The Elder Scrolls 6 (speculation)

[Top cat]

With skyrim undoubtedly a really huge cash cow, I'm pretty sure another elder scrolls game will come out eventually (hopefully not for at least a few years though). Where do you think it'll be set? A single province again, or a couple? All of tamriel, but not randomised this time? Akavir maybe?

And do you think it'll be any good? Personally I was pleasantly surprised with skyrim, it was a lot better than I had expected (oblivion made my expectations somewhat low). Will the elder scrolls become essentially a series of mods pumped out quickly to grab people's money, or will it remain genuinely good?

For my part, I believe the most likely (but still not likely) candidate for the next game will be the summerset isles - the Thalmor look like they could become main antagonists. They even changed the name of the province, because TES VI: The Summerset Isles would sound a little silly. TES VI: Alinor?

[Avilan the Grey]

For my part, I believe the most likely (but still not likely) candidate for the next game will be the summerset isles - the Thalmor look like they could become main antagonists. They even changed the name of the province, because TES VI: The Summerset Isles would sound a little silly. TES VI: Alinor?

I though Summerset was part of a DLC for Skyrim?
(Somebody cracked the files, and the full maps for Morrowind and one more place, which I THINK was Summerset, are already on the DVD, waiting to be activated by DLC).

[Nero24200]

Well the last three Elder Scrolls games have all been set in a single province (never played the first two) so I assume it'll be the same for the next. I wouldn't mind seeing the next set on the Summerset Isles though, either that or the home of the Khajit just to give us a chance to see what the rest of the race is like.

Though if they're not too fond of the place name (for Summerset Isles) then they might just name it something else, like how number 4 was called Oblivion instead of Cyrodell.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

The areas that are in any detail on the heightmaps of the game are all of Morrowind, most of Cyrodiil, and large parts of Hammerfell, iirc.

There hasn't been a single game set in the south yet. Alinor/Elsweyr/Valenwood would be where I would be looking. Black Marsh, not so much. Maybe even Hammerfell? A game in Hammerfell would feel a bit too much like the civil war in Skyrim, with the Hammerfell vs Thalmor war and all.

[Weezer]

I though Summerset was part of a DLC for Skyrim?
(Somebody cracked the files, and the full maps for Morrowind and one more place, which I THINK was Summerset, are already on the DVD, waiting to be activated by DLC).

It was actually the Shivering Isles, which were a sub-plane of Oblivion, not Summerset.

EDIT: Ignore what I said, I fail at reading comprehension.

[Cespenar]

I wouldn't expect it to be in Elsweyr or Black Marsh, on the theory that Bethesda wouldn't want to weird their players out with a beast-race-heavy land.

My guess would be the Summerset Isle, with maybe a different game name (a la Oblivion).

[Morph Bark]

It will be in outer space.

[Cespenar]

It will be in outer space.

Of course. We are yet to see any Spacemer.

[Top cat]

Obviously the dwemer disappeared because they were using the heart of lorkhan as a spaceship. After thousands of years, they have become the eldar space elves.

[factotum]

Well the last three Elder Scrolls games have all been set in a single province (never played the first two)

Daggerfall was set across parts of Hammerfell and High Rock--the area around the Iliac Bay. Arena covered the whole of Tamriel, but it was made a long time ago and the graphics weren't up to much, so it's not like we've "seen" any of those other places properly!

Anyway, isn't it possible that the reason those heightmaps in Skyrim are more detailed for Morrowind, Hammerfell and Cyrodiil is because those happen to be the provinces bordering Skyrim and thus could possibly be seen from its borders? Doesn't necessarily tell us where any Skyrim DLC would be set. Speaking personally I'd be interested to revisit Morrowind to see what it's like after the massive eruption of Red Mountain.

As for TES 6, every game in the series has had you playing in part of the Empire, and since Summerset Isles (and most of the rest of the South, IIRC) are now Thalmor territory, suggests we won't be seeing those in it--unless you start the game playing as some sort of Imperial deep cover agent, and I think that's unlikely because it's traditional in Elder Scrolls games for them to start with you imprisoned for reasons unknown (Daggerfall being the only exception among the RPGs).

[psilontech]

TESVI will inevitably be a poorly coded, bug-ridden, and overhyped game still using a sub-par engine. It will make millions upon millions of dollars and break a sales record or two because I hate people.

[Leecros]

As for TES 6, every game in the series has had you playing in part of the Empire, and since Summerset Isles (and most of the rest of the South, IIRC) are now Thalmor territory, suggests we won't be seeing those in it--unless you start the game playing as some sort of Imperial deep cover agent, and I think that's unlikely because it's traditional in Elder Scrolls games for them to start with you imprisoned for reasons unknown (Daggerfall being the only exception among the RPGs).

Of course, with the exception of Skyrim, every TES game has taken place when The Empire more or less controlled all of Tamriel. With The Empire in decline like it is, it wouldn't really surprise me if they broke that mold now.

[nhbdy]

It was actually the Shivering Isles, which were a sub-plane of Oblivion, not Summerset.

