TES V: Skyrim Discussion Thread

To scale the game so you do not get too powerful or stay too weak for too long. This makes progression more satisfying and in turn a better game.

 

I totally agree. If I bust my tukus to take on a clan of Volkihar at level 1 and somehow against all odds I manage to survive and find a magic item, I certainly hope it is not a crappy item.

On the bright side, from that quote it would seem at least Daedric artifacts are not as likely to be scaled like in Oblivion.

That was the worst, being afraid to find one of the most powerful items in the game because you know it's going to be a gimped version of it.

 

The problem with Oblivion's scaling system is that it's easier to beat the entire game at level 1, because as you level up, all your enemies level up with you, and much more efficiently. That's why mods like OOO exist.

 

I know this is off topic, but I thought this new Oblivion mod looked impressive. And Just Like That, Oblivion Looks Amazing all over Again

 

Complete 30 minute Skyrim E3 demo (Released on July 6, 2011)

(part of the video, and all of the audio from the entire 30 minute demo, which has never before been released to the public)

 

Wow this is simply amazing! The atmosphere and graphics looks stunning! Great find! Just unfortunate that it isent out yet...

 

Gameplay aside, which we all know is king, I certainly hope that Skyrim supports SLI!!!! One can only cross his fingers.

 

Todd Howard on the Scope and Vision of Skyrim:

It's hard to believe that the last game in Bethesda's Elder Scrolls series came out more than five years ago with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The sprawling RPG was a hit, and helped set the stage for a genre that would continue to increase in popularity on consoles.

Gamasutra recently sat down with Todd Howard, design director on Bethesda Softworks' long awaited Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which is launching this November on PC and high-definition consoles.

Here, the long-time game developer talks about working with the game's all-new Creation Engine, how the studio changed up the Oblivionformula, and whether it's possible to convey the vision of a single designer through such a massive project.

Howard also explains how the studio approaches accessibility (hint: "It's not something that we think about a lot"), and the bugs that manage to sneak into Bethesda's massive, do-what-you-want games.

How hands-on are you with [Skyrim]?

There are a lot of great people who work on the team, we've worked together for a long time. We're focused on one game at a time, so I'm extremely hands on, design a lot of the systems, and play the game every day and give the guys feedback.

But we have a great group -- Matthew Carofano, who's our lead artist and was on Morrowindand Oblivionas well, Bruce Nesmith and Kurt Kuhlmann, are lead designers on [ Skyrim]. I worked with them on Daggerfall, so they've been with us for a while.

What's kind of nice about our group is that a lot of us have worked together for a long time. So the amount of time that I have to "manage" is low. We can focus on the game.

When you have a game with so many different components and lots of content, how reasonable is it to expect the game to have a singular vision?

I view the game as -- the first line in the credits is "Game Design: Bethesda Game Studios." I view it as a studio project. It is too big for one person. I don't know all parts of it. In each of the games we did, there are probably three or four people -- from myself to usually the lead artist, lead designer, lead level designer -- you'd have to combine those four people to know everything.

We like to remain very flat as a studio. One of the reasons our games end up so big is we put a high premium on tools, and then we let people run wild. We think that gives us the best game. So the main thing that we try to instill in people is really the tone of the game, and then they'll create content that matches that. And the work will be checked by lots of people, and it won't be me all the time. It often isn't.

So a priority is having your programmers make tools for designers and artists to go crazy. Some studios don't work like that.

No, we put a big premium on our editor, which we then ship with the games. It's going to come out again with Skyrim, the Creation Kit. So when it comes to content creation, we just have so much of it that we have to put a lot of development time into the tools, because the game is so big.

We're hoping [the Creation Kit] will be available as a download on launch day. I don't know if I can promise day-one, but it will be very close.

What aspects ofObliviondid you look at when planningSkyrim? What did you want to change? I knowSkyrimbegan development a long time ago, so you may have to reach back into your memory banks.

