The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Pirandello]

Did anyone else notice that the chorus in the Skyrim trailer was the same as the menu music to Morrowind?

Yes, and in the latter half of the trailer, it switches over to Oblivion's menu music as well.

[Maritan]

Better version of the trailer.

[deanb]

Sorry, was just passing by and the old title was bugging me. Gave the OP a once over while I was there too.

Also have we really not had a peep on this in the past month. They can jsut release a trailer and settle on their laurels probably until launch and still sell a shit ton. Just didn't expect them too. Least it's not as bad as Gears 3.

[HotChops]

awww... I got all excited for a moment; I was hoping for some new info.

 

What was the previous thread title? ... I don't remember now.

 

I'll hopefully get to play Skyrim at this year's Quakecon! I'll get a free T-shirt too.

[deanb]

Was just "Elder Scrolls 5" with subheading of "Rumour and Speculation". Threw in the proper name, I imagine "skyrim" is much easier to spot.

[RockyRan]

Honestly, I hope they don't release all that much info until the time of the launch. They already released pretty much all the info I ever need (some light details on the new engine, story, gameplay, etc.) anymore and it starts to ruin the surprise IMO.

[Cyber Rat]

I wonder which big name voice actor we barely hear in this one.

[RockyRan]

I wonder which big name voice actor we barely hear in this one.

 

I always hope that at least one game can bring Liam Neeson, Ian McKellen, and Morgan Freeman as three sage-like wizards that will sweetly caress your ears with foreboding warnings and disturbingly calming advice. My face would probably melt. Literally.

 

Though I do find it charming in a decidedly old-school fashion how Bethesda gets famous people to say like 2 lines at the beginning of the movie. Takes me back to the days when WRPGs blew off like half their budget in this crazy, super awesome spectacular extravaganza with crazy effects and loud booming voice acting for like five seconds, then the rest of the game has comparatively shitty graphics and twingy soundblaster synths blaring through the speakers the rest of the time.

[deanb]

 

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=131368351403&aid=279536

 

They knocked out a few screenshots. Shame they're using facebook as their platform for this, somewhere proper might have something a bit more high res.

[staySICK]

dean, if you click the "download" on the photo viewer, they download into 1280 x 720

[AgamemnonV2]

Meh, they're still not showing us what we really want to see. Inventory systems, the character sheet, the new features like crafting, etc. That's what I'm interested in. Bethesda has no trouble making their graphics look nice in their games so that's hardly buzz-worthy if you ask me.

[HotChops]

new screenshots available. A couple good ones of the different races. Look at this Khajiit!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rest are so far on GI's site.

[RockyRan]

*salivates uncontrollably*

[Kovach_]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/04/18/20-best-things-about-skyrim/ Quite a good read.

[HotChops]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/04/18/20-best-things-about-skyrim/ Quite a good read.

 

I was familiar with most of that, but this:

 

There’s a real in-game economy. If, for any reason, you decide to destroy a local lumber mill, you’ll find it results in a shortage of wooden objects such as arrows in nearby shops. You probably shouldn’t destroy the lumber mill, then. Alternatively, you could chop some wood for the lumber mill, which will earn you a bit of cash.

 

sounds really cool.

Edited April 18, 2011 by HotChops

[Mr W Phallus]

There’s a real in-game economy. If, for any reason, you decide to destroy a local lumber mill, you’ll find it results in a shortage of wooden objects such as arrows in nearby shops. You probably shouldn’t destroy the lumber mill, then. Alternatively, you could chop some wood for the lumber mill, which will earn you a bit of cash.

 

sounds really cool.

Let's just hope that chopping wood in Skyrim is more fun than it was in Fable 2.

 

EDIT (after reading the RPS articles):

On the more grindy skill-levelling: “we’ve solved most of that” and “got rid of some skills like Athletics and Acrobatics. Who makes a character that is like “I am someone who doesn’t run?”

