Skyrim Game Informer

[charlescrowe]

skyrim 'nilla sounds more like my oblivion modded the perks bit is interesting, and perhaps, should prove to be what i'd like my ideal leveling system to be like.

[Rowan]

On the subject of low health/high damage, I think that would be super fun - but at the same time, a great deal of the enjoyment we get from these games is from exploration and story, and not combat; and it varies from person to person how instantly deadly the world can be before it's not enjoyable beyond combat.

Well, that's why you'd have to be fairly conservative with enemy placement. I don't like how every 10 ft you have to fight something in vanilla OB. With this combat system, enemies would be farther apart and have a purpose for being there. Wildlife would be much more passive.

[vometia]

On the subject of low health/high damage, I think that would be super fun - but at the same time, a great deal of the enjoyment we get from these games is from exploration and story, and not combat; and it varies from person to person how instantly deadly the world can be before it's not enjoyable beyond combat. For me, it varies even based on my mood. Sometimes I want to just wander around like an idiot gawking at things. So it would be nice if they could just put it on a slider, as they do with difficulty. At one end, all damage is high and all health is low. Other end, all damage is low and all health is high. I have hopes, anyway.

Well, that's why you'd have to be fairly conservative with enemy placement. I don't like how every 10 ft you have to fight something in vanilla OB. With this combat system, enemies would be farther apart and have a purpose for being there. Wildlife would be much more passive.

A shared concern and an answer all in one go!

For all I say I prefer more deadly combat, I actually prefer to avoid combat wherever possible: my first love of games of this sort will always be exploration and adventuring. So deadlier weapons are a good thing, but so is having fewer of them.

[Johnn123]

Heres what i found on another forum, contains spoilers

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.â€

•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.

Wow sweet description Meo! I'm gonna add that to the OP if you dont mind.

[Rowan]

For all I say I prefer more deadly combat, I actually prefer to avoid combat wherever possible: my first love of games of this sort will always be exploration and adventuring. So deadlier weapons are a good thing, but so is having fewer of them.

Combined with my other suggestions, gameplay should be a lot funner and more rewarding. With much fewer enemies, the combat experience with the enemies you do fight will be much more meaningful. You'll be excited at the chance to improve your skills and test your character rather than just getting through and accomplishing some objective. You'll also have to be a lot more careful - with my system, even the strongest warriors and mages could fall to lowly creatures if they make mistakes. I'd like to see a lot more emphasis put on training - with real time training scenarios and mock battles. That way you'd have a chance to improve your skills without risking your character. You might even be able to pay for certain perks - like being able to slow down time with a trance like state so as to dodge and parry easier.

And, that's why I love modding

Edited January 10, 2011 by Rowan

[StarX]

After seeing the screenshots I must say that it was almost like reading a Conan comic or seeing some Frazetta paintings: the way the bodies look, the armor, the atmosphere etc. People that want a Conan-esque feeling in Oblivion already should really try out the latest version of Waalx Animals and Creatures (WAC). As Conan is a main source of inspiration for that wonderful mod as well.

I like this more grimm style a lot and I can't wait to make me some nice mods for it!

[Meo]

A recent article from IGN. More of the same info except for the highlighted text.

The latest issue of Game Informer contains fresh gameplay details on Bethesda's next massive title, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, set for release this November.

Skyrm's story is set 200 years after the events of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and the world of Tamriel is in shambles. The empire has fallen to the elves, the Blades are gone, the Nords hate each other, and a civil war is about the break out. Oh, and that big dragon the Elder Scrolls prophesied about? Yeah, he's arrived, too. Players will take control of the last remaining Dragonborn, a dragon hunter anointed by the gods to help fend off the threat.

Bethesda's newest title features a brand-spanking new engine where every object in the game now casts a shadow as well as improved draw-distances. Textures are sharper and more detailed and the environments are livelier. There's also the addition of a HUD-less first-person view and "improved" third-person camera option.

There will be five massive cities that span Skyrim's environment, which ranges from frozen tundra to rocky mountain tops. There is also new wildlife, such as Sabre-toothed Cats and Wooly Mammoths.

The combat is getting a bit of an overhaul, too. Players will be able to equip any weapon or spell to either hand at any time and even duel wield two of the same weapon. A new customizable menu is being added to help swap load-outs easily in battle.

Bethesda has also done away with the character class system and reworked the game's leveling mechanic. Players' skills will level up the more they are used, contributing to your overall level growth. "Raising one skill from 34 to 35 is going to level you faster than raising one from 11 to 12," Bethesda designer Todd Howard told the magazine. Players can also level pass 50, but it becomes much slower after that point.

The team has also added Fallout 3's perk system, where each new level gained allows players to add special abilities to their character, including increase in damage to dagger stealth attacks or allowing your mace to ignore enemy armor.

