Elder Scrolls V: "Soon"

[lars573]

Actually they work very well. The PC controls are clunky on any RPG I've tried. On in the case of Diablo agony inducing.

I Played Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas on PC and had no problem with the UI. You can assign items to number keys so switching weapons is easy. I played Fallout 3 on xbox once and I had difficulty with the controls, and in order to switch weapons I had to open up the PIP boy every time. So I don't think its true that Oblivion's UI is optimized for consoles.

I've heard it said so many times that Oblivion was developed with the Xbox dev kit and ported to PC and PS that I stopped counting. And a great many multi-platform games in the last 4-5 years have been developed that way. For me playing Fallout 3 on the PC I had to open pip boy every time I wanted to switch weapons. Mostly because I can't for the life of me figure out the quick switch command.

[ReluctantSamurai]

After trying RPG's on PC, all I can say is, never again. A mouse and keyboard are ill suited to controlling an RPG.

I've been playing RPG's on the PC since the Baldur's Gate Trilogy, and never had too many complaints. Most of the problems I encountered were with the UI (like Morrowind's abysmal setup), but then again, you can set up a port on a PC to act like a joystick/controller if you feel the need...which I never have.

I have yet to see a UI as easy to use as the one Bioware developed for NWN. 36 quick slots just a single click away.....and you never had to take your eye off the screen.

[TinCow]

The first trailer for ESV has been released:
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/vg...scrolls/708369

[Justiciar]

Not sure how I feel about a Skyrim setting. And no matter how cool Max von Sydow is, I hope they don't use celebrity voice-actors as their chief selling point as they did with Oblivion.

That said.. I came. Twice, soon as I started considering who "they" might be.

[rajpoot]

Oh my God, this is...this is unbelievable .....ME3 and TES V trailers in the same day! Wow...

Edit:
So when the dragons finally appear in a TES game they appear as villains.
Skyrim is no surprise...they had that rumour going since Fallout 3 was released as far as I remember.
I think this might be a Beowulf esque, viking-action-heavy story.
Can't wait.

[Beskar]

So when the dragons finally appear in a TES game they appear as villains.

There was a dragon in oblivion. They keep the Demon Princes locked out of the world. So they wouldn't be classed as villians.

[rajpoot]

Correction.

There were dragons in oblivion. Only they were really high up.

Seriously though, I don't think that counts. This kind of knowledge might add some unwanted points to my geek/nerd score, but that dragon was supposed to be an avatar of the chief Cyrodrillic deity, Akatosh.
The real dragons were the Akarvirs who live across the ocean to Tamerial's East. And they are supposed to be extinct, eaten up by the snake people, who invaded Tamerial during the reign of Tiber Septim.
The only surviving Dragon in Oblivion's world is Tosh Raka, who is a 'Tiger-Dragon'.....
I don't think I ought to go on....here's link to clear things up....Akavir

I just realized while linking the page, that the Akavir banner is exactly like the logo for TES V. IMO this is proof enough that the Akavirs have invaded Tamerial in TES V.

[lars573]

The leader of the Tiger-men turned himself into a dragon-like form. And they call him a Tiger-dragon. And I believe that part of the Akaviri influence on the Cyrodiilic Empire was that it used an Akavir dragon emblem as it's coat of arms.

There was a dragon in oblivion. They keep the Demon Princes locked out of the world. So they wouldn't be classed as villians.

That was Martin becoming the avatar of Akatosh, the great dragon. All of that stuff about dragons blood, dragon born, and the symbol on the empires banner are from (or are mean't to represent) Akatosh.

[TinCow]

Oh, thank god...
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010...ngine-all-new/

[Mailman653]

I'm guessing that means most of the world will be covered in snow and populated with 6ft blonds? heh heh.

[Motep]

I'm guessing that means most of the world will be covered in snow and populated with 6ft blonds? heh heh.

Six foot blonds, you say? I like where this is going.

And the new engine brings to my heart new hope.

[rajpoot]

Oh, thank god...
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010...ngine-all-new/

Thank God indeed. I was tired of the weird faces.

[lars573]

http://gamerant.com/elder-scrolls-5-...ne-rory-56876/
So some people are worried that TES V will be an MMO. As Skyrim's release date is around the same time as Zenimax's MMO project's release date.

