Even after their 5,000th playthrough of the game, a classic Elder Scrolls fan may feel that complaints beyond measure can be leveled at Skyrim. It's a relatively common condition. However, the fact is Skyrim raked in wealth beyond measure. It's a foregone conclusion that The Elder Scrolls 6 is liable to take more from that game than from Morrowind.
This leaves the average Vvardenfell-loving person with just about three options: hope for good mods, bemoan having been cast aside like a failed potion, or Levitate out of reality's reach and take a moment to dream...at least until a half-naked, one-eyed guy grates out a "Wake up."
Let's take a moment and indulge in some false prophecies together.
10 Weapon Variety
A few things can be said in support of the diminished weapon types beginning with Oblivion. Did anyone actually use throwing stars? And yes, for a taste of Morrowind's signature charm, one could simply equip a spear and enable "Use Best Attack Only."
Nevertheless, how excellent would it be to boot up Elder Scrolls 6 and be confronted with bandit camps bristling with everything from tantos to halberds and crossbows (no DLC required)? Besides, who doesn't like to see a wizard use their staff for a good spot of whacking?
9 Bring The Silt Striders Back
Well, it doesn't have to be silt striders, exactly, but Skyrim travel was mind-numbingly easy at times. On the other end of things, though, only a lunatic or an avid paper map aficionado would advocate for a return to complete fog-of-war on the game map and utter reliance on directions. A middle-of-the-road approach might be just the thing for interesting questing in Elder Scrolls 6.
Devs could consider giving players a complete world map but eliminating exact waypoints in favor of indicating a point of interest's general area. Also, eliminate fast travel aside from using transportation hubs (and let people see the gross insides of the silt striders), but provide mounts and more options for rapid transit.
8 Loot Worthy Of A Nerevarine
Players go into dungeons even when no quest tells them to, and that's something Bethesda should accept and actually reward. Ever left a Skyrim dungeon with nothing better than whatever stock Draugr weapon the generic big boney boy had been swinging at you? It doesn't have to be that way. The new Elder Scrolls could have meaningfully varied dungeons with unique loot (or maybe even unique enemies and story elements).
It's a given the internet will sort of ruin these immediately, but why not bring back hidden items too? Are there better memories than hopping endlessly just outside that one guard's view in a weird bid for the Sword of White Woe? Festoon the world with neat enchanted things that make the player wonder "how in Vivec's name did this end up here?"
7 Make Players Earn Guild Status
Also known as "We're Going To Replay It, Bethesda" or "Grandmaster? Wasn't I Learning My First Spell Twenty Minutes Ago?". Firstly, locking the guilds behind stat requirements in Elder Scrolls 6 would genuinely save players from themselves. Most replayed Skyrim with different skillsets, but few had the sheer force of will to not do the Companions as a Stealth Mage or the Thieves' Guild without ever once sneaking. Make Guild advancement feel earned; make membership feel like something real.
Secondly, rather than populating the world with random make-work tasks and having the Guild experience be strictly linear, fill the Guildhalls with various quest-givers whose tasks contribute to your overall Guild status. Wasn't every player happier helping Ajira with her flowers than doing important fancy work for bossy mage Ranis Athrys?
6 Stealing Is Wrong...But Is It That Wrong?
Is it the righteous influence of Stendarr on Nirn that makes stolen items immediately detectable to literally everyone in Oblivion and Skyrim? Do pilfered goodies have a detectable criminal aroma? Let players sell their stolen stuff, Bethesda.
There are so many disreputable fetchers out there hoping, dreaming, that the poor street vendors of Elder Scrolls 6 prove just as interested in soups stolen from dinner tables as the moldy sweet rolls pilfered from primeval tombs.
5 Spellmaking
Did this lead almost solely to game-breaking nonsense? Absolutely. It also contributed, however, to the mages of Morrowind and Skyrim getting to feel like actual wizards, like they're in control of their own powers. Spellmaking encouraged player innovation as much as it encouraged them to utterly Charm characters for the single second required to enter dialogue or to magically lock enemies behind closed doors for practically no mana.
There has to be some way to integrate spellmaking into Elder Scrolls 6 while also having reasonable limits to what spells can do. Also, Bethesda could throw in the varied spell list of old too.
4 Have Some Fun With It
Sheogorath's mad antics are a big hit with players, so why does the weirdness have to begin and end with the mad god? Developers should go ahead and have a good time with more of Elder Scrolls 6's quests and characters. Caius Cosades, the shirtless skooma-addicted master of the Blades, is absolutely the man. Flex those creative Caius-y muscles to give players more unexpected nuance.
Morrowind also gave the world Creeper the scamp and the Mudcrab merchant as the wealthiest characters in the game. Were they immersion-breaking? In a magical world ruled by fickle gods, why should they be?
3 Armor Variety
Yes, this leads to picking up more useless loot. Is it not worth it if the reward is having unique outfits cobbled together from different pieces? Collecting suits of armor becomes an end to itself.
Not only should there be more pieces to the armor suits in Elder Scrolls 6, but offering medium armor should be strongly considered. From spellswords to scouts, there are several character builds to whom a medium-weight chainmail hauberk or bonemold outfit would be perfect fits.
2 No Offence, Viking Lovers...Maybe Some Originality?
Honestly, had any outlander ever seen anything like Vvardenfell? It's something Morrowind fanboys drone on a little endlessly about, but for good reason. The mushroom towers, the strange insular Dunmer culture, and even the scrib jelly, it was wildly creative and, well, just plain wild.
Setting Elder Scrolls 6 in a generic fantasy (which is what players can expect from High Rock, frankly) would be another wasted opportunity. Even in the little things, it's obvious. Chickens wandering over the road? Why not be freaked out by herds of smiley guar instead? Would you rather listen to endless lore about another generic fantasy take on western history or would you rather listen to someone explain how traveling inside a silt strider works?
1 You N'wah!
This title is self-explanatory. Treat players like the outlanders they are. Utilize local language to give a sense of otherness that reflects the feeling of stepping into a new world. The dialect should really go beyond expressions like "Shor's bones!". Morrowind's distinct identity comes directly from a player walking into a room and having someone scream "S'WIT!" in their face. These Dunmer phrases are expressions burned into the minds of anyone who's walked the Ashlands or felt a Bitter Coast fog.
Let Elder Scrolls players hear the tongue of High Rock, Elsewyr, or whichever other land plays host to Morrowind's inevitable kwama pile of a great-grandson.