It seems odd to me that they would intend to revisit the Shivering Isles (I know this is all more or less baseless speculation due to the lack of confirmation from bethesda) due to the whole oblivion crisis sealing off the planes of oblivion, wouldn't that make it more or less impossible to go there?

[Weezer]

It seems odd to me that they would intend to revisit the Shivering Isles (I know this is all more or less baseless speculation due to the lack of confirmation from bethesda) due to the whole oblivion crisis sealing off the planes of oblivion, wouldn't that make it more or less impossible to go there?

I apparently completely misread his post, my brain swapped in oblivion for skyrim. Yeah, everything you say makes sense.

[Sprinter]

Daggerfall was set across parts of Hammerfell and High Rock--the area around the Iliac Bay. Arena covered the whole of Tamriel, but it was made a long time ago and the graphics weren't up to much, so it's not like we've "seen" any of those other places properly!


Think Daggerfall had bigger gameworld then Arena from what i recall from game reviews from time when it was released. I never played Arena myself but i cant imagine it was bigger then Daggerfalls it was like 10x bigger gameworld then Morrowinds. Too bad Daggerfall was like 99% random generated world unlike Morrowind.

[Top cat]

Arena was huuuuuge. I think. It was big enough that I just fast travelled everywhere, I think it would actually take hours and hours to travel the map. Certainly ingame months could be spent in one trip.

[factotum]

Think Daggerfall had bigger gameworld then Arena from what i recall from game reviews from time when it was released.

It might have been bigger in terms of the in-game time it took to cross it, but it definitely wasn't bigger in terms of "real-world" area mapped--as I said, Arena covered the whole continent of Tamriel, whereas Daggerfall covered only a small section of it.

[Sprinter]

Arena was huuuuuge. I think. It was big enough that I just fast travelled everywhere, I think it would actually take hours and hours to travel the map. Certainly ingame months could be spent in one trip.

I never said Arena had small gameworld. Reviewers who played both Arena and Daggerfall describbed Daggerfalls gameworld as 4x bigger then Arenas and Arena was at that time considered as one of biggest RPGs in size of gameworld.


It might have been bigger in terms of the in-game time it took to cross it, but it definitely wasn't bigger in terms of "real-world" area mapped--as I said, Arena covered the whole continent of Tamriel, whereas Daggerfall covered only a small section of it.

Yes thats what i meant actually if you looked at map of Daggerfall it was divided into dosens of smaller regions each with hundreds of dots each dot representing a village or city. Traveling around on foot like in Morrowind/Oblivion wouldnt get you far on the map.

[Top cat]

Mmm, I tried to play daggerfall but it just didn't run in DOSBOX. Same with battlespire. I just find it hard to believe that they'd have made it bigger than arena when it wasn't set in the whole continent (and presumably it was random generated so it could be any size they wanted, including for arena).

If it really is that much bigger, that's pretty insane.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

The next TES game would probably involve a new dragon born emperor who is leading a campaign to reunite Tamriel under a single banner. It could play out like Daggerfall where you can ally with different factions and set up a new dragon break where all the contradictory endings are canon.

[Sprinter]

If it really is that much bigger, that's pretty insane.

Definitely insane if you want to explore whole gameworld.

Here is a quote from Daggerfall article on wikipedia


Bethesda claims that the scale of the game is equal to twice the size of Great Britain around 487,000 square kilometers. The game world features over 15,000 towns, cities, villages, and dungeons for the player's character to explore. According to Todd Howard, Game Director and Executive Producer for Bethesda Game Studios, the game's sequel, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, is 0.01% the size of Daggerfall, but it should be noted most of Daggerfall's terrain was randomly generated.

[Somebloke]

ES6 needs to include the following features:










Thalmor killing, lots of.







That is all.

Pointy eared b*********s.

[Top cat]

I wonder if bretons will ever stop being the best race...

[ObadiahtheSlim]

I didn't think they were that great in Morrowind. Then again being a mage in Morrowind wasn't a very good idea...

[Starwulf]

It might have been bigger in terms of the in-game time it took to cross it, but it definitely wasn't bigger in terms of "real-world" area mapped--as I said, Arena covered the whole continent of Tamriel, whereas Daggerfall covered only a small section of it.

Nope, Daggerfall was a larger game in terms of in-game mileage. Google "Largest Game Maps" or something of the sort. I was shown such a thing a few years ago, and Daggerfall was one of the largest game worlds ever created. I don't quite remember what was the largest, but IIRC, it actually wasn't even an RPG that had the crown. Arena may have covered all of Tamriel, but they didn't make it true to life size in-game, whereas Daggerfall they mapped out every single city that there literally could be in those regions, and then some.

Edit: http://unrealitymag.com/index.php/2010/05/07/a-size-comparison-of-massive-open-world-video-game-maps/

Daggerfall is 62,000 Square Miles! :)

[Top cat]

It's more about the 50% magic resistance. I just couldn't find any other race perks as good (greater powers I never remember to use, skills and attributes that change as you level up anyway...) Bretons IMO make great warriors-with-spell-resistance, with some extra magicka for healing in morrowind and oblivion. They've been steadily nerfed since morrowind though :(

[Emperor Ing]

It seems odd to me that they would intend to revisit the Shivering Isles (I know this is all more or less baseless speculation due to the lack of confirmation from bethesda) due to the whole oblivion crisis sealing off the planes of oblivion, wouldn't that make it more or less impossible to go there?

