The Elder Scrolls V; AKA How to make up for Oblivion

[Cheomesh]

Right, well Oblivion was a mess of fail. It had some cool parts but on the whole was meh.


Anyways my brother and I kicked this around mostly for lulz. This is in no way ever going to happen, but I figured it would be cool to share anyways.

Firstly, they HAVE to restore the Roman-esque armour to the Imperial army. No exceptions.

Secondly, I would like to propose a game with a disjointed storyline. That is, we know that all of Tamriel is made up of provinces right? Well, lets make the whole world be Tamriel, and lets have each one with their own storyline. When you pick a race, you default to starting in its province. Imperials start in Cyrodil, etc. Each has their own main storyline and their own side quests, etc. You can travel between them (no instant fast travel because that was gaey), and stuff like that.

Stuff going on could include an invasion of one of the provinces by some other group of people, and you get to observe the Imperial Army fighting and stuff.

Expand the Oblivion style "world" so that there are actually enough people in an area to be considered believable. Give them something better to do than stand there all day looking at a wall.

This game would be like...30GB, but it would totally make up for the crap that Oblivion was.

Discuss this impossibility.

 

[Eejit]

Fast travel is fine if it's between places you've previously visited.

 

[Mutley]

I just want it to be bug free. There were so many bugs, possession issues, mapping faults in Oblivion it was unplayable for me.

Better AI and NPC spawning, I could kill a whole village in Oblivion would be nice if new people move in or reproduce.

 

[2real]

next TES game is will be a MMORPG

 

[Mutley]

next TES game is will be a MMORPG

I doubt it. They've always stuck by creating the best singleplayer experience possible for an RPG (In Morrowind they certainly achieved that).

They've got a good niche that has few competitors making an MMO among the hundreds already out would be stupid.

 

[Rapstah]

Bethesda registered www.elderscrollsonline.com, so I think it's fair to guess it'll be Elder Scrolls Online.

 

[Narvi]

So you want them to make several dozen arching plotlines depending on which race your character is? With different split-points in the plot and invasions from other provinces? With each character having different dialogue and characterization depending on what happens?

...wow. That's ridiculously unlikely.

You know, the developers tried to alleviate the "standing around doing nothing" problem with their new Radiant AI system. It still had its massive flaws, so they had to dumb it down for Oblivion, but progress is being made on that front so I'm happy for now.

Tbh we should have a GTA style random-passer-by system in cities, with very few characters with fixed names and proper interactivity. They'd have randomly generated names (from a namepool) and while you should be able to talk with all of them, some should brush you off and others should just have the conversation options the lesser NPCs had in Morrowind. It'd be like how it was in Morrowind, but with more NPCs.

I had no problem with fast travel, since it was completely optional, but it should be implemented differently. For exploration purposes, initially it should be limited to the Imperial Highway, and to cities and towns, so you can't just fast travel to the other side of the map and then set to exploring. The Imperial Highway would be a network criss-crossing through the entire world-map, so you can (for example) travel exactly halfway between Cyrodiil and Vvaardenfall, and then bugger off the road to wherever you like. If you've been there before, you should obviously be able to fast-travel there easily, though depending on how deep it is in enemy territory, I would set up up a "colour shade" system, for random encounters. So if you decide to fast-travel to the summit of a Daedric temple, because you managed to run there and Scroll of Town Portal yourself back, there'd be a chance you'd have a random encounter about half-way there. For example, a Daedric temple area would be a deep hue of red on the map, while an area full of cliff racers would be like light pink. So if you decide to be clever and fast travel to get to the good stuff, you get a Frost Atronach in your face about half-way there. Of course, this would depend on your level; if you were a level one character, more cliff racers would show up when you travel to a light-hued area than if you were a level sixty Minor God.

Also, if you kill an entire village, you get titles like Mass Murderer, unless you were very quiet about it and left no traces. I'm not sure how this would work, but if say some randomly-generated traveller saw your massacre and manages to escape, the title would be yours and you'd have to pay huge amounts of gold to the courts to get the guards off your back. Even then the Mass Murderer title would still be present as a rumour of what you'd did, so random NPCs would react to you oddly.

