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/1530488-tes-vi-location-and-setting-speculation-26/ 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/1528736-official-beyond-skyrim-tes-vi-61/

I think TES VI should have many other improvements:

1) Possibility to climb on builginds and trees with the re-introduction of athletics skill (includes bonuses for sprinting, swimming, jumping, climbing). Penalties with heavier armor types. I DO NOT mean something like Assassin's Creed, but just a way to introduce more verticality to the game. Introducing it as a viable option for stealth/infiltration missions, but completely useless during combat due to being exposed.

2) Introducing something as a hook or rope-arrows (same as above)

3) Please levitation!

4) No indoor-outdoor loading screens. Game should feel like a continous experience.

5) As for stealth: possibility to climb in buildings and through windows (all of those in a building). Peeking through a keyhole and around a corner. Possibility to hide in closets or under the bed. As for the closets, with 2 different buttons you can either enter to hide or loot. Pick up items to throw and distract. Break windows etc...

Possibility to pick a lock by melting it with fire magic. Possibility to move bodies

6) Environment: some interaction please! wood burning down if you use fire (could also be used as distraction), pools of water freezing enemies in them or frying them with electricity. Crates breaking light, wooden doors being smashed by heavy attacks (bonus with blunt weapons). Or maybe shattered if froze solid (high lv skills). If you are wanted by the guards and hide on a tree they bring hatchets and take it down!

7) Less linear dungeons

8) More choices for quests

9) Blocking in dual wield (key settings similar to ESO)

Since I've been told to put it here. I'll put it here:

I doubt anyone in any decision-making positon will ever read this, but hope dies last.

Elder Scrolls games have always been among my favorites, but they have also always beeen plauged by some rather poor design decisions. What follows is my musings on the various aspects of ES games (mostly focused on the last one).

UI

The most download mod on nexus is SkyUI that fixes the horible interface and that should be telling.

For the love of God, make a proper PC interface next time.

SCALING/BALANCING

This refers to the player character, enemies AND items/weapons. Honestly, you dropped the ball here. The system is both broken and unnimersive as hell.

I understand the attempt - you want to have the player feel more powerfull by simply increasing NUMBERS (which is a shallow approach), but to keep the game a challenge, you scale enemies (making the numbers increase pointless to begin with)

The best way (IMHO) to achieve challenge, immersion and progression is a more balanced approach.

For the player character - bring back physical stats; STR, DEX, WILL, CON, etc..

Make it VERY dificult to increase them over the course of the game, make them matter and make items that increase them matter.

Focus on skills/perks on level-up instead of dull HP and DMG boosts. There should be no HP boost on level-up AT ALL: HP is a relic of the old designs that is completely unnecessary. And without HP scaling, challenge remains normalized trough the game. There is less need for enemy scalining when even early bandits will still be nothing to sneeze at, while even more difficult enemies might be managable with luck and planning. Skills will give your character more tools to work with, make him more versatile and better to respond to different situations - but it won't magically make him able to go in naked and punch a bandit to death, becase he has so much HP that battleaxe to the face doesn't faze him.

ENEMY SCALING:

Mix and match approach. Using a single scaling system is bad.

So have fixed enemies in some places, have enemies that scale to your level in some and have ENCOUNTERS that scale (by changingthe type and number of enemies, not actually leveling enemies). Whatever is chosen should make sense.

So bandits might scale to a specific level and no more, while some other enemies, like warlords/knights/mercenaries might scale higher.

ITEM SCALING:

In every ES game so far it has been dull and uninspired. Materials are all the same, a liner progression of +1. There is no choice, no decision making, no varriation. Materials nad items lack..character.

Instead of the boring, flat system, materials should have differnet properties. Different pros and cons. Density, stress tolerance, cutting abiltiy, weight - this woul all result in different characteristics.

Large density/weight ores would be slower to swing, but impart more momentum, thus all weapons would have a stagger change. Light materials would make a weapon nimber, allowing for faster strikes. Materials like glass might make better cutting weapons, giving a bleeding chance on hit, but having poorer blunt stress resistance, would make worse blunt weapons.

