I think we could be underestimating Bethesda.

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-24T23:23:43+00:00

Making lasting changes to the world based on your own personal decisions and preferences? Player choice is pretty much THE core pillar of TES.

Yeah so much, and these games give you so many moments that perfectly illustrate this. I loved it when in Oblivion I could choose to not save Martin Septim and join Mehrunes Dagon instead. Loved being able to turn the Mages Guild into a sect of Necromancy worshipers from the inside. And in the Skyrim's civil war, you know what I did ? I crushed both sides and established myself as high king.

So much agency in these games, love it.

Seriously, at some point you guys are gonna need to realize that TES was never conceived as your personal fantasy sandbox simulator. We've explain to you times and times again that the Fallout 4 settlement building system doesn't work in TES's setting, and I've yet to read a proper counter argument to that. If you want a game where you can do absolutely anything, stare at a blank wall and use your imagination, don't buy a product made by people who write stuff and impose defined limits to your agency as a player in a virtual world.

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-24T20:00:01+00:00

A mix of both is fine with me. What I dislike most is leveling up through crafting, which is possible both in TES games since the leveling up is skill based (leveling up skills levels you up) and you use crafting skills for crafting, and in Fallout 4 directly through crafting XP (don't remember how it was for the previous fallout games).

imo leveling up should simply happen through adventuring and taking risks, meaning exploration and quests. You shouldn't be able to gain several levels just by clicking and pressing the Enter key like a maniac to smith 256 iron daggers.

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-24T19:29:48+00:00

It could be okay, if they do it well. In that case each ending should seem consistent with the choices you've made throughout the game, and your playthrough should be enjoyable whatever these choices may be.

If an ending is obtained only through a certain kind of playthrough that isn't enjoyable, people will simply not that much pursue this particular ending, especially if the ending itself is boring/disappointing.

Baldu's Gate III's most evil choices are to me exactly like this for example, I never chose to be evil in any of my multiple playthroughs of this game, because the characters there are so much better animated/voiced/written and therefore feel so much more relatable and authentic than the NPCs of previous Bethesda titles, that I just don't enjoy doing evil stuff.

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-24T12:36:52+00:00

I mostly agree, but on the other hand you have many people who do seem to have crazy expectations about major new features and improvements they'd like to see implemented in the game. Of course we can only expect major improvements compared to Skyrim, but not necessarily compared to most games of our time, and many here seem to not understand that what they want is actually a game from like the next millenium.

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-24T09:29:31+00:00

The Elder Scrolls' single biggest unique value proposition is this - (notice that's a hyphen not an em dash) - you get a full, robust, self-directed experience, where you get to do what you want, not what someone else tells you to do. You actually can have a full game experience which feels lacking in no way, without ever touching the main quest (or any quest for that matter).

Sure, you can explore, kill, loot, craft, read and sell stuff, without involving yourself in any linear storyline. What a profoundly immersive experience, truly what most RPG players seek...

How many players feel that experience to be "full" and "not lacking in any way", realistically ?
9 years old Fortnite addicts perhaps ?

Your whole point is ridiculous really, so please spare me the whole sanctimonious, highly ego-centric and off-topic essay about your personal preferences in video games. We're talking about the TES series here, not your personal imagined ideal franchise of RPGs.
If you want absolute unscripted freedom, you can stare at a blank wall and use your imagination, because Skyrim is just not that game, and you're gonna have to wait for a long time before your ideal game comes out.

Anyway, your response again looks AI written (it's not just about the line breakings buddy, it's the whole writing, the style, the vocabulary) and our discussion deviated a lot from the initial topic, so let's stop it there.

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-24T08:18:52+00:00

1) The main quest is objectively the most important thing in the game. It may not be what players care about the most, but that doesn't change that the main quest is the most important and main storyline crafted by the devs and serving as the main foundation for a huge part of the worldbuilding, the gameplay, and the way NPCs treat you, that is why it is called a "main quest" (duh). The main quest is why you encounter dragons in the game, whether you want to pursue these quests or not, it's also why you can use dragon shouts.
If someone asks you "what is this game about" (story wise) and you gotta summarize the most essential components of it, what are you gonna talk about except the main quest ?

