Elder Scrolls 6 should build upon Starfield in 2 major ways

Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI are the next two major games in production at Bethesda Game Studios. While both titles are still shrouded in mystery and haven't been discussed much since both of them were revealed, Bethesda's Todd Howard told The Guardian that Starfield is further along in development than The Elder Scrolls 6. Here are two huge things The Elder Scrolls 6 could learn from Starfield.

More interesting traversal mechanics: The Elder Scrolls 6 could take some lessons from the little bit we know about travel in Starfield. In a panel with Geoff Keighley and Elon Musk at E3 2019, Howard talked a little more about Starfield. "Travelling in space in our game, I want to say it's like flight in the '40s, like it's dangerous," he said. "It's still dangerous to go and explore, even though lots of people do it."

It appears that space travel in Starfield won't be as simple as other sci-fi games, even if Howard went on to clarify that "it's not as punishing as actual space travel." While The Elder Scrolls 6 obviously won't have space travel given the series' fantasy settings, Bethesda's Starfield experience could make traversal more interesting in The Elder Scrolls 6. Games like Death Stranding, and seemingly Starfield, have made travel much less simple than just going from point A to point B.

While Oblivion and Skyrim were both fairly straightforward in their traversal mechanics, The Elder Scrolls 6 has the potential to be much different, adding more survival elements or more in-depth mechanics to care for your horse, boat, or other forms of transport.

Improved technology would also get rid of the loading required during some travel in games like Starfield. In The Elder Scrolls 6, this could lead to some more epic or enthralling moments as players travel across Tamriel in a carriage or enter almost a city, dungeon, or other setpieces with minimal loading.

Take advantage of next-generation technology: Starfield is confirmed to be a next-generation game, so the same is likely the case for The Elder Scrolls 6. As the studio's second next-generation outing, Bethesda Game Studios should embrace these next-generation features more.

"[Being next-gen] does mean hardware and it does mean software on our side, and it also means gameplay - what does the next generation of epic single-player RPGs feel like to us?" Howard told Eurogamer. "We're pushing it; we're thinking very, very far in future so we're building something that will handle next-generation hardware."

Bethesda has fielded a lot of criticism this console generation for its reliance on a dated and glitchy engine. Bethesda confirmed to GameStar that Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 would use the same engine.

While this may sound a bit worrying after Fallout 76 was roundly criticized for its glitchy launch, it seems like Bethesda is bunkering down to make its engine better for next-gen.

"For Starfield even more of [the engine] changes. And for The Elder Scrolls 6, out there on the horizon even more," Howard explained to GameStar.

The engine apparently allows Bethesda to "create worlds really fast," and next-generation features like the SSD that will minimize loading times and raytracing are very promising. Good ray-tracing lighting will make whatever area of Tamriel that The Elder Scrolls 6 is set in look even better, and as we've mentioned the lack of loading could make travelling more interesting.

While there's still a lot we don't know about Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6, it's exciting to think about how they could be improved when compared to Bethesda's previous titles or even build on each other.

Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 are currently in development.