Each game is its own thing. There are certain things that Arenadoes better, or that Daggerfalldoes better than Morrowindor Oblivion, or even better than Skyrim. There are certain things, depending on the game you make, that you'll sacrifice to make that particular game. But I think we tried a lot of new stuff with Oblivion, and it was new -- it came out four months after the Xbox launched.

So that was very difficult to get all of those systems running on a console that was still in development at the time. So we sort of came out of it very happy with what we got on the screen, but knowing that there were things we could do a lot better. Some of that we did better in Fallout 3.

But I think the big things for us are still -- and we still struggle with -- are the NPCs, the interaction, and how they act. That's because the game is so dynamic, we don't want to script them, so weirdness can ensue sometimes. So we came out of Oblivionthinking, hey, how do we get more believable characters on the screen who are reacting to you.

I always thought we did environments well, and we want to keep doing it well. But I'd say the characters and how they perform on the screen was probably our number one [focus].

That's something too, that maybe some gamers don't understand when you have a game that big, that there will be "weirdness." Do you think you could ever ship a game that squashes all of those bugs? Would you saySkyrimhas less of that "weirdness" going on than your other games?

It matters how you define "weirdness." There's going to be some [weirdness], like the player did X, Y and Z that we didn't expect, and now he's attacking the town, sleeping in this guy's bed, he killed his wife [laughs]... We sort of learn each time how people play these games and experience them. So we get better each time, but we do at the end of the day sacrifice, say, a well-paced story. It's almost impossible for us to do. We'd rather let you go do whatever you want. So that's a sacrifice that we're willing to make.

People give you guys a hard time about bugs. You have very well-received games, but there are also plenty of fun clips on YouTube that originate from Bethesda games.

[Laughs] You know what though? Those things are there, and it's fair that people call us out for them, we've got no problem with that.

How does the new engine handle the world's size inSkyrim? What's the scale of the game?

It's about the size of Oblivion. The scale changes with each game, based on a number of factors. The factor in [ Skyrim] that messes with the scale are the mountains. So putting mountains on the screen, they feel like mountains when you see them, but they're at the same time small enough where you can scale them without taking a really, really long time. And they cut up the terrain.

In Fallout 3or Oblivion, you can cut across the landscape, for the most part. You can draw a line and say, "I wanna go there." But in Skyrim, you can't. You might run into a mountain, and you might have to scale a mountain. In general, we try to make the game harder the higher the elevation you're in. That changes the flow of the game.

As a design director, is there an overarching design philosophy that you follow that has worked over the course of so many games?

We have one for the studio. Our motto is "Great games are played, not made," meaning you can spend a lot of time on paper coming up with great ideas, then as soon as you put it in the game, you're like, "I was thinking wrong." So we try to just bullet point things on paper, then get it in the game, play the game, and get ready to throw your ideas out.

With Skyrim, the dragon's design was a one-pager. "Those are gonna work." A couple bullet points was what we were going for. One of our other rules is "define the experience." With dragons, it was more about defining the experience we wanted to have as opposed to "here is the feature set and technical design, etc. etc."

As far as Skyrim, what is the experience? It's the experience you had with the other Elder Scrolls, in that you be who you want to be and do what you want, but the tone of Skyrim involves a more rugged world, a more lived-in world, where magic is more low-fantasy world. There is more violence in it, not for gore's sake -- there's not a ton of gore in the game -- but it just seems like it would be a more violent place.

When it comes to game features, we are more about iteration. The only area we're document-heavy in is the content of the world. We have to be, with all the people, quests, items. We're very document-heavy and we have a really slick wiki at work, and have an interactive map and you can see who's building what today.

But when it comes to game features -- the more time you spend on paper, the more incorrect assumptions you're making, and it's just going to pile up on you.

What about accessibility -- makingSkyrima game that's inviting to people who might not play RPGs as much, and also the hardcore people who have been playing The Elder Scrolls since the beginning?

Honestly, it's not something that we think about a lot, in that we've found that we're getting a pretty big audience making a game that we want to make. We want to make it for whoever it is -- even if you've played Elder Scrolls before, you haven't played this one, so you don't understand what a skill does yet.

