So keen to the see a in-house engine over UE5. Hope they keep at CE2.

I know that sounds like a stupid question but hear me out. In Skyrim BGS obviously started to move away from the generic factions model, giving us factions that are more unique to the province they're in so as to avoid the repetition of always joining the same guilds and to allow a more Skyrimesque flavour to the factions, Mages Guild replaced by the College and the Fighters Guild replaces by the Companions. Obviously they decided to keep the fan favourites, the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild but as of the time of Skyrim, they're in a bit of a sorry state. They're the last holdout of the faction across Tamriel and either you can destroy them entirely if you choose to, or even if you join them they get mostly destroyed by Maro anyways.

I reckon its a safe bet to say we will get at least our usual four guilds, with unique fighters and mages guilds, and probably see the return of the Thieves guild but do we see the Dark Brotherhood?

Personally I'd still bet they are in the game as usual but what chance is there that we either don't see them at all or perhaps they are in the game but un-joinable, perhaps you join a rival assassin's guild and they are the enemies? Were Bethesda setting them up to not be in the next game with their state in Skyrim?

I know the title may sound hyperbolic but I genuinely believe Jeremey Soule was the "soul" of the modern elder scrolls games. The soundtrack for this series has been unlike anything else in gaming. The music borders on spiritual sometimes and really makes the world you're exploring feel so mystical and magical. In contrast, i think fallout and starfield's ambient music is fine but never really made the atmosphere feel as "alive" as TESVI did. I realize there's some legal troubles he might be going through, but i dont want to have a debate or discussion about that, i simply mean, does anyone else feel his lack of involvement will diminish the quality of TESVI?

I know many people love survival mechanics in Skyrim (even though, oddly, they don't actually play survival games) and many more want to see it make a comeback for ES6 as either a core mechanic or an optional one. I've never been a fan of it so tbh this was a little concerning. It fit more into the Fallout universe and I wanted survival to be something the community creates instead of a focal point for Bethesda per se.

If it must be a part of the experience, let us all survive. Surely my character can't be the only one getting dirty and smelling like shit. NPCs can't stay out in the cold or heat for protracted periods of time without any consequences. Let us all suffer and have the game world respond accordingly. ES6, if it commits, should commit fully.

You can't have your immersion when survival is your responsibility alone.

Recent games have a trend for floating islands. Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, DA Veilguard...
We also know that Adlmeri trying to destroy Nirn, to "Free" their souls from Lorkhan...
I also heard that Starfield was some sort of "Tech Demo" for the engine that's going to be used for Tes 6, and Starfield takes place on multitude of planets...

...What if Aldmeri would successfully destroy nirn, but someone would interfere, "saving" Tamriel as bunch of floating world fragments, floating islands and continents. Most would use "Procedural Generation".
Basically, like Starfield, but with some oblivion aether instead of space, floating islands instead of planets. Hopefully with decent visuals and good gameplay, unlike Starfield.

Just speculating... I would personally prefer a whole Tamriel TES 6.

They've been moving in that direction with Skyrim's CC. The only reason paid mods are optional there is because the game started with free mods.

It would not make a lot of sense from a customer perspective and for the logevity of the game, but it would make Bethesda/Microsoft more money for a bit and we all that's what these megacorps are all about.

The Price of Prosperity

Upon reaching Level 20, the player is summoned by the Castellan of Taneth to investigate a wealthy merchant, Ahtar, who was once destitute, but after a string of incredible investments has become the wealthiest man in Hammerfell. The Castellan seems suspicious of this, and asks you to investigate his business dealings.

After gathering information in several Hammerfell cities, the player is given a letter invited to Ahtar's estate, where he reveals that his success came from a pact with Clavicus Vile, granting him wealth at the cost of his family slowly turning into statues. Ahtar regrets this deal and pleads for help, directing the player to retrieve the cursed hourglass from a shipwreck near Stros M’Kai to undo it to be able to reunite with his family

After clearing the dungeon and obtaining the Hourglass, Clavicus Vile appears, offering a choice:

Return the hourglass to him in exchange for becoming his champion and receiving The Mask of Clavicus Vile (dooming Ahtar's family and facing huge trade restrictions in Taneth)

Shatter it to save the family, unleashing a deadly sandstorm and monsters. Saving the family earns the player a unique necklace and a small merchant discount in Taneth.

