This is my favorite Skyrim critique delivered by an 80s venture capitalist that I've seen on youtube so far. But seriously, this is a good monologue and a good critique. It speaks to a lot of Skyrim's problems that lie beyond its gameplay systems.
@@DylonBridson There's already a Morrowind FanFiction Edition. It's called Tamriel Rebuilt, and it's legitimately good. Expanding on, and respecting the lore of the time period the game is set in, as well as the games before. Last I checked, there's more quests, dungeons, and gear than in the vanilla Morrowind. Plus, adding in pretty much all of Tamriel over time is a bonus.
+kalpesh shinde Imagine being a narcissistic psychopath with an IQ of 11 and that is what you get on most people's "evil" playthroughs. Apparently making objectively terrible decisions for yourself and everyone else is evil. Who knew.
I simultaneously love and hate these videos. Love because your ideas are pure gold (and so easy to visualise as features), and hate because it makes me want something we're never getting. It's too cruel! :D
It's simply not going to work. Trust me almost all developers have plans for their games that are on this scale. The problem is that reality will hit them and they have to downsize their plans to compensate for time and money. Making a game is not as easy as you think.
The Idea with the Darkelves as allies is great, but i would locate them not in Windhelm, but instead in Winterhold. They are allowed to resettle in the broken houses, and when you first go there, they will start to build their district from the ruins. They have a better place there, since the Mages Guild is there, where the darkelevs are trained to fight with fire magic for the Civil war. Also the statue of Azura is nearby, which they greatly appreciate.They will be seen playing around with fire all the time to keep themselves warm from the cold icy winds from the oceans, which further emphasizes their fire skills. They will be trained to become fierce battle mages
Actually that would be better, except it needs also a far greater tension between Dunmers and Nords. After all, there are CENTURIES of hatred and war fought among them, and there are a lot of religious threads in their conflict, considering that the Dark Elves killed Ysmir. So it could exist an alliance between Ulfric and the Dunmers, but one of convinience, running on thin ice and very unsettling for the most of both populations.
Something I didn't like is how often everyone says the same thing to you. I'd rather everyone just ignore me than hear "I WORK FOR BELETHOR AT THE GENERAL GOODS STORE" 5000 times over.
I don't think it's unreasonable that Bethesda could go all out on the roleplaying aspects given that 1. they now have an enormous fanbase 2. they have the technology to make the game still fairly fast paced and 'action' in its gameplay 3. they've given themselves a large amount of time to work on it
Sadly I have no faith that will happen. If anything, the success of Skyrim will make them lean even harder into the action/adventure stuff and away from the CRPG design and political intrigue of Daggerfall & Morrowind
@@EA_SP0RTCENTERand will never learn as long as people keep feeding them cash. IMO Bethesda fans are genuinely the biggest suckers in all of gaming barring like sports game fans. Paying $70 now for games that the fanbase itself has to make enjoyable or sometimes even just playable in general via modding
+Cameron Robinson No shit ! I'm only four minutes into this video and he's preaching gospel here. Every Bethesda employee that works on an Elder Scrolls title should be made to watch at least four minutes of this.
*slowly removes glasses, wipes them with a shaky hand* My god....serious question, if Bethesda extended you an offer to help them design ACTUAL functioning cities and other settlements and some lore bits, would you take it?
because even 5 years after release, no one at either Bethesda or in the modding community has managed to make such large, sprawling cities? it's not for lack of trying, their concept art shows immense cities. they had to give up on scale to meet modern expectations for graphical fidelity. yes, a new engine would make it possible, but when you have staff who have used the same engine for literal decades, it's not exactly smooth sailing to upgrade your software. my 1000 dollar (in 2014) gaming rig can't break 60fps in JK's Whiterun, let alone a cheap console running a Whiterun the size of Cornwall.
Gary I visited the forums for beyond Skyrim and most of the projects seem to be moving forward in some capacity but Cyrodil already has Bruma and from what I've seen they're working on implementation on the imperial city and others.
+Ogr252 -it would just look silly, like you're an ant in someone's house -if you make everything look bigger, you also need to make everything more detailed so it doesn't look like ass, and then you're back at square 1 with lots of lag
@Markus Fabritius I'd certainly pay 200$ or 300$ if things could be idealistic as it is shown in this video! Damn I just wish Skyrim was a more grand scene with greater landscapes and quests. More lore and less handholding!
The excuse of not being able to expand the map size bigger than what they currently have is bullshit considering the Fallout 4 engine is a modified Creation Engine. They're designing with consoles as the core and not expanding the content for PC players - who are the longer playing customers for their series. I absolutely love that the Witcher 3's game world is just so big and TIERED. You have the sewers in the cities, the lake bottoms and the cave networks where monsters and horrible things lie. The way this expands everything in scope without technically expanding the width of the already big city is a huge trick that just works.
It's not just a "trick", real historical cities were designed with tiers in mind. Usually it was because the inner keep was built first, then it expanded with more people and eventually walls were built around the outer villages, etc.
Because he would piss everyone off by saying "make the city bigger" or "don't make all Companions werewolves" etc., while the just want to mess around and get money fast
Well that sucks man, those are very helpful critics if it could be said that way. I actually think you express things in an excellent way, and the fact that they don't appreciate probably means that you are right in what you say in your videos. Bethesda, and in general big developers, should really start listesting to what the fans say, I mean, WE spend our money to get a product that almost always is a little worse than the previous one right? Is it too much to ask for something WE would actually like to play and enjoy? Anyways, just my stupid little thoughts here. Keep up the great job Zaric! I'm very happy for your new PC, I'll be waiting for even more quality videos! Oh and last but not least, I apologize if you don't understand some things in my comment, as I am not a native speaker :)
Todd The Toddler Howard I cant wait for skyrim 2: advdntures of highrock. You know its a side scrolling dungeon crawler(cant be making content everyone isnt forced to see). Where you become the emporer of nirn because you are acually akatosh(how lucky right?).
