Elder Scrolls V: SKYRIM

Griggle990 wrote:Ok I understand that an instant teleportation map system may take you out of the experience. But in TES4 it worked because it takes a while to go from one place to another and the time of day takes that in account when you use the map. So it is like you have traveled there by foot but skipped the boring part of you actually having to walk all the way there. Plus you have to visit the place once to unlock it on the map. Also the graphics looks a whole lot better because it was always dark in TES3, and it was sunny during daytimes in TES4 which was a big change from TES3.

A dynamic night & day system was nothing that advanced. Nor anything special.

For the instant Teleport system, another game (and I can't remember which) had a beautiful implementation of that system.
The basic system was the same, if you've been their once you can travel their again relatively easily; except for the fact that when you did you got a small semi-cutscene segment where it showed you on horse back and it would say "[Your Name] has traveled for X[time] on his Journey to [Place]" and it was just a short bit for the loading sequence.

When you showed up, that amount of time passed in game and you didn't feel removed from the experience.

Here's the official press release announcing the game.

December 13, 2010 (Rockville, MD) — Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax® Media company, today confirmed the upcoming release of The Elder Scrolls® V: Skyrim™,the next installment in the award-winning Elder Scrolls series and follow up to the 2006 Game of the Year, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion®.

Developed by Bethesda Game Studios® under the direction of Todd Howard, Skyrim will be released on Xbox 360®video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, and Games for Windows® worldwide on November 11, 2011. Details on the game will be revealed in our exclusive cover story in Game Informer®'s February issue, which ships to subscribers in early January 2011.

"It's exciting finally to announce the game," said Todd Howard, Game Director on Skyrim. "We've been working for many years on Skyrim and the technology behind it. A new Elder Scrolls game has been a long time coming, and we can't wait to show it off."

To view The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim's announcement trailer, please visit the official site: elderscrolls.com. Skyrim will also be featured in magazine cover stories around the world throughout the month of February. Check the official site for updated details.

Hopefully they actually have a more stable build for the Engine this time and took direction from the mistakes of the past.

Though @ Games for Windows Live

Tator Tot wrote:

Griggle990 wrote:Ok I understand that an instant teleportation map system may take you out of the experience. But in TES4 it worked because it takes a while to go from one place to another and the time of day takes that in account when you use the map. So it is like you have traveled there by foot but skipped the boring part of you actually having to walk all the way there. Plus you have to visit the place once to unlock it on the map. Also the graphics looks a whole lot better because it was always dark in TES3, and it was sunny during daytimes in TES4 which was a big change from TES3.

A dynamic night & day system was nothing that advanced. Nor anything special.

For the instant Teleport system, another game (and I can't remember which) had a beautiful implementation of that system.
The basic system was the same, if you've been their once you can travel their again relatively easily; except for the fact that when you did you got a small semi-cutscene segment where it showed you on horse back and it would say "[Your Name] has traveled for X[time] on his Journey to [Place]" and it was just a short bit for the loading sequence.

When you showed up, that amount of time passed in game and you didn't feel removed from the experience.

I know day and night is nothing new. it was new for an TES game. Plus I never felt removed from the experience when using the map in TES4.

Gameinformer posted a couple of interview clips with the audio director for Skyrim this afternoon: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/01/14/the-sounds-of-skyrim.aspx

Not much info about the game, but I always enjoy this sort of glimpse into how stuff works. The game's main theme sounds amazing, too.

I'm not a huge Elder Scrolls fan, and even I'm ridiculously excited for this game.

Ephie pointed me to this article about Skyrim's combat yesterday.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is going to make us change all of the tactics we used in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. New details on the RPG's combat system make it out to be more engaging, threatening, and realistic.

Bethesda is not only adding powerful dragon shout abilities, but says it's crucially altering every aspect of combat in Elder Scrolls as we know it. Combat in Oblivion could get quite repetitive, but Bethesda is trying to change that in the areas of melee, spell casting, and stealth alike.

Read the whole thing for deets. This is great news, Oblivion's combat was really a grind and had to be heavily modded before it was fun to play. Let's hope the end result for Skyrim is something that feels like Deadly Reflexes or TIE.

