Extended News Comments.

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 5:19 am

Perhaps this topic can be merged with the other? It just seemed to me like we could use a proper, inviting title.

In reaction to: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Magazine Preview Tidbits:

~

-it seems that smithing can only be done in forges (you cannot repair your equipment everywhere like in morrowind or oblivion)

Good, no more 'banging a hammer against a sword until it becomes less broken'. I wonder if something similar will happen to enchanting.

-AI : NPCs have day and night activities like cooking and brushing the ground in front of their houses.

Ah, but will they roast their little pet dogs if they make too much noise after bedtime? That is the question.

you CAN cut short the dialogue simply by walking away.

Just fix the crazy fixed eye stare thing and binary facial expressions that change only with every new sentence.

-and maybe desctructible environnement?

One would hope so, but knowing Bethsy's PR I would tone the expectations down a bit.

-archery : when aiming at something, you can hold your breath (consuming stamina) and the action is slowed.

I'm not sure why that should be an advantage to archery specifically. Yes, it would out of place to hold your breath during melee combat, but Archery.. I don't know. While I get the 'holding your breath part', I don't see why 'arrow-time' should aid archery a great deal. It was pretty easy in Oblivion and Morrowind. Perhaps it will work out well in practise.

-120 dungeons (again might be another round off number, cause we already heard 130+)

Is that more or less cramped into the same space as Oblivion?

-Speaking of jobs : woodcutting, weaponsmithing, sells stuffs you made to the forge or to the mill... -he insists on the importance of activities they thought apparently useless before Skyrim, but they found that was surprinsingly important for immersion after implementing them into Skyrim.

Someone on the team liked Minecraft.

Stworca · Post by **Stworca** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 6:05 am

-it seems that smithing can only be done in forges (you cannot repair your equipment everywhere like in morrowind or oblivion)

Good change.

-AI : NPCs have day and night activities like cooking and brushing the ground in front of their houses.

You mean like in gothic 1, made all those years ago?

you CAN cut short the dialogue simply by walking away.

Unless people react to cutting the dialogue short, i'd rather have it the way it was..

-and maybe desctructible environnement?

Will not happen. No chance Lance, no way Hose, never, nah, no, nein, niet, osi, nie & for the love of god, what kind of bs is that?!
First of all TES are all about trillions of separate locations.
Second of all, with fancy graphics i cannot imagine them beign able to make something other than a three stage destruction or something . 1 ; perfect shape. 2 ; broken windows & stuff, 3 ; hole in the ground.
They (BS) just aren't the working type, just look at the inventory they want to add.. Flash.. I bet they eat instant noodles & order fast food. Hire people to walk their dogs out etc.

-archery : when aiming at something, you can hold your breath (consuming stamina) and the action is slowed.

Why..?! With some practice i was able to shot arrows and hit targets at the drawing limits (maxed options) away in Morrowind. While both me and the target (cliffhanger) were flying..A few times.. But on ground you can hit stuff no matter how fast and agile it is. I mean.. Come on, don't screw the game by making it even EASIER.. If i ever want to be a lazy trogg i'll just play fallout 3 for VATS.

120 dungeons (again might be another round off number, cause we already heard 130+)

I wonder how many of them are shaped in the exact same way, and 2x4 sized.

-Speaking of jobs : woodcutting, weaponsmithing, sells stuffs you made to the forge or to the mill... -he insists on the importance of activities they thought apparently useless before Skyrim, but they found that was surprinsingly important for immersion after implementing them into Skyrim.

Don't care.

endboss · Post by **endboss** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 8:01 am

I shouldn't do this, but I will.

-dynamic shadows

Like Oblivion originally had!

-if a weapon and a shield or two weapons are equiped, you cannot cast any spell (quite logical indeed)

Like Morrowind!

-it seems that smithing can only be done in forges (you cannot repair your equipment everywhere like in morrowind or oblivion)

Like logic!

-incredible level of detail such as : blood vessels on skin, modelling, animations, clothings (not sure what "clothing" means here))

Like good graphics!

-meteorological effects : clouds are gathering in real time around mountain peaks (sounds pretty cool), snow affects textures (so again pretty much confirmed that this isn't 3d accumulating snow but I'm fine with that anyway).
-a major inspiration for snowy landscapes seems to be artists like Brom and Frazetta.

