Most important new feature you want to see in TES VI?

Shole

What new thing would you want to see in TES VI? What do you think would benefit the game the most and make it way more fun than it is now?

Swdarmerik

Shole not really new, I would like to see npc opinion of main character back. I would also like to see the devil bring back the guid advancement back from morrowind. Like working up the ranks with several quest before advancing in guild and doing guild main quests as you progress instead of being able to do them instantly and being the head of the guild in 12 quests or less. I want intrigue being able to convince others to advance you, or going from some sort of trial. Also lock somethings behind a skill, quest number, or renown system, in guilds.

Let my character prove themselves in game to other guild members instead of doing a quick main guild questline.

Divinipotent

I would love for them to expand upon their Radiant AI system even more and implement randomly generated NPCs (which would make use of the Radiant AI . . . hence expansion). These two features would synergize greatly! The only issue I can think of is how many quality voice actors are at Bethesda’s disposal and the hell ton of dialogue that would need to be voiced (I only mention it because hearing the same voice from a different NPC bothers some immensely). I don’t think all NPCs have to have a quest to their name necessarily. There could simply be interesting things where NPCs spawn in along with their family members (perhaps a twin?), an NPC could commit suicide (or was it set up!?), could live a double life as an assassin/spy, deal drugs at night, satisfy its vampire urges at night, plot someone’s murder, be trying to find an NPC with certain personality traits (some expanded system of the internal attributes used in Oblivion eg. Responsibility, aggression, and etc.) to convince to do a task, perhaps NPCs that are capable of persuading an NPC to change morality (A priest convincing a beggar not to be a thief or a thief convincing a priest to be a thief), perhaps there could be legendary spawns of NPCs, and etc. That’s the tip of the iceberg, and it only becomes more exciting when thinking about how much more unpredictable your world is when all of these are running simultaneously and effecting each other. I know this is probably poorly presented, but it’s about 5:00 AM and I’m a bit sleep deprived. I saw this forum and decided I should put this somewhere before I forget about it again. My wish would be to have a unpredictable (unless you study the people around you, or perhaps not even then) and VERY dynamic world. You could implement ways to cycle people out, have them move out of town and etc. Hell the main character could be “Immortal-born” for all I care and watch people die of natural causes and cycle on. I would also like to point out this makes the Personality or Charisma oriented playstyle a hell of a lot more interesting! I await to hear peoples’ thoughts on this, and look forward to polishing my idea more.

Divinipotent

I might add I want the normal attributes back . . . perhaps special perks could be earned by performing certain tasks over and over or consistently sticking to a certain playstyle.

Quelhas

A way of making a story out of your character, more fitures for rps like the possibility of seeing your kids grow up and do things with them after the main quest is done or similar things. Mostly I'd like things that go with my rp nature, like stuff that will enchant the game play for role playing, just possibilities.

Wunis

I'd like to see Levitation, Water Walking, etc. added back into the game.

War

I want to see more focus on Stealth elements and more ways to interact with your environment. After playing Thief (2014) I wondered what that kind of gameplay would be like in Skyrim. Of course, they couldn't focus the game only on stealth as it's only one of the three play-styles (out of stealth, warrior, magic). I really think it could be done a lot better though.

For example, they could try adding some of these things:
- An ability to scale objects like ropes, ladders, cliff-faces, etc.
- A way to enter all buildings other than main doors. I'd like to enter through chimneys, or windows. Maybe this could be a sneaking perk you unlock later so that mage/warrior characters can't just jump through windows willy-nilly.
- More options for killing your enemies. Maybe lay out bear traps, or leave bait for them to find. (Ex. a sack of gold that will attract them).
- More options to move about your environment, like moving over rafters, or easier ways onto rooftops.
- Stealth gameplay that focuses more on light and shadow rather than raw sneak skill points.

Wunis

War If these things get added (and they sound amazing), the AI would need a hell of a lot of improvement to be able to counter these things to some degree. As it stands, Stealth is ridiculously overpowered.

Majoron

Wunis I'm not quite sure how you would counter some of the things that you can do. For instance, in Skyrim, you can sit hundreds of metres from someone, pepper them with arrows (which get sneak attack bonuses) and then do the same thing until everyone in sight is dead. I can't really think of any way to balance that against straight-up non-stealth melee.

Wunis

Majoron They could make the detection system better, allowing the AI to figure out where you are more easily at that range, or they could reduce the damage you do with the bow, and increase it with close range weapons. That would add some thrill to Stealth combat, because whenever you ambush someone, you kill them, but you have a high risk of being discovered and having to bolt.

Majoron

Wunis Yeah, I definitely think that it would be interesting to see stealth redone, especially if it was affected by different factors such as light, cover, etc. As it is currently, it's not too hard to just crouch-walk up to someone. And I might be wrong, but it seems like detection is just as likely through a wall as if the wall wasn't there, with only distance making a difference.

As for the bow distance, it's absolutely ridiculous at the moment. I actually stopped using archery for a while just because it wasn't any fun. I could shoot people from when they were only pixels tall all the way to when they were in my face.

War

Wunis The stealth archer problem is certainly huge, but strangely I don't remember it being much of a problem in games like Morrowind or Oblivion.

