» Sat Dec 10, 2011 9:33 pm Contents
1. World size… It really does matter.
2. Daggerfall style fast travel - plus a few enhancements.
3. Realistic weather and seasons.
4. Wellness… an appeal to the “hardcoe” crowd.
5. A real-time clock.
6. Realistic NPC interaction.
7. A Trader’s Guild.
8. Improved alchemy
9. Real custom weapons and armor.
10. Customizing spells (but not necessarily spell making).
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1. World size… It really does matter.
As massive as Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim are they really don't make me feel like I am exploring an actual province of Tamriel. Don't get me wrong - I thoroughly enjoy the marvelous play-spaces that Bethesda has laboriously crafted... But it all just feels so small in the grand scheme of things. I can easily walk from one city to the next in about ten minutes or less. At best, I feel as if I'm exploring a small island. In Skyrim I enter ruins that have been abandoned for centuries, yet they're all over the place and usually just a stone's throw from civilization. It really robs them of their mystique. Why exactly are these places supposed to be so mysterious? Additionally "cities" feel a lot more like villages to me. The Imperial City in Oblivion was the largest of them, but in reality it only had a few dozen homes, and maybe 150 NPCs... Would you call a community with 150 residents a "city"?
In order to make the play-space of TES:VI much larger there are a few things Bethesda can do. First of all, I think the best way to do a realistically large region - as in thousands of square miles - is like this:
1) Build very detailed hand-crafted zones - lets call them "Free Roam Areas" or FRAs for short. Each FRA would be about the size of one of Skyrim's Holds at its current un-modified scale. These FRAs could still be quite large, up to few square miles.
2) When a character gets to the border of a FRA, procedural rendering would take over. Gigantic -yes, as in thousands of square miles- swaths of land would simply be generated randomly, but could still adhere to a specified topography. That is, the locations of mountains, rivers, lakes, villages, dungeons, etc. and the type of terrain (forest, tundra, snow, etc.) would be specified... however the placement of rocks, trees, logs, plants, animals, and monsters would be generated at random. This would allow the player to kiss civilization goodbye and explore the wilderness basically forever if they wanted to.
3) The detailed FRAs would literally be separated by hundreds of miles, and not everyone wants to spend 70 hours of playing just getting to the next city, so a fast travel system would of course, be required. However, this would be a beefed up version of fast travel, in which I will detail the mechanics of in the next segment.
As for making cities more realistic, they simply need to be larger and have more people. Again procedural generation can help. Here's how:
1) Create the appropriate amount of specific NPCs. These will be important characters, quest givers, shop owners, trainers, faction members, etc. This will be no different from the previous three TES games.
2) Generate unnamed "filler" NPCs similar to the ones you see in games like Grand Theft Auto. Most will want to be left alone, and you will not be able to speak with them. Honestly, how many people can you just walk up to, as a total stranger, and just start a conversation with? Try it next time you're at the mall.
3) Leave lots of houses permanently locked, empty (to save development time), and requiring a key. Call them "filler" houses if you will, because they are where all the "filler" NPCs live at night.
4) In the chance occasion that a "filler" NPC does in fact respond to you, they will be assigned a name, occupation and a place of residence in the city. Then and only then, will you be able to enter their house - which will be decorated by procedural generation. Also, you may now pick the lock for that location.
5) Give the player a "black book" with a limited number of slots for the randomly generated NPCs. Once full, the player can erase some entries from the "black book" so new ones may be added. This will keep the game save from becoming too large.
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2. Daggerfall style fast travel - plus a few enhancements.
Many players do not like fast travel because it removes all gameplay from the character's journey. You just go to your map, select Fast Travel, and boom there's a load screen and you're there a few seconds later. Now, unlike the people who would wish to toss out Fast Travel all together, I have an idea that would make Fast Travel a fun and engaging element of play. And no, this idea in not that original.
