Question Next Elder Scrolls game Wishlist??

[Lauren Morton]

I also want it to be tough to become the head of even one guild never mind the leader of all of them. For example, to become Archmage, the player should be required to be highly proficient in the arcane arts and have gone through the magical crucible, so that when you become Archmage, it really feels earned. It should be a major achievement and feel as such.

Absolutely. I love the guild storylines in Oblivion and Skyrim but the actual going through the motions of achieving leadership have always seemed a bit faceroll-y. Oh, I'm just in charge now? It makes mostly sense by the story but mechanically...are you sure? I didn't do that much, really.

There is a lot of potential but you have to avoid making it feel like a management sim when you talk about politics or owning a business or trying to keep your neighbors form reporting your 4 Mabari hounds residing in your pet free tenement building.

Oh I certainly don't want management elements or owning stores and whatnot. I just want a story set in a cool place that changes and evolves and I think DA4 could totally deliver that. Maybe some lite sim or procedural bits. But not management. RPGs are for RPGing.

 

[I Will Haunt You]

First I want magic expanded (and in a similar vein combat too, just be balanced). I want spellcrafting back, I want enchanting to be broadened. I want magic to feel more alive than just a set of tools. Let me learn how to break that ancient curse instead of being sent on a quest to recover the item that will break the curse for me. Let magic have a life of its own. Let magic not be so rote and always unfaltering.

In ESO I was so sick of always having to get an ancient relic or watch a ritual be performed (so many rituals and relics in that game) I felt like all of my accomplishments were nothing more than making use of other people's accomplishments.

 

[I Will Haunt You]

Dishonoured series has Thief D.N.A all over it and i love that series. For me it be a no brainer for them to get a crack at it.

In some cases Dishonored even out-thiefed Thief.

 

[BornAgainPCGamer]

Absolutely. I love the guild storylines in Oblivion and Skyrim but the actual going through the motions of achieving leadership have always seemed a bit faceroll-y. Oh, I'm just in charge now? It makes mostly sense by the story but mechanically...are you sure? I didn't do that much, really.

Yeah exactly. They really need to stretch out the journey to head of the guild and it to not only feel earned but also believable in the context of the story.

 

[Mr.Vic20]

@Lauren Morton

Outward was my game of 2019! I sunk entirely too much time into that gem! Sadly, I think that Bethesda's need to ensure high return on investment for an IP as big as ES likely means they will stick pretty close to the play book established with Skyrim. I'm guessing they will tack on a few features constantly desired by the broader market, like Co-op, maybe slightly better combat, etc. and call it a day. Just the advent of SSDs in next gen consoles buys them the "No load times/seamless world" bullet for the back of the box!

 

[Sarafan]

I'll be content if the next TES game has a better main story. The main quests from Skyrim were very mediocre. Those from Oblivion and Morrowind also left much to be desired. It's hard to make an open world game with good storytelling, but The Witcher 3 proves that it's not impossible. So all of the advantages of Bethesda's open worlds plus good main quests. That's all I'm expecting from TES VI. 🙂

 

[Mazer]

I think it needs to go either bigger or smaller. Meaning; if they intend to continue scaling back the rpg side in favour of accessibility as has happened with both ES and Fallout games until they become basically part of the Far Cry series, then I'm fine with that as long as they pour that effort into the game world. If you're only using a dozen voice actors and putting the same dialogue into farmers across the whole world, then go whole hog and make that world a freaking huge, beige, bland canvas for us to tell our own stories in a la Daggerfall and Arena.

Otherwise, concentrate on a smaller, more boutique play area and give it as much character and depth as Morrowind.

 

[firefly]

I hope they take everything from Fallout 76, and proceed to do the opposite. Give me a big, detailed single-player map to explore, with lots of interesting sided-quests to stumble upon.

 

[Jeff Kaos]

So far I've really enjoyed the Elder Scrolls series starting with "Morrowind". The only thing I would really like to see is maybe some improved/added mechanics. One thing I've always wanted to see in open world RPGs is vertical movement.

When I was a kid and played D&D with my friends I always liked the Thief class because of his wall climbing ability. I've always wanted to see something like that implemented in cRPGs. I would also like to see the crafting toned down. I would say the crafting mechanics in "Skyrim" was the one thing I really hated about it and I hold it up as an example of how crafting in games has gotten out of control. Crafting in Skyrim is the reason I have over 150 hours on a character instead of 90. Crafting in Skyrim is the reason I feel compelled to check every single container in every single room and pickup every item that isn't nailed down. Crating is the reason I'm constantly managing my inventory and fast-travelling back to my home base every hour to dump crafting mats. Yeah, I know it's optional but it's one of those habits that's really hard to break.

 

[IndecentLouie]

Above all else smarter AI and better Immersion, I know this is wishful thinking but imagine killing a person in a village then If you leave the body in the open the guards enter lockdown to look for evidence of the killer, you could even plant items on someone else or guards could instantly find you responsable since you're the new person in town who happens to have blood on your sword, or burying the body and for the next few days people are like "where's Grofar Sable-Song" (This is just one specific example) or maybe you wasn't even guilty in the first place!