[rajpoot]

I think the devs had cleared that matter quite some time ago. They'd said something along the lines of that they were working on an Elder Scrolls game, and that it was certainly not an MMO....However they hadn't ruled out the possibility of an Elder Scrolls MMO either.

Edit:
It is possible, like the chap says at the end, that this SP game might be a primer for an MMO. So maybe we'll be getting two games based in the same world side by side....

Edit 2 :
Found the link to the article on Bethesda Blog...
http://bethblog.com/index.php/2009/0...-game-mmo-etc/

[lars573]

So I was just shown some magazine scans of Skyrim. And appearantly (the poster read the text, I'm not straining my eyes) Bethesda has dropped set classes. Going totally with skills, of which there are 16 (you can see the 6 magic families in one shot). And you can map melee and magic to each hand. They also claim to be refining combat again, and talk of "perks."

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

I hope they still keep the Argonarian race, I'm playing as them now in Elder Scrolls IV, and did so when I first got it but never finished it.

[rajpoot]

Bethesda has dropped set classes. Going totally with skills, of which there are 16 (you can see the 6 magic families in one shot).

IMO that won't make much of a difference....as far as I can remember, all the characters I created seemed to become battlemages by the end. That was just the most obvious and straightforward way to go.

[Togakure]

Yeah, I agree. I don't think I ever used a set class because a great part of the satisfaction for me is in creating my own characters and seeing how they work out. In regard to battle mages, the offensive power of stealth (Invisibility used well, Sneak and perhaps a little Chameleon here and there), combined with custom offensive spells and enchantments (e.g. Soul Trap+Drain Health+Elemental Damage+Elemental Weakness+Magic Weakness) make for extremely powerful capabilities that straight-up melee or stealth+melee just can't match. Add Turn or Command to these and you have to crank the difficulty, else it's just too easy.

I last played a female Redguard kunouchi born under the Mage birth sign with combat specialty, who developed her magic and stealth skills, and thoroughly enjoyed her. It took a bit or tweaking to make her look Asian, but in the end I succeeded in making a character than I don't get tired of looking at (one of my gripes regarding Oblivion--it's hard to get a look going that I like).

[lars573]

So it's actually 18 skills, which is less than Oblivions.

[lars573]

Info dump:

Story
•Skyrim will take place 200 years after Oblivion and isn’t a direct sequel in the traditional sense of things – from a story perspective.
•You take the role of one of the supposed last remaining Dragonborn, a true dragon hunter, and will no doubt be tasked to stop the huge dragon God, Alduin, also known as the World Eater.
•Esbern, your in-game mentor of sorts, is one of the last surviving Blades and will be voiced by Max Von Sydow (Minority Report, etc)
•Your hero will be tasked with walking 7,000 steps to the high retreat of High Hrothgar to get dragon slaying training from a group of mysterious old men that reside there called the Greybeards.

Game World
•There are said to be “six or seven really different environment looks” in Skyrim, says Bethesda's Todd Howard.
•There are 5 massive cities to explore. Yes, you can fast travel to previously explored places.
•There are 10 races in Skyrim.
•There are a variety of tasks to do in Skyrim as well, including crafting new weapons at the forge, creating poisons and potions through alchemy and you can enchant items with magical powers.
•You can also get involved in mundane tasks if you wish, like farming, woodcutting, mining and even cooking.
•Dropping weapons in the street can end in different outcomes; for instance, it could remain there forgotten, it could be picked up by a small boy and returned to you, or two men could fight over its ownership.
•The game world is said to be much more alive and detailed than in Oblivion, and boast incredible draw distances. Everything is said to be traversable.
•The game world is populated with a variety of animals from saber-tooth cats to woolly mammoths.
•Lesser dragons roam the game world, meaning they will play a far more significant part this time around. They are a big part of Skyrim and won’t be held back until the end.

Missions
•Thanks to something Bethesda are calling the Radiant story system, the game’s lesser missions will react to who you are and where you are, and present you with quests that are “flavoured dynamically.”
•That’ll take into account where you’ve been, who you’ve killed, what skills you’ve upgraded, who are your friends and who are your enemies. For instance, a magic user may give a fellow magic user a quest, but not someone who levelled up their weapon skill.
•If you kill a shopkeeper that was going to give you a quest, his sister will inherit the store and may give you the quest out of anger or frustration instead.
•The ability to duel in the streets is mentioned.
•Through missions, the game will encourage players to go places they’ve never visited. For instance, a woman might ask you to save her kidnapped offspring and the game will send you to a dungeon you’ve never been before. It’ll then set enemies that are appropriately matched to your strengths and weaknesses.

