The Things You Would Like To See In Elder Scrolls Four

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 9:17 am

While Morrowind is a wonderful game, as we have discussed, the game lacks in certain regards. So that being said, what would you like to see in Elder Scrolls Four, assuming one is released?

Personally I'd like to see a more interesting background story, more complex NPC dialogue, and more in-depth quests. I'd also like for combat to be a little more challenging, and require at least some strategic planning. It gets a little boring when you can kill most things with just a couple of swipes from your blade. As an example, I have recently picked up Icewind Dale Two again. Now I realise it is a very linear game, and is lacking in its own ways, but the one thing that I enjoy about it is the need to develop strategies for combat. You can't just barge into the middle of a group of enemies, you have to think about what you are doing, and often having at least one character with high stealth abilities is critical to party survival.

So these are some of the things I would like to see in a new Elder Scrolls game, other ideas?

Illistil · Post by **Illistil** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 10:34 am

I would like to see a game that encompanies the whole map of Tamriel, not just in one specific province (this may leave any other games redundant, but maybe all the other games can come as an expansion/whole new game but it saves your character and each new game it becomes more difficult and your skills/attributes can increase once more with the difficulty). Custom dialogue may be nice and specific keywords triggar the NPC to tell you something. For example some people only have 3 topics to talk to you about and you can customly tell him something and a new topic comes up or in some quests when you need to talk to specific people some don't have the topic and others do or some NPCs have too many topics. I'd like to see that added and fixed. Same with the combat strategies... I just run in and hack away. Morrowind's background story was okay. I would like to see more betrayals and more quests with the main storyline, some things to give it a twist. Also, an option to side with the villain from the very beginning and the possibility of acting as a double agent.

Just some ideas to make it more interesting.

Fallenhero · Post by **Fallenhero** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 12:50 pm

I don't know if it is technically possible but could the number of enemies you fight at once be increased? Where are the rat hordes and flocks of Cliff Racers? Sometimes you get three or four fish but that's about it. How about 6 or 8 skeleton champions, some with swords and others with bows waiting for you in a tomb. Even if the game engine wouldn't allow them to all fight at once they could still wait to step over their fallen comrades and take you on.

Another way to make combat more challenging would be to have the defenders of a cave or shrine much more reactive to your presence. Right now you pick them off as you go without a thought. Out of sight, out of mind, even if you stop to hammer out your armor! It would be nice if you're making a loud entrance to find 3 or 4 of them waiting for you in a nasty ambush spot.

On a strategic level it would be interesting if certain quests had time limits, pushing you on when before you might have stopped to rest.

How about some traps you have to look for instead of just disarm. Combine those traps with a time limit pushing you on and you have a nasty challenge.

That's a start.

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 1:48 pm

A more dynamic gameworld.
I want to see NPCs interact with each other and have an influence on each others. Fight, trade, travel, talk etc .....
Dynamics is what I feel is lacking from Elder Scrolls. The game feels to "static" for me, to keep me captivated for a prolonged periode of time.

Oh - and make it much much much harder, that would not be bad either. Fights are way to easy (as others also hinted at)

Dark Master · Post by **Dark Master** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 2:16 pm

I guess most people could guess what I'd like to see, LESS GENERIC NPCS!

There isn't a lot more for me to say really, I just hate having the same conversation with them all.

Slick Fork · Post by **Slick Fork** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 2:59 pm

A more thoroughly tested game that doesn't CTD as often would be a good start! I'd also like to see the magic system touched up a bit. Specifically, the addition of a BG style "Breach" or "Spell thrust" effect. I also think the monetary system needs to be reworked, it's always struck me as sort of silly that you can find weapons and armour worth tens of thousands of dollars but no merchants who can afford to buy them. I also think the costs for training should go up dramatically. As soon as I was powerfull enough to loot 1 or 2 Daedric ruins, I could afford to train my character up to superman status. I think this process should be more costly. I've found that the game swings you from not having enough money to buy yourself a restore health potion at the start, to having enough money to buy the town of Balmora by level 20! This unbalance has taken the thrill out of going through caves looking for loot. I don't think I've carried that much out of a dungeon lately, it's just not worth it when I've got 100k in my pocket!