I have a few ideas of how it could be made better:
- Maybe AI should be able to discern where you are if they see where the arrow landed. Currently, if you miss them, they just kinda look around trying to find the source of the sound, but they can't find the arrow.
- If you hit them, they strangely immediately start running in your direction. Realistically they'd probably be disoriented and wouldn't pursue you. Maybe if they have a buddy with them who saw them get hit, they would be the one to run after you, and the one that was hit should try hiding and telling others there's an archer nearby.
- Less arrows, or arrows have weight, or arrows are more expensive. This means the player can pepper less arrows all the time and be encouraged to conserve ammo.
- Environment conditions effect arrows, like wind maybe. There should be a visual cue like swaying trees to show this though, otherwise the player is just going to be confused about their arrows curving.
- Encourage more accurate shots by making well-placed shots do more damage. I think the current system lets you hit anywhere and do the same amount of damage. Hits to unarmored or vital areas should do more damage.
- Not taking an enemy out quickly enough may alert everyone as the struck enemy has a chance to call for alarm. If they're not alone, then that's an even bigger problem,

Majoron

War Yeah, arrows really should do damage depending on where they hit. I also like the ideas regarding figuring out where the arrow came from, but I don't think that arrows should be more expensive or heavy. I also don't think that weather should affect arrows. These would, in my opinion, disrupt the trifecta of mage, archer, warrior, making melee characters much too powerful in comparison.
I think the main change that needs to be made is a nerf to range, possibly with a perk to upgrade it (assuming they stick to the perk system). As I said, NPCs being less clueless would also probably help.

Wunis

Majoron The trifecta is already unbalanced; just look at the strength of mages vs that of archers and warriors.

Majoron

Wunis I'm not sure if you're saying that mages are too powerful. If this is the case, I thoroughly disagree.

Wunis

Majoron I'm saying that mages are completely useless compared to archers and warriors, which makes the balance between the three archetypes almost nil.

Majoron

Wunis I agree. When I wrote that, I had recently posted, I think in another thread, about changes that should be made to buff mages, so I guess I was taking that as a given without realising it. Regardless, my point was simply that I didn't think that archery needed to be nerfed to that extent.

Cozy

I hope Bethesda learns a bit from Witcher 3's quest/story construction. Mainly location; Skyrim's quests were all over the place, having you run all the way to the opposite side of the map to collect some book for somebody. I'd like it if TES6's quests flowed more like Witcher 3's where quest objectives are at least relatively close to one another, that helped keep the quests nice and concise. Also in the WItcher 3 DLC, there were dialogue choices at the end of almost every main storyline quest that game you the option of skipping straight to the next area and beginning the next story mission immediately. This really helped keep the narrative flowing for me, I think it's a really genius idea. It's an interesting way to give players the option to experience either a more focused story experience of the open world exploration experience.

War

Cozy Yeah, having quests that spanned the entire country seemed weird to me in Skyrim. I like it when the place feels "big." Having a quest to make you do an errand on the other side of Skyrim makes the place feel a lot smaller. It seems less like the home of the great Nords and more like a little sandbox with mountains.

Like, the Companions send you across the continent to settle a dispute between two people in Solitude. Couldn't the local guard do that? That's like sending an officer in Texas on a journey to California to talk to two people to make them stop fighting.

It would be really great if traveling was more significant. Maybe in late-game gameplay it should be easier, but it shouldn't be easy to go across the country early on.

Cozy

War Yeah I agree completely. I'd have preferred it if Skyrim had the vast majority of the game's minor quests remain within the 'hold' you got them in. Not only would it make it more convenient and give gameplay a better flow imo (I prefer sort of 'settling down' in one area and helping out as much as possible before moving on, sort of breaking huge open world games into bite sized roleplay story arcs) but it'd also make the main quests that span the whole continent feel more epic.

Some of my favorite quests in Skyrim were very short ones where, for example, you'd meet a character outside a dungeon then go and help them clear it. Then they'd give you a reward and tell you to visit them sometime (if they survived) and that was it. Just little things like that which spiced up exploration a bit, but didn't feel like chores since you were sort of already there and doing that.

Majoron

War Along that same train of thought, what would you think of more limited fast travel? Personally, I think it really does a disservice to the size of the world when you can just walk to the nearest farm and then fast travel to some random Orc stronghold on the other side of Skyrim. Remember how there are sort of 'taxis' outside of cities? I don't think I ever used one, because you had to pay for them, and it was just as easy to fast travel. I also barely used horses in the later stages of the game, because it was more time-efficient to fast travel.

I think it'd be really cool if they made horses a bit faster, they improved horse mechanics (it's really easy to lose a horse in Skyrim), limited fast travel, so that you either have to actually travel across the land yourself or at least find a taxi / ship, and then also implemented the more localised quests, so that you wouldn't have to find a taxi every time you wanted to complete a quest.

I guess what I'm saying is I really don't think that many people fully appreciate the scale of the worlds being built, and I think this might be a way to do that without inconveniencing the player too much.

Cozy

Majoron I understand where you're coming from and I know a lot of people who share your opinion, but I personally like convenient, instant fast travel. I actually downloaded a mod for witcher 3 that let you fast travel from anywhere. I just don't have the time to play a game like that and even if I did, I usually just find travelling massive worlds on foot to be a bit monotonous, like filler material between the juicy story arcs.

I'd recommend a middle ground, giving players the option to decide for themselves whether they want fast travel enabled or disabled.