NPCs
•Faces have been dramatically overhauled, giving them more emotion and making them as realistic as they ever have been in a Bethesda game.
•Conversations are revamped and no longer zoom in on a rigid character. Instead, characters will often get on with what they are doing with the occasional glances at the player character, for instance.
•Characters can overhear details from other people’s conversations that they can do with as they see fit, from hearing about missing items or unusual situations. All of which are stored in a log.

Combat
•Skyrim welcomes the two hands/two options approach, enabling players to mix and match what each hand holds, whether it’s a spell/weapon combo, a weapon/weapon combo, a spell/spell combo or a weapon/shield combo. Whatever you want is possible.
•You can setup loadouts and change them in combat with only a momentary pause.
•There are finishing moves now that are weapon and opponent specific.
•Bows take longer to draw back this time, but are much more powerful.
•There are only 5 schools of magic in Skyrim – there was 6 in Oblivion – with Mysticism being cut. Howard insisted that with them jiggling stuff around, it became redundant.
•Bethesda has slowed down how fast you move backwards too, so you can’t just backpedal in combat. Apparently being able to move as fast backwards as you can forwards made your character look ridiculous in third-person view.
•Enemies don’t necessarily charge at the player when they see him this time and some will have unique patterns and tendencies.
•Players can learn unique abilities called “dragon shouts” by absorbing the souls of dragons – one of the benefits of the dragonborn - of which there are over 20 in the game and each is formed from three words of power. They can push enemies away, slow down time, transport you and even summon a dragon, amongst other things.

Levelling Up
•There is no class system per se in Skyrim and how a player plays depends on what skills the character gains. Use a one-handed weapon, watch that skill increase, etc. You get experience for everything.
•Skill increases contribute to your overall level growth. Each level gives you a boost in health and a chance to boost health, magika or stamina.
•There are 18 separate skills in Skyrim, including such things like Illusion, Destruction, Restoration, Enchanting, etc.
•It seems like there are 50 main levels, with Howard mentioning levelling up to 50 is roughly the same time as it would be to level an Oblivion or Fallout character to 25.
•You can level up past 50, but it’s a dramatically slower increase than before once you get past that threshold.
•Todd Howard confirms that Skyrim will use the perk system that they used in Fallout 3, noting that there was an automated perk system in place in Oblivion, but in Skyrim, the user has control over it. There are dozens of perks to choose from, that may increase dagger damage during stealth attacks and may mean your mace attack may ignore your foe’s armour skills.
•On the official forums, Bethesda responded to questions about the game’s scaling system that many didn’t like in the original. “All our games have had some amount of randomness/levelling based on player level. Skyrim's is similar to Fallout 3's, not Oblivion's,” said Bethesda’s Senior Community Manager on the forums.

General
•You can play Skyrim HUD free.
•The third person perspective is said to be improved.
•Characters can now sprint, using up stamina from their stamina supply.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Sounds like there are some greatly needed improvements. Thanx for the heads-up lars

[a completely inoffensive name]

It will be an improvement no doubt. Probably won't be everything people want, but this is a brand new engine so I am betting that the next game after Skyrim will be a really fulfilling game.

[rajpoot]

That's all great news, aside from this...

•Through missions, the game will encourage players to go places they’ve never visited. For instance, a woman might ask you to save her kidnapped offspring and the game will send you to a dungeon you’ve never been before. It’ll then set enemies that are appropriately matched to your strengths and weaknesses.

It sounds like creature/enemy leveling with the player character is still there....and that was a thing I really did not like.

•Your hero will be tasked with walking 7,000 steps to the high retreat of High Hrothgar to get dragon slaying training from a group of mysterious old men that reside there called the Greybeards.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

How is that possible? They say that whoever hears the voice of the Greybeards, dies!

BTW I don't remember any kind of perks in Oblivion...

[lars573]

That's all great news, aside from this...

It sounds like creature/enemy leveling with the player character is still there....and that was a thing I really did not like.

