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Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Mpilk901

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MrLlamaLlama Grand Master

MrLlamaLlama

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We're all nerds here, so this thread needs details, prefereably enough words to eventually stifle the boner that the prospect of this games gives me.

The first solid details on The Elder Scrolls V have been announced, detailing the levelling system and revealing more about story, races and enemies of Skyrim. You’ll find all of the info below.

The new information has all come from GameInformer’s first look at the game. Here’s everything we know.

The first thing to note is that there won’t be a class system in Skyrim, your character develops from scratch based on the skills you decide to level up, meaning it’s possible to create a rounded character who can do a bit of everything, or go slap happy with a sword and take a more focused warrior role. As in Oblivion, the individual skills you level up contribute to an overall level. When your character advances you get to attribute extra health, magika or stamina. There won’t be a level cap, but your character will find it harder and harder to level as you stack up the skill points. Character creation has been improved and you’ll be able to choose from one of 10 races when creating a character.

The 21 skill variants of Oblivion have been pruned to 18. The spell school Mysticism has been chopped, but beyond that not much has been revealed about the abilities in the game, except for one new addition. You’ll now be able to dual wield weapons. Bethesda have said that one of the main focuses of the game has been on improving combat to make it more “dynamic and tactical”. There will be unique finishing moves based on the weapons you’re using and the enemies you’re facing. Speaking of enemies, zombies, skeletons, trolls, giants, ice wraiths, giant spiders, wolves, horses Elk, mammoth, saber-toothed cats, were-yetis and of course dragons have all been confirmed.

One of the big complaints about Oblivion was the level scaling system that matched monsters in each area to your hero’s power. The good thing about the system was that you’d never get hopelessly slaughtered by a wandering demon twice your level, but it also robbed the game of much challenge and made the world feel like a less wild and dangerous place. As revealed by a Bethesda community manager on the Bethesda forums, level scaling will return in The Elder Scrolls V, but it’s much closer to Fallout 3’s more tailored version of the system.

One of the most ambitious additions to Skyrim is the new quest system, which offers you new challenges based on your character’s abilities and previous actions in the world. If you’ve specialised as a mage then you’ll be approached and offered quests by characters who wouldn’t speak to you as a warrior. The game will also store information on where your character has been in the world, and relocate quests to dungeons you haven’t explored yet. Another example outlines a situation in which you’ve killed a shopkeeper who would have offered you a quest. The quest is passed on to the shopkeeper’s sister and your character will have to work to redeem themselves if they want to get the mission.

As we know, Elder Scrolls V is set in the northern realm of Skyrim where the Nords live. The game takes place 200 years after Oblivion, and casts you as a dragonborn dragonslayer tasked with taking out the dragon god, who has made a prophesied return to wreak havoc on the world. Unfortunately the king is dead, which means you’ll have to do all of this in the midst of a civil war. There will be five major cities in the game, and with the introduction of a series of professions, there will be a lot more to do when visiting. Enchantments, weapon tailoring, cooking, farming and mining are the activities that have been announced, but there’s no word yet on exactly what each will involve. It will also be possible to duel characters on the streets.

Finally, the conversation system has been mercifully revamped, with attention being paid especially to the quality of faces and facial animation. The awkward ‘crash-zoom to static NPC’ style of conversation in Oblivion is gone, and characters will now move around freely as you chat with them. Most importantly, the updated faces now also allow for beards.

Also:

  • The new Creation Engine provides more impressive draw distances and a significantly improved dynamic lighting system.
  • Snowfall will land on objects and accumulate over time.
  • The Radiant AI system has been heavily improved, with NPCs reacting to characters behaviour realistically. Turning up uninvited to a friendly NPC’s house will prompt them to offer you lodgings.
  • Havok’s new Behavior system will be used to generate exceptionally fluid animations.
  • The less-than-well-received third person view from Oblivion is gone, replaced with a greatly improved one.
  • An organic side-quest management system – known as Radiant Story – will direct you to areas you’ve yet to explore by placing quest objectives in undiscovered dungeons.
  • Side quests will be “conditionalized”, meaning they will adapt to what you’re character has done in their past and create objectives based on who you’ve become.
  • Random encounters will feature, one of which has been confirmed to be a pack of wolves attacking a mammoth.

