Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim

[Conner]

Getting a leap in engine quality to match the leap from Oblivion to Fallout 3 would be pretty awesome, but I'll wait the 11 months or so to see for myself it's reality.I would agree, hanging onto those raw files is probably a good idea since it does seem likely that if nif is as bad as y'all imply it won't be back with the new game, but modding isn't likely to go away either.They used pretty much the same CS for Oblivion and FO3, didn't they? Seems to me they like that interface enough that they may very well keep it for the next game too.Hopefully the places they'd fit will still be unoccupied in Skyrim then.

[Arthmoor]

No need to wait. They've already confirmed the new engine. Though it probably does remain to be seen if it's worth the effort. We'll know more once the first gameplay previews come out. Probably in the Feb 2011 issue of Game Informer.The CS they use ties in pretty heavily to the Gamebryo system as I understand it. So in order to have a CS for Skyrim, it seems they'll need to write up a new one. One hopes they stick as closely as possible to the existing interface.

[Conner]

Ok, they've confirmed that they're using a new engine, but we still don't have a clue how much better the new engine is yet. :shrug:My bet is that the interface will be pretty similar, they've already used the same basic interface for several other games and are used to it themselves.

[Hana]

Bethesda Game Director Todd Howard explained in a separate interview with IGN that his game would not use id Tech 5. The studio's new engine built for its upcoming title is more beneficial to creating huge, open-world games, such as Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, while id Tech 5 is better for more contained environments (used in RAGE and DOOM).

Which is good, because....

With Zenimax's (Bethesda's parent company) acquisition of id Software earlier on in the year TES V on the id Tech5 seemed like a very real possibility. Unfortunately the engine is not great for open world games and is even worse for modders due in no small part to the massive texture system the id Tech5 engine employs.

Cause that would suck big time.

[Conner]

Yeah, can you imagine the reaction from fans of mods like OCC or BC when they had to wait long periods for loading screens every time they changed not just cities but building sections like in Doom 3?

[Arthmoor]

I'm hoping they'll spare me the need to free their cities from loading screens

[Dwip]

That would be nice, wouldn't it?

[Conner]

It would indeed be nice. It would be hell on us if they'd used the same engine as Doom 3 did, so it's already an improvement if just because that's the reason they didn't go with Tech 5. I really don't mind loading screens (especially fairly brief ones) between major area changes, it's the load screen when you enter/leave a building that's annoying.

[Arthmoor]

Who knows, perhaps their new engine will allow for a world set up the same way as the Gothic series where there isn't a load screen in sight. THAT would be truly epic to me, but I'm doubting it'll happen that way. So I'll settle for seeing all the cities returned to the openness we were forced to give up from Morrowind.

[Conner]

That would be pretty awesome, but I don't think I see it happening either. As I indicated already, I'd be happy just having no load screens when I enter/exit a building or go into a basement/upstairs...

[Hana]

Free our cities! Free our cities!So, I don't know a thing about Skyrim lore or architecture, but I heard a passing comment from someone that they hope cities built into the sides of mountains comes back.

[Arthmoor]

Comes back? There haven't been any cities built into the sides of mountains in any of the games that I know of. That would be awesome as hell though.

[Conner]

Free our cities! Free our cities!

:chuckle:I don't know any lore for Skyrim either, but I agree with Samson that cities built directly into mountain sides would be pretty cool, though the winding path up to Kvatch immediately comes to mind...

[Tommy]

Well I cannot contribute anything particularly interesting but I am definitely excited and look forward to TES V. For me they need not change a whole lot (apart from multi-core enabled engine, up-to-date visuals obviously):- Save DarN the work of building another UI, make a good one in vanilla- Make nicer NPC faces (no more green Redguards, no neck seams...)- Default leveling should be implemented so we do not have "bandits in glass" againand of course, make a good CS again to support modding.For me these were the most appalling shortcomings of the vanilla game. If the first 3 points were taken care of in TES 4, I would probably have taken a lot longer to get into modding my game. I think there was a lot of good stuff in vanilla Oblivion already. Not that it could not have been done better, but I was/am not totally unhappy with vanilla in many respects.

[Conner]

I really didn't have that much problem with the vanilla Oblivion. I've never minded all that much when I saw seams/tears in graphics as long as they're not so big that they look like you should be able to walk through them (Doom and Doom II had a few that were that big). As for the UI, I am still using the vanilla one and am perfectly ok with it. The default leveling for bandits thing I've never really understood, but I'm also using a mod by Dwip that addresses that, if I'm not mistaken. I guess when it comes to graphics in-game, I'm much more interested in other facets of game play. I do really dislike that you can't attack from horseback, especially when your horse is being attacked by wolves...

[Tommy]

Wao, you're happy with vanilla interface?!?!? :lol:I guess it's ok if you have a relatively low screen res. But at my 1680x1050 it looks as if made for blind people. :)As to no-horseback fighting, yeah I agree. I have come to the point of practically never buying and using a horse because by the time you get off of it, it is halfway killed already and it takes annoyingly long until you can commence fighting. This coupled with having frequent enemy encounters whereever you go makes it annoying to get-off, get-on, then after 10 sec get-off again, get-on again.... So I rely more and more on just running everywhere. I think there are mods for horse fighting too, but have not used one so far.