Bethesda registered www.elderscrollsonline.com, so I think it's fair to guess it'll be Elder Scrolls Online.

That could just be to make an online community or to prevent somebody else taking the name. It has no bearing on whether one will be eventually developed, though the universe would work.

 

[Kadayi]

Bethesda registered www.elderscrollsonline.com, so I think it's fair to guess it'll be Elder Scrolls Online.

It's not unusual for companies to register all sorts of websites that could be spin offs of their products simply to avoid imitators, I wouldn't necessarily read too much into it.

Whatever they do next I hope Beth introduce a character creation system that scales from 'fugly' to 'I came in my pants', because NPCs are ugly as sin in Oblivion. They should also take a lead from Valve and sort their lipsynch tech out because it blows.

 

[VirusType2]

I have some ideas in my head...

more voice actors. Don't use the same voice actor for more than one race - at least. And don't call the guy back who did the nord/orc/etc. voices. Also the Imperial male voice is annoying too.

Just keep the elf and dark elf voice actors, and the female voice actors

Also, when shopping, make them shut up. I don't want to hear the NPC comment on every sale.


OK with the easy part out of the way.

Oblivion was cool, but there wasn't enough variety in the dungeons. Also, the dungeons in the planes of oblivion where pretty lame. It looked like a big mess of polygons with drab and overstretched textures wrapped over everything. Also, Shivering Isles was so killer, but there wasn't much variety in the look of the dungeons.

I'd like to see a huge variety of dungeon graphics.

The sound needs to be more compatible.

When it comes to magic, the level 1 fireball looked the same as the level 100 fireball, and that's not cool.

Bring back medium armor and unarmored.

more magic robes, and they need to be more powerful. As it stands, if you wear them, you are handicapped as opposed to just wearing enchanted armor.


You should be able to enchant an item with more than one thing. This will be the hard to keep them game balance, but it will be cool.

Spears.

Polearms.

Sickles.

Partisans.

more katana type weapons.

dual wield daggers and short swords. Dual wield any 1 hand weapon. (man I loved dual wielding the 1 hand spears from EQ.)

More variety in the outdoor environments. I want to see different 'species' of trees in different areas of the world - for example.

One area can be desert like, and another could be more like a rainforest, etc. Like the trees in Japan don't look like the trees in Virginia, for example. AWESOME. Dead forest, etc. The world has to be huge.


Stats have no cap. (they don't stop at 100)

Horseback riding skill. without this, it's just a better idea to run.

An improved editor.

more enemy types.


That should get them started.

PM me if you need a programmer/artist/sound tech/idea man. Will work for food.

 

[StardogChampion]

Oblivion-style fast travel should be scrapped. You shouldn't be able to open your map and teleport. Just go back to how they did it in Morrowind.

 

[Narvi]

It was wonderful when I played it at a friend's house...

With a ton of mods installed. Vanilla is bleh.

 

[Saturos]

Oh, and not a ****ing MMORPG.

Really, MMORPGS are big, but I don't like the "bigots" who play them. I'm mostly a lone gamer, if for no other reason then because I really don't give a shit if I'm the "38th hero to complete this quest today". Staying revelant to the thread, ES: V should do away with having to pay for plug-ins. How stupid is that when there are so many other places to get "free" mods that rival the few that Bethesda makes us pay for after paying 50+ bucks for a game who's integrity is questionable to begin with? They should've just GIVEN those plug-ins away if you ask me. All-in-all, Oblivion was OK with OOO, however, but was unplayable without it.

 

[Citrus]

Adapting on the "start in your race's provinces" idea, i'd put a big war into the story. All the races + provinces across Tamriel are at war, and you will be fighting not only against wild beasts and monsters, but other races too.

I also think they got lazy with the design of the Oblivion plains. Destroying those gates were like a chore to do, essentially stopping me from continuing with the game and wondering whether or not to buy V.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

All the provinces, continents, planes of oblivion, aetherus places (whatever they're called) and anywhere else. uber big game. I mean, taking up entire hard drive.

