The Elder Scrolls XVI: Sworn to Carry Your Burdens

[Divayth Fyr]

Still RNG-based though, which is less than ideal if you have multiple quests/dungeons that require you to travel vertically. Especially if they level the loot like they did in Skyrim. Remember the Waterbreathing enchantment? And how you could miss it entirely pre-Dawnguard if you leveled up enough and were unlucky? Hence having more than one method of going up.

Not entirely true - there are many places you're guaranteed to find potions, scrolls and items with levitate effect in MW, no reason another game couldn't do it as well.

[Triaxx]

There's also a guaranteed drop of a waterbreathing necklace in the broken boat in the lake south of Riverwood. Though it's possible to simply not know it's there.

[Jlerpy]

I'd be very happy to have climbing (and leaping, and gliding, and flight, but let's stay focused) in an epic new Elder Scrolls game, but it would need to be designed for it, perhaps in a bit of a Metroidvania sort of way, where it opens new paths.

[LibraryOgre]

I'm doing the "King of Everything" in Morrowind. I am currently the head of the Fighter's, Thieves, and Mage's Guilds. I am well on my way to both House Redoran and the Imperial Cult, and doing the Temple on the side.

[Anteros]

I certainly wouldn't mind if they added climbing in addition to levitation, but I don't see the need for a whole skill system associated with it. I agree with the poster earlier who said it would make the game tedious.

A perk to unlock the ability would be fine. A skill system that slows you down going up sharp inclines that you have to level up would be terrible.

[Triaxx]

Grappling hooks, that is all.

[Morty]

Grappling hooks, that is all.

That probably would work better than just climbing as an alternate to levitation. TES could stand to have more applications of non-magical skills beyond "make numbers go up", anyway.

[Rodin]

Just make climbing surfaces a specific surface type, like Horizon: Zero Dawn or Monster Hunter World do. As suggested earlier you can make them different types which require different styles of climbing. Levitation is harder, but you could restrict Levitation spells to a certain height off the ground and design climbing barriers around the various heights.

A mountain cliff is a mountain cliff and is an unclimbable barrier for everyone. Shortcut doors can be locked from the inside like all the previous games, or can be left open to reward sneakiness and exploration.

The only downside is that it's another level of world design that has to be taken into account.

[LibraryOgre]

Grappling hooks, that is all.

That probably would work better than just climbing as an alternate to levitation. TES could stand to have more applications of non-magical skills beyond "make numbers go up", anyway.

I'd love to see that, to be honest. Somewhat like how lockpicks are used would work well, actually.

[Cygnia]

I'd love to see that, to be honest. Somewhat like how lockpicks are used would work well, actually.

*cringes at breaking lockpicks in Skyrim -- then cringes at grappling hooks breaking*

[Lord Raziere]

*cringes at breaking lockpicks in Skyrim -- then cringes at grappling hooks breaking*

*imagines:
Throws a grappling hook, succeeds at get a hook, begins climbing up, fails minigame half away through,
grappling hook BREAKS
my character falls and dies, kicking me back to whether to load last save or not*

yeah I can see that being horrible.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

*imagines:
Throws a grappling hook, succeeds at get a hook, begins climbing up, fails minigame half away through,
grappling hook BREAKS
my character falls and dies, kicking me back to whether to load last save or not*

yeah I can see that being horrible.

I can see that as an opportunity for an always-land-on-your-feet perk/enchantment to reduce or eliminate fall damage, and Slowfall was a spell back in Morrowind too...

[Lord Raziere]

I can see that as an opportunity for an always-land-on-your-feet perk/enchantment to reduce or eliminate fall damage, and Slowfall was a spell back in Morrowind too...

I dunno, fall damage is one of those things that I mod out even if there is good reason for it to exist. repeatedly failing a grappling hook thing, dying and having to reload or needing to spec into not dying when you fall is just something I'd just find inconvenient and not really fun at all.

[Fyraltari]

I think failing a grappling hook mini game would just result in the hook falling when the character tests how solidly it is fixed before starting to climb.

[Keltest]

I think failing a grappling hook mini game would just result in the hook falling when the character tests how solidly it is fixed before starting to climb.

I think having a grappling hook minigame is a good way to get people to mod it out of the game, or drive people to just use levitation. Dealing with lockpicking is already one of the most popular mod types.

[Vinyadan]

I remember a couple of first person games with grapples (Tribes Vengeance and Alien vs Predator 1999), and it was pretty messy. Jetpacks instead are an uniformly great experience (Tribes series, Red Faction Guerrilla), so I'd really go for that. Make the jetpack burn Septims as fuel as a limiting factor.

[Triaxx]

Personally I don't mind the minigames but I know some people stop playing the game at first sight out of sheer hatred.

I was thinking more either an arrow generating a 'door' rope or something like a spell costing rope rather than magicka that pulls you up the slope.

[Caelestion]

If climbing came back to TES, I'd make it part of the Athletics skill. After all, if you run and swim faster with higher proficiency, it makes sense that you'd be a better climber too.

[Balmas]

So, I picked up a used HTC Vive the other day, and finally got the chance to do some Skyrim VR.

My first impressions are that....

A.) Everything is huge, except the people who are all shorter than me, but not by a lot.

That's primarily because Bethesda did a brilliant job cheating perspectives when they initially designed the game, but then didn't change any environments or architecture when they made the VR version of the game.

See, most environments in video games are slightly warped from what you'd find in reality. They're usually wider than they would be in real life, since if you made video game architecture that matched reality, the area would feel claustrophobic and pinched.

Unfortunately, that means that if you just plop a VR control scheme on top of a game that's built like that, things start to come apart at the seams. Suddenly, you're not limited to 100ish FOV, and it's really apparent that the alchemy table--which before, you'd only see from close up and during a third-person animation--is about six feet across and has a tabletop that's almost eight inches thick.

