First Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Details Leaked
- Thread starter Tom Goldman
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Not sure if anyone has read the game informer pages but they talk about this a good deal. The spells seem more varied now (there's 85 of them, but rather then just a fireball and a flame touch you get that plus flamethrower like sprays (which hopefully means I can arc lightning, Sith lord style), landmine like trap runes, and more) .
The menus have been changed and made more "Apple" like, ie iphone like. Looking at the map zooms you out to look at the entire world, looking in the inventory makes you actually open a bag and look in the pockets at full 3d models of things, skills have you look into the sky and see your abilities shown by the heavens and spells...aren't really talked about honestly. Apparently dragons are not only around but they'll roam about, ambushing you and razing towns. They seem quite large actually,(in fact there are lots of really big enemies, including giants and shelob like spiders) and you can absorb their souls to power a specific type of magic called (and I'm serious, this is what they're calling it) "Dragon shouts". It basically seems to be a unique type of magic only you can use and that you learn new "shouts" by discovering ancient dragon words around the world and shouting them. In essence it seems to just be a form of unique, powerful spells that only you can use, but that you have to search ancient ruins for. The effects they talked about were stuff like a force push, summoning a dragon to fight for you and a stealth based one you whisper that lets you teleport around.
As per actual combat mechanics I can tell you that you can bash with a shield and that knock back has been said to be important to opening up combat opportunities. Also, you can no longer outsmart enemies by running backwards and smacking them, since you run backwards much slower now. The school of Mysticism magic has been done away with and it's spells merged into other schools. Bow and Arrows are slower but more powerful.
They say they have a new engine too, and the character models and scenery shots they showed are loads better. Snow actually falls and covers things realistically, not just as a texture they covered a rock with. People you talk to keep doing things rather then standing ramrod stiff and staring directly at you. They also have more voice actors so you don't hear the same people all the time. Apparently you can also do shit around town, like blacksmithing and mining if you really feel like it, though they don't say if this will be more menu based or actually an in game mechanic (making your own weapons would be sweet huh?).
Thats about all I remember.
The menus have been changed and made more "Apple" like, ie iphone like. Looking at the map zooms you out to look at the entire world, looking in the inventory makes you actually open a bag and look in the pockets at full 3d models of things, skills have you look into the sky and see your abilities shown by the heavens and spells...aren't really talked about honestly. Apparently dragons are not only around but they'll roam about, ambushing you and razing towns. They seem quite large actually,(in fact there are lots of really big enemies, including giants and shelob like spiders) and you can absorb their souls to power a specific type of magic called (and I'm serious, this is what they're calling it) "Dragon shouts". It basically seems to be a unique type of magic only you can use and that you learn new "shouts" by discovering ancient dragon words around the world and shouting them. In essence it seems to just be a form of unique, powerful spells that only you can use, but that you have to search ancient ruins for. The effects they talked about were stuff like a force push, summoning a dragon to fight for you and a stealth based one you whisper that lets you teleport around.
As per actual combat mechanics I can tell you that you can bash with a shield and that knock back has been said to be important to opening up combat opportunities. Also, you can no longer outsmart enemies by running backwards and smacking them, since you run backwards much slower now. The school of Mysticism magic has been done away with and it's spells merged into other schools. Bow and Arrows are slower but more powerful.
They say they have a new engine too, and the character models and scenery shots they showed are loads better. Snow actually falls and covers things realistically, not just as a texture they covered a rock with. People you talk to keep doing things rather then standing ramrod stiff and staring directly at you. They also have more voice actors so you don't hear the same people all the time. Apparently you can also do shit around town, like blacksmithing and mining if you really feel like it, though they don't say if this will be more menu based or actually an in game mechanic (making your own weapons would be sweet huh?).
Thats about all I remember.
ReiverCorrupter said:
Trust me, it would take much longer than that. Maybe if you had everything and everybody ready to go, you could bang out all of your mo-cap sessions for your finishing moves, but it takes a lot more than that to get them in game.
Mo-cap data is a good starting place, but almost never a be-all-end-all. It's never 100% how you want it to be, and always requires the tweaking of additional animators. They could fix everything from smoothing out the animation, and adjusting the timing to make it fit better within a sequence, or even completely reanimate whole parts of it to get to the finished product. Once the data is how they like it, it needs to be brought in game and tested. There could be some back a forth here, more animation tweaking following by trying it out in game, over and over again. Heaven forbid they change a sequence for whatever reason (game design decision, engine change, etc.), then you might have to fix it more, or even scrap it and start all over.
