Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim

[Dwip]

I seem to remember Todd saying at one point that there was serious doubt for a while that horses were even going to be in the game at all. Which, if these are the horses we're getting, that's how they should've gone.All I ask for is a pair of boots some mounted combat. How hard could it be?

[Arthmoor]

Not hard. Two Worlds had it. I suspect its sequel did too. Might not have been the greatest mounted combat system, but they did have one. Bethesda has no real excuse for the shit quality of some of the more recent stuff we're seeing.

[prettyfly]

I was on the 'what mods will you use' thread on Beth when I began to wonder how hard it would be to make a mod that adds birthsigns back in to the game. And maybe design them so you get both an advantage and a disadvantage when you choose them, and redesigning doomstones to give you a once per day greater power or something like that. From a scripting perspective it doesn't sound to hard. What do you guys think?And for that matter, I really, really cringe when I see all those people with Adult mods at number one on their lists of anticipated mods.

[Sigurð Stormhand]

I could go for a nude body mod, just because the underwear always looks horrible. In vanilla Oblivion the women had underwired bras, but look about twelve, and the men had no nipples.Once you notice you don't have nipples it really harms realism.Adult mods though, meh, good for a giggle for about five minutes, but really just a waste of esp slots and CPU cycles that could be used fo something interesting, like giving npc's jobs.I mean, hell, if half the time spent on making teh NPC's do teh sex had been spent on generally useful animations we'd have sets for everying item in game.RE Horse Combat: Mount and Blade can have 100 Knights crash into 200 spearmen whilst 100 archers are shooting hundreds of arrows though the air and into my face, my PC can handle that even on my new giganterific monitor.

[Ysne58]

Ascaron didn't have any trouble with mounted combat in either Sacred or Sacred 2.

[Thomas Kaira]

This doesn't bode well.It's a fairly recent article on the Skyrim build demonstrated at Tokyo Game Show, and it appears that Bethesda has still not managed to cure the stuttering that plagued Oblivion and Fallout 3.I hope this guy is a one-off, because the stuttering should have been at the top of the list of engine bugs for Bethesda to address.

[Arthmoor]

Do keep in mind, it's been said that the demo they're showing everyone at all these things is still the same one they've been using for all the press demos since E3. Also that it's all been on Xbox 360. Yes, I do hope that this sort of thing isn't indicative of PC performance. If it is, then color us all completely fooled for believing them when they claimed it was a new engine.

[Thomas Kaira]

Indeed, and that is why I do have hope that this one will vanish for the PC release.

[Sigurð Stormhand]

Do keep in mind' date=' it's been said that the demo they're showing everyone at all these things is still the same one they've been using for all the press demos since E3. Also that it's all been on Xbox 360. Yes, I do hope that this sort of thing isn't indicative of PC performance. If it is, then color us all completely fooled for believing them when they claimed it was a new engine.[/quote']Well, I believed it was a new Engine - I never believed it was optimised.Bah, that laggyness is presumably what kills my game when trying to load distant terrain whilst flying through the air.

[prettyfly]

To be fair, all they need to do is make it run as well as Fallout 3 (hopefully without the crashes) and we should be good. The engine might not be as good as it should be, but it should still run at least that well.

[Thomas Kaira]

Some news from ESRB:Skyrim will definitely be receiving an M rating. The official listings are:- Blood and Gore- Intense Violence- Sexual Themes- Use of AlcoholTo be more specific on a couple points:- Blood and Gore > Decapitations- Use of Alcohol >Drinking gamesSo we can cut off heads, but not limbs, even when they had the code to do this leftover from Fallout 3? Not too sure I follow on this one, but since Skyrim's combat is looking to be decent enough (save for it being impossible to use a parry blade), I'm not going to complain.Also, yes, it will be possible to turn off the compass, as Bethesda is preserving the HUD opacity options from Fallout 3.

[Dwip]

That assumes the code from FO3 would even be applicable to the Skyrim engine, which isn't something I'd wager on.Not that I really care about decapitations either way.

[Arthmoor]

Decaps are probably part of the finishing moves code. As long as it's not excessive it won't be that much of a bother.Drinking games eh? So add that to the interesting improvements to taverns along with bar brawls. Nords sure know how to get rowdy

[Thomas Kaira]

