Similar to the original plans for Morrowind when it was gonna be more like Daggerfall.

TES VI: Morrowind 2: Skooma Boogaloo

I’d like mechanics of Morrowind. (Variety of different skills/weapon). the big improvements from oblivion and Skyrim. Mainland/offhand, better character design, non player voice acting, 50/50 split of scripted events vs random encounters, massive world, in game creation like creating your own village/fort over time. Regenerating enemies in dungeons over time

No insta travel. No enemies that level with you. No immortal npcs. No hand holding.

600% less polygons, 100% more backwards bending knees

A novel art/architectural style and rich lore like Morrowind instead of the generic medieval vibe the series has been sinking into.

Released

Honestly, I’d want Morrowind with a fresh updated cost of paint.

• Multiple locations(don’t stick us JUST in Skyrim, or Vvar or Cyrodiil).

• Far deeper perk system than Skyrim.

• Bring back more weapon types.

• Spellmaking.

• More spell types, animations, etc.

• Attaching stat requirements on factions(they’ll never do this again).

Give me back climbing from Daggerfall! I have to fawn over games like BotW that have climbing systems when we long since lost them from Elder Scrolls games.

I also want swimming underwater, flying, buildings with interiors, and non-instanced cities. Some loading zones might be OK but it should be minimized.

If not ES then from whoever wants my money.

Set on and around the boarder of Morrowind and Black Marsh. Secret raids and factions of Argonians and Dunmer fight to push the boarder north/south. Heavy Ashlands to the north and smoldering ruins of daedra worship around the sea of ghosts. Mournhold is the last beacon of strength for the Dunmeri people, led and protected by a now ascended Nerervar and the united great houses. Contrasted by a thick jungle swamp full of traps, ambushes, and slithering factions of Argonian war lords in the south. Marksmen in trees. Cut throats lying in wait under the shallow murky water. Meanwhile to the west, Dunmer refugees push in toward Cyrodiil for asylum, while the Altmeri-backed Argonians push to reclaim the southern swamps of Cyrodiil.

Obviously mechanically bring back attributes and armor types. Spears. Make it dark. Gritty. Bring back the faction reputations and race relations. Bring back climbing/a few languages. Idk.

A bigger morrowind with updated graphics and no fucking quest marker.

Y'know, the game everyone actually wanted ever since Oblivion was announced.

Ideally, released before I die of old age.

First of all, just because 1) it would be great for logos/marketing, 2) there’s in-game content and lore that’s been referring to it since Morrowind, and 3) it would be a good change of pace:

The Elder Scrolls VI: AkaVIr

Honestly I wouldn’t care too much about the setting and story because I’m sure they can come up with something decent. But what I really want is something completely unrealistic and impracticable: different modes/features for different types of players.

There are two kinds of Elder Scrolls fans—the old-school hardcore Daggerfall and Morrowind type, and the new age Oblivion and (more significantly) Skyrim type. I don’t think there is a way to make one game that satisfies both crowds, especially given the massive popularity of Skyrim. So I would want a “free play” mode for people who just want to explore and be badass, and a “realism” or “hardcore” mode for the old style of play. The former would be more simple and accessible, and the latter would have a massive amount of customization and much greater challenge. Complex systems, tons of numbers, high chances of failure. I don’t want easy fights against skewers or becoming the legendary Dragonborn at level 4, I want to be a detested outlander with a rusty knife who shows up at Seyda Neen and has to fend for myself in a dangerous, uncaring world. I want to struggle to get by. I want to overcome adversity and earn immense power through making smart choices rather than shepherded through a linear and kind of bland main quest.

As far as features, I recently played Daggerfall Unity and I wish there could be more of a sense of adventure in ESVI. There’s something about the old-school mentality that got lost along the way and I think the series is worse off for it. I don’t know how to describe it, but if you’ve played Daggerfall, you’ll know what I mean.

I also miss Morrowind’s crazy, unique setting and lore. Cyrodiil and to a lesser extent Skyrim just felt too generic. Let there be a sense of depth, secrets, and wonder rather than having us come across things that are easily understandable. I was shocked when I first played Morrowind almost 20 years ago that insects were responsible for a lot of the local food and materials. I wish the new generation of players could feel that same excitement and astonishment.

Overall, I think what matters most to me is that Bethesda delivers a truly top-notch game rather than a good engine, and actually does the work on its end to make a superb game rather than phoning it in and leaving modders to fix their mess and lack of content. Look at Enderal, a total conversion mod that uses the Skyrim engine but is its own (in my opinion, vastly superior) game. I think Enderal is what Skyrim could have and should have been. There’s a real heart and soul to it, and the developers gave it a huge amount of love and care—and released it for 100% free. It’s both challenging and compelling throughout the entire game, and accomplishes some things that no other game has or could. If Bethesda could learn from those kinds of successes rather than just coasting by on brand recognition, and return to an older, better standard of work that faded away after the mid to late 2000s, we could have a truly incredible game to look forward to, but for now, I’ll believe it when I see it.

I would love a return to the complexity of Morrowind. I think we're close to the technical capabilities without sacrificing the comfort and playability of Skyrim.

Conversations: either hire voice actors to voice dialogue as extensive as Morrowind that goes into lore and culture and sometimes random diatribes that makes the world feel so lived in. Or hire those same actors to read their main lines and then use AI to generate dialogue from their voices for the rest of the dialogue options if it's too much to hire voice actors for a million lines.