These ideas are actually VERY intriguing and the way you present them is very appealing. You made me thirst and long for this new Skyrim so much it hurts. Thank you.
I honestly don't like skyrim at all, It was good on a first playthrough wearing rose colored glasses but after that you just notice all of the glaring flaws and its inability to grip you.
Small isn't even the word. If they can create a life size Manhattan with most landmarks on the PS2, then they can make bigger more interesting cities these days. But they don't, they are lazy. As the tech gets more capable and the man power grows....why maps remain so small is just boring by now.
Amaranthus616 You sound goofy. Your idea is cool in theory but not practical yet. Games are profit oriented. If you have unlimited money and time, someone would have already done just that. Also, NY True Crime is a bad example. Everything looks bland and the same.
Wouldn't it be better if the Companions were the officers of the Whiterun guard instead of like the Entire guard of the Jarl. Have the main guard force of the Jarl be like well trained soldiers but not as good as the Companions. This way it doesn't seem like Whiterun doesn't have any good soldiers apart from the Companions. Maybe make it so that the Companions will be picked from the Whiterun guard or if they heard talk about how good of a Warrior your charachter is.
There were points I strongly disagree and there were points I agre %100 but there was not a single one which would made the game actually worse. I enjoyed every minute of it.
True. But remember when Skyrim first came out (6 years ago) it wasn't economically feasible to have most of the things Zhakaron talks about in his Ideal Elder Scrolls vids. Remember, Bethesda is a company first; as such, profits are the first priority. Most people's PC's 6 years ago could not run the ideas purposed by Zaric. In order to sell more copies of the game, the game itself had to be made to perform as good as possible on as many PC's as possible, which it did. Bethesda is a company first and everything else last. Lore, immersion etc comes after profit. It's easy for someone to say "this is the way it should have been 6 years ago" with better PC's but that was not the case when this game was in development.
Zaric Zhakaron Most people that say "i need a wifey" Acually mean "I need a fuck doll that disappears when im not horney" Betas have no idea how women work its sad as fuck tbh.
Ideal Skyrim Joinable Factions Catch Phrases: Empire: For the Empire! Stormcloaks: Skyrim for the Nords! Whiterun: For all the People! Thalmor: Death to the Races of Man! Blades: Death to the Thalmor! Dragon Cult: Death to Everyone Equally!
I thought the part about a specific dungeon to fight a specific dragon was pretty cool but what if instead of a cave, you would have to fight your way up a mountain going through increasingly harder enemies until you reach the top and get a badass dragon battle. I think that would make the mountains and dragons more important and way cooler than they are now. Not as a part of the main quest or anything, just optional high level bosses if you want to become a complete dragonborn. Great video!
I absolutely adore the idea for the Stormcloaks with the Dark Elves. That's such a cool idea, since they feel horribly under-utilised in vanilla skyrim. The stuff about the Werewolves makes sense, turning the companions into the Jarl's personal guard, seems like a cool idea. You could even keep the Silver Hand and Vigilant's of Stendar, and have them as potential Vampire/Werewolf hunters and as additional factions to join. The Thu'um/Shout Perk tree seems like a really cool idea, it even utilises an in-game mechanic.
I honestly can’t think of a better version of Skyrim than this description. I’m almost certain the reason the games have been losing role play mechanics while improving combat mechanics and graphics is because of corporate decisions to obtain mass appeal at the expense of creativity and nuance.
I really like your ideas for an "idealized" Skyrim, except for getting rid of the werewolves from the companions. I agree that the way it was done in vanilla Skyrim is not really good, but the idea itself has merit in my opinion. Now here is an idea that I think would play very well with your idea of having Whiterun be a "powder keg", or in other words "what if the companions themselves were a powder keg?". My idea is this: the Companions, unbeknownst to most of their members including the main leaders, is actually divided in several "subfactions". First we have the "mainstream" Companions who are not werewolves and who are not aware that some of their members are werewolves. Next we have a collection of bloodthirsty combat junkies (let's say around 5 to 10% of the companions) who are werewolves, a fact that they hide from the "mainstream" Companions, because they think that it's cool or whatnot. Now imagine that one day one of the "mainstream" Companions witnessed one (or more) of his or her colleague(s) turn into freaking werewolves. He of she becomes so paranoid that the thought that even the higher ups in the hierarchy might be werewolves takes root in his/her mind and he/she flees Whiterun. The "mainstream" Companions naturally brand this person a deserter, since they have no idea of the real circumstances of their departure, and the werewolves fail to hunt them down. So after years of preparation, this person suddenly comes back at the head of an organization called the Silver Hand, comprised mostly of mercenaries and werewolf hunters. Except now the Silver Hand also view themselves as the "true Companions" here to "cleanse" the faction of the werewolf menace. The problem is, they don't actually know who is a werewolf or not, so "cleansing" here actually stands for "killing every single member of the official Companions and then replace them". Basically they spend their time ambushing random members of the Companions. So part of the Companions quest line would be about resolving this conflict, with the player given several choices between revealing or not to the higher ups that some members of the Companions are werewolves, side with either "subfaction" (werewolves or Silver hand) or try to convince everyone to stop killing each other (linking to the lycanthropy cure quest line) or simply kill both the werewolves and the Silver Hand... I hope you find the time to comment on my idea.
I love your ideas! And the only thing making these "never gonna happen" ideas is that Bethesda doesn't care about making a good game. It is entirely possible for them to without all that much more time, they just need to try. They've lost so much of what made them great.
I had a Redguard character who specialized in stealth, archery, one handed weapons, two handed weapons, block, and heavy armor. He became the Arch Mage of Winterhold.
