Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[agent17]

I come from the far east in search of the messiah. I followed that big star! I bring gold and......this

http://bethblog.com/index.php/2011/01/19/n...g+Bethesda+Blog

 

Also cookie for the reference to one of my all-time favorite movies.

That is f*cking great news. Mods always make the game better

Yup, Bethesda probably realizes that mods keep the game fresh, which means more people will play for longer.

 

Has anyone else been playing Oblivion lately? I have been modding the hell out of it, I recently downloaded Quarl's Hi-Res Texture Replacement Pack III and the Oblivion Graphics Extender v2 using the Godray + Depth of Field Shaders. The game looks beautiful, it was a great way to breath some life into this gem of a game, I am hooked again.

[Robinski]

Has anyone else been playing Oblivion lately? I have been modding the hell out of it, I recently downloaded Quarl's Hi-Res Texture Replacement Pack III and the Oblivion Graphics Extender v2 using the Godray + Depth of Field Shaders. The game looks beautiful, it was a great way to breath some life into this gem of a game, I am hooked again.

Yup, once it's been modded to hell and back that is. I'm not part of the camp that thinks Oblivion sucks and should have just been Morrowind 2, but certain mods are essential to take Oblivion from a good game to a great game. Specifically, stuff like overhaul mods (OOO is my choice one), anti-levelscaling mods and stuff that just adds some variety (Myths and Legends pack comes to mind).

 

As well as that, I've just started a game of Nehrim. It's a complete conversion of Oblivion, and by that I mean it's a completely different levelling system, a new world with new races, new factions, new quest lines. Everything, basically. Only problem so far is the restrictions they put on fast travel and the fact that all the voice acting is in German, but that's excusable because the mod team were so kind as to translate all the subtitles and other texts into perfect English for us.

[Don Garcia]

the fact that all the voice acting is in German

Does that make it more intense?

[Midnight Special]

 

I hope that Skyrim has werewolves.

 

I think I'm going to go pick up Morrowind for PC.  I had it for Xbox, and loved it, but I didn't have a good enough PC at the time.

I REALLY hope that they make werewolves in Skyrim and that disease which turns you into a werewolf. But obviously there will be the disease as long as there are werewolves.

Edited January 20, 2011 by Superpowermind

[Robinski]

the fact that all the voice acting is in German

Does that make it more intense?

Can't say that it does. It's s shame that it's in German/I stopped learning German in year 9, because for once it's a mod (if it can even be called simply a mod) with voice acting that's actually been done properly in some level of a studio, rather than some mid-puberty teen in his room with a laptop and a mic.

[freak2121]

Don't know if this has been posted before, but:

 

Not sure if it's legit or not though.

[Rawra]

 

Don't know if this has been posted before, but:

 

Not sure if it's legit or not though.

T'is legit.

 

 

Edit:

 

New update: Dragon shouts/ Thu'um

 

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/arc...PostPageIndex=1

Edited January 21, 2011 by Rawra

[Suihkubad]

If werewolwes, vampires

[Don Garcia]

They're obviously gonna keep teasing us before we got a substantial update about combat and game features, but this update wasn't half bad. Some cool bits:

 

 

In the game, players will guide their hero to learn ever more powerful dragon shouts, and then use these arcane powers to supplement other combat and magic skills. Upon defeating a dragon, Skyrim’s hero absorbs the soul of the fallen creature, which fuels his ability to learn a new shout. Later, players can search out long lost walls covered in dragon script. Upon these walls, individual runes stand out to the hero because he or she is dragonborn. “There are these words of power, and if you learn how to say them right, they have a powerful effect,” Howard says.

 

Over time, players will build a vast arsenal of shouts: over 20 complete shouts in all, each with multiple words that must be gathered from different places around the world. “There are three words for each shout, and there are three levels to them. The amount of time you hold down the shout button is how many words come out,” Howard continues. “It becomes a bit of a collection mechanic – to collect all the words.”

 

 

Not only do the dragons and the Greybeards recall this long-dead language, but many other creatures in the world do as well. Included among them are the undead draugr, ancient Nord warriors who will call out in dragon language from their skeletal frames, threatening to pull you down to join them.

