Bruce Nesmith, former lead designer of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, hopes that The Elder Scrolls VI will include ships and naval combat, with a development focus on surface-level gameplay. Note: Nesmith is not involved in the development of the new title, and these ideas do not represent officially announced game designs.
In a recent interview with GoHumanize, Nesmith expressed his hope that player speculation about the story taking place in the Iliac Bay and near Sentinel would come true. If the new installment is set in this region, he believes ships, water exploration, and naval combat would be major gameplay features worth adding.
Nesmith mentioned that while the series has previously featured carriages for traveling between locations, this mode of transport didn't offer much additional gameplay. Water-based scenarios, on the other hand, could lead to new skills, spells, and creatures, allowing ships to serve functions beyond mere transportation. His ideas include water walking, sea monsters, sharks, and sea elves.
However, Nesmith wants the team to focus on surface-level gameplay rather than expanding underwater areas simultaneously. He recalled that during the development of Fallout 4, there were pushes for underwater environments and even proof-of-concept work, but the idea was ultimately not widely implemented due to the excessive workload. He also disagrees with the claim that "complete underwater vault levels were planned but later cut."
For The Elder Scrolls VI, his approach is to allocate resources to surface-level gameplay, avoiding the dilution of development efforts across both surface and underwater content.