Skyrim: Elder Scrolls 5

[Nedak]

In one of the bigger surprises during the VGAs, Bethesda's Todd Howard took to the stage, surrounded by a menagerie of monks, to reveal the latest in the Elder Scrolls series: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Head past the jump for the teaser, featuring narration by Max Von Sydow.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/12/11/sk...ming-11-11-11/

Check that link for a teaser trailer (as of now there isn't one on Youtube).

[mimartin]

Yea saw that. They said something about world announcement in five mins. So I stuck around thinking it would be ME3, but when they said Betesda I was pleasantly surprised. Still not a huge surprise since they farmed out Fallout: New Vegas. I know what I want for my birthday next year.

[Sabretooth]

Obligatory:

YouTube Video

[JediExile]

I need to get my butt in gear and finish Oblivion.
And I love Morrowind's theme song.

[Darth Payne]

Originally Posted by JediExile

I need to get my butt in gear and finish Oblivion.
And I love Morrowind's theme song.

Agreed, i have yet to play through Oblivion myself. Got about six or so saves for Oblivion, and have yet to finish the game.

Kinda prefer the Oblivion Theme myself.

[PastramiX]

As long as they made a new engine from scratch, then I'm fine. At least we can all ignore this and hope for the day when Fallout 4 gets outsourced to Obsidian again.

[Sabretooth]

Originally Posted by PastramiX

At least we can all ignore this and hope for the day when Fallout 4 gets outsourced to Obsidian again.

To be honest, I'd rather than Obsidian work on someone else's code, even if Bethesda's, because otherwise they can't make something totally on their own for ****.

[DarthParametric]

They already said it was Gamebryo a few weeks back. It has been in development for a couple of years (presumably at least since FO3 was finished, if not beforehand), so I wouldn't expect many changes. Maybe they'll switch to the id Tech 5 engine for TES6, although they've said previously that its not an "open world" type engine, apparently.

[Bob Lion54]

Originally Posted by DarthParametric

They already said it was Gamebryo a few weeks back. It has been in development for a couple of years (presumably at least since FO3 was finished, if not beforehand), so I wouldn't expect many changes. Maybe they'll switch to the id Tech 5 engine for TES6, although they've said previously that its not an "open world" type engine, apparently.

Ahhhh... Damnit.

The trailer was pretty epic. Not that it tells you anything, but it was still cool anyway.

However, I must say that I HATE GAMEBRYO!

[Nedak]

The game will be on a new engine:
http://twitter.com/Bethblog/status/14010984884604929

[DarthParametric]

Originally Posted by Nedak

The game will be on a new engine

Hrmm interesting given that Todd Howard had apparently confirmed a while ago that it would be on Gamebryo, as I said earlier:

Eurogamer: Is it fair to say then that it's based on existing technology?

Todd Howard: The technology is ours and it is inspired by the technology we have. We have a lot of it. But that's our starting point - the Fallout 3 tech. It started with Morrowind, we went to Oblivion, we did a lot between Oblivion and Fallout 3 because now we had final hardware - with Oblivion we had six months on final hardware, so Fallout 3 technically does a lot more than Oblivion. The new stuff is an even bigger jump from that.

I can say it is on the existing platforms, which we're really happy with. You almost feel like you have a new console when you see the game.

The "Fallout 3 tech" part would seem to confirm Gamebryo IMO. I wouldn't be surprised if the "new" engine is just a revised Gamebryo, as opposed to an entirely different engine altogether.

[Bob Lion54]

Oh, sweet! Hopefully they didn't start with "let's see what we can make it do" and kept the "let's make it work right" attitude from the start. Otherwise... Gamebryo Hell Part 2.

It's great news, nonetheless. I can't imagine an engine with as many problems for so many people as Gamebryo... Well, I can, but if I think about it too much, I will never be able to sleep again. *shivers*

[stingerhs]

^^^^
yeah, sounds to me like their using Gamebryo as a starting point for the new engine and not necessary a slightly upgrade version. i can imagine that it has to do with how the game handles the open world environment since there were few issues in that regard with either Fallout 3 or New Vegas. everything else with that engine needs a significant overhaul to keep up with new engines coming from iD and Crytek (particularly Crytek given that both previous Crytek engines handled large open environments very well).