Excellent video, I agree with mostly everything. This is the first of your videos I've seen and I'm subscribing. Things I'll add based on this vid (and not having seen the other parts yet): - Have a werewolf, vampire and Silver Hand faction that the player can join with their own mini questline. For the werewolves it could be a clan dedicated to Hircine, and they find you after you've been a werewolf for a certain period of time (as you suggested in the video), similar to joining the Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion. - Also, lets expand the towns and villages in the Holds, not just the capitals. Each hold should feel like its own kingdom and have towns and villages that range from vanilla Morthal to Solitude in size, each with their own rulers who answer to the jarl. In the base game istead all the towns were hamlets. - Related to the above, flesh out the nobility and family of each Hold and faction. Each jarl should have an family and contenders to their throne. There should be range of powerful noble families below them, headed by a thane who own a house in the capital as well as large estates of farmland or the villages or towns mentioned above. E.g. We should know who Elisif's family is, her husband's surviving family, and the 5-10 powerful thanes below her, each of whom has their own estates. E.g. Thane of Dragon Bridge. Now I'm going to watch part 2. 👍
7 yrs late but the way you describe the tension and factions of Whiterun reminds me a lot of Defiance Bay in Pillars of Eternity Maybe a plot-point of the civil war could've involved the Stormcloaks attempting to raise a fleet or otherwise challenge Imperial naval superiority to prevent the flow of troops and resources into Solitude. Maybe smaller and faster longboats crewed with Dunmer mages to get in, set stuff on fire and get out (Assuming that the Dunmer are given more autonomy to practice their own magic without needing such strict endorsement from the more neutral-aligned School of Jhunal... and then- heck- this less restricted use of magic could even lead to some tension between some of the Stormcloaks and their Dunmer allies that the player could influence one way or the other)
I had a thought about the Companions as you presented them. I whole-heartedly agree they should not be the new Fighter's Guild, but I thought of a possible way to not completely throw the lycanthropy out the window. Picture this. When the Companions of old were offered this "power" a majority refused, saying they had no need of help from the likes of witches. However, a select few that wished to be the ultimate hunters and beast-slayers of Skyrim embraced the offer, and became an offshoot group known as The Circle. Somewhere down the line during the Companions questline you would get approached by a member of the Circle, noting your strength and making you an offer to become stronger, which would start essentially the vanilla Skyrim The Silver Hand quest. Also, I had thought about "Who would replace the Fighter's Guild?" My proposal idea is this. Bounty hunters. Skyrim holds offer bounties in vanilla game, so why not have a whole faction dedicated to it. Completing the Jarl's tasks would earn the player a good bit of gold as well as some positive fame, and you wouldn't have to go back to home base to get a quest. Have say, an informant in every major settlement, so Riverwood sized towns only, where the people they protect the most live. No matter where you went, you could pick up a side job, make some quick cash, maybe level up your weapon or spell skill during the fight. Just sounds like a good idea to me.
At first I was glad you brought up expanding the game world right at the beginning, then worried it would get tedious as you kept going, and finally glad to see someone outlining their passion project and love for the Elder Scrolls. 12:34 YEAH BABY, LETS GET IT FACILITATED
i don't tend to praise ESO for anything, but they actually put effort into building the cities themselves. maybe not the surrounding areas but the cities themselves felt like actual cities, even in the province skyrim.
What you laid out feels WAY more like an Elder Scrolls game should be. One thing I notice, as a whole, is that open-world games feel shallow when the existing societal forces feel like they don’t apply to you. Guards, political factions, laws, mysteries, ranks, etc. Joining factions should have way more consequences. Also, the city redesigns you laid out are masterful.
19:31 You make an excellent point about the schools of Juunal and the college, but I would personally make my own few additions: Firstly, his name is pronounced with the nordic j, and I would also make changes in terms of titles. In the lore, the various atmoran kings (most notably Ysgramor) all employed a "cleverman" who would do all of the various things with magicka. So, my idea is that magic, at least in nord cluture, is referred to as the "clever ways" (name subject to change, this is just in reference to Vivec's 6 walking ways and references to the Kajiiti idea of there being many "ways"). It is only when you get to the college when you start hearing the word magic get used in relation to casting various spells.
I hated that quest. Why would the college accept students whom don't know how to cast a basic spell? A college is supposed to be for those with experience to become even better.
Your ideas are really really good and would make for an awesome game, the main problem is that I think it would take a lot of time for a company to put these ideas into practice. I mean it could take a company at least 10 years to implement all that. Older games were more complex because they could focus on these things more as things like high end graphics and voice acting and character animation were not big jobs around 15+ years ago. Today the companies have to spend a lot of time on all the voice acting and character and mouth animations and in game scenes and graphics etc, that the story itself and game complexity usually take a bit of a backseat.
Which was a shame I think. Yakuza 0 had a mixture of full voice acting and written text cutscenes, I was still hooked. If more games did that maybe they could once again focus on a better world to explore. Full voice acting is not a good trade for complex and fun worlds, it makes me not care about a world because they're all repeating lines while nothing much is going on.
I really wish everything concerning the College of Winterhold, the Champions, Dark Brotherhood, and Werewolves I loved the game Prey (2006)! Awesome to hear you mention it. I think changing the Dragon Souls and Word Walls would be different sounds good. With all the different Perk mods out I'm surprised no one has created what you're talking about. The cutscenes which would cause more people to become interested and invested in Elder Scrolls lore is truly needed.
What is this nonsense he speaks of.... Its like he's trying to talk about an RPG or something. *cough Beth.... get it better this time. To me W3, TES and DA:I are apples and oranges; but that's not to say W3 has really raised the bar. Beth can't use their old excuses anymore. So the way I see it hopefully W3 could be one of the best things to happen for TES lol. I don't think I can finish this lol; your ideas are so good that Im starting to hate Skyrim lol. One of the main downsides with going so hardcore on the VO was it made it harder to mod 1:1 to expand or fix vanilla content. Even then all that bragged about X hours of dialogue was nothing but recycle lol. There is some dude that made a mod..forgot name but he lit is reusing all the all voices in all new lines and it sounds flawless. Maybe the future of TESV has some hope still there.
+Singularity Bound I believe the mod you are talking about is inconsequential NPC, now I don't think the reuse the vanilla voice over anymore but it used to be something they used at one point.
