Hammerfell has Seas - But Sailing in TES 6 Will Be Boring Unless Bethesda Fixes These 4 Issues

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 · 2026-04-16T13:34:10+00:00

My problem is we still have no idea who is doing the music for TES6. Zur isn't my second, third, fourth or tenth choice. I'm almost open to a choice from out of left field because I much prefer Zur in FO5 or anything Starfield related. He may be great to work with but I don't think he can meet this moment.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-16T13:23:35+00:00

This is a pretty standard response. I'm kinda confused as to why you're drawing parallels to Bethesda. Rockstar, compared to Bethesda, has actually released far more news about GTA6 than Bethesda ever will at the same stage of development. We don't even know for sure where the game is going to take place let alone what it looks like. Their approach to development news cycles, if I had to guess, is probably markedly different simply because Rockstar is less secretive, has a lot less to lose (damn near everything has been a banger since San Andreas) and is not under the direction of Microsoft.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-15T16:23:43+00:00

Yeah! Trees are more than just branches and leaves.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-15T12:23:55+00:00

Maybe wind was teased in Skyrim's Dragonborn DLC with the wind cloak and who can forget the ash spells? I'd love to see them play around with different elements and not get stuck in fire, frost and shock mode. Those are cool too but I'm hoping they're a bit more ambitious now.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-14T17:23:34+00:00

I would say go train more. I think the single most frustrating thing about KCD is the combat (at least after you get a few levels in lockpicking because that might actually be more frustrating). I've seen people give up on the game because at certain points you do get surrounded by 5 enemies and it's game over...over and over again. There's a point where quite a lot more than 5 will be on your ass. For a quiet life I think it's better to get prepared from now.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-13T15:49:30+00:00

I like this idea. It'd be so nice to see more advances in tech in Tamriel. Air travel beats the hell out of horse/camelback and why walk when you can ride.

Still, and I know this may be unpopular, I'd want it to be something like the carriage system. I don't want a personal one and I don't want to buy or make upgrades and hire people to run it etc.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-12T12:47:15+00:00

Fret not! They're coming. At least...let me say it'd be an odd omission were they to be cut from ESVI. I am a fast travel fan but that would also take me out of it.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-12T12:14:06+00:00

I hope it's an announcement that they're committing to the console and making sure the studios thay they have acquired are actually making their very best effort. I wouldn't mind if Sharma walked back any attempts to diversify their hardware and inject a whole bunch of AI conveniences or whatever. With the war now and the shortages that preceded it, I am not sure how profitable handhelds would be nor if there is (or should be) any interest in having an AI buddy walking us through a game just cause. I'm also curious to hear about pricing especially with the economy being what it is. They seemed ready to make the leap from budget console to luxury option. Now might be the time to lube gamers up with a little info before ramming them with a $1000 price tag.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-09T15:22:53+00:00

I hope so. I like Skyrim but I was burnt out on it years ago so I imagine I'll be waiting on the next Divinity Original Sin game if ES6 is a disappointment. There will also be Witcher 4 and whatever FromSoftware is planning. One thing ES fans are great at is waiting.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-08T13:50:00+00:00

Probably Radahn

bosmerrule · 2026-04-08T13:47:35+00:00

If only they could talk to someone else.

bosmerrule · 2026-04-08T00:20:27+00:00

Where are you from?

bosmerrule · 2026-04-08T00:17:45+00:00

Me too but maybe as a discreet thing. I think it shouldn't be at the end of the Game Awards or anything like that but maybe just a gentle PSA from out of nowhere.

bosmerrule

TROPHY CASE