Like... I like this!

-Matthew Carofano (artistic director of Skyrim) : Dwemer ruins (we know that already) and a Dunmer city!!! (yeah you heard me : Dunmer :celebration: ) ;

Like Morrowind!

-again from M. Carifano : "after Oblivion where every place looked alike, in Skyrim you'll find once agin the excentricity of Vvardenfell. Here every Nord Clan has its own colors, its own identity."

Like Morrowind!

-For consoles : the "block" action is performed by pressing both trigger buttons at the same time. Each separatly correspond to the action of what you equipped in one hand or the other.

Don't give a ****!

-80 spells among which some are entirely new (the journalist might have picked a rounded off number since I remember GI said 85 or so?)

Like diversity!

-spells confirmed : Detect Life, Fury (force ennemies to fight between them), Circle of Protection (hurl ennemies outside a magic circle), Snow trap (triggers only when an ennemy walks on it), Lightnings, Fireballs.

Like new!

-Concerning finishing moves we'll see stuffs like : Axe blade planted in the neck, dagger in the chest.

Like gore!

-Concerning skills : Athletics (they surely meant Acrobatics) doesn't exist anymore (to prevent the player boosting this only by jumping on stand)

Like removing unnecessary stuff!

-AI : NPCs have day and night activities like cooking and brushing the ground in front of their houses.

Like Oblivion originally had!

-dialogues : most "inimportant" NPC like simple villagers won't have any dialogue tree (instead they'll directly comment on rumors or on what they're doing) ; only important NPCs will actually exchange dialogue with you, you CAN cut short the dialogue simply by walking away.

Like Chrono Trigger!

-Every city and town is bound to some particular resources meaning if you burn their mill or mine, you affect their economy and they'll be forced to buy flour or mineral somewhere else and when you'll want to buy these resources here again it will be more expensive. (good thing for evil characters and maybe desctructible environnement?)

Like cool!

-the Dragon Shout key on PS3 is R3 (don't ask me more since I'm a PC player)

Don't give a ****!

-archery : when aiming at something, you can hold your breath (consuming stamina) and the action is slowed.

Like Oblivion and Morrowind!

-Dark Brotherhood mentionned as might be in (the reason beeing that the devs had a lot of fun developping it in Oblivion)

Like Oblivion and Daggerfall!

-Dragons can be unpredictible in their behaviour, they will fly in the air, crawl on the land, they can crash when wounded.

Like good animations!

-On the favorite menu: "Cliking on a key, the screen freeze and a list of weapons or 'favorite' spells is shown next to each hand".

Like accessibility!

-"a cause-consequence tree for each mission",
-each mission will be a bit different from the same mission played by another player who has done other quests. Also can be different depending on which mission you did before.
-If you meet a Giant on the road he might totally not attack you unless you attack him.

Like an actual RPG!

-it seems he says that when most NPCs give you a quest, they'll give you precise directions or accompany you to the road showing you which direction to take to go on on you quest.

Like Morrowind!

-the player should be excited when discovering a new place, or overhearing rumors spoken by NPCs between them.

Like Oblivion!

-the testers mark the most beautiful landscape, so they should have things like temples, stuff that will entice the player to go and check by himself.

Like Morrowind!

-in Oblivion there was only 1 guy working on the dungeons, this time for Skyrim, 8 devs are working on them.

Like Morrowind!

-120 dungeons (again might be another round off number, cause we already heard 130+)

Like let's hope they won't be as uniform as in Oblivionl!

-Speaking of jobs : woodcutting, weaponsmithing, sells stuffs you made to the forge or to the mill...
-he insists on the importance of activities they thought apparently useless before Skyrim, but they found that was surprinsingly important for immersion after implementing them into Skyrim.

Like MMOs!

Stworca · Post by **Stworca** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 8:23 am

I shouldn't do this, but I will.

I shall join you, although only on some.

-dynamic shadows

As long as it will look as good as.. say.. ME2.. i'll be a happy panda. It probably won't, so i don't care. I'm more concerned by lights than shadows. it is light that screwed Oblivion.

-if a weapon and a shield or two weapons are equiped, you cannot cast any spell (quite logical indeed)
Like Morrowind!

Yeah.