+Singularity Bound Problem is that Witcher 3 actually sucks. And as for comparing it to Skyrim... don't make me laugh. I struggle to play W3 just because I bought it, but I can't get past 2 hours of gameplay, it's so fucking boring. What a fucking waste of my money. Same dude, same story, boring landscape, clunky combat, clunky interface, game has only 2 colours(green and orange) and I could just go on and on. And Geralts stupid batman voice all the time. Each time I hear praises to the Witcher 3 I gotta start ranting.
I think the school of Junal can go like this There are 4 floors to each school, the higher rank you are the more floors you can access. The first floor is for novice mages and for those who want to learn and like in Morrowind in order to increase in rank you need to do the quests and be high enough in terms of magic skills. That way it is well implemented lore wise and gameplay wise
I loved all the ideas and mechanics you put forth in this video and I think a lot of it would be amazing to see put into practise, I personally will be going onto nexus mods to see if I can find a way to recreate even half of this reliably .
![5 Things I hate about Skyrim [Nitpick Land]](/img/n.gif)
I've been in trailer parks larger than whiterun
The street I live on is bigger than Whiterun.
I've seen houses bigger than Whiterun.
My dick is bigger than Whiterun.
My ego is bigger that whiterun
My breakfast is bigger than Whiterun.
". . . they had the nerve to use the word 'district.'"
YES YES YES YES YES YES.
This is my favorite Skyrim critique delivered by an 80s venture capitalist that I've seen on youtube so far.
But seriously, this is a good monologue and a good critique. It speaks to a lot of Skyrim's problems that lie beyond its gameplay systems.
zegafregaomega haha does look like 90s venture capitalist hah
Zaric Zhakaron Zaric we love you.
I can't believe I didn't notice the Patrick Bateman/"80's-Guy-from-Futurama" vibe until just now.
@Smattless we'll never know...
He looks like Todd Howard's lawyer
"What if Skyrim was written by an actual writer?"
I so much want to play your version. It sounds like it would be very engaging & immersive.
Skyrim: FanFiction Edition
@@DylonBridson There's already a Morrowind FanFiction Edition. It's called Tamriel Rebuilt, and it's legitimately good. Expanding on, and respecting the lore of the time period the game is set in, as well as the games before. Last I checked, there's more quests, dungeons, and gear than in the vanilla Morrowind. Plus, adding in pretty much all of Tamriel over time is a bonus.
I want to be evil, it was pretty weird being a necromancer deadra worshiper while being the hero of skyrim
+Elias Von porat
Alternate start - Live another life is your friend
Asrashas Already uing that
Saving the world would be in the interest of 'evil' characters too.
Elias Von Porat
why not
by saving skyrim you'll be saving yourself
if world ended i don't think that is going to be great for you
+kalpesh shinde
Imagine being a narcissistic psychopath with an IQ of 11 and that is what you get on most people's "evil" playthroughs.
Apparently making objectively terrible decisions for yourself and everyone else is evil. Who knew.
I simultaneously love and hate these videos. Love because your ideas are pure gold (and so easy to visualise as features), and hate because it makes me want something we're never getting. It's too cruel! :D
See Skyrim home of the Nords mod for Morrowind
@@avatar19822 too bad it will be completed only in 50 years from now.
Sometimes I wish the modders got all of the Bethesda budget.
I'm surprised on how much I like your fanfiction over the actual Skyrim.
Or he could talk about an ideal TES 6 anyway? :)
+Shane Meussner I rather see Michael Kirkbride back because Zaric's idea is kinda generic.
Shane Meussner Yup!
who's kirkbride?
Tim Boie He's a Genius, that's all you need to know.
Tell me again why you're not working at Bethesda?
Because with all the money from their games, they still can't afford too many good ideas.
mark torres I love Skyrim though but seriously, they can afford to try and be more creative in the future.
They can but never will be. Hyping bad games with massive amount of marketing works just as well.
I hope the next game can appeal to all fans of the Elder Scrolls series
It's simply not going to work. Trust me almost all developers have plans for their games that are on this scale. The problem is that reality will hit them and they have to downsize their plans to compensate for time and money. Making a game is not as easy as you think.
The Idea with the Darkelves as allies is great, but i would locate them not in Windhelm, but instead in Winterhold. They are allowed to resettle in the broken houses, and when you first go there, they will start to build their district from the ruins. They have a better place there, since the Mages Guild is there, where the darkelevs are trained to fight with fire magic for the Civil war. Also the statue of Azura is nearby, which they greatly appreciate.They will be seen playing around with fire all the time to keep themselves warm from the cold icy winds from the oceans, which further emphasizes their fire skills. They will be trained to become fierce battle mages
that's much better actuallyv
kwadwo baidoo I appretierte your support for my idea. If you have any ideas, i would be interested :D
Fynn Gilbert I got a ton of ideas😂
👏👏
Actually that would be better, except it needs also a far greater tension between Dunmers and Nords. After all, there are CENTURIES of hatred and war fought among them, and there are a lot of religious threads in their conflict, considering that the Dark Elves killed Ysmir. So it could exist an alliance between Ulfric and the Dunmers, but one of convinience, running on thin ice and very unsettling for the most of both populations.
I don't know what game I've been playing for the past 5 years, but the game you are talking about needs to be made.
Check out Skyrim Home of the Nords mod for TES3 Morrowind.
The more he talks, more i want to cry.....
what the hell part of the world do you live in that has spiders that big
Grim has a lover that is a Spider Queen in Grim Adventures: Billy and Mandy ._.
you seem to care more about the elder scrolls series than the company itself
After seeing what happened To fallout 76 its pretty clear youre absolutely right
I'd like to meet the guy that cares about Bethesda.
7:45 "I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I took some taxes to the knee"
kek
+zah fares cuk
Something I didn't like is how often everyone says the same thing to you. I'd rather everyone just ignore me than hear "I WORK FOR BELETHOR AT THE GENERAL GOODS STORE" 5000 times over.
These phrases
JUST WORK
I miss radiant a.i in oblivion. Stupid but better than nothing.