[Ctrl Alt Del]

Fallout with swords.


And what do you guys think about the province they have chosen? I'm not sure that's the place I want to see next.

[stingerhs]

what about the setting?? i don't see a problem with choosing Skyrim as the setting.

[Ctrl Alt Del]

Originally Posted by stingerhs

what about the setting?? i don't see a problem with choosing Skyrim as the setting.

Not that I think it's a bad choice, but if you consider there are a lot of places we haven't seen yet I'm just trying to raise a discussion about the place we'd like to see in a TES game.

[stingerhs]

just curious to see what your disposition was on that one.

as for Skyrim, i'm game. Bethesda set the bar pretty high with Oblivion when it designed Cyrodiil when it came to overall diversity of settings. Despite that Skyrim is mostly cold mountains and whatnot, i can imagine that it wouldn't take much for there to be at least some diversity between all of that. Just think: if there are mountains, then there are also valleys, and the diversity of going from the bottom of the valley to the top of a mountain is always immense.

i think that there even stands a chance for additional gameplay elements such as needing to adapt to weather conditions and even seasonal changes. in mountainous terrain, weather conditions change rapidly, and seasonal changes can be drastic. that alone can add quite a bit of diversity to the game as well.

[Ctrl Alt Del]

I was thinking about leaving Tamriel alone for a bit and focusing in, say, Akavir maybe. I'd like to be part of an expeditionary force for example.

Originally Posted by stingerhs

i think that there even stands a chance for additional gameplay elements such as needing to adapt to weather conditions and even seasonal changes. in mountainous terrain, weather conditions change rapidly, and seasonal changes can be drastic. that alone can add quite a bit of diversity to the game as well.

Hmm, a Hardcore from New Vegas of sorts. That'd be nice.

[Drunkside]

Im okay with Skyrim, i always liked the northernmost parts of Cyrodiil the best, and when i played Morrowind i didnt even bother with anything else but the Bloodmoon area. Those felt homey to me :P

[Sabretooth]

Scans of the Game Informer article went up last night, here ye go.

Here's what I see:

- Two centuries into the future
- A "redesigned" engine. Probably a reworking of the Gamebryo one?
- A redesigned interface...
- No classes, gameplay is now entirely dependent on how you play, what skills you use etc.
- Dual-weilding of any combination of weapons, shields, magic, etc. For eg. shield and sword, magic and axe, etc.
- One new perk every level, Fallout 3-style
- Dragons! You'll be fighting lots of lesser dragons, and the end boss is presumably Alduin, the super god-Dragon thing or whatever that is going to destroy the world (no he's not)
- The player is a rare Dragonborn who is destined to slay dragons, but at the same time discover the mysteries behind why the dragons are back and how they prefer their tea
- The king of Skyrim is dead - civil war time!

- You can now forge weapons, enchant stuff, cook, cut wood, mine and so on. Farming will probably be a DLC.
- No more zoom-in conversations! Characters that can walk about and do stuff while they talk! No word on the quality of writing.
- Swap your combat loadout with the touch of a button
- The higher you raise your skill, the more it contributes to levelling. For eg. raising one skill from 34 to 35 will make you level faster than raising another from 11 to 12. Conclusion: Jack of all trades have it slower.
- Level cap is 50, but not a hard cap; you will continue to level-up very slowly after that.

- Bows are slower, but much more powerful
- Melee combat is now more energetic and dynamic and all that
- Backpedalling is now much slower than your walk-forward speed
- Five schools of magic; Mysticism has been removed and its spells have been thrown about

- If you drop a weapon, there's a chance it might lie there, or a young boy might pick it up and return it to you, or two burly men might try to fight over it. The highlight here is that there will be little boys in the game and you can probably kill them, too.
- Level-scaling is fun!
- The game will tailor to how you have played. If a woman asks you to save her daughter from kidnappers, the quest will be set in a dungeon the game knows you haven't explored.
- Similarly, there's a vast storehouse of knowledge on the decisions you have made, and how you have played the game. Sounds promising.

