331 replies to this topic

[Donkeymog]

So I thought this deserved it's own thread.

Here are some scans from February's issue of GameInformer.

From what I can make out it looks pretty spiffing. I do hope they bring back levitate spells though if they're going to have flying mobs like dragons.

[kspr]

purdy. i was really worried about skyrim being bland and snowy. oblivion's description of the nords made them sound like eskimo vikings

[Vicious Parker]

I can't help but be a little skeptical here. I remember being ooed and awed by Oblivion screens before the release, only to have them be rather misleading. Don't get me wrong, it does look good, but I think that's what we should expect considering oblivion is what? 6 years old now?

Also, Kasper, you should look up details on the Morrowind expansion Bloodmoon, and that should give you maybe a slight idea of what to expect. Lots of snow... lots of viking-esque everything. I don't know if that will disappoint you or not. I personally liked the setting of Bloodmoon, and I hope that it translates well in to an entire game.

But on that thought, according to Bethesda's own lore before Oblivion, Cyrodiil (the province) apparently had a jungle/rainforest environment. But then for the game, they frakked that up and made everything in to a samey temperate forest. What a letdown. Seriously.

I will, however, give them the benefit of a doubt. Morrowind is still my favorite game ever, and Fallout 3 was an improvement on the Bethesda formula, and New Vegas was further improvement still. I know NV wasn't developed by Bethesda, but hopefully they were paying attention.

[Stars]

I could live without Levitate as long as they bring back Jump spells. Enchanting a powerful CE Jump effect onto yourself in Morrowind was way more fun that it should have been.
And I still think I prefer teleportation spells and transport services to fast travel. Even if the world map in Oblivion was four times larger or whatever, it felt smaller than Vvardenfell.
And presumably Skyrim won't have Oblivion Gates, which I don't mind at all.
And it needs to have more than four guilds/factions to join (I don't count the Arena as a proper guild). The guilds they had in Oblivion were well done and all, but I still haven't done everything there is to do in Morrowind to this day. (Granted, I stopped the Imperial Cult quests because they were kinda boring, but the Morag Tong always sounded interesting.)
And...that's all I have to say for the moment.

[Vicious Parker]

I'm of the opinion that they got fast travel right in the new Fallout games. That is, you get NOTHING at the start of the game, and an area is open to fast travel only after you've first visited it. It still gives the world a sense of scale, but makes life a whole lot more convenient.

[Donkeymog]

More info.

I'm pretty cynical about the Radiant quest giving idea. I just can't help but feel it'll be a little shallow. Also I'm not sure why "5 cities!" is a boasting point. How many did Morrowind have? And they're diminishing the amount of skills you can gain.

Hmmm. sad stuff.

[Stars]

Dual-wielding: you have two hands now in combat and you can wield anything to both hands. You may assign a dagger on left hand and use a mace with right hand. The choice as they say is yours.
I likes the sound of this.

Inheritence: When you kill a shopkeeper, his/her family member will inherit the shop and will be angry about you, but stil give you missions.
Not entirely necessary, but definitely an interesting idea.

Level-scaling: It is coming back
Booooo!

18 skills: supposedly even less skills to play with?
No mysticism
I am curious as to what they're cutting, but I'm not overly concerned. As for Mysticism, I loved it in Morrowind, but when they took away the teleportation spells and gave the absorb spells to Restoration in Oblivion, I stopped using it. =/

Sprinting: You can now sprint about!
But...you could...always do that...right?

Beards
Finally.

10 races to choose from (Holy crap thats a lot of races)
Any ideas what the tenth one might be?

Character creation improved, body features customizable
I used to want to make a character based on Baron Vladimir Harkonnen from Dune. Maybe now I can if they also add Jump back in. =p

Kids
Huh, I used to hear people complain about the lack of children in previous games. I guess Bethesda got tired of it.

[Vicious Parker]

I... I just don't know...

I read, "Inheritence: When you kill a shopkeeper, his/her family member will inherit the shop and will be angry about you, but stil give you missions." and all I can think is... really?

[Donkeymog]

Dual-wielding: you have two hands now in combat and you can wield anything to both hands. You may assign a dagger on left hand and use a mace with right hand. The choice as they say is yours.
Meh. Seems like a pretty minor thing. I doubt I'll notice any difference.

Inheritence: When you kill a shopkeeper, his/her family member will inherit the shop and will be angry about you, but stil give you missions.
Like Vicious said this is a little bemusing. Does this mean that effectively shopkeepers will just keep respawning with changed first names and appearances? Sounds a little silly

Level-scaling: It is coming back
Yeah, I have no faith in Bethesda in this area. Luckily mods should sort it out, assuming the new engine is mod friendly.