"Make it quick, outlander" and other Morrowind greetings would honestly be better for Skyrim's xenophobic atmosphere
That’s part of why I love morrowind
Put this guy as a Director of the next elder scrolls, and throw Todd into the garbage
KIT2142 We could do that but it would result in not getting an ES game until 2025 and a almost bankrupt Bethesda. But sure, sounds good to me.
D00MTR33 it will be worth to wait.
KIT2142 let Todd be a director and him be a co-director
Todd is really good at selling games. I think if Zaric wrote the next elder scrolls game and Todd sold it, the game would do really well.
KIT2142 no todd is best just have both
I don't think it's unreasonable that Bethesda could go all out on the roleplaying aspects given that
1. they now have an enormous fanbase
2. they have the technology to make the game still fairly fast paced and 'action' in its gameplay
3. they've given themselves a large amount of time to work on it
(in TES VI)
Sadly I have no faith that will happen. If anything, the success of Skyrim will make them lean even harder into the action/adventure stuff and away from the CRPG design and political intrigue of Daggerfall & Morrowind
@@imma5269after seeing the "traits" the player can select in starfield we can surmise Bethesda still hasn't learned
@@EA_SP0RTCENTERand will never learn as long as people keep feeding them cash. IMO Bethesda fans are genuinely the biggest suckers in all of gaming barring like sports game fans. Paying $70 now for games that the fanbase itself has to make enjoyable or sometimes even just playable in general via modding
Bethesda needs to hire this guy pronto
+Todd The Toddler Howard Thanks Godd
+Cameron Robinson No shit ! I'm only four minutes into this video and he's preaching gospel here. Every Bethesda employee that works on an Elder Scrolls title should be made to watch at least four minutes of this.
Lets start a petition or something!
+Todd The Toddler Howard (Wake me up inside)
+Todd The Toddler Howard (I can't wake up)
*slowly removes glasses, wipes them with a shaky hand*
My god....serious question, if Bethesda extended you an offer to help them design ACTUAL functioning cities and other settlements and some lore bits, would you take it?
God I hope so, guy's a fucking genius.
because even 5 years after release, no one at either Bethesda or in the modding community has managed to make such large, sprawling cities? it's not for lack of trying, their concept art shows immense cities.
they had to give up on scale to meet modern expectations for graphical fidelity. yes, a new engine would make it possible, but when you have staff who have used the same engine for literal decades, it's not exactly smooth sailing to upgrade your software.
my 1000 dollar (in 2014) gaming rig can't break 60fps in JK's Whiterun, let alone a cheap console running a Whiterun the size of Cornwall.
Gary I visited the forums for beyond Skyrim and most of the projects seem to be moving forward in some capacity but Cyrodil already has Bruma and from what I've seen they're working on implementation on the imperial city and others.
What about just scaling everything down, so it takes the same engine space, but the world looks bigger?
+Ogr252
-it would just look silly, like you're an ant in someone's house
-if you make everything look bigger, you also need to make everything more detailed so it doesn't look like ass, and then you're back at square 1 with lots of lag
I want this, like, really really bad now.
I would literally pay someone 500 dollars in cash to remake the game to be like your version.
bro it was a joke chill lol.
+Zanuka if every skyrim player would give 500 $ for this that 85 million would be raised and more
***** :D XD
Denis Gruzmark mods
@Markus Fabritius I'd certainly pay 200$ or 300$ if things could be idealistic as it is shown in this video! Damn I just wish Skyrim was a more grand scene with greater landscapes and quests. More lore and less handholding!
I love the idea of the Dark Elves and the Stormcloaks teaming up.
Indeed. But I think instead of Windhelm, the Dunmer should be in Winterhold.
I'm so mad it's taken me this long to find your videos on Elder Scrolls. I love how contagious your passion and enthusiasm is.
The excuse of not being able to expand the map size bigger than what they currently have is bullshit considering the Fallout 4 engine is a modified Creation Engine. They're designing with consoles as the core and not expanding the content for PC players - who are the longer playing customers for their series.
I absolutely love that the Witcher 3's game world is just so big and TIERED. You have the sewers in the cities, the lake bottoms and the cave networks where monsters and horrible things lie. The way this expands everything in scope without technically expanding the width of the already big city is a huge trick that just works.
It's not just a "trick", real historical cities were designed with tiers in mind. Usually it was because the inner keep was built first, then it expanded with more people and eventually walls were built around the outer villages, etc.
Most people are just like "yes bigger map" but I actually really love the socioeconomics that you're describing, and the lore that you're adding on
Please apply promptly for Bethesda as both lead writer and game director. A pipe dream sure but.... Why not?
So could you maybe work for Bethesda please?
Woah. Woah woah woah. Why hasn't Bethesda hired you yet man?
It just.. doesn't work
Because he would piss everyone off by saying "make the city bigger" or "don't make all Companions werewolves" etc., while the just want to mess around and get money fast
Well that sucks man, those are very helpful critics if it could be said that way. I actually think you express things in an excellent way, and the fact that they don't appreciate probably means that you are right in what you say in your videos.
Bethesda, and in general big developers, should really start listesting to what the fans say, I mean, WE spend our money to get a product that almost always is a little worse than the previous one right? Is it too much to ask for something WE would actually like to play and enjoy?
Anyways, just my stupid little thoughts here. Keep up the great job Zaric! I'm very happy for your new PC, I'll be waiting for even more quality videos!
Oh and last but not least, I apologize if you don't understand some things in my comment, as I am not a native speaker :)
But not all the Companions are werewolf. Only the Circle.
Todd The Toddler Howard
I cant wait for skyrim 2: advdntures of highrock.
You know its a side scrolling dungeon crawler(cant be making content everyone isnt forced to see). Where you become the emporer of nirn because you are acually akatosh(how lucky right?).
I wonder how many Bethesda devs are watching and are like, "Dammit... we wanted to do this and we didn't have enough time/money."
None of them. They obviously don’t care
They either already left or have given up. The fight against things like fast travel and radiant questing was lost in Oblivion.
why the fuck didnt YOU make skyrim :(
Also, I think the "Thu'um" system you came up with is fucking AWESOME. Not only that, but totally achievable! Somebody could make that into a mod!