For example:

IRON - heavy, armor give greater stagger/push ressitance, weapons impart more force, but slower swings and inferior qaulity

STEEL - all-around, balanced material

MOONSTONE - light material that makes for lighter armor and faster weapons, but less momentum applied, less stagger.

Etc...

WEPON FORGING/IMPROVING:

The Skyrim weapon improvement mechanic is also broken, the amount one can improve being too redicolous. Sklils being on a 100-point scale might be part of the problem, as it's hard to make each point meaningfull. There is no need for a 100-point scale, and weapon improvements being limited to "+X damage" is also dull. Master-crafted swords usualy have better balance in RL.

For weapon improvement I would suggest quality stages, each adding +1 to damage (or each stage adding a random improvement..could be speed, or increased blocking). There's also negatives for poorly-mantained weapons for brigands and you, as armor should have durabiltiy, mening you have to repair and maintain your armor and weapons ("rusty" might reduce protection, "poorly fitted" might slow the person down, "dull" reduces sword damage, etc..)

Learn from D&D, where a good quality steel sword can carry you for most of the the game.

EXPLORATION

To give the impression of a large world, to truly immerse the player and to make it very convenient/easy for a player are mutually conflicting goals.

In Skyim, one has ancient ruins and lost cities that hold amazing secrets a LITERAL stone-throw away from the main cities. One can see the ruins next door from the city walls. Hell, long lost cities have roads that lead directly to their front doors - doors that branch off from the main roads in the land. The lost dwarven city that holds all of their accumulated knowledge? Just take a look to the right when you're traveling down the main road. There it is.

Condensed distances means the player doesn't have to make long travels, but the inevitable downside is that the density of locations is redicolous. There is little real exploration or discovery when nothing is really hidden or hard to find.

The second problem is that everyone and their dog attacks you when you travel. Pooly equipped bandits, suicidal wolves - it's ike no one in Skyrim has a sense of self-perservation. So please, for your next game, work on the AI. Have animals behave like animals and humans like humans.

Some basic risk assesment is a must in the AI, and not attacking, fleeing or surrendering should all be options.

Adding a horse to speed up travel is kinda pointless when fighting from horeseback is very limited

and your horse can't our-run most pests, so you end up dismounting every minute to deal with the suicidal wolves/bears. I guess the idea is to have things attack you to keep the travel from getting dull, but the effects is in fact opposite - it's only more irritating to be constanly attacked.

QUESTS AND IMMERSION

The whole world revolves around the player and strokes his ego to the extreeme.

The PC is the greatest being in existence, constantly admired and complimented by everyone on his amazing skills - even when you svck.

You can become the archmage even if you know only a few basic spells, or a warrior champion even if you svck at close combat. The requirements are non-existant and the PC can do too much, too fast, too easily, becoming master of all skills, champion of all gods, leader of all guilds, master alchmist, etc, etc.. all in the span of (in-game) weeks

Heck, I even get credited for things I didn't do (like when a dragon attacked Riften and landed smack in the middle of a dozen city guards who killed him, one getting the epic kill animation, and I get all the fame and credit despite literally doing nothing but watch)

For a world to feel immersive, it MUST NOT feel like it revoles around the player. The game should show plenty of other of competent people who get things done. ES games have the player be the prophecized chosen one and it's frankly getting old.

Some quests should have time limits (and when accepting them - refuse option should be there for every quest - you shouldn't get new quests), some should be mutually exclusive, becoming an archmage should require ACTUAL mage skill and big, scary monsters should be something you CANNOT solo. Period.

Oh, look at that intelligent, immortal, big scary dragon that everyon is afraid of. If only it was smart enough to use it's power of flight to just stay out of your sword range and fire breath you to death. If only it was smart enough to actually flee when injured...mabye I'm only runing into dragon retards?

If only killing dragons was actually challenging.

