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/1528108-tes-vi-location-and-setting-speculation-25/ 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.

Previous thread
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1526250-official-beyond-skyrim-tes-vi-60/

I think a good idea might be to bring back critical hits to TES's combat, especially if it has a small chance to really hurt the character. I also wouldn't be opposed to a limb system much like fallout where individual body parts can take a certain amount of damage and get crippled temporarily.

From Huleed;

I haven't encountered that scenario since Daggerfall. And even then, it was exceedingly rare, since the range at which enemies interfere with resting is so small... it wasn't really an issue. How much carry weight has always been more of a concern than any resource management. Even before we had regenerating health.

Regenerating health, it's self, doesn't really compromise the possibility of strategy. The speed at which it regenerates, of course, does make it difficult, but even with no regeneration, or slow regeneration, you don't really encourage strategic consideration of resources unless those resources are limited. And since Morrowind, they really haven't been. Even if Potions were less common, it would basically just end up like Daggerfall, where you rest after every fight and still don't really have to think ahead.

Adding things like Health Milestones that can only be recovered through special items or bed rest, Fatigue effects for frequently depleting your Stamina, and maybe even some kind of feed-back effect for depleting your Magicka could add some more strategic elements to protracted adventures, but regenerating health doesn't really change that element in Skyrim. It just makes it so you don't have to actively rest every time you finish a fight.

Since Fallout 4 will have separate pieces of armor like how The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind has. I'm convinced that Bethesda Games Studios will have the same system for armor pieces like in Fallout 4 for The Elder Scrolls VI. I'm very happy that Bethesda Games Studios is developing their video games again to have pieces of armor equipable like in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind again.

I'm also convinced The Elder Scrolls VI will also let us craft armor, weapons, etc out of all of the items we can pick up just like in Fallout 4 and have the same weapons modifications system that Fallout 4.

I'm hoping we will get a lot more different items to pick up in The Elder Scrolls VI. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind has a lot of common cups, plates, etc that can be picked up. I hope a lot of different variations in items we pick up will exist in The Elder Scrolls VI.

Ooh I would love a return of individual armor pieces. Even if it's small stuff like equaling different types of gauntlets.

I'm hoping this comes back too. It's something I really missed in Oblivion and Skyrim.

Ooooooooh I've been waiting for this conversation... I've been playing with a system which would have you equipping 6 pieces of armour (with 3 'accessories' and 2 pieces of clothing), and each piece consists of 'parts' which allow you to mix and match components to change the aesthetics of the equipped item... Something of a hybrid of Borderlands, what we've seen of Fallout 4, and GTA... And a similar 'parts' model for weapons to assemble a wide range items...

Fear you find or buy would be pre-assembled, but a skilled craftsman could mix and match, or craft their own components. A Couter on its own isn't really useful, but when combined with a Rerebrace and Gauntlet (which includes the vambrace) it becomes something you can actually equip...

I'm kinda rambling... if there's curiosity i can go into more depth...

Honestly I just really want a system where you can make your own, unique custom armor without needing mods. Maybe even have a system where NPCs do the same thing but not to a greater extent of the player's ability.

I'm hoping Bethesda Games Studios expands the crafting system from Fallout 4 for The Elder Scrolls VI and lets us have the ability to wrap leather straps on sharp weapons like axes and swords, and lets us make our own dyes and pigments. So we can color our armor and weapons whatever color we want and make what ever logos we want to design on them.

Lets say I pick up a chicken egg I can grind it with a mortal and pestle with a blue flower or something blue and color my leather armor blue or make logos of whatever I want, etc and so on.

Regarding health regeneration, I agree with Huleed. Frankly I think it should be ditched altogether and reserved as a passive ability for vampires not exposed to the sun. What would be interesting though is bringing back what the First Aid skill did in Daggerfall and make it a perk within a potential Survival Skill. Now that would be cool. I'd also cut the Magic regen down a great deal and conversely reduce the cost of casting spells across the board. Spell casting was too similar to melee fighting, and giving you more options in a single bar while making those actions count since you may not regenerate it fast enough wpuld make spell fights different enough from normal combat.

As far as armor goes, layered system all the way. Sorry, I dont need no fancy single armor sets in a seperate interface when I can deck out my character in whatever I wish. I loved mixing and matching equipment for my characters there, and I'd be very happy to see it back. Give me the option to make some pieces have a few different looks (so long as they're region appropriate), and I'll be super happy.

So, I'm not going to go into huge detail about Fallout 4, but a lot of the things they showed are really promising for what they might do for TES in the current gen.

The main thing that I'm curious about is how they might do a voiced protagonist. It's a much bigger challenge to have voiced protagonists for each race (even if they conflated the elven and human races, which I can see happening). Plus, the player characters in TES are much less established. I think I can see it happening, though; and if we can participate in corny Oblivion-style radiant conversations (I saw a Mudcrab the other day), I'm freaking sold.

I also think we'll see the return of Morrowind-styled segmented armor pieces, too, whivh should make crafting way more interesting. The challenge then is to balance enchanting around having several more armor pieces. Adding more diverse effects, and limiting the best enchantments to the most important pieces, and adding different enchantment capacities should help. They could also set it up so that certain materials are more enchantable than others; a silver sword might not be as damaging as Orcish, but it could hold a stronger enchantment. Or maybe swords in general are more effective than maces in enchanting, etc. Or, we could craft alternate pieces of armor that offer different bonuses, like better defense vs better mobility vs better magic effectiveness, etc
Basically there's lots of different ways they could do it.