These ideas are actually VERY intriguing and the way you present them is very appealing.
You made me thirst and long for this new Skyrim so much it hurts.
Thank you.
Less than ten minutes in, this is already more interesting than anything in Skyrim
Why the fuck are you not employed by Bethesda?
True Gamer Q Lore breaking? (I'm gonna get destroyed by lore fans ain't I?)
He's a critic and businesses don't hire critics ;)
But he is offering a fix. Imagine if Oblivion or Skyrim was re released remastered with these changes.
Because most of the things he said destroys the lore
The Elder Scrolls is not a book series it is a game series. The lore is less important the quality of the game.
Just with this i will never see skyrim the same. This is awesom,¡I want to play THAT game!
I honestly don't like skyrim at all, It was good on a first playthrough wearing rose colored glasses but after that you just notice all of the glaring flaws and its inability to grip you.
I wish this man would be lead in the elder scrolls 6 story
Rewatching now that I have an adult brain
Todd Howard: "This is all impossible. You're asking for too much."
I do agree that skyrim cities are small
Small isn't even the word. If they can create a life size Manhattan with most landmarks on the PS2, then they can make bigger more interesting cities these days. But they don't, they are lazy. As the tech gets more capable and the man power grows....why maps remain so small is just boring by now.
Amaranthus616 wrong
Amaranthus616 You sound goofy.
Your idea is cool in theory but not practical yet. Games are profit oriented.
If you have unlimited money and time, someone would have already done just that.
Also, NY True Crime is a bad example. Everything looks bland and the same.
@@fabolousninenine30 Ok but oblivion had decent sized cities, how does skyrim not have cities that size at the very least?
At the beginning, I thought this would be nitpicking skyrim problems, but... Holy shit, just imagining this is awesome
This would have so much depth as an rpg it would take Skyrim out of the kiddie pool.
Always find myself coming back to watching this series. Just very entertaining
I am going to breed you.
Wouldn't it be better if the Companions were the officers of the Whiterun guard instead of like the Entire guard of the Jarl.
Have the main guard force of the Jarl be like well trained soldiers but not as good as the Companions.
This way it doesn't seem like Whiterun doesn't have any good soldiers apart from the Companions.
Maybe make it so that the Companions will be picked from the Whiterun guard or if they heard talk about how good of a Warrior your charachter is.
+DutchGames Btw great video :D
Love rewatching this playlist at least once a year, sad elder scrolls will never be like this though
There were points I strongly disagree and there were points I agre %100 but there was not a single one which would made the game actually worse. I enjoyed every minute of it.
I remembered this video existed and came back to visit. Glad it's still here; hope you're doing well Zarik
Bethesda, you like money yeah? This guy'll make you a fuckton.
True. But remember when Skyrim first came out (6 years ago) it wasn't economically feasible to have most of the things Zhakaron talks about in his Ideal Elder Scrolls vids. Remember, Bethesda is a company first; as such, profits are the first priority. Most people's PC's 6 years ago could not run the ideas purposed by Zaric. In order to sell more copies of the game, the game itself had to be made to perform as good as possible on as many PC's as possible, which it did. Bethesda is a company first and everything else last. Lore, immersion etc comes after profit. It's easy for someone to say "this is the way it should have been 6 years ago" with better PC's but that was not the case when this game was in development.
I like skyrim lore and all but HOW AM I GONNA GET A WIFE WATCHING THIS
Hahahaha, Zaric, you're a fucking genius.
Zaric Zhakaron After watching so many of your videos I think that you really deserve a sub for that one. (If I'm not subbed already)
Jay Weez Who needs a wife
With an amulet of mara
Zaric Zhakaron
Most people that say "i need a wifey"
Acually mean
"I need a fuck doll that disappears when im not horney"
Betas have no idea how women work its sad as fuck tbh.
Ideal Skyrim Joinable Factions Catch Phrases:
Empire: For the Empire!
Stormcloaks: Skyrim for the Nords!
Whiterun: For all the People!
Thalmor: Death to the Races of Man!
Blades: Death to the Thalmor!
Dragon Cult: Death to Everyone Equally!
you need to make an elder scrolls 6 wishlist as detailed as this series
8 years later, if Bethesda cared they would have made a game at least 1/10th as good as what this mad lad is talking about.
This Video made me cry because I had to imagine how much better Skyrim could have been (even though it has been a great game).
‘We’re gonna put a labyrinth down there’ the sad thing is they tried to
Damn man the game was already great but the changes you propose would have made it god tier
I thought the part about a specific dungeon to fight a specific dragon was pretty cool but what if instead of a cave, you would have to fight your way up a mountain going through increasingly harder enemies until you reach the top and get a badass dragon battle. I think that would make the mountains and dragons more important and way cooler than they are now. Not as a part of the main quest or anything, just optional high level bosses if you want to become a complete dragonborn. Great video!
that's another way to say
"Hey Bethesda why don't you just hand over the entire TES IP to Cdprojekt Red "
BEST. IDEA. EVER.
I am so sick of everyone sucking cd projekts dick
TheHobbitFTW We suck their dick because they suck ours, and everyone want their dicks sucked, other companies should know that.
+DaKussh pretty gay man
TheHobbitFTW
sure macho fuerte, sure...
I absolutely adore the idea for the Stormcloaks with the Dark Elves. That's such a cool idea, since they feel horribly under-utilised in vanilla skyrim. The stuff about the Werewolves makes sense, turning the companions into the Jarl's personal guard, seems like a cool idea. You could even keep the Silver Hand and Vigilant's of Stendar, and have them as potential Vampire/Werewolf hunters and as additional factions to join. The Thu'um/Shout Perk tree seems like a really cool idea, it even utilises an in-game mechanic.
with all the walls, this guy sounds like Donald Trump #makeskyrimgreatagain
well your name sounds like verona kekstra
+stallion or Corona Extra because I get drunk and make shitty rap clips
Korona Ekstra......