There should be more big battles where you are a cog in a machine, the cut Civil War storyline was so promising.

I can go on and on, but this is the gist of it and this is a wall of text enough already...

Respectfully yours:

Some Guy on the Internet

There are so many things I would like to see in a future ES game that I would probably fill up the post limit in one go.

So let me just cut to the really important stuff in no particular order.

1. Character Creation and Gear

Personally Skyrim had the prettiest character creation system but most characters were still damn ugly and looked like neanderthals. After loading up some pretty mods it was a lot better - why can't we start with that level of "prettier" meshes and textures from the get go. I liked the addition of aging and scarring textures and would like to see that filled out, as well as better tattoos (or even meaningful tattoos that you can accumulate).

Gear slots - bring back the ability to mix and match armor - I think Morrowind had the best gear slots, but I would like to add some. More rings, at least 2 pendants, placement of your quiver on your back or on your thigh. Mismatched greaves, gloves, pauldrons etc., 2 layers of chest (shirt & armor) and 2 layers of head (coif or cap and helmet) etc etc.

2. Combat

One of the most intuitive and interesting combat systems I have played with is found in Mount & Blade - why can't we have something closer to that. I would like to see the flourishes and extra abilities as you gain competence with a particular weapon type. Also I would like to use difference weapons in different ways. Perhaps introduce stances or styles that can be learned.

Cross bows, spears (think https://youtu.be/AeeoEpmyb2Y or https://youtu.be/_ygRholyh5g), staffs and better unarmed combat would be nice.

3. Mounts & Companions

Mounted combat and a bigger choice of mounts and companion / pack animals to carry your junk around would be nice - also, and I think this has been covered elsewhere companions / followers who are not dumb and keep getting themselves killed would be nice.

4. Questing & Fast Travel

I think it would be nice NOT to be the chosen one or prophesied one etc. That was sort of refreshing in Oblivion. Perhaps you could also end up competing with other adventurers - you arrive in a town and they are celebrating Awesome Super Guy who just slew the monster that was harassing the town. Questing - I would like to discover the main quest line via smaller quests, let us discover what is happening in the game world instead of just telling us - this is what is happening so go kill this monster or bad guy etc.

Fast travel - give some realistic options - travel by boat, with a merchant caravan, on a stage / coach type idea, from mage guild to mage guild via their teleporters, on stiltriders, via balloons - I don't care, but also add the element of surprise attacks, raids or encounters on the form of transport you are using.

5. Housing, Trading & Crafting

I would like to agree with more housing, the importance of resting and eating etc. Perhaps more housing options (I even like the idea of Howl's Castle - where you can purchase a Mage Teleporter door for each home that allows you to have 1 home with doors in every town / city you can buy a home in - could be a quest to get / build it). I would like to be able to add rooms to my home - a basemant, an attic, a library for all my stolen ahem acquired books etc.

I would also like to be able to buy shops or invest in them, bring them items to sell, or craft items for them to sell. I have found in most games that by halfway through the game money becomes irrelevant as you have more than enough to buy anything, and what you can't buy can be easily stolen - I'd like that balanced a bit more.

Introduce fences again for stolen items. Also stolen items should not be universally known unless they are unique or super rare - ie. if I steal a silver bowl from town A and visit town B they should not know it's stolen.

Crafting was fairly well done in Skyrim if a bit overpowered - a bit more balance there would be nice. It would be nice to be able to craft legendary items with legendary components found as quest items.

I'm too tired to continue this line of thought now so will post again later.

But even in Oblivion the Emperor has seen us in his dreams, implying prophesy. In Morrowind Azura tells us that we have been "Chosen." The prophesied one trope is a standard part of these games. Prophesy is connected to the scrolls that give this series its title. I don't see that going away. However, they could make it not quite so blatant. The best thing about Morrowind's main quest, in my opinion, is the ambiguity over whether we actually are the prophesied one.