And for what it's worth, I understand why Bethesda didn't change the level geometry when they released Skyrim/Fallout 4 VR. In order to make it happen, they'd need to redo almost the entire world from scratch. But it still highlights that making a VR game isn't as simple as slapping a VR control scheme on top of an existing game.

B.) Being able to direct your hands in two different directions is neat for spell slinging.

Okay, but this is very true. I decided to go full mage when I played Skyrim VR and the only thing I really had an issue with was projectile spells. Kinda hard to aim them.

[Rodin]

I remember a couple of first person games with grapples (Tribes Vengeance and Alien vs Predator 1999), and it was pretty messy. Jetpacks instead are an uniformly great experience (Tribes series, Red Faction Guerrilla), so I'd really go for that. Make the jetpack burn Septims as fuel as a limiting factor.

The other example that comes to mind is Thief 3. where they had to take Rope Arrows out because it was too technically difficult.

The previous games were pre-Havok, so a rope arrow simply spawned a rope item as a static object and you climbed it. No physics involved, and it's first person so there was no need to make it look nice. The gameplay side was handled by limiting rope arrows to wooden surfaces. Anywhere the devs didn't want you to climb used stone or metal.

When they came to do Thief 3 they found that you can't do that in a game with physics enabled. The rope has to be able to handle Havok physics, and the player has a full character model that has to climb the rope and who has to look good while doing so. This is difficult enough with pre-placed ropes. Now imagine that the player dictates where that rope goes. Things get messy very fast.

Thief 3 eventually ditched Rope Arrows and went with Climbing Gloves instead. They kinda sucked, but it was a fair compromise. Thief 4 cheated even harder and used Batman style grapple points.

I don't play FPS games much these days. Are there games that use ropes? Are there games that allow you to fire a grappling hook that leaves a rope for you to climb? Or do they all go the Thief 4 route and just enter you into a "character climbs up" animation?

[Morty]

If climbing came back to TES, I'd make it part of the Athletics skill. After all, if you run and swim faster with higher proficiency, it makes sense that you'd be a better climber too.

Of course, the Athletics skill was also dropped for a reason.

I don't play FPS games much these days. Are there games that use ropes? Are there games that allow you to fire a grappling hook that leaves a rope for you to climb? Or do they all go the Thief 4 route and just enter you into a "character climbs up" animation?

There were rope arrows in Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. But a) I think it's a bit older than Thief 3, b) rope arrows are also limited to wooden surfaces and c) the game takes part in self-contained narrow levels, not an open world.

[Rodin]

There were rope arrows in Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. But a) I think it's a bit older than Thief 3, b) rope arrows are also limited to wooden surfaces and c) the game takes part in self-contained narrow levels, not an open world.

It actually came out a couple of years later, according to Google.

I checked out a gameplay video, and it looks like they're partially using physics. The ropes looked like they were swinging a bit prior to being jumped on, but they swapped to being static while the player was climbing. It looked kind of janky, but then this is a 2006 game.

[Vinyadan]

About the Tribes Vengeance grappling hook, I remembered it as messy from the single player campaign. It actually looks insane for moving around in multiplayer maps, because Tribes as a series has a heavy emphasis on jetpacks, but they have inertia and fuel constraints; adding a grappling hook to steer yourself when every character can ski to maintain momentum gives you a LOT of options, it's even OP. And it looks really good, because the game uses Havoc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cagHp5byEYs

[Morty]

It actually came out a couple of years later, according to Google.

Huh, go figure. It's been long enough that my brain sort of filed them into the same "when I was in my mid-teens" category.

I checked out a gameplay video, and it looks like they're partially using physics. The ropes looked like they were swinging a bit prior to being jumped on, but they swapped to being static while the player was climbing. It looked kind of janky, but then this is a 2006 game.

Basically, yes. The game otherwise used a physics engine that was a major selling point, with knocking enemies into things and off ledges, throwing stuff, etc. But the ropes are used for puzzles in select places.

[Triaxx]

I may or may not have been playing Subnautica and Just Cause 3 lately and well... grappling hooks.

[LibraryOgre]

Things I am now in charge of in Morrowind:

Fighter's Guild
Thieves' Guild
Mage's Guild
House Redoran
The Imperial Temple

I am climbing the ranks in the Tribunal Temple and the Morag Tong.

My 1-handed blunt build has really come into its own. While I miss my "Grant me 100 points of strength every time I hit someone" mace, I appreciate that Skullcrusher is both effectively weightless while held and does more base damage. I carry a custom-made Soul Drinker dagger (a daedric dagger, still, but with a bigger soul, so runs out slower), and will switch between them... a hit or two with the Soul Drinker, then switch to Skullcrusher.

I am approaching 100 in all attributes.

[Triaxx]

Balmas fun thing: Apocalypse special edition works with Skyrim VR. Double casting Ice Machine Guns. :D

[factotum]

I may or may not have been playing Subnautica and Just Cause 3 lately and well... grappling hooks.

I never actually used the hook in Subnautica, I found the super jump on the prawn suit was plenty enough to get me where I needed to go. JC3, though, that really shows how amazing a magical inertia-defying grappling hook can be!

[Triaxx]

Double grapples make the Prawn Suit even faster than the Seamoth. Which is hilarious.

Other nice mobility options: Blink. It's such a fun mod already, but having it be in vanilla would be awesome.

[Balmas]

I may or may not have been playing Subnautica and Just Cause 3 lately and well... grappling hooks.

Jet Island says hello.

Basic premise: You have a hoverboard, wrist mounted jetpacks, and grappling books. Go live out your wildest Spiderman fantasies.