...Korona....
... *CORONAVIRUS!!!!!!!!!!!* ...
I honestly can’t think of a better version of Skyrim than this description. I’m almost certain the reason the games have been losing role play mechanics while improving combat mechanics and graphics is because of corporate decisions to obtain mass appeal at the expense of creativity and nuance.
Bethesda, give this man a job.
Man I remember when this video was new, I think it changed me on a fundamental level
... After Novigrad no city hold up in comparison
Considering the number of dark elf fanboys in this fandom, the Stormcloaks would have become a much more popular faction.
Would have made people more prepared for the Ebonheart Pact.
Only if you were director of the Elder Scrolls series... o.O
Skyrim's "cities" sucked, was thoroughly disappointed and couldn't enjoy playing very far
Its due to skyrims size
A quest related to Heimskr. Interesting.
_10 seconds later_ You just want everyone to join the Empire, don't you?
I really like your ideas for an "idealized" Skyrim, except for getting rid of the werewolves from the companions. I agree that the way it was done in vanilla Skyrim is not really good, but the idea itself has merit in my opinion. Now here is an idea that I think would play very well with your idea of having Whiterun be a "powder keg", or in other words "what if the companions themselves were a powder keg?".
My idea is this: the Companions, unbeknownst to most of their members including the main leaders, is actually divided in several "subfactions". First we have the "mainstream" Companions who are not werewolves and who are not aware that some of their members are werewolves. Next we have a collection of bloodthirsty combat junkies (let's say around 5 to 10% of the companions) who are werewolves, a fact that they hide from the "mainstream" Companions, because they think that it's cool or whatnot.
Now imagine that one day one of the "mainstream" Companions witnessed one (or more) of his or her colleague(s) turn into freaking werewolves. He of she becomes so paranoid that the thought that even the higher ups in the hierarchy might be werewolves takes root in his/her mind and he/she flees Whiterun.
The "mainstream" Companions naturally brand this person a deserter, since they have no idea of the real circumstances of their departure, and the werewolves fail to hunt them down. So after years of preparation, this person suddenly comes back at the head of an organization called the Silver Hand, comprised mostly of mercenaries and werewolf hunters. Except now the Silver Hand also view themselves as the "true Companions" here to "cleanse" the faction of the werewolf menace.
The problem is, they don't actually know who is a werewolf or not, so "cleansing" here actually stands for "killing every single member of the official Companions and then replace them". Basically they spend their time ambushing random members of the Companions.
So part of the Companions quest line would be about resolving this conflict, with the player given several choices between revealing or not to the higher ups that some members of the Companions are werewolves, side with either "subfaction" (werewolves or Silver hand) or try to convince everyone to stop killing each other (linking to the lycanthropy cure quest line) or simply kill both the werewolves and the Silver Hand...
I hope you find the time to comment on my idea.
I really love the nord/dunmer alliance. Way more interesting.
In an alternate timeline, Zaric holds Todd Howard's position.. and it is glorious
I love your ideas! And the only thing making these "never gonna happen" ideas is that Bethesda doesn't care about making a good game. It is entirely possible for them to without all that much more time, they just need to try. They've lost so much of what made them great.
I like the idea of a failed shout making you cough
His eyebrows could replace Todd Howard
i keep coming back to rewatch this series.
This is part 1 and I already want to play this game you've described more than any other game
I had a Redguard character who specialized in stealth, archery, one handed weapons, two handed weapons, block, and heavy armor.
He became the Arch Mage of Winterhold.
Why have Bethesda not hired this guy
Excellent video, I agree with mostly everything. This is the first of your videos I've seen and I'm subscribing.
Things I'll add based on this vid (and not having seen the other parts yet):
- Have a werewolf, vampire and Silver Hand faction that the player can join with their own mini questline. For the werewolves it could be a clan dedicated to Hircine, and they find you after you've been a werewolf for a certain period of time (as you suggested in the video), similar to joining the Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion.
- Also, lets expand the towns and villages in the Holds, not just the capitals. Each hold should feel like its own kingdom and have towns and villages that range from vanilla Morthal to Solitude in size, each with their own rulers who answer to the jarl. In the base game istead all the towns were hamlets.
- Related to the above, flesh out the nobility and family of each Hold and faction. Each jarl should have an family and contenders to their throne. There should be range of powerful noble families below them, headed by a thane who own a house in the capital as well as large estates of farmland or the villages or towns mentioned above. E.g. We should know who Elisif's family is, her husband's surviving family, and the 5-10 powerful thanes below her, each of whom has their own estates. E.g. Thane of Dragon Bridge.
Now I'm going to watch part 2. 👍
holy crap that was awesome, i cant wait for part 2
7 yrs late but the way you describe the tension and factions of Whiterun reminds me a lot of Defiance Bay in Pillars of Eternity
Maybe a plot-point of the civil war could've involved the Stormcloaks attempting to raise a fleet or otherwise challenge Imperial naval superiority to prevent the flow of troops and resources into Solitude. Maybe smaller and faster longboats crewed with Dunmer mages to get in, set stuff on fire and get out
(Assuming that the Dunmer are given more autonomy to practice their own magic without needing such strict endorsement from the more neutral-aligned School of Jhunal... and then- heck- this less restricted use of magic could even lead to some tension between some of the Stormcloaks and their Dunmer allies that the player could influence one way or the other)
I always come back to this, I dream of a game with this scope and size
damn zhakaron you know what you talking about ! great vid keep up the good work
I had a thought about the Companions as you presented them. I whole-heartedly agree they should not be the new Fighter's Guild, but I thought of a possible way to not completely throw the lycanthropy out the window. Picture this. When the Companions of old were offered this "power" a majority refused, saying they had no need of help from the likes of witches. However, a select few that wished to be the ultimate hunters and beast-slayers of Skyrim embraced the offer, and became an offshoot group known as The Circle. Somewhere down the line during the Companions questline you would get approached by a member of the Circle, noting your strength and making you an offer to become stronger, which would start essentially the vanilla Skyrim The Silver Hand quest. Also, I had thought about "Who would replace the Fighter's Guild?" My proposal idea is this. Bounty hunters. Skyrim holds offer bounties in vanilla game, so why not have a whole faction dedicated to it. Completing the Jarl's tasks would earn the player a good bit of gold as well as some positive fame, and you wouldn't have to go back to home base to get a quest. Have say, an informant in every major settlement, so Riverwood sized towns only, where the people they protect the most live. No matter where you went, you could pick up a side job, make some quick cash, maybe level up your weapon or spell skill during the fight. Just sounds like a good idea to me.
