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Should TES VI put the player as a rebel against the Thalmor, perhaps they should add strategy elements to it and making the player the commander after a few battles. The commanding would mostly be planning raids on castles, which upon taking, become friendly to the player. Before advancing so far in the main questline, the player will not be attacked when entering Thalmor cities.

They should also bring back the relationship bar. However, they should make increasing/decreasing relationships act more like the Sims, but with the added ability to do quests for the person. This would greatly increase immersion, as the people would actually have things they like/hate, as well add the ability to tell them to do things/quests for you.

You should be able to become a town guard/soldier. These would be simple quests for example, like helping someone/solving a crime, or killing/capturing bandits. Doing these would be a way to get paid. Successfully completing these without failing the objective would award gold, and successfully completing several would award a promotion to the next rank as a guard. Different ranked guards would have different quests. Grunts would have minor quests, like the ones I said before. Mid level guards would be much like the previous rank, but the bandits they fight/capture would be bandit leaders, and the crimes they solve are deeper. Highest ranked guards would do less killing, but they would be able to solve very deep crimes. You would not be able to be a guard if you are in the Thieves guild. This would add a whole new aspect to the game, giving it a much larger replay value.

The ability to build your own house out of materials you gather would be interesting. Unlike Hearthfire homes, you should be able to pick the design for your house. Ranging from tiny shacks, to large castles. You should also be able make an illegal house in the woods on a noble's land for free, however these would always have to be shacks. Building a home should not require you to have to build the house yourself. You should be able to hire builders, or build it yourself. The game should allow you to chop down the trees yourself, rather than only being able to hire lumber mills.

You should be able to open a business of your own, be it a small stand, or a massive franchise. You can choose to build a new building, or buy an existing one. You should even be able buy out NPC's businesses.

Neloth was a character in Dragonborn even though there was a quest to kill him in Morrowind.

I mean I'm not saying that's a reason for a sequel featuring the LDB to happen. There are tons of other reasons it won't. But this one isn't particularly strong. Just because you can kill a character in the game doesn't mean it's something that gets carried forward or respected in the future games.

Oh, I agree. Like I said, there are many reasons against doing a sequel and not many for. I was just pointing out that that argument wasn't very strong.

I think sequels would break the series. It just doesn't match the way the game works. Say you had all the shouts in Skyrim, but the new game removed all of them from you. There would be no logical reason for the Dragonborn to forget how to shout. Because of reasons like that, I do not think sequels will work.

I really doubt they would ever do a sequel with the dragonborn.. Just something with too many downfalls, and they've never done it before.

I can see it taking place in either Hammerfell or Valenwood/Summerset Isles. I can see us helping the Redguards fight off the Thalmor. But perhaps with the Thalmor leading things wouldnt be so bad. Maybe they would make better leaders than the Imperials. So perhaps that won't even be part of the next game.

If they're going to have the next game continue with the imperial-thalmor conflict I think it's likely that they're going to have the game set in a thamlor controlled province, or an imperial one bordering the thamlor. Black marsh is thus probably excluded, and given that we've already been in morrowind, skyrim, cyrodiil, hammerfell and high rock (because I hope they won't revisit any of them), that leaves us with valenwood, elsweyr and the isles. As with black marsh, I think valenwood would be very hard to do if they plan to stick with lore. Walking cities, tree houses, living trees and what not much likely excludes those two unless they plan on some retcon. Wood elves are also rather cliche. Having it set in the isles would likewise be a bit cliche with high elves, and having it taking place in the home of the thalmor wouldn't be as interesting. But elsweyr gives us a setting that is the least cliche, and the most realistically workable compared to it's eastern and western nieghbors. That it's now divided up into two kingdoms opens up the possibilities to expand on the political part of the game.

in short, valenwood and black marsh are too hard to implement, summerset isles would be set in the thalmor homeland which would be lame, and the other provinces have already been done and hopefully won't see a revisit for the next game. And Elseyr hold a setting which is varied in climate, and the khajiit are very unique in fantasy and not cliche at all. and most importantly... having it set in elsweyr would guarantee that all cat lovers would buy the game

I welcome that movement. There are some gameplay elements that distinguish TES, as you mentioned earlier, but the core of the series is presenting the history of its world. The story should change as it progresses, develop such that new plots are introduced. The Empire has an expansive presence in Tamriel, and so it works well as the basis for a serial arc. But I'd be less interested if every game focused on it -- just as I've lost interest in certain bands who haven't really changed their sound over the years, TV shows that have been formulaic to a fault, etc.

