Next up: The Elder Scrolls VI

[WoodenSaucer]

Skyrim was looking great when it came out. Maybe it wasn't the best looking game of its time (I'd say the the best looking game from this period was Crysis 2), but it pushed some limits when it comes to graphics in open world games.

I also hope that TES VI will look very good. We have to remember that open world games are more demanding than linear ones however. Cyberpunk 2077 shows this precisely. If you want to make an open world game that's also one of the best looking, you have to be prepared for high system requirements. We'll see what computer Stafield will demand because the shown gameplay was quite choppy at times.

It's tough for any contemporary game to compare to any Crysis game.

About Starfield, I was disappointed in how choppy it was at times, too. Hopefully they get that worked out before it releases.

 

[Elrodeus]

TES VI is my most anticipated game ever, and I just want to remind you guys that it's next on the list, not Fallout 5! Let's not skip it, please!

I have been a huge fan of The Elder Scroll series since Morrowind. It cannot be skipped over lol. The communities for these games are so massive that people are still actively playing and modding Skyrim even to this day.

I know that shitting on Bethesda is sort of the "in" thing to do now, but that will not stop TESVI from being amazing.

I had complaints about Skyrim but they were all minor in the grand scheme of things. My biggest and most enduring complaint was really just the location of the game. I felt like 75% of the map was covered in snow, and I was really wanting more of those lush green fields and forests that we just didn't get enough of.

If TESVI was literally just Skyrim in a new location (it won't be) with fresh quests, NPC's and story I'd be satisfied to play another several hundred hours. In one interview Todd Howard said (paraphrasing) that the technology to do what they wanted for TESVI didn't exist yet and that they were designing the game in such a way that it being created to be replayable for the next 10-20 years. He said when people got their hands on it we'd understand why it took so long to make.

That last stament got me super hyped and I couldn't help but wonder if they were pushing the "dynamic quest" system they started in Skyrim to a whole new level. Could you imagine what it'd be like if almost every quest was a "dynamic quest" and the whole world was procedurally generated when you start a new game or something? That way every time you play the game locations/quests would be in different? That's dreaming big, but either way I'm excited to see what comes next.

 

[Brian Boru]

Skyrim … I was really wanting more of those lush green fields and forests

There are surely at least dozens of mods which do just that?

Just guessing, haven't looked—one of our Skyrim experts will pitch in soon

 

[WoodenSaucer]

That last stament got me super hyped and I couldn't help but wonder if they were pushing the "dynamic quest" system they started in Skyrim to a whole new level. Could you imagine what it'd be like if almost every quest was a "dynamic quest" and the whole world was procedurally generated when you start a new game or something? That way every time you play the game locations/quests would be in different? That's dreaming big, but either way I'm excited to see what comes next.

First off, welcome to the forums! I hope you stick around and keep contributing good stuff to our conversations.

About the procedurally generated idea, I have mixed feelings about that. It's really cool to have new things happening every time you play, and it's awesome if done right. But there is just something different about quests that were carefully designed by real people who put thought into all of the details working together. I've never seen any AI or algorithm be able to compare to the richness of human-made quests. So I don't know if I want the meat of the game to be procedurally generated.

But I do think it would be great if that were added as a secondary feature to keep the game going beyond what people create. Hopefully we get the best of both. That would be awesome.

And I forgot about your Todd Howard quote. That really was encouraging when he said that.

 

[Elrodeus]

There are surely at least dozens of mods which do just that?

Just guessing, haven't looked—one of our Skyrim experts will pitch in soon

Yea I did see that there were mods that just removed the snowy bits from most areas. It's been a couple years since I've done a Skyrim playthrough so what can I say? There's always my NEXT new playthrough lol!

First off, welcome to the forums!

...About the procedurally generated idea, I have mixed feelings about that. It's really cool to have new things happening every time you play, and it's awesome if done right. But there is just something different about quests that were carefully designed by real people who put thought into all of the details working together. I've never seen any AI or algorithm be able to compare to the richness of human-made quests. So I don't know if I want the meat of the game to be procedurally generated...

I agree. Procedurally generated maps aren't always a good thing. I suppose if it was done exceptionally well I wouldn't care, but there is definitely a difference when compared to handcrafted landscapes done by digital artists. I don't think I'd ever deny that.

 

[mainer]

I have been a huge fan of The Elder Scroll series since Morrowind. It cannot be skipped over

I've been playing the Elder Scrolls games since ES Arena was released, but Morrowind was the game that truly immersed me in the universe of Tamriel and the open-ended gameplay and exploration. I'm still hopeful we'll see the release of Skywind, the fan made remake using the Skyrim SE engine.