I'd also like to see a more interaction with guilds and factions, for example when you take care of the Camona Tong in Balmora the CT should put a price on your head (or at the least be very hostile everywhere else). This could also carry over into other guild's attitudes towards you, ie. the thieves guild hates the Camonta Tong and they all like you a little better for "helping them out" whereas the fighters guild is riddled with Camona Tong corruption at the top so their reaction might be a little less rosy (Expelled from the guild or worse!)

All that being said, I would hate for the vastness and open-endedness of this game to disappear in future versions and despite the instability of the game, it has rapidly become one of my favourites and with the size of the mod community out there it looks to remain that way!

Illistil · Post by **Illistil** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 6:09 pm

Online duelling

Anonononomous · Post by **Anonononomous** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 7:22 pm

Definitely less crashing.

And maybe scaled enemies. So only characters from, say, 1-15, would have to deal with cliff racers since after that they aren't a challenge but a bother. They could be replaced then by more spawns of daedra or maybe a more powerful replacement for the cliff racers. Animals could have levels too. Like you'd run in to newborn rats at first, then kids, then adults, then alpha male ones. Or you could run into lone ones first and then packs.

werebeargoddess · Post by **werebeargoddess** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 8:57 pm

The fighting could be a little more interesting. It would be really neat if you could actually move your weapon around, and be able to maneuver and stuff like that. The storyline was good, but they could have added stuff like betrayals and romances to make the plot deeper. And there could be more difficult creatures to face. Quite a few of the creatures that I face are really easy. It would be nice, too, if the game didn't quit on me as often as it does.

JesterKing · Post by **JesterKing** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 9:09 pm

Ok remember when you are levels 1 through five and it takes forever to get to the next level, having squat cash? remember that first time you play and you dont know whats what? i think the kagouti and cliff racers roaming the countryside make sense, I mean for any qualified warrior they are nothign but annoyances, and that shouldnt change for the game... but i defenitely think that putting daedric dia-katanas in ald sotha where i can raid anytime is a little fishy, so i think there should be an assortment of places with high level challenges, where you can get the big bucks items, and leave cheaper stuff for cheaper challenges. make the guards stronger, law and justice isnt a deterrent when the ones who enforce it are such pansies, make some npc's stronger, i mean a master trainer in long blade is easy to take down? nuuh. not buying it.

I agree, I would like the full tamriel available for exploration, but then I would still want the same number of caves and dungeons and ruins to check out, which would take years of programming... Oh and I am very very interested in the Akavari races from across the sea, I think it would be cool if they were included somehow... but then that could be just me. The whole of Tamriel would have dozens upon dozens of new factions, and hundreds of little towns, and I am excited about it already. Also, i thought the idea of an online dueling process was cool, and maybe an everquest like deal would be fun too.

Maybe a wider variety of armor and weapons types (no mod comments thank you very much) because the dark brotherhood armor was genius, wouldnt you think several factions would have armor specific to them? like the indoril, and maybe collectors that have insanely expensive and unique armor that you save up for the whole entire game, or high security stuff that only a master theif could get, and black market deals with poeple with 1 million gold that can afford to take it off yoru hands. just stuff like that i think would be fun, though i really dont know about its feasibility.

beornica · Post by **beornica** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 11:18 pm

I was very disappointed in not being able to join the twin lamps or the dark brotherhood. I realize the makers of Morrowind only have so much time and so many resources, otherwise the game creation time could turn into that of Fable, which we are all very upset about. You know what I would like, though? always get so sad when I make it to the tippity top of the Mages Guild, Thieves' Guild, Imperial Cult, whatever, and I look back and go... "That was it? Is that all there is?" Haha sorta like Sims or something where all you need is job promo every day for 10 days and you're all set. Anyway, I would love to see the guild and faction missions expanded and increased. And ... You know what I keep finding myself doing in the tribunal expansion? I find myself in the Plaza Brindisi Dorom (I'm particularly pathetic in that I can remember all the random unimportant names like that) going up to the doors that "lead out" of Mournhold. And they never open. Not once.

