I was thinking more 1600s - late 1800s feeling. Something like that would add thousands of years maybe of historic content to the lore and change the way we view TES. I would love to see the changes personally and how Tamriel and the greater world of Nirn changes with such a huge leap forward in the timeline

i'm all for TES In Space, myself.

Maybe as a Redguard-style adventure game made by a different studio (not Obsidian). But I would hate the idea of the series as a whole moving forward into an "age of enlightenment"-style period. No thanks.

One of the reasons I love fantasy roleplaying games is because they are set in medieval-style environments. I want my Elves and swords, my bows and magic. These are the very things that draw me to the genre. Take those away and you would lose me as a customer.

No

To each his or her own, but for my own selfish enjoyment I hope TES does not go this direction. I prefer fantasy / RPG games set firmly in pre industrial / pre firearms eras. Even my Minecraft world keeps a primitive feel, with no use of redstone technology beyond compass and clock, no automatic harvesting, and so on. Nirn has rich history and lore that Bethesda can mine for quite some time without need to incorporate modernistic settings.

If anything, I'd like to see TES titles set in earlier times, but suspect the upcoming ESO (itself set in an earlier epoch) makes this a remote possibility.

Absolutely not. There's enough of that stuff on the market.

A pirate adventure sailing the seas of Pyandonea, raiding the coast of Valenwood, Elsweyr and Argonia. That's as different type of setting as I'd like to see.

I would personally love to see a technological leap forward in one game in the series. Considering the fact that in our world industrialisation spawned colonial expansion and conflict between colonial powers (e.g. The United Kingdom (initially just England), Spain, Portugal and France) it would be an ideal setting for TES VI, seeing as how the Thalmor are fascist and naturally inclined to expand against the Empire.

I think it would be great if we could see a naval setting - using comparably small parts of a few provinces (as in Daggerfall) between which you could sail, trade, pirate etc. My idea would be setting the game around the Abecean Sea, with Anvil, Firsthold and Stros M'Kai being major cities (incorporating all the interested parties to current Tamriel politics). There could even be a few undiscovered islands over which the parties are fighting.

I would personally murder everyone at Bethesda if they dare to do this. I mean it in the most serious sense.

Why?

I think a spin off series based on nirn in the future which is 1800s influenced could be absolutely amazing. You can imagine a breton empire has taken over from the legion and is colonising other continents, like akavir and running into the monkey folk. It's actually so perfect because in the 1800s people were fascinated with the idea of discovering strange monkey men on an exotic far away land.

I think this idea is hideous. As crap ideas go, this idea is right up there with removing attributes and spellmaking.

I have supported a lot of changes in the franchise over the years. This is the change that would make me stop buying TES games.

TES already has a bunch of really cool and unique lore, that nobody seems to be using much, the devs have a lot left to explore before moving history forwards, so a time-leap reboot is unnecessary IMO.

Besides that, Nirn is not earth, so it should not progress in the same way.

As for technology, well in TES magic and science are one and the same, so I'm all for a little bit more in-depth wacky technology in some places like Summerset Isles for example, but no gunpowder and muskets or anything, scavenging technology off dwemer ruins, mushroom towers and strange ways to use magic in daily life sounds okay to me though, but nothing to alter the feel of TES.

No. No no no no no.

No guns. None of that. Nooooo.

It wouldn't make any sense. Here, let me politely explain why.

Firstly, technology, what some people like to be convinced is a milestone of social advancement over time*, is made when need meets resources. For a HUGELY simplified example, walls were too good for conventional siege weapons in certain places after a certain point in the middle ages. However, some clever men had got their hands on this stuff that, when mixed in such a way and lit on fire, created explosions that could be used as a primary weapon or, if you put a large metal ball in a metal tube strong enough to withstand the explosion, hurl larger and harder projectiles than any yet seen in the world at the time. Since most of these threads (but not, I note, this specific one, good show!) use "Tamriel should have guns because the real world had guns" as it's rally call, I'll pick apart weapons technology following an earth-history pattern as an indication of advancement.

Now let's assume that catapults and explosive spells are thwarted by a specific wall in Tamriel. Let's assume the Empire goes to war with the Thalmor at some point in the future and besieges a fortress in Elsweyr that has wards more advanced that stops all the explosive spells and walls so thick and of such material that catapult projectiles are harmless. Would would you do? I myself would use the resources at my disposal, having the Synod and College of Whispers gather intelligence and reverse-engineer a weapon-spell that is specifically effective against this new warding spell, and then not only use it but enchant my catapult projectiles to use it as well, thus advancing forward and winning the battle without needing to use a resource- gunpowder- that they may or may not have.

