» Tue Jan 26, 2016 3:19 pm Hello Bethesda. I just gotta say your TES series is so amazing. Skyrim has turned out to be my all time favorite RPG of all time. Between your titles I have spend probably a solid 3000 hours in gameplay. This includes making mods in the construction set.
Being an avid player and a keen supporter of the series, there are some suggestions I would like to make for the future release. I know it's going to be a while before it gets released as you need to build a new engine for it. I'm very excited to see what you have in store next. So seeing as how you have time to think on how you want to progress and give players the ultimate experience, I would like to offer my points of view on things I find mildly annoying with the series, and some things that just don't exist that could futher enhance the experience. This is in no way a rant as like I have said, I find your titles to be amazing, and I wouldn't have put some much time into playing them if I didn't like them (or for that matter LOVE them).
So here it goes.
Improvements on exploration:
I would like to see a reason to delve into the many unknown caves. There are many completionists out there that strive to open up every single area of the game. But I just can't bring myself to do this. The reason for it is, there is no reward. Most random caves you just happen across have just a handful of gold, some cheap weapons and armour, and a few herbs or food. This is not excited. I would love the completionist in me to unlock every cave, every fort, every area available. Except I would like to do this with purpose. So here is my suggestion on this.
What better way to do this than to enhance the character directly. Sure there will still be the cheap weapons to sell, the odd crafting material, maybe some ore to mine, and the fun of slaughtering the enemy. But it would be nice if there was something more. It would be nice if when I see an unopened cave, I think to myself, YES, some where to delve for "X,Y" thing that I need. And the thought here is that "thing" could be an experience shard. Kinda like how the dragonborn gets a dragon soul for killing a dragon. This experience shard could be say, one of 5 shards needed.
So every 5 shards you collect, you get an experience orb, which allows the player to crank up one of their skills, such as longblade from lvl 45 to lvl 46. Or instead of shards, you could make it orbs. Similar to books that crank up your training of a given skill by one, each cave would be guaranteed to have an orb of some type that trains your character in a given skill by one point. So while skillbooks are found randomly throughout the game world, these orbs, or shards, will be found in every single cave in the game. Eventually the character would build up to be a fairly well rounded character. Of course, actual use of the skills of the player wouldn't go without notice, as there would only be enough shards/orbs in the game world to increase the players skill levels but say 25 or 30 points for every skill set.
You could even further this by saying, the orbs could increase the given skill by 5 points and are very rare, whereas you need 10 shards to make an orb. You could make an orb type for every skill set in the game, and then the shards you collect go to create a universal orb that unlocks the skill of the players choice. This would eliminate the need for making a certain skill tree "legendary" where it resets to zero and you can start over again in training that skill.
Back to table top RPG elements:
There is something to be said about where the creaters of the Elder Scrolls started. In tabletop gaming. The game was inspired by a table top D&D campaign. The story was conjured up by the DM, and the developers of the series went off that story line and created immense stories, via books, character interaction, etc. What we need is to feel like an adventurer in a true RPG element. What I mean by this, is I find it very unrealistic that a character can go 3 straight weeks without having to sleep. That a character can "fast travel" from one point, to another point on the opposite side of the map, and have no adverse effects of not stopping to rest from said travel. I know your business model is going towards the more arcadey style, where the player runs their character around and slaughters enemies one after the other, without having to stop, like a cybernetic organism. Like a machine from some futuristic sci-fi with red eyes and a titanium endoskeleton. I think you know what I'm getting at here. Player characters are not powered by a nuclear reactor that keeps them charged up for the 3 - 6 in game months it takes to complete the game.
I would like to see you guys go back to the realism of actual travel. You don't just "fast travel" from one cave to another. You have to actually walk, or ride by horseback, and stop to rest. Set up camp for the night. And then defend said camp once in a while from monsters that try to attack you in your sleep. Just like the old D&D days. You had to stop and rest. The other thing I find highly unrealistic is the need to never eat or drink water. The player can literally live for said 3 - 6 months living on just potions. Yep potions. I didn't realize potions were so damn nutritious. Like a liquid energy shake. And while the player is living on potions, he is getting much stronger, tougher, and can carry more and hits heavier. So apparently those potions have not only creatine be steroids as well.