I think the TES blueprint of each game covering one new region, one new race until all of Tamreil is covered and then they can move on, is solid enough but maybe getting to resemble the pattern of old James Bond movies "we'll do one set in Egypt this time" - a danger of predictability

movies and tv shows are being rebooted or giving us plots that are no longer episodic or where main characters can be killed off, so it's natural TES might consider the same tactic

as you say, the lore is there, what we get to do with it doesn't have to follow past formulae

I would really prefer TES to revert to your character being a nobody. Instead of having the should of a dragon or something other that's rather special in terms of power. Just a standard character that builds him/herself to be something.

Next gen is here and as mentioned, I think before, 2 provinces would be epic. Summerset isles and valenwood, or such like. I really dislike the idea of it becoming more technologically advanced. I play TES for all the sword and sorcery. I would never want any type of guns. If I did I would play COD. The crossbows introduced in Dawnguard were almost a line for me. I just simply chose not to use them. They are one step away from gunpowder. That would ruin TES. It has to stay primitive and magical. There's no honor in bullets

There are also other continents, Atmora and Akavir for example. There's loads to go on yet.

^ I'm fine with the character being special. The games are about heroes and prophecies are they not? But I don't like how I'm forced into that role. In skyrim for example, you're forced to see a dragon in the beginning. Okay, that isn't so bad but I think it rushed it a bit: dragons should've been more of a suprise later on. And when you search through bleak falls barrow and pick up the annoyingly un-droppable 25 kilo dragonstone, you're stuck with it until you go drop it off by farengar, after which you'll be pretty much forced into killing that dragon and being dubbed dragonborn. It's much to hurried, and it doesn't offer any real chance of saying no to the main quest. I just want to be a sneaky khajiit this time around, but I don't want this damned heavy rock! I like to RP a bit, and good luck denying the main quest in a RP friendly manner once you give away the stone. this annoys me to no end.

yeah, I wouldn't want technology either. I'd actually like to see the elder scrolls go backwards in time rather than forward tbh.

yes, TES is about the Elder Scrolls, so heroes in the games are all players in the scrolls. That's kind of what i thought the game was about, and not necessarily any particular continent or the Septim Dynasty

of course Morrowind was my first game so i may have missed something in the first two

I agree that crossbows is as far as technology needs to go with TES, though locks seem sophisiticated in the game. But much in the game is anachronistic: as has been mentioned already the imperials are based on an empire at least a thousand years older than the plate armour we can forge ourselves, Nords use viking boats whilst the dwemer have left marvellous examples of steam power for anyone who wants to develop engines for industry - people in TES just don't seem interested in this or perhaps see technology as a route to disaster

I think ESO may had picked the best point in time to play in. Which others sound interesting to you and others?

I first thought of the Dragon Wars, but then I realized that in Skyrim we fought dragons, the Dragon Priests, and even Alduin... so it would basically be the same game. Another thought is that the developers may not want to pick a point in the timeline where the Dwemer still existed. So, perhaps we could pick up after ESO and play through Tiber Septim's rise to power? Then again, that could probably end up being ESO II.

But as I have said before, I do want to see a continuation of events from Skyrim and see what happens with the Civil War and the Thalmor.

i want to see the main TES single player game proceed with the history in a linear way, the Thalmor now steer the story previously told by the empire, and i want to see where it goes. A lot of the fun of each game i have played is knowing how you contributed to it in the past

i find the time we're just entering the most interesting because there are so many unanswered questions

I don't think having the game set in the past will limit the developers and it won't be as fun because we already know what's going to happen. A favourite scenario of mine would be if dwemer appeared again. That be an awesome setting in my view.

