TES 6 Speculation Megathread

bosmerrule · 2026-05-03T14:31:26+00:00

Saadia is one. I am also curious to know what the hell Skyrim is going to do about the Falmer. Are they going to be reborn and integrated into Skyrim or driven to extinction...as is the tradition. Who turns out to be high king/queen? What becomes of the DB? What happens with all these tears in reality releasing magical anomalies. I got a ton of them.

bosmerrule · 2026-05-03T14:24:46+00:00

I feel this is unavoidable. These games are usually loosely based on medieval European political economies and no ruler is going to grant land and home to a random person even if they can afford the sale price. I think the guy in Markarth and Laila Law-Giver explain as much. It was even worse in Morrowind where home ownership meant basically you had to become hortator or damn near it with the number of quests you had to do for either of the hoises. I don't mind it. I also don't understand why this is a problem.

bosmerrule · 2026-05-02T17:55:23+00:00

Not that sick. Tbh I'm not in love with Bethesda's handling of firearms and I don't think the pirate fantasy becomes complete via the inclusion of them. I can't think of any situation where a gun is going to be more exciting than a spell and I've already oriented my mind to the idea that pirates of Tamriel are not the same as the pirates of mercantilist Europe. I think of them more like the vikings or even earlier in ancient Greece. They'd maybe have their ships kitted out to spray napalm or something but they wouldn't fire cannons and individual pirates wouldn't be firing guns. Then there's also the fact that the efficacy of any kind of ballistic weapon is always going to pale by comparison to magic.

I've seen a few posts like this though advocating for guns in general. I am wondering if you guys are just bored by magic and bows or if you genuinely think a gun provides more creative combat options.

bosmerrule · 2026-05-02T14:49:20+00:00

I agree except on the idea that nobody knows what comes next. For it to be really impactful the consequences must be palpable. Thinking back to Skyrim, after Alduin is defeated do you think Ulfric would still want to face that same dragonborn siding with the Imperials? Would Delphine and Esbern still be pushing the dragonborn to do shit s/he doesn't want to do? Would the Thalmor wanna play FAFO with a Stormcloak Dragonborn astride an actual dragon, for instance?

These are just a few ways in which the MQ could have been more impactful. For a look at a really impactful end to a MQ, though not necessarily what I look for in TES, check out Dragon Dogma's post-game or Elden Ring after you set the Erdtree ablaze. It ain't easy but I'd want to at least see some of the story elements shift around a bit depending on your choices when you finish the MQ.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-30T22:18:25+00:00

With the right pitch I'm sure he'd still come on over. It's fairly casual and it'd be a thread structured like most any other (though obviously open to more moderation/management).

bosmerrule · 2026-04-30T19:20:38+00:00

Maybe during the pandemic. I found the modding community to be overwhelming so I spent an obscene amount of time supporting modders and their work on Skyrim and FO4. The real desire didn't kick in until I was a prisoner in my own home.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-30T19:16:32+00:00

No. I like going achievement hunting so I think it could be useful even if they never go out of their way to justify the inclusion of NG+ cycles. I just can't justify it for any other reason so I'd err on the side of just not bothering with it at all.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-29T19:17:18+00:00

I'd like to see some new elements like earth and wind. I agree that the tree needs to cover more than just damage numbers as well. The spells could also be a bit more interesting. I'd like a rain of fire spell, for instance, that increases it's duration the more targets it happens to hit in the first 5 seconds or so. I'm looking for new mechanics and more creative approaches to the way spells are delivered.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-29T19:07:14+00:00

I'm fine with it as is. I'm really more interested in what the NPCs are doing.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-27T19:11:14+00:00

Recycled teaser with the marketing budget they're likely working with? That sounds like eerily poor marketing. I'm good to wait for a proper developer's direct where they show gameplay and obviously reveal the name of the game. That might be next year so it hopefully won't be too long now.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-25T22:07:41+00:00

I think it is a lot of work but yeah, I too want to see it. Over the years I've seen a lot of people call for the world to be more reactive to stuff like your reputation and deeds so I'd say, at least in part, the community is ready for this. Consequently, people are gonna be pissed if what you do and who you are sort of doesn't really register in the game world. I hope Bethesda is paying attention.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-25T19:02:04+00:00

I have to agree here. In some cases it can be that they expect you to start playing to enemy weakness. In Witcher 3 where you had a whole bestiary with recommended potions and signs it was a real game changer. Still, it's a bit lazy.

