Introduction
This is an unofficial specification of Elder Scrolls VI, which will called for now Project Greenheart. The name Project Greenheart comes from the Bethesda letter which was spread around the internet a couple of years ago. The letters legitimacy is still unconfirmed but is now believed to be real due to the “Fallout 4: Nuka‐World” prediction.
Please contribute with your ideas! Use issues to spark a discussion and pull requests to contribute to the specification.
As everyone desires different experiences from the Elder Scrolls, some basic principles needs to be set of what the next TES game should be like. Conflicting basic principles will stagger development of the specification and will thus exists for now.
The language used in this specification does not have to be the most advanced. Rather, just try to be exceptionally clear and concise.
As this specification is only about ideas, introducing some categories makes it easier to reason about when discussing.
Micro ideas are ideas which are aimed to solve more targeted and more specific problems. It’s also ideas like how to make a small piece of the UI better, e.g. “Show stats when hover on item”.
Macro ideas are ideas which are aimed to solve a fundamental problem with the game, or lay down the basis of the game’s mechanics. E.g. “There should be attributes in TES VI because ...”
This specification encourages focus on Macro ideas and not that much on Micro ones. This is because Micro ones could most of the time be implemented with third‐party mods, which then gives Bethesda more time to work on more game changing issues. E.g. perfecting window placements in a castle will not drastically change the game the same way Skills will.
We believe also believe that TES VI needs a solid basis which the modding community can build upon. Skyrim had many flawed game designs/mechanics which even mods didn’t even solve, we want to avoid that in TES VI. A flawed basis is also hard to build on.
The Elder Scrolls series should not be obliged to follow it’s history. The series should be more flexible to explore new interesting ideas if it so wants to. Avoid new ideas for the sake of new ideas.
The Elder Scrolls series should develop with immersion in mind at all times. Thus, ideas should also revolve around immersion.
The ideas in this specification should be reasonable to implement. Think rationally about the idea and decide if it suitable for TES VI. The idea might be better off as a mod rather than having Bethesda implementing it.
A skill is a scalar of how much you have done a certain set of actions. The higher you are on the scale, the more perks/advantages you get.
Combat skills are skills that increases when doing a set of combat actions. E.g. using a lot of spells will increase a certain magic skill.
Enchanting should not done by just clicking, it’s not immersive or fun at all. Enchanting needs to be a fun grind, kind of like a mini game that’s not gimmicky.
Crafting should not done by just clicking, it’s not immersive or fun at all.
Attributes should be implemented in TES VI. It should be similar to how Diablo II’s attribute system works. You get attribute points on leveling and you assign it to the attributes. Attribute points are locked in, in other words not revertable. Attributes could be like Str., Int., Dex., Agi., etc. and applying points to each attribute has some effect on a skill. E.g. Increasing Str increases Melee damage, while increasing Agi increases Archery damage and movement speed.
It should be like this because it encourages players to be more strategic, but could also annoy the player when points are assigned wrong in hindsight.
You level by gaining experience (XP). You get XP by slaying mobs. The stronger the mob, the more XP.
There’s no level cap, which also implies unlimited amount of attribute points.
issues. Combat is about the ways to fight enemies.
Magic in Skyrim is boring and uncreative. The Destruction spells are all based around damage and do not involve a lot of strategic play. Stronger spells only do more damage.
The spells in TES VI should be creative, fun and have a learning curve. Overwatch is a great example for these type of spells. Junkrat, which is heavily inspired by Team Fortress 2’s Demoman is very fun to play and has a learning curve. His ability Frag Launcher is a very good example. Another example is Anivia’s Crystallize (from League of Legends) and Mei’s Ice Wall (from Overwatch) which is kind of the same spell.
The Skyrim mod community have created many interesting spells while some are more buggy than others. But nonetheless they are more interesting and above all, more fun to play with.
Archery in Skyrim felt too monotonous. It was basically point and release and the animation was slow and irritating. Hanzo from Overwatch has some great abilities and is a great source for inspiration. It’s also what archery can become in TES VI. Check out Hanzo’s Scatter Arrow.
Melee in Skyrim was basically just hack and slash in a very monotonous way. There’s not much strategic play. Here the TES series could get some inspiration from Dark Souls.
Looting in Skyrim was very boring and stale. You get the strongest weapons by crafting them, not by grinding mobs and dungeons. The loot you got was only used to level up non‐combat skills which makes it not as exciting.
Classes should have a bigger impact on the gameplay.
Sound adds an important atmosphere to the game. Good voice acting is also good for immersion.
Virtual Reality (VR) has become more widely adopted in the recent years. The amount of developers and consumer has increased but it’s still only available as a luxury item. A good solution for movement in‐game has yet to created. So the big question is: Should TES VI adopt VR? If yes, how much?
VR’s immersion is the best type of immersion you can get today. TES VI must have VR on launch for a couple of reasons. VR shines the most with the immersive games, which makes TES VI one of the perfect games for it.
TES VI should not be VR‐first. It’s probably not a profitable move for Bethesda and not everyone can afford VR yet. Bethesda’s profit do matter to us and them.
We want this project to be as transparent as possible and everyone is welcome with their ideas and contributions!
We write in Spec Markdown, which is Markdown with some additions.
npm install -g spec-md to install spec-md which is the package used to generate the html site from the markdown. Make sure you have Node.js installed.spec-md specification.md > index.html in forked folder to output html to index.html