Support NeoGAF

[Madserb2023]

After playing Starfield which I have enjoyed, my childhood dream of a fully 3D Tamriel, that can be explored has kind of come crashing down to reality. As with Daggerfall and Arena, this could probably not be accomplished without using procedural generation to some extent, and we have clearly not come far enough.

The last thing I want is a world 10x the size of Skyrim with only double the amout of hand crafted content at the most and the rest being copy and paste. Why I am bring this up, is because I have a theory that the next Elder Scrolls is going to be this. I feel like Bethesda has been gradually moving to create a forever game and Starfield is the start. Its design makes more sense from that perspective.

Do you guys think they would make an Elder Scrolls Tamriel or would you even want it?

 

[SCB3]

I mean isn’t ESO that?

 

[Topher]

The next thing Bethesda should make is a new engine.

 

[The Cockatrice]

The next thing Bethesda should make is a new engine.

nah I think we need more loadings now than ever. Start a conversation? Loading. Attack? Loading.

 

[K2D]

With their current engine? No. I'd rather they concentrate on a smaller region.

Would be cool though with some sea faring rpg'ness and general focus on different means of traversal.

But I wound want a primarily offline experience. Maybe gta or souls style of online.

 

[DaleinCalgary]

The next thing Bethesda should make is a new engine.

They would need to get rid of upper management first who decided they didnt need one.

 

[Del_X]

That’s probably what they’re going to do.

Also they probably do not need a new engine. A big reason for the loading is the object permance for so much crap. Cut the “stuff” down by 60-70% and they can probably remove most loading screens on current gen.

 

[ungalo]

No i don't think so.

I think they wanted to create an entire universe with Starfield. Mainly for the sake of coherence and worldbuilding, more than to make the "forever game". If they wanted to make the forever game that's a big failure. If they just wanted to immerse you in something that recreates the feeling of immensity of space they did it despite the technical limits.

Now that was kind of the selling point of the game. I don't know how they'll sell TES 6, on which premise, but probably a different one.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

I would rather them continue to focus on one province per game for the foreseeable future and have the details/events/locations in that province be more detailed. Maybe down the line we can do all of Tamriel but I don't think the support tech is there to do it like it needs done with the quality I'd want.

 

[Mephisto40]

That's literally what Elder Scrolls : Online is, the game you are talking about already exists

 

[MagiusNecros]

They should make a Starfield DLC instead where you go to a planet called Nirn and it's Tamriel in it's entirety.

 

[ManaByte]

They already did. It’s called Elder Scrolls Online.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

The next thing Bethesda should make is a new engine.

But the engine gave us this gem:

 

[violence]

Elder scrolls VI: Daggerfall 2

 

[tmlDan]

Honestly, maybe they shouldn't make a new elder scrolls - another 10 years of todd howard with the same gameplay scares me

get a new engine or revamp it totally, get a new person in charge with a background in more innovative gameplay

 

[Games of Today]

After playing Starfield which I have enjoyed, my childhood dream of a fully 3D Tamriel, that can be explored has kind of come crashing down to reality. As with Daggerfall and Arena, this could probably not be accomplished without using procedural generation to some extent, and we have clearly not come far enough.

The last thing I want is a world 10x the size of Skyrim with only double the amout of hand crafted content at the most and the rest being copy and paste. Why I am bring this up, is because I have a theory that the next Elder Scrolls is going to be this. I feel like Bethesda has been gradually moving to create a forever game and Starfield is the start. Its design makes more sense from that perspective.

Do you guys think they would make an Elder Scrolls Tamriel or would you even want it?

I can almost guarantee you with 90% certainty that after playing Starfield and seeing that tech in action, ES6 is going to be that exactly.

Just take the random tile system from Starfield and stitch them to together to create Tamriel.

Starfield is basically a test run.

 

[Humdinger]

Do you guys think they would make an Elder Scrolls Tamriel or would you even want it?