I know that shitting on Bethesda is sort of the "in" thing to do now, but that will not stop TESVI from being amazing.

There's always going to be the "Bethesda-bashers", no matter what they produce, I just ignore them. There's not many single player RPGs that are 10 years old that are still played by tens of thousands of people. To me, that's speaks more loudly than the haters who love to hate.

My biggest and most enduring complaint was really just the location of the game. I felt like 75% of the map was covered in snow, and I was really wanting more of those lush green fields and forests that we just didn't get enough of.

When you consider the location of the game, the Province of Skyrim in the most northern part of the continent of Tamriel, it makes sense. Map of the continent of Tamriel the known Elder Scrolls world:

I also felt that there was a good balance in the variety of environments with the dense conifer forests, the tundra, the ravines of The Reach, the deciduous forests near Riften to compliment the ice & snow of the colder regions. I also thought the transitional areas, going from one environment to another, were gradual and not just an abrupt change. And as @Brian Boru mentioned, there are many mods (literally tens of thousands on the Nexus) that can change the Province of Skyrim, or even add additional areas that are completely different in environment. You can literally make the game of Skyrim be whatever you want.

"dynamic quest" system they started in Skyrim to a whole new level. Could you imagine what it'd be like if almost every quest was a "dynamic quest" and the whole world was procedurally generated when you start a new game or something? That way every time you play the game locations/quests would be in different? That's dreaming big, but either way I'm excited to see what comes next.

It sounds like a dream, and I'd love to see it implemented, but it would mean working on and creating an advanced AI for a lot of NPCs. But there's a lot of variables involved having a system like that and still allowing each player the freedom in the type of character they created, their choices, and freedom of open world exploration as well as the ability to go anywhere. I'm definitely in favor of a "dynamic quest" system, but apprehensive about procedurally generated environments

They actually tried the procedural generation way back in Daggerfall (1996). You could try (and I did) to travel by foot (or horse) from location to location, and there were 15,000 locations (cities/towns/dungeons), and it would literally take hours of the players time to do so. But the random generation of the content between locations grew very repetitive and predictable. Eventually the player just had to fast travel to accomplish anything.

Granted, that's a long time ago and game development has greatly advanced since then, but I have doubts that it would work effectively for such an open world game as the Elder Scrolls games.

 

[rickgilbert7822]

For those of you who want Morrowind with Skyrim graphics, have you been following Skywind? They're basically remaking the whole game in a Skyrim mod.

yeah, that's a good one

 

[rickgilbert7822]

I think you could get away with saying that against every game on console compared to PC.

you are right

 

[JarlBSoD]

There are a few things i hope for with TES VI.

PC dedicated (ie not controller adapted) GUI and a GUI that looks good and immersive rather than flat and black with white text on it, lets face it, the vanilla GUI in skyrim is boring and flat and lifeless.

More faction play like in Morrowind, Oblivion and skyrim definetly suffers from not having consequenses joining a specific faction related to others, exept for a few rare occations like the civil war in Skyrim but they don't realy matter for the rest of the game anyway.

Better combat, better magic system, more powerfull magic.
Most importantly, no elderscrolls theme park like they did with Crapout 4 (yes i realy disliked Fallout 4). I want to play an RPG and not a lorebased theme park.

More involved leveling systems.

And some more but i have to go to work so no time to type them down

 

[WoodenSaucer]

There are a few things i hope for with TES VI.

PC dedicated (ie not controller adapted) GUI and a GUI that looks good and immersive rather than flat and black with white text on it, lets face it, the vanilla GUI in skyrim is boring and flat and lifeless.

More faction play like in Morrowind, Oblivion and skyrim definetly suffers from not having consequenses joining a specific faction related to others, exept for a few rare occations like the civil war in Skyrim but they don't realy matter for the rest of the game anyway.

Better combat, better magic system, more powerfull magic.
Most importantly, no elderscrolls theme park like they did with Crapout 4 (yes i realy disliked Fallout 4). I want to play an RPG and not a lorebased theme park.

More involved leveling systems.

And some more but i have to go to work so no time to type them down

I'm ok with the last two, but man, I'm just not on the same page with the first two. As for the GUI, I really hate the older games that don't work well with a controller. As someone who uses controller for everything, I really want it to be streamlined for controller. I don't have a problem with adding stuff for keyboard, but I want to be able to do everything I need to with a controller, even if there might be shortcuts on the keyboard.

