Ideas for the Skyrim DLC

Many of you are still busy working through the insane amount of content included in Skyrim. Maybe you’re not one of them. Maybe you’ve unlocked and spent every perk point, cleared every dungeon and killed every chicken. Either way you are probably wondering what sort of content Bethesda will be creating to keep us entertained for the next 6 months.

Ok they haven’t released anything concrete but a few more ideas have cropped up in the various conversations I’ve had about the massive world we have all be exploring for the last few months. Bethesda have confirmed that these will not be quick pieces of content but will be more expansive adventures released over a longer period of time.

In the previous Elder Scrolls game, Oblivion, Bethesda released mainly smaller pieces of content ranging from Wizards Tower to the infamous Horse Armour. Following a reasonable degree of sales they then changed strategy and released the hugely popular Shivering Isle which added a whole new region for players to explore. This piece of content fell in line with the Morrowind add-ons and is looking like the direct that Bethesda will take with Skyrim over the next few months.

Whatever offerings come our way the Xbox 360 players among us will get to play the first two pieces of content before everyone else. One of the biggest options available would be to expand the current skill trees. We all know there are a lot of different ways to plunge deep into the Skyrim world but a few additional tweaks wouldn’t go amiss. What about dual casting different power and combining them to create even more effective attacks? It would be a great addition to the game and creating a vortex of lightning and fire would look amazing while also dishing out a ton of damage to your opponents. Maybe we could fuse together different Antronach types or create more powerful conjured blades. For those non-magical players you could notch multiple arrows onto a bow or hack off different limps with your broadsword. The actual options for just improving combat are pretty vast.

What about the prospect of improving Dragon Shouts? Ok we all know this could cause some distress to those steeped in Elder Scrolls fictions but I’m sure Bethesda could find a logical way around it. What if a forth word could be used to create super versions of the shouts we already know and love? This would certainly mean we wouldn’t need new shouts with each add-on but could also add new effects to combat situations. A forth word on the Unrelenting Force Shout line could make this an area-of-effect spell that spreads around the player in a full 360 degrees as opposed to being straight forward. Alternatively the super verion of Slow Time could actually reverse time for a few seconds giving the player the upper hand.

The main DLC most people are after is an increase in the territory size of the main game; which is really saying something considering the actually size of the initial gameworld. Shivering Isles was by far the most popular piece of additional content for Oblivion and it looks like this is the most likely route for the future DLC offerings. I would like to see another Daedric realm in the new content as this gives the developers and game designers a chance to try something new and provide a new level of entertainment. It has already been noted that Cyrodiil and Morrowind as land masses are already stored on the disk so maybe they are the places we will visit. I doubt this is the case though as Bethesda wouldn’t open up access to another province until the next main entry for the series comes around. Maybe we will explore the vast mountain ranges the hug the main province of Skyrim or delve deep into some large Dwemer ruins. There is even the possibility that we could return to somewhere like Solstheim or the mainland of Morrowind.

One of the other areas being discussed for possible DLC is the chance to purchase more property throughout Skyrim, a’la Fable 3. Owning your house is all well and good but I’d love to be the Major of Whiterun or the Alchemist king. The recently released video of possible DLC from Bethesda brought up the chance to ‘possibly’ build a house from scratch but I’m literally asking to buy somewhere different than Breezehome in my Tundra paradise  Don’t get me wrong I’d love  a personalised castle with a shrine to Sheogorath but chance for this are pretty slim.

The main point most people were interested in pre-launch was the inclusion of Dragons and whether you could fly one of these beasts. Now we all know that there is no option to ride your beloved reptilian friends but that’s not to say that we couldn’t in the future. We all know how amazing would it be to fly through the skies breathing fire on your foes and burning cities in your wake. It would be like the world map only deadlier.

Personally I would like to see a few smaller tweaks to the gameplay. I was a massive fan of crossbows back in the Morrowind days as well as spears, halberds and lances and would love to get some of these into my equipment logs on Skyrim. The video of possible DLC from Bethesda showed off spears and made them look like a lot of fun again which appeals heavily to my nostalgia. I would also like to see more variations of current enemies, weapons and tactics. I love random one-offs like the Unicorn or Giant Mudcrab of Oblivion. Maybe Bethesda can give us a ‘Giant’ Giant or a new set of mounts for us to try; Frost Spider anyone?

What sort of things would you like to see in the content released from Betheda over the coming months? Would you prefer gameplay tweaks or large additional territories to explore? Please sound off in the comments below.