I'll say one thing for Skyrim: as in Morrowind, it at least took some time for the prophesied one trope (and the story itself) to be revealed to us. In Oblivion, we had our part in the main quest shoved crudely into our faces before we were even out of the tutorial dungeon. And, to make matters worse, from that moment on Jauffre and others continually urged us to Hurry! Hurry! Do it! Do it now! Save the world! Hurry! until we finished the damn main quest and shut them up. Between that and all the Oblivion Gates popping up, creating a false sense of urgency, Oblivion's main quest was the most unpleasant Elder Scrolls main quest I have experienced yet.

Doesn't mean every game needs to revolve around a prophecy/ chosen one/ apocalypse. The scrolls and their prophecies may play a large role in the universe, but their are still many ways they can make a main quest that concentrates on mortal/mundane issue. My biggest disappointment with Skyrim was the fact that once again it revolved around a potentially world ending event and your efforts to stop it.

If they switched each game, so that one game has a prophecy, then the next doesn't, then the one after that does. So on and so on. That would be my preferred way of handling them.

Hey guys,

I wrote this idea to the support, sadly they are not allowed to accept new ideas exept their own. But they recomended to me to post my idea here. So I am going to do that and hopfully you guys like it as well as I do

So here it is:

In all the elder scrolls games we can choose between nord, kahjit or orc and expinrience Tamriel from theire piont of view.

Well, my idea was to show the player a world seen through the eyes of a Dremora.

At the start, the player can choose which Daedra prince his dremora will want to follow. You start with a faible Dremora and to gain more and more power you need to finish tasks of the daedra pinces. Of course it won't be that easy for the player the gain his daedra princes favor, because the player needs to act like his daedra would like it. If you really acted in the right way, you will notice at the end of your task. If you acted right you will gain more power and more favors, but if acted wrong, you will loose power or favors (like the normal prision but a little bit harder ). Of course you can complete tasks for other daedra princes other than your own, that would increase the favor of the other ones but not nessesarly of your choosen one.

To experience the world of Tamriel through a dremoras eyes you need to get to Tamriel somehow. This can happen through tasks e.g. be a guard for a shrine or something and there you need to fight those guys that are going there through the original games. I know everyone fought at least at 5 shrines . Another task could be to bring one daedra artefact from a to b so the daedra prince can gain human champions or something. In the original games you can summon Dremoras, so it would be great to be summond by the folk of Tamriel. That could happen now and than (after you gain surtain power I would say). Of course you need to fight for the one who summond you.

My idea allows to create a whole new world, because to serve dofferent daedra princes you need to get in contakt with them somehow. I guess it must be some kind of paralel world with doors to the worlds of the daedra princes.

The goal is to be the most powerfull dremora lord with the hightest favor of your daedra prince. I think it is clear to everyone that you can't turn into a daedra prince

Well that's it for the start. I hope you can imagin what I wanted to tell you. Please, write in a comment what you think about it and if you could think of playing it

Of course I would like new and better ideas

Just let me know

awaiting your answer

Katobob

Hello Why do not try to make an appeal to Bethesda if fans can try develop own Elder scroll game? And why do not develope it by engine what is able to render huge world(old good age)?

Oh boy, I can see numerous problems with fans trying to develop their own game. As for the engine, the elder scrolls games use a lot of memory and gamebryo (and now creation engine) was one of the few that allowed for that much memory to be put into a game as well as having the scripting capabilities they need and being easy for players to make their own mods for. Bethesda is developing their own engine, skyrim and Fallout 4 are proof of that but it'll take some time.

@Sch from the last thread

Well, I'm kinda finicky on them as a whole. In order to use more finicky techniques, yeah, I can see how a higher skill level would be required to learn them. Actual Attribute requirements for Skill based perks (Or skill points like what Lach was talking about) is a little ehhh. At least, for a lot of them having those requirements. Way I see it, most Attributes would be more passive in that a Mage with a high Strength and Willpower would be able to maintain their protective wards for longer and from more abuse then a Mage of a weaker constitution, or having a high endurance would allow you to complete the spells with a actual casting time slightly faster. Each Attribute would be able to help your character in different ways depending on what you're doing with them, which is sorta why I'm not overly fond of them being of critical importance and being tied deeply into Skills.