... We want to remove confusion, that's what I'd say. As opposed to making it more accessible, we'd like to remove confusion for anyone who's playing. What we're trying to do now is lead you into it more... In our games or others' games, they give you a character menu and say, "Who do you want to be, what powers do you want?" [Players think,] "I don't know, I haven't played yet!"

What happens in Oblivionis you start the game, play for three hours, and then think "I want to start over, I chose wrong." So we'd like to sort of alleviate some of that. I also think the controls work better [too] ... it's more elegant.

You look at Call of Duty, the most popular game in the world, and that's actually pretty hardcore. At the end of the day, it's a hardcore game, has RPG elements in multiplayer, making classes, picking perks. I think the audiences are there, and we tend to make our game more for ourselves and other people who play a lot of games.

 

Absolutely amazing game, I am too excited, not excited about my marks when this game hits though.

 

loved Oblivion. can't wait for this :0

 

I've played Morrowind and Oblivion, both on the consoles. I finally have a pc that'll do one of Bethsoft's games justice. Can't wait to finally get to dive into what the mod scene has to offer!!! Definitely missed out so far, even though it was "okay" on the consoles. Put in over 335 hours playing Oblivion, but got whacked by a game stopping bug which, of course, was fixed on the pc side of the fence. Greatly looking forward to this game!

 

I believe Oblivion is on sale this week at D2D, and it was earlier on Steam, so it might make a comeback there. It's the Deluxe GOTY edition too, which includes all the DLC. Good excuse to try it out on PC and mod the crap out of it

 

Waiting patiently...

 

you are lucky to have so much willpower

in my case, I wish I had a cryogenic chamber that could freeze me until November 11

 

Basically, from what I've read and seen in the demos, Bethesda removed/revamped almost everything that people were uncomfortable/suggested that could be done better in previous games...

dungeons - 8 teams working specifically on dungeons, each with their own take - compared to one guy who made/randomized all dungeons in Oblivion

UI - new interactive map - with an awesome topographic 3 overview
- skill trees redesigned - with yet another insanely good looking 3d astrological star sign tree interfaceaaawesome...
- dual wields (dual staff wield!!! omg you kiddin??)(I can imagine some guy's wannabe Gandalf fantasy coming to life)(as well as kill moves for melee)
- spell multipliers! shouts!
- the 3d overview of every piece of lettuce you find/steal from some poor outcast living on the outskirts of some small isolated village somewhere on a mountain... gasp*

real time NPC interaction - finally! feels more natural when you talk to some guy and you have all that village chatter and stuff happening in the background... compared to the freeze frame in Oblivion which became kinda annoying and awkward when some sort of conversation occurred during combat for example.

non scripted dragons! - this is pretty much the cherry right there and I'm pretty sure it won't be a nuisance for the player if implemented correctly... maybe character play style will trigger these encounters accordingly. Oh, and what can be better than non scripted dragons? TWO non scripted dragons! THREE? (+++ hours/replayable hours of gameplay right there)

and of course, the natural and expected improvements such as better graphics/shaders/textures/resolutions (winks towards PC mainly)
everything in a cold, wild and merciless setting!

Dunno if getting married will bring anything new to the table... ok, probably the need to fetch more lettuce or something...

but still, no reason why any sane person should not be excited!

 

Very excited with this one. I really liked Oblivion so much... and much more for the TES V: Skyrim. I'm done with Oblivion, wiped all the side quests including Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine.

I'm just like a retired adventurer in Oblivion because i already did and get the things that is all there is in Oblivion. I am expecting a lot in the upcoming Elder Scrolls series.

Bethesda Softworks sure dont wanted to make their gamers bored.
It's a perfect game of 'go anywhere, do anything'

Hmmmm... it'll be much more fun if the player can transform into a... what is it... i just saw it in the trailer... oh yeah, i remember it, a DRAGON!