*Now this doesn't mean that advancement is not possible in terms of the series cultures. New types of spells would be the clean way to assume the only indication of a forward-moving society is more and more efficient ways to murder large amounts of people. In fact, even if they have a good writer make Tamriel advance new spells should be used. However, far more important than tools of bloodshed are education, art, clothing styles, architectural styles, language and naming conventions (which should be noted change from, in the case of Imperials, primarily Latin to somewhat Latin-Italian hybrid between Oblivion and Skyrim). These could be presented as having changed, but since, as I've said, advancement is where needs meet resources the idea that Nirn's advancement would follow a pattern even remotely similar to that of earth would require inadequate and unimaginitive writing team. Maybe later on I'll divvy it up and write why that is so specifically for each category, like I just did for weapons tech.

I wouldn't mind if they created a new series in a different setting using the same kind of open world and gameplay type that we see in the Elder Scrolls. But I most definitely don't want to see technology creep in The Elder Scrolls. Leave the guns in other gameworlds.

I think it's called Fallout 3, and I agree with the general heart of your post. If Bethesda wanted to make a different series, even a musketeer-era style series, that drew heavily from the sort of gameplay we see in TES only with muskets and fencing instead of broadswords and magic, I would be all for it and likely buy a copy opening day. I just feel there's no way to get that sort of aesthetic to fit into the plot and lore of TES.

That's all well and good for war, but let's consider all of the other problems that meet Tamriel's citizens on a daily basis:

1) Dificulty in Transportation: We're told that, much like in medieval times, people general stay in and around where they are born. Now granted there are some skilled mages who can preform dificult transportation spells - but these mages are likely to be few and their prices lofty - not really available to the average joe. What is the solution? Some sort of technology that allows faster travel to the not-so-magically-inclined (a lot of people since magic is directly proportional to intelligence). In our world the solution was trains, but there's no reason why an imaginative writing team couldn't come up with a transportation device based off the magical-mechanical hybrid technology used in TES by the Dwemer.

2) Health and Hygeine Tamriel can be a pretty dirty place. Especially in the hazardous climates of Hammerfell, Skyrim and Black Marsh, buildings can be inadequate. Consider a real world problem - overpopulation. Eventually the population across Tamriel will rise, and this will require new settlements and new roads. Now, you might think that they'd just used tried and tested construction methods, but what about when all the habitable land is gone. What about when the land around the Ali'kir, or the outskirts of Black Marsh's swamps are riddled with cities? Clearly new construction methods are going to be needed to build suitable habitats in harsher climates. Another advancement.

3) Magic isn't all that great: Magic is the ultimate ranged attack true, and you assume that technological progess is halted because of it. For me, I would assume technology would progress In spite of magic. Mages are the bane of the battlefield and on a good day can best most other combatants. But what if a waring Kindgom developed the gun - a way to kill from afar and out of sight. The mage wouldn't have a chance to spirit away the weapon, block an incoming spell or any such thing, he would be dead before he could react.

4) Trade and Commerce One of the first products of the industrial revolution was the weaving loom, designed to mass produce cotton for exportation from the UK for monetary gain. Everybody wants money in Tamriel, especially now that the Empire and Dominion are poised for a second war, and if you could industrialise the production of a commodity you would gain a monopoly on its supply and so huge profits. The Empire could even defeat the Dominion by out-economising them, and to do this needs some sort of technology.

Technology is the arm of the common man, and since magic isn't available to the common man, I think its development is inevitable.

Hell no. The people of Tamriel don't need advanced technology.

Why not Obsidian?

Like the others said, I'd happily play an TES-style sandbox game with a more modern setting, but I don't think it should be TES. I like the medieval fantasy setting, if I wanted steampunk I'd be playing a different game. Not to mention that such a rapid leap would be very jarring.

In a world with magic technology doesn't develop the same way as on Earth. We can't just throw in guns and steam engines and still keep it believable within the established universe. I can see people of Tamriel finding a use for soul gems other than powering weapons and armor and setting traps in ancient ruins (and they probably did, we just don't really see it). Wylandriah was conducting some research, eccentric as she is; Sorine Jurard is using Dwemer technology to improve crossbows. We already have examples of using magic (or rather alchemical ingredients) to improve technology, like Balimund's fire salt-powered forge or Dravynea keeping low temperature in the mine with frost salts. Why not implement more things like these?

I don't want to see Tamriel industrialized, but I'm not against mentions of gradual technological and social advancements as long as they don't change the setting drastically.

@ThoseTolerableNoobs:

Only the everyday person does have magic. How else could a common prisoner be able to shoot fire from his hands- granted not much more than it takes to light a campfire or injure a large rat- and heal small wounds at will?

