Pretty sure it'll be Valenwood or Valenwood/Summerset Isles.

But..............when?

The next game will be set soon after Skyrim, there won't be a 200-year leap like there was between Oblivion and Skyrim.

I reckon 10 to 20 years after the events of Skyrim.

I agree. I'd bring up Dark Souls as an example of dragon fights done right, but the series' boss fights are so reliant on those ridiculous rolling iframes that I don't think it'd translate well into TES.

I do think if the next game is set in Valenwood, and involves restoring the Empire, the result could be quite humanitarian.

And meritarian.

I hope that if the next game is set in Hammerfell and the dlc is Orsinium, they also add in Malacath's Ashpit with the dlc

On the topic of Valenwood, as there is reason to believe it to be the setting, at least as much as Hammerfell, I think that if Bethesda improve upon the presentation of Bosmer culture and the size and scope of Valenwood in ESO, they could present a truly awe-inspiring province. Though, Valenwood's landscape should be more diverse than grasslands and sparse woodlands in the north, deep rainforests in the middle and steep cliffs and mangrove forests in the south. A portion of Valenwood was annexed by Elsweyr after the Five Years War. With the breakup of the Elsweyr Confederacy, Valenwood's former territory could have been restored, creating a natural border with Pellitine by way of the Xylo River and further justifying the presense of Khajiit ruins, various Khajiit or Khajiit-influenced settlements and Tenmar Forest flora and fauna in western Valenwood. The island of Stirk could also appear in-game, possibly under the occupation of the Dominion, though still stridently Colovian.

You keep saying this. As far I know Hammerfell has the following going for it:

1. Maiq says so in Skyrim

2. Redguard trademark

3. Todd H mentioned in an interview around the time Skyrim was announced that he'd like to have another go at making Sentinel, since they didn't have the technology to do it properly in Daggerfall

(4. Half points: it'd make a fitting contrast to Skyrim's climate, and it has among the easiest biotopes and biospheres to pull off with gusto on early 20s hardware)

By contrast I'm not aware of anything pointing to Valenwood at all. Why is it more likely than, say, Summerset?

There is the 2014 memo. Whether one wants to put any stock in that, is another matter. We'll have to wait and see, I guess.

It was revealed a hoax and the hoaxer was interviewed by Kotaku. There is nothing to it - sadly.

Are we talking about the same memo? The memo I'm talking about turned out to include correct information. We might debate about whether that means its other information is also correct. But I am not aware of the memo being definitely exposed as a hoax. Do you have a source for this?

Here is a video discussing the memo I am talking about, in case there is confusion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vmjJ_B9dtU

http://kotaku.com/meet-the-man-who-keeps-making-up-fallout-4-rumors-1580095136

Bethesda, too, have a sense of humor.

He does?

http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Redguard:Redguard.

IIRC, he said the same about Daggefall City. He wanted it overlooking a vast bay, but they couldn't do that back with Daggerfall.

Forests and jungles can be done just fine as well. It's not the setting to worry about, it's what they want to do with the setting. And as hardware and software will be constantly improving, you'll always be able to pull off something better looking later, so it's just a matter of what they'll be satisfied with (which is something only the devs can know, what they're satisfied with).

If the game takes place in Valenwood, I'd want it to be in the middle of the second Great War, both time-wise and location-wise. TES games tend to take place during times of crisis in the given province, and it'd be epic if done right.

He does, but they put it there six years ago. With three other games coming in between I guess they could have simply changed their minds. But to date it is the single greatest pointer to Hammerfell, or to any province, that I'm aware of.

We were through this just a couple of weeks ago.

That was Sentinel. The bay was Iliac Bay.

Very true, but dense forests are still hard to do without a bunch of smoke & mirrors. They involve lots of moving objects on screen, lots of shadows, lots of gritty textures - and it all has to be dynamic, subject to wind, weather, torchlights, etc, plus you normally want furry stuff running around in the scene to boot. With the volumetric lighting, particle effects etc already in use I think you could make an extraordinarily lifelike desert today. But an extraordinarily lifelike jungle would be much more computationally expensive. Especially if you want to give that impression of being in the middle of something vast, ancient and alive.

Do you have a quote?

And? Given that they already have a game called Redguard, and especially considering their next two games aren't going to be TES6, it doesn't make sense for them to trademark it for that purpose. I'd say it's more likely to have a Redguard remaster, or maybe even a Redguard 2, since Todd has also lamented that they kinda messed up with that game tech-wise (it was a DOS game when Windows was already a thing, and it uses 3DFX Glide, which was beaten out by OpenGL and Direct3D so few people could use the gfx acceleration).

He specifically noted Daggerfall City. Maybe he has the same feelings towards Sentinel, but that's no indication they're doing Hammerfell.

As I said, jungles and forests can be done. Crysis 1 had good looking jungles over 6 years ago, and it's only gotten better since. It will always be possible to do it better in the future, but that doesn't mean they can't make something good and impressive by the time TES6 rolls around.

Nonetheless, Hammerfell offers some real advantages as a setting. Consider:

1. Cyrodiil, Skyrim and High Rock - all covered in previous games - present themselves as locations for border DLC. It's a very significant bonus.

2. The variety of terrain is stupendous. The volcanic peninsula, high steppe and fierce desert, several mountain ranges, a tropical coastline...........truly wonderful.

3. The Ra Gada have never really been explored. They're a 'rump' tribe. It's a great opportunity.

4. The historical background of the province is extraordinarily varied - multiple tribes of Mer and Men have come and gone. In addition, there's the Rourken as a dwemer 'outlier.'

It's really a top spot to locate a game.

The other provinces could be great fun as well, but none have the variety that Hammerfell offers.

Plus now would probably be a very good time to tackle Hammerfelll. I imagine it would be one of the easier areas to make. As years go on, game making technology gets better, which would be arguably a better for the harder areas. Tackling Hammerfell would allow more precious time for other stuff in the game.

Every potential province has its own advantages. Here are some for Valenwood:

1. It's situated perfectly to be a potential backdrop in the next major war, which I do not want to miss. The same goes for Elsweyr.

2. The Bosmer's unique culture would be quite interesting to explore, not to mention it'd contrast greatly with the Nordic culture we saw in TES V.

3. The cities of Valenwood are unlike anything elsewhere in Tamriel.

Question:

SHould the next ES be made with the Skyrim engine (enhanced) or the ESO engine?

I hesitate to indicate it should be made with any particular engine, since every TES game has been made with a radically different engine (even if said engine was based in the same model) but I can day with absolute certainty that I would prefer a Creation-Like engine over what they used for ESO. I'd even say they should use a Creation-Like engine over another mass-market model like Unreal of Cryengine.


That's not to say that Creation doesn't need some serious love... But it's basic design philosophy suits the type of game Bethesda well, and I've yet to see similar results achieved in other engines.

I want them to continue to use the Netimmerse/Gamebryo/Creation engine. It is perfectly suited to Bethesda's open-world, non-linear roleplaying games. It has served them brilliantly for fourteen years and I see no need to change. It is by far the most flexible engine I have ever worked with, in terms of modding. I adore the engine and I hope they continue to use it for many years and many games to come.

I haven't played ESO since beta, so I am unqualified to comment on the engine that game uses.