 

i hope my notebook will be able to run it on at least low

 

Same here, i dont hope this is going to be The witcher 2 performance cuz then im not going to be able to play it very well : (

 

I think the requirements aren't going to be too bad. I mean, look at how nice it looks on the Xbox!! Our pc's can crush an Xbox.

As long as it's nicely optimized...AND HOW 'BOUT SOME SLI PLEASE!!!!!...I think we'll end up being able to get a damn fine game experience.

Either way, there's no way I'm missing out on the mods this time around. If I have to wait even longer, like say Xmas, to get the M18X, I will, just to play this game on the pc.

It's made for pc, imho.

 

I doubt it will come close to the Witcher 2 since it is made just for PC, and Skyrim isn't really different from the console versions.

 

Lets hope so :/

 

There a game call Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga

 

Some grabs of new Skyrim concept art from Artist Ray Lederer's Blog:

 

That chick in pic3 is hot. What race is she?

 

No idea - doesn't look like an elf, though.

My guess is Breton sorceress, maybe Jsashe, the Witch Queen of Whiterun

According to the lore, there is a Witches' Coven in Whiterun, that may or may not still exist as of 4E 200s. The use of magic does have a tendency to draw out one's lifespan, so it maybe be possible that Jsashe, the Witch Queen of Whiterun might have survived, or trained a successor.

"Whiterun has not been as fortunate as its coastal northern cousins. A dynastic feud, attacks by Horme bandits and frost trolls, and a series of annihilating winters of alternating floods, droughts, and fires have crippled the area that was once considered the Imperial City of Skyrim. The population blamed and then curiously exalted the leader of the local witches' coven, Jsashe, a self proclaimed priestess of Lorkhan. The Witch Queen of Whiterun, as she is called, now wields effective control of the county, though her magic has not brought it prosperity as of yet."






What do you guys think of the new Horkers?



Old horker:

 

sick pics, nice find, it will be nice to see all the beasts re worked, the new beasties are really impressive already, I wanna get a head mounted display to really be immersed in the game.

 

yep, the new Daedric armor looks amazing IMO

 

the pc version off the hope has higher rez textures, and longer draw distances, those 2 things alone will improve the game over consoles. Shortly after launch I predict ambient Oclusion, pom, and all sorts of modded in extras, its already rumored older mods should be able to plug into this new engine aswell. I also predict a DX11 mod for tesselation, which would be super cool .

 

Also that new Daedra armor looks unreal. Wow, instead of having black/red metal, it is now black metal with red glowing halo radiating from underneath.

 

Its too bad you can't play as daedra, I know theres an oblivion mod though, but would be a neat "always evil" character that just goes around terrorizing everyone.

 

You'd get destroyed by guards before you could do anything.

 

Actually in Skyrim, each Hold has a completely separate reputation system, so you can be a wanted criminal in one Hold and unknown or even idolized in another.

 

But guards are pretty unfriendly towards daedra in general.

 

yes, this is true.

I found the darkspawn DLC for DA:O to be interesting, however, maybe someone will make a similar mod for Daedra.

But in Skyrim, the dremora and daedric creatures are not the primary enemies; rather, it is the dragons

 

Just gimme SLI support! Hate spending the ca$h for an extra card, and having games that don't get any support for it!!!

 

That is indeed nice!! I always hated in Oblivion how the soldiers could detect if you're a criminal in any place, no matter if its the other extreme of the world

 

Well to the defense of oblivion, guards could have used a mail service by horse or falcon to transport important information from one town to the next, that sort of thing wasn't uncommon and the main quest yourself has you going from town to town asking for help against the gates.

I still stand by saying I want to play daedra race, even if guards would be on you , you'd live outside of them like a nomad hunting villagers as they left the safety of the city and destroying them with your awesome daedra powers.

 

LOL, I'm sure there would be better things to write using falcon's than a single guy stealing some pouches

But I don't see why it couldn't play normally as a daedra. It may be possible that the daedrs 'disguises' to look like a regular human except when fighting

 

Thats right, I totally forgot they could do that, or they could just mod it. But daedra or "bad" people and you play the hero generally speaking.