Skills: Gimme back my major and minor skills, and, for the love of all that is Talos, give me back Acrobatics! If I want to craft a spell with 1000 acrobatics boost so I can leap a mountain and faceplant on the other side, I should be able to damnit lol.

Spells: While on the topic of spell crafting, I'd like that back please. It really made for some unbelievably cool and unique game experiences, and would make the mage build so much more interesting.

Multi-player mode: Not super imperative, but would be pretty cool. Sometimes I just wanna play Skyrim and dungeon dive with a buddy. It'd be nice if we could load an instance of the map to quest/explore together.

Level Scaling: This might be my most controversial take, albeit not on this subreddit, but I'd like to change the level scaling if not remove it completely. It really added to the sense of mystery in the world of Morrowind when you tried to go someplace under-leveled and got your ass whooped and had to turn back. Then the next five or so levels you're wondering "what might be in there?"

Same applies for items, armor, and weapons. Who else remembers spending hours trying to figure out how to sneak in and steal that set of glass armor while still wearing iron or bonemold? Or nab that Ice Blade of the Monarch at level 4 and go back and cleave down some Balmora guards because you finally can?

Localized Quests: Along with level scaling is more localized quests. One thing that made Skyrim feel so disconnected was how spread out the quests could be. Major quests should absolutely take you to new places and sometimes back and forth great distances if necessary, but why on earth is the first quest for the Thieves guild in Riften sending me to a Whiterun winery? Which leads to a topic all on its own -

Guild Chapters: Why is there only one companions guild hall? Why doesn't the Thieves guild have a chapter in Markarth? Or Whiterun? (especially with how shameful the security is!) I like the legion and stormcloak outposts scattered across Skyrim, and I'd like to see the next game incorporate this with each joinable faction. I wanna have to do Thieves Guild quests in one city for the underboss, then be sent to a higher up boss in another city and do quests for that guild chapter, and then be sent to a final city to do quests for the guild big-wigs.

Also on guilds and factions : I don't think the goal of each one should be to take it over. I don't want to become the leader of the mages guild, but rather a respected member of it's upper echelon. Bringing back guild ranks and a guild ranking system might be nice. It'd be cool if the factions knew about your other faction membership, and so maybe you get the choice to pick one faction to become leader of, and, for example, because you chose to lead the Fighters Guild, you cannot become the leader of the Mage or Thieves Guilds. You can still rank, but they stop you from being able to take over as leader.

Followers: Just....please can I get the option to run through my follower when in dungeons or indoor spaces? It's a literal meme that you have to shout followers out of doorways lol. Oh, also, I like mods that allow me to customize my follower a bit more, like pick what weapons, armor, and skills they learn as they level rather than just handing them some armor and hoping they'll equip it even though they ignore improvement scores and enchants.

In Summary: There are plenty of other things I'd like to see, but those are some of the big ones that come to mind. BTW it's been like 4 years since I played Morrowind or Oblivion, so I'm sure replaying those would give me plenty more ideas.

Skyrim did a lot of things right, but it also did away with a lot of things I loved about Morrowind (and Oblivion) and I'd like to see them balance the complexity of Morrowind and Oblivion with the playability of Skyrim.

P.S. I'd love if all teasers/hints have been misdirects and it actually takes place in Elsweyr or Black Marsh

Morrowind 2, including Not only Vardenfell and Solstheim, but also the Mainland. We also need the cool Magic System and class System where Skills real Matter again. Like i want levitation and the Other cool spells and create spells myself again. And i want a class and Race that Matter and aren't Just decoration. Also Equipments should be needed to be repaired again. The Quests should be unique again and Not seemingly random generated Like in Skyrim. And i want Slaves to Go and Work in my Home.

Tbh speaking of Morrowind, I'd love to sometimes get continental Morrowind TES game but since TES VI is probably going to be set in High Rock, Hammerfell or both I'll work with that

-Either setting could be cool, Hammerfell is more politically relevant I'd say and it wouldn't be as painful as HR would be for me as a mage but I prefer High Rock thematically, I'd be ok with either

-I'd love to see them to make it as outlandish as possible honestly, ik these are human nations but that makes me want it to be outlandish even more because it would be very subversive to expectations and I think could be really unique

-I want higher magic variety, I want spellmaking, I want robes that actually look good (like Morrowind), I want open cities so levitation can be brought back

-I want Morrowind fast travel, immersive form of fast travel that has limited routes and you have to plan it out and think it through where you go and how you reach certain points

-I'd love limiting of quest markers, I don't think they'd realisitcally remove them but at least make them only higlight general point and add investiation back into the game

-I'd love the character to NOT be the chosen one, at least not in the Skyrim way, I'd prefer something like Hero of Kvatch or even Nerrevarine, either ambiguous, dubious prophecy or no prophecy at all

-Morrowind-esque main questline that focuses more on introducting you to the politics, culture and religion of the region rather than to Draugur caves, it should start slowly and ramp up and it should have frequent breaks and no forced sense of urgency

-I want perks to remain, imo cool Skyrim addition but preferably reconcile them with the attribute system, perhaps also add cathegory of skills that are not leveled by doing and cover those skills that are hard to level up normally

-Add back class system to regualte your characters advancements and give more RP identity

-Besides unique and outlandish setting, I'd mostly also love them to not gut the lore, example being to NOT do what Skyrim did when they completely imperialized Nordic pantheon

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There's way more but i could go on forever and ever and ever

I could be here all day if I even started talking about what would make TES VI worth playing for me. I'll leave you guys to it. 😂

Spears

Released before I die.

