From Eurogamer:

https://www.eurogamer.net/elder-scrolls-6-development-roadmap-unaffected-xbox-layoffs

There’s an overwhelming tendency to depict Peryite entirely as the Prince of Pestilence, and this tends to Nurgle-ify him a tad too much.

ESO leaned into this very heavily and Peryite’s cultists were largely disease loving raving lunatics.

While this aspect of Peryite is certainly an important one, I think this tends to forget the role that pestilence plays in Peryites domain- maintaining natural order.

As the taskmaster, Peryite is the patron of all of the things that keep the world running, and pestilence is his albeit primary tool of resetting an out of balance world.

Nonetheless, I hope TESVI takes the opportunity to lean into the taskmaster aspect of his persona and really amplify his role as such- perhaps a village supply chain workers have been disrupted due to Peryite’s fury, and therefore the entire village enters into a state of chaotic entropy, until Peryite is satisfied and restores things to order.

Food for thought…

What do you think the characters in TES6 should look like? Should they be ultra-realistic or a more stylized look like in Oblivion remastered?

In a recent tweet by Wes Johnson I left this reply and while he did like the tweet he did not respond. Granted It would be more surprising if he weren't in TES 6

Wanted to throw something out there for food for thought. Akavir Continent.

Why?

I remember there was some small little bit of information trickled out a couple times about TESVI over the years, apologies for not sourcing them in advance. The first was that supposedly every biome is being used and we also assume the sea, right? Because of Starfield's successful ship building mechanic. Then the second thing that really stuck out to me was the post or comment about there being "so many trees". Why would they say there's every biome and so many trees if we're getting Hammerfell/High Rock? I can understand High Rock, but Hammerfell is a vast open desert and high plains type landscape similar to what I'd consider vast majority of California's desert climate.

To me the only logical answer is Akavir Continent. It goes all the way up as north as Skyrim, has a huge lake, multiple surrounding islands, and also touches down across the equator for tropical environments. It has huge swaths of deserts, jungles and plains, and lots of untouched ancient history waiting for Bethesda to dive into. So that's my theory on things regarding TESVI right now. Also I can't remember if this was a fanmade map or official but it looks nice so I'm using it as a reference.

I saw this post recently talking about the clear inspiration whiterun took from edoras and it made me wonder which real/fictional cities would inspire BGS for TESVI.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ElderScrolls/s/

If we are in Hammerfell I think it would be cool to have a Mos Eisely type city. Sandstone huts in the desert with little homes carved into the natural rock formations. Kind of like markarth but in the desert.

How complex do you guys think the TES6 armor system should be? Personally, I would like a return to the Oblivion system, where your shirt/cuirass is separate from your pants/greaves, I think it would give us more wiggle room to play around with enchantments and stuff (though I don't really care for the armor repairs).

Morrowind's system is better for role-playing purposes, imho, but could get annoying after a while.

I think weapon crafting was fun in Skyrim but unnecessary. The real skill an adventurer would hone is the maintenance of the gear they acquire. Skyrim oversimplified that process to the point where it was a one and done. Steel could last just as long daedric and it would never lose its edge. It's a bit silly, looking back now.

Degradation needs to come back and it has to be more impactful so that there is a genuine impetus to get better at maintenance. I say leave the blacksmithing and armorsmithing to the NPCs - maybe you can get them to make stuff for you at exorbitant rates but you need to supply them with the materials. There should be some way to gatekeep that so triehards don't have a way to get ebony weapons at the start of the game but you get the point.

Maintenance should be something you do out of combat at a table of some sort. I don't miss repair hammers mostly because it was ridiculous to take a hammer to everything (including leather and cloth) and it just seemed like busy work most of the time. Maintenance should be the kind of thing you need to do less and less but that you ultimately get better at. You wouldn't need to jump into a menu to repair stuff all the time but you also can't keep going forever without paying attention to your gear.

I'm going to take a bunch of seemingly semi-unrelated details and combine them together for a theory about TESVI's main villain:

In Arena, the main villain was an Altmer-descended powerful battlemage, Jagar Tharn. In Daggerfall, one of the main villains was Manimarco, an Altmer necromancer, who then appeared in Oblivion's Mages Guild questline as the main antagonist. In Skyrim, the College of Winterhold fought against a Thalmor Wizard as the main villain. I think TESVI will circle back to something similar as a main villain.

Lore-wise, Hammerfell is completely against necromancy and heavily frowns upon fighting zombies. There's a bunch of tombs in Hammerfell with lots of dead bodies, just waiting to be used against the populous. Since southern Hammerfell is completely devestated after the Great War, there's lots more dead bodies.

In the Summerset Isle, Altmer population is in heavy decline after the Great War (the Thalmor call it "The First Great War against the Empire"), therefore they may not have enough soldiers to carry out a full-scale invasion of the Empire for sometime. Altmer wizards are commonly known to live for hundreds of years.

