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[Wulfram]

I think Fallout: New Vegas did it excellently. You had the main premise "I wanna find the guy who shot me for carrying a special chip" is a more "relaxed" premise rather than the very urgent "I NEED TO FIND MY INFANT SON!"

Finding the guy who shot you, for possessing some kind of special chip, is more a detective story that is about clues coming up through time and exploration, nothing urgent like if they added "I wanna find the guy who shot me AND plan to nuke New Vegas, knowledge of this is why I was shot!!"

They really need to learn to write a story like that if they wanna keep this "Oh look a sandbox do whatever you want" gameplay. And then of course learn to write side quests to do that makes people give a piss.

I don't agree. A chase is always an urgent quest, because otherwise you risk the trail will go cold. The lower stakes of the New Vegas chase may reduce the importance of the quest and the emotional investment, but it doesn't actually reduce the urgency.

Also, Fallout 4's main quest basically loses its urgency (though not its importance) when it becomes clear that years have passed and the son is no longer an infant. Once you take down the merc guy, then someone trying to roleplay has plenty of excuse to go explore.

 

[celsowmbr]

another continent please!

after ESO I think this is a must have!

 

[YaBish]

First things first, Bethesda needs to upsize if they want to keep up with fan expectations. It's sad but true. Otherwise, I have a feeling that their games are going to get ripped apart more and more. (Not that that will stop them from selling, ie. COD)

Features in order of importance to me:

• Build a new engine, no more retooling gamebryo. Hire some people who can build you the kinda of versatile engine that a game like Elder Scrolls demands. Then you won't have to make quite the trade off between interactivity and graphical power that always happens in Bethesda Studios games. If you decide to go in-house, spend the time modifying idTech 6 to make it work for you.
• Improve scripting of events and how your character interacts with others. Please no voiced mc
• Look at other rpgs with good melee combat as inspiration: Dragon's Dogma, Soulsborne... And actually those are the only two I can think of that really clicked with me, although I liked parts of the Witcher's combat.
• Make traversal less janky, even if that means sticky handholds uncharted style. Hopefully a better handling model for the horses.
• Add Co-op! I know it's pie in the sky, but that'd be incredible for my brother and I.

Finally, I hope they take as long as they need. We'll wait.

 

[Muffin1611]

People ITT saying Creation Engine needs to be ditched because it's exactly the same as Gamebryo hurrdurr

That's not how game engines work, what y'all don't like very likely isn't the fault of the engine, but how Beth develops their games.

 

[Mr. Bad Example]

It's been alluded to already in this thread, but a world that actually pays attention to what you do and who you are. For instance, if I'm the Dragonborn, the thane of the hold I'm in, the Arch-Mage of the College of Winterhold, savior of the world from Alduin the World Eater, etc., the guards shouldn't still be talking shit to me about stolen sweetrolls.

 

[Skronk]

Meaningful side quests with smaller interesting stories. I couldn't care less about saving the world/universe anymore.

 

[rjinaz]

I got to that city with The Hill that you go to first. And the story mission got boring or complicated, I can't remember. I wanted more immediate rewards. So I went and did all the guild quests. Became leader of all the guilds. Got the nightinggale armor, got my own keep at the mage tower, went to the golden temple with all the death traps to steal something, everything. (Been many years may be fuzzy on those details).

But I assumed Dragons would be a part of that journey. Especially since they were already in the intro. Had the game told me ”Dragons don't unlock until you go several story missions in" I would have done so.

That's my point. Don't arbitrarily secretly withhold a key gameplay mechanic until some unspoken story moment especially in a game that very early gives players 100 other things to do besides story progression.

I mean, they give you dragons on the second story mission. Well I guess the third if you count just going to the city. It's go the the city, then go get the dragon stone in the dungeon. Then it's dragons. The first mission is even just go explore a dungeon which you no doubt did plenty of times while you explored the game. Your experience is definitely unique to you. Dragons were kind of annoying in the game there were so many. I really don't see a problem Bethesda needs to fix that pretty much nobody else had. With your suggestion, they either throw in powerful dragons before the player even has a feel for the game and have people rage quitting or they make you do the quest before you can explore which would be restricting. Basically, the way they did it was fine.