First off.. Tot can go to hell.. Oblivion is easily one of my top 3 games of all time. I had so much fun with it.. This is after I TRIED playing Morrowind about 6 different times(and another 6 after Oblivion) and couldn't get into it. I would play for 30 minutes to 3 hours and could not get sucked in like I did within 3 minutes of starting up Oblivion.

I am super excited about this and checked every week if there were any news of TESV around and of course the news drops while I am away from the interwebs. I was hoping for a different setting than Skyrim(which was the odds on favorite from "insiders").. I was thinking something set in the time of the Ayelids would be pretty damn fun, personally. Either way, this will be another 300 hours out of my life.

Vanilla Oblivion had its flaws.. but the PC version with a few mods made it damn near perfect, imho. OOO, AF Level mod, BT interface, and a few others to taste make it AAA+ and I always have it installed if I feel like skulking around in a dungeon sniping bitches with my bow or with some fireballs(Supreme Magicka allowed for magical crits on surprise attacks.. not as much of a multiplier as bow and melee, but nice nonetheless).

Anyone who says they love Oblivion and only played on console or vanilla PC is REALLY missing out. Speaking of which, if anyone wants my mod layout, I am more than happy to set them up with what I use.

More thoughts on TESV later.. We have 9 months to wait(ooooh.. we were all knocked up by Bethesda and are waiting to get fat and impatient!)

i do hope they tweaked the arrow mechanics :P other than that looks an awesome game to waste some hours in :P

Woot thanks for the trailer post, eph.. Was waiting for something more than the teaser. It looks pretty sweet.. The models looked a good bit more detailed(though it was probably hyper rendered gameplay.. but gameplay nonetheless). I am excited as hell.

Like I said, I only was hoping for a different setting than Skyrim, but it will work. And I certainly hope that some day we will see some iteration of the game that encompasses the entire continent(and the elvish isles would be a good bonus). I would be in heaven. In fact, if I had a choice of an afterlife, being in Tamriel would be a great choice =P

New info up @ http://pc.ign.com/articles/115/1158651p1.html. Posting before I read it fully, will add comments soon.


Edit.
Thoughts: First off, I made this picture my desktop background. It is freaking schmexy:

• 200 years after Oblivion? Seems a little long, I hope they have some books or conversation that fills in some of the gap.
  
  
• He is being a bit coy with the size of the world. I hope it is bigger!
  
  
• I am very intrigued by the dragon soul absorbing. Hopefully it isn't trivial and just there because dragons are cool.
  
  
• Auto-leveling is about what he said. It is nice for a good bit of the time, but can be stupid when a rat can fight toe to toe with you at level 50. Hopefully they do a much better job than Obliv(though OOO helped tremendously either way).
  
  
• From what he describes of the combat, it seems pretty much the same as Oblivion with some updated animations.
  
  
• Not sure what to think of the NPC conversation thing. I like that it is real-time, but I kind of enjoyed the persuasion mini-game. The skill was vital, either way.
  
  
• Dual-wielding magic and weapons seems fantastic. Should have been there all along.
  
  
• Interestingly, he avoided answering the question about spellcrafting. He just said enchanting. I loved creating spells in Oblivion. You could make some pretty broken spells, but mods were good about limiting your god power in making spells(or just self-restraint).
  
  
• Leveling is a big one for me. The vanilla Oblivion system was asstastic. AF Level mod was way better, but it was simplistic. It sounds like the leveling will be a mix between vanilla obliv and AF Level. Still having to pick a bonus stat to increase instead of pumping your stats up across the board. I do LOVE the perk idea though. Like FallOut perks but with a tree!
  
  
• Shouts seem nifty. For the storyline puzzle elements and kicking some ass.
  
  
• Multiplayer needs to be in a TES game. I know it will be hard to preserve the awesome single player story, but just a 2 player co-op mode would make the game amazing, imho.
  
  
• The answer to the release date is a little worrisome.. Bethesda games have issues with releases, and I thought by bragging about the cool 11.11.11 was solidifying a good release date. I am worried now :/
  
  
• Finally, I love the answer to levitation and unicorn. Fantastic :)
  

Alright people.. give me your 2 copper's worth!

Well, if Bethesda does something write; it's taking ideas from the modding community and fleshing them out for the next game.

Here's hoping Skyrim is as good as Morrowind was out the starting gates. FO3, New Vegas, and Oblivion have really made me discontent with their work.