Quote:
-incredible level of detail such as : blood vessels on skin, modelling, animations, clothings (not sure what "clothing" means here))
Like good graphics!

Yeah. And i guess that by clothing they mean pants, shirts and alike..

It will probably react to movement, wind, and dance even if his friends don't dance. Cause if i dance and they do not dance then they're no friends of mine.

Quote:
-Matthew Carofano (artistic director of Skyrim) : Dwemer ruins (we know that already) and a Dunmer city!!! (yeah you heard me : Dunmer :celebration: ) ;
Like Morrowind!

Yeah.

Quote:
-again from M. Carifano : "after Oblivion where every place looked alike, in Skyrim you'll find once agin the excentricity of Vvardenfell. Here every Nord Clan has its own colors, its own identity."
Like Morrowind!

They seem to actualy WORK this time, instead of copy/pasting!

Quote:
-For consoles : the "block" action is performed by pressing both trigger buttons at the same time. Each separatly correspond to the action of what you equipped in one hand or the other.
Don't give a ****!

Nobody does.

Quote:
-spells confirmed : Detect Life, Fury (force ennemies to fight between them), Circle of Protection (hurl ennemies outside a magic circle), Snow trap (triggers only when an ennemy walks on it), Lightnings, Fireballs.
Like new!

Morrowind had Detect Life (as detect animals / humanoid etc.) and Fury. Not to mention Lightnings and balls on fire.. I like the idea of repulsive field though.

Quote:
-Concerning finishing moves we'll see stuffs like : Axe blade planted in the neck, dagger in the chest.
Like gore!

Might make combat more appealing, quite important seeing as there will be alot of it.

Quote:
-Concerning skills : Athletics (they surely meant Acrobatics) doesn't exist anymore (to prevent the player boosting this only by jumping on stand)
Like removing unnecessary stuff!

Heretic! I loved my high acrobatics! Made traveling easier! Firt they removed levitation, now acrobatics.. Skyrim will be a ground game

Quote:
-dialogues : most "inimportant" NPC like simple villagers won't have any dialogue tree (instead they'll directly comment on rumors or on what they're doing) ; only important NPCs will actually exchange dialogue with you
Like Chrono Trigger!

For the love of... So they WILL actualy hire only one voice actor, and this time they don't even hide with it! As Udina would've said : OUTRAGE!
Chrono? More like Sims, where characters seem to talk, but they just don't.

Quote:
-Every city and town is bound to some particular resources meaning if you burn their mill or mine, you affect their economy and they'll be forced to buy flour or mineral somewhere else and when you'll want to buy these resources here again it will be more expensive. (good thing for evil characters and maybe desctructible environnement?)
Like cool!

Cool? Yes. Will be implemented as it is described now? Ha!

Quote:
-the Dragon Shout key on PS3 is R3 (don't ask me more since I'm a PC player)
Don't give a ****!

Now that changed my whole perspective about the game. Nothing will be the same now that i know what key Dragon Shout will be on PS3. (PS3 has R3 button?)

Quote:
-archery : when aiming at something, you can hold your breath (consuming stamina) and the action is slowed.
Like Oblivion and Morrowind!

Umm? Whaa?

Quote:
-Dark Brotherhood mentionned as might be in (the reason beeing that the devs had a lot of fun developping it in Oblivion)
Like Oblivion and Daggerfall!

The reason is that its the only quest line that was worth anything, not dev's having fun doing it. They had fun copy/pasting three thousand dungeons and programming the level scalling to equip everyone and their mom with glass armor at lvl 30.

Quote:
-Dragons can be unpredictible in their behaviour, they will fly in the air, crawl on the land, they can crash when wounded.
Like good animations!

Like DA.

Quote:
-On the favorite menu: "Cliking on a key, the screen freeze and a list of weapons or 'favorite' spells is shown next to each hand".
Like accessibility!

Has both pro's and con's. Although i liked the freeze in morrowind.

Quote:
-"a cause-consequence tree for each mission",
-each mission will be a bit different from the same mission played by another player who has done other quests. Also can be different depending on which mission you did before.
-If you meet a Giant on the road he might totally not attack you unless you attack him.
Like an actual RPG!

I won't believe it until i see it. It could be the main strength of Skyrim if they implement it right.