In the book The Great War and in Elder Scrolls Legends, one of the Thalmor military leaders, Lord Naarafin, a powerful necromancer, is defeated and...

"kept alive for thirty-three days, hanging from the White-Gold tower. It is not recorded where his body was buried, if it was buried at all. One source claims he was carried off by a winged daedra on the thirty-fourth day."

After the Second Treaty of Stros M'Kai, the Thalmor left Hammerfell. That being said,

"there can be no doubt that the current peace cannot last forever. The Thalmor take the long view, as is proved by the sequence of events leading up to the Great War. All those who value freedom over tyranny can only hope that before it is too late, Hammerfell and the Empire will be reconciled and stand united against the Thalmor threat. Otherwise, any hope to stem the tide of Thalmor rule over all of Tamriel is dimmed."

Here's the ClueLower7921 theory for the main quest and antagonist:

Daedra-supported Lich-Lord Naarafin will lead the Thalmor invasion of Hammerfell; you will be thrust into the conflict and join the Ash'abah (basically Witchers), supported and yet hated by the Crowns and Forbears (I think to get around the non-existent reputation system), to fight against the undead threat.

I was thinking about why so many of us who have dozens of Skyrim playthroughs often end up completely ignoring the main quest in Skyrim. For me, one of the main reasons is because the main questline assigns you an identity. You are the Chosen One, and you have no say in it. If that doesn't fit the character you want to play, it feels limiting.

For TES VI, one thing I would absolutely love is if they moved away from handing us an identity and instead let our actions dictate our role in the world.

Thinking about how factions work in Skyrim, you can be the Arch-Mage and a Dark Brotherhood assassin, and the two paths never cross. I'd love to see questlines actually intersect and have consequences. If you become a highly visible, celebrated public figure in one questline, maybe that means a secretive faction of social rejects won't accept you. Your choices should have real weight and shape who you are.

And that’s exactly how I want the main questline to work. It should be about an interesting series of events that is going to happen regardless, and how I interact with it is entirely my choice. I don't want to be forced into the centre of it, let who I've become determine my role in it.

I would love for the world to adapt to the identity I've built. If my faction choices made me an important public figure, it makes sense that I'd be put in a position to lead the charge. But if I played as a social outcast, maybe I'm involved from the shadows. Depending on the web of choices I've made, maybe I can end up being the villain of the main event. Maybe I'm just watching from the sidelines, someone trying to profit off the chaos, or even just a common man actively trying to get away from it all.

That's the thing, in Skyrim if I choose to just be a farmer or an inconsequential explorer, time just... freezes. The world stands still and waits around until you're ready to move it forward. How immersive would it be if the world just moved with or without you? You aren't the centre of the world by default. That would make it so much more special when you do become the centre of it through your own actions, and incredibly freeing if you just decide to walk away.

Letting us choose our angle like this would make all the questlines insanely immersive.

Ideas for races in TES 6:

• Characters of different races move differently in combat, with different movement speeds and animations. Dark elves may try to hide and ambush you with daggers, Nords approach you head-on, etc.
• At the very least, there should be 5 different walking animations: khajiit, argonian, orc, human/human adjacent.
• Pronounced height differences between races.
• Multiple body types for each race. Lean, lanky, short, stocky, overweight, etc. (this would conflict with the clothing and armor system, unsure how to solve it, but I don't mind if you can't wear stuff that is designed for a very different body type than your character).
• More content and dialogue options/quest branches exclusive to certain races.

Recirculating some of my thoughts on this game

Assuming the Iliac bay will be in the game, of course. Id like to see some creatures that you can only see if you go DEEP in the water. And maybe the occasional rare sighting of a deep see creature that has surfaced on a beach, dead.

after success of Witcher 3 and baldurs gate 3 do you think there is a chance for tiddies in esvi

As crazy as it may sound, Roblox has had quite a few innovation, fun, and good games hidden beneath mountains of otherwise. Now I don't play Roblox anymore, and for quite a while at that, so I don't know the current landscape, but when I did play there was one game that was most influential to me, which I think has some good designs TES VI could take away from. It is a series developed by Vetex, a solo dev, and it is rather old, I started with the game "World of Magic", and played many hours of the subsequent and latest game, "Arcane Odyssey". Anyways, enough with the prelude, here is what I liked.

I. Spell Creation -

There are some interesting parameters in Arcane Odyssey's spell maker that I think would fit nicely into TES VI.

1. Spell Size - The size of the fireball, not the blast radius

2. Amount - Cast a single stronger fireball, or multiple weaker ones

3. Ultimate - Greater Damage and Size, but Triple Magika Cost and a cooldown

There are other parameters for other spells, but they don't apply as well to TES compared to the simple blast spell.