I do think there should be Attribute requirement for a select few Skills/Perks, but they should be relevant to the action that's being taken as opposed to just being there.

I don't know, on one hand it sounds like a good idea on the other it sounds like a big headache to juggle both the require attribute and the skill for the perk. It sounds like more management then it's worth.

Not really juggling unless you're really dead set on getting a specific bunch of perks. Ideally you'd choose what points to distribute and to where for your attributes on level up, meaning you get to choose everything as you see fit as opposed to relying on Oblivion/Morrowinds poor leveling system.

But like I said, its partially the reason why I'm not to keen on tying perk investment down with Attribute requirements to begin with. I'd rather see them mostly divorced from one another since there really isn't a way to integrate them without it looking messy. I prefer Attributes mostly playing a more passive role in-game, with some having their own Checks in certain situations like New Vegas.

For me, it is pretty clear that in Skyrim, the unfinished story was with the Thalmor. I don't know if it will be the main quest, but perhaps, in TES: VI, the player will have to tackle -or side with?- the Thalmor as they invade the province.

I work to my engine what can render very huge flat land. I think about that I try create a huge map in this what will be inspired from a licenced world. I hope that this will not ended by legal action. Or I can try to ask somebody if I can use his world in my engine like map. So Bethesda. Can I create Tamriel map about 400 km x 400 km in my engine like little demonstration? for example from reason how can look Arena in this age? Pre alpha engine is GPL licencion.

You can look on moddb webside and you can search VereEngine.

I am more convinced now that The Elder Scrolls VI will be released for sale in either 2018 or 2019, with a debut reveal at E3 2018 or E3 2019. if lucky we might get The Elder Scrolls VI shown off at E3 2017 and released for sale in 2017.

There is absolutely no way The Elder Scrolls VI will be released for sale in 2016, 2016 belongs to Fallout 4 for the G.E.C.K. modding tools, patches, DLC's, and expansion packs. 2017 might belong to Fallout 4 again for a few more patches and maybe 1 expansion pack or 2 expansion packs.

Oops I forgot to add this website article from pcgamer.com.

http://www.pcgamer.com/dont-expect-a-new-elder-scrolls-announcement-for-a-very-long-time/

What about specific perks interacting with or other skills over EVEN other perks (of the same or of some other skill)?

Maybe, though that kind of system would require getting rid of the Skill Tress to some extent and opting for more of a List format that Fallout goes for. Its a neat idea, but its entirely dependent on how you view the "Perks" in the game and how they would relate to Skills. Like Cider! said, too many cross-perk requirements does kind of leave that kind of system a disorganized mess.

Personally, I think the "Skill Trees" should sort of remain their own thing that involves specialization within that Skill, with "actual" perks that rely Attributes/Race/so on and so forth awarded upon level up.

I agree, although IMO i'd be justifiable in some cases. For instance some blocking perks could take into account weapon skill/perks and so on.

That strikes me as something that would be handled in the background for the most part. Your weapon preference (Unless you're using Shields) would allow you to block and counter more efficiently despite having a fairly low Block skill, but would otherwise more depend on their raw Strength not to have their guard broken or their Agility in order to successfully parry. You wouldn't be as a efficient fighter then someone who deeply invested into the Block Skill would be, but you would be able to coup to some extent.

I see those kinds of perks mostly staying within their associated skill though. An example would be of having a High Longblade (One handed, whatever skill system we're talking about) would give you access to a "perk" that would let you have a greater parry chance when wielding that specific weapon while using nothing in your off hand, which is something the SkyRe mod has within it. It sort of more hinges on your ability to use your chosen weapon more then it would in the art of defense. I can see how someone would see a potential Block requirement though, but its still sorta clunky.

