The Elder Scrolls VI

Hell, they "soft forced" sleep in Oblivion. If you never sleep, you never level up.

Oblivion's level system was a bit of a half-broken relic from a time 'resting' was a core element of adventuring.

It depends; sleep's a pretty core part of survival gameplay, in that its one of the most obvious needs games will use. If survival gameplay becomes more pronounced in TES VI, then yes, sleep could be important — and I suppose survival elements were heavily requested in the Fallout series and Skyrim. But I don't otherwise see it being important outside of any survival mode. It's the opposite direction of how the franchise has tended to develop.

I miss being able to wait without sitting down, though. I hope that's not brought into the next ES.

Edited by Lavaeolus on Jun 26th 2018 at 4:52:56 PM

Waiting should randomly add some tiny amount of xp to some random noncombat skill (maybe determined by your class) to imply that you did something in that time. Maybe read a book or something. To balance it out, maybe deduct a gold piece when you wait every now and then instead, and add a beer to your inventory.

Edited by blkwhtrbbt on Jun 26th 2018 at 10:58:27 AM

It's a weird thing about rpgs- you get shops, taverns and can build houses. But your character never... lives it.

The tavern is just another vendor. Your house just a collection of secure storage areas.

And yes the gameplay around watching your character doing mundane stuff is dull. Surely there's a way to improve it. Rdr had the card games in saloons; fable had the pub games. Heck make a mini game sitting in your house to read or passively level up whilst doing actions. Or give dialogue perks to sitting down in a tavern (-10 to formality, you conversational partner is more relaxed so persuasion checks are easier)

As long as the survival aspects don't overwhelm the game, or are optional (like they were in New Vegas), that's cool.

I would like to see a Survival Mode in TES. Make the game more immersive. Add a hunger meter that won't let you eat past a certain amount (You can't just eat twenty whole cheese wheels out of nowhere), make sleep necessary, make thirst important, make it fatal to stay out in the snow too long. General survival shit.

But make it OPTIONAL. Some players wouldn't like it or wouldn't be good at it, and thus this would allow them to play the game the normal way, or the challenging way.

I'm not against the implementation of a survival mode, but it might not seem as relevant as it would in Skyrim or Fallout. The Fallout games have a lot of themes about managing resources in their background: the desire for further resources, the inability to sustain on depleting reserves, etc. War never changes, all that. Meanwhile Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 both had a lot of scavenging as part of their core gameplay. New Vegas wanted to reflect the harshness and experience of traversing a desert. Similarly, Skyrim was all about its cold and hostile climate, and depending on your reliance on fast travel the trek between mountains, which made survival elements more attractive.^note Oblivion and Morrowind have similar mods, but I don't remember them reaching anywhere near the popularity of Frostfall.

I suspect journeying between places will still be relevant for the next TES, but depending on where we're going, and how the climate, world, etc. is depicted, it may end up feeling more out-of-place.

Edited by Lavaeolus on Jun 27th 2018 at 6:06:26 PM

A "survival" skill could cause more game animals and edible berries and such to spawn in the wilderness.

It doesn't necessarily have to be some barren wasteland or unforgiving frozen north type of environment. As long as the area isn't completely settled and urbanized, some survival elements could still fit in.

My problem with survival gameplay is that it tends to become tedious. It's about keeping meters and bars filled. Like, sure, I can scavenge for berries, but it's an TES game. I'll be carrying 300 wheels of cheese and several hundred pounds of meat, so keeping myself fed will never be an obstacle because cities exist, and food is plentiful. And that's still without me going out of my way to stockpile food. The "survival" part is going to be "Interrupt the game every 15 min to re-fill my food meters"

Well, with survival mode usually comes decreased carry weight and increased item weight, meaning you can't carry around an entire pantry plus armory with you wherever you go unless you like traveling at a slow walk all the time. I have a mod for Skyrim that also adds spoilage timers to food, so I have to pack light and forage or hunt occasionally, or else it all just rots and becomes useless anyway.