I also get the feeling they'll bring back spellmaking. They dropped it in Skyrim because of the way spells were designed; each spell was much more technically involved with perks, extra effects, and new delivery methods like Rune/Cloak. I think for TESVI though, we'll see more base spell types and then perks will unlock new bonuses we can add to spells in spellcrafting, rather than the perks adding bonuses that change every spell in a formlist, or set conditions to unlock the effects in canned spells. It's promising.

I also 100% agree with you. No more regenerative health Bethesda Games Studios, please. Just let us heal drinking healing potions, eating food, sleeping, resting or using healing spells.

^^Not sold on the voiced protagonist honestly. Skyrim's biggest flaw was the dearth of any modifiable skill checks, and voiced characters throw a wrench in that. If I have to choose between my character saying something I may not have meant (a reason why I hate Biowares dialogue wheel) and getting Streetwise and Etiquette back within the Speech tree, I'll take the latter each and every time.

No matter how many lines they think they can jam in, normal responses offer more variety, modifables, and different types of checks then they can ever reasonably record.

They've never had to run through one of my dungeons. And I don't mean that I kill off a whole lot of player characters. I simply would advise players, at least in my campaigns: if you are in the middle of a dungeon crawl and there are still encounters ahead, you may want to make sure you are not too low on HP. If people are close to dying before they are done with the dungeon, then they'd better have some means of replenishing health before pressing on. Otherwise, it's time to head back, regroup, call it a day, or if a quest is time-sensitive, go seek healing at a local temple or something. I realize, that 5th edition D&D has "healing surges" and such means of replenishing life, but then 5th edition D&D svcks. Give me old school AD&D, 2nd edition or even a campaign with D&D basic Rules Cyclopedia (which many players I know still enjoy) any day. 3rd ed. is kinda okay, but you can keep the other versions.

I think the Fatigue effects thing or health milestones thing sounds like it has potential. At least adding some kind of limited health replenshment ala healing surges would be acceptable depending on how it was implemented.

I have to disagree with the resting thing in DF though. There was the additional consideration of resting safely in Daggerfall (as well as Arena and Morrowind). You couldn't rest when enemies were nearby and you still had to worry about creatures interrupting your rest. Maybe your Daggerfall experience was different, but in my experience, in Daggerfall and Arena both, resource management becomes a big consideration.

You still need potions, and it provides a reason for the health recovery. The player isn't a vampire by default or a troll for that matter. In Skyrim, it's like a dungeon crawl with Master Chief. Where's the Dovakin's MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor that keeps him alive despite bleeding from countless recent wounds? A troll was once a feared enemy mainly because it constantly regenerated health so was hard to kill. In Skyrim everything, including the player (or mainly the player) regenerates health, so I guess every creature in Skyrim can trace its lineage back to Genghis Troll? Or Master Chief, maybe..?

I disagree. There's been a number of time in Daggerfall where I keep pressing on until I simply can't manage to keep going and have to rest. And every time I go to rest, I have to pray that I won't be interrupted after just a couple hours when I'm still weak, and even if I manage to get a good few hours before being interrupted, I had to worry that I'd run into something that would put my health low again (since it wasn't back to full).

I don't know how often interruptions actually happened, but it was often enough to keep that fear going. And that's the important part, to make you question if the risk is worth it. The human mind is pretty good at inflating the negative outcome of a risk to be more than it is (for good reason).

In Daggerfall, you don't want to rest after every fight because that wastes time and has the risk of more encounters (an encounter that could end with you being worse off than before your attempt to rest). Morrowind had some of this as well, though obviously didn't have to worry about the time element.

That seems to be a recurring theme with TES's evolution in design. Morrowind removed timed quests, which made resting something you can always do in between fights (at a risk of being interrupted, but as long as you survive the potential interruption you can just rest again). Oblivion removed needing to risk resting between fights because it was just annoying busywork, so you only have to wait risk-free for an hour. Skyrim removed needing to wait in between fights because it was just annoying busywork, so health regens automatically for you. Following this pattern, TES6 will likely have health regen even faster so you don't have to stand around after a fight because it's just annoying busywork.

Never mind that some people didn't abuse the game systems like that, because it (rightfully) feels like a cheat and didn't fit the role-play. This was exactly the complaint made when Skyrim was first shown to have health regen, first the cry of "Foul!", then the rebuke "well, in Oblivion you only had to wait an hour, so this just removes that" (in fact, I think Pete Hines himself once said this), followed with the rebuttal, "not everyone did that because it was so cheap"... which so far has not had a good counter-argument. If people complain about resting so often, IMO the proper response would be to disincentivise resting so often, to increase the shrinking risk/reward factor, not remove the need to altogether.

Probably both ESO and Fallout 4 has more armor pieces than Oblivion.

Skyrim cut a lot of stuff because of memory limits.

I would rather have an system like in ESO than Fallout 4. ESO has top, bottom, shoulders, belt, helmet boots and gloves. If top is robe it goes over bottom.

Looks like fallout 4 has an single piece cloting who goes under body left and right arm and leg armor add helmet.