 

 

One power used in the game acts like a sort of invisible push of staggering power. Spoken in the game, your hero will intone the three words for the full shout: “Fus, Ro, Dah!” Translated into English, “Fus” means force, “Ro” means balance, and “Dah” means push.

 

[You'll] be able to slow down time around you with one shout, or use a special whispered dragon shout to stealthily move close to an enemy in a mere instant. And while they’re cagey about the details, Bethesda says that one shout will let a player summon an actual dragon, calling him by name to fight.

 

 

The written dragon language is written by dragons with their three talons as the basis for the alphabet. That's pretty kewl.

 

And here's some concept art that convinces me this game is gonna have a variety of interiors that was sorely missing in Obliv.

 

 

 

 

[Don Garcia]

C'mon guys, give a damn about Skyrim. Some new info came today via a Dutch cover story. I'll copy-paste it from the Bethesda forums.

 

 

"There is no level cap. You will nevertheless not be able to choose all perks with one character."

 

"Technically speaking, Skyrim is an evolution within The Elder Scrolls, and not a revolution (but everything looks fabulous). The magic of the world that Bethesda has created is nevertheless unequivocally present."

 

"All weapons have different properties, which you can take advantage of by choosing the right perks. Maces ignore a percentage of armor, and axes have bleed damage over time.

 

"You can use fast travel to revisit places you have visited earlier."

 

"Skyrim is approximately as big as Oblivion."

 

"Five big cities and more than 130 dungeons."

 

"Low-Fantasy" (Meaning the game does not look as vibrant, vivid and weird as Morrowind did, more like Oblivion) -> "Oblivion was for sure not over-the-top in terms of its style, but Skyrim should be considered low fantasy even more than its predecessor. Much of the locations look realistic, and could easily exist in our own world."

 

"The overarching narrative of the Dragons is less prominent than the Oblivion Gates were in Oblivion, which does not give you the feeling that you are doing 'useless' quests when you lay aside the Main Quest."

 

"Dragons are not rare."

 

"Dungeons will be locked at their level once you have been there." (Once you go to a dungeon, it will remain lvl 5 when you entered it on lvl 5. This does not imply that all dungeons are level-scaled, it just confirms that dungeons don't change difficulties throughout your savegame after you have entered them.)

 

"Even in third person, animations look really good. There has been a lot of progress since Oblivion."

 

"You can read in-game books in 3-D."

 

"Every item has a 3D-preview in the Flash based inventory, which you can twist, turn, rotate, etc. Sometimes you will solve puzzles by analyzing these 3D-previews. Not only armor and weapons can be explored in great detail, also small rings and herbs can be investigated from all possible angles. Every single item in the game can be previewed in the inventory screen." "

 

"The Dark Brotherhood is back."

 

"Active blocking."

 

"More traps and puzzles."

 

"Main Story is approximately 20 hours. Hundreds of hours for other quests."

 

"Every dragon you kill will make you stronger. A piece of his soul will be transferred to yours."

 

The article also describes how the game starts:

 

This time, the game does not start in a prison. This time you witness your own execution, approximately 200 years after the events of Oblivion. Luckily, it seems like you are more than just a helpless convict.

 

There's also an interview with Todd Howard in the article. These are the highlights of that interview:

 

"There are special animations for sneak kills with daggers." (The way it is written in Dutch does not imply that there are no special animations for other weapons btw...)

 

"We primarily look at how we can improve facial expressions and animations, graphics-wise."

 

"The game won't support Kinect. It takes too much memory."

 

"It is not yet possible to combine forms of magic. It is difficult. Frost magic makes an enemy move slower, and fire does damage over time, and the fire remains on the ground for additional damage. If we would allow the player to use fire magic in one hand, and frost magic in the other, it becomes much more complex. Maybe we will implement this though, but for the time being, 'No'. This one is confusing. The way it is stated in Dutch might imply that it is impossible to combine different spells, because of the extra animations. This might also imply that there will be no spells with more than one effect. Not sure myself either. Would like someone of Bethesda to interpret this for us.

 

"Someone modded Oblivion by changing the physics of shooting an arrow. It made you shoot slower and you almost had to remain stationary to shoot, which increased the arrow's impact. We liked this mod so much, that we implemented it in Skyrim by default."

