Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[CoM_Solaufein]

Hopefully it'll be just as good if not better than Oblivion.

[trulez]

Hopefully it'll be just as good if not better than Oblivion.

Hopefully it wont be as bad as Oblivion. I have nightmares involving leveling monsters, mundane loot, cloned dungeons and worst facial expressions ever.

[entrerix]

oblivion with more quests, hand placed non-leveled loot and enemies, better character models, and unique dungeons = an awesome game. hopefully skyrim.

[Drowsy Emperor]

I like the idea, the first time in an Oblivion dungeon was incredibly atmospheric and intense.

 

That potential will hopefully not be squandered again.

 

Do we have confirmation that dungeons are unique?

[entrerix]

Do we have confirmation that dungeons are unique?

 

 

yep! there are fewer, but they are all handmade apparently.

[Drowsy Emperor]

I am officially interested. What about the level scaling?

[WorstUsernameEver]

I am officially interested. What about the level scaling?

 

Like Fallout 3.

[entrerix]

to be handled the same as fallout 3. (ie by regions, each region has a set level range (for example, if a region is set to be level 10-15, and you enter it at level 7, the region will be a level 10 region, if you had instead entered it at level 20, the region would lock in as a level 15 area)

 

edit: it worked pretty well, and prevented a ton of the stupid levelling stuff you saw in oblivion.

Edited August 22, 2011 by entrerix

[Drowsy Emperor]

Ah okay, that's tolerable. Probably the only possible way for it to work and not be like Oblivion.

 

And the stuff you said about non leveled unique loot?

 

I suspect the main plot will be standard fare, but as long as the rest of the quests are good, its no big deal.

Edited August 22, 2011 by Drowsy Emperor

[MechanicalLemon]

I hope there aren't any cliff racers.

[Slowtrain]

to be handled the same as fallout 3. (ie by regions, each region has a set level range (for example, if a region is set to be level 10-15, and you enter it at level 7, the region will be a level 10 region, if you had instead entered it at level 20, the region would lock in as a level 15 area)

 

edit: it worked pretty well, and prevented a ton of the stupid levelling stuff you saw in oblivion.

 

 

Fallout 3 didn't actually work like that though.

 

Bloatflies became mole rats became radscorpions became Yao Guai became Deathclaws pretty universally. Likewise super mutants became supe mutant brutes became supermutant masters. Likewise Protectrons became Robobrains became Mr. Gutsys became whatever.

 

It was pretty much identical to Oblivion.

 

Only difference was that FO3 had a couple areas with high level enemies right from the start such as Old Olney and the Yau Guai caves.

[Raithe]

They're also saying the Radiant system should do wonders for making it "unique". Sort of if you get a quest sending you to a dungeon, but you've already visited dungeons a, b, c and d in the area, the system will identify dungeon E as the on you have to go to... Just to make sure you "explore" the world and don't have to backtrack.

 

I don't know, after all the disapointment over Oblivion, this is definitely on my wait and see list rather then jump on straightaway.

[WDeranged]

snip

 

I get your point but it's not quite as rigid as that, I'm at level 19 and I still see plenty of molerats and bloatflies when I enter new areas, Deathclaws don't often spawn anywhere other than Old Olney or around the Dunwich Building and Girdershade, Yao Guai on the other hand seem to get a massive boost when you pass a certain level.

 

I recall that things do start to get stupid when you're nearing level 30, albino radscorpions and bulletsponge supermutants all over the place.

 

 

snap

 

How elegantly they use the Radiant Story thing is probably going to be a deal breaker for me, though the modding potential is pretty huge.

Edited August 23, 2011 by WDeranged

[Slowtrain]

snip

 

I get your point but it's not quite as rigid as that, I'm at level 19 and I still see plenty of molerats and bloatflies when I enter new areas, Deathclaws don't often spawn anywhere other than Old Olney or around the Dunwich Building and Girdershade, Yao Guai on the other hand seem to get a massive boost when you pass a certain level.