No, I'd much rather than focus on density than size. Open-world games focus too much on size. They make that a big selling point. Maybe it was at first. Now it's become more like a beacon announcing that the world will be boring to explore. Don't spread yourself (or your world) too thin. It is much better to create a medium-sized, contained world that is well-designed, full of interesting locations and which rewards exploration, rather than having a massive world that is sparsely populated and has mediocre exploration.

 

[MidGenRefresh]

The real question is...

... What’s the fine for necrophilia in this part of Tamriel?

 

[vaibhavpisal]

The next thing Bethesda should make is a new engine.

What do you think exactly a new engine will accomplish?

UE5 will crash and burn if you do something like this.

 

[Husky]

If they were able to make a Tamriel game where, say, Skyrim had at least as much scale and content as TES5: Skyrim, and each province we revisited was better than the last iteration we saw, then I'd be pretty excited for a Tamriel game. If that's dreaming too big, then I'd rather we just visit another province.

 

[Pallas]

They should make a Starfield DLC instead where you go to a planet called Nirn and it's Tamriel in it's entirety.

Someone is going to make that into a mod, I bet for Starfield.

Also for anyone heavy in the TES lore, I wouldn’t mind exploring the other continents of Nirn at some point. Reading the in game books, they sound pretty interesting.

 

[Topher]

What do you think exactly a new engine will accomplish?

UE5 will crash and burn if you do something like this.

I didn't say use UE5 and I don't see why it couldn't handle a bunch of toilet paper regardless. The reasons for a new engine are obvious starting with the ridiculous number of load screens just from opening doors.

 

[killatopak]

Someone is going to make that into a mod, I bet for Starfield.

Also for anyone heavy in the TES lore, I wouldn’t mind exploring the other continents of Nirn at some point. Reading the in game books, they sound pretty interesting.

Akavir I have several ideas. The others not so much without compromising character creation.

You can make it like Morrowind 2 since the Neravarine went to Akavir after the events in Morrowind. Guy/girl is immortal but you can just make up some weird mystical reason for him to go back to level 1 or have his descendant be the MC. Makes you able to choose any race along with the Akaviri race.

If you want to choose someone not from an older ES game then play out the events of Uriel Septim the V. He invades Akaviri and fails. It wouldn’t be weird if some Tamriel native would be left behind.

Play it out as some Akaviri that went to invade Tamriel during Reman I reign. Start from a Akavir then you go to a remaked Cyrodil. If you want you can also do the second invasion that lets you go to a remaked Skyrim. So basically you have two maps Akavir and Cyrodil/Skyrim Similar to Witcher 3 Skellige.

 

[Trogdor1123]

Elder scrolls VI: Daggerfall 2

Is it seriously that big? Is it essentially empty?

 

[RoadHazard]

Only if they can make it fully seamless, which probably means they need to rebuild their engine from the core.

 

[violence]

Is it seriously that big? Is it essentially empty?

Yes? A lot was procedurally generated. We have better AI today.

 

[Pallas]

Akavir is a pretty interesting place to me, I guess mainly because there is so little information but certain inhabits of that continent such as the Tang Mo(monkey race?) and I believe they had a war against a snake race? It’s been so long since I read up on it.
killatopak forgot to quote you.

 

[killatopak]

Akavir is a pretty interesting place to me, I guess mainly because there is so little information but certain inhabits of that continent such as the Tang Mo(monkey race?) and I believe they had a war against a snake race? It’s been so long since I read up on it.
killatopak forgot to quote you.

It’s definitely interesting to me as well. Yeah, the details are blurry to me too. However you’re right that there are multiple other races in that continent and they have history of being allied and enemies depending on the circumstances.

For gameplay reasons alone, I think it would be a fine continent to go to since it’s known as the Dragonland. Meaning there could be lore reasons for Dragon Shouts to exists and consequently makes carrying over Skyrim gameplay much easier.