A Desert Twilight

The quest starts as the player journeys through the Alik’r Desert during the “Hour of Twilight”—that fleeting moment when the sun dips below the horizon, and the first stars begin to emerge. As the player travels, they notice the environment shifting: The stars above grow brighter, almost unnaturally so, and form a constellation resembling Azura's star. The player's compass stops working, forcing them to follow the glowing trail

The stars seem to guide them to a crescent-shaped rock formation.

Here, Azura appears and reveals that one of her ancient temples has been corrupted. She shows you visions of how long ago, her priests betrayed her by forging a pact with Molag Bal, committing vicious acts of violence, all of which the Player sees. Azura tasks the player with locating the forgotten shrine buried in the sands and purifying it by wiping them out.

As the player delves into the shrine, they uncover records and visions of the priests’ desperation, realizing their betrayal was an act of survival. During a famine, Azura refused to aid them, so they turned to Molag Bal and Vampirism in desperation. The brutal visions Azura showed us was supposedly self-defense from the Vigilants of Stendarr. All they wish now is to be left alone, Though we have no way to confirm what they’re saying is entirely true.

In the end, the player must choose to deliver Azura’s judgment by erasing the temple and being Granted Azura’s Star, or show mercy, allowing them to co-exist, they will offer you the gift of Vampirism and a unique follower.

1. Strong emphasis on player choice. I want to be able to choose what I look like, where I want to go and do, and I dont want my hand held.

2. You are NOT the predestined savior of the world, you rise from rags to biches.

3. I want the beast races to seem distinct, for example I want woodelves to be much shorter, slimmed and have a paler or haughtier complexion than that of their more regal golden skinned altmer cousins. Things like beastial appendages like small feathers, scales on rough patches of skin, or even optional antlers, to show their affinity to the natural and harsh environments of valenwood. I'd like orcs to have a much broader range of skin tones to reflect their nomadic nature, different genetic types of khajiit and argonians.

4. I'd like there to be a form of spell crafting or combining of magical effects with different casting types.

5. I'd like optional fast travel and traversal mechanics, and an option to turn off waypoint markers, a journal to which I can follow if I want. LEVITATION

6. Racial or differential crafting types. For example, a redguard steel dagger would look and behave different from a Breton or nord steel dagger. bosmeri armors and weapons that allow for a greenpact friendly playthrough.

7. Settlement system that allows me to just build a cottage anywhere I want, or let's me have a house boat, or a treehouse.

8. Better staves and walking stick animations. And let us use spears!

9. a dragons dogma 2 style day night cycle where enemies and animals are more dangerous and frequent at night.

10. A REAL SURVUVAL MODE!

I have a few more things but I wanted to keep this list short..

I haven't thouht about TES6 in years, my entire BGS mind was focused on Starfield since the initial teaser trailer and until i played it and moved on from it after a few days. But I have recently watched some ridiculously long video on Youtube from Fudgemuppet and got me back into the hype for TES6. I am definitely interested in writing out my full idea for a TES6 and may do that at some point, but for now I have one concept that i'm not even sure I completely agree on myself, so wanted to throw it out there.

What i'm imagining is a Hammerfell and High Rock game, however at release we will only have access to Hammerfell. High Rock will be unlocked a year or two later as either a free update or a paid expansion or something. The main quest will have two halves, the first half would be entirely in Hammerfell and would end on a sort of 'mid season finale' The second half and conclusion would take you into High Rock, with perhaps a few bits back in Hammerfell.

Now i know how crazy this idea sounds and the risk of it being seen as a 'live service' game (our worst nightmare), The way I see it is that this would allow the initial game to release with all the game systems developed and Hammerfell/Redguard culture be provided the opportunity to be fleshed out. Then a year or so of extra development time for part 2 would allow for High Rock and Bretons to be more fleshed out.

I'm not beholden to this idea and might result in a worse product, but I think an interesting concept. So what does everyone think? An interesting idea or am I about to get burned at the stake as a heretic?

Until now, the Bound Sword graphics were fixed to Daedric swords, but how about starting in TES6 and randomly changing the graphics to magic sword versions of various two-handed swords?