18 skills: supposedly even less skills to play with?
No mysticism
I'm not sure why they feel the need to reduce skills? Must be something to do with the new leveling system. Apparently you level up when you use skills! Didn't that happen before? I'm a little confuzzled here.

Sprinting: You can now sprint about!
Again, couldn't we spring before? Or was that jogging? Does it matter?

10 races to choose from (Holy crap thats a lot of races)
I have two theories on this. It could perhaps be the Falmer but I'm not sure how this would fit into the lore. I'm also interested in how Oblivion mentioned that the Nerevarine traveled to Akavir, maybe the Ka Po' Tun will make an appearance because of the dragon theme that seems to be going on.

[toysintheattic]

There have always been 10 races hasn't there?

[Donkeymog]

There have always been 10 races hasn't there?

Oh yeah, so there are, I counted 9. I think I counted Breton and Imperial as the same race by mistake.

[Stars]

I'm not sure why they feel the need to reduce skills? Must be something to do with the new leveling system. Apparently you level up when you use skills! Didn't that happen before? I'm a little confuzzled here.

The difference is that all skill increases count towards level up instead of just class skill increases (since there won't be classes).
They might get rid of Athletics or something. I'm not really sure what else they could cut unless they plan to get rid Speechcraft and Mercantile. They might do something new for armor.
...I hope they don't cut out Alchemy. =(

I was pretty sure there are only nine races...
Argonian
Breton
Dark Elf
High Elf
Imperial
Khajiit
Nord
Orc
Redguard
Wood Elf
Ah, my bad. I had even checked UESP and thought I only saw nine. <_<;

EDIT: Maybe some of the skills will be converted into perks or something.

[Donkeymog]

I could do without mercantile and athletics I guess. But to remove speechcraft and alchemy would be nothing short of savage butchery!

[Vicious Parker]

Giving it a little more thought, the new dynamic quest system or whatever that puts quest objectives in semi-random dungeons sounds like it might not be so bad. After all, there were a million absolutely pointless dungeons in Oblivion. This could be a remedy for that...

[Donkeymog]

Giving it a little more thought, the new dynamic quest system or whatever that puts quest objectives in semi-random dungeons sounds like it might not be so bad. After all, there were a million absolutely pointless dungeons in Oblivion. This could be a remedy for that...

Yeah, I think I'm just cynical. In theory it seems like it could be a good idea, but I remember getting my hopes up about things like Radiant AI with Oblivion and realizing that Bethesda don't really seem to pull these things off.

[Stars]

things like Radiant AI with Oblivion and realizing that Bethesda don't really seem to pull these things off.

But it did make for some hilarious development stories.

[kspr]

Enemies include were-yeti’s

No mysticism

whatev. i never used mysticism spells anyway. they were useless.

Town visiting: You may do more in towns, like tailor weapons, cooking, farming or mining. Not much details about this or how detailed they are as jobs.

Everything i wanted to mod into oblivion but lacked the technical knowhow to do


also- does anyone find it extremely awkward that the argonian women have boobs?

[Donkeymog]

also- does anyone find it extremely awkward that the argonian women have boobs?

No, I find it hot! MMMM LIZARD BOOBIES!

*buries head in imaginary pair of lizard boobies and motorboats away happily*

[Stars]

I got my copy of GI in the mail yesterday, so I could actually read the article and see the images more clearly. It looks like there might be a new skill called Smithing that could replace Armorer. Granted I could only see "Smit" at the edge of the skills screenshot, but it makes sense since they mention that you can now craft armor and weapons.

Speaking of skills, the article made it sound like there might be skills for one-handed (and presumably another for two-handed) weapons instead of the Blade and Blunt weapon skills. That's just a guess from the way they worded their description of level ups though. They don't concretely say anything of the sort.

The dual-wielding sounded even better when they said that any combination of weapon, shield, and spell can be used. For example, the article mentions having two different spells equipped at the same time, or having the same spell in both hands and multiplying its effects. Sounds like fun.

I can't remember if Bean's link mentioned this (it's broken now, apparently), but as a Dragonborn, you have access to new Dragon Shout abilities. It seems that as you explore Skyrim, you can find runes containing power words. Different combinations of three power words can generate different effects, such as a shout that knocks enemies back or a whispered "shout" that makes you stealth better.

[Donkeymog]

That all sounds rather spiffing! Especially the dual-spell wielding combination mega special move attack button.