It's the damn vampires though that really sucked with the DLC. Always killing off my damn blacksmiths.

 

[Tovarisc]

People ITT saying Creation Engine needs to be ditched because it's exactly the same as Gamebryo hurrdurr

That's not how game engines work, what y'all don't like very likely isn't the fault of the engine, but how Beth develops their games.

Then they really need to change how they develop and design their games.

Why they can stream overworlds, but can't stream interiors? Loading screen for everything from single room shag with one NPC to any major hub which also are rather tiny for what they are supposed to be. Try do larger hubs like FNV and you have to split it into pieces and put loading screens everywhere.

Scripting that falls apart at random causing quests to straight out break, companions to disappear into ether as pathing goes bananas only to be recovered with dev console commands etc.

With FO4 they at least moved to 21st century and put in native 64-bit support so game can use more RAM + VRAM than 3GB. Even then you need go quite bonkers with mods to see any significant RAM usage.

Then there is all performance issues caused by even low quality shadows etc., but that can be combination of old engine with shit added on top constantly and devs not really knowing what they are doing with that stuff.

 

[Crankshaft]

Town building simulator. Take over a town and then appoint people to handle town affairs like taxes and what not. Building up a team of guards. Make a adventure guild where you send teams out to clear out caves with vampires, or bust up skooma\slave rings.

 

[sephiroth7x]

I don't think I am adding anything new but still...

Choose a Character That Would Make A Difference To How You Play

Okay, so there was an element of this in Skyrim but previous games in the series did it so much better. You knew that being an Elf would help with magic for example... but I could be a warrior in Skyrim and still use magic attacks to an extent... it does however lead me on to...

Make Magic Worth It

I don't explore magic much I will be honest, but that's because 9/10 if I try, my magic is utter garbage and rarely takes down any enemies on the screen. On top of this, I like the idea of a master mage or something to that effect would be able to use unlimited magic and create/craft their own spells. It sounds like something a master mage would be able to do...

New Engine

Well...

Seasons

Add in seasons to tally with the timeframe of the game. It always provides a time and date yet nothing ever changes... I'd love to be able to travel to different places at different times of year.

Fast Travel Hindrance

I don't have all the answers to this, but I would to see how they could stop people from just fast travelling everywhere all the time. I am guilty of this myself, fast travelling from marker to marker as the game goes on but can't help but wonder how great adding it would be having a paper sheet and discovering the world... or have NPC's give you directions and bits of map... or mark it on your current map that you can draw on yourself...

Feel Like Part of the Story

One of the worst things for me personally was that as the legendary dovakhin, nobody recognised me or even remotely cared... if I just took a dragon down outside Whiterun I want Whiterun to literally swoon with praise and adoration.

Politics

Not for everyone, maybe a quest to become mayor of the town? Whiterun was a great example in Skyrim for me... I loved that little town or even the first little village you come across (Riverwood I think?)... I would have loved to have been mayor, trying to build up the community, sort out taxes... negotiate with other towns around for trade etc...

 

[Saganator]

Gonna have a bunch of disappointed people in this thread when this game comes out.

Here's what we'll get it:

Streamlined talent/skill system
Voiced protagonist - for immersion!
Simplified dialog options
Better base building
Better combat
VR support

Basically I'm expecting them to give it the Fallout 4 treatment. Would love to be wrong, though.

Personally, I'm hoping for better combat. More robust thieving/stealth system. A story that doesn't have me being "the one" - at least not until I do some something significant. Would be neat if the start of the game is you being born and first hour or so is you being young and insignificant, kinda like the start of Fallout 3. Meaningful guild stuff. There should be benefits for being in the Thieves Guild and something special when/if you're the boss of the guild, same for other guilds like Dark Brotherhood. More variety to landscape, I want lush green forests to deserts.

 

[Jacknapes]

The Sim Settlements mod makes it a ton better in Fallout 4; instead of just sitting on their asses, the settlers actually build their own buildings, you just allocate the lots for said buildings. It's gradual and happens over time too (instead of a complete house just magically appearing), which is cool.