Don't want to be rude, but what do you think of my idea. sadly, nobody mentioned it

Eh. Its really impossible to impose a "alien" perspective upon viewing Tamriel when we, the player, are predominantly human, and not quasi-immortal beings based on pure concepts. Okay sure, the Aldmer with rather long lifespans and Vampires kinda throw a chink in that, but they're world view is still grounded in "reality." Unless the PC is a voiced character, any of the commentary gleaned from that is pretty much lost. That, and everyone and their brother would try to kill you. I'm usually against the idea of adding in a new race for the spectacle of itself without trying to make it a huge selling point, and given how races operate within the series, that's not exactly what I'd call a grand idea.

It would, however, make a decent spin-off game I suppose. Hell, you and a army of Dremora being lead by the various Princes in whatever petty fistfights they're currently at would actually make for a better premise for a MMO then ESO would.

I've tried "play as a Dremora" mods in the past and have never felt very comfortable with them. I had a hard time picturing my Dremora fitting in. I felt out of place joining guilds, sleeping in Inns, bartering with merchants, buying houses, ect. It just didn't feel right to me.

Unless we get a game in Oblivion I'm very much against the idea of playing as a Daedra. First off Daedras don't die, they simply lose their form and are sent back to the waters of Oblivion so unless you have a system to counter-act that or make a system where a Daedra could reshape their animus on Mundus well, it wouldn't make much sense or be fun. Second problem is Daedra are treated like demons in Tamriel, even the non-violent ones, especially after the Oblivion Crisis so role-playing that you fit in wouldn't make much sense because everyone would be freaking out and guards would attack you.

I don't think I worded it well before, but that's not what I meant. I don't mean attribute and skill requirements for perks. I mean the effectiveness of the perk should be in some way tied to your attributes and skill (or maybe just attributes, the more I think about it).

The example was fall damage reduction. So say you take the perk "Breakfall" or whatever it would be called. Taking this perk would mean your character learned how to land properly. Now your damage from falling is reduced. BUT. The amount of damage reduction is found through some equation that involves your endurance and agility, or maybe those two plus your athletics skill.

So after you choose that perk, your fall damage will decrease further if you level the athletics skill more and choose to spend points in your endurance and agility.

Perks would, in effect, level up to a point. This makes sense, since you would become more effective at new techniques the more you practice them, and it is better to do it this way than to have the 1/5, 2/5, 3/5, 4/5 and 5/5 nonsense that Skyrim had. The hard limit would still be there, it would just derive from your attributes.

Some magic should take physical strength to wield, or be better the stronger you are. Like holding a fire hose. You are creating a force with your mind, but the force is still physical and needs to be directed physically. Some wards could work like this, or some 'spray' type destruction spells.

With a system like this, you can have a heavy-armoured, two-handed warrior that focuses on agility and intelligence that behaves wildly differently compared to a heavy-armoured, two-handed warrior that focuses on strength and endurance. The perks would work differently, and you might choose different perks depending on your attribute emphasis.

Was that a little more clear? I've been awake for quite a long time and am thinking strangely right now.

P.S. And then think how awesome fortify attributes would become! Even just a one point jump in an attribute would make all of the perks it fed into that much better, as well as some basic character traits like health, magicka, fatigue, carry weight, etc...

Restoration would be very useful to a Crusader for things other than healing. Enchanting gear with +1 or +2 to speed or anything would make a huge difference in how your character behaves, based on whatever perks you had decided to use.

Oh. Well that means we're pretty much 100% on the same page. Your character for instance may be able to pick a perk that involves parrying, but they'd (ideally) would probably like to have a good Agility to supplement that naturally. You wouldn't need to have it, but it'd be incredibly useful to have. You would need to be kind of aware of what your Attributes effect, but so long as they're pretty obvious and up front about it, that shouldn't be a problem.

Regarding Restoration, I'd like to see the whole "manipulation of life forces" thing be a bit more upfront with what it can do. The added "Sun" based spells within that school are very interesting, especially when combating the undead and the like. Criminally underused concept IMO.