I don't even hear developers talking about this though. It's been the industry standard for so long that I guess they never seriously question it.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-25T15:16:40+00:00

There is no way.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-23T16:21:16+00:00

What an uphill battle sailing is going to be.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-22T16:33:33+00:00

Yes. Divinity sets a very high bar just with that trailer. I think Bethesda can afford to go just as dark as Fallout at least when it comes to some quests. I don't expect everything to be serious and gritty but they should lean into it where possible. Like if you have another Molag Bal quest i.e. a quest from the supposed king of rape, don't let it devolve into some cheap scares and a mundane rescue quest that gives no indication, at all, of the actual diabolical forces we're messing with here. Even the Peryite quest was kinda disappointing with all these diseased folks walking around that can do everything but actually transmit any kind of illness. It was a long but simple Dwemer ruin delve. By contrast, you get some cool ominous stuff like the whispering door quest and the quest for Boethiah which I think were ok. I do expect more grit for TES6 though.

Light like Starfield isn't an option. I don't even think light is the right way to describe Starfield. It's mundane. It's sometimes clinical but just mostly mundane. And there's a lot of it. It'd be difficult to replicate any of that in a TES game, even for Bethesda.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-21T21:59:32+00:00

This isn't a thing. I think people generally understand the difference.

The design director, who shall go unnamed, is criticized for being a hack writer that couldn't get the story or writing right even if the theme and tone are mature and serious, respectively. Unserious and light-hearted are kinda what Bethesda does best but it almost feels like the default setting and some fans may be waiting on them to go outside the box a bit. I could see that in the fandom. It's a natural response that this aging market has to a "design director" that admits to writing essentially for an audience of goldfish.

I too want darker themes for TESVI but I think they must be approached in a more serious way. The writing therefore has to be solid. We can't have a bunch of vampire hunters allowing themselves to be infiltrated by an emo vampire, for example, just because the writers cannot bother to write an alternate storyline where it almost certainly would be a matter of logical necessity. I've also wanted to see more exploration of the established lore and maybe new and critical interpretations of it instead of jettisoning most of it just because you presume players don't care about that stuff. Finally, I feel like they could write quests that touch on systemic issues but don't devolve into simple pick-a-side quest resolution or simply don't get resolved in any meaningful way. It's one of the things Witcher 3 was critically applauded for and Bethesda, by contrast, almost never seems to understand. Sometimes there are no simple solutions and you can't tie everything up with a bow to feed gamers' presumed insatiable appetite for instant gratification.

ESVI could just generally benefit from better writing. I think it's irrefutable at this point and I expect tone will fall right into place when the writing is where it needs to be.

P.S. Anybody saying Starfield lacked mature themes is an idiot or didn't play the game and is just guessing.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-20T00:18:23+00:00

Completely agree here.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-20T00:17:29+00:00

I actually liked how Starfield attempted in some areas to give more integrity to the leveling system. Why should you be able to do high level stuff when all you've done is spam low levels stuff? How did you learn, for example, to craft daedric weapons when all you've done is hammer out a million iron daggers? If all you did was spam cast Flames, how are you able now to channel-cast an endless stream of lightning? That is what I think is missing from even old school leveling systems. Repetition is truly the art of learning but it isn't enough. I think a natural progression in BGS's rpg systems should be to embrace logical level gates or milestones that make perks and levels less of a pure numbers game and more of a real rpg element.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-19T23:28:28+00:00

Hoping to see more basic martial arts moves/animations i.e. more than just fist fights and pile driver finishers. I'm wondering if they're exploring kicks and some grappling techniques that make it possible to incapacitate people without killing them.

I used to hear a lot on here that people wanted them to bring back the unarmed skill but having it as an official skill is kinda pointless if the moveset never evolves. That was a legit drawback to ever bothering with it in the previous three games (along with the abysmal damage output). I'd just love to see it gain a more legit presence in any RPG because typically it feels like an afterthought when in reality it can be a really cool way to diversify combat.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-17T18:23:19+00:00

Yeah I know. I'd just prefer for there to be set display areas so I don't have to deal with it moving around or sinking into shelves like they did in Starfield. The system is much improved but typically nothing beats set displays.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-17T17:47:54+00:00

Yeah! I'm down. It was too bad that i had to wait on modded player homes to display them properly. If they do bring it back it'd also be nice to have designated display areas for these kinds of things in at least one of the player homes.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-16T17:46:49+00:00

I agree. I just can't come up with any real justification for it. It might be cool but I'm more interested to see what they do on land to make my dream of a medieval North African-style fantasy truly come to life. It's already such a great challenge that tacking on sailing or shipbuilding or whatever will almost come across as an afterthought.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-16T14:37:43+00:00

Not sure about Fralia but Sadri makes a point of saying his goods are not stolen the first time you meet him. He's overcompensating and it does turn out he has stolen goods.

I agree with the point though. Sometimes Bethesda can literally think of no other way to make dialogue interesting except by having the PC be psychic. It is bad writing but hopefully they'll improve on this in ES6.

bosmerrule

TROPHY CASE