I know a lot of you are going to cry "it's just a game dude". I get that. But this isn't just a flaw with Elder scrolls. It seems most every RPG out there focuses so much on the battle and combat they forget the RPG element. IE, ROLE playing game. Not go out there and slash the enemies till u win the game, game. I want to feel like I AM the character, not just playing some avatar, that I force to do my bidding, while in real I eat and sleep and keep hydrated in real. I want to have a reason to care for my characters' health and well being. So please Dev's, go back to your roots. Go back to those table top days. Think, "how can we put a little bit of a simulator element into this". I PROMISE you, the call of duty gamers will not put this game down and call it crap cause they can't just run around killing everything in sight. The audience you are appealing to is the older generation. And by older I mean 20 - 50. Not the 10 year olds who have never rolled a set of dice in their life.
Player homes:
Your attempts at player homes have been progressively better. Actually I think the best player home model you ever came up with was with Morrowind. The sense of actually building your own home, and questing for it to be better, was amazing. Where it fell short though, was the lack of storage and organization. That huge, massive tower, and only 1, ONE, single chest? No thanks. I am currently working on a mod for morrowind. I count 16 large chests, and 8 small chests. For everything the player could possibly want to store. The default homes brought about by the game are terribly, HORRIBLY lacking proper storage. And not just the lack of storage. But the lack of actual organization of said storage. It's possible to label each chest, for example "Non-enchanted Weapons". So why not do this for the player? I mean, hell, in Skyrim I am the DRAGON BORN. The most powerful person in skyrim since the last dragon born. I shouldn't be reduced to being some yarl, and the only option is to buy some dusty old shack in the corner of town, that some old lady used to own, that liked to wear dresses and bonnets.
So here is what I propose for a better homestead experience. The player gets to a certain point in the game and a courier delivers him a letter. The letter says that the higher ups have noticed his involvement in the world around him and would like to offer him a castle. So the quest starts, and the player goes to talk to the high king, or fane, or whatever the powers that be in the new game are going to be. The king, or whatever, offers him the option to purchase a castle. The player accepts but there are hangups. The castle is in a bad sort of disarray. Or the castle could be one that was in good shape but was destroyed in front of the players eyes, like the keep just west of windhelm in skyrim at the beginning of the game. So the player must invest gold and resources to upgrade and improve this castle.
But it's not that easy. There are caravans of supplies and builders that must be protected. The caravans need to be escorted. The player can't be everywhere at once so the player can choose to hire mercenaries to protect these caravans. The player could also choose to escort them him/herself. If the escort option is chosen, then the player needs to be ready to set up camp when it gets dark. The player must camp alongside with the caravan. So material, food, resources and soldiers must all be supplied.
Once everything is done however, the castle would be very organized. It would have a weapons and armour room, full of mannequins and weapon racks, chests, and all sorts of things. There would be a small arena where the player can conjure summoned creatures and combat them for souls to trap. There would be a full blown alchemy and enchanting area. And seriously guys, make these areas not only extremely function but beautiful to be in. The player is going to be spending some serious time there. So make it full of awesome stuff. Lots of glowing effects, several trinkets and plaques, things to look at, make it LOOK like an armory, or an enchanting area. Please give us the homes, and the storage, we deserve. We are the hero afterall. I'm tired of throwing literally everything I own into one tiny chest. This is a massive lack of foresight title after title on Bethesda's part. So please address this in the next title.
Community, NPC's:
You struck gold with Oblivion's dynamic NPC scheduling. However, the NPC's all seem to be standing out in the street during the day and holed up in their homes at night. Towns just don't seem populated enough. Bars are usually empty, with the same old 4 or 5 patrons that never leave. Parents don't sit down for dinner with their kids. Cities need a constant stream of travellers coming in and out, with the potential for quests for the player. Even if it's just randomly generated NPC's in game, with generic "I need escort" type missions. It still gives the player something more to do, filling the game out that much more, and immersing the player into a world that makes them feel like the world is actually alive. With all the AI in this game, there has never been a "living world" feeling ever achieved. Oblivion IMO was the best title for the living world feeling, since you could overhear NPC's talking and pick up quests just through that alone. However something more needs to be done.
There needs to be NPC's travelling the main roads to and from the cities. There needs to be caravans going to and from. There needs to be traffic on these roads that seem all too well travelled.