I propose a return to the Daggerfall style Fast Travel, but with even more options, and various types of encounters thrown in the mix. Think of it more like an Elder Scrolls version of Oregon Trail. There would be chance encounters with enemies, traders, NPCs, and randomly placed landmarks including dungeons. Because of the size of the world, Fast travel would typically pass in days or weeks depending on the destination. While you are traveling there will be a progress bar in the form of your route, showing how far you have progressed. While the progress bar is advancing, you will receive various types of notifications, and options on how to respond. Here are some examples:
[Enemy type] nearby: Engage (exit Fast Travel), Sneak By, Go Around
[Ingredient type] nearby: Explore (exit Fast Travel), Ignore
[Dungeon type] nearby: Explore (exit Fast Travel),, Ignore
[NPC name / profession] nearby: Greet (exit Fast Travel), Ignore, Sneak Up (exit Fast Travel)
[Village/Farm/Estate name] nearby: Explore (exit Fast Travel), Ignore
Interesting landmark: Explore (exit Fast Travel), Ignore
Blizzard approaching: Seek Shelter (exit fast travel), Continue (50% weakness to disease for three days)
The player would have the option to travel by road, which would be the safest - unless of course you are have a bounty on your head - and you'd come across NPCs including merchants that you could trade with. Enemies encountered while fast traveling by road would mostly include bandits and other unfriendly factions. While traveling by road, the locations of landmarks and dungeons are known.
Additionally the player can opt to travel cross-country, which is more time consuming but allows the player to avoid the authorities if they have a bounty, and provides the players the opportunity to come across randomly placed landmarks and dungeons. While traveling cross-country the player will not come across merchants or NPCs, and will encounter more wildlife and monsters.
If the player wishes to bypass interactive Fast Travel, then they can choose to travel by wagon or ship. These methods have limited destinations, and cost money though.
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3. Realistic weather and seasons.
Of course the previous TES games have had brilliant weather. I remember the first time I was caught up in a real thunderstorm playing Oblivion. The tree branches swayed in the wind, the rain poured down, and the thunder clapped. It was magic. But then I started to notice little things, like how the rain and snow would clip through walls, and how none of the NPCs seemed to care when it was pouring on their heads. Also, the weather never really seemed to have an effect on the player's character. If you think about it though it really should.
Effect Examples:
Light Rain [No effect]
Rain [-20% disease resistance for two days]
Downpour [-50% disease resistance for three days / -10% effectiveness for all skills]
Thunder Storm [Same as downpour but with 2% chance of lethal lightening strike per hour]
Howling Gail [-10% effectiveness for Marksman / -10% Ranged Spell effectiveness]
Violent Storm [Combination of Thunderstorm and Howling Gail, but with a 10% chance of being struck by lightening per hour]
Light Snow [No effect]
Snow [-20% disease resistance for two days]
Blizzard [ Frost damage 10pts per minute / - 50% effectiveness for all skills / -50% disease resistance for five days]
Of course there would be ways to protect yourself from the weather, such as equipping the appropriate clothing or taking shelter.
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4. Wellness… an appeal to the “hardcoe” crowd.
Wellness is something that "hardcoe" fans will really enjoy, but casual players should be able to toggle it off if they wish. The player character would have a wellness rating that ranged anywhere from 0% to 100%. The player's wellness would be determined by factors such as eating, sleeping, entertainment, companionship, how much money they have, the kind of weather they are in and various other factors. If the player's wellness is very low they will acquire skill and attribute penalties, and NPCs may even ask you what is wrong. Alternately, if a player's wellness is very high, they will receive bonuses to skills and attributes, as well as a small bonus to leveling. For example:
0% Wellness: -20% regen for Health, Stamina, and Magicka / -15% effectiveness for all skills.
50% Wellness: No beneficial or negative effects applied.
100% Wellness: +20% regen for Health, Stamina, and Magicka / +15% effectiveness for all skills / All skills level up 10% faster.
Obviously getting your Wellness up to 100% would be quite challenging! It would require that you sleep at least 8 hours per night at an inn or your own home, you'd have to eat at least twice a day, and you'd have to read or listen to a bard or pray at a shrine at least once a day.
Things like traveling in inclement weather, failing to eat or sleep, and taking very heavy damage in combat will reduce Wellness.