The weight limit just adds to the tediousness. Sure, I don't carry 300 wheels of cheese. I still own 300 in a chest. Just means I gotta limit myself to 5 at a time whenever I go anywhere and cut adventuring short to resupply.

Plus you got the weird scenario where food spoils but your alchemy ingredients dont.

Ultimately, if you have fun, more power to you. I've just rarely found survival mechanics fun, and never in Bethesda games.

Personally, Frostfall, Hunterborn, and Realistic Needs and Diseases made Skyrim so much more interesting for me. I like that kind of survival, keeping track of supplies and environment, kind of gameplay. Then again, I like games like The Long Dark and open world survival games, so maybe that's just me.

I agree having it as an option could really make for an interesting narrative / gameplay experience.

But "survival" being meters feels... arbitrary. And also a bit ridiculous. A healthy person CAN go for a day without food and function without fatigue; fluids, yeah, you need. But the meters feel a tad overmuch at times. A simpler system like "comfort" or "satisfaction" could also make for interesting gameplay options (so, maybe a character trait you choose is "hedonist" which means certain food types only return half health, or you have a meter that diminishes if your sleep in beds, which maybe has a temporary debuff to stamina, to represent your lack of rest?

Or a trait like "satisfaction" where if you choose a trait that aligns you towards being more mercenary / evil (So you get more rewards by intimidating people) but reduces if you take actions that are kinder?

yeah it forces a style of play, but those sort of optional traits could make for a different style of play where your character would start to reflect a "type" rather than the DO EVERYTHING protag of most ES games.

Yeah, they could do away with literal meters and make it more natural. That's one thing Realistic Needs and Diseases did well. Rather than meters, there's audio queues, like your stomach gurgling when you start to get hungry, clearing your throat when you get thirsty, yawning when you become sleepy. That and the rate of time each need advances at is adjustable, and by default made so that the amount of time you can go without some essential need being met before dying is somewhat realistic, but you still start experiencing negative effects if you go too long without. Something like that would be good if incorporated in an optional Survival or Hardcore mode, like New Vegas and Fallout 4 did.

You don't even have to die. Just make it give debuffs

Bumping this thread up.

I've just started playing Elder Scrolls: Oblivion today. My experience with Elder Scrolls mostly comes from Skyrim so I didn't know what to expect. I'm really liking it so far. The graphics don't really look half bad and I've already finished a few side quests, including getting Maeva back her family heirloom. I'm looking forward to playing some more.

I have to admit, I really miss Command Humanoid spells when I go from Oblivion to Skyrim. In Oblivion, I like to round up NPCs with a ridiculously powerful mind control spell and lock them up inside Summitmist Manor, where a programming oversight prevents them from ever leaving once they've entered the door.

A few times I've rounded up most of the game's most powerful essential NPCs inside Summitmist Manor and cast a Frenzy spell, causing a prolongued brawl from which there is no escape.

Edited by DrDougsh on Aug 11th 2018 at 3:47:03 AM

So, I played a little more of Oblivion and I have to say, it's pretty good. I managed to do a little bit of the main quest. I found Martin Septim and brought him to the Blades. I also helped a woman out when her husband got robbed by a female gang. Finally, I sealed an Oblivion gate out in the wilderness. I think the game is pretty good.

Oh, just wait till you beat the Fighting Arena. You'll learn a new definition of the term "Annoying Companion."

And then there's also the city guSTOP! YOU'VE VIOLATED THE LAW!

Edited by Rytex on Aug 13th 2018 at 9:02:09 AM

Please. Oblivion city guard was nothing.

Break the law in Daggerfall and see the Oblivion rifts to the guard dimension open, spewing out guards upon guards until they cover the streets like ants.

Heh,I played Daggerfall fairly recently and surprised to learn that guards attack you for sleep outside,vagrancy laws are stuupid

And they never stop shouting "HALT!"

There's a Skyrim mod that replaces the audio for Fus Ro Dah with STOP IN THE NAME OF THE LAW. It's amazing. If you don't use the full three-word shout, it's just STOP.