Mechanics are a core part of making anyRPGwork, whether that would be a tabletop pen-and-paper title or a video game.The Elder Scrollsas a series is known for its beautiful open worlds and smart usage of a few mechanics to make the world feel alive.
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Each game has streamlined or removed mechanics, for better or worse. Many veteranElder Scrollsfans fear that the next entry will follow suit and remove more features. Instead of removing features, the best way forward for the series is to look back and reimplement ideas from the past. Here are 10 of the bestElder Scrollsfeatures removed thatBethesdashould consider implementing in future installments.
10NPC Disposition
Technically NPCs have disposition ratings inSkyrimand mostElder Scrollsentries, but none have handled the system better thanMorrowind.
InMorrowind, NPCs have a visible disposition towards the player that could be influenced based on the Nevarine’s actions or through dialogue. Bribing guards to get certain pieces of information can work, but you can just as easily do some work in the town and they’ll be just as willing to fork over the information you need. Combined with dialogue responses changing based on campaign completion, ithelped makeMorrowindfeel much more immersivethan anyElder Scrollsgame since.
9Mysticism
Schools of magic inThe Elder Scrollsget fewer and fewer with each new entry. Seven schools of magic existed inDaggerfall, butSkyrimhas reduced this to five.
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Mysticism was one such school that was cut inSkyrim. This school focused on manipulating Magicka to enhance yourself or manipulate souls, resulting in it having ties with necromancy and movement skills like levitation.Morrowindhad many hidden items that could only be accessed through levitating.Oblivionnever took advantage of it, and the school was subsequently removed inSkyrim.
8Climbing
Related to mobility, mages weren’t the only characters that could move vertically on surfaces.Daggerfallallowed less magically-inclined builds to scale up walls and various surfaces through the Climbing skill.
High ranks in Climbing allowed players to scale entire castle walls or multiple floors in a dungeon.Morrowindremoved this skill for unknown reasons, although it was likely to prevent players from glitching through walls. With some refinement, adding Climbing back into the nextElder Scrollsgame could allow for a new degree of well-crated levels and means to play as a stealthy character.
7Spellcrafting
Skyrimsaw many changes tothe way combat workedby introducing dual-wielding and adding channeled spells. Combat has never felt better in anElder Scrollsgame, but it came at a great cost.
Spellcrafting was removed fromSkyrimentirely. In previous games, players could select effects from known spells and combine them with other effects to make a new spell. The spell’s damage, duration, strength, and other stats could all be tweaked as well to allow for awide degree of customization.
63D Dungeon Maps
Dungeons are a core part ofDaggerfalland the progression system tied with Shouts inSkyrim. While dungeon design has gotten dramatically better with each game, the map has conversely gotten worse.
Daggerfallintroduced a fully-interactive 3-dimensional map that players could pan around to see exactly how the dungeon progressed. It was necessary for the randomly-generated terrain that game used, but future titles went back to a 2D map that gives little information. It’s a small thing, but its inclusion would make delving in Dwemer or Ayleid ruins much easier.
5Personal Carts
If Bethesda decides to implement any small feature fromDaggerfall, however, it has to be its travel system. More specifically, the ability for players to have carts carried by horses.
Carts acted as an external inventory that players could dump their loot into while delving in a dungeon. Its carry capacity far exceeds what players could ever hold. The downsides were minor, making your horse slower and unable to jump. Adding this into the nextElder Scrollsgame would give players a reason to bring a horse along while adventuring and allow for more interesting random events relating to defending the cart and its cargo.
4Realistic Factions
You could be the dumbest person in all of Tamriel yet still have the Mages Guild or College of Winterhold accept you into their ranks. It allows any build to see all faction content, but it hurts the suspension of disbelief that the series was handling just fine two entries ago.
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Morrowindasked players to meet certain requirements before joining any faction. Wanted to join the Fighters Guild? You better know how to wield a sword. Better yet, certain faction quests would conflict with each other. Besides being forced to side with one House, factions like the Fighters Guild might ask you to obtain an item from the Thieves Guild—something the Thieves Guild would dislike. It made factions feel much more realisticcompared to future entries, even thoughOblivionandSkyrimhad much better guild questlines.
3Layered Armor System
As with spells, armor itself has become much more streamlined as each mainlineElder Scrollsgame has released.Skyrimallows for a helmet, chest, arms, boots, amulet, and ring to be equipped simultaneously. This pales in comparison to whatMorrowindor evenOblivionallowed.
InMorrowind, players had unique armor pieces for each arm and shoulder. Two rings could be equipped at once, and standard clothing could be worn under armor.Fallout 4went onto use a system similar toMorrowind’swith great success, so it’s only fitting the nextElder Scrollsgame does the same.
2Large Cities
Many might not get to the Cloud District very often, but Whiterun is lucky to have districts at all. Nearly every major city inSkyrimhas no more than a dozen buildings in it and a few dozen NPCs populating it.
Compare this toOblivion’smassive Imperial City. Despite being instanced with multiple districts, it still gave the feeling as a central hub for trade across Tamriel.Morrowind’sVivec is another shining example, taking up amassive chunk of the open worldto support its monolithic buildings. When you compare it toDaggerfall’scities that take literal minutes to traverse, it’s easy to see that the cities in the nextElder Scrollsgame need to make up forSkyrim’spoor excuse for hub areas.
1No Scaling
This is rather advocating for the removal of a mechanic rather than adding an older one, but its removal would dramatically improve the immersion and replayability of the nextElder Scrollsgame.
That would be scaling.Oblivionadded scaling enemies and armor every time the player leveled. Thisfundamentally broke the balance of the game, which was addressed inSkyrimby lessening its impact and preventing the likes of bandits from obtaining Daedric or Glass gear.Morrowinddidn’t have scaling and was widely praised for its hidden Daedric items and artifacts that wouldn’t be possible without the lack of global scaling.