This is the first thing I've heard (read) that I don't like the sound of. It doesn't make sense that an Orc who spends most combat staying in one place swinging a heavy weapon should run as fast or jump as high as a Khajiit who runs in circles round their enemies firing a bow at them. I really hope this doesn't mean that you can only ever jump as high as you can at the start of the game. Firstly it means I won't be able to use my old tactic of jumping up onto a building or rocky outcrop that the enemy can't reach and firing my bow at them (which I consider a legitimate tactic, it's what I would do if I were an acrobatic bowman) and secondly I can't climb on buildings for fun. Trying to reach areas you're not supposed to reach was one of my favourite past times in Oblivion, I even managed to climb out of the Mage's quarter in the capital and almost got stuck in the un-rendered landscape beyond.

Edited April 18, 2011 by Mr W Phallus

[staySICK]

yea... definitely PC this go round.

[HotChops]

 

This is the first thing I've heard (read) that I don't like the sound of. It doesn't make sense that an Orc who spends most combat staying in one place swinging a heavy weapon should run as fast or jump as high as a Khajiit who runs in circles round their enemies firing a bow at them. I really hope this doesn't mean that you can only ever jump as high as you can at the start of the game. Firstly it means I won't be able to use my old tactic of jumping up onto a building or rocky outcrop that the enemy can't reach and firing my bow at them (which I consider a legitimate tactic, it's what I would do if I were an acrobatic bowman) and secondly I can't climb on buildings for fun. Trying to reach areas you're not supposed to reach was one of my favourite past times in Oblivion, I even managed to climb out of the Mage's quarter in the capital and almost got stuck in the un-rendered landscape beyond.

 

From what I've read of the original GI feature on Skyrim, the days of circle strafing and standing on rocks are over. Todd Howard said there will be fewer "cheap tricks." They did things like reduce the speed of back stepping so that you can't just run backward anymore.

 

I agree that a Khajiit should naturally have more agility than an Orc, so I'm interested in seeing how this all plays out.

[AgamemnonV2]

"We’re down from 8 attributes and 21 skills to 3 attributes and 18 skills..."

 

Shit. Absolute shit. Three attributes? Couple this with the confirmed axe of Acrobatics and they should just knock it down to one attribute: strength. And then make the skills CUT SHIT UP and BLOW SHIT UP. Ugh. Thankfully the modding community will fix Bethesda's fuck-ups.

[Mr W Phallus]

From what I've read of the original GI feature on Skyrim, the days of circle strafing and standing on rocks are over. Todd Howard said there will be fewer "cheap tricks." They did things like reduce the speed of back stepping so that you can't just run backward anymore.

 

I agree that a Khajiit should naturally have more agility than an Orc, so I'm interested in seeing how this all plays out.

Well see that's the thing, I don't really see them as cheap tricks. I mean a bowman is never going to get in a direct fight with a monster in 'real life' so why shouldn't there be an option to get in a safe position from which to rain down death on your enemy? There are ways to stop it being 'cheap', you could program the enemy so it knows to run away (can't imagine it would be that hard - if it's taking a lot of damage and not dealing any have it run away out of bowshot) or simply make it take longer to level up acrobatics. I can see that they needed polishing as attributes, but it just seems like laziness taking them out. Hopefully they'll incorporate some jumping skills into the perk system.

[deanb]

So yeah question: Is this a DA2-like affair or is the dragon born possible to come from any race?

 

Also phallus I think they're chucking some of the skills of the two they removed into the other skills. Also I think they're doing a perk system like New Vegas so you could be "fleet of foot" or something maybe. And I'd wager they have variance's depending upon your initial race like always. (depending on the DA2 question)

 

p.s not yet read RPS link, will get round to it when I'm not ina "hurry"

[HotChops]

So yeah question: Is this a DA2-like affair or is the dragon born possible to come from any race?