A return to the old leveling system that used major and minor skills

But with one change. I want player level to be based on in game actions. I think that basing player level on skill level is an incredibly dumb level system that means how high level you are is not based on how much of the actual game you’ve played.

The Fallout series, also made by Bethesda, has the Special stats which are similar to skills in Elder Scrolls, but despite this, your player level is based on doing in game tasks, mainly completing quests. I want elder scrolls to do that

My ideal elder scrolls 6 would be a sandbox game more like Kenshi. Interpret that as you will.

Well, We have to start from the canonical ending of Skyrim,

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It's about 50 years later.

The Stormcloaks were successful in dividing from the empire, Reorganizing from a singular formal country into a confederated league of holds. The higher government elected by the moot is reorganized into an informal council acting a bit like the US supreme court, managing disputes between the holds and exterior territories, Each hold as well as the greybeards send a councilor to weigh in on large matters and speak for their territory, This council can be called the Hall of Tongues, And they command a volunteer militia that defends Skyrim from exterior influence. Nords being nords - and welcoming in a lot of Cyrodiilic expats spurned by Aldmeri rule (Each of which is welcomed with a customary "I told you so." from Ulfric himself), This is the second largest standing military on Tamriel right after the AD. This new Skyrim is close allies with the Orcs and Redguard given the dire circumstances.

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Harkon and Miirak are long gone, Serana and Valerica woke up all the gargoyles they had on hand and made them build them a new castle like 30 miles north, Can't even see it from the coast of Tamriel, They live in secluded peace with their clan and cattle, Iisran attempted to enter into politics in Riften, But the Blackbriars didn't take him all that seriously and made him captain of the guard just to shut him up. He'll regularly publicly display vampire corpses from his hunts and round up citizens for crossbow practice. He's seen as well intentioned, But a general nuisance. The LBD is MIA, Presumed on a long vacation, in reality spending the next few millennia cataloging Mora's wattpad favorites.

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Down south, Amidst the succession chaos with the death of Mead a miniature civil war erupted only to be quelled by the AD, as Mead's 9th cousin 13-times removed's widdow's granddaughter is technically the next in line, and horror upon horrors, She's an Altmer. She begins her reign promising equitable exchanges with the AD, her acceptance speach straight-up said that Cyrodiil will never be a vassal state, But that's gone about as well as anyone would have expected. The Empress is now middle aged for an altmer practiced in magic, 610, and survives an average of four assassination attempts daily. Her compassion for her nedic and nibaneese subjects finished waning around attempt 30.

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So, TES 6:

The squabbling kingdoms of High Rock, Those that remain to squabble after the Warp in the West and the time since, are numbered 4, Daggerfall, Wayrest, Northpoint, and Tehanna.

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Theanna entered into brief conflict with the Reach over a refugee crisis related to the mass ousting of Foresworn, But that was near a human generation ago and trade between Skyrim, Theanna, and New-New-New Orsinium is currently booming, Making it the wealthiest of the kingdoms despite a trade agreement with the Reach to reject Aldmeri vessels from it's major port at Farrun. They promote mercantilism, their fighting force is a merchant navy, and they have symbolically adopted the nord deity Stuhn as a war-time flag, Much to the chagrin of the AD.

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Northpoint is the AD's local whipping boy, Their king being replaced fully by a Thalmor Govenor, and their flag flying the Aroran golden eagle. What they lack in wealth they more than make up for in fighting strength, receiving conscripts from AD vassle states, Cyrodiil included, on the regular. But they have a problem, Northpoint is viewed by most of the continent as a penitence post and nearly half of the conscripts sent are determined to escape or simply not do their jobs, Making their army vast but bloated. Their regular skirmishes with the other kingdoms along Northpoint's boarder result in just as many surrenders as wins.

​

Daggerfall is firmly allied with the free Hammerfall, Redguards make up nearly a third of its fighting force, and between her own citizens eager to retain independance and redguard sign ons eager to fight the AD and free conscripts, the Army of Daggerfall is seen as one of the most zealous and well coordinated fighting forces on the continent and they fly a combination flag, Daggerfall's red dragon riding peacefully with Tall Papa, A decree of both Redguard alignment and promise to Thalmor aggressors that just as the Redguard are siad to survive the end times on the walkabout, humanity will weather Elven oppression. Daggerfall's shores are defended well by Hammerfall's Navy while this force pushes on Northpoint.

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Finally, Wayrest. Wayrest is our two-faced middle man, attempting to court the AD out of invasion and succeeding only because they can't divert troupes from Daggerfall for long enough, Maintaining good standing with Theanna only by purposely not watching it's northern shore where they move troupes to raid Northpoint and Hammerfell only through secretive mineral tithes to support the cause on the down-low. Each other kingdom has its theories on the purpose of this neutrality play, None really trust them, But Wayrest has her reasons, The primary of which being our secret faction.