Living Economy:
With the idea of more NPC's, more caravans, more travellers etc, there needs to be a better sense of economy implemented. So for example, going off Skyrim's world, say a caravan was travelling to whiterun. That caravan was attacked by marauders. Now all of a sudden some of the merchants in whiterun don't have the gold they usually have, and/or they don't have the items they usually have. They could even outright refuse to buy your stuff from you, because the caravan that was packing their gold got taken over by marauders. These caravans could be procedurally generated and randomized. So going back to the marauders that sacked the caravan. Well they are now hiding in a cave, and it could be possible for the player to go into that cave and sack it, killing the mauraders and securing the goods.
When the player finds out a merchant is in trouble because the transport that was carrying their goods/gold was sacked, the player could go to the king or overseer of that particular town and ask how they could help. The king or whatever then gives them a mission to go to the last known area of the mauraders and investigate.
This would have to be implemented into a new type of scripting for quest generation. Up until now, any and ALL quests in the elder scrolls series have been static. IE, the player takes the quest, the player finishes the quest, now that quest is done with and can never be taken again. This new system of a more living world, where caravans deliver actual goods that the actual merchants buy and/or sell, transportation of gold and other things, would all be controlled by the AI. So the AI in a sense would "know" what's going on in the rest of the world while the player is out adventuring. These things could have a dramatic effect on gameplay. It would make the player care about the world around him. And the reason the player would care is because slowly but surely, the merchants would run out of gold, they would run out of items, and they would eventually have to close down their shops if the player does not intervene in some way.
This could also lead in to some recurring income generation for the player. The player could join a guild of mercenaries who's sole purpose is to protect the caravans of the game world. The player could invest in soldiers, keep them fed and equpped. Then the player could see a little bit of return on that investment. So when your soldiers are sent out to protect caravans, the player receives a little gold from the mercenaries guild for investing in the protection and successful delivery of goods. At first the player would have a direct hand in the protection of caravans. But after a while, the player could hire more guards, buy better equipment, and send them off with booze or moonsugar that improves their performance. The heavier the investment, the better the return. Better armed guards would need to be less in numbers per caravan, so the player could assign the guards that are not needed because of the improvement in equipment to other caravans. So at first you start off protecting just 1 caravan, but after a while you could have several of them under your protection. And this would all be procedurally generated by the AI.
Family life:
You guys have touched on this already with expansions, but I feel that with the dozens if not hundreds of mods out there that modify the game to include marriage and children, this really needs to be addressed. I feel it's important for people to be able to marry and actually HAVE children, instead of just adopting them. I don't feel it should be necessary for the player to own a house, although if the player would like to have kids, a house would be necessary. I think there needs to be an enhanced system for family. I feel it's important for the player to have to visit his home every so often and sleep with his wife. I feel that contact and interaction with the family unit is important. And I know I'm not alone in this, because there have been sooo many mods written to include this, some with some very extreme amount of AI programming and scripting. It's amazing to see where Skyrim has gone with this idea. So please improve on it and expand on it in your base release.
Merchant gold and the banking system:
I miss the creeper, I really do. I miss being able to sell my items at full value. It saddens me that nothing like this has been in a title since. I understand that merchants don't have extreme amounts of gold and that the creeper kindof broke the game because it eliminated the need for mercantile. However in the next 2 titles, the issue of selling your items at 1/20th their original value is extremely disheartening, and hasn't really been addressed. So to address this issue, here is my idea:
Give the player the ability to buy a lot somewhere in a high travelled city, or one in each city, to be able to sell their items at full value. This may not be an instant reward, as an item could sit there for several days before it is bought. The player could then hire an NPC to man the shop. So after some investment of buying the shop, hiring the NPC to man it, and filling the chests with items, the player starts to see some return on their investment. Also, cities that are smaller would be better to sell cheaper items, like iron swords and armour. Places like the capital and other very big cities would see things more like daedric weapons and armour, glass, ebony, etc. You could add several things into the mercantile skill tree, or the speechcraft tree, whichever you decide on, that would allow the player to pay less gold for the services of keeping up the shop, and a higher return on the profits. The player would still sell their items to other merchants in the game to make quick cash, but over the long run the investment of owning a shop or several shops would start to see large returns.