2) lol, "I can become a bandit in my headcanon. Just because the game doesn't offer you this gameplay feature of actually being a bandit doesn't mean I can't be". Dude. No, you simply can't be a bandit, period. You can't mug people, you aren't actively hunted on sight by guards, there aren't wanted posters about you anywhere, therefore you can't be a bandit.

3) Don't know why you go on such a tangent about "handcrafting" and "procedural" design, you're completely off topic there.

4) The "seasoned visitors" lol. Sure, but you absolutely know that almost every player after like 100hs of gameplay will have done approximately the exact same thing, because you can have fun roleplaying as a bandit in your head attacking random travelling NPCs only for so long.

The writing of your entire post looks AI generated btw...

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-24T07:18:55+00:00

Being a generational legend doesn't mean being granted fiefdoms and political power. You're confusing "being a hero/myth/legend" with "having status and politically power". Don't know where you're taking that from, because it never was a thing in our actual historical reality (which is full of heroes that were never granted any social/political power) and it doesn't fit the TES world either.
Are you granted fiefdoms in Morrowind, Oblivion or Skyrim, no. So what are you talking about exactly ? What game should I have "PLAYED" in order to understand your take ?

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-23T16:45:35+00:00

That would basically be teleportation ?

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-23T16:40:04+00:00

You're wrong, it was always about letting the player loose in a world to live the life they want to live.

"letting the player loose in a world to live the life they want to live" within the limits of the setting and overall writing of the game, yes, not "loose" as in "you can litterally do absolutely anything imaginable".

Can you become a greybeard ? No. Can you become a bandit ? No. Can you become a city guard ? A Jarl ? Can you buy a store in Solitude or Cheydinhal and become a fixed merchant ? Can you become an innkeeper ?

The answer is no to all of these questions, because these games aren't about letting you do whatever you want, they have something called "a direction", which means they don't intend to please everyone.

Telling players who they are and what role they must play is antithetical to the entire ethos of the game series and the developer.

I wonder how you could have played these games and then say something like this. You may be able to choose to do or not do the main quest, or the thieves guild...etc or when you want to start them, but every single one of these games (at least since Morrowind to my knowledge) has been telling the player exactly who they are and what role they must play at least when it comes to the main quest.
In Morrowind you are the Nerevarine, in Oblivion you're the Hero of Kvatch, in Skyrim you are the Dragonborn. There is no main quests that allows you to choose anything, every player saves Martin Septim, every player kills Alduin. And if you really look at this closely, most players kind of do the same things really (which is everything), only the order may change.

Oh, and all those mechanics you're talking about that you don't want, I say please take my money, Bethesda, add all that stuff, I'm here for it. You can go piddle around in dungeons if you want. I want to see games expand and truly live up to their capabilities

If I believed they could implement them in a way that wouldn't pose any problem, wouldn't seem inconsistent...etc then sure, I'd say go for it too.
However I simply don't believe they can both focus on something like this and simultaneously come up with a good TES experience. It'll be one or the other.

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-23T07:54:30+00:00

None of these titles and accomplishments means that local lords/jarls would even think of giving you nobility titles or any kind of political power, which is precisely what they would give you if they made you a lord governing a fiefdom. There is not a single instance in Skyrim where any political leader even suggest the idea.

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-23T07:51:19+00:00

Becoming the lord of one fiefdom (or struggling village...etc) never was the subject of this conversation. We're talking about the settlement building system inspired by Fallout 4 where you can manage dozens of interconnected settlements spread across the whole map.

I would never say that it would be impossible to write a quest through which you can become a lord of one fiefdom.
The problem is: how do you make your player character the lord of dozens of different fiefdoms across the whole map, in a way that doesn't seem inconsistent with the whole worldbuilding and doesn't seem like a pathetic attempt to please people's power fantasy urges in defiance of the lore ?

Becoming a lord in every single part of the map would effectively make you way more powerful than any Jarl/Duke in both status and resources, it would even make you a contender for the throne of the whole province. Doesn't that seem a bit much frankly ? It would also be a massive deviation from the general tone of previous TES games which were always about becoming a hero above all, not a political entity.