I heard about that, and it sounded like a good mod. However not available on PS4 due to outside assets not being allowed.

Shame really, i'd have installed it straight away and left them to it.

 

[AuthenticM]

rock-climbing just like in BotW. That is a must. If this feature is absent, it will seriously hamper my enjoyment of the game.

 

[Face it Tiger..]

Companionship that matters
meaningful Companion quests.
a new engine that isn't trash. (iDTech6 included, it's way too unoptimized.)
I'd like to see more Daggerfall tbh.
a more in-depth combat system, take some cues from Witcher 3 if need be.. and your modders.
a plot-heavy game like Fallout New Vegas: Complete Edition, not Fallout 4.

 

[Crixus]

Black Marsh as the next setting. It could totally work and contrast Skyrim not only in climate and aesthetics, but also in the general pace of the game.

In my imagination, a game set in Black Marsh would be slower paced, darker, harder to get into but more rewarding to master. The character must first know the land, the inhabitants, learn their ways and gain the trust of the Hist before the "epic" part of the story unfolds. A hostile, disease-infested, highly magical and deadly land run by sentient trees is imo a good opportunity for a story that is more focused on the personal spiritual journey of our character while continental and faction politics could just take a few steps back.

Unlike Skyrim, a supposedly frozen land devastated by war, that didn't give me any sense of struggle to survive as a poor newcomer, I would imagine a game set in Argonia would feature a harder curve of obtaining resources, reputation and gratification. Thinking more like the beginning in Gothic, where you start truly weak and get your ass seriously kicked before you can get some coin or decent gear. The progression feels more natural and more rewarding this way and Black Marsh really is a place where you can feel again like a stranger in a strange place.

Of course, such a game would feature all the wonders and oddities that one can expect from the available lore and a lot more: heavy on horror elements, crazy omniscient trees gone rogue, bizarre creatures and vegetation, dark waters full of deadly predators guarding sunken cities full of treasure, vertical level design that takes you from the bottom of the sea, through worm hole transportation, to the height of the canopy that you can traverse using agility based perks and new items like rope arrows. The lack of spears and acrobatics in such a place would be blasphemy.

With so much water to explore, real time sailing would be great, along with a full pirate faction questline. Although not playable, I'd also expect all the Argonian subraces to be in the game and properly depicted and differentiated. I hope at least when a game is featuring the province of a beast race they'll find the time to make the beast races look, sound and animate in a more unique style not just like humans dressed in costumes.

 

[General Lee]

I think a brand new engine is very welcome from an optimization point of view. The current engine is quite janky and behind the times in many aspects, but the good side is that it's worked for modders for a long time now, and people are familiar with it. A new engine will no doubt limit modding more unless Bethesda puts extra emphasis on making it moddable beyond using limited official tools.

If they could do away with loading screens beyond the initial load or fast travel that would be a huge boon to immersion. I'd also love if the game was designed to work well without teleport fast travel. I'd love a survival mode from the start. Or at least a difficulty that isn't just damage sponge grind.

Melee combat is obviously what Skyrim had a lot of problems with, so improving that would be a high priority.

As far as the main story goes, I think it would be far better if there wasn't a clear main quest you start from the beginning. Instead there could be several larger quest lines you could just bump into eventually, or the main goal of a playthrough would be about discovering enough content rather than go through a set questline. The game could have several clearly distinct ending scenarios.

The main character shouldn't be set like in Fallout 4. I don't mind it being voiced, but that'll inevitably limit rp possibilities so not having a voiced protagonist is likely better.

 

[KarneeKarnay]

A decent story that you actually want to complete.

Improve combat. Its more a hack and slash than an rpg these days.

Release a fixed game at launch.

No paid mods.

 

[Papo Swing]

I think I need to total rehaul to what Elder Scrolls means. Maybe an even bigger change than that from Morrowing to Oblivion.

See when those games came out I loved them and played so much, but it's been long and the gaming industry has changed in what they do so it led me to be disappointed by Fallout 4 and not only because of the story. I tried to get into Skyrim Enhanced edition and also got bored.