But's that's been part of every ES game. Even Morrowind has it, I have the guide for that game. Many quests have a boss (and the enemies in the boss's dungeon) that are level scaled. Where the guide describes him as X levels above yours. Many critter dens are level scaled for enemies and loot. Oblivion's system also scales the weapons and armour of enemies along with adding stronger critters to the game world. Thus being far more obvious. And from what I've heard Daggerfall's is almost as bad.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

How is that possible? They say that whoever hears the voice of the Greybeards, dies!

BTW I don't remember any kind of perks in Oblivion...

I've been thinking about it, and I think I know what they mean. Oblivion does have them. Those permanent bonus's to skills and stats that the game hands out during faction quest lines (or as part of side quest rewards) are perks. But you can't choose them, IE they're automatic.

[rajpoot]

But's that's been part of every ES game. Even Morrowind has it, I have the guide for that game. Many quests have a boss (and the enemies in the boss's dungeon) that are level scaled. Where the guide describes him as X levels above yours. Many critter dens are level scaled for enemies and loot. Oblivion's system also scales the weapons and armour of enemies along with adding stronger critters to the game world. Thus being far more obvious. And from what I've heard Daggerfall's is almost as bad.

As far as I remember Morrowind just had some special boss level creatures leveling with the player. In Oblivion, everything, right from the Bandits to the Daedra level up....and that is very annoying. It means that the player can never feel powerful.
Think about it. In TES V, a big shot warrior who eats stuffed dragons for breakfast needs to spend an hour to kill a wolf.....

Still...nothing that can be done about it I suppose. This particular trait of the game had been the source of tons of bitching...But if they're still incorporating it and actually publicizing it....well....

Edit:
Something I've been searching for since yesterday...

(one of my gripes regarding Oblivion--it's hard to get a look going that I like).

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Credits to him. I don't know who he is, but he has a couple of other Oblivion based comics...pretty funny.

[lars573]

As far as I remember Morrowind just had some special boss level creatures leveling with the player. In Oblivion, everything, right from the Bandits to the Daedra level up....and that is very annoying. It means that the player can never feel powerful.
Think about it. In TES V, a big shot warrior who eats stuffed dragons for breakfast needs to spend an hour to kill a wolf.....

Every time someone trots out this crap it really irritates me. I've never had an Oblivion character who couldn't kill any critter, any level in less than a minute. I mean the wolves, rats, and cougars are harder to hit because of their lunging attack. Which is why you make the first attack count. Some where between level 5 and 10 I could kill them in one hit with regularity. And always after that.

Still...nothing that can be done about it I suppose. This particular trait of the game had been the source of tons of bitching...But if they're still incorporating it and actually publicizing it....well....

It's every game, like I said it's in Morrowind. Just different because of the games techincal and design limits. If they could have stuck in mass level scaling of the critters in the country side they would have. There is a bandit/critter den outside Pelagiad. Who's contents are level scaled. Under level 10 there's 5 bandits, slaughter fish, and some rats, with nothing but junk for loot. Over level 10 those same bandits now have some nice magical weapons (and mroe gold), the rats and fish have been joined a Druegh. It's not just bosses.

[rajpoot]

That 'crap' is a fact that been an issue with quite a lot of people who played Oblivion actually.....
I assume that you play on med-high difficulty?

[lars573]

I've never touched the difficulty. Never had too. I mean in the intro dungeon you can knock rats out of the air dead (or stunned) when they jump at you. If you time it right.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Scaling has never been an issue for me. I'm one of those weirdo's that like to max out the character for any RPG game I play, so AFAIAC......"bring it on!"

Some of the plug-ins had scaling incorporated in them. The "Giants & Dragons" plug-in that I used for Morrowind, scaled the level of dragons you faced with your character level. Even at level 50, those Elder and Mega Dragons were more than a handful.........

[Centurion1]

i like a challenge....... i dont want to be uber powerful. i like a little challenge doncha know.

oh and i enjoyed oblivion vanilla immensely tbh yeah a few flaws but its my favorite game on xbox. biggest gripe with it is character creation the choices for physical appearance were simply horrendous.

as compared to morrowind where whenever i made a dark elf character i could make him look like that total bad ass you meet on the ship in the very beginning. yeah he was awesome....

then again morrowind had no MAP guide! you remember those atrocious directions sometimes it was nice i guess for the challenge but sometimes it was simply ridiculous man..... and no fast travel sometimes in oblvion that breaks it cause you never venture out but in morrowind it could get annoying to the point where i always chose the hllaruu house even though some others were better simply because it was realistically located.