Much more dialogue, I don't want to hear the AI say the same things over and over again and the dialogue better be full written sentences, I don't want to choose sarcastic as a reply!

Fluider combat, @Jeff Kaos makes a good point, i know its a stable in most RPG's especially bethesda ones but I don't want to check every container, room, closet, basked just because it might contain one useful item that might help at some point in the future.

 

[I Will Haunt You]

but I don't want to check every container, room, closet, basked just because it might contain one useful item that might help at some point in the future.

Has that happened in an Elder Scrolls game though? I don't recall ever finding anything of significance that wasn't in a chest. Bags, baskets, barrels always just have food and junk, chests are the only things that contain useful items. Urns sometimes have a bit of gold or alchemy stuff (Except in ESO, where it seems the most common gift for the dead in Urns are lock picks. Lots of lock picks).

I totally skipped looking in baskets and barrels and bag my last Skyrim playthrough.

 

[IndecentLouie]

@I Will Haunt You I suppose not to the extent as chests, but I have felt the need to search everything incase a note was there which would start a quest or a map to some hidden treasure, although i also did the same my last playthough as i was ending up with too much gold and items I felt too overpowered.

 

[Mazer]

So far I've really enjoyed the Elder Scrolls series starting with "Morrowind". The only thing I would really like to see is maybe some improved/added mechanics. One thing I've always wanted to see in open world RPGs is vertical movement.

Sadly the climbing skill didn't make it from Daggerfall into the sequels but in that entry you could scale buildings and city walls, which was helpful because city gates were closed after dark and many of the larger (wealthier) homes had second floor entries. Great features for RPing a thief or assassin.

The biggest flaw with the system was the fact that increasing the skill made you climb faster, but not necessarily better. A character with a climb skill of 5 can climb everything a character with a skill of 100 can, just very slowly. So there wasn't much sense of progression beyond convenience. Still a nice feature.

 

[T3AMRR]

I'm a Big Fun of Battlefield Series, but more recently i Play alot Arma 3 and Pubg to.
I hope new Battlefield will bring us to that Awsome feeling of older Bf Games like BF2 , Bad company 2, BF3 and BF4...but im also Excited about a New Arma 4 that will arrive some year in a near Future i hope.

 

[randyl]

I have one major, critical item on my wish list for the next Elder Scrolls game - and it's a deal breaker if it ain't. It's not even a mechanic or a feature, so much as it is a component of the product release. And that is...

Reviewer copies sent out 1-2 weeks prior to release.

At this point, based on consumer expectations and recent history, it is of utmost importance to vet any game of that size or expectation well advance of release day sale. This is particularly true where pre-orders, collector's editions, and other concerns may arise in light of any mounting hype. Gamers would be well-served by having some kind of rough consensus on performance and quality before making the decision to purchase.

Outside of that, for in-game features I'd love to see kind of empire-building baked in, ala Fable 3. A little village run by the player that you can grow into a town, or later a city, through the efforts of your adventuring.

I agree. Honestly is 2 weeks even enough? I would want 3 or 4 because it takes time to digest a very large game. In my opinion to do it justice the game needs to be played to the end of the main storyline, otherwise it would be like reviewing a half-watched movie or series. Anyway I had to pipe in my support for getting as much time as you can to dig in and do it justice.

 

[randyl]

- Real-time action combat more akin to ESO or Project Gorgon. There would be no pausing to eat a smorgasbord in the middle of combat or instant weapon switching.
- Works well on SteamPlay (Linux)
- No mods
- Single Player and Shared World RPG options. A "Shared World RPG" is multiplayer like Secret World Legends, like an MMO lite.
- Open skill and archetype system
- No traditional linear hero narrative or hidden super power transformations. Character power comes through training, practicing, and advancing skills.

 

[IndecentLouie]

"- Real-time action combat more akin to ESO or Project Gorgon. There would be no pausing to eat a smorgasbord in the middle of combat or instant weapon switching." this is a good one, although one way to do this would be to just not do it.

 

[Hveðrungr]

There is so much wrongness in this thread. If BGS took their cue from hardcore gamers like the people posting here, they would go bankrupt because they would spend a fortune and barely anyone would want their games.

Elder Scrolls is an RPG series. If you want "amazing combat" with blocking and dodging, go play a combat game. You're like someone who sits down to play chess and says "yeh bt it duznt hav lazors?!". Combat in an RPG is about your stats and your die roll.

Compact, highly realised cities where you can interact with every house are more immersive than the superficial facades of enormous cities where every building is just a front that you can't get into.

Quest markers are not just a turn off / turn on thing. They inform your entire narrative design. Games designed with quest markers and fast travel can be more wide-ranging in their quests than games designed with no quest markers of fast travel.

There is nothing wrong with the Creation Engine.

If you want to play co-operative Elder Scrolls, go play Elder Scrolls Online. Balancing such a complex game for co-op and solo would make it rubbish.

There will always be lots of bugs in a game as complex as a Bethesda RPG. No one else makes games like them. If it really bothers you, wait for the Unofficial Patch to be released.