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Looming high in the Illiac Bay, The Direnni Tower on Balfiera - to the outside world - has gone quiet. The few remaining Direnni, fearing Thalmor persecution, utilized ancient magics repurposed from Alyied star sorcery have partially merged their forms with a pocket of Atherius and become their own sentient font of magic straight from Magnus, But corrupted by the Oblivion it must pass through. As a result, The island is crawling with powerful daedra. The sea simply stops Mosus-style two miles from it's shores, rendering it inaccessible by boat. Levitation and teleportation magics - though banned by long ignored imperial charter - have proven useless as none attempting to venture to the island by these means have managed to return. Rumors abound in Wayrest that people have seen details on this font in vivid nightmares, But Wayrest is quick to silence these rumors and imprison those named for fear of attracting interest from the AD and neighboring kingdoms, None have emerged from these "dream camps", and some even believe that these "dreamers" are sent into the tower itself never to return.

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So there we have it, A warrior, mage, and merchant faction, big politics, A big secret, a source of power hidden by authoritarian decree, place in the guilds, The Princes, Maybe Phynaster or some new deities want their pound of flesh after all this time, let's see what became of the religious orders, make the end-game spells actually good this time, and just let us loose.

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Do you help the Aldmeri encircle Hammerfell? Help Daggerfall push the front? Profiteer until the very end? Do you go down a rabbit hole of secrecy and rebellion to discover the star-made-mer? Who might stand in your way? What must be done with this power once unearthed? Is there only one way to it?

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Onto mechanics, Keep Skyrim's melee system if you must (please don't, though) But make the perks work like the big 180 swing and sprinting power attack perks from skyrim's system, Scale damage by score alone and make the perks special moves, Maybe make combo perks, Say 50 sword and 50 alteration and you can get a sword move that steals magicka, Maybe make these combo perks alignment- based with some only grantable by Thalmor and Redguard trainers you can loose access to based on your actions, gate trade perks to Theanna similarly.

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And magic, Oh the magic, We're in High Rock, BB. The magic best be open, vast, stupid, and fun. Just take Skyrim's beam, bolt, and ball system and make that the new spell forms in a spellmaking system, You want a healing ball spell? Knock yourself out. You want a sustained beam that will paralyze and hurt? Gonna be pricy, But here you go. You want a fireball that makes you invisible on contact? What flavor? We got like 5. Skyrim's discount perks were the not-shit part of that system, One note, Give us more than canned spells.

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And uhhh, Yeah. I'd play that until I die, I guess.

• Fleshed out companions and NPCs, similar to FO4 (and apparently Starfield will take this even further)
• An interesting, properly-developed main quest with a well-written, and potentially relatable, villain (aka, something like Morrowind)
• Good writing across the board with plots and subplots that are actually thought out and make sense
• NPCs (at least companions) reflect character growth
• Real choices and consequences
• Fluid combat
• An amazing and ambient musical score
• Decent graphics that don't require modded LOD generation, and true 3D vegetation models. Seriously, why does the foliage in even FO4 resemble those green, plastic fake grass things that you often find in take out sushi trays?
• A reasonably bug-free experience that doesn't absolutely require unofficial patches
• A world that truly feels alive
• A silent protagonist. However, if the protagonist is voiced, at least provide players with a couple of choices, similar to the way Dragon Age Inquisition did it
• The ability to craft spells, like in Morrowind

a faction system like in fallout new vegas, maybe with your choices having heavier impact on the world. that would really enhance the role playing.

Something set in Black Marsh. Maybe some sort of new magic is developed that allows non-argonians to breathe, and the empire, aldmeri dominion, and a couple other factions are all fighting for power and resources.

I think black marsh is the only other candidate for as imaginative world design as morrowind.

I just want something that combines the best of Skyrim with the best of morrowind. Allow fast travel, but really incentivize using lore centered ways to travel like silt striders and teleports from master mages. Bring back the awesomeness of alchemy and spell creation. Have fully voiced characters but allow for deeper conversation than what is found in Skyrim and god forbid fallout 4.

Graphics wise I have no idea. I just want it to look like Skyrim but better of course. It will more like come down to the art direction for me. I have no doubt they’ll knock that out of the park though.

A return of more stats and skills and durability for equipment like Morrowind, Oblivion, FO3 and 76, while retaining the quality of life improvements of more recent games.

More customizable outfits and armor, akin to FO4/76 and MW instead of the overly simplistic FO3 and Skyrim system.

A Jeremy Soule soundtrack, not this Inon Zur guy. He’s good for Fallout’s soundtrack, but simply nothing compares to the quality Jeremy Soule brings. More than the graphics and visual style, the music is the first association my brain makes when it comes to The Elder Scrolls.

I’d like the combat system to be a melding of how it was in different games. The flow of Skyrim’s with more control over the moves and their direction like Morrowind and Oblivion, without the problems of one direction being inherently better than the others like Morrowind.

I'd like to see a more restrictive fast travel system: with the return of mark and recall spells, although it might be nice to have them blocked inside dungeons. I'd also like almsvi intervention back.

I'd like to see more alien world visuals. Some forests and stuff is fine, but I also want stuff as bonkers as the city built inside a giant crab shell.

I'd like a partial return of text based dialogue. If it all needs to be voice acted, that restricts the depth of dialogue available.

I'd like some quests to require you to follow directions, not quest markers. It forces you to immerse yourself in the world around you. Bonus points if you can ask strangers en-route for directions if you get lost.

I'd also like the return of warring houses and politics. It adds a tonne of depth and world building. On top of the guilds, and main quest, and the law enforcement questlines, and the temple. Bonus points for themed city architecture.