The way the quests, fighting, gameplay loop and other mechanics seems to be outdated these days so more than anything I wish the revamp that part of the gameplay including combat which has always sucked, but there weren't many rivals to them, not so now.

Other things? I wish they would do away with the whole generic main character. It's ok to have choices and character creation, but not if it makes the story suffers. So having real story not linked to creation would be best. Or if the story is going to be so generic and crappy at least make the effort to change it depending on race/class.

Graphics rehaul is expected.

I think the Elder Scrolls series has reached that point of making it and break it that so many others have done in the past. For example Resident Evil, Final Fantasy, Halo, Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear. They've all gotten to the point when they release a game in a new gen when other "usurpers" to the throne have come. Even if I disagree it seems Witcher 3 is the king now and well deserved. So It can either go well or not and it will determine the stakes for the franchise/Bethesda as a whole.

 

[stn]

In addition to what everyone has said, I want actual loot. Better yet, I want to be able to find it randomly AND as a reward for a quest. Basically, how Morrowind did it. I remember I used to get excited when I'd randomly stumble upon a legendary item. Skyrim had shit loot, I blacksmith'd the Daedric set within 5-10 hours and never had a reason to use anything else.

 

[SleepingDragon]

A non voiced protag and maybe an Elsweyr setting.

 

[justjim89]

There's no way I see them going to a province dominated by beast races like Black Marsh or Elsweyr, unless it's a multi-province game. That's all there is too it. I'd love to be wrong, but it would probably hurt their bottom line a significant amount to have most NPC's you encounter be anthropomorphic animals. Hell, it'll be a pleasant surprise if it's set in an area predominantly inhabited by elves.

Thinking realistically, it'll probably be either Daggerfall or Hammerfell. Mostly u=inhabited by people, but adjacent to the more wild and crazy parts of Tamriel on the periphery.

The ideal for me would be a combination of Valenwood and Summerset Isles. Getting to the heart of Altmer culture alongside the wild nature of the Bosmer.

Also, maybe they should stop putting physics on every chair and wheel of cheese if it means the game is so prone to bugs and breaking. I couldn't knock every beer bottle over in every tavern in Witcher 3, but it didn't stop that game's taverns from being miles better than Skyrim's. Maybe then they could eliminate loading screens between every interior.

 

[Raven117]

They REAALLLlY need to retool combat. It doesn't have to be perfect, but just wiggling chopsticks in front of your character just wont cut it.

They need to figure out how to weave an insteresting story. This is where Witcher 3 took it to the next level. They made even the smallest side quest feed back into the narrative.

Go back to choice. Choices have to matter. Period.

 

[justjim89]

I guess I kinda got used to the combat in Skyrim. Even un-modded, it's miles more interesting than Oblivion's rather lifeless melee. And it's less frustrating than Morrowind's system. It could still use a lot of improvment, though. Especially in light of Souls, Witcher 3, Dragon's Dogma, etc. A lot would be helped just by making the hits more responsive and stagger more. Let enemies actually fall down. And a dodge or parry mechanic would be great for more nimble characters.

 

[PillarEN]

I'm sure it's a given, but keep Jeremy Soule as the composer.

That's the first thing I want to make sure is locked up. No matter how good or bad the game turns out, we'll get some gorgeous music out of it.

 

[Rellik]

First things first, Bethesda needs to upsize if they want to keep up with fan expectations. It's sad but true. Otherwise, I have a feeling that their games are going to get ripped apart more and more. (Not that that will stop them from selling, ie. COD)

Features in order of importance to me:

• Build a new engine, no more retooling gamebryo. Hire some people who can build you the kinda of versatile engine that a game like Elder Scrolls demands. Then you won't have to make quite the trade off between interactivity and graphical power that always happens in Bethesda Studios games. If you decide to go in-house, spend the time modifying idTech 6 to make it work for you.
• Improve scripting of events and how your character interacts with others. Please no voiced mc
• Look at other rpgs with good melee combat as inspiration: Dragon's Dogma, Soulsborne... And actually those are the only two I can think of that really clicked with me, although I liked parts of the Witcher's combat.
• Make traversal less janky, even if that means sticky handholds uncharted style. Hopefully a better handling model for the horses.
• Add Co-op! I know it's pie in the sky, but that'd be incredible for my brother and I.