So you have a throat slicing finisher, for one human on another. Now what about other creatures with throats? How about the Minotaurs or Ogres? Now you have a size difference, and most likely they'll all require their own sets of moves. That's even more mo-cap time, another round of animating and tweaking and testing. You also have to debug the crap out of it, to make sure it doesn't 'break' under certain conditions. These could be related to relative size (Nord vs Bosmer), their positions (relative animation sequence and/or world space XYZ coordinates), or any other number of factors that can pop up during development.
It's one of the reasons that all of the NPC's in Oblivion had the same voice. It was such an undertaking to give everyone dialogue, and so much had to be recorded, that even casting a separate VO for each race/gender (20 total), not counting unique NPC's and monsters. You already had hours of recorded dialogue, and it was enough of a feat at the time just to accomplish what they did. But with Bioware pushing the envelope with Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and the soon to be Knights of the Old Republic, they keep pushing forward the expectations for game dialogue. If they can come close, it'll be a feat for a game of this scope.
Ultimately, they just have to be careful to not let their ambitions cause them to over-reach their abilities. I'd love to have a TON of uniques finisher moves, and I'm sure there will be quite a few (they where in Arkane Studio's 'Dark Messiah', and they where awesome back then too). But time and money always put limits on your production (unless you're 3D Realms), and rarely are things ever quick and easy. The amount of work to get anything into a game, and polished to a level worthy of a retail release, is always an undertaking.
Yeah, in retrospect you're right, it would take quite a bit more effort. I wish I could see the Game Informer issue, they've got all the details locked up. They're releasing stuff piece by piece over the next month or so, so I'll just have to keep an eye open.EvolutionKills said:
It doesn't have to be finisher moves, but that's one of the features they're putting in for sure. Just as long as the combat is more dynamic I'll be happy. I always liked the magic better, and hopefully there will be more interesting spells, and hopefully some physics effects. It would be nice to see someone catch on fire and run around from a fire spell, or get encased in a block of ice by an ice spell, and to ark lightning through multiple enemies by holding down the bumper. There's no question whether all of that will work from a 1st person perspective. Though of course those kind of effects would take a LOT of programming; much more than the motion capture finishers. I don't know too much about programming, but that kind of stuff seems like the kind of thing that needs to come with the engine.
I always made a custom class anyway - none of the pre designed ones matched how i wanted to play, in fact most seemed designed to lumber me with totally unnecessary skills. I just wish that they would bring back the fly spell thats what i missed most from morrowind when i played oblivion
While they are using a new engine, you're probably right. I just hope these bugs are more of the 'unintentionally hilarious' variety.The Random One said:
Skyrim is set in a heroic fantasy land. Fallout 3 is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.whaleswiththumbs said:
Skyrim features swords, battle axes, dragons and magic. Fallout 3 has guns, explosives and mutants.
Most importantly, Fallout 3 runs on the Gamebyro engine. Skyrim does not. You fail logic forever. At least try to make sense.
I liked Morrowing, but was kind of unimpressed with Oblivion.
So here's to it turning out awesome.
The fallout experience probably did something good for them.
So here's to it turning out awesome.
The fallout experience probably did something good for them.
Maybe it makes me vain, or strange, but the two things I want most are a really fleshed out Dark Brotherhood-esque guild, and a really, really fleshed out system of thievery + Thieves Guild. I really like the idea of secret cults of high-profile assassination masters, who steal your slippers on the way back from a job. And then sell them for outrageous prices because there's a mysterious slippers shortage after all the vendors died and the supply was...lost.
I have to congratulate you on missing the point.. Yes, you are right, Skyrim is fantasy, Fallout is post-apocalypse. But if you will kindly look up the arguement i mentioned(Fallout 3 being a repainting of Oblivion) You will see what i am talking about. Next time come prepared with more information than some frivilous information about what engine the two games are running. Or better yet, don't come back at all.Super Toast said:
Ok, I'll play. Come 11/11/11 I will AT LEAST rent this game. If I find it to be the embodiment of everything I have ever wanted (Elder Scrolls with time travel and World manipulation) I will buy it... and three more copies. If it does not have aforementioned features but is still really good I will buy one copy... maybe used.
(Time travel is fun)
(Time travel is fun)