 

The thing that annoyed me about Oblivion with the guards was that it was really easy to accidentally kill a guard in the middle of heavy fighting if you used powerful spells, and then they would toss you in jail.

 

some new screens:

http://img.elderscrolls.net/news/dragonruinspan01.jpg

http://img.elderscrolls.net/news/dragonfire02.jpg

http://img.elderscrolls.net/news/draugrcrypt05.jpg

http://img.elderscrolls.net/news/fallforestcamp.jpg

http://img.elderscrolls.net/news/sk_36.jpg

http://img.elderscrolls.net/news/femaledragonarmor.jpg

 

Don't post huge images. I have to scroll and I have a 1920x1200 screen.

 

There is a multipage Skyrim article in the September 2011 PSM3 magazine (if you want to buy this issue, you can purchase a digital copy directly HERE)

Here is the info I learned from reading this article, which is mostly old news, with a couple of new screens, including one I really like (described below).

1. The Radiant Story feature activates some behind the scenes game mechanic when the PC enters each new area.
Todd Howard: "A good example is when you walk into a town, we can have it [the game] look for someone with a child. We can have that child kidnapped and put in a dungeon nearby, one that you missed for some reason." In other words, when the cell for the town loads, the child is removed from the town at that exact moment.

2. There is an opening sequence in a closed area.
"Once you've finished the opening sequence (an escape from your own execution...) you're free to explore the world as you wish." The converse of that indicates you are not free to explore the world until you have finished the opening sequence, which is logical.

3. Dragons can choose to fly far off into the sky so you completely lose track of their location when you are fighting, making them more challenging to defeat.
Todd Howard: In a lot of games, including ours, you're used to, 'here comes the person at you' and you're in a hallway or an open area. But this thing is a beast that can fly off quickly, go around a castle and come back around. Often you can lose them and spin around looking at the sky because you don't know where they're going to go. They have a lot of cool behaviors that make fighting each one interesting.

4. There are some helmets in this game.
One screen shows the PC (wearing a cloak hooded robe with a pouch) fighting a draugr wearing a wicked looking helmet with two humongous horns on the top, completely bathed in flames (perhaps from the PC's spell). This exact screen was previously in the July 2011 Playstation magazine, but the version I saw was poor quality and I didn't notice the helmet

5. Light magic (from staves at least) can stick to walls.
"Dovahkiin fires a globe of light from his staff, which sticks to a wall..."

6. Only possible to have relationships with certain NPCs - and "in some cases" marriage.
"...you'll be able to start relationships with certain NPCs. Howard confirms you'll be able to make friends, recruit companions and - in some cases - actually marry the game's buxom wenches. Bigamy? It'd be rude not to."

This suggests fewer NPCs available for marriage). Also there is the suggestion of a possibility to have more than one spouse.

7. DLC info
Todd Howard: I don't know what we're going to do yet, but we want to do something that costs a bit more but is going to be more of a complete package....we're thinking bigger than with Fallout 3.

 

Was just thinking to myself, the one picture of the lady wearing armor looks like a dragon armor, I hope it is !!

 

Seems to be a pauldron crafted from a dragon's lower jaw-bone.

 

I'm pretty sure that is what she's wearing.

In which case, since Matt Carofano mentioned that dragon armor is the "rarest and most prized armor in the game," we must ask, who is this woman?

She must be someone important!

 

Thanks you for providing this viedo, the sound of the dragon and the battle is so great and real, and the feature is so realist. Even though i am unfamiliar with skyrim, i expect it coming!

 

After sitting here and reading through the 15 pages of this thread (so far), I think the first thing I do when I get home from work is re-install Obilivion and mod the hell out of it!

You guys have got me in the mood for some Obilvion!

Blazin

 

Sounds like fun!

Which mods do you plan to install?

 

As long as the relationships thing isn't GTAIV-esque (TAKE ME TO PLAY DARTS!) I'm ok with it.