Off TOpic: Things we Want in the next Elderscrolls Game

[SaintofM]

Eventualy Elderscrolls 6 will come out, and from some leaked images it seems to take place in Hammerfall. Hoever as fun as the series can be there are some improvements that need to be made. So what would we gamers like to see improved in the next game and what was your first Elderscroll Game?

I started with Skyrim. And as for what I want in no particular order?

1. More diverse Roster of romanceable options. This comes in 2 forms. The most common peoples in a given area can be the most common (in the case of Skyrim that was mostly Nords or Vikings) but many options were practicly none eistent. There was only 1 romancable Readguard (Arabian Knights/Moracan More) and Altmer (High Elf), 3 Angorians (Lizard People), and no Khajite (catfolk) or Bosmer (wood Elves). Even if 2 groups are more common than others, if you wanted to try courting a different character not of the common groups you are SOL.

Also, many have literally the same personality and dialogue lines. So maybe a quality as well as quantity deal so we at least get the illusion of a meaningful choice.

2. More Quality to the Relationship. As is the major difference between being single and getting hitched is a slight bonus to XP for sleeping with them (the same you get for having an adopted child in your house) and one that you might not get if you are like me and play a werewolf), some different diolauge, them stuck in the house or around the homestead, and a meal that boost your abilites for a little bit. That. Is. It. No Arguments, no gift giving no cutsy dialauge, nothing. I am not asking this to be too manjor, but the ability to give and receive gifts like you can with the children with the partner. Maybe some specifics catored to the type of casts they are (arrows and weapons for a warrior, ore and tools for a smith, ingrediants for an alchemist, an expensive item to go in one's shop for a merchant and so on). Also have them leave the house and explore and interact with the town more often. Maybe have them go on a radiant quest (say Aella goes on a Hunt or Quintus leaves to gather ingrediants) and this means you have to rescue them when they get in trouble.

I would also want to see how other NPC's react to your PC and the NPC you are courting/wed. Not everyone is going to be happy with alot of pairings. Being a poor Boy and a Rich Girl, a commoner courting a noble, or other prejudices people have. Racism is one (I can imaging the Gestapo esk Thalmor being unhappy if you are in a High Elf/anyone else pairing), and you probably would get some dirty looks in Winterhold if its a Nord and Dark Elf Pairing, and an angorian might have some words if its a Dark Elf an Angorian pairing. While others regardless of ancestry will say you make a cute couple (even if you are in dragon bone armor, and the partner has more scars than common sense).


3. Better Children. Mostly in looks. They all look the same to me, and they all kinda have a uncally vally look. So this should be a fix. Also, why do we only see human kids? Dunmer (Dark Elves) are having a mass migration out of their kingdom due to super volcano eruption and war, so why don't I see little ones running around as their parents try to make due in a new setting? Or in the Dark Elf town in Dragon Born DLC? Also, can we have more than 2 beds? It always sucks to just adopt 4.

4.Fix Combat Magic. Skyrim was my first game so I didn't get the customizable magics of earier games. So having that back might sound cool. As is, unlike say swords or bows which increase in damage the more you level up that skill tree, magic does not. Have a base damage for a spell, but have it incraase as well. I have done a mage build well enough to kill the Ebony Warrior in 5 minutes when it took me closer to 30 for a sword and board warrior build. However if I want to deal more damage as a mage, I need enchantments or a more potent spell. Not Fair. Not everything needs to be stealth archer folks.

5. More Weapon optiosn: Again, I missed things like spears and throwing weapons, but having them might be fun for the sake of variety sake anyways.

6. Fix some of the broken perks. There are some perks that do absolutely nothing or the opposite. Wax Key is never needed as lockpicking is an easy way to level up. Critical boosting perks don't add to the critical as they add to the base damage instead of the how much you can do with the weapon smithed up and any potions or other enchantments you have on.

7. Make Wards Useful: Its better to take potions of resist various spells, use offensive spells, or using a weapon. Maybe if you are using the shield Spellbreaker as blocking with it makes its own Wards that coast you nothing. SO how about it act as a shield you can conjure, and while its up have it keep some magika from regenerating past a point, but still allows you to have some defenses while you cast your other spells or use a normal weapon.

8. A ability to fight in water. I am already breaking the laws of physics by swimming comfortably while wearing heavy armor, so why can't i just fight? Yes, this is because I am tired of dealing with slaughterfish.