As for transportation, that really depends. It cost about as much in Morrowind, an Imperial backwater, for a person to be magically teleported halfway across the island of Vvardenfell as it cost to ride a giant bug whose shell had been hollowed out the same distance. So magic may not be a particular "rich man's game" in that regard.

So health. The thing that can cure diseases instantaneously and cheaply, as well as heal minor or major injuries depending on the mage's ability, either through spells or potions (which are a type of magic, broadly kinda sorta). And I don't see why, when you have a force that can move and change the fabric of reality, a need to terraform a large area to make more habitable land would require people to come up with new mundane devices when you have two large magical organizations in the Empire alone.

And let's look at guns vs. mages for a moment. Oh, sure, maybe a person could fire a musket from an unspecified distance and drop one mage, either through injury or successfully killing him outright. However, he is now known to be present, up come the magical wards that prevent physical objects from hitting you, unless you're talking one musketeer against one mage, and assuming a mage on a battlefield or heading to one wouldn't have pre-set his wards. So if a single musketeer ambushed and killed one mage, then sure, I'l give you this. But in the case of one gunner vs. many mages as soon as he is starting to reload the whole area will be lit up, or in the case of many gunners vs. many mages if any or several survive the initial firing then continue as before and suddenly there are no gunners but piles of char.

Trade and commerce: I can hand it to you that perhaps people would make mundane means of mass production. Sure, why not?

However, while Tamriel can and should culturally and artistically advance, I'm still saying that not only are there some weak points in your showing of the need portion above, especially in you "magic isn't available to the common man" statement that is really just not even a thing at all, but you haven't addressed the resource thing at all. need meets resources, magic is an unlimited resource in the world at large, if not during individual sessions of use. That, more than a lot of the rest, is the killer of your assessment. Why would people seek out a resource of (to us) unknown rarity, that may or may not be hard or easy to obtain and may eventually run out and probably only have a few individual functions, when they have the literally boundless and unlimited magic to draw from? I only have one counter myself, and that's an individual's skill at casting spells. Someone who is just not good at a spell to light fire would use flint and steel, where someone who was good at it wouldn't.

As a fun, semi-related note, I'm going to expand that even in it's weapons and magic Tamriel should advance, but again, needs/resources. Check this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CfyU1mOZ1Ehere for kind of what I mean.

I wouldn't say no to a Shadowrun style spinoff

However, moving the whole series forward? No need for that. That sounds like the kind of reinventing that would happen when the games don't sell anymore, and they're now selling better than ever.

I'm absolutely against the idea.
However I'm not against slow advancement in technology as long as there will never be any kind of guns.
Please note that as a Europa Universalis fan, technology doesn't mean only... well... technology for me.
It means all kind of advancement.

Back to the point,
even a spin-off taking us to the future would be terrible;
we would know what will happen in the future and the main series would be ruined.

I appreciate that and you make some good points, however I consider some of what you mention as being down to gameplay reasons. Let me list what I mean:

- Diseases like Vampirism (and the more mundane 'Brain Rot' ) are viewed with quite a lot of trepidation amongst the general populous, and indeed it is implied that Vampirism is incurable even with 'Cure Disease' potions for anyone but the player by quests like...like that one with the girl-ghost in Morthal. Furthermore, the reliability of alchemists is hinted at being lacking, just talk to Arcadia in Whiterun.

- The PC has magic only to allow you to progress down that tree. If it were up to me you'd have to read a book to learn even one spell. If everyone had magic, you'd see soldiers lighting fire with a basic flame spell instead of chopping firewood and lighting it manually.

I think we need to identify things which are unrealistic for gameplay purposes and things which are in lore fact. Alduin and his Dragons are known for their ferocity, yet in Skyrim a few guards can take them down and they seem to know less of their own language than you considering that they use only one shout. What's the need for a Dragonborn? Answer - they've been dumbed down to give you (and the NPCs) a fighting chance.

I was toying with the idea of how Tamriel might discover technology, and it struck me that enchantments are powered by soul gems. If soul gems contain souls, they could be configured to store consciousness. Mages could develop a type of life-magic (I believe Vampires make use of it) to create a form of an intelligent soul gem (an extremely rudimentary computer on a large scale) that could be set up to preform a task such as turn a mill, spin a loom, fire a projectile etc by casting a spell without the intervention of a mage. This would also provide interesting ethical questions for the next game.

EDIT: On your turtle point - Skyrim just (re)introduced Dragons! Somebody better get grinding at their anvil to produce a better weapon to take them down. What about those Giant Dwemer crossbows in Dewmer ruins? Going to need a lot of resources for those. Hey, they metal they need is really quite good - could find another use for that?!

That sounds like a terrible idea.