[[SM]CJZera]

Okay, That's just absolutelly... I can't even express how pretty much every single one of those statements are made of win, for me at least...

 

3D books, dark Brotherhood, an awesome inventory where you can examine what you pick up... puzzles... Sneak attack animations? Hell yea I hope that the Dagger does a backstab anim, I would go tf2ing on every bandit's back >

Also it's awesome that they redesigned arrow-firing and we can finally use maces the way they were intended during medieval ages...

 

 

[Robinski]

While some of the gameplay stuff is great, a lot of the lore and background stuff is disappointing.

 

Specifically:

"Low-Fantasy": Oddly enough, I like crazy sh*t. It technically isn't low fantasy, but I don't want another medieval, Lord of the Rings setting. I like weird stuff that I didn't see coming. I play games to experience stuff you can't get in real life. I've said this before: "If I wanted realistic I'd go outside".

 

Dragons are not rare: They are in Tamriel, read your own lore you f*cks. If it becomes a "dragons are returning and popping up everywhere causing destruction" they've literally just replaced Oblivion gates with dragons.

 

This time, the game does not start in a prison What?!

[[SM]CJZera]

Hm, as long as you don't get revived from the dead after being executed... Wait, that would actually turn out pretty cool, imagine starting in a recently dug grave...

 

Also, Dragons may be rare in Tamriel, but 200 years have passed and this is specifically the place they retreated to...

[Robinski]

I think the idea is that you can kill the body a dragonborn is in but you can't kill the mind/soul/quality that makes them dragonborn. This thing is transferred to another body which'll just act as a vessel. I don't think you'll be playing a zombie.

[[SM]CJZera]

I hope not, my Altmer character is already quite vulnerable to fire as he is

 

But perhaps it's something along the lines of Knights of the Nine, where you are just as if you never died, no side effects at all...

 

I wonder, why all the important heroes in Tamriel are convicts? I know every player likes to steal stuff, but still...

 

 

 

Hopefully, this will be awesome... If anyone can pull off an execution begining, it's Bethesda...

They never actually mentioned if the PC actually died, did they?

[Don Garcia]

Finally, an update on combat.

 

Read now

 

 

In the early stages of development, Bethesda watched fighting videos to study how people react during melee battles. The team found that most encounters featured more jostling and staggering than was present in past Elder Scrolls titles. Using the Havok Behavior animation system, the team is more accurately mimicking the imbalance prevalent in melee combat by adding staggering affects and camera shake. Don't expect button-mashing marathons where the attacker with a bigger life pool wins the war of attrition. If you're not careful on defense you may get knocked around, losing your balance and leaving yourself exposed for a damaging blow that can turn the tide of the battle. Knowing when to block, when to strike, and when to stand your ground is key to prevailing in combat.

 

“There's a brutality to [the combat] both in the flavor of the world, and one of you is going to die,” Howard explains. “I think you get very used to the idea that enemies are all there for you to mow through, but it doesn't seem like someone's life is going to end. We're trying to get that across.”

[Tyler]

That's some great news. I might actually try my hand at arrow-play now. So we've got a pretty good outlook on story elements and combat. I want to know if the game is going to become mindlessly easy as you reach the higher levels, and if every single bandit will be wearing glass, daedric or whatever the new highest edition armours of Skyrim are. It'd make the endgame quite a bit less interesting - just like it did with Oblivion.

 

Also, does anyone come up with back stories to their character? I was lurking on Bethesda's forums for info on Skyrim and noticed a thread about how people make their characters a bit more interesting.

[tubbs51]

I think the idea is that you can kill the body a dragonborn is in but you can't kill the mind/soul/quality that makes them dragonborn. This thing is transferred to another body which'll just act as a vessel. I don't think you'll be playing a zombie.

You wont be killing Dragonborns i believe... because you're a Dragonborn and one of the few left.... you kill the dragons and as a dragon born you absorb the skills or Dragon Shouts when you kill each one...

[Robinski]

I think the idea is that you can kill the body a dragonborn is in but you can't kill the mind/soul/quality that makes them dragonborn. This thing is transferred to another body which'll just act as a vessel. I don't think you'll be playing a zombie.