[Darth Payne]

Originally Posted by Sabretooth

The game will tailor to how you have played. If a woman asks you to save her daughter from kidnappers, the quest will be set in a dungeon the game knows you haven't explored.

This i like.

Something that annoyed me at times in Oblivion was the fact that i could clear out a dungeon/cave, only to be sent back there shortly after to do a quest of one type or another.

[DarthParametric]

Originally Posted by Sabretooth

A "redesigned" engine. Probably a reworking of the Gamebryo one?

That was my feeling, although there was that interview I mentioned earlier where it seemed to indicate that they'd ditched Gamebryo altogether, just keeping the middleware. Time will tell I guess.

Originally Posted by Sabretooth

The king of Skyrim is dead

Didn't they do that already?

Originally Posted by Sabretooth

The highlight here is that there will be little boys in the game and you can probably kill them, too.

Seems highly unlikely. Expect a repeat of the Fallout 3 invulnerable kids (at least until the PC mod to change it comes out).

[Alkonium]

Originally Posted by Sabretooth

- Two centuries into the future

Any word on the canonicity of The Infernal City? Mind you, given the time frame, the only relevant thing would probably be whether or not it's set during the Mede dynasty.

[Boba Rhett]

Woah woah woah, there's still level scaling?! SOMEBODY TALK ME DOWN OFF THIS LEDGE.

[mimartin]

- Sabre – I did not read where the PC is a prisoner for some undefined crime. Who is either pardon or escapes, yet no one seems to care.

Other than that, what I'm sure is just an oversight, it looks good to me.

Originally Posted by Boba Rhett

Woah woah woah, there's still level scaling?! SOMEBODY TALK ME DOWN OFF THIS LEDGE.

Jump! Jump! Jump!... Wait.. I mean please step away from the ledge…

[Sabretooth]

Originally Posted by mimartin

- Sabre – I did not read where the PC is a prisoner for some undefined crime. Who is either pardon or escapes, yet no one seems to care.

Silly Mimi, next thing you'll be asking is where the game lets you fight enemies or not.

[Ctrl Alt Del]

- If you drop a weapon, there's a chance it might lie there, or a young boy might pick it up and return it to you, or two burly men might try to fight over it.

I saw a mudcrab recently.

Originally Posted by mimartin

- Sabre – I did not read where the PC is a prisoner for some undefined crime. Who is either pardon or escapes, yet no one seems to care.

Lol.

[Darth333]

Originally Posted by Boba Rhett

Woah woah woah, there's still level scaling?! SOMEBODY TALK ME DOWN OFF THIS LEDGE.

How about pushing you down the ledge? It's not just level scaling but generic dungeons too! (ok, I'm jumping too! aaaaaah! )

The game will tailor to how you have played. If a woman asks you to save her daughter from kidnappers, the quest will be set in a dungeon the game knows you haven't explored.

ok, now, the essential question which may make me regret that the ledge was only a few feet high: will there be modding tools to get around this, especially around level scaling?

I hate leveled loot, especially when all the poor of the Empire suddenly become the rich of the empire and start wearing Daedric armor all at the same time because I have become stronger and/or wiser. It's just an easy way to save time and get away with thinking: instead of carefully planning the location of loot, you just attach a different script to a few dozens of chests/npcs to upgrade the loot...and tadaam! Ohhh! Daedric armor and weapons everywhere! - at least in Oblivion you had an invasion that could have allowed you, with a lot of imagination, to think every thief and bandit in the Empire to loot and salvage such armor and weapons.

- A "redesigned" engine. Probably a reworking of the Gamebryo one?
- A redesigned interface...
- Level-scaling is fun!

Is it too much to dream of some balance between unique, well placed, random and leveled loot/enemies?

[Ctrl Alt Del]

Originally Posted by Darth333

Is it too much to dream of some balance between unique, well placed, random and leveled loot/enemies?

Apparently, Sandbox and random leveled critters do not match.

[Ztalker]

Originally Posted by Ctrl Alt Del

Apparently, Sandbox and random leveled critters do not match.

Yeah, beating an epic boss in full plated armor is cool....being beaten by a dog protecting his puppy's afterwards isn't. Bah.