Quote:
-it seems he says that when most NPCs give you a quest, they'll give you precise directions or accompany you to the road showing you which direction to take to go on on you quest.
Like Morrowind!

Yeah. No more fast travel.

Quote:
-the player should be excited when discovering a new place, or overhearing rumors spoken by NPCs between them.

Wait.. we SHOULD be excited? You mean like "Yay! People gossip about random stuff. My day is complete now!" or more like "Oh my, it felt so good that i need to change my pants again"?

Quote:
-the testers mark the most beautiful landscape, so they should have things like temples, stuff that will entice the player to go and check by himself.
Like Morrowind!

Yeah.

Quote:
-in Oblivion there was only 1 guy working on the dungeons, this time for Skyrim, 8 devs are working on them.
Like Morrowind!

Not sure how many people worked on Morrowind's dungeons, but he / they should come back. Now!
Sure they used a lot of the same textures, and some areas were copy/pasted, but i didn't FEEL like going through the same dungeon for 100th time like in Ob.

Yay!

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 8:39 am

it seems that smithing can only be done in forges (you cannot repair your equipment everywhere like in morrowind or oblivion)

Meh, if weapons and armour are a lot more durable than they are in Oblivion, if they aren't it's a bad joke.

incredible level of detail such as : blood vessels on skin, modelling, animations, clothings (not sure what "clothing" means here))

Yawn, graphic details are the last thing I worry about with a game as long as they are reasonable, Morrowind graphics were perfectly adequate as far as I'm concerned.

-meteorological effects : clouds are gathering in real time around mountain peaks (sounds pretty cool), snow affects textures (so again pretty much confirmed that this isn't 3d accumulating snow but I'm fine with that anyway).
-a major inspiration for snowy landscapes seems to be artists like Brom and Frazetta.

See above.

-again from M. Carifano : "after Oblivion where every place looked alike, in Skyrim you'll find once agin the excentricity of Vvardenfell. Here every Nord Clan has its own colors, its own identity."

At last, something that gives hope!

80 spells among which some are entirely new (the journalist might have picked a rounded off number since I remember GI said 85 or so?)

Does this imply that creating your own spells will not be an option? Surely not!

Concerning finishing moves we'll see stuffs like : Axe blade planted in the neck, dagger in the chest.

More totally unnecessary, pointless waste of processing power
!

AI : NPCs have day and night activities like cooking and brushing the ground in front of their houses.

Ditto

archery : when aiming at something, you can hold your breath (consuming stamina) and the action is slowed.

Ditto

-"a cause-consequence tree for each mission",
-each mission will be a bit different from the same mission played by another player who has done other quests. Also can be different depending on which mission you did before.
-If you meet a Giant on the road he might totally not attack you unless you attack him.

Nice, if implemented well, a definite improvement.

it seems he says that when most NPCs give you a quest, they'll give you precise directions or accompany you to the road showing you which direction to take to go on on you quest.

If this signals the end of the hand holding compass indicators and fast travel then good, if it's in addition, then so what?

-Speaking of jobs : woodcutting, weaponsmithing, sells stuffs you made to the forge or to the mill... -he insists on the importance of activities they thought apparently useless before Skyrim, but they found that was surprinsingly important for immersion after implementing them into Skyrim.

Um, have I missed an announcement that Skyrim is going to be an MMO? Is real game play going to be sabotaged for more grinding? Oh dear, this is very worrying. The chances of me buying this game is going down every time I read more about it.

endboss · Post by **endboss** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 10:48 am

In Chrono Trigger you could walk away from people talking.

I assume the "holding breath" thing is just a fancy way of saying you consume more stamina when you hold down the button, which has always been a feature.

I was more referring to the new spells. I don't know why they bothered to list the old ones - especially things like fireball.

I don't think the extra immersion stuff is a waste of processing power. I'd like to see it. But then again, I mainly play these games to explore stuff for the sake of exploring.

Maybe they're going the full-directions route because the compass will be optional (I HOPE!).

Stworca · Post by **Stworca** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 11:15 am

endboss wrote: Maybe they're going the full-directions route because the compass will be optional (I HOPE!).

Well.. Suni & some other telvani quests towers were always the places never-to-be-found-when-i-look-for-it. Even with all the directions you received. But it was great to explore!