There could also be some sort of central banking system. There should be several ways for the player to invest gold. One of those types of investments should be by having a bank account. The player can leave gold in this bank account and the account itself grows slowly over time. So let's say the player drops 5000 gold into the bank. Over the course of several in-game weeks, that 5000 gold investment is now 7000 gold. The more money a player invests, the higher the return. One could argue that this is an ecomony breaking mechanic, but then I could also argue that if you are stuck to one portion of the entire planet, of which Tamriel is just a continent, and that there are several other continents, and gold is being mined all over the place all over the planet, then the generation of gold coins out of thin air isn't actually all that unrealistic. Afterall, isn't that how the American and Canadian economy got their first real boom? By mining for gold? It's not unrealistic.
So what I am saying here is, the generation of money should be a real, viable thing here, as opposed to just dungeon delving and selling off the looted crappy items for cheap. So far there have been 3 things mentioned here to invest in. 1) Armed mercenaries for the protection of the caravans (living economy). 2) The ownership of shops 3) Banking and investments. It's a sad reality that from levels 1 - 20 the player is typically hurting for money constantly. But from levels 25+, the player has nothing BUT money, and nothing to do with it. This is a severely lopsided mechanic that as of yet hasn't really been addressed.
The travel system:
While the travel systems for all 3 titles work like a charm, I feel that in Oblivion and Skyrim you broke it. Morrowind's travel was perfect. If you didn't use the mages guilds or the mage circles, or the propylene indexes, you had to actually WALK. I would love to see you guys go back to this. You made the last 2 titles too instantly gratifying. You are hell bent on instantly warping a character, from any known location to any known location. This is NOT an RPG element. I would like to see you revert back to the day where, even if a location was known, you still had to walk there. This works perfectly with the need to sleep and rest, to eat, and all that stuff whilst on the road to wherever it is you are going. Catering to the instant gratification market of todays' youth is not helping you at all. I understand that there will always be the naysayers and that people want to be able to just go to where they are going. But I promise you, this is not just catering to the "hardcoe" crowd. And here's a way you can look at it:
Bring back the mages guild travel agents. This was perfect. Combine this with special items that are consumed on use, and items that are not consumed on use, to teleport you to SPECIFIC areas, you have the perfect travel system. And then for icing on the cake, you could still leave horses as a form of travel. So players can ride via horseback to wherever they are going once they have teleported to a certain area.
More specifically, here are some ideas: 1) Mages guild circles that teleport you to other mages guilds. 2) A magical item like a ring or an amulet or something new you create that teleports you to your player owned home. 3) Forts and propylene indexes. 4) Horses 5) "Oblivion" style gateways that you can travel through to take you to other areas (nether travel of sorts).
Conclusion:
There will likely be much hate on this thread. I will likely be considered the "hardcoe" of the gamer community. I will likely be shunned for wanting to make the game harder. But it's just not so. I'm not trying to change the whole dungeon delving, saving-the-world aspect of the elder scrolls. What I want is to expand on an already amazing series. Now in the early 21'st century we have the technology to make fully fleshed out AI, living economy, with AI generated random questing, as well as the standard form of questing we have seen so far.
I want a reason to care for my player. I want a reason to care for the game world. I want to see heavy traffic, filled up bars on the weekends (in game time). I want to not just be magically transported from one cave on the far west to the other on the far east of the map. I want to have to sleep, eat and keep hydrated. I want other ways to earn income other than selling my items at robbery prices.
There needs to be a measurable reason to go off track and explore random caves. The reward shouldn't be monetary gain, but rather development of character. What I suggested with the shards and the orbs is just one thing to think about. You could literally go any direction with this, from personal character development to meeting someone who is aces in sales and trade and makes one of your shops extremely profitable.
Basically what I'm getting at is, I hope, I REALLY hope you take some of these ideas to heart. Because it seems to me that you guys are pulling more and more away from the "RPG" element and going more for the combat mechanics, the "hack and slash" dungeon delver style game play. You are taking away the need to roll those dice. You are taking away the need to rest. You are taking away the need for the player to literally LIVE through his character. I don't want to see yet another step towards the arcade version of elder scrolls. I would actually like to see you guys move backwards, with the things I have suggested, towards more of a morrowind style game play. Where yes, there are many things you can do in combat that actually rewards player skill, like straffing around someone shooting arrows at you and making them miss.
Thanks for reading through all this and I hope to see some of this in the next release
