Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Goreschach]

After oblivion why is anyone preordering this? I'll pick it up on steam for 20 bucks a year after launch. By then the mods to fix the game should be available.

[Sky]

Ditto, the series has been in a serious slide. Though that does remind me I need to try a playthrough of a modded Oblivion some time.

[Ingmar]

I am probably the only one here who liked Oblivion better than Morrowind, replace the skill system and I would expect this to be better still.

[Malakili]

I don't think Oblivion is nearly as bad as people make it out to be.  I like Morrowind more, but I've still enjoyed the hell out of Oblivion, and I expect to enjoy Skyrim.  The combat system also looks pretty neat.

[Sir T]

Yeah Oblivion's pretty fun. I only completed Morrowind a few weeks ago and it was fun too. Flying was ace and the "you have to rest to get magic back" added a different dimention to it, but both were enjoyable.

[Rendakor]

Morrowind was OK, but I liked Oblivion a good deal more. In MW the story was too loose, plus everything was brown; I played the hell out of the game and never came anywhere near finishing the story. My only complaint with Oblivion was the repetitive hellgates.

[Malakili]

In MW the story was too loose, plus everything was brown; I played the hell out of the game and never came anywhere near finishing the story.

I've never finished the "main" story in any Elder Scrolls game, in fact, that fact that I don't have to is exactly what I like about the series.

[Sheepherder]

I am probably the only one here who liked Oblivion better than Morrowind, replace the skill system and I would expect this to be better still.

The skill system is not the problem, it's the ridiculous rate of growth resulting from the fact that some important things (armour and weapons, namely) are trinomial functions.  For example:

Armour = (fArmorRatingBase + (skill / 100) x (fArmorRatingMax - fArmorRatingBase) )  x  ( stat / 100 )  x  [Edtor Armour Value]
Armour = (0.35 + (skill / 100) x (0.65) )  x  ( stat / 100 )  x  [Edtor Armour Value]

Minimum coefficients = (0.3825)  x  (0.3)  x  [Edtor Armour Value]
Maximum coefficients = (1)  x  (1)  x  [Edtor Armour Value]

So, a full suit of Daedric is worth 8.6% mitigation at minimum, 75% mitigation at maximum; and a suit of rusty iron is  3.7% - 32.50%.  The numbers themselves are also deceiving, because a linear increase in percent mitigation (one variable) results in an exponential increase in time until death until the hard cap is reached (85%), but it's easy to achieve increases in all three variables simultaneously (increase skill, spend bonus points in Endurance, get new loot).  Now, factor in the fact that you increasing all three variables with level is expected, and mob damage is adjusted accordingly, despite the fact that it's entirely possible to only be increasing two, one, or none.

You see, Bethesda just really fucking sucks at math.  For fuck's sake, I suck at math and I see the problem.

Oh, and the way they divided all like effects into a single magic school with Morrowind and Oblivion is just dumb, particularly on top of the dearth of effects that are actually in the game, and the fact that there is very little overlap.  Alteration is damn near required for any character more than dabbling in magic because it obviates the necessity of armour and security skills, provides CC (burden), provides mobility (feather, water walking, water breathing), and helps counter casters (elemental shields).  On the other hand, conjuration is completely ignorable because the summons don't scale, bound items necessitate other non-magic skills to be useful, and turn undead is a goddamn weak reward for a major skill slot.

[Ingmar]

No, the skill system is the problem. As in how you raise skills and how it is related to the leveling system. I don't like it.

[Rendakor]

Different strokes. I LOVE the skill system, it's the only thing I like more in the TES series than the Fallout series.

[Amaron]

Yay another CE I can't buy because they decided to throw in a shitty statue.  I like how they tried to make it look pewter to sucker a bunch of poor saps.

[Sheepherder]

No, the skill system is the problem. As in how you raise skills and how it is related to the leveling system. I don't like it.

Ah, so you're talking the levelup process requiring you to be anal retentive.  That's actually less of a problem and more of an annoyance, and a bunch of people have modded it into some semblance of sanity, including me, although my mods are mostly for personal use and contain quirks resulting from their scripting language being a shitheap incapable of determining the true base stat without ridiculous amounts of data parsing only made possible by some neckbeard hacking the editor with a DLL.

But 3/21 of your premade classes effectively being non-viable past level 6, and similarly equipped heavy armour characters having twice the longevity of light armoured characters when they have only 50% more armour is a serious problem.  I have no clue why the fuck Bethesda screwed the pooch so bad with Oblivion, because motherfucking Morrowind did it right and had proper diminishing returns on armour, despite the fact that almost everything else in that game engine was a clusterfuck of epic proportions; and Daggerfall just didn't bother with armour skills at all.

[Flinky]

I think its been mentioned somewhere else in this thread, but it looks like unintentional leveling in Skyrim won't screw you over as badly as it does in Oblivion. Since they've scrapped all the secondary stats, a level (from what I gather) just increases each of your Health, Magika and Stamina and grants you one Perk to spend.

There's also the fact that the world is split into "Encounter Zones" that have only limited scaling. So in Area A you'll encounter creatures of level range 1-6 and over in Area B will be creatures of level range 18-24. If B is too hard, run for your life and come back later. This looks a lot better than that Scamp -> Dremora bullshit.

There's a decent list of answers to a range of questions here http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1207390-skyrim-fan-interview/ along with some extra info. Player marriages, item disenchanting and tavern brawls events AHOY!

[Sky]

Our leveling system was screwed up. Solution: remove the stats it fucked up! Awesome. In Civ V, gold is too uber...so Civ VI should just remove gold!

[Flinky]

Not removed, "streamlined".

Its better that way you see.