To be honest, I didn't like the graphics of Bound Sword in Skyrim.

I prefer Oblivion's long sword type graphics to Skyrim's saber type.

I honestly don't even want it to be called the "Thieves Guild" because then it'll probably be too easy to make it into something they've done before thereby rehashing themes of redistributive justice and pacifism. I'd love for it to be areligious but without the trite assumption that everybody is there to just make money. That there can be honor among thieves isn't, strictly speaking, the only reason to justify the continued existence of such a social structure so I also don't want to see that again.

What I'm curious to see are thieves organized around an anti-hero (not the PC) and for the guild's deeds to be far more than dishonorable. I'm talking about human trafficking/slavery, prostitution, cartels, child labor, grand larceny on a grand scale, extortion, gambling, political corruption, the extraction and distribution of occult materials, sabotage, various forms of espionage and information gathering among other things. The anti-hero must be despicable but charming, worldly and seductive. They're not your typical villain and they're not the typical asshole that Bethesda never wants to let us kill. They've built a network, possibly an empire, and unlike in previous games, it's not on the cusp of falling to ruin because of some ridiculously unforeseen act of betrayal. It is thriving.

The quests must still revolve around stealth, personality, intelligence, agility and the use of discrete weapons but these thieves are not scoundrels. They are agents. They are operatives but not shadow operatives - they're deceptive but not particularly mysterious. The reasons for their compliance with the structure of the organization and the leadership of the anti-hero are many and sundry. That's something they could explore a bit more with individual characters but the gist of it is they are all, in their own way, sociopaths that will stop at nothing except the word of the anti-hero. They're not working to destroy society but rather prefer working outside its rules and conventions for profits of all kinds.

To keep things simple and to avoid going down the rabbit hole of quests pitting the organization against some antagonistic lawful-goodie two shoes, I'd propose the plot center around either a big heist or some kind of espionage into a group closely associated with the main quest of the entire game. It has to be something that the PC will never find out in the MQ and that has very little consequence UNLESS they join the TG. It has to be something groundbreaking that makes you question every successive playthrough you ever do without joining the TG. It has to make you regret every last one of them. Ok I'm being a bit dramatic but you get the point. It'll be a twist for sure but the kind of twist that makes the PC have to look very carefully at the choices they've made or are about to make concerning the fate of the people of Hammerfell.

I’m not sure if this has been mentioned, but I just joined. I know this is probably out of the realm of possibilities, but how COOL would it be if Bethesda incorporated AI generated responses into NPC dialogue?

If TESVI takes place in where its suspected, Hammerfell, from a game design perspective it would make absolutely 0 sense to not include High Rock.

Modern gamers dont tolerate invisible walls/"you cannot go this way, turn back" like they used to. Skyrim worked neatly because its surrounded on 3 sides by mountains, Hammerfell is not.

If High Rock was not included, it would imply an invisible barrier splitting both the illiac bay and an invisible barrier just north of one of the largest cities in Hammerfell (dragonstar)

It simply makes no sense from a gameplay perspective to split the map this way, especially considering that based on maps high rock and Hammerfell combined is only roughly the size of cyrodill.

Just my 2 cents

How feasible do you think it is for Bethesda to have implemented seamless transitions between cells? I'm assuming this would be a massive change to some parts of the engine, and would it even be likely after they rebuilt the engine to Creation 2.0 for Starfield?

https://preview.redd.it/qiw4apvsih3e1.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2872e6bebb744017c8896d0939562ac09ff777c3

One of the most commonly requested features for TESVI is more reactivity to quest choices. Players want their personal decisions to impact the game world around them.

However we've already seen Bethesda attempt this type of design in their Fallout games and Starfield (a game inspired by Fallout). BGS typically takes 2 approaches.

Small reactivity: In Fallout 4 and Starfield, companions react positively or negatively to the player's major decisions. SF takes it a step further with entire post-quest conversations where followers give their lengthy thoughts on what happened. Some followers will despise you or fall more in love with you depending on choices.

The big issue is that players largely hated companion reactivity especially in Starfield. Most players don't like being lectured on their decisions.