Still sounds cool though...I got my hands on Oblivion 3 days prior to the release...everyone spamming my x-fire...ah. Good times. Good games. Morrowind too by the way. Nice expansion packs that one had

[mimartin]

Thanks to acdcfanbill for sharing this in that evil entity known as skype.

YouTube Video

[Darth333]

Originally Posted by mimartin

Thanks to acdcfanbill for sharing this in that evil entity known as skype.

Thanks for posting this...but...but it does not answer some essential questions:

1. Will I start as a prisoner?
2. Will there will be giant rats?
3. If the answer to 2. is yes, will the rats be able to kill me when I'm level 20+?
4. Will the Mages guild find out that their new Archmage is a thief who stole from them not two days ago, a vampire and an assassin who can barely cast a spell?
5. Will I hear dialogs along the lines of:

"Would you like to hear something interesting?"

"Of course!"

"Bye!"

Oh well, if that's not the case, at least it's been confirmed that there will be modding tools

[mimartin]

Originally Posted by Darth333

...but it does not answer some essential questions:

I don't know, but I'm pretty sure they are bringing back Cliff Racers.

[Darth333]

Originally Posted by mimartin

I don't know, but I'm pretty sure they are bringing back Cliff Racers.

Ah yes...cliff racers...

Morrowind

Skyrim

[ChAiNz.2da]

Originally Posted by Darth333

Thanks for posting this...but...but it does not answer some essential questions:

1. Will I start as a prisoner?
2. Will there will be giant rats?

If either of these are not true.. then it's not an ES game
I'll be holding on to my receipt until I make sure that although I am obviously in prison for not being a "nice" guy.. I will actually give 2 sharts about Skyrim to go traipsing around and saving it's arse

Yeah, who am I kidding.. I foresee yet another year+ of my life being sacrificed to Bethesda then of course, BioWare will get it's turn (ME3) to have it's way with me

[Darth333]

Originally Posted by mimartin

Warts and all I loved Oblivion and then Morrowind ...

Me too

If either of these are not true.. then it's not an ES game

I just want to make sure it really is an ES game However, I do hope that "Radiant AI" which has apparently now evolve into "Radiant Story" wont be reminiscent of the dumb Oblivion dialogs...

Originally Posted by ChAiNz.2da

Yeah, who am I kidding.. I foresee yet another year+ of my life being sacrificed to Bethesda then of course, BioWare will get it's turn (ME3) to have it's way with me

It will be a horrible year indeed, except I will likely not have the time to try more than two of these: I'm interested in playing Deus Ex, DA2, Shogun 2, Witcher 2, TES 5, ME3...I'd probably want to take a look at LA Noire as well and I am sure I am forgetting a few other games ...and I still have to play Fallout New Vegas: it's sitting on my desk as I've had no time to play it yet...the only game I've been able to play in 2010 was ME2.


Anyway, I've already noted down in my agenda that on the 14 and 15th of November I'll be vacationing in Skyrim

[stoffe]

Originally Posted by ChAiNz.2da

Because the game(s) can stand on itself and I like to play them (first) on how they were intended to perhaps?

Seriously.. out of the tons of mods on Nexus.. how many are actually 'needed'. The absence of pixel pr0n and one-shot weapons in vanilla aren't necessarily game breaking

Morrowind was completely unplayable without mods. I bought it when it was first released but uninstalled after little more than an hour and sold it. Bought the GotY version a few years later again, installed a bunch of 3rd party mods (among them the crucial Better Heads/Bodies/Armor mods) and had lots of fun playing it.

Being able to mod games to better suit your preferences is one of the main reasons I prefer gaming on the PC. Not only does it enhance the game experience itself, modding can be rather fun on its own. Bioware's recent trend of complete disinterest in allowing/supporting modding for their games is rather annoying; I hope Bethesda won't follow suit and will continue to release modding tools for their games.

[Mav]

I will leave this here...

[Mav]

I liked the part at the end of the trailer, where the Grey Warden kills Sean Connery as Draco...

[Sabretooth]

Yes, and now those scrawny bastards can shoot fire at you if you try to run away.