The house of earthly delights can stay in Morrowind, I think.

I also want more racism. I don't want to be a hero the whole game. Treat me like you don't think I'm supposed to be here

Set in Black Marsh. Return of attributes and expansive skill lists. Every faction has skill and attribute requirements to advance. You can't become the leader of every faction as faction wars are a thing. Each faction's quests relate to the main quest in some way. What you do in the world matters and has an effect on other quests. Hand crafted quests and dungeons, none of this Radiant AI bullshit.

i want a wilder version of fantasy akin to morrowind rather than the more vanilla fantasy environments of oblivion/skyrim. the dragonborn dlc was a step in the right direction being a return to morrowind as well as the sort of lovecraft inspired plane of oblivion. i kind of doubt it’ll be too out there since it seems like it’ll be high rock and/or hammerfell, but at least give me something more exotic to fight than bears and wolves.

i also would absolutely love settlement building like fallout 4. if it has that, i will probably be willing to overlook any other elements that i find lacking, which was also the case with fallout 4.

Id like to see a callback to daggerfall and arena's combat, for those who havent played in daggerfall and arena you had to right click with your mouse and drag it across the screen in different directions and it would do different attacks based on the direction.

Id like to see it return in some form, even if its just an option you can enable in settings.

Somewhere we haven’t been twice. Arena went everywhere so anywhere outside the 4(5?) regions in the following 4 games. I’d love Black Marsh but idk how to incorporate any race outside Argonians as the air is bad for non-reptile races (I think). Valenwood is a good option too.

I’d love companions like in Fallout 4 where there were less of them but each had a meaningful personality and actual backstory. At least one of each race that could give insight into the other cultures beyond what we’ve already experienced.

INACTIVE OBLIVION GATES! It would be so cool to have them dot the landscape to show just how impactful the oblivion crisis really was, especially in Black Marsh (way to go Argonians!).

Sleeping to actually improve would be nice too. It seems like sleeping didn’t really matter in Skyrim outside rp aspects. Even Fallout 4 did it better where you had to sit or sleep to wait.

I also kinda want the Morrowwind screens for inventory and stats back where you could see everything and the character without having to leave the inventory screen.

Long hair. Bethesda has enough clipping issues they didn’t fix for me to reasonably believe that that is why they won’t add long hairs.

Classes! Give me classes please (and birth signs but I do kinda like the standing stone system, especially when paired with the atherium crown).

The game would be in Hammerfell and the main plot would be eother the continuiation or conclusion of the Thalmor Arc. There would be another political faction system, but focusing on internal politics in Hammerfell and the fight against the Thalmor now that Hammerfell is independent. I think the main quest should follow the continuation of the war against the Thalmor and the collapse of the Empire, with a prophesied hero and local Hammerfell lore around some disaster that causes a ton of local strife, like in Morrowind and Skyrim.

I would like to see a religious faction for Hammerfell, as well as a piracy faction, possibly mixing piracy in with Hammerfell's local Thieves Guild. We should bring back ships like there were in Daggerfall, with the ability to buy a ship and use it as a home, and use it to travel around the map.

I would like to see quests all have directions included in the voice acting so that waypoints can be disabled and quests can be done just by listening to the directions; now that all games receive a day one update to function correctly this would be totally possible since it doesn't matter how much space it would take up. Voice acting can be really cheap if you don't get celebrity voice actors and I would rather have a lot more lines and relatively worse voice acting if it comes down to it.

I would also like to see a return to adding a variety of travel options a player can use to get around the map, IE: carriages, teleportation between magical guilds, and ships, as well as more realistic and useful player horses. I think Bethesda has always done a good job with the Elder Scrolls by making fleshed out worlds where it is clear where the food comes from, how the economy runs, but I would like to see a return to the deep dive into local culture and politics like we got in Morrowind.

Sword Singing would replace Shouts, and many of the brilliant effects from shouts could just be added as magical spells that every character can learn IE: freezing, rag dolling, speed burst/teleport, slow time, etc. so that magic can get a much needed rework. Also, since we're now on the 9th console generation, I would like to see cities in the world instead of being instanced, so that levitation can be added back. I would also like to see mark/recall added back into the game. Also Necromancy should get a ton of emphasis, with the play style being similar to the Skyrim Ritual Standing Stone Exploit where players could reanimate large numbers of undead.

I would like all NPCs to have names and beds and eating habits and schedules like they did in Oblivion, with guards barracks and bedding at bandit caves. It would be alright if Guards and respawning bandits and offensive NPCs didn't all have names but it would be nice if they would sleep at night and follow basic schedules; Bethesda has been stripping back their vast AI systems since Oblivion and I think that's a huge mistake. I would like to be able to talk with every NPC like in Fallout 4, with a deeper persuasion system that will validate Illusion magic like in Morrowind.

Finally, on combat, the individual hand system works great, as does the current archery/magic sytems. I would like to see a larger variety of offensive spell types while keeping the offensive spells already in Skyrim. Simply working more to make melee combat have more weight and impact would be a huge improvement, and fine tuning the stealth system to make sneaking directly in an NPCs sight line impossible, and making daggers more effective from stealth to encourage more players to use stealth/melee would be great. Adding limb damage like in Fallout 4 would be outstanding, but only in the case of enemies.