 

[Acepilotf14]

Sorry, but the next Elder Scrolls will be an MMO.
Expect a WoW clone.

 

[VirusType2]

uber big game. I mean, taking up entire hard drive.

I lol's

 

[Gargantou]

All I say is

REMAKE

DAGGERFALL

WITH

MODERN

TECHNOLOGY!!!!!!

Nuff said, bitches.

 

[ShinRa]

Am I the only one who was more than happy with Oblivion?

 

[Unfocused]

Am I the only one who was more than happy with Oblivion?

Nope, I enjoyed it much as well.

 

[MRG]

Oblivion-style fast travel should be scrapped. You shouldn't be able to open your map and teleport. Just go back to how they did it in Morrowind.

I think it would be an interesting addition that when you took "Public Transportation" you actually got into a coach for example, pulled by horses or other beasts. You use this as a means to get from one distant location to another. You travel in real time & have the ability to signal the driver that you want to get out mid-journey. Have the slim possibility of random encounters along the way. Such as in the form of bandits.

Populate the game world with creatures big & small! The bleak & dead world that Oblivion had, really sucked. Thank got for mods.

Real time blocking with a shield. MAke it a learnable skill to train in. Some people don't like to use a shield, so have it an option to lean how to use one. Make the armor bonus of any shield drop by 3/4 if you don't activally use your shield.

Particle effects for all magical weapons.

-MRG

 

[Citrus]

Am I the only one who was more than happy with Oblivion?

Everything other than the Oblivion parts were neat, its just they ruined it for me as I didn't WANT to complete the story (which was damn fun up until the "destroy 10 gates" part).

They should also add more shops and fix all the glitches where you can steal items right infront of the owner's face without being spotted :/

I know it will probably never happen, but do you guys think it would be fun if Bethesda decided to make a new modern-day RPG or possibly one set in 1920s/1930s?

 

[Cheomesh]

snip

Yeah pretty much what I was thinking but I wanted to keep my post simple.

As for the "Big war" idea, that would be a Civil war because all of Tamriel is under Imperial control...why would they ALL be fighting each other? It would be like the US Civil war, but instead of Union and Confederacy, it's Union vs all the Confederate states fighting each other.

 

[Jintor]

Well, the very first thing I would suggest would be to a) Hire more voice actors and b) HIRE BETTER WRITERS. And then underline, write in bold, italics, 30-foot-high letters the second bit. Because you know they need those friggin' writers.

I'm not talking ingame books, they were and always have been wonderful. I'm talking dialogue. The dialogue, people! It's always been the worst part of Elder Scrolls! Except for Uriel Septim of course, but that was all Patrick Stewert.

 

[Krynn72]

Horseback riding skill. without this, it's just a better idea to run.

No. Thats a dumb idea because then it will simply take up one of your starting skills with every character instead of a useful one. Nobody's going to want to run around if there are horses, so everyone will take the skill to start.

Maybe they could just start off with some major skills that you can select and modify from the beginning, and then have "general life skills" that train just by you doing things, and that you dont take as a major skill. For instance, the more you ride your horse, the better you get at it. The more you run, the higher your athletics get.

I never took athletics or acrobatics as a major skill, since they are basically always being used and thus getting better quickly anyways... so why bother making it a major skill?



I guess its pretty much that way anyways though. :shrug:

 

[Tagaziel]

Kick Todd Howard and Pete Hines out and hire the original TES lore writer and developer they kicked out.

Delete Radiant AI altogether and stick to scripting. Gothic, Gothic II and Gothic 3 worked much better without Radiant AI than Oblivion with it. Unless you count NPCs killing a guard because he left a post to get something to eat as working perfectly.

Restore aesthetics from past games, where the world was actually something unique, not run of the mill fantasy.