Small and deep is not a Bethesda RPG. Go play a different game if that's all you want. Not every game has to be for everybody.

Level scaling means there is always a challenge in the game. And they already don't do pure level scaling, they use rubber banding.

 

[randyl]

"- Real-time action combat more akin to ESO or Project Gorgon. There would be no pausing to eat a smorgasbord in the middle of combat or instant weapon switching." this is a good one, although one way to do this would be to just not do it.

Self-imposed restrictions can offer some customization. The combat in Skyrim is so loose and sloppy so one item on my wishlist for a new Elder Scrolls game would be to have that tightened up, a lot. Restricting consumables, potions, and item swapping during combat is one part. There is no sense of urgency or pressure to the combat in Skyrim. I would hate to see that carried forward to the next ES game.

In my opinion Bethesda should drop a lot of legacy baggage and make their next ES game feel fresh. The last thing I personally want is something that feels like Skyrim DLC in a new map.

 

[IndecentLouie]

@randyl Improving on the combat would be my number one choice, instead of just constantly pressing attack or holding it down for a harder attack let us slice off limbs or change stances to allow options to disarm, maybe have to destoy armor to slice the enemy directly.

 

[Hveðrungr]

There is no sense of urgency or pressure to the combat in Skyrim.

Good. There are lots of other games you can play if you want "urgency and pressure in combat". Why can you people not leave those of us who don't want that alone to enjoy one of the few remaining games that isn't like that, and which is so successful exactly BECAUSE it hasn't been ruined by show-off hardcore nuts? There are hardcore combat games for people like you, and there are relaxed adventure games for everyone else. Accept it and move on.

 

[Dan]

Good. There are lots of other games you can play if you want "urgency and pressure in combat". Why can you people not leave those of us who don't want that alone to enjoy one of the few remaining games that isn't like that, and which is so successful exactly BECAUSE it hasn't been ruined by show-off hardcore nuts? There are hardcore combat games for people like you, and there are relaxed adventure games for everyone else. Accept it and move on.

Or allow options.

 

[Zloth]

There are options - they're called the "difficulty settings."

You can definitely take some if the silliness out of combat, like drinking potions while a bear is batting you around, without actually making the combat harder. For instance, for the potion thing, you can just give the player more hit points in the first place. Or make some easy-to-cast spell do the healing. Or better yet, you can set up contingency spells that fire off when you're hurt.

 

[WhimsyPacifist]

So far I've really enjoyed the Elder Scrolls series starting with "Morrowind". The only thing I would really like to see is maybe some improved/added mechanics. One thing I've always wanted to see in open world RPGs is vertical movement.

When I was a kid and played D&D with my friends I always liked the Thief class because of his wall climbing ability. I've always wanted to see something like that implemented in cRPGs. I would also like to see the crafting toned down. I would say the crafting mechanics in "Skyrim" was the one thing I really hated about it and I hold it up as an example of how crafting in games has gotten out of control. Crafting in Skyrim is the reason I have over 150 hours on a character instead of 90. Crafting in Skyrim is the reason I feel compelled to check every single container in every single room and pickup every item that isn't nailed down. Crating is the reason I'm constantly managing my inventory and fast-travelling back to my home base every hour to dump crafting mats. Yeah, I know it's optional but it's one of those habits that's really hard to break.

Actually Daggerfall had that; you could go total Spiderman on the town walls. And it was a selling point of assassins/acrobats.

My own wishes:
Deleveled rewards and challenges. It sucks knowing that if I put the quest off until level 30 I could have gotten much better rewards. At the same time I might venture somewhere at level 1 and never level to keep a parity of levels with my enemies whilst improving my gear. I might be level 1, but I'll be twinked out in the most godly gear you've ever seen a level 1 wear.

Re: Magic
After Morrowind things went downhill on the magic end. No levitation, spellcrafting was downscaled and eventually deleted. By Skyrim it's pathetic, a gutted shadow of its former self.

The powertrip fantasy of being a mighty mage who had a rough start but earned unlimited power? Well kinda there if you count enchanting to 0 cost spells or chugging down more magicka bottles than a frat's yearly consumption. But it scales linearly (read poorly) compared to warrior's quadratic weapon/armor perks^enchanting^smithing.

I'd like a stock magic experience that doesn't handhold the initial levels but becomes truly powerful ie like Requiem does. 0 skill? Pitiful damage. 25? Somewhat weak single target. 50? First AoE and good damage. 75? Walking artillery. Like you can imagine Imperial battlemages being terrifying. 100? Bend reality, punt someone miles into the air, conjure tactical nukes with a flick of the wrist. Competent to become a Lich, an Archmage or just casually live 5000 years like Dyvath Fyr.

Oh and to become the Archmage, you should be legitimately powerful and skilled in the arcane. You should have to demonstrate said skills in a suitable challenges requiring said arcane means. Ie not accessible to a 2-syllable Orc with explosive farts.

 

[FreezerBurn]

1. Great Story around the same time line as SkyRim was.
2. Seemless world with minimal loading screens.