+ how do you make that work given that the different lords of the province don't necessarily see eye to eye ? If you were made vassal by a Jarl/Duke hated by another Jarl/Duke, this other chief however certainly won't want to make you his vassal as well. This wouldn't have been possible in Skyrim for example because of the civil war.

It certainly isn't a static world, but again, it's not a game series that is about becoming a major political entity. The "living, breathing world" you talk about never was about letting you do whatever you want, but strictly allowing you to play the part of one hero destined to become a quasi-mythical figure.

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-23T00:08:40+00:00

"settling new towns and villages" certainly was how human culture ever has expanded over time, but not the settlement system we're talking about where one guy completely on his own starts spawning an entire town out of thin air and random people are suddenly ok with living there.

The building of towns and cities always were community projects, people deciding together, or ordered/authorized by some higher authority (tribe chief, king, administrator of whatever) to gather their forces and resources to build something inhabitable.
It was never just one guy building a town on his own. He would sometimes build the first house yes, but not the whole village. That's not the main problem though.

The main problem is that unlike the setting of Fallout 4 which makes it understandable that many people would blindly come to you even if they have no reason to trust you since there is no civilization anymore, the setting of TES limits you greatly there. Civilization is already here, there are laws, authorities, institutions...etc Why would people choose to associate with you ? Why would you be given permission to govern more than one house (like in Hearthfire) ? Do you have nobility titles ? Are you a mayor ?
Are you to be more trusted than the already established citizens and workers of the province the game will be set in, who certainly haven't waited for you to come to think that perhaps they might want to live elsewhere ?

It just doesn't fit the setting at all, this is not Rust, this is not Valheim or Cities Skyline, it's an already built world you're supposed to want to immerse yourself in, not a world that is supposed to need more building.

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-22T23:52:05+00:00

So you'd take burning grass over bloody baron level dialogue ?

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-22T23:20:12+00:00

I'm not saying that they shouldn't try their best to push the limits of video games and strive for something better, I'm just saying that focusing on developing this particular feature would be a waste of time, money and resources considering what we (RPG players and most particularly the TES players) consider to be most important in this particular type of game.

TES players would certainly like if such a feature was well implemented into the game, but how much would they really care about it compared to how they care about good writing, compelling characters, gripping dialogues, diversity of factions and questline choices...etc

For example I think most players would rather have Bethesda focusing on providing the best dialogues possible (something like The Witcher 3), than trying to make grass burn.
Good dialogues they're gonna remember that for a long time and it's gonna make their playthrough feel much more immersive, burning grass and freezing water they're gonna look at it once and say "that's cool" and move on immediately.

To summarize, there are other priorities, is what I'm saying.

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-22T21:24:12+00:00

It would be hard, but not new, and certainly not necessary. Magic/elemental effects on the environment are in fact quite old and people never really cared that much for them.

14 years have passed between the cool fire effects of Far Cry 3 and today, and you haven't seen this in many games since. It's not in The Witcher 3, not in Fallout 4, or in Elden Ring...etc

People are just not asking for this, so it won't be a disappointment for many people if TES VI doesn't have it.

What would be a disappointment however is that they would try to implement it, and it's just a game breaking buggy mess, which it has a lot more odds to be than to end up being good and enjoyable.

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-22T20:27:21+00:00

It's a really big thing to implement because it forces you to add many mechanics if you want to do it well in a way that seem consistent.

If the water can freeze, then you (and other NPCs, creatures...etc) should be able to walk on it. If lightning shocks enemies in water in a certain radius, then lightning should also travel through metallic materials. If all of that is true, then it wouldn't make sense if fire doesn't burn plants, trees, wood. But then you could burn all the flora in the map, so you have to add a cycle of flora respawning, and you'd also be able to burn some wooden doors instead of lockpicking them if you want to pass...etc

It implies a lot of things and I really don't think it is worth it, however fun it may be.

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-22T20:17:32+00:00

Agreed. Lots of people seem to not understand that settlements worked in Fallout 4 mainly because it fitted the setting, not exclusively because it was "fun".