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5. A real-time clock.
As beautiful as it is to watch the sun rise and set over Tamriel, it's really immersion breaking for one hour to pass in just three minutes. If it's morning when I enter a dungeon, it shouldn't be evening when I exit 45 minutes later. It's just unrealistic. Players should at least have the OPTION of setting the clock to real time. This would be especially nice for vampires, who would like more than 36 minutes before having to shun the sunlight again.
Additionally, certain actions shouldn't happen instantaneously. A potion should take at least 5 minutes of in-game time (not play time of course) to make, and weapons and armor should take even longer.
Training is another thing that shouldn't be instant. Training should last at least a few hours of in-game time. Seriously, every time I receive training from an NPC I get the terrible specter of Keanu Reeves saying "I know kung fu" flash through my mind.
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6. Realistic NPC interaction.
First of all, I'd like to say that the TES series has had great success in creating robust NPC interactions. Sure, there was that silly mini-game in Oblivion, but we can put that behind us. The problem is that NPCs don't always behave rationally. For starters EVERYONE talks to you. This just isn't realistic and it is immersion breaking. Again, go walk around a mall and see how many random strangers want to start telling you about their life. This of course can be alleviated with the "filler" NPCs that I already spoke of.
There's also a problem of the NPC dialogue scripting. Seriously, Arngeir starts asking if I've retrieved the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller yet only TWO minutes after he gave me the quest! Additionally, I've had several NPCs try to strike up a conversation with me while I was fighting a freaking dragon! That's just two examples out of many.
Also when visiting a home with a locked door, it would be great to be able to knock (or ring a doorbell) to summon the resident. The time of day you knock on someone's door could cause different reactions. For example, if you knock at midnight they may come to the door angry, or even concerned, depending on their disposition towards you. Of course, if they were out of the house, you would get a message "Nobody is home."
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7. A Traders’ Guild.
The problem with money in previous TES games is this: You always have too little or too much. You're either at low levels scraping by just to purchase a decent set of armor... or you're at high levels where the loot is so good you don't really need to buy stuff anymore and you have so much money you don't know what to do with it. Sure, you can buy houses... er... So you can store stuff and sleep in them (yawn). But, why not make money fun? After all, TES games are supposed to offer realistic worlds with Radiant AI characters buying, selling, trading goods, and performing their job duties day in and day out right? Well, shouldn't there be a functional economy*? And if there is a functional economy shouldn't you be able to participate in it?
Anyway, so here is my idea. I think you should have a wide variety of options to engage in entrepreneurship. And to help you do this there would be a Traders' Guild... This guild would be to Speechcraft what the Thieves guild it to Sneak. The guild would recruit shrewd negotiators that can keep a cool head at the bargaining table.
Here are a few things you could be able to do...
- Loan money to earn interest. For example, a weapon-smith might mention that his forge is old and in disrepair. If only he had $2,000 gold to fix it, he could craft better weapons and make more money. You would then have the option to loan the money to him, and even set the interest rate! Be careful though! You don't want to loan money to the local moon sugar junkie! Trust me, he'll ask you.
- Purchase a business. Anything is up for grabs, provided that the owner is willing to sell - inns, pubs, shops, farms, mills, stables, ships, and more! Of course there are always risks! Your shop could be robbed blind, your mill could go up in flames, your trade ship could sink... so don't forget to buy insurance!
- Buy and sell stock. Bigger business, like a shipping company, bank, school, or manufacturer could sell stock. You could buy and sell shares to earn money! You could even complete quests to increase the profitability of a business you invest in. For example, lets say you buy 500 shares of "Nordic Shipping & Trade" for $20 gold each... But later you find out that the company is loosing lots of money due to pirate raids. You could then go find the pirate base and eliminate them! Once the news gets out, your shares skyrocket to $50 gold each and you sell them for the profit!
*On the technical side of things, the economy doesn't have to be simulated 100%... It just has to be able to respond in a visible way to the player's actions. For example, lets say you complete the Traders' Guild quest line, soon you might start to see people wearing nicer clothes, and there would be fewer beggars on the streets. It just has to be enough so the player feels like their actions were important.