If we're assuming that TES-VI will take place in the future, then perhaps it should take place a few decades into the timeline, in a world where the Thalmor found the "Fourth Empire"? After several years of fighting and more political skill, the Thalmor have finally taken back the provinces of Tamriel, and the continent is loosely ruled by one big empire once again. This would delete the strange plot-hole where Bethesda leaves the outcome of the Skyrim civil war unknown - because no matter who wins, the Thalmor win in the end.

I don't think this would be unusual, considering that the Empire has had strange rulers before - the Akavaviri Potentate, for example.

The game could take place in either Valenwood, Hammerfell, or the Isles themselves, and involve an unknown traveler under the Thalmor regime. After so many years, people have grown used to the Fourth Empire.

From here, we could have what a lot of people here are suggesting - some sort of rebellion against the Thalmor, large-scale. But I personally prefer for something otherworldly to occur to shake the foundations of the new empire, something on the scale of the Oblivion gates or the return of the dragons. This will be the main plot point that our unknown adventurer must worry about.

Or maybe something hugely devastating happens during this calaminity. Maybe the Isles sink into the sea after a huge storm, leaving the Thalmor Empire in ruins - but nobody's going to rebel, because this big calamity (whatever it may be) is too busy getting their attention.

Just spit-balling here.

Sorry if this post is a little incoherent i'm exausted.
There's a lot they can do in regards to storyline and setting with all the plots set up in Skyrim, especially if they're planning on another time-skip. The biggest conflict being set up is the inevitable show down between the Thalmor and the crippled remnants of the Imperial's Empire ending with the Dominion delivering the Mede Empire a fatal blow, with the way Skyrim the Thalmor are here to stay at least for a while, and the empire is on it's way out. (At least until the rise of an inevitable fourth empire) It'd be interesting to see a game set in an Altmer run Tamriel.

Another change I see coming is the Forsworn taking advantage of the chaos to carve out their own country in the Reach, maybe forcing the other races to recognize the Reachmen as a legitimate nation, along with taking greater interest in Tamrielic affairs. Maybe they'll even be playable.

As for the Imperials without their empire there will probably massive unrest in Cyrodiil ending with it divided into various petty kingdoms and tribes, and the near collapse of Imperial society. Remember as good as they are hiding it the Imperials are pretty damn strange to begin with (i.e Nibenese Witch-Warriors) and it'll just be an excuse for them to get weirder now they no longer need to play p.r to a continent spanning empire. Honestly an Empireless Imperial race gives a great opportunity to explore them in greater depth. They might just get a whole lot more popular.

Does anyone know when Fallout is scheduled to be released? I'm holding out hope that once that project is complete Bethesda will shift some manpower to a new TES game.

I'm just frustrated because we should be looking forward to another release in 2015 given that Skyrim came out in 2011. We got TES Online instead which has already been debated over on these forum (so I won't go there now).

I just wish they would (or could) announce something to keep the fanbase excited. I'd be content to follow the development of a new TES game as long as it's announced and we know it's coming.

MJJ, I actually wrote a blog post that addresses part of your question. There will obviously be more Elder Scrolls games, and they almost definitely have something in development.

Personally, I am fine with big gaps between games. I don't want Elder Scrolls to become some Call of Duty-esque series, with annual sequels of increasingly dubious quality and standards. An uncertain development cycle should be praised in the gaming industry, it is one of the few signs we could possibly get that any love went into the project.

Your blog post was a good read and well thought out. I do disagree that an entity besides Bethesda will be developing the next installment. I think for the flagship titles that roll out on the PC they'll keep that in house. Spin offs like the cell phone games and such will most likely continue to be outsourced.

I hope you're right that they have something in development. An announcement would be comforting; however, I think they'll avoid revealing a new Elder Scrolls stand-alone game while Elder Scrolls Online is the shiny and new game on the block. My hope is that we can hear something (anything will do) around Q4 2014 or Q1 2015. I hate to think we'll have to wait that long to begin plotting our adventures in Tamriel.