 

 

Yep, there's still a range that's seems wider than oblivion when spawning encounters.

 

iirc Oblivion's range was -6 to +3 char levels with increasing probability of spawns close to the char level. Fallout 3 seems to have a full range of spawns to some degre throughout the game.

 

I'm not really criticizing Fallout 3 per se. It's better than Oblivion certainly.

 

The biggest improvement in the scaling system for me was that Fallout 3 eliminated the whole goatherder-npcs-being- equipped-with-glass-cuirasses-and-daederic-claymores syndrome. Plus in Fallout 3 the average raider isn't running around in power armor while toting gatling lasers regardless of your char level, which they pretty much were in Oblivion.

[Hurlshort]

Yep, scaling isn't bad per se, but it was atrociously implemented in Oblivion.

[Drowsy Emperor]

It was the only game that actively punished you for leveling up, by making the monsters an absolute annoyance to deal with at higher levels, particularly if you were, like I was, playing a fully melee character.

[Slowtrain]

It was the only game that actively punished you for leveling up, by making the monsters an absolute annoyance to deal with at higher levels, particularly if you were, like I was, playing a fully melee character.

 

 

Or if you weren't actively powerleveling and metagaming your character, which to some degree you almost had to do to stay alive at higher levels.

[Drowsy Emperor]

It was the only game that actively punished you for leveling up, by making the monsters an absolute annoyance to deal with at higher levels, particularly if you were, like I was, playing a fully melee character.

 

 

Or if you weren't actively powerleveling and metagaming your character, which to some degree you almost had to do to stay alive at higher levels.

 

Well I wasn't, since I was new to the system and not adept at abusing it. At higher levels gameplay became torture, particularly the oblivion gates with a lot of high level mobs. Dying was too easy and too common, and my weapons and martial skills seemed useless all the time.

Edited August 23, 2011 by Drowsy Emperor

[WDeranged]

Some new info.

 

Q: Is there a survival/hardcore mode ala Fallout NV?

A: No plans. Skyrim is the biggest project they've taken on, and such adding a new mode that changes such elements is a big task.

 

Q: Will there be Arenas?

A: Not the Arena like Oblivion. (Not sure what this really confirms beyond that)

 

Q: Can you alter appearances later in the game after CC menu?

A: No further modifying afterwards. People into characters will be glad to know Todd is releasing some new screenshots, so stay tuned.

 

Q: Are you planning on releasing a CC generator before the game is launched?

A: Sorry, but no. If you want to wrap your head around it though, Todd's screenshots should satisfy a bunch of these ideas.

 

Q: Are there Beast children?

A: Wait and find out.

 

Q: How many different types of monsters can we expect?

A: Is a lot a number? Lots of variations of a single type of enemy.

 

Q: How many dungeons and caves?

A: About 6 or 7 times as many side quests as Fallout 3. Over 100 dungeons.

 

Q: What kind of stars can we expect doing VA?

A: We're announcing something about this soon. Linda Carter is already confirmed, along with Max Von Sydow.

 

Q: Mod tools?

A: Definitely PC. Creation Kit. If we could, we would for consoles but they don't work that way right now.

 

Q: What kind of combat changes are we going to see? Locational damage?

A: No locational damage. Yes friendly fire still. Allied targets are more lenient to friendly fire initially.

 

Q: Is there going to be horse armour? Ha ha!

A: That's a running joke. Unless I can come up with a way to come up with a joke for it, no.

 

Q: Do you prefer console or PC?

A: I prefer console because of my set up at home and due to sitting at a PC at work all day. I do play on PC as well at work though.

 

Q: One of the biggest hurdles to overcome?

A: Size of the game in of itself.

 

Q: Necromancers? Are they a faction and can we use their spells?

A: There are Necromancers in the game. No Necromancer's guild. Spells can be found and used.

 

Q: PC Specs?

A: We are in the process of finishing content. If you have the equivalent of a 360 in PC specs, you'll be fine. Anything more and you'll be able to make it look better obviously.