Finally, I hope they take as long as they need. We'll wait.

Those games sell like shit for a reason. Skyrim was a huge success for a reason.

The combat won't change much.

 

[gforguava]

1. A return to a Morrowind style quest journal, the need to follow directions and all that jazz. Waypoints are the worst.
2. The removal of unmitigated fast travel.
3. Making it impossible for a single character to be great at everything.
4. Making it impossible for a single character to do everything.
5. Good combat.
6. Take place in a non-human focused part of the world.

Sadly, none of this will happen and the series will continue its trek into even blander and more uninteresting waters.

 

[Buttonbasher]

Make it colorful like Morrowind and Oblivion. Skyrim was so muted and grey.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

Skyrim had an awesome sense of freedom. When you walked through tundras and emotional music started playing as you watched the northern lights- That was incredible immersive.


But story; combat; scaling; classes; role playing. So many things around the game felt lackluster.


I'd hope the next elder scrolls hire some of the best writers to get refocus all of the lore, previous games and then reinstate it all through a new way to deliver story.

 

[Kabouter]

No more damn snow

More snow

 

[ClearMetal]

Not that it's ever going to happen, but I would love a return to Morrowind's dialogue system. Non-voiced dialogue allows for so much more creativity and, in case of the player character, more role-playing. You won't have to deal all these people in the game having the same voice anymore and you can let go of the standard framework of 2:1:2 dialogue (in that the npc will always say two lines, you get to answer one line and get another two lines in return. Repeat in case of longer conversation). I mean, voiced dialogue is good and all, but not every game needs it and I think it's a shame developers seem to see it as the only way forward these days. Not every game has to be a cinematic experience for people to enjoy it.

 

[HyperCroutons]

I think if they went with the rumored Akavir being the setting for the next Elder Scrolls that would be cool especially getting to see some new races in the universe. Also they could go pretty crazy with the geography of the location because so little is known about it.

Personally I think Hammerfell and High Rock would be cool locations for the next Elder Scrolls game, nice mix of desert (Middle-Eastern), tropical (Pirate Themes), and western European styles (With High Rock).

Bethesda needs to find a way to make more interesting quests and guilds again, the ones in Skyrim and more recently Fallout 4 weren't that good, too many randomly generated quests filler. Also have the guilds intertwine with the main quest somehow so you can have branching quests.

Also if they feel the need to add dragons again at least make fewer of them like 3-5 and make them rare/tough boss battles with epic loot gain from them.

Obviously the combat needs to be more interesting, needs more weight or impact to swings of weapons, and better loot rewards for pillaging dungeons or defeating high level monsters, please no more flawless diamonds or rings just give me a unique and cool looking weapon or armor instead.

Oh yeah, no voice protagonist either it doesn't work in their kind of games.

 

[oneils]

I’m gonna go against the grain and say I’d like a voiced protagonist. I can’t think of any other mega hits that do the silent protagonist any more. Just do it well.

I don’t think they will cater to the hardcore, and I’m fine with the “simplified” mechanics. Improve the narrative, plot, and faction/npc interactions and I’d be pretty happy.

 

[LOLCats]

no creation club and the creation kit released the same day as the game.

 

[neurosisxeno]

Then they really need to change how they develop and design their games.

Why they can stream overworlds, but can't stream interiors? Loading screen for everything from single room shag with one NPC to any major hub which also are rather tiny for what they are supposed to be. Try do larger hubs like FNV and you have to split it into pieces and put loading screens everywhere.

Scripting that falls apart at random causing quests to straight out break, companions to disappear into ether as pathing goes bananas only to be recovered with dev console commands etc.

With FO4 they at least moved to 21st century and put in native 64-bit support so game can use more RAM + VRAM than 3GB. Even then you need go quite bonkers with mods to see any significant RAM usage.