 

[Saturos]

Oh, several other things I forgot to add was that some of the weapon animations did not accurately dipict it's usage according to skill and weapon type. For example, a katana, whether the two-handed or single handed version is NOT a weapon used for hacking like a claymore or cutlass and require a great amount of skill to use. Katanas use a "slicing" motion rather than what was depicted when you swing it a.l.a hacking style in Oblivion. An awesome weapon ruined by totally gay animation incorrection. Thus, they should be wielded, and the animation should behave according to the blade skill. Unique weapon special attacks would be nice too. For instance, the katana should have a one-hit kill percentage master perk to depict it's intended lethality when used by a master samurai. Also katanas, as well as other weapons should have the option to either be sheathed either by the side, or carried on the back. They look stupid carried on the back. Lastly, one other major element missing in Oblivion was the ability to slash and hack horseback a.l.a calvary/dragoon style. At least one could do that in Zelda: Twilight Princess.

 

[Cheomesh]

A katana is a cutting weapon. In the interest of you not embarrassing yourself, lets not talk about the virtues of Japanese weapons vs European weapon. The "hack" you describe is as accurate as you can depict a cut in that engine.

(Freaking Firefox...I added embarassing to the dictionary on accident :<)

 

[Krynn72]

Katanas should be taken out of the game entirely.

 

[Saturos]

Katanas should be taken out of the game entirely.

Why? Do you think that they are not accurate to Cyrodill's middle-age/european style locale? In that case, they would have to omit any other far-east depicting area such as the Cloud Ruler Temple. Come to think of it, Cyrodill was a mish-mash of many regions and styles with exception to any kind of desert/middle eastern depicting village/region. Or the "Roman" style some have mentioned about Morrowind. (Which I've never played. Go ahead and laugh fanboys.)

 

[Cheomesh]

Katanas should be taken out of the game entirely.

I wish. I hate them. They got them from the Akavari, though.

Why? Do you think that they are not accurate to Cyrodill's middle-age/european style locale? In that case, they would have to omit any other far-east depicting area such as the Cloud Ruler Temple.

Actually it was originally supposed to be Roman.

 

[Saturos]

Actually it was originally supposed to be Roman.

I thought so.The Imperial City looks very Roman-esque. Along with the wayshrines as well. What else did they omit that was Roman-esque?

 

[Cheomesh]

Everything. Their legion armour, weapons, etc.

Pretty much the only thing they kept was Latin-esque names.

The Wayshrines are Alytar IIRC.

 

[Saturos]

Pretty much the only thing they kept was Latin-esque names.

Heh, that wasn't as obvious to me before, but now that you mentioned it.

The Wayshrines are Alytar IIRC.

What is Alytar? Something Greek? Also, I'm not up to snuff on my shorthand, does IIRC mean, "If I Recall Correctly"?

 

[Jintor]

Yah, that's what it means.

I just bloody hope they get decent voice actors. Everyone bar Patrick Stewert felt so wooden in Obliv.

 

[Gargantou]

I still say Daggerfall was the best ES and the most accurate to ES lore.

 

[Shadow-warrior]

The way Bethesda has shifted over the years and with their current team they don't have the ability to make a decent RPG even if they wanted to.

 

[Cheomesh]

Yeh, seriously. Fallout 3 is going to blow :<

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

Yeh, seriously. Fallout 3 is going to blow :<

. 5charbitch

 

[Zeus]

Oblivion-style fast travel should be scrapped. You shouldn't be able to open your map and teleport. Just go back to how they did it in Morrowind.

You can just travel Morrowind-style in Oblivion if you want to. Fast travel is just an added feature for those who want to skip right to the action. I used it a lot because I didn't feel like running back and forth across huge distances for quests, which pissed me off a lot in morrowind. Just don't use the fast travel in oblivion if you don't want to.

But they should return the skill system to how it was in morrowind. As well as the leveling and getting rid of the whole leveling up monsters thing. Oh yeah, and the voice acting got on my nerves. I felt like I was talking with the same 10 or so people the whole game, which is bad considering there is like 1000+ npcs in the game to talk to. It needs to be more varied for the next ES game.

 

[Rapstah]

You can just travel Morrowind-style in Oblivion if you want to.

No, you can't.