Skyrim’s lead designer hopes The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel finally fixes the series’ ladder problem

Bruce Nesmith, a lead designer on Skyrim, hopes The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel will let players climb ladders and make better use of mounts. He says these modest changes could make the world feel more immersive and give designers more options for building layered environments.

Skyrim used instant transitions or stairs instead of climbable ladders because developers faced complex questions about how players and characters would interact on them. Nesmith also says mounts are difficult to implement: in Skyrim, players can ride horses but cannot fight from them or have them fight alongside them.