Setting
Set in multiple smaller regions of many countries, instead of one entire country
In this case, I would set it along the land surrounding the
Abecean Sea
Which includes various regions of Cyrodill, Hammerfell, Valenwood and the Summerset Isles:
- the Gold Coast
- the Broken Coast
- the Drowned Coast
- Hew's Bane Peninsula
- Stirk Isle
- Stros M'Kai
- and the eastern side of the Auridon Kinhold
Action takes place either during or after the 4th Era's Great War, the campgain lasts for at least 1 full in-game year (but 2 would be cooler) - after which the game ends (regradless of whatever there's still content to be done)
World
Along with day and night cicle, we also have weather system (including extreme weather such as sandstorms and sea storms) and seaonal cycle (spring, summer, autumm, winter - and each impacts the world and gameplay
Enviromental physics similar to BotW, with an expanded Temperature system
Though economy, the player needs to save money - also due to the context of time and place, there's at least 3 different currencies (with the Septims and Aldmeri currencies coming in distinct tiers, like bronze, silver and gold)
No level scalling of any kind - both items, rewards are enemies are all fixed (there can be some RNG, but always small)
At least 3 main quest factions
Guilds Quests can only be completed by their targeted Class - no mages in Warrior's Guild and so on
All factions have distinct relations towards one another
Gameplay
3 difficulty settings:
- Hard, the one the game was primarly designed around, can only save at safe spots (beds and camps) and dungeons can have checkpoints (depending on size)
- Hard with Survival mode
- Casual, less aggressive enemies with weaker damage, easier combat encounters, more abundant rewards, simpler quest objectives, can save anywhere
A proper Action Role-Playing Game
Not this timid, generic cRPG/aRPG mix shit Betheseda has been doing since Oblivion
7 Attributes
10 levels each (except for LUCK)
Char creation starts with level 3 on all attributes, save for the two Racial attributes where the PC stats with level 4
The player will be able to increase his attributes on every 5 levels - with the main quest providing 5 addicional attribute points at the conclusion of specific story chapters
ENDURANCE - Maximum Fatigue, Poison/Diease/Temperature Resistance, Health gain per level, Recovery, Lung, small Physical/Elemental Resistance
STRENGTH - Carrying Capacity, some Fatigue gain, hand-to-hand damage, small weapon damage (including degradation), reduces Fatigue of physical actions, small Poise, break locks
DEXTERITY - ease of increasing physical skills, small character movement speed/acelaration, projectile reloading speed, primary requeriment for various rogue skills
ASTUTENESS - initial disposition, ease to increase disposition, lowers speechcraft/barter requeriments, new dialog choices, requeriment for "influence" magic, ability to notice "secrets" (become highligthed), ability to examine items and certain world objects
INTELLECT - memory, spell requeriment, ease of learning mage skills, Concentration limit
WILLPOWER - resistance to all sort of magic effects, small Health/Fatigue/Diease, Concentration regeneration, Belief
LUCK - changes odds of dice rolls and modifies the campgain itself (for example: more (dis)favourable item/enemy placement ; better rewards ; new world events ; less favourable weather events ; etc.)
Luck skill has 5 levels - cursed, unlucky, neutral, lucky, blessed
The player CAN NEVER permanently increase the attribute level.
Rather in char gen, each character starts on Neutral and if the player so chooses he can roll the dice to change this level.
The catch being that, once the die is cast, the player will never get "neutral" again (only one of the other four levels)
Plus the dice odds favor the negative levels
And finally the player can't re-roll (and to make matters more annoying for powergamers, the Luck roll only happens at the end of the tutorial level)
You may have noticed that I didn't mention
Magicka anywhere
That's because it's been redesigned into
Concentration
It works much like its DMC inspiration - a meter that either fills or drains depending on the PC's action and status, with higher Concentration meaning more power
The fundamental idea here is, good play is rewarded with access to higher spell
No more chugging down mana potions, farming magic resources and then just clicking the awesome button
If you want to cast that fireball, you actually put in the work
It also like Stamina gives the players another element they manipulate in enemies
15 Skills
Also 10 levels each, where each new level is an actual game changer and not small incremental additions
Player gets 1 skill point to freely use after each level-up
Max level is 40
Player starts the game with only 5 skill points which depend on his chosen class
BLADES - this skill expands the character's moveset with all manner of swords
HEAVY METALS - ditto for axes and hammers
POLEARMS - ditto for spears and quarterstaffs
HAND-TO-HAND - ditto for hand-to-hand and daggers
MARKSMAN - increases accuracy (no shoting arrows from sneaking stance, except for crossbows but those make alot of noise)
SNEAK - each levels reduces noise made in several (not all) ground surfaces
SECURITY - both lockpicking and pickpocketing
SPEECHCRAFT - improved existing dialog choices ; Persuasion ability ; Barter ability ; Reading ability
ATHLETICS - running speed, jumping height+width, swimming, rope climbing, various acrobatics (such as vault jumping, wall running, wall jumping, funambulism)
SURVIVALISM - riding, sailing, hunting, cooking, climbing, first aid, recognizing fauna+flora
ALCHEMY - similar to Witcher 1, no ridiculously busted morrowind shit ; each potion has a required skill level
DESTRUCTION - ofensive magic
RESTORATION - defensive magic
CONJURATION - space/time magic (summoning shit)
THAUMATHURGY - mysticism + alteration, for enviromental manipulation
There's various trainers for each Skill around the world, but only 1 is actually available to train you and only provide just 1 level-up for that skill
Each new playtrough randomizes that trainer
No enchanting, magic items are each special
Along with their traditional powers, each Race has unique Stat properties and Skill abilities
For example:
- Redguards can dual wield weapons and can perform partial Stamina recovery (à lá Nioh's Ki Pulse)
- Argonians are immune to disease and poison and have natural cameleon, thermal vision and special swimming method (like Majora's Mask Zora mask)
Etc.
No respec horsehit
You want to play something new?
Start a new game
XP is gained by:
- completing Quests (each with its own fixed value)
- discovering locations (value comes in tiers of how hidden the place is)
- and how much damge the PC took in a combat encounter
That's right, no XP from killing but rather from getting your teeth kicked in
Why?
Because not only it makes more sense (your PC is learning from mistakes), it also makes farming for XP a pain the ass process
Why though?
Because fuck powergamers - this is a videogame, not a spreadcheet that needs to be autistically corrected
Take that cancer back to whatever MMO rathole you crawled out from