First Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Details Leaked

[Newtilator]

Sounds good but... wont this mean you'll have to put your weapons away to cast spells? That would get annoying. Having to equip shield everytime you want to block without your wrists being snapped like rotten bamboo. However, two spells at once. Dual wielding daggers. Two things I wanted. Can't complain.

 

[TheRundownRabbit]

yay......wait, quickly define weapon creation? Are we talking like the boring Shivering Isles weapon creation?

 

[EHKOS]

Dammit and here comes the delema. Do I want a nice looking game with no DLC or a shitty looking game with mods and DLC? DAMMIT! WHY MUST I BE CURSED WITH A CRAP GRAPHICS CARD AND NO LIVE?

 

[Hungry Donner]

There are 18 total skills, down from 21 in Oblivion.

And down from twenty-seven in Morrowind. I'm really looking forward to Skyrim, but one thing I hoped they would address was the paring back of skills that happened in Oblivion. Instead it seems they've carried on the work. I know I'm sounding like a total gripe here, but which skills have they removed? Are we losing magic schools like we lost Enchantment from TES3?

While the number of skills may have decreased in TES V the addition of perks may counter this in terms of character customization - it may even supersede it.

In Morrowind and Oblivion I found that characters with similar skills tended to play the same, especially at higher levels. This was less of an issue with Daggerfall thanks to the special abilities that you could select with classes - they had a pronounced affect on how you played so you could have two characters with similar skills and very different special abilities and they'd give you two different experiences. I can't fault Bethesda for replacing class special abilities with birthsigns, the Daggerfall system was extremely easy to abuse, but I do believe this hurt the customization of the character system.

In Fallout 3 and New Vegas I felt that the perk system improved character customization considerably: two characters with similar skills but different perk selections could play in very different ways. So even if the Skyrim skill selection is simplified compared to Oblivion, and Morrowind, and Daggerfall, the addition of perks may give you a level of character customization we haven't seen since TES II.

 

[Thirsk]

Even fewer skills? Slap me, I was hoping for a return to the Morrowind-esque depth of gameplay. Oh well, it's not too late to make away with fast travel.

Hells, who am I kidding, this is going to be awesome.

 

[Levethian]

SQUEEEE!

Now that's out of the way..
I hope Beth makes the world FEEL big, whether it's big or not. Leading the united armies of Cyrodiil (8 soldiers or thereabouts) into the final battle in Oblivion was just pitiable. Let's hope the engine can render more than 10 people at a time, and get rid of immersion-shattering loading screens every few steps.
I'm not optimistic.

Wow, so it looks like Bethesda has decided to stop making RPGs and just go completely action-based, eh?

I share your concern, but do RPG's need to have crap combat mechanics? I'm not sure these are mutually exclusive.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

While the number of skills may have decreased in TES V the addition of perks may counter this in terms of character customization - it may even supersede it.

In Morrowind and Oblivion I found that characters with similar skills tended to play the same, especially at higher levels. This was less of an issue with Daggerfall thanks to the special abilities that you could select with classes - they had a pronounced affect on how you played so you could have two characters with similar skills and very different special abilities and they'd give you two different experiences. I can't fault Bethesda for replacing class special abilities with birthsigns, the Daggerfall system was extremely easy to abuse, but I do believe this hurt the customization of the character system.

In Fallout 3 and New Vegas I felt that the perk system improved character customization considerably: two characters with similar skills but different perk selections could play in very different ways. So even if the Skyrim skill selection is simplified compared to Oblivion, and Morrowind, and Daggerfall, the addition of perks may give you a level of character customization we haven't seen since TES II.

Oh, no doubt. The introduction of perks will allow similarly skilled characters to be very different, but I'm concerned that whittling down the skills to bare minimum is a mistake. Looking at III to IV, the removal of the Spear skill totally removed polearms from the game; the combining of Long Blade and Short Blade to Blade (as if to imply that a short sword is wielded in exactly that same way as a claymore); the removal of the Enchant skill so that custom magic weapons came from altars like ropey magic item dispensers; the removal of the Unarmoured skill so vital to Monks and Agents, increasing their dependence on magical protection - each of these changed gameplay in a way that had nothing to do with character creation options.

My worry is not what we'll lose in character customisation options, it's what the game world will lose in feel and flavour.

 

[EvolutionKills]

Less skills is annoying, but everything else sounds interesting. I have no doubt it will be better then Oblivion. Maybe even Morrowind? well we'll see.

Story wise, Morrowind had a better narrative because of it's setting, scale, and focus. Oblivion took place over the entire country of Cryodiil, and had the main character play second string to the Emperor's bastard son and his apotheosis into an Avatar of Akatosh to combat Mehrunes Dagon. You're left at the end of Oblivion going 'Wow, that was cool, too bad I didn't really contribute anything to that final battle between the GODS'. Morrowind took place on Vardenfell, the smaller northern 'island' portion of the country of Morrowind. Here you where the Nerevarine, the reincarnated hero out to stop the Blight that threatens to engulf the island.

Remember, with the 'Tribunal' expansion pack for Morrwind, you do get to kill a God (Almalexia). And the option to go toe-to-toe with another God (Vivec) at any time, and if you where strong enough, you could kill him. Now that is the kind of epic feats that you could build up to in Morrowind, but where severely lacking in Oblivion until the Shivering Isles(and even then, you fight one god to a standstill and theoretically become one yourself).

If they can limit Skyrim's scope, then what they do have will be that much better. They've already confirmed that you'll be playing as the aforementioned Dragonborn, and not one of his lackeys. They said they're ditching the leveled enemies (yay), and adding a perk system (yay). I loved Fallout's Perk system, and always hoped that they'd incorporate the idea in the next Elder Scrolls game. As a mechanic, it allows for really unique character customization with the incorporation of really neat mechanics that are far more in-depth and game changing than Oblivion's version (e.x. every weapon skill unlocks the same 'power' attack at Lv25/50/75/100, regardless of weapon type, pretty vanilla).

Now if the new engine also supports more dynamic quests, and better visuals (especially character animations and dialogue), I'll be happy. You know it's going to be buggy, but it will be patched (and mod community support on PC), and you know they're going to have great DLC for it as well.

 

[ImprovizoR]

I like the fact that there are no classes. Every time I make a character on Morrowind and Oblivion I always want to chose several classes at the same time and I get pissed. This is a lucky break.

 

[Kelethor]

DUAL WIELDING!!! YESSSSSSSSSS!

 

[Fleaman]

First I've heard of this. Is everyone still ugly?

 

[GonzoGamer]

Maybe TES VI will be a rail-RPG. Just because it hasn't happened before doesn't mean Bethesda couldn't pull it off.

It has happened before.
At least that's what Dragon Age felt like.

 

[Sigmar ov The Hammer]

Don't know why some people are miffed about this.
I for one am counting the days till i can pre-order the uber-rare-limited edition one for 100000 squids.
But seriously, I am so excited.

 

[The Harkinator]

Nice, dual wielding shields is a recipe for a new kind of hero 'The Invincible Pummeller'

 

[faspxina]

First I've heard of this. Is everyone still ugly?

More important, will they keep trying to make us uncomfortable with their awkward staring.

 

[Falseprophet]

No classes! It took 20 years, but finally, video game RPGs discover what tabletop RPGs have been doing since the late 80s. That actually interests me enough to try this out, and I haven't really played a Bethesda RPG since Daggerfall.

Let's hope the November release means minimal bugs.

 

[lukeator]

I hope the npc's will be a bit more animated, and they employ more than two voice actors. Thats something that annoyed me about oblivion. It's a small touch but would have made all the difference.