Elder Scrolls VI: What does Bethesda need to do to wow its players again?

[ZedClampet]

It's pretty obvious that the Bethesda formula has gotten stale. If they just do "Skyrim but bigger and prettier", the game is likely to fail. What do they need to do to regain the RPG throne? In my opinion, they are going to have to leverage generative AI heavily. Every NPC should have their own personality that then gets fed into the generative AI algorithm to create life-like conversations and endless possibilities.

The game Rock Star Life is already doing this. The game features romance, as do many RPGs, but instead of the standard, canned conversations where you have to correctly pick the right answers to start a romance, you have to have normal conversations with the NPCs. You have to be nice to them and woo them as you would a real person. It works fairly well, but a company like Bethesda should be able to expand on this. You should be able to really get to know and befriend the local blacksmith, for instance. And if you need his help with something, say a dungeon, you should be able to ask him to go with you. Maybe he'll go. Maybe he won't, but that is the kind of thing Bethesda needs to bring to this next game. And if the Blacksmith dies in the dungeon? Then you've lost your blacksmith until the town can find an AI that wants to replace him.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on what Bethesda needs to do. They need to create a living world where every NPC is a "real" and persistent AI. Do this well enough, and you could even get quests out of it. But what are your thoughts on how Bethesda can shake up its formula for Elder Scrolls 6?

 

[Sarafan]

They should invest more money into story and quality quests. Starfield shows more or less that Bethesda is at least a few years behind modern standards in this aspect. Also they should scrap Creation Engine and prepare a new one with all those fancy graphical features that games now have. Or they can switch to Unreal Engine 5, which should also provide high modding capabilities.

With these elements Bethesda could get back on the open world RPG throne. Without them we'll only have a decent game which bases on an aging technology.

 

[Pifanjr]

They should invest more money into story and quality quests.

Agreed. I think the main strength of Bethesda games has always been their world building and their quests, with a well designed open world also being an important feature (and the lack of one in Starfield was one of the most common complaints).

 

[ZedClampet]

While I don't disagree with either of you because Bethesda needs to be the best at these things that it can be, it's also sort of asking Bethesda to do the same thing as usual, but better. I think they need to change things up a bit, too, like adding optional sandbox game activities like building (not modular), farming, and a robust trading system possibly with your own market that can be visited by NPCs. If you are going to do role playing, dive into it instead of dancing around the edges. Add a bunch of optional sandbox systems. How about mount breeding? Give the mounts stats, breed for better stats, etc. Or how about detailed blacksmithing, again with your own market. You don't have to do any of this, but it gives you a chance to expand your in-game life. You could be a fletcher, a wandmaker, an alchemist or whatever.

Or maybe there could be hundreds of magical creatures you capture in magic balls...Oh, no. Scratch that one...

 

[Zloth]

... it's also sort of asking Bethesda to do the same thing as usual, but better.

That seems pretty reasonable to me. I don't think there's anything wrong with their gameplay loop at all, it's just that they seem to be losing their touch when it comes to filling their world with interesting stories and places. There's no way I can see inside their company, so I don't know if good ideas are being squashed as 'too risky' or if the people dreaming up the stories are tapped out or what, but they need to find their muse again.

As near as I can tell, their muse packed up her things and moved to Poland. As far as how the game is played, Cyberpunk 2077 was a lot like Skyrim or Fallout - at least by the time I played it.

 

[Sarafan]

How about mount breeding? Give the mounts stats, breed for better stats, etc. Or how about detailed blacksmithing, again with your own market.

You're joking right? Tell me you're joking...

 

[Zloth]

You're joking right? Tell me you're joking...

Final Fantasy 7 (the original at least) did chocobo breeding. Those birds grow up VERY fast!

 

[Brian Boru]

Tell me you're joking

Horse Reality on Steam

Join the ever-growing community of Horse Reality this realistic horse breeding simulator! Manage your estate, train your horses, choose between 28 (and growing) different breeds. More than half a billion different combinations are available, based on real life scientific genetic mapping.

store.steampowered.com

 

[Pifanjr]

Horse Reality on Steam

Join the ever-growing community of Horse Reality this realistic horse breeding simulator! Manage your estate, train your horses, choose between 28 (and growing) different breeds. More than half a billion different combinations are available, based on real life scientific genetic mapping.

store.steampowered.com

Who knows, maybe one day we will have an actual metaverse and be able to import our Skyrim horses into a horse breeding simulator and vice versa (obviously Skyrim will be ported to this future metaverse, irregardless of how far in the future this will be).

 

[Zloth]

(obviously Skyrim will be ported to this future metaverse, irregardless of how far in the future this will be).

And somebody will somehow find a way to program metaverse store signs so they can play Doom.