[Hana]

I could go on an entire CS rant right now, but I won't. But yes, a better CS would be on my Christmas wish list. Then again, since it's a new engine, just "a CS" would be good.Ugh at the vanilla UI. I too am spoiled by DarN (DarkDarN in fact). It's a much better design. So any better design would work for me.Chargen improvement would be a bonus. A full face + body gen, for tone at least, would eliminate that "golfer's tan" look.I would love horseback combat. Deadly Reflex 6 has implemented it, which I'm anxious to try once I set up multiple installs (so I don't bork my game).

[Dwip]

I think in a perfect world we'd just go back to Morrowind's interface. Wasn't broke, why fix it?In the meantime, there's always BTMod.Also, the CS interface (and the whole modding experience) has gotten progressively better since the bad old days of Morrowind, so I hold out some hope there.And yeah, if you're going to do mounts, guys, for the love of Azura make it so you can fight on them.

[Conner]

Wao' date=' you're happy with vanilla interface?!?!? :lol:I guess it's ok if you have a relatively low screen res. But at my 1680x1050 it looks as if made for blind people. [/quote']

Ugh at the vanilla UI. I too am spoiled by DarN (DarkDarN in fact). It's a much better design. So any better design would work for me.

I think in a perfect world we'd just go back to Morrowind's interface. Wasn't broke' date=' why fix it? In the meantime' date=' there's always BTMod.[/quote''] Yeah, I am.What do you consider low resolution? Even my laptop's set to 1280x800...Wow guys, what's so terrible about the vanilla UI for Oblivion? (And what'd the UI for Morrowind look like?

As to no-horseback fighting' date=' yeah I agree. I have come to the point of practically never buying and using a horse because by the time you get off of it, it is halfway killed already and it takes annoyingly long until you can commence fighting. This coupled with having frequent enemy encounters whereever you go makes it annoying to get-off, get-on, then after 10 sec get-off again, get-on again.... So I rely more and more on just running everywhere.[/quote']

And yeah' date=' if you're going to do mounts, guys, for the love of Azura make it so you can fight on them.[/quote']You should try hunting for flora on horseback... dismounting every second or two of travel to pick the next batch of flowers gets old REAL quick, even just picking plants in a small area then going back for your horse so you can move on to the next area, repeat and rinse, gets old really fast. :sigh:Definitely agree, Dwip, if you're going to give us mounts, especially making them a big enough deal to merit their own ownership counter in the character stats, don't leave out mounted combat. :headbang:

I think there are mods for horse fighting too' date=' but have not used one so far.[/quote']

I would love horseback combat. Deadly Reflex 6 has implemented it' date=' which I'm anxious to try once I set up multiple installs (so I don't bork my game).[/quote']Hana showed us all one called Deadly Reflexes that has it, but it's also got a bunch of other stuff I'm not sure I want enough to merit the mod just for mounted fighting capabilities.

Chargen improvement would be a bonus. A full face + body gen' date=' for tone at least, would eliminate that "golfer's tan" look.[/quote']This one I will handily agree with. If we can mod the face that drastically, we really ought to be able to mod the body at least a little to match the new face.If we're not going to be given that, at the VERY least, auto match the body skin tone to what we've selected for the facial skin tone to be.

[Arthmoor]

Well at least I'm not the only one who didn't mind the vanilla interface. The only reason I went with my frankenstein hackish DarN+II interface is that I wasnted a bigger in-game map. That ended up requiring 90% of DarN to be installed but I hated the HUD so I had to work in the HUD from Immersive Interface. So I've basically got FrankenUI now.

[Conner]

I'd have loved to have a bigger map too, but that's why I don't, I didn't want to deal with hacking up a UI mod to get there.

[Arthmoor]

WTF. Good lord. How many "I think it's just modified Gamebryo" threads are there going to be at the official forum? How many times do GStaff and Nick need to say "it's new" before people stop insisting they're liars or something? God damn, that kind of ignorant garbage bugs the shit out of me.Gamebryo is fucking bankrupt people, GET OVER IT ALREADY. They're dead and gone. Been that way for the last 2 years or so. Hasn't anyone bothered to notice this?If I told you I was getting a new car next month but didn't tell you what kind, would that justify speculation that I was really just going to go swap all the parts on my RSX out until it looked like something else and then claim it really is? FFS people, turn your brains back on and get it together.

[Dwip]

I've been on to you and your secret hax car mechanic skillz for some time now......which you should totally use to fix my trunk. Yes.I want screenshots of this new engine.

[Arthmoor]

Trust me, I think we'd all love to see some screenshots. We'll get our chance when the Feb. issue of Game Informer is out on Jan 6. I haven't even looked at a gaming magazine in years, but I might just have to go find this one and break that streak once it's out.

[Conner]

So, what kind of car are you going to masquerade your old RSX as?