[Rasix]

Sounds like this will hamper some of the exploration and sandbox aspects of the game while solving their overall inability to scale the game like they wanted.

It really depends on how big/interesting the world is as to how much this will affect things for me. 

With all that's coming out, I'm not sure I'll even be able to fit Skyrim on my dad sized plate, especially if I attempt to get back into shape.   

[koro]

I've pretty much resigned myself to Bethsoft's "streamlining" of the series, so I've pretty much accepted the lack of attributes, lack of a Hand-to-Hand skill (despite Bethsoft actually more or less making a hand-to-hand skill work properly in Fallout 3), and the removal of custom spell making, which has been a series staple since Arena with a shrug, a sigh, and a "Well, nothing for it I guess."

Now what I will bitch about is that UI. Fuck having my health, fatigue, and magicka bars spread out across the entire length of the bottom of the screen. That kills the ability to readily see what your overall status is without pulling too much of your vision from what's going on in the center of the screen. I know "immersive" UIs are all the rage nowadays, but there's kind of a reason the whole "group all pertinent HUD info together and cram it in a corner" stuck around as long as it did even when screen resolution and graphic fidelity meant it didn't necessarily need to.

I also have a lot of trepidation about the whole new "dungeon level" thing, where if you go into a dungeon at one level, it's locked to that level forever and ever. I can easily see a plucky enough explorer-type who ventures into high enough level areas screwing himself up in the long run by locking nearly every dungeon he can get into at level 3.

[Mrbloodworth]

lots of bla bla math un-fun things

Good lord, do you guys play games, or worry about fractions?

[Malakili]

lots of bla bla math un-fun things

Good lord, do you guys play games, or worry about fractions?

The fractions are part of the game, they just aren't transparent to the player all the time.  Yes, you can just ignore the math, but it seems to me if you play something with more than passing interest its worth finding out how things actually work. 

[Yegolev]

especially if I attempt to get back into shape.

what

[Sheepherder]

Good lord, do you guys play games, or worry about fractions?

I just picked up the complete version off of Steam a while ago.  I'm playing Knights of the Nine right... *dramatic pause* now.  For fuck's sake is their voice acting ever... *dramatic pause* terrible.

But yeah, I've had more fun hacking the game engine into gory bits than I ever will playing it.  Got a problem with that?

I've pretty much resigned myself to Bethsoft's "streamlining" of the series, so I've pretty much accepted the lack of attributes, lack of a Hand-to-Hand skill (despite Bethsoft actually more or less making a hand-to-hand skill work properly in Fallout 3), and the removal of custom spell making, which has been a series staple since Arena with a shrug, a sigh, and a "Well, nothing for it I guess."

[snip]

They ditched hand to hand, in Skyrim?  While announcing loudly how cool their adventurer bar fights are?  What the hell?

Goddamn, that interview is terrible.  Absolutely nothing I'd be interested in knowing is in there.

[koro]

People keep saying "Oh, well, hand to had as a skill is gone, but I'm sure you'll be able to go around and punch people! And BARR FITEZ!!!!!"

You just can't, you know... use it in any kind of real combat.

[Lakov_Sanite]

I know some people love being stabbed in the cock, hell that's what the elder scrolls has always been about but honestly? I'm too old for that shit. I'm fine with people wanting the game to be about grinding skills and leet flying hax all over the place. More power to you if you can get any company to make a AAA game like that these days. For me though? I just want some good storylines, fun combat and pretty scenery to chew on.

[Sheepherder]

Bethesda is great at execution of new ideas.

[Sky]

Bethesda is great at execution of new ideas.

[UnSub]

Bethesda is great at execution of new ideas.

I think he meant "Bethseda is great at taking new ideas out behind the woodshed".

[calapine]

It's not that much, but here some actual information:

• Game world 3-4 times as large as FO3
  
  
• No killing children

Character Races Screenshots: http://gamerant.com/elder-scrolls-5-skyrim-screenshots-races-jc-99917/

[/list]

[Hawkbit]

Game world 3-4 times as large as FO3

Where are you seeing this info?  I've only heard that it's as big as FO3/NV and Oblivion - the 16mi x 16mi size.

[calapine]

Where are you seeing this info?  I've only heard that it's as big as FO3/NV and Oblivion - the 16mi x 16mi size.

http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1019177/skyrim_map_threefour_times_that_of_fallout_3_bethesda.html

"The map is the same size as Oblivion but more dense," Morgan told us, hinting at more areas, quests and NPCs for the upcoming open-world RPG. That still represents a map "three to four times larger than Fallout 3," according to Morgan.

[Sky]

I think he meant "Bethseda is great at taking new ideas out behind the woodshed".

That's why I thought it was awesome, for real.

Faces are looking a LOT better. Too bad for Bethsoft it's coming out when the juggernaut releases. As much as I want to play my inner (and outer, hah!) Norseman FOR GREAT SMITING, the orcs look great.

[Hawkbit]

http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1019177/skyrim_map_threefour_times_that_of_fallout_3_bethesda.html

"The map is the same size as Oblivion but more dense," Morgan told us, hinting at more areas, quests and NPCs for the upcoming open-world RPG. That still represents a map "three to four times larger than Fallout 3," according to Morgan.

Thanks.  Interestingly, I never realized that FO3/NV was smaller than Oblivion.  I thought they were all 16x16.  

[Ingmar]

They finally hired someone who knows how to do faces, amazing.

[MuffinMan]

The faces will look great until I can get my grubby hands on those sliders.

[Paelos]

The faces will look great until I can get my grubby hands on those sliders.

My fat Nord is gonna pwn some sandwiches.

[MuffinMan]

Not sure if making joke regarding an unintended pun or if you misinterpreted my post. <Fry face>