 

Also phallus I think they're chucking some of the skills of the two they removed into the other skills. Also I think they're doing a perk system like New Vegas so you could be "fleet of foot" or something maybe. And I'd wager they have variance's depending upon your initial race like always. (depending on the DA2 question)

 

p.s not yet read RPS link, will get round to it when I'm not ina "hurry"

 

Whatever character you choose -- whatever race or class -- will be the dragon born.

[deanb]

Yeah I've read it now, my disc burner is much slower than I thought:

I was just curious if you'd be locked to only playing as a human or if you could play any race you want like the others.

 

One interesting tidbit is this:

14. Modding is fully supported, in the form of the Creation Kit. “We’re really big into the mods on the PC. Hopefully day and date with the game, but there might be some slack there.” Bethesda have also been influenced by a few mods for earlier games – for instance, bows have been tweaked as a result of finding an Oblivion balance mod that did ‘em better.

 

Creation Kit. Full name "Garden of Eden Creation Kit" aka GECK is the mod tool used by Fallout 3 n New Vegas. Now I may be mistaken but I'm pretty sure you can't use modtools for one engine on a completely different engine (You wouldn't use CryEditor to make levels for UT3). Which does strongly suggest that they have being telling half truths and Skyrim is running on Gamebryo, just their own heavily modified in-house version*. (or maybe Gamebryo has always been able to do this and Bethseda finally got good at it) Kinda like Quake n GoldSrc I guess.

 

 

Also I'm not keen on the mountains. It says the world size is same as Oblivion, but the mountains mean there's more. To a degree yeah it means more surface area but mountains are huge and generally unclimeable. Also says how you have to walk around them which suddenly suggests the game isn't too open, but could be like New Vegas where it kinda forces you to walk around in a somewhat linear path for the start.

 

*tbh I swear they've mentioned this before. But most folks seem to be all on this idea that it's a new engine and not gamebryo still.

[McBeeferton]

Skyrim.

 

Do. Want.

[AgamemnonV2]

Yeah I've read it now, my disc burner is much slower than I thought:

I was just curious if you'd be locked to only playing as a human or if you could play any race you want like the others.

 

One interesting tidbit is this:

14. Modding is fully supported, in the form of the Creation Kit. “We’re really big into the mods on the PC. Hopefully day and date with the game, but there might be some slack there.” Bethesda have also been influenced by a few mods for earlier games – for instance, bows have been tweaked as a result of finding an Oblivion balance mod that did ‘em better.

 

Creation Kit. Full name "Garden of Eden Creation Kit" aka GECK is the mod tool used by Fallout 3 n New Vegas. Now I may be mistaken but I'm pretty sure you can't use modtools for one engine on a completely different engine (You wouldn't use CryEditor to make levels for UT3). Which does strongly suggest that they have being telling half truths and Skyrim is running on Gamebryo, just their own heavily modified in-house version*. (or maybe Gamebryo has always been able to do this and Bethseda finally got good at it) Kinda like Quake n GoldSrc I guess.

 

 

Also I'm not keen on the mountains. It says the world size is same as Oblivion, but the mountains mean there's more. To a degree yeah it means more surface area but mountains are huge and generally unclimeable. Also says how you have to walk around them which suddenly suggests the game isn't too open, but could be like New Vegas where it kinda forces you to walk around in a somewhat linear path for the start.

 

*tbh I swear they've mentioned this before. But most folks seem to be all on this idea that it's a new engine and not gamebryo still.

The GECK was just the TES Construction Set with a new name. Just about everything was exactly the same (except for navmeshing). I have no doubt Skyrim is working off of Gamebyro still. It's what they know best.

 

As for the mountain things, yeah. Sounds exactly like New Vegas, which pissed me off. The best part about Oblivion was getting so sidetracked that you began to enjoy exploring in different directions just to see what you would find. Now it looks like they plan on not only having a little compass ticker that shows you the way, but all the roads will lead you conveniently to each part of the main quest.