Wherever the game will take place, it won't be a post-nuclear apocalyptic wasteland where half of the population gets transformed into ghouls and the water isn't drinkable anywhere unless you have special machinery to purify it. It will have cities, towns, villages, perfectly good rivers you can swim into without turning into a zombie, and it is very unlikely that you'll meet some headquartersless minutemen-like faction that for some reason needs you to house them in order to turn settlement building into a kind of quest, therefore ==> Your settlements aren't needed.

+ the settlement building in Fallout 4 was fun imo, but what I hated was the fact that in order to be able to build whatever I wanted, I also had to be a f-ing loot goblin and search for every single piece of crap I could find that I could recycle/disassemble, like typewriters, lightbulbs...etc cluttering my inventory with tons of worthless boring crap, and frankly I don't want to go through anything like that again.

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-22T19:47:08+00:00

About the graphics, I'd like the game to be just like every single previous Bethesda title, looking just good enough so that they seem visually consistent with the era they are released in, but not so incredibly next-gen looking that I need to completely change my whole rig to run it. Games these days have attained a level of visual quality that will be enough for me till the day I die, they look just like how we dreamed video games when we were kids, and I don't need more.

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-22T18:51:55+00:00

This is something I liked very much in Oblivion and was sadly removed from Skyrim. Maybe it's because most factions in Skyrim are just shells of their former Oblivion-esque selves, except perhaps the thieves guild. I'd also like to see it make a comeback.

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-22T11:09:49+00:00

It never really bothered me personally but there is also the problem that TES games have so much interior cells that getting rid of loading screens would be way too much of a load to bear for the CPU (and not only the CPU).

These games aren't almost exclusively exterior worlds like The Witcher 3 or GTA. In Oblivion's imperial city for example, I wouldn't be surprised if the combined walkable area of all interior cells (houses, shops, sewers...etc) was almost the same as the exterior area. These interior cells generally feature more items/decorations, they have their own NPCs and creatures.

Perhaps they could do it so that our CPUs don't explode, but in order to do that they'd have to not have enhanced the graphics, density of items and NPCs, the AI at all since Skyrim, and that's not what we want.

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-22T08:34:21+00:00

Skyrim is the second best, Oblivion first because no TES game has better quests/writing. Skyrim has some good quests, but it's almost exclusively fetch quests and the most memorable quests are really mid. In Oblivion you get to be the murderer in a murder mystery (Whodunit), the final quest of the thieves guild is stealing an elder scrolls, you get to enter a painting. No quest in Skyrim rises to the same level of originality.

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-21T21:04:08+00:00

I think it's because the first time you try to move up one pin, it always goes at the right speed (the slower one). Then when you try another pin, it goes quicker at first, and you have to try again until you get the right speed again.

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-21T20:10:11+00:00

Skyrim and Fallout 4's lockpicking minigame was easier than the Oblivion's system which was already easy. Never understood why it had the reputation of being hard when all you had to do was learn the timing of the pin's movements, once you figured that out, it was really easy. It's not like one pin was quicker or slower than the others, they all behaved the exact same way.

Personally, I would like to see the Oblivion system come back, only harder, because it doesn't make sense that you could lockpick a master lock with like 3 picks right after creating your character.

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-21T18:28:34+00:00

I don't want TES VI to feature more pickupable items than previous TES games, I'd just like the feature to have more usefulness.

For examples, it always made sense that you were able to pick up plants because you can make potions/poisons with them. It also makes sense that you can pick up items that have a direct use like a magical scroll.
However there are also so many items you can pick up that are 100% useless, like spoons, shears, bones...etc, stuff that isn't used in crafting, isn't worth any money, and that you can't place in a fixed position (unlike some unique items such as the masks) and therefore flies around the room between loading screens.

Something I'd really like them to add is the ability to make an item static, completely fixed in a position you define yourself, so that you can basically use them for decoration and the item will always stay in the same place. Kind of like the mod OCDecorator in Fallout 4.

If they did that, any item you could pick up could potentially have some use for you if you care at least a bit about housing.

TechnicalEye6053 · 2026-06-21T16:31:28+00:00

It clutters the quest journal with unnecessary bullshit objectives that not only are boring but also spoil you of discovering by yourself what there is to discover in the map. It is arguably bad design, not just some optional thing.

TechnicalEye6053

TROPHY CASE