"you wanna learn how to cast a ward?" 20:05 xD Fucking hilarious
At first I was glad you brought up expanding the game world right at the beginning, then worried it would get tedious as you kept going, and finally glad to see someone outlining their passion project and love for the Elder Scrolls.
12:34 YEAH BABY, LETS GET IT FACILITATED
i don't tend to praise ESO for anything, but they actually put effort into building the cities themselves. maybe not the surrounding areas but the cities themselves felt like actual cities, even in the province skyrim.
+Todd The Toddler Howard sorry? for what?
When I first played skyrim I actually thought to myself isn't this kinda small.
What you laid out feels WAY more like an Elder Scrolls game should be.
One thing I notice, as a whole, is that open-world games feel shallow when the existing societal forces feel like they don’t apply to you. Guards, political factions, laws, mysteries, ranks, etc. Joining factions should have way more consequences. Also, the city redesigns you laid out are masterful.
Your ideas are fascinating and make so much sense. I especially like your Windhelm rework.
This might well be possible with Daggerfall Unity, just have to make some adjustments and it's pretty much perfect.
Would've been cool to have a quest line involving you mastering the voice and becoming a greybeard. Unique
19:31 You make an excellent point about the schools of Juunal and the college, but I would personally make my own few additions: Firstly, his name is pronounced with the nordic j, and I would also make changes in terms of titles. In the lore, the various atmoran kings (most notably Ysgramor) all employed a "cleverman" who would do all of the various things with magicka. So, my idea is that magic, at least in nord cluture, is referred to as the "clever ways" (name subject to change, this is just in reference to Vivec's 6 walking ways and references to the Kajiiti idea of there being many "ways"). It is only when you get to the college when you start hearing the word magic get used in relation to casting various spells.
😂😂😂😂😂 the “Ya wanna learn how to cast a ward?” Killed me😂
I hated that quest. Why would the college accept students whom don't know how to cast a basic spell? A college is supposed to be for those with experience to become even better.
@@spartanq7781 Yeah it's a "college" they should go to elementary or high school magic first before even applying at an actual college XD.
The scripted sequence in which Astrid dies it should look like the Sithisian wraith is using the Blade of Woe to kill her.
Your ideas are really really good and would make for an awesome game, the main problem is that I think it would take a lot of time for a company to put these ideas into practice. I mean it could take a company at least 10 years to implement all that. Older games were more complex because they could focus on these things more as things like high end graphics and voice acting and character animation were not big jobs around 15+ years ago.
Today the companies have to spend a lot of time on all the voice acting and character and mouth animations and in game scenes and graphics etc, that the story itself and game complexity usually take a bit of a backseat.
Which was a shame I think. Yakuza 0 had a mixture of full voice acting and written text cutscenes, I was still hooked. If more games did that maybe they could once again focus on a better world to explore. Full voice acting is not a good trade for complex and fun worlds, it makes me not care about a world because they're all repeating lines while nothing much is going on.
I really wish everything concerning the College of Winterhold, the Champions, Dark Brotherhood, and Werewolves I loved the game Prey (2006)! Awesome to hear you mention it. I think changing the Dragon Souls and Word Walls would be different sounds good. With all the different Perk mods out I'm surprised no one has created what you're talking about. The cutscenes which would cause more people to become interested and invested in Elder Scrolls lore is truly needed.
What is this nonsense he speaks of.... Its like he's trying to talk about an RPG or something. *cough
Beth.... get it better this time.
To me W3, TES and DA:I are apples and oranges; but that's not to say W3 has really raised the bar. Beth can't use their old excuses anymore. So the way I see it hopefully W3 could be one of the best things to happen for TES lol.
I don't think I can finish this lol; your ideas are so good that Im starting to hate Skyrim lol.
One of the main downsides with going so hardcore on the VO was it made it harder to mod 1:1 to expand or fix vanilla content. Even then all that bragged about X hours of dialogue was nothing but recycle lol.
There is some dude that made a mod..forgot name but he lit is reusing all the all voices in all new lines and it sounds flawless. Maybe the future of TESV has some hope still there.
+Singularity Bound I believe the mod you are talking about is inconsequential NPC, now I don't think the reuse the vanilla voice over anymore but it used to be something they used at one point.
+Singularity Bound Problem is that Witcher 3 actually sucks. And as for comparing it to Skyrim... don't make me laugh. I struggle to play W3 just because I bought it, but I can't get past 2 hours of gameplay, it's so fucking boring. What a fucking waste of my money.
Same dude, same story, boring landscape, clunky combat, clunky interface, game has only 2 colours(green and orange) and I could just go on and on. And Geralts stupid batman voice all the time.
Each time I hear praises to the Witcher 3 I gotta start ranting.
+Singularity Bound Well they didnt try to make Witcher 3 run on an 10 year old Console with 512mb of RAM.
I think the school of Junal can go like this
There are 4 floors to each school, the higher rank you are the more floors you can access. The first floor is for novice mages and for those who want to learn and like in Morrowind in order to increase in rank you need to do the quests and be high enough in terms of magic skills. That way it is well implemented lore wise and gameplay wise
Can't wait to watch part 2 :D
I loved all the ideas and mechanics you put forth in this video and I think a lot of it would be amazing to see put into practise, I personally will be going onto nexus mods to see if I can find a way to recreate even half of this reliably .
I just would like that skyrim would be re-designed by this ideas!