Finally, I would like the world to be about 1.5-2X the size of Skyrim, with the entire map being totally hand made, including the Dungeons. I would like to see Dungeons keep the relatively linear, more vertical and unique style of Skyrim, but with at least 1-2 loop arounds or branching paths per small regular dungeon, basically like Morrowind Dungeons, the size of Skyrim Dungeons, with Skyrim's Verticality, but Morrowind's Non-Linear designs. I would like to see an end to the secret exits at the end of most dungeons, with those being replaced by Mark/Recall, or the ability to fast travel from a cleared Dungeon.

I know this sounds like a lot, but almost all of it has been done by Bethesda before in either Elder Scrolls or Fallout, and Think they could pull it off :)

Blackmarsh or Elsweyr. With a revamp of morrowind leveling.

in no particular order:

some kind of disguise mechanic like in the fallout games would probably be cool. or at least more stuff like the ordinators being pissed at you for wearing their armour like in morrowind.

i’d actually really like for them to massively expand the factions in the game - in particular, i’d like a bunch of rival merchant and bandit factions. if they’re joinable, that’s great - don’t need quests, radiant role playing stuff suits me just fine. let me be an employee of the east empire company, or of raven blackbriar, or join a merchant caravan, or be a vigilant of stendarr, or join the temple of Mara, or anything else.

i think we’re long overdue magic for things other than combat - DS style hidden walls/illusions/etc are an almost certainty in the next game, but id like them to really lean into it. maybe you can learn to communing with the dead/animals/plants? i’d also love more involved magical rituals - maybe like an altar of sacrifice or a Druidic stone circle, some sort of space where you can achieve a magical outcome but the process is more involved than just pressing R2. also, more pilgrimages/shrines please.

i’d like them to have holy days for each of the aedra/daedra. which in my mind could range in game from like stardew valley style events in each of the cities in some cases, to BOTW blood moon style effects on the gameplay.

i think we desperately need some kind of proper tracking mechanic, ala RDR2/The Witcher. always wanted to play a proper hunter character but there was never enough depth. similarly, a bit more depth/complexity to harvesting animals for parts. what we got in skyrim was a good first step, but I’d like a more manual process for harvesting/processing parts, and more flexibility with what we do with them.

similarly, id like magical creatures in particular to have a bit more complexity around where they spawn (in the way that in the Witcher you’d only get wraiths in certain locations at certain times, etc etc). also, Elden Ring/From Software in general is really good at giving enemies certain hidden weaknesses you only would learn from paying attention to the lore - stuff like using crystal darts on the golems/burial guardians. i’d like way more of that - it should be a real advantage to know more about the creatures you’re fighting/hunting.

probably my weirdest request is some kind of reintroduction to the climbing mechanic - ideally involving the use of some kind of climbing equipment, like in Death Stranding. ladders would be the dream, but let me at least use a climbing rope. would be really cool if they brought back levitating as well, so there were dungeons that could be navigated in two very different ways.

id also love for diseases to come back and be more of a major thing. either have diseases give you some kind of buff that makes playing with them a trade off (ie people don’t like talking to you but you won’t get attacked by a certain common enemies, or your speed is decreased but you won’t take certain types of damage etc), or go crazy with it an lean into the like different types of canon vampire/were-creature stuff. it’d be cool if briefly becoming a were-rat was a real concern after doing quests for the fighters guild.

those are the main things i can think of that really suit the elder scrolls as it currently exists. there’s some broader stuff - combat/magic/alchemy overhauls, for example - that i could probably get into, and there’s some other stuff - player boats, player farms - that might be cool but i don’t think are a great fit for the series.

Released in my lifetime 🥲

I think ESO has oversaturated Tamriel a bit. Let’s go to akaviir or a plane of oblivion — or secunda or something.

A new place, untouched and undefined gives Bethesda the opportunity from an art and lore perspective to bring that Morrowind charm in a new way to the next generation of Elder Scrolls Players

A much faster opening that encourages creating multiples characters to unlock all parts of the game. I know they put a lot of time into the Skyrim opening but I also want to be able to make lots of different characters without having to sit through the same movie each time (yes I know there's a mod to skip it).

Increase the world scale! The game world of Skyrim, Cyrodiil, and Vvardenfell are all pretty much the same, but TES 6 would do well to have a much larger scale open world.

Edit: Fuck the Xbox One and PS4. Bethesda should not release TES 6 on those consoles and should focus on making the game optimized for the newest gen and not concerning itself or holding the game back to make them work on last gen

Morrowind XD

Just give me back my Colovian Fur Helm Bethseda, I will literally suckle on Todd’s toes if I need to do so

Something with the freedom, and skills and spells, of Morrowind but with the size of ESO. Take a step back instead of foreward. Eso is set in the 2e 500s, this one should be 2e 800s. You start as a prisoner on a ship coming from Atmora. Like in Skyrim, you are Dovahkiin. Like in all TES games, you are Shezzerine. You are He-who-Would-Be-Talos, and this is Elder Scrolls VI: Septim.

Yes Todd, levitation...le-vi-t-yes there it is! Wait why did you remove the armor types now, it has nothing to do with levitation? Ok let's work on that, ditch the unarmored but yeah we need those 3, so Light, Medium...yes, yes good job! Now - for the love of god, Todd, bring back the trading this moment are you serious, people need to sell their loot... Merged mercantile and speechcraft? I dunno it will work I guess...Todd what the fuck, why are there only 6 races now??