Skyrim's NPC conversations are a lot more realistic. Aside from including even more voice actors, the AI-controlled characters will actually move about and continue on with the activities they were doing before being interrupted. Towns also include more activities to do, such farming, mining, woodcutting and cooking.

Bethesda also revamped the game's menu system. Howard said the team used Apple's iTunes as inspiration and direction. Players will be greeted with a compass-style overlay with four options: Skill, Inventory, Map, and Magic. Weapons and spells can be tagged as a 'favorite' for quick selection. Every item is a 3D object than can be viewed and examined.

Looks like making icons just became a little more complicated... and i like it.

[washington]

That highlighted text... That is great! Thanks for pointing that out, I've missed it or skipped it.

Why is that great? Because imagine all that items that we have and make. Now we will be able to look at them when ever we want to in our inventory. I can't even explain, but it sounds exciting.

[Rowan]

Bummed that they did away with the class system... but if that means more FPS like combat than I'm all for it . I wonder what the alternative will be?

[Lanceor]

Rather than classes with major and minor skills, it seems that all skills are major and contribute to the character's growth. It looks like they also did away with levels entirely and the character's stats improve a little every time a skill is increased.

[Meo]

Please can we not start as a prisoner? For the love of the Nine.

[vometia]

Please can we not start as a prisoner? For the love of the Nine.

You'll be asking for no more conversations about mudcrabs next. Well I won't have it!!!1!eleven etc.

Then again, I suppose a less inauspicious start would be nice.

[Artisanix]

Bummed that they did away with the class system...

Actually there is no true class system in Oblivion either. Classes are just only the names given for certain sets of skills and abilities, and nothing more than that. So they've got rid of the least important feature of character development in Oblivion.

Anyway, me too looks forward to Skyrim as more of an action game than Oblivion is. I can only hope that all combat anims won't be so poor like they are in TES4.

[the-manta]

I pray to whoever's listening that characters will be able to walk diagonally with out gliding. And as for stairs...

[Johnn123]

More videos! The Game Informer Skyrim Hub has been updated - The Sounds of Skyrim! Another creature revealed has well, the Dwemer Centurion! Yup, there back

[Rowan]

You guys have no idea how happy I am to hear that there will be dwemer constructs!! Those are really informative videos. Thanks for the heads up. This is just getting better and better!

Edited January 15, 2011 by Rowan

[Meo]

The centurion, the music...

[Si-Shen]

I really wish my supervisor was into this series, I so want to talk about it more, especially with all the new stuff, but he is stuck in WoW and NV ...

Those vids just made me more excited... on the plus side, less then 10 months to go! ... Going to start marking a calander with the count down

Edit: does anyone else have problems with the gameinformer vids crashing IE about half way in?

Edited January 15, 2011 by Si-Shen

[the-manta]

Uh-oh.

As Skyrim begins, a lone prisoner begins to learn that he may hold that same power...

from here

A prisoner again? Maybe they want us to think of it as some sort of hallmark...

[Meo]

it must an inside joke or something. Cant believe they couldnt come up with a idea than that.

[Si-Shen]

I recall watching a video in my OB CE that said that its always been a prisoner, and indeed, in Morrowind your a prisoner, fresh for release.

I have no issue with being a prisoner myself.

[Meo]

Theres kids in Skyrim. I wouldnt have mind a start kinda like FO3 but a little longer, where you discover as a teen which weapon will suit you best. Wouldve been nice to be able to visit your parents farm once in a while. The possibilities for roleplay couldve been endless. I guess we'll have to wait for the mod.

[the-manta]

I liked starting as a child in FO3, as you get to experience your character growing up, but the thing with the FO3 start was that it was very restrictive as to your character's backstory- which I guess is why they use the prison situation. I really liked the FNV start actually, as you could envision a character with any backstory being in that situation.

[vometia]

I see what you mean about its restrictiveness, although for the purposes of the game I quite liked it; FNV's start was certainly an alternative approach though in comparison it did feel like I'd been booted out into the big, wide world rather quickly.

I suppose the problem with the traditional "prisoner" approach is the implication of wrongdoing, which is tricky for those of us whose characters are paladin-ish or otherwise a bit of a goody-two-shoes. I thought I'd been terribly inventive with my explanation of being out on the sauce and puking on a City Watch type who thoughtfully took my character to the city gaol to sleep it off, but I saw the same idea so many times afterwards that it seems that the possibilities are perhaps limited. But considering that it's almost certain I'll use the same character, thinking of a reason why she's waking up in a prison cell is going to be the least of my worries if it really is set 200 years later! But she managed two jaunts to post-apocalyptic America, so I should be able to think of some suitably feeble explanation...

[Rowan]

Oh, but there will be alternative start mods soon enough. As long as it's not nail bitingly long and tedious (like oblivion's start) then I won't be too unhappy with it. However, I've always wanted the option to begin the game at a higher level with more spells and abilities just for the sake of roleplaying. Like if I wanted to play an outcast ordinator why would he start so weak?