Here's a list of things I found on the regular forums of items Pete Hines has commented about on his Twitter feed:-You can turn off your compass, cross-hair, or health, stamina, and magicka bars by adjusting the HUD opacity settingsThank you very much. Now those who don't like the compass markers at least have an option available to get rid of them. Granted, you need to lose the compass, too, but in my eyes, if you are playing without markers, you already know how to tell north from south.-After picking flowers, they are removed visually from the plantI should hope so.-No more speechcraft mini-game like OB. Speechcraft will now be more like Fallout 3.*cheers*-Alchemy must be done at an alchemy lab or 'station' and can no longer be done on the fly while out in the game world like in Oblivion (Much more realistic if you ask me.)So that's less bulk for me to carry around all over the place, eh? I can definitely understand why this change was made, makes no sense to be lugging around fragile glass apparatuses to dangerous places where they could easily be broken. Still, I would at least like to take my Mortar & Pestle with me so I can make 'field potions,' but if not, I can live with it.-There is a decapitation perk that is part of the one-handed perk treeK-While playing, Pete's character was given a 'Choose Your Adventure' type book BY A CHILD in the game - so in addition to regular books, there are 'interactive' books in SkyrimSounds neat.-He was asked if the player actually goes out into the woods to cut down trees, which we don't. It will be a station we go to like in the demo where you see the man moving the large log onto the cutting area. It's a designated station we use to cut wood, just like the stations for alchemy and forging. His exact words: 'No, it's almost like a "station", like you have for alchemy or the forge. You go use a woodpile.'Well, I guess it was too much to ask to allow the player to deforest the world. Apart from getting in trouble with environmentalist nuts, would be pretty ridiculous for trees to act like Alchemy plants, right? :smile:The rest were either trivial or didn't pertain to the PC release.

[prettyfly]

PicyThis both makes me happy and sad to look at. While the LOD looks far, far, far better than previous titles and theres some really nice cloud effects going on, I'm disspointed to see how jaggedy the LOD still is around the water, not to mention that tear to the left of the city. I know this is using the map, on the 360 but I'm still nervous about what this may mean for the new system we have. Seems like Beth hasn't quite reached perfection yet in that department.

[Arthmoor]

They're never going to reach perfection as long as they need to keep the 360 in mind when making games.

[Hana]

That is an AwEsOmE pic. Although I don't think that's a 'tear' to the left of the city, it's that goddamn ugly stretchy terrain texture you get with cliffs. Beth? Can we not fix this?Unless I'm not looking at the right thing.

[Arthmoor]

If this info is accurate, good news on the rain front.

[prettyfly]

I saw a thread asking what the positives of Skyrim were. The responses were things like 'revolutionary environment, slick interface, marriage and dragons'. Other people also suggested that the removal of spell making was an improvement, or the presence of vampires and werewolves (of note since these things have been in previous games and actually haven't been confirmed yet). I stopped reading after about ten posts because I knew the thing would quickly dissolve into a troll fest, but I really leave me despairing about where the series is going. At this rate, Nehrim may well end up the highlight of Bethesda's series of RPG's.'How about '150 handcrafted dungeons, improved LOD system, better alchemy, improved books, improved NPC interactions, improved character models and...strong art direction?'Still, at least no-one said 'really cool finishing moves where you watch yourself climb on top of a dragons head in third person and sink an axe into it'.

[Arthmoor]

I'm pretty sure Pete has confirmed vampires, but Beth is still being coy as hell about werewolves. Neither would be revolutionary, but they'd still be cool to have.

[Thomas Kaira]

The stupidity of the Skyrim boards comes to light yet again.Pete just confirmed they are ditching the Breath Meter for underwater swimming, and now everyone is jumping to conclusions like "oh EM gEe now everyone can breathe underwater?!?!"Ugh... :facepalm:A couple people in there still have sense about them, though (the guy who suggested your ability to hold your breath being tied to your Stamina now, for instance).

[Arthmoor]

Ditching the breath meter? Odd. That's going to lead to an awful lot of deaths by drowning

[Thomas Kaira]

Here's an interesting article.Please shield your brains against ignorance before reading it though, it is HEAVILY biased. Things like citing Bethesda for not including online multiplayer without giving any real insight as to why and a lot of "well, it was bad in Oblivion, so it must be bad in Skyrim" moments, which are textbook arguments from ignorance.EDIT: And it appears I was wrong about Hand-to-Hand being an afterthought even though it's no longer a skill, as unarmed weapons are definitely making a return AND there are hand-to-hand finishers. (Spoiler marked for giving away a bit of potential quest info)

" I decided to find the Thieves Guild, which the locals said was in the Ratways beneath Riften. I found my way down to the river that runs though it`s streets and into the labyrinth of tunnels, and was immediately mugged. Luckily, my fire and lightning spells frazzled the thieves, and on one of their bodies I found the Gloves of Pugilism, which dishes +15 to unarmed attack damage. They were incredible. Every other thug in the Ratways went down to two or three blows, mostly finished off by horrific neck-breaking special moves. When i found the Thieves Guild, they didn`t want me. My time was up anyway, so i put my gloves back on and punched their leader in the face."

[Ysne58]

They are certainly biased TK. These people also seem to forget that not everyone wants multiplayer. Some of us have been screwed over at least one time too many in multiplayer and don't care to experience that again.

[Arthmoor]

Top Five Reasons Dark Souls Will Eat Skyrim's Face

Frankly, I don't know why one would need to read past the headline to know they're full of crap :PBesides, it's always seemed to me to be that RPGs with multiplayer added it to cover up weaknesses in the over all system.