Then there is all performance issues caused by even low quality shadows etc., but that can be combination of old engine with shit added on top constantly and devs not really knowing what they are doing with that stuff.

It's a lot more complicated than that. A lot of your complaints stem from the way Bethesda games just are more than the engine. Having thousands of intractable persistent objects in itself opens you up to thousands of glitches. A lot of the scripting errors come from that alone. e.g. NPC is supposed to walk to location X, but 30 hours ago the player character threw a grenade in the path and it moves some stuff into the way breaking the pathing. It's not as simple as "just fix x, y, and z". Whenever somebody points out how other games do these things I always come back to the fact that no company does persistent worlds the way Bethesda does. The same issue leads to performance issues with shadows--when you cannot account for where everything is going to be at all times it causes lost performance.

 

[Gamegeneral]

I JUST want a middle-tier-complexity first person action RPG, and I would like to have CO-OP. I don't CARE about balance. Don't balance a single thing for co-op. Just let me please, PLEASE bring a friend into my game world.

And bring back spell crafting.

 

[momshotdad]

Deeper, more complex dungeons. I wanna get lost in them. Skyrim's were more like little circles that were way too easy.

 

[Flying Fish]

No paid mods nonsense.

 

[DOBERMAN INC]

Complex potion and spellcrafting, more housing/larger cities and a massive increase in npcs.

 

[YaBish]

Those games sell like shit for a reason. Skyrim was a huge success for a reason.

The combat won't change much.

Today I learned that a game selling 3 million copies is selling like shit.

Look, I get what you're trying to say. In comparison to Bethesda, that's not huge. But why can't Bethesda learn from games that have satisfying combat?

 

[120v]

I’m gonna go against the grain and say I’d like a voiced protagonist. I can’t think of any other mega hits that do the silent protagonist any more. Just do it well.

i'm not completely against the concept (FO4 flopped with it, mainly by switching the camera over to 3rd person imo) but there's just no way they could record that many permutations of races and sexes. or i guess they could, given the game is like half a decade away but that'd be a hell of an undertaking

 

[Logistic]

An inventory system that doesn't need to be fixed by modders.

 

[Mr_Antimatter]

Ideal location: Black Marsh.

Combat: simular to skyrim, with a few tweaks.

Quests: go play Fallout NV till your eyes bleed. Make them like that, multiple branches, alternative endings, etc.

 

[Dmax3901]

I want Bethesda to put actual effort into making it a game that feels like a generational leap, not like Fallout 3 -> 4.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

I just don't want them to dumb things down anymore.

Learn from some of the games that have bucked the simplification and hand-holding trends and make me think and get lost in the systems.

 

[Humdinger]

-Choice and consequence, what you do in the game has tangible effects
-Meaningful companions+quests
-No voiced protagonist
-Blank slate protagonist
-Weapon durability, spell crafting
-Skill requirements for joining factions, no joining Mage's Guild if you're bad at magic, etc.
-Hire dedicated writing team
-Dynamic seasons, weather changes based on date

I second this.

And a new engine.

 

[Svejk]

Character customization out the ass...

Wear clothes and armor (a la Dragon's Dogma),

Actually make/ craft your own designed armor and weapons.. like modding weapons, but go as far as to drawing/ etching out your own designs on them and shape them.

 

[Xero]

More snow

I got you fam.

 

[A-V-B]

Besides more inventive writing, a unique country to explore, and a more expansive core gameplay system that is more physically interactive? And better animations?

No exploitative microtransactions or any of that bullshit. Keep it clean. Keep it moddable. For God's sake, keep it moddable.

 

[Flying Fish]

RE: Fast Travel

How about implementing a system makes you pay a variable amount of gold in order to fast travel? This could lead to situations where have to decide if teleporting back to a city is worth it or not, and if not, then you look at your map to find nearby small hamlets or villages instead.

 

[Staf]

I want a proper dialogue system. Not the guessing game that's in Fallout 4 or the Bioware games. Don't paraphrase the dialogue choices. I would also love a VATS type system in the next Elder scrolls!