9. A Library that can hold all the books in the game. The Tower does not fit them all. That is all.

10. More Pets. Why should your kids be the only ones getting an albino skeever, a mudcrab, a rabbit, or two different kinds of foxes following you around? Some of the mods added some different pets, some combat animals that can be dog like in build for some reskinning. Somethng for variety. And because Id did collect alot of those pets from that one mod, a place they can all go so they are not...crammed in the same place.


What about you guys?

[Cthulhu]

As an Elder Scrolls veteran, who played the series since TES 2 Daggerfall, I'd say your wishes are far too niche.

1&2&3 Eh, mods will be better anyway. Bethesda does no longer have the capacity for good writing. At best, you'd get a bunch of generic bi NPCs.

4&7 Giving the direction the franchise develops, they'd rather simplify it even more.

5. That's been demanded for ages, but I don't expect them to implement that. Even the reintroduction of the crossbow was an afterthought, a whim.

6. I'd wish they would get rid of the current character building system altogether, and return to the classic one. Meaning, stuff like primary attributes (strength, intelligence). The current perk system is just plain idiotic. 5 levels of +20% damage? That's what the strength stat is there for.

8. Nope, that's just them being lazy and generally bad at making animations.

9&10. Again, mods.

Overall, though, I expect that the next game will continue with the current trend. Everything will be dumbed down even further, the game will be even less of an RPG and more of an FPS. Lazy writing, even shallower worldbuilding, but more radiant quests, if Fallout 4 can be seen as an indicator.

Honestly, the only reason I even bothered with Skyrim was the modding potential. It's just an over-glorified mod sandbox at this point. I've bought it about 3 years after release, and immediately modded it to a level where it can be called an RPG. Without enough mods, I wouldn't have bought it in the first place. I'll do the same with the next game, but I might stave it off even further, or maybe not buy it at all, if the modding scene collapses as with Starfield.

Since I don't expect Bethesda to be able to implement the things I wish for (proper writing, worldbuilding, lore consistency, character&skill development system), then I'd settle with a better technical foundation instead. The ancient, decrepit gamebryo engine needs to be retired, and they should adopt a better scripting engine as well, Papyrus is an atrocity. Otherwise, we'll get the same shit as with the current games, countless loading screens and "huge" cities of two dozen robotic NPCs.

P.S. For the love of the divines, install a spellcheck system.

[gaerzi]

P.S. For the love of the divines, install a spellcheck system.

Spellcheck might not help for fantasy names like Redguard, Argonian, and Khajiit.

Anyways, I agree that I don't trust Bethesda's writing to make NPCs that aren't shallower than the Atacama Sea.

What we know of TES 6 is that it's quite likely to be set in Hammerfell. A few days ago people noticed that a Bethesda employee had a Pinterest they used for inspiration and reference, and that recently it was full of traditional African and Arabic weapons and clothing. I expect curved. swords. at a minimum.


What I'd like, personally, is a return of spell effects that have disappeared since Oblivion -- such as levitate and mark/recall. Yes, those can (and have) been added by mods. But their existence completely changes some aspects of game balance, especially wrt. dungeon design, so they get borderline cheats when they're added in Oblivion or Skyrim. It'd be better if the base game was designed with them in mind for this reason.

Also they should hire smartbluecat and JaySerpa, at a minimum.

[Cthulhu]

What we know of TES 6 is that it's quite likely to be set in Hammerfell. A few days ago people noticed that a Bethesda employee had a Pinterest they used for inspiration and reference, and that recently it was full of traditional African and Arabic weapons and clothing. I expect curved. swords. at a minimum.

I'm looking forward to sword singing, but at the same time, dread its implementation. I'm about 50% sure that the protagonist will get Shehai as their "extra" power, just as with the shouts, but that'll be even less lore-friendly than Redguards or elves using Thu'um.

What I'd like, personally, is a return of spell effects that have disappeared since Oblivion -- such as levitate and mark/recall. Yes, those can (and have) been added by mods. But their existence completely changes some aspects of game balance, especially wrt. dungeon design, so they get borderline cheats when they're added in Oblivion or Skyrim. It'd be better if the base game was designed with them in mind for this reason.

I'll second those and add elemental weakness, reflect and absorb to the list. Those spells added a certain level of tactics to combat.

[SaintofM]

As much fun as the mods are, and will inevitably be...It be nice if many were not needed. Or if some of the areas you say best left to the mods, i Bethesda took some of that load, they could improve upon it even more.