Large reactivity: Quests across Fallouts 3-4 and Starfield sometimes require the player to make choices that will blow up/kill entire settlements and faction headquarters. Megaton, Covenant, the Institute, Crimson Fleet, etc. After the quests, the game world is forever altered: those cities and factions (and quests) become inaccessible, and any survivors are hostile to the player.

The issue is that many players always want a third option to save everyone and still be respected. Fallout 4's main quest ending received a lot of criticism because players didn't want to kill the rest of the factions.

There's also another possibility that Bethesda might not be interested in adding Fallout consequences to TESVI. Todd might see choice/consequence as specific to Fallout's core identity only, and he might want to keep Fallout and Elder Scrolls distinct in that area for whatever reason.

I just realized that GTA 6 will more than likely be releasing before TES VI, how big of a player base do y'all figure we'll be stealing from them on official release?

I hope they do that with the engine. Yeah it's mildly interesting that you could put a thousand sandwiches in a spaceship but show us now what you've been planning to do with the new upgrades. Spit in the face of your detractors complaining about CE2 and show them why the upgrades were necessary and how ES6 is able to do things no other engine could do better. Show all the great new animations and how the engine can manage multiple npc schedules. Show us gravity-defying stunts seamlessly integrated into the gameplay because you have this new engine that you spent the time and money to polish up.

I think it's important for them to do this even though they don't normally care much about their critics. There needs to be evidence of not only how integral the engine is to their formula/success but also how it sets them apart. Just hoping they're thinking about this as they progress and really going for it, showing off, bringing all the big dick energy to bear on industry. Try to get Rockstar shaking in their boots.

Personally, I'd like to see them borrow Rockstar's Euphoria animation system, as well as their third person camera expertise.

I'd also like to see them borrow Watch_Dog: Legion's procedural NPC/team building/multiple protagonist systems, and possibly expand upon them considerably.

Pipe dreams: RDR2's horse mechanics, Assassin's Creed's parkour or sailing.

What techniques from other developers would you like to see BGS borrow for TES VI?

Considering the game is most definitely set in Hammerfell, or potentially Hammerfell and High Rock, do we see Orisinium making an appearance? I think it would be cool to see the orcish architecture in a full city-state. It also lets us explore something totally aesthetically different from the rest of the game. I think we will as now is the time to see it, we're in the location where Orisinium has been set up in the past and when else will we return to this region to be able to explore it in another game? I'd bet on it, maybe a DLC?

I was 12 when I started playing Skyrim and while it’s kind of lame to say it now but at the age I was visibly scared when I played the Molag Ball quest in Markath where you enter a building your guide dies and everything starts floating. Also the murder mystery quest in Windhelm that we all remember. I used to always play at nighttime after school and being 12 I almost peed my pants doing those quests lol. Now today I’m almost 25 so those quests wouldn’t faze me anymore if I played them today but I still hope in TESVI there’s quests that have the potential to be scary.

For me what gives me the creeps is the idea of being alone and helpless in an enclosed space. So an idea for a quest would be that you’re in in the Alik’r dessert and you come across and an old vendor who’s selling a new potion that he just made and he wants you to try it when you take a sip all goes black and you’re appear once again in a weird looking cavern and your inventory is empty and you must leave the cavern which constantly changes the way it looks whenever your character looks away. No matter where you go you come across weird looking creatures who don’t appear in other parts of the game that will attack you but they won’t kill you, just leave you at 1 HP but your character can “die” if you it doesn’t leave the cavern fast enough. You’ll also come across characters who will help you get out of the desert but almost all will give you bad advice and will randomly disappear. It will basically be a a giant mess of illusions that should at least give the player an uneasy feeling. Has this quest been done before in other games? Probably but it’s a rough framework of a quest that can be a little scary to some players.

And to note these are just quest ideas but obviously when it comes to horror there are many elements they could add to the game that could change the whole vibe and feeling of it like the music, map design, and the type of characters that you come across.

I feel like a big determining factor in elder scrolls 6 success is how much money and support Microsoft is willing to give Bethesda for the next elder scrolls. And specifically how can Microsoft help with the game? are they taking developers from other studios such as obsidian and moving them to Bethesda?

Like the ones we had in Baldur's Gate 3 and what we are getting in Avowed

Could be a cool thing for specific companion interactions, character development, romance etc...

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I feel like it will be boring and won't have the same energy as skyrim.