As the wait continues for The Elder Scrolls VI, so does speculation on every aspect of the next-gen sequel to the legendary franchise. Arguably the most hotly debated element of the upcoming game includes speculation on what new mechanics Bethesda might introduce to the franchise. And while we now know the game’s official subtitle will be Sentinel, there has been hardly any information on potential new gameplay elements outside of unverified leaks and fan speculation.
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While some of the gameplay speculation discussed on fan sites or forums such as Reddit may seem outlandish, many players may be surprised to learn that some of the biggest new features appearing in The Elder Scrolls VI have already been revealed to us. Although nothing about the game’s mechanics has been confirmed yet, we do know that it will be running on the same in-house engine as Starfield, a game in which many of the new mechanics we could see in The Elder Scrolls VI already exist.
5. Ship Building & Sailing
The Elder Scrolls VI takes place in Hammerfell and potentially High Rock on the westernmost edges of Tamriel and the homelands of the Redguard and Bretons, respectively. While both of these lands share their own unique yet intertwined, storied histories and cultural identities, there is one thing they both share: the Iliac Bay, the huge sea that connects the two nations together and all of the nautical adventures that take place upon it. This sea and the broader ocean it extends into are the biggest source of naval activity in the Elder Scrolls universe, absolutely jam-packed with islands, port cities, merchant fleets, and piracy. It would be a shame for Bethesda to set a game in Hammerfell without taking advantage of this nautical potential.
The concept of ship building and exploration is absolutely nothing new to Bethesda, which had modular spaceship building and space travel as a defining feature of Starfield. The Elder Scrolls VI could absolutely convert these mechanics into seafaring adventures, just ditching the sci-fi metals and endless abyss of space for wooden planks, iron nails, and rolling waves.
Looking to other games for inspiration, satisfying sailing and medieval ship battles, including boarding ships, manning heavy weapons, and realistic water simulation, is something that the game Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord was able to pull off in the most recent DLC update. Made by a far smaller studio that lacks a fraction of Bethesda’s manpower or budget, it is safe to say that the mechanic is something that would be very doable for The Elder Scrolls VI, especially when using Starfield’s mechanics as a base.
4. Modular Weapon Smithing
In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, players were able to use raw materials to craft and then improve their own versions of every non-legendary weapon in the game. This was one of the game’s more popular crafting mechanics, with players spending hundreds of hours at the Skyforge crafting and perfecting their weapons. While certainly an exciting way to literally craft your own build, the smithing system in Skyrim was limited to just creating carbon copies of the game’s existing weapon meshes, rather than allowing players to create a truly unique weapon.
We only need to look at Starfield’s weapon modification system to see that part-for-part weapon smithing could easily be possible in The Elder Scrolls VI. Rather than simply replacing scopes, magazines, or other components on an existing weapon, players could gain the ability to create a truly custom weapon by selecting each individual part to their own liking. This would be an amazing way to really immerse players in the smithing experience, and allow players to bring something truly unique of their own into Hammerfell’s ancient crypts and bandit layers.
To make the comparison once again, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord features this exact mechanic, allowing players to smith modular weapons of all kinds, creating an easy point of comparison for Bethesda to take inspiration from.
3. Settlement Building
Settlement building was a mechanic Bethesda first introduced in Fallout 4, allowing players to create both their own custom home as well as a full-blown town for NPCs to live and thrive in. Starfield expanded on this mechanic with Outposts, which added more resource gathering options to turn these NPC settlements into a profitable venture for players.
Since Bethesda has made a habit of including Settlement Building in all of its recent game releases (Fallout 4, Fallout 76, and Starfield), it only stands to reason that we could see the feature return in The Elder Scrolls VI. Players could see themselves restoring forgotten lost to time, bringing life to the most barren regions of Hammerfell’s desert in exchange for Septims and raw resources.
This could also serve as a fun way to expand on Skyrim’s housing system, turning players from simple homeowners to full on landed lords who lease their property out to peasants, a gameplay loop that is very doable with a simple reskin of Starfield’s outposts.
2. Spell Forging
Magic has always been one of the more interesting aspects of The Elder Scrolls franchise. They allow players to manipulate combat or the environment itself in various ways by mastering each respective school of magic, and magic is deeply ingrained in Skyrim’s most popular builds and play styles. Now imagine if you could create your very own spells from the ground up?
This is a concept that players can find in some other titles, and it basically consists of combining the effects from two spells into one. Imagine a fire-and-ice bolt that both slows an enemy’s movement speed and causes a burning effect that ticks away at their health over time.
While there isn’t a direct comparison to something like this in Starfield, it could easily be accomplished the same way the game handles weapon modifications. From a mechanical standpoint, spell crafting would simply be applying different modifiers to an existing projectile or cast effect, potentially allowing players to create infinitely modular spells the same way they create firearms in other Bethesda games.
1. Creating Automatons
One of Fallout 4’s most critically acclaimed DLC add-ons came with the ability for players to craft and customize their own robot companions. By combining the parts of different in-game robotic enemies, players could fully modularly build their own intimidating deathbots, adding a brand new and exciting take on the game’s companion system. Unfortunately, there are no robots in The Elder Scrolls… except, actually, that there are, with the steam-powered golems left behind by the Dwemer. Imagine being able to craft your own Dwemer Automaton companion by forging tother different parts salvaged from other automatons in Dwemer ruins.
While this isn’t something you can do directly in Starfield, it is possible using the Robot Engineering creation club content pack, which essentially imports the same mechanic from Fallout 4 into the game and proves that it is a mechanic that the engine is capable of.
What mechanics are you hoping to see in The Elder Scrolls VI? Is there anything from another Bethesda game you would want to see converted to the upcoming release? Leave your answer in the comments below.
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