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MrLlamaLlama Grand Master

MrLlamaLlama

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Probably will be delayed... but I'd probably be willing to wait.

Also, combat detials ahoy!

More information has emerged on Skyrim’s enhanced combat system. Whether you want to be a warrior, a mage, or a distant assassin, enhancements have been made to make combat feel more brutal and decisive. Read on for more information on dual wielding, magic inspired by Bioshock’s plasmids and deadly ranged weapons.

Weapons and spells can be equipped to each hand in any combination. This means you can roll with a pair of blades, a sword and shield, or even two spells at the same time. A quick select menu lets you organise shortcut keys to different weapon loadouts. Here’s a summary of the improvements to each combat style.

Melee

The animation system now uses Havok physics behaviour. It will be possible to throw your enemies off balance and strike for extra damage.

Finishing moves dispatch enemies in different ways depending on the enemy and the weapon equipped.

It’s possible to specialise in different weapons, including swords, shields, maces, axes and two-handed weapons. Specialising in weapons unlocks perks that add damage bonuses. These vary from weapon to weapon. Swords have an increased chance of landing a critical hit, axes cause ongoing bleeding damage and maces can smash right through enemy armour bonuses.

Blocking now relies on a timing-based system, meaning it won’t be possible to continuously hide behind a shield. Shields can be used offensively as well. The new shield bash manoeuvre can throw an enemy off balance, opening them up for a counter strike.

Shields have their own series of unlockable perks which can grant additional elemental protection.

Movement backwards is much slower than Oblivion to make escaping combat more difficult.

Magic

The developers took inspiration from the impact of Bioshock’s plasmid abilities.

There are five schools of magic – destruction, restoration, illusion, alteration, and conjuration. There are 85 spells in total to choose from.

Mysticism is gone. Game Director Todd Howard tells Game Informer why. “It always felt like the magical school of mysticism – isn’t that redundant?” The spells that were formerly part of the Mysticism have been merged with the other magic schools.

While you can only equip one spell to each hand, each spell can be used in a number of ways. A fireball spell can be turned into a flamethrower with an extended button press, or planted on the ground as a proximity bomb. It’s possible to dual wield the same spell for massive damage.

It’s possible to dual wield weapons in different hands. Bethesda are considering adding an ability to combine different spells to make new ones.

Attacking spells inflict secondary effects on their victims. Fire does the most damage, while lightning spells deplete enemy magicka. Ice spells slow enemies down.

Ranged combat and stealth

It now takes longer to string and fire arrows, but shots will do a lot more damage than they did in Oblivion. The developers decided to allow ranged weapons to become powerful enough to kill outright after playing an Oblivion mod that made a similar change.

Arrows will be a more precious commodity, thanks to their increased usefulness.

If enemies get too close, a bash move can be used to get distance.

As in Oblivion, you can zoom in on your target with a bow. The longer you stay zoomed in, the more damage the shot will do.

Stealth will work in a similar way to Oblivion, but enemies will go into a new alerted state when you are detected. During this time characters with a high level of stealth ability will be able to duck out of sight and avoid being attacked.

The knife has been hugely improved. Backstabbing from an undetected position currently does 10 times the damage of a normal attack. Howard says ““I don’t know if we’re going to keep that, but you feel like you should be killing the guy if you’ve gotten that close and you have a dagger.”

As well as the traditional modes of combat, a new Shout ability has been added. As a Dragonborn, your character will have access to a selection of war cries. Your competence with these abilities won’t rely on your spellcasting ability, they’re separate attacks. The two shouts mentioned so far include the ability to slow time and a skill that lets you call on a dragon to aid you in battle.