You wont be killing Dragonborns i believe... because you're a Dragonborn and one of the few left.... you kill the dragons and as a dragon born you absorb the skills or Dragon Shouts when you kill each one...

I was talking about "You" in the general sense rather than "you" as in the player character. I meant, because you see your own execution, you start the game in a new body somewhere else because dragonborn can't truly die.

[Rawra]

mmm 85 spells? I sure hope that's a misinterpretation/ joke.

[[SM]CJZera]

Flamethrower spells? Different effects for fire frost and lighting? Floor trap runes? f*ck, I can't wait until some trailer comes out...

 

Woo Altmer power!

[Robinski]

mmm 85 spells? I sure hope that's a misinterpretation/ joke.

Hmm, quite. Eighty five different spell effects and I'd be bouncing off the walls. Eighty five different spells sounds a lot like they've removed spellmaking altogether, which is a bad move. While you could break the game quite often by building some super spell, so what? It's a single player experience so it doesn't matter; you choose whether to use the insta-win spell or not.

 

They better have also overhauled how magic schools gain experience if they remove custom spellmaking. In Oblivion a 3ft, 1 second Light spell on Self gave you as much Illusion exp as a 100ft, 60 second one did. If I can't make a minimal magicka spell to grind out the schools while I'm just walking about I won't even bother with any of the magic schools (until I get the game on PC and can mod/console abuse it).

[Creed Bratton]

God, I hope they didn't remove spell making. That would be awful. It is one of my favorite in-game activities.

[Rawra]

God, I hope they didn't remove spell making. That would be awful. It is one of my favorite in-game activities.

But look on the bright side: they've added dragons!

No one cares for little things to enjoy, people just want dragons! And according to the Dutch Power Gaming(or something) magazine, dragons arent rare!

 

[/sarcasm]

[Don Garcia]

Well we already knew dragons weren't rare. They'll be Skyrim's Oblivion gates, except way less tedious.

 

I hope Bethesda keeps the 10x sneak damage with daggers that they've announced is currently in place, but could be removed. Would make being a sneak character so much more exciting.

[Rawra]

Dragons were quite rare. They were highly revered in Imperail religion and most were supposedly driven off to extinction because of CliffRacers (unless my lore is wrong). Also since when were dragons the fire-breathing bad guys? They're supposed to be extremely intelligent, civillised creatures.

[[SM]CJZera]

They are, but they can also breath fire... I'm not particularly well-versed in the lore, but I assume the fire breathing derives from speaking dragon language?

Besides, mages can throw fire too, perhaps not from their mouth, but pretty much

 

 

Hm, I wonder when will we get a comparison between a dragon and a human... I really don't know what size to expect, just big

 

 

Also, I really hope they don't remove those awesome sneak dagger attacks, because seriously, daggers are pretty much pointless unless you enchant them like hell, and even then they suck...

[Don Garcia]

Yes, dragons do not breath fire, they speak it.

 

Also, sweet new video. Watch.

 

 

 

"Each race is much more unique than they have been in the past. All the races are back, they've been greatly improved, and there's a lot more customization than we've had in any previous game for you setting up your character or all the NPC's you meet."

 

"There's new systems for allowing decals, and scars, face-painting, and just a lot higher-resolution assets for generating all the characters in the game."

[Otter]

Awesome video. Thanks.

 

At about the 2:15 mark, to the left, you can see concept art of an Argonian. While he definitely doesn't have beast legs ala Morrowind, his legs certainly have a distinct look to them. Let's hope that's a sign of things to come.

[MrcTOtheJ]

All the new spell types (Floor trap runes, flamethrowers) on top of some new combat features, might make playing a mage fun this time. I'm not getting my hopes up, though usually I do use quite a bit of magic, mainly destruction and illusion.

 

Though I most likely will never be using a full on mage, I like swords to , much for it, I usually play as a battle mage type character, albeit in my own custom class. (and or a stealth/combat character, which always needs illusion IMO)

 

Anyhow all the new additions sound great especially stealth kill animations. Always thought they needed them, make the dark brotherhood quests even more fun.