, was a bit weird

I liked the beginning and the innkeeper section though.