Also digital version of one of abopve pics and concept art at Here.

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Pandora Grand Master

Pandora

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I've never played Oblivion to be honest.. I've never played any real traditional RPG (with magic et cetera). I've played Fallout 3 and New Vegas though. Fallout 3 was.. well.. oke. Took some getting used to. Couldn't get over the fact that it actually isn't a shooter, so as far as gameplay goes, I just experienced it as the worst shooter ever. Then for New Vegas I finally had that rpg feel and I loved it.

Is the Elder Scrolls very much different gameplaywise? Would I enjoy Skyrim if I liked New Vegas a lot?

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TM™ Grand Master

TM™

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I've never played Oblivion to be honest.. I've never played any real traditional RPG (with magic et cetera). I've played Fallout 3 and New Vegas though. Fallout 3 was.. well.. oke. Took some getting used to. Couldn't get over the fact that it actually isn't a shooter, so as far as gameplay goes, I just experienced it as the worst shooter ever. Then for New Vegas I finally had that rpg feel and I loved it.

Is the Elder Scrolls very much different gameplaywise? Would I enjoy Skyrim if I liked New Vegas a lot?

I think you should try out Oblivion, and see what the fuss was all about. Cause I think you'll appreciate Skyrim more if you played Oblivion already.

Plus, the guys who made Fallout 3 were Bethesda Softworks. New Vegas was developed by Obsidian Entertainment, who were formally Black Isle Studio (The guys that made Fallout 1 and 2).

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Pandora Grand Master

Pandora

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You sure about that? I had considered it myself, but concluded that after playing Fallout 3 and NV, Oblivion might feel very outdated and be a quite painful/archaic experience. Unless it has aged well (like Half Life for example), but there aren't many games that still feel right after all those years.

I'm quite open for it, just not sure if it would be the right thing to do.

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Chris Grand Master

Chris

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Guys. Please educate me. This game looks fucking awesome but I don't know ANYTHING about it, or indeed the series. Never played any of the games. So you must tell me things.

  1. Probably the closest kind of game I've played to this is Fallout 3, which I did like but admittedly didn't play all that much, I didn't finish it because I chose to play other games I had at the time. So is this similar? Completely different?
  2. If I get this game, will it matter that I've never played any of the previous games in the series? Is it like a direct sequel or a brand new game? Basically will I have a clue wtf is going on?
  3. Console or PC? Not bragging here but I have a decent PC, a 360 and a PS3 so I could get it for any of those. I presume PC would be best? I played Fallout 3 both on console and on PC.

I've got a metric shit ton of other games to keep me occupied right now, but I couldn't help notice the awesomeness of this one, so I'm definitely considering getting it.

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Nate10 Grand Master

Nate10

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Got my copy of Skyrim 3 minutes after midnight. Was somewhere around the 100th or so person in line with 6 other of my friends waiting to get the stamp on our receipts. Once you get your stamp, you go in the next line which is the wait to get your copy once midnight hits. It was about 10 minutes before midnight when all my buds and I got the stamp, and we instantly just cut to the front of the next line. Was literally one of the first 10 -15 persons to attain a copy of the game in the mall. Was just an overall great feeling and experience(never have been to a midnight release before).

So Chris, so you don't worry as much - I've never played any of the rest of the series. Scratch that, I've never owned or rented one of them. I have played Oblivion for like 10 minutes at a friend's house and that's it. I'm not well acquainted with RPG styled games either(I only started immersing myself in them this year with Fallout 3 and Dragon Age: Origins, fallout not even being close to a perfect example).

Bethesda developed Fallout 3 too so yeah you'll see similarities, but it goes without saying it will be a totally different gaming experience(besides visually - playing Skyrim is giving me the same euphoric effect running around enjoying the scenery like Fallout 3 did).