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8. Improved alchemy.
Don't get me wrong, brewing up potions and poisons is great and all that, but how about something a little more interesting? Using potions for purposes other than consumption and poisoning weapons would be great! Here's a few ideas...
- CATCH! It would be great to have the ability to throw potions! Imagine a fire damage potion that you could then lob like a Molotov Cocktail? Or toss a vile of poison, and watch enemies collapse as they breathe in the deadly fumes!
- NINJA! Stealth players could even make sleeping gas or smoke bombs for a safe getaway!
- ACID... Don't want to play the lock-pick mini-game? Pour one of these into the keyhole.
- BOOM! Brew up a few exploding potions and combine them with your arrows! Or just chuck 'em like at enemies.
- NASTY... Need to assassinate someone for the Dark Brotherhood? Break into their pantry and add poison to their favorite wine!
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9. Real custom weapons and armor.
The ability to collect raw materials and forge them into weapons and armor is a great addition to Skyrim that absolutely must return for TES:VI. What Skyrim's system is lacking is any kind of aesthetic customization. Sure you can add enchantments, which is great, but you're pretty confined to the models you can make.
I propose a crafting system that allows the player to pick and choose various styles and components when constructing weapons and armor. It would be fairly simple. Lets say you wanted to create a weapon...
First you would choose what you type of item you wanted to make. Then you would choose the base material, followed by the base design, then you'd chose various options.
For example:
Item Type ->
__ Weapon _ Armor _ Clothing ->
____ One handed _ Two handed _ Staff _ Bow ->
______ Sword _ War Axe _ Mace ->
________ Iron _ Steel _ Silver _ Orcish _ Dwarven _ Elven _ Ebony _ Daedric _ [more] ->
_________ Short _ Long _ Broadsword _ Rapier _ Katana _ Cutlass _ Scimitar _ [more] ->
_________ Hand guard 1 _ Hand guard 2 _ Hand guard 3 _ Blades hand guard _ [more] ->
_________ Pommel 1 _ Pommel 2 _ Pommel 2 _ Pommel 2 _ Blades pommel _ [more] ->
_________ Engraving 1 _ Engraving 2 _ Engraving 3 _ Companions engraving - [more] ->
Cost: 6 Silver Ingots, 2 Leather Strips
The player could be even more creative with armor!
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10. Customizing spells (but not necessarily spell making).
I'm a mage player. For the last three games my first character has been a Breton Mage. I love TES magic. I love it!!!! But I'll be honest. Skyrim's spell effects and visuals beat previous TES games hands down. But for all the new and wonderful effects (Wall of Flames, Runes, constants), magical players still lost spell creation, and at later levels destruction spells start to become less effective against buffed enemies. Sad face.
I propose that spell making stay out (oh boy, here come the flames). I know this sounds like heresy coming from a Mage player, but here me out please.
What should be done is this:
- Keep the existing spell system as seen in Skyrim. Have defined spells like Flames, Fireball, etc. Like I said their effects are great and their visuals are stunning.
- Now here's what should be different: Let players enter the magic menu and tweak those spells.
Take the lowly Flames spell for example. As it is in Skyrim, it starts as a novice spell and stays a novice spell for the entirety of the game. Which renders it completely useless past level 10 or so. It simply doesn't do enough damage. Therefore the player should be able to say "Hey I'm an expert at Destruction now!" and go into the magic menu and adjust the Flames Spell with a couple of sliders. Like this...
Menu ->
___ Magic ->
_____ Destruction ->
_______ Flames -> Alter Spell? Yes No
Range: 1m--------------[]------------ 20m (10m +5 Magicka cost per second)
Damage: 8pt/sec---------[]-----------------60pt/sec (22pt/sec +15 Magicka cost peer second)
This spell is now an ADEPT level spell.
Keep Changes? Yes No
So there you have it. Flames is still Flames. Ice Rune is still Ice Rune. But you can play with them all you want.