Also, Elder Scrolls to me has always been tied with the Emperor or the Septims in one way or another. If you can look at it differently, it can also be said that every game is tied to Akatosh who is coincidentally the god Akaviri worships.

 

[killatopak]

Is it seriously that big? Is it essentially empty?

Far from it. It’s filled to the brim with content. Well procedurally created content. Something I had expected from Starfield since they’ve done it before and had announced to be doing. The results are far from my expectations though especially towards the limited game space on planets which they can certainly learn from Daggerfall.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

I didn't say use UE5 and I don't see why it couldn't handle a bunch of toilet paper regardless. The reasons for a new engine are obvious starting with the ridiculous number of load screens just from opening doors.

Am not a developer but one thing I understand, it's always give and take. Game also has to remember location of all of them, pretty sure player must've collected them from all over the galaxy.

Last thing I want in a Bethesda game is loose the persistence, all tiny little details you can interact with. And potentially loose all gameplay options you get from it.

Loading can be annoying sure. Personally, only loading screen i have issue with is first one when you start the game. Others I can live with, don't even notice them.

 

[Trogdor1123]

Far from it. It’s filled to the brim with content. Well procedurally created content. Something I had expected from Starfield since they’ve done it before and had announced to be doing. The results are far from my expectations though especially towards the limited game space on planets which they can certainly learn from Daggerfall.

It would take forever to explore that. Not sure if that’s just too big. Any mods that modernize it?

 

[Stuart360]

The next thing Bethesda should make is a new engine.

I'm sure they will at some point, probably not for ES6 though.

Even though their engine is being flogged to death by Starfield, and on its last legs, i think Bethesda trust their engine in terms of how the engine can handle all the gameplay mechanics and systems they use. I'm sure they would of moved on long ago if they thought another engine could offer what they need.

Its like COD. They are so scared of lsoing that 'COD feel' that they are still using a havily modified Quake 3 engine. In fact that Activision dev a few years ago admitted that.

 

[killatopak]

It would take forever to explore that. Not sure if that’s just too big. Any mods that modernize it?

Well, not too much but there is port. The whole game was ported to the Unity engine. Fixed a lot of the bugs and allows easy modding. Then you can definitely modernize it.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

Is it seriously that big? Is it essentially empty?

Honestly when I was younger, it's so big I thought it was literally endless if you chose to try to walk from one place to another - but you do get there, it's just that big.

 

[Topher]

Am not a developer but one thing I understand, it's always give and take. Game also has to remember location of all of them, pretty sure player must've collected them from all over the galaxy.

Last thing I want in a Bethesda game is loose the persistence, all tiny little details you can interact with. And potentially loose all gameplay options you get from it.

Loading can be annoying sure. Personally, only loading screen i have issue with is first one when you start the game. Others I can live with, don't even notice them.

I get what you are saying. I think the goal of a new engine, however, would be to maintain that object persistence while allowing a reduction in loading screens. I don't see this as an either/or issue, especially when we are talking about instances like in New Atlantis where simply entering a shop requires that old Skyrim door animation and a short loading screen. It should be just as seamless as it is entering the variety of shops and houses in Hogwarts Legacy. I just don't want TES VI so be held back by these same limitations.

I'm sure they will at some point, probably not for ES6 though.

Even though their engine is being flogged to death by Starfield, and on its last legs, i think Bethesda trust their engine in terms of how the engine can handle all the gameplay mechanics and systems they use. I'm sure they would of moved on long ago if they thought another engine could offer what they need.

Its like COD. They are so scared of lsoing that 'COD feel' that they are still using a havily modified Quake 3 engine. In fact that Activision dev a few years ago admitted that.

Frankly, I think this is Todd Howard being stubborn and not recognizing that the video game industry has made major strides in things such as the frequency of loading screens. So much so that it has been an overall negative highlight of the game. If they are able to update the engine further and make this not an issue then that will be fine, but it needs to be addressed one way or another.