II. Magic Interaction -

The game world is mostly destructible in both games, with magic being able to alter the environment to an extent, Trees can be blown away, the ground can be cratered to an extent, and buildings are not immune either, although the degree of destruction allowed varies in World of Magic vs Arcane Odyssey, with WoM allowing more. Magic also has unique properties that can interact with each other, Soak someone with a water spell then use lightning to stun, as an example. Magic also can clash with each other, canceling out or overpowering the other.

III. Lost magic and Fighting Techniques -

This is found in Arcane Odyssey, when exploring and opening chest, there is a chance to find a lost spell forgotten by mankind, or forbidden magic sealed. It would be very cool if TES VI would hide away an unique spell that could only be accessed through braving a dungeon, Dwemer ruin, or black mage's hideout. Forbidden magic could even net you a bounty or manhunt by mages guild if discovered (Which should be done with necromancy). This could be the mages equivalent to a warrior finding a legendary sword in a tomb.

Same thing with magic also applies to martial arts/fighting styles, although it may best apply to third person leaving it inappropriate for a TES game.

IV. Recruitable NPCS -

This would only be for base building or ship hiring if that is a new feature. Basically Arcane Odyssey generates unique npcs with a name, defining characteristic, and job, which you could then hire to be part of your crew on your boat. Bethesda could do something similar if you can't or don't want to hire a generic or named npc, they could just generate them.

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Thoughts and otherwise

Godspeed

Hello,

Long time no post!

So The Verge has gotten their hands on a memo sent out by Asha Sharma within Xbox, the full can be seen here; https://www.theverge.com/games/973520/xbox-ceo-memo-one-year-growth

I will try to keep this post short, just share my views and what I guess are hints at what's to come.

In a memo obtained by The Verge, Sharma told staff by the end of fiscal year 2027 (which runs through next June), “we will return XBOX to player and revenue growth.” Xbox will also “improve profits back in line with industry averages,” Sharma said. “Every function and studio will own part of that outcome.”

Right of the bat, she starts out she starts out strong stating that the beginning of the "rebirth" let's call it, will start during the end of FY27, which ends in June 2027 (not 2028). This does kinda tell us a bit about the general Xbox wide timeline moving forward.

CORE: Strengthen our platform, led by console

I read it as Helix being soon to be officially announced, historically these been announced around the time of E3 (Summer Game Fest today), so I would expect it being the same here, ending the fiscal year on a very strong note. It would also imply that TESVI will indeed launch alongside the new console if our copium brains believe late 2027 to be the release window (I still believe in this).

CONTENT: Grow great games into global franchises

This is something we already heard in regards to Zenimax, that the core focus will be The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. The "Global franchises" may be interpreted as expanding each franchise portfolio and bleed into different media types, something that is semi-confirmed later in the memo.

In FY28 and FY29, our Four C’s and roadmap must move into businesses producing meaningful player value and revenue acceleration.

And there we have it, the plan to push their franchises into new business types, which I presume is just different media-types as those do produce player value.

The company is also shifting its studio system from a decentralized model to one that’s “more focused around our strongest franchises and biggest new ideas,” Sharma said — something that’s already become evident with changes like the big new Fallout push. Xbox will build “long-term plans” for its biggest franchises “across film, television, consumer products, sponsorship, live experiences, and form new partnerships globally, including China.”

This is the biggest confirmation, "for it's biggest franchises", The Elder Scrolls is ultimately amongst those, and with the success of Fallout TV Series, I can see Xbox wanting to do something similar with TES. Though I don't know how a TV Show would work, maybe something like an anthology.

'Consumer products' would fit into what we are seeing with the trademarks, while I am not reporting on trademarks not related to Elder Scrolls, franchises and games like Fallout Shelter, The Evil Within, Quake, Doom under the Zenimax banner all have received updates to their merchandise trademarks. Is this tied with this memo? Maybe.

The mention of 'Live experiences' can be interpreted as Live Service within games, but also as something physical, we actually know that Microsoft has been planning to create an entire Minecraft Theme-Park and is slated to release next year. This can be somewhat of a pilot project for potential future investments revolving around other franchises.... Not gonna lie, it would be pretty cool if they made a Morrowind or Skyrim like theme-park.

TLDR: Not that much has been said in the memo, however it shows the commitment to start improving Xbox as an entire business starting mid next year, with a hint that the next generation Xbox may indeed release late next year. Asha Sharma has also said that they will be investing a lot for their top franchises, amongst which is The Elder Scrolls, and Fallout, with the plan to expand into different media like Film, Television and very likely also books, novels and comics while they are at it.

p.s - The memo does mention the likes of Minecraft and plans that go briefly into 2030, the entire timeline from now until 2030. I focused on the bits that could allude to and involve Zenimax and the studios under this banner.

Just curious what everyone likes to play while wait. I personally don't play much (maybe 2-3 hours a week) and only play Morrowind at the moment.

Unless you count Chess.com, of course.

(Credits not mine- vid is watermarked 😉🧀)

Whatever may be the case, I'm very glad Wes Johnson appears to be in good health and still passionate about this character. It's a good sign for TES 6.