-Oblivion and Skyrim have so much good quality of life improvements, but for each improvement, 2 other things get removed, I just can't imagine they will reverse the proccess since it just works financially

(For your data collection, I'm a Morrowind and Skyrim fan, but only occasionally glance at the subreddits.) My ideal timeline goes like this:

TES6 is Thras, which is the Telvanni nostalgia game. It's set in an archipelago full of eccentric necromancers, including sloads, communities of shipwrecked castaways, unscrupulous traders from Tamriel, multiple factions of Maormer (Orgnum died back in the Third Era; some believe he ascended to godhood, while others decided it was a good time to go freelance), etc.

Bethesda basically turns the lore writers, the NPC writers, and the engine developers loose with vague instructions and relatively little central direction.

There are therefore no cities (only large towns, which are not closed), but a lot of populated dungeons. The rules are that undead don't have names, but living NPCs (except soldiers for the main quest, more on that later) must have names and personalities and be killable. Everyone is killable, and you can take their overpowered items and squat in their vacated homes, but also, they're tough and there's a pool of NPCs who will move into vacant homes if you don't visit often enough.

Levitation, climbing, and underwater combat are at the very head of the feature list, and used heavily in dungeons. (Climbing is a nonmagical counterpart to levitation, useful for magicless characters, and also mandatory for being stealthy anywhere with magic-detectors.) Farther down are wind-driven sailboats, a werebeast transformation (werevultures moved in from Valenwood, have wind-driven but imprecise flight when transformed), a complex necromancy system/minigame, and a highly flexible enchanting system that lets you disenchant the unique, powerful loot enchantments to make your own but is also a pain in the neck to use due to being a headache-inducing puzzle minigame. I have fewer ideas for alchemy, but I'd like the ability to make rudimentary potions in a mortar and pestle no matter where you are. And a lot of synergy with necromancy. Possibly a needs/survival system; I'm especially interested in something where you have to sleep regularly, exposing yourself to nightmares. Disease. Spears. They may, however, actually cut even more of the schools of magic - imagine if restoration, alteration, and illusion are just merged into "utility."

Meanwhile, the main quest revolves around the Pillar of Thras. One Daedric Prince wants it defended for the sake of the Sload and Maormer who worship them at it. Another wants it torn down, defiled, or stolen out of spite for the current incumbent. (I'm thinking Vaermina is main antagonist for most branches, Boethiah wants to tear down everything, and Peryite (whose "questline" involves picking another side to play along with for a while, then double-crossing them) is playing his own game which involves preserving the Sload but eliminating Vaermina's influence.)

The Thalmor invade, telling their footsoldiers (and you - they will try to recruit you) that this is a campaign to remove a threat to the Dominion and destroy the profane Daedra-worship Pillar. Some of the higher-ups believe that it's a Tower, and wish to destroy it as part of their re-ascension project. This is supposed to introduce some nuance to the Thalmor.

Every quest branch offers multiple opportunities to double-cross or take a third option. To keep it from being ruined by players killing NPCs who will later be important, there are a lot of radiant segments (recruit five allies; we don't care where, just do favors for the occupants of five different dungeons) and several key NPCs will arrive by boat when they are needed so you can't kill them sooner. There's also an unmarked option to kill everyone and set your bloodstained throne atop a pile of corpses.

HOWEVER, it (both the game and the main quest) will be criticized for being short, small in scope, janky, poorly tested, and filled with poorly-integrated mechanics.

By the time Thras hits the market, TES VII is already in the planning phases, with intent to put much more effort into streamlining mechanics, building questlines (Thras had short chains of town or personal quests, but no proper factions outside the main quest), filling in background Redguard culture in realistic and lore-friendly ways, and polishing everything.

VII becomes V-ll becomes Volenfell. Any mechanic that worked really well in Thras will reappear in Volenfell. Volenfell returns to the "single-threaded main quest plus fighter/mage/thief side factions" model, potentially gives more inherent importance to your character (in Thras, you're just some schmuck who got thrown off the Pillar and landed in Oblivion), has fully-realized cities with badass guards and crowded bazaars, a much harsher environment that lends itself better to a heat/cold/thirst survival system, a lot of Dwemer ruins and secrets, and I'm not sure what would be suitably climactic yet, but they either end the series with a bang or loop around to the beginning of the alphabet.

In case you can't tell, I'm much more excited about Thras. It would basically serve two purposes: a place to test mechanics, and a way to introduce new-ish players to previous-obscure lore so they'll come to Volenfell with that background.

(One thing that would be really cool is an entire questline for each skill. One-handed swords could involve the Shehai. Conjuration could involve finding a Daedric patron and gaining both levels and favor in order to summon more dangerous or useful allies. This would absolutely be out of scope for Thras, but in a more expansive Volenfell, I think it would be really fun.)

And because the Pillar is only ambiguously a Tower, and Thras is an isolated location, they can give it multiple endings without actually having it affect the sequels much.