 

Q: Hard cover of a game guide?

A: We are working with Prima for a strategy guide. We are using David to write it again. If we can do a Collector's Edition of the guide, we will.

 

Q: Vampires and Werewolves?

A: Wait. Quit asking to spoil the game.

 

Q: Crafting?

A: We have crafting out the whazoo.

Q: Is there a perk for having it out the whazoo?

A: Hah. There is a smithing skill. You can mine ores (about a dozen or so), turn it into ingots, use them at forges, workbenches, etc, create new armour, strengthen/sharpen/improve armour and weapons. Perks committed increase the types of armours/weapons you can create or work with (confirmed up to Daedric/Dragon). Getting better at Enchantment improves your use of enchanted items. Alchemy deals with poisons, potions, cooking. Cook fires have recipes for meals that list ingredients you need. Meals are more powerful than the sum of their parts. All the armour seen you can make.

 

Q: AI? Psychic guards?

A: If you are spotted, it's something Guards know about. Witnesses are tagged. If they are killed, then the bounty is removed. (Apparently there is a message stating if you've killed the last Witness)

 

Q: Legal stuff about Scrolls/Mojang?

A: Potentially a pending legal matter, that's left to the Lawyers. We have a lot of respect for Mojang and their products. At the end of the day, it was brought to our attention by our Lawyers as a potential issue. I'd love for us to have a solution that makes us both happy and hold something like a 3vs3 tournament.

 

Mostly good solid stuff, no locational damage seems a bit backwards though.

Edited August 24, 2011 by WDeranged

[Slowtrain]

One of my concerns, as usual for Bethesda, is that they've prioritized quantity over quality way too much. Again.

 

Often it seems to matter less to Bethesda if something is good than that there is a lot of them.

[MechanicalLemon]

Bethblog: The Races and Faces of Skyrim

[Undecaf]

There's a patch of facial presets for each race in Bethblog, and the links to the pics were compiled in the forum:

 

New compilation images of facial features for all the races and both genders:

 

==============================

 

Altmer Faces: http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6202/607411...afd1035af_o.jpg

 

Breton Faces: http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6191/607357...659e1df36_o.jpg

 

Imperial Faces: http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6088/607410...9f6decff8_o.jpg

 

 

==============================

 

Argonian Faces: http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6071/607357...8f1136f3f_o.jpg

 

Bosmer Faces: http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6079/607411...35723117a_o.jpg

 

Dunmer Faces: http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6062/607357...abf360d66_o.jpg

 

Khajiit Faces: http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6074/607410...aebd9e6ba_o.jpg

 

Nord Faces: http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6189/607410...6269c51d6_o.jpg

 

Orc Faces: http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6072/607410...57ec7a9ba_o.jpg

 

Redguard Faces: http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6066/607357...f5bbe6dda_o.jpg

 

EDIT: per Bethblog - these are actually the presets for each race!

 

I'll opt out from commenting because I wasn't too impressed... though that may just be due to being tired from work and feel indifferent. Maybe I'll shiver in awe tomorrow. Anyways, a definite improvement over Fallout 3 (but you can see the similiarities behind the other, imroved detail - like how the mouth curves on some characters for example). Nice pics.

 

 

Beaten to it....... by 3 minutes.

Edited August 24, 2011 by Undecaf

[Drowsy Emperor]

With so many similar mug shots next to each other they all tend to look the same, you could be forgiven for thinking that Bethesda has a very incestuous universe going there.

 

They've also apparently substituted facial obesity for anorexia.

Edited August 24, 2011 by Drowsy Emperor

[Lexx]

They probably are exactly the same. But you can see that their face details are different. I am pretty sure that you still can morph the face, like in Oblivion and the later Fallout games.

 

Now I just wonder if the rest of the game will improve as much as the characters faces did.

[HoonDing]

Bethblog: The Races and Faces of Skyrim

I want to be a Breton.