As for the faction stuff, I'm ok with that being in the game, but don't make it essential. That's the kind of stuff I didn't really get into with Skyrim.

 

[JarlBSoD]

I'm ok with the last two, but man, I'm just not on the same page with the first two. As for the GUI, I really hate the older games that don't work well with a controller. As someone who uses controller for everything, I really want it to be streamlined for controller. I don't have a problem with adding stuff for keyboard, but I want to be able to do everything I need to with a controller, even if there might be shortcuts on the keyboard.

As for the faction stuff, I'm ok with that being in the game, but don't make it essential. That's the kind of stuff I didn't really get into with Skyrim.

Not saying they should remove controller support but they need to make one dedicated to mouse and keyboard in my opinion. They will 100% have one for controllers since the game will release on consol as well but the GUI in Skyrim is a text book example of how not to do it for mouse and keyboard (well almost) and they need to fix that imo Even fallout 4, a game I realy didn't like, has decent GUI so shouldn't be to hard to make one for TES VI aswell.

When it comes to factions, don't get me wrong, i love skyrim, i have over 1kh in it but it allways nagged me that when you complete a major questline, that everyone should probably know about, you hardly get any reactions or consequenses. So they should bring back some kind of reputation system.

As for the older games, consoles was more of an afterthought so that probably reflect on the controller support.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Not saying they should remove controller support but they need to make one dedicated to mouse and keyboard in my opinion. They will 100% have one for controllers since the game will release on consol as well but the GUI in Skyrim is a text book example of how not to do it for mouse and keyboard (well almost) and they need to fix that imo Even fallout 4, a game I realy didn't like, has decent GUI so shouldn't be to hard to make one for TES VI aswell.

When it comes to factions, don't get me wrong, i love skyrim, i have over 1kh in it but it allways nagged me that when you complete a major questline, that everyone should probably know about, you hardly get any reactions or consequenses. So they should bring back some kind of reputation system.

As for the older games, consoles was more of an afterthought so that probably reflect on the controller support.

So you're wanting to be able to change the GUI in the settings and have two different ones that are suited for controller or keyboard? I definitely don't have a problem with more options. That would be a good thing.

And I agree that it would be cool to have more repercussions for finishing questlines. Anything to make things more realistic without taking away the fun-factor is a good thing. I just personally don't want factions to be a part of the main quest. But I'm fine with it being an optional part of the world, and then just do them better than Skyrim did.

 

[JarlBSoD]

So you're wanting to be able to change the GUI in the settings and have two different ones that are suited for controller or keyboard? I definitely don't have a problem with more options. That would be a good thing.

And I agree that it would be cool to have more repercussions for finishing questlines. Anything to make things more realistic without taking away the fun-factor is a good thing. I just personally don't want factions to be a part of the main quest. But I'm fine with it being an optional part of the world, and then just do them better than Skyrim did.

I think one of the most reactive responses in Skyrim is actually the sidequest where you

Spoiler:

Save the Eldergreen tree from dying and get a nice blooming tree as a reward in the middle of Whiterun

Many other games have managed to make a Gui that either switchers or work for both so i don't see why Bethesda shouldn't be able to in Elderscrolls VI

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I think one of the most reactive responses in Skyrim is actually the sidequest where you

Spoiler:

Save the Eldergreen tree from dying and get a nice blooming tree as a reward in the middle of Whiterun

Many other games have managed to make a Gui that either switchers or work for both so i don't see why Bethesda shouldn't be able to in Elderscrolls VI

I liked that side quest.

 

[mainer]

When it comes to factions, don't get me wrong, i love skyrim, i have over 1kh in it but it allways nagged me that when you complete a major questline, that everyone should probably know about, you hardly get any reactions or consequenses. So they should bring back some kind of reputation system.

I couldn't agree more. That was one of game elements that Bethesda over simplified in my opinion. You could complete all the major faction quests and become the head of the Mages Guild, Thieves Guild, and Fighters Guild, with very little reaction (or none), or acknowledgement by the general citizens of Skyrim or between factions. It was a bit anti-immersive to me and didn't really make sense. Bethesda definitely needs to revive the reputation system, especially when it comes to faction interaction. Working your way to the top of one faction, should block off the higher-level quests of other factions.

I think one of the most reactive responses in Skyrim is actually the sidequest where you

Spoiler:

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One of my favorite "reactive" quests in Skyrim that showed it's effects throughout the game, restoring the Eldergreen Tree.

Starting from when it's dead or dying....

To when it's just a sapling...

To a full-grown & healthy Eldergreen tree.