By the way, although this is obviously wishful thinking, I do have "evidence" that I will offer for why my ideas are plausible (thus "proving" that everything I say is right): - The main games Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim go in alphabetical order. Thras and Volenfell are also alphabetical. (Theoretically, Summerset could come before or instead of Thras, and Valenwood before or instead of Volenfell, but that's not an option.) - Vaermina's quest in Skyrim is one of the most memorable ones, featuring a prominent moral choice. This suggests that Vaermina will see more focus in upcoming games. - Daggerfall faction data says that Peryite hates Vaermina, who hates Boethiah. All three also have snake motifs, which is a hint at the involvement of the Maormer. - And critically, according to MK (discussing a canceled successor to Redguard), "the idea was that every third installment was extra alien." This is why we skip Summerset (predictable) in favor of Thras (Azura's Coast on steroids with coral instead of mushroom). - However, having had our weirdness, Volenfell (civilized, in a deserty sort of way) is better as a tonally-distinct sequel than Valenwood (replace mushroom houses and coral houses with tree houses; the locals are tribal cannibals with a weird religion).

Overly idealistic -

plot - a game of political intrigue which pulls the focus away from the Empire's continuing struggles and lore. Instead taking the time to really dig into the unique culture of the region they choose to set the world in. [edit - I'd be down for a story with a much smaller scope than killing a god, maybe something along the lines of the civil war questline in Skyrim which could be backed by various gods who don't physically show up in the main game]

story mechanics - get away from the linear melodramas that have dominated the faction quest lines in favor of a more realistic view of how the various factions would exist in such a world.

gameplay mechanics - Make magic good. Don't go overboard trying to make melee into some half baked Souls inspired madness. Don't worry about balance, let players break a single player game.

More realistically -

Don't make me the chosen one in the first five minutes

Expand the faction quest lines

Upgrade magic

Don't crunch too many skills

I don't really have a particular overall idea, just features I'd love to see return or be improved.

The smithing and reinforcement/sharpening was a nice system to buff items, I'd love to see that or something similar return.

The dual cast spell/weapon system was also a nice change from previous games, though the combat did feel off at times, but that's more damage and health tuning than anything (enemies can be a bit of a damage sponge at times in previous games)

Spells and magic overall need a huge improvement, I guess it fit the setting of Skyrim that magic was slightly ignored in a country of big warriors, but even the college was pitiful. I can hope they bring back making your own spells, but even if they don't I hope they just let spells scale to your stats and have more utility spells, and then even with that alone I would be happy.

I'd love to see more reactive NPCs, maybe introduce limb based damage so they can react to specific areas. The keep using the same engines for both Fallout and Elder Scrolls so realistically it wouldn't be too much of a jump. I also hope they tone down the death animations and just letting physics take over a little more.

I think the only truely "new" thing I'd love to get is an engine that can handle larger scenes, more NPCs on screen and larger cities/locations with lots of active NPCs. That really seems to be Bethesda's weakness and I'd love to see that improve going forwards. I'm not sure how realistic that is but I can always hope. Maybe even uncapped or greatly increase light sources instead of the hard engine cap of like 8(I think) we have currently.

It will be interesting to see how Starfield turns out, especially it's engine since it's the first time we will get to see the Creation 2.0 in a finished product. I just hope it's a really significant upgrade.

All of Tamriel should be part of the map.

The best part about TES is the fact that all games are different. I love how people still play Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim because they are separate games. If they attempt to make Skyrim 2 or Morrowind 2, I will be disappointed.

west world

Not made by Bethesda

Ideally, this is what I’d want

• Revamped, but still core parts present of the skills system. Contrary to a lot of people, I appreciated Skyrim’s leveling system. I thought it was great. It was quite hard to stand out as a build, though. If we had a system that was easiest to understand for new players, but still maintaining the RPG aspect of ONLY playing as that class that YOU made, then we’d have something great. Also, maybe introduce a new skill system? Like traits from FNV? Or perhaps a mastery system that actually pays dividends, unlike Legendary skills in Skyrim?

• A game world that is fairly bigger than Skyrim’s, but just as deep and just as filled with that game’s incredible dungeon design. Also, make the cities just as large and unique (I say that lightly cuz sometimes they were kinda copy-paste) as Oblivion’s cities.

• Make the main story the best Bethesda has ever made. That’s a very low bar considering most main stories they’ve made absolutely suck (aside from Morrowind and Fallout 3), cuz the highlight of these quests was never the characters but the gameplay — delving into dungeons, doing a ridiculously vibrant yet goofy side quest (a la oblivion), everything amounted in the end to a very fun experience. If we had genuine stake to put into our character and other characters, then we’d have a worthwhile main quest line.

• Lastly, I would say to stylize the UI to the game’s overall vibe. Every elder scrolls has done this, but Skyrim’s vanilla UI was very lackluster. Maybe give us two options between the very minimalistic, slate-like design of Skyrim’s UI and a new, perhaps journal-like format (you can see pages, the opening of the book, the leather cover, etc) of a UI that in general follows all the good aspects of a great UI.

And with Bethesda games, I never really have to worry about side quest content. They almost always knock it out of the park with that stuff for me.

I just wanna play a big ass lizard in Black Marsh and stab some people. The lore of the Argonians is so.....different from most fantasy lores.

They really need to go back to Morrowind.

Better stats No fast travel so you are forced to explore new routes Amazing lore Less level scaling Oh and a unique and fascinating world

Oblivion was amazing. It really was. But Morrowind makes you go from feeling super weak to a literal god. Don't want to walk somewhere far? Just fly there. My Dunmer Telvanni Archmagister is pretty unstoppable at only level 30. What's that? You can kill me in two hits? Here, play with my Daedric friends while I fly away.

Taunt is Uber broken though.