I wouldn't be surprised if this specific idea has been brought up and discussed before but I do not ever recall seeing it. I, like I'm sure most of you on here enjoy the single-player experience that Bethesda creates for us in both Fallout and Elder Scrolls. I'd say that again, like most everyone here, I do not want Bethesda to focus heavily on a multi-player aspect of their game. However, they always consider it but it has yet to make it into any of their games. The reason being is that I'm sure it just doesn't work or feel quite right. However, with the incorporation of the Pip-Boy mobile app and the game (Fallout Shelter) it is clear that Bethesda is at the very least, re-thinking their strategies for their games. I would not be the least bit surprised to eventually see some kind of multi-player aspect in the Elder Scrolls or Fallout. And it got me thinking and I came up with what I feel would be the perfect way to incorporate multi-player while maintaining the integrity of their core, single-player game.

You should be able to invite a friend online to play along side of you as either one of the existing companions and/or a companion that they created that is customized to your friend's liking. The custom player would almost be a "mysterious stranger" type character who "randomly" shows up to help the protagonist carry out his or her quests. In this mode the main character would still have full control over what weapons he allows his now online companion to carry, what armor he or she has, etc. The only difference would essentially be that in place of an moronic computer companion you would now have an actual player. You could continue your story, do the main quests, etc.

Again, this may have been discussed before but I think it would be the best way to include multiplayer in Bethesda's open world experience.

As long as VATS is in the game any form of multi-player is impossible...due to VATS time dilation/alteration.

I don't know that this is necessarily true. However, it would have to be where if one player enters V.A.T.S., the other does as well. Or, since only someone with a Pip-Boy should be able to use V.A.T.S., perhaps there could be some other type of mechanism that the online companion enters into when V.A.T.S. is engaged. Ultimately, you may have a point though and it's possible that you would just have to scrap that system when using an online companion. I believe it would be a more than fair compromise as V.A.T.S. often feels overpowered, but so would two human PCs.

Scrap the whole VATS system for multi-player?

Hell no!

Entire builds are created around making the most out of VATS usage...since the game doesn't have any type of aim assist.

It would just be an option. Not necessary for any particular playthrough. Some people would love it I'm sure. And this seems like the best possible way to include it. I think it would be awesome.

remove the time dilation from vats make it a tactical decision when & when not to use it

The perfect way to incorporate multiplayer is.... in a different game, that was designed from the ground up for multiplayer. Not infecting & ruining my singleplayer games, thank you.

(and no, it's not "just an option". For MP to work correctly, the game has to be designed and balanced for it. Between that, and the dev time & resources required, adding MP to a game will inherently distort the SP experience. Not every game has to be MP, no matter how much MP fans keep insisting that it does. There's too many MP games these days as it is, keep away from what few SP games we have left.)

Multiplayer fallout like Fonline doesn't work.

Half of the people get gimped, and the other half are raiders AKA [censored]

Watchdogs style isn't that cool either. I'm not against say an MMO like being part of a minuteman squad, but it won't work for fallout 4 unless there's a whole new game mode.

Bethesda will add a multi-player element eventually. I just hope it's something like this.

The only single player game with a multiplayer mode I enjoyed was Red Dead Redemption.

If it was like that with fallout skins, I wouldn't mind. Otherwise I wouldn't be very interested.

i'd be happy to just be able to have friends join to see my town i'm building even if it means they're limited to that area.

Beth IMO is unlikely to add a multiplayer option into the base FO4 Game, they make Elder Scrolls and Fallout as single player games and that is what sells them and that's what the largest % of players want. ESO Online is where they went off into Multiplayer Games and if ESO does not decline in popularity too much they may consider a Fallout Online Version with Zenimax maybe? Keep even the idea of multiplayer totally out of FO4 or any other Beth single player games, if you must have multiplayer go find that elsewhere leave our Elder Scrolls Series and Fallout Series games alone, they have already been down graded enough to appeal to certain markets.

They have said that they always explore the possibility with every game which implies that it's something they think about each development cycle. The reason they have said they don't do it is simply because they haven't found a good way to incorporate it with the type of games they make. And recently they've had a trend of doing things that previously would have come as a surprise as I mentioned in my original post. Bethesda's always been a company that doesn't let the market dictate what type of game they make. However, I think that as much as they like to try to act like they can keep this up, a bigger profit will eventually lead them to include things like multiplayer.

Take, for example, Fallout Shelter. Bethesda, a company who prides themselves on developing huge open world games that take years to develop decided to make a mobile app game. Why? They saw the potential to make money. It was the top app for a while and they made millions on it. That has to change the way they think a little moving forward. Do you think there will be a similar type of app for The Elder Scrolls VI? Absolutely. Next the second screen experience. Bethesda shies away from "gimmicks" which is why they've never used the Kinect in their game. Todd Howard even said in an interview that Microsoft really pushes for developers to incorporate it but Bethesda has little interest in doing so because they view it as a gimmick. Well, what would you call the Pip-Boy app? And as Todd Howard said in the E3 conference, and I agree, it is the best effing one. But still, they changed their view on (as Todd Howard put it) "stupid gimmicks."

Next will be multiplayer. If they had some type of multiplayer in the game the fact that it's in there would sell more copies, period. Would a couple "hard-core" gamers turn their back on Bethesda for this? Maybe. But it would pale in comparison to the number of people that would buy it because it had the option. And again, I'm sure they would make the online feature optional anyway. Combine all of this with the fact that Elder Scrolls Online has been out a while now (I know, not made by Bethesda Game Studios) and I would be willing to bet that there's a multi-player aspect in The Elder Scrolls VI.

Again, as much as Bethesda wants to set their own rules for the type of games they make they obviously deviated from that game plan a bit in Fallout 4. With their latest post-apocalyptic game becoming their best-selling game ever I'm sure they will look for ways to make sure their next installment of The Elder Scrolls exceeds Fallout 4.

No fallout and TES was always designed as single player games, ESO was a separate game entirely with mp built into the core of the game.

Multiplayer in Fallout can be discussed here: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1512524-fallout-multiplayer-discussion-thread/

(there's one for TES in the correct forum, too)