Idea for TES: VI - Randomly-Generated exploration anyone?
Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2013 9:04 am
This started off as a post in this thread: http://forums.uesp.net/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=27470
But i want to get some real discussion on it so here we go.
(Apologies in advance for the terrible punctuation, i'm using a tablet)
So the other day I was exploring in Skyrim... at least trying to... and I realised I had literally traversed every square inch of terrain, which totally kills the whole 'adventurous' feeling that an ES game usually brings.
This has never happened to me in Cyrodiil, as the world just feels so vast. Every time I go wild I find unfamiliar terrain, and I've spent a WHOLE LOT more hours playing it than Skyrim.
Now as far as I know, Skyrims' in-game zone is actually larger than oblivion's (correct me if I'm wrong) and it was entirely hand-crafted, (unlike oblivion in which many areas were randomly generated) resulting in a beautifully detailed environment compared to it's predecessor. But Skyrim, for however reason, is more difficult to just go get lost in.
As a result of all this thinking, I came up with a (imo ) reasonable concept for tes VI. (which I believe will be in Hammerfell)
It pretty much goes like this,
-Someone: they could be an independent wizard, a count/jarl equivalent, or an organisation
-Needs something: for a particular project or other need.
-from a remote location
-and they need you to obtain large amounts of it in return for... well, anything.
-So whenever you want they transport you to this dangerous, remote place and you roam around randomly-generated terrain, so it's different every time! Like a better version of oblivion gates!
For example, the Loremaster of the order of sword-singing or whatever it is, needs your help to obtain large quantities of a legendary... um... plant maybe? Redguard legends tell of the usefulness of this plant, which only grows in Yokuda. Recent expeditions have confirmed that the legendary continent still exists in the form of a massive archipelago of small islands, which may contain the plant. We get either magically teleported there, carrying an object that we can use to bail out and get us back, or something similar. So we get to traverse these island chains and kill exotic monsters and find loot and pick flowers, and every flower we bring back is rewarded with cash, or maybe unique items for large quantities, or something like sinderion's quest in oblivion. The fun part though, is that everything is randomly generated, like the landscape of oblivion. This could also be a great opportunity to introduce usable boats to the TES series, to get across small lagoons or to adjacent islands.
Either way it would be an alternative to just running through repopulated caves and dungeons every time we needed loot, and the possibilities are endless! Say there is a 1/1000 chance to encounter a unique non-scaled boss creature ! Or they could pre-make a few unique situations (kind of like larger versions of skyrim's random encounters) that there would be a small chance of running into every expedition.
For me this would add so much to the game, and as i said, the possibilities are endless. Hey, it could even be a part of the Main Quest, as the Oblivion Gates were. (Oblivion gates trumped dragon battles in my opinion.)
-I'm not sure what Morrowind had as i played it as a child
-Oblivion had Oblivion Gates
-Skyrim had Dragon Battles
-TES: VI could have this! It will be on the next generation of consoles so who knows what it's technical limits will be.
As you can read im exited by my visualization of this so forgive my over-enthusiasm .
So go ahead and tell me your thoughts, tear down my dreams if you wish, i just want to hear what people think about it.
But i want to get some real discussion on it so here we go.
(Apologies in advance for the terrible punctuation, i'm using a tablet)
So the other day I was exploring in Skyrim... at least trying to... and I realised I had literally traversed every square inch of terrain, which totally kills the whole 'adventurous' feeling that an ES game usually brings.
This has never happened to me in Cyrodiil, as the world just feels so vast. Every time I go wild I find unfamiliar terrain, and I've spent a WHOLE LOT more hours playing it than Skyrim.
Now as far as I know, Skyrims' in-game zone is actually larger than oblivion's (correct me if I'm wrong) and it was entirely hand-crafted, (unlike oblivion in which many areas were randomly generated) resulting in a beautifully detailed environment compared to it's predecessor. But Skyrim, for however reason, is more difficult to just go get lost in.
As a result of all this thinking, I came up with a (imo ) reasonable concept for tes VI. (which I believe will be in Hammerfell)
It pretty much goes like this,
-Someone: they could be an independent wizard, a count/jarl equivalent, or an organisation
-Needs something: for a particular project or other need.
-from a remote location
-and they need you to obtain large amounts of it in return for... well, anything.
-So whenever you want they transport you to this dangerous, remote place and you roam around randomly-generated terrain, so it's different every time! Like a better version of oblivion gates!
For example, the Loremaster of the order of sword-singing or whatever it is, needs your help to obtain large quantities of a legendary... um... plant maybe? Redguard legends tell of the usefulness of this plant, which only grows in Yokuda. Recent expeditions have confirmed that the legendary continent still exists in the form of a massive archipelago of small islands, which may contain the plant. We get either magically teleported there, carrying an object that we can use to bail out and get us back, or something similar. So we get to traverse these island chains and kill exotic monsters and find loot and pick flowers, and every flower we bring back is rewarded with cash, or maybe unique items for large quantities, or something like sinderion's quest in oblivion. The fun part though, is that everything is randomly generated, like the landscape of oblivion. This could also be a great opportunity to introduce usable boats to the TES series, to get across small lagoons or to adjacent islands.
Either way it would be an alternative to just running through repopulated caves and dungeons every time we needed loot, and the possibilities are endless! Say there is a 1/1000 chance to encounter a unique non-scaled boss creature ! Or they could pre-make a few unique situations (kind of like larger versions of skyrim's random encounters) that there would be a small chance of running into every expedition.
For me this would add so much to the game, and as i said, the possibilities are endless. Hey, it could even be a part of the Main Quest, as the Oblivion Gates were. (Oblivion gates trumped dragon battles in my opinion.)
-I'm not sure what Morrowind had as i played it as a child
-Oblivion had Oblivion Gates
-Skyrim had Dragon Battles
-TES: VI could have this! It will be on the next generation of consoles so who knows what it's technical limits will be.
As you can read im exited by my visualization of this so forgive my over-enthusiasm .
So go ahead and tell me your thoughts, tear down my dreams if you wish, i just want to hear what people think about it.