As far as the story goes, you're fine with no previous game storyline's - you'll enjoy the game regardless. It's set(I want to say)200 years after the story of Oblivion and is not a direct sequel - game history is relevant but it's a completely new game. Knowledge of gameplay in predecessor's of Skyrim would come in hand just to have general experience, but Skyrim's take on races/abilities/combat/leveling are different(and so goddamn amazing).

As far as pc vs console goes - if you enjoy the feel of a pc more and can handle Skyrim then I say go for it. Mods for Elder Scrolls are a big part of the game when it comes to the pc community and you can potentially run the game a lot better frame rate/draw distance/graphics wise.

This game has so much damn hours of playtime it's not even funny. I was aware it would be over 300+ hours of gameplay, but now Todd Howard has confirmed infinite quests. http://www.inentertainment.co.uk/20111109/skyrim-release-date-brings-unlimited-quests/ Get the game Chris. :)

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Ivan Grand Master

Ivan

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Been playing this all day, loving it so far, improves on Oblivion in so many ways. Still, there's so many things to do it's almost overwhelming.

Having played Oblivion and Morrowind before I can tell you that knowing certain events in the past are sorta important so you can fully understand some references the game makes, but the most important thing is context. I'd say it would be wise to just read a bit about some races and stuff, before playing, but if you don't it's cool anyway, not a major thing at all.

It's similar to fallout yeah ( the engine and quest structure is alike) but it's quite a diferent experience in the end, personally I'm a bigger fan of Fallout.

Nate is right about the mods, PC would really be the best. I've seen some mods for Oblivion that are better than any DLC being put out there by real producers, it's amazing shit.

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Chris Grand Master

Chris

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Back in the day, I remember a couple of RPG liking friends always used to go on about Morrowind. I hated RPG games back then, actually tried RuneScape for a while but soon got bored. Anyway it suddenly occurred to me today that Morrowind was Elder Scrolls III. Was reading some comments on it and Oblivion, seems people thought Morrowind was the better game, but obviously it's a bit aged now. But Skyrim blows both games away, so that's a good sign.

I think I will definitely get it on PC, it can handle it. Not sure if I'll get it right away though, I have a bunch of other games to finish first. I'm quite looking forward to it though, aside from Fallout 3 I've never really played RPG's before so should be a nice change.

Thanks for the comments!

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Dirty Harry Grand Master

Dirty Harry

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Not only an improvement on Oblivion but on the previous bethesda efforts (noth Fallouts). And the engine for this game is different to the Fallout series (it's better, plus, did anyone notice how the cinematic execution cam was unnecessary in the Fallout series but TOTALLY awesome in Skyrim?)

The game is nothing short of amazing. Everything is exciting, the landscapes, the cities, the characters you meet, the factions. It is also harder now imo, each battle is a lot more "epic", be it fighting a bear or a dragon.

Chris. you should definetly get this game when you don't have a lot more to play, as this game is something you "invest into"

All that aside, what sort of characters are you guys playing? Also what factions are you doing?

I'm a nord. I mostly use two swords in combat, although I also use magic, mainly destruction spells, I also use sneak if I'm in a dungeon/building type situation. I am a werewolf too, which is pretty awesome, if you find yourself in battle against various enemies, you just turn and completely destroy any opposing foe. I also get around to do a bit of smithing, why pay for armour and weapons when you can make them yourself?

I did like, half of the main quest (SPOILER ALERT, highlight if you wanna read: I met up with the Greybeards, learn what they could teach me and I slayed the dragon in Kyne, stopped there) and now I'm doing factions. Took on the College of Winterhold (to develop magic) and the Companions (where I use nor magic nor stealth, only swords and the occasional werewolf rampage). Joined the Dark Brotherhood as well though I'm still at incredibly early stages.

I haven't yet took a side on the civil war, but I'm inclining towards the Stormcloaks, even if I don't really like Ulfric and his "racist" ideas

Sooo, there you have it, a light armored, stealth/mage/warrior nord.

What about you folks?

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