I would love to see Elder Scrolls IV take place in yet another area, perhaps Wayrest or Cirodiil or Summerset Isle (Not that would be cool, I can picture all this shady glen type of land with all these High Elves touting their philosophies and arts.) Maybe several all together. I love how GOTY gives you the option of travelling between three different .. ummm... "continents". I would really like to see ES IV with that same wonderful idea... perhaps being able to travel between Wayrest, Summerset Isle, and Cirodiil, and having missions that make you go back and forth between them.
I also think things should be a little more pricey. I have never, ever had to stay in a town until I earned enough money to get somewhere else, not even in the very beginning. So, to travel from, say, Wayrest to Summerset Isle, instead of the Vvardenfell trend where it would be about $20 (if that) it should be like $300 a pop. Just like real life travel fare.

Kalashnikova · Post by **Kalashnikova** » Mon Jun 28, 2004 8:33 pm

you know what i would like to see?

NO MORE CLIFF-RACERS!!!

holler if you hear that!

JesterKing · Post by **JesterKing** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 1:09 am

me and the cliffracers... we have an understsanding, at all times i keep a spell fo feet on touch that will fry their shreeking carcasses into ash piles if they come close to where i am flying. I want to see something that has the cliff racers as natural prey though... now that would be cool.

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 6:26 am

[QUOTE=Xandax]A more dynamic gameworld.
I want to see NPCs interact with each other and have an influence on each others. Fight, trade, travel, talk etc .....
Dynamics is what I feel is lacking from Elder Scrolls. The game feels to "static" for me, to keep me captivated for a prolonged periode of time.
[/QUOTE]

The development team leaders told me during an interview about 3 years ago that they were working on just this for ES3, but I'm guessing it was found too complex and/or CPU/RAM-intensive at the time. Hopefully, it will be in ES4, because your wishes are mine, too. I want a Morrowind whose guilds use diplomacy, economics and third-party gangs to change the balance of power--and do so. Houses, too, that really utilize the techniques they are famous for upon one another, and to destabilize various unfriendly regimes.

I was very disappointed in not being able to join the twin lamps or the dark brotherhood.

Beornica, at the risk of causing you to scream--there are mods out there that do both. You can also join the slavers, and there are 3 separate mods for joining the free-the-slaves movement.

Yeltsu · Post by **Yeltsu** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 8:35 am

I would really like to be able to uncover the mysteries of the dwemer and the snow elves (the ones you hear about in Bloodmoon) or perhaps even play as them!
I would also like if there was the ability to add a certain "feat" to a custom class, so that if you wanted to play as a custom made warrior, you could make a special use per day feat which would for example: fortify your attributes and\or skills, just like a spell.

blake · Post by **blake** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 2:50 pm

Asriel, everything you said can be done in the CS so if you have the game on PC open it up. It is lots of fun and you can do alot of stuff. And there are mods tha tlet you play as Dwemer and Snowelves. Sorry all you Xboxers but you get to play Fable first so SHhhhh

Yeltsu · Post by **Yeltsu** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 2:56 pm

[QUOTE=blake]Asriel, everything you said can be done in the CS so if you have the game on PC open it up. It is lots of fun and you can do alot of stuff. And there are mods tha tlet you play as Dwemer and Snowelves. Sorry all you Xboxers but you get to play Fable first so SHhhhh[/QUOTE]

Yeah, but this was about things we would like to see in elder scrolls 4, unmodded

Bloodstalker · Post by **Bloodstalker** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 4:47 pm

Plain and simple....no more escort quests where your companion has the IQ of a scrib and the combat prowess of a rat. It's a pain going over the same trail twice just so I can clear it and keep my charge alive.

i4v02v95i5p09k9 · Post by **i4v02v95i5p09k9** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 7:58 pm

Less Fedexing wouldn't hurt..

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 8:08 pm

[QUOTE=Bloodstalker]Plain and simple....no more escort quests where your companion has the IQ of a scrib and the combat prowess of a rat.[/QUOTE]

I'm not especially pleased by their ability to cast spells at attacking rats which as a side effect, kill me, as well.