IIRC the gate to the Isles remains open even after the Oblivion Crisis ends. I think the difference between that and the other Oblivion gates (and the Great Gate) is that the latter were opened by a cabal of cultists, while the former required at least some exertion on the part of a (for all intents and purposes) god.

[Leecros]

Arena was huuuuuge. I think. It was big enough that I just fast travelled everywhere, I think it would actually take hours and hours to travel the map. Certainly ingame months could be spent in one trip.

You couldn't actually travel anywhere without Fast Travel.You would never get anywhere(I've tried).



The next TES game would probably involve a new dragon born emperor who is leading a campaign to reunite Tamriel under a single banner. It could play out like Daggerfall where you can ally with different factions and set up a new dragon break where all the contradictory endings are canon.

I hope not...Quite honestly, i would like to see that whole "Dragon Blood Emperor" thing in the past. It was nice, but it's time to move on.


IIRC the gate to the Isles remains open even after the Oblivion Crisis ends. I think the difference between that and the other Oblivion gates (and the Great Gate) is that the latter were opened by a cabal of cultists, while the former required at least some exertion on the part of a (for all intents and purposes) god.

The main reason the gate to the Shivering Isles was able to be opened and stay opened was because it didn't pose any threat to Mundus. There was no hostile intent on it's creation...it was an invitation.

Haskill mentions this when you first enter.

[Sans]

I certainly hope VI isn't a flop...

Anyhow, no matter where it's set, I want the Empire to not be so Roman-esque. I'd like to see the Empire restored much to how it was in Oblivion. Along with that, perhaps the restoration of The Blades and much Thalmor murder along with it?

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I certainly hope VI isn't a flop...

Anyhow, no matter where it's set, I want the Empire to not be so Roman-esque. I'd like to see the Empire restored much to how it was in Oblivion. Along with that, perhaps the restoration of The Blades and much Thalmor murder along with it?

Really? The Empire in Oblivion was so... vanilla. So generic. The return to the Roman-themed Empire that was in Morrowind and I assume before then was one of the things that got me most excited for Skyrim. Man, when I think of how awesome and unique Oblivion could have been. I mean, we could have been exploring Mayan-esque ruins in the depths of jungles, emerging to vast landscapes of rice paddies, watched over by Roman soldiers, with a medieval castle in the background.

Instead we got generic forests, generic fantasy kingdom, etc etc boring.

[Emperor Ing]

The main reason the gate to the Shivering Isles was able to be opened and stay opened was because it didn't pose any threat to Mundus. There was no hostile intent on it's creation...it was an invitation.

Haskill mentions this when you first enter.

True, but I don't think the barriers between the dimensions are that discriminate.

As for what the Empire should be like, I think we all just miss the iconic helmet that that made many a criminal scum stop right there.

[factotum]

Nope, Daggerfall was a larger game in terms of in-game mileage.

Er, isn't that what I said? Yes, in-game Daggerfall was bigger, but it still only covered part of the continent of Tamriel, whereas Arena covered the whole thing. These in-game sizes are fairly ridiculous anyway--Oblivion's map was supposed to be 16 square miles or something like that, so the whole Imperial Province of Cyrodiil is 4 miles on a side? Don't think so somehow!

Top cat, where did you get Daggerfall to run it in DOSBox? If you downloaded the public domain version from the Elder Scrolls website there are detailed instructions with it on how to install and run it in DOSBox.

[Starwulf]

Er, isn't that what I said? Yes, in-game Daggerfall was bigger, but it still only covered part of the continent of Tamriel, whereas Arena covered the whole thing. These in-game sizes are fairly ridiculous anyway--Oblivion's map was supposed to be 16 square miles or something like that, so the whole Imperial Province of Cyrodiil is 4 miles on a side? Don't think so somehow!

Top cat, where did you get Daggerfall to run it in DOSBox? If you downloaded the public domain version from the Elder Scrolls website there are detailed instructions with it on how to install and run it in DOSBox.

Oh, I apparently completely misunderstood what you said. My bad ^^ And yeah, it's crazy how much smaller the games have gotten as time has gone on. I guess Bethsoft decides that randomly generated dungeons and generic scenery were not the way to go(not that I really blame them) and accordingly shrunk map size so they could go with more attention to detail. I do think they completely mishandled Cyrodiil though, considering it was supposed to be largely jungle and what not. We didn't see hardly any of what Cyrodiil has been described to look like in previous games. I could have lived with the 16 square mile map size if they had made it a bit more like what the place was actually supposed to be like.

[Top cat]

I knew how to download, install it, etc (did it for arena). I did manage to install it, but when I tried to play it, either the screen just went blank and DOSBOX stopped responding, or it came up with an error message (this was quite a while ago, can't quite remember). I have a totally different computer now though, so might be worth a retry.