How is Bethesda going to handle Skyrim's expansions?

DevonFahrner

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Nov 22, 2011
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Bethesda has always been reliable when it comes to delivering huge, unique, and well-crafted expansion packs for their RPG's. Without a doubt, they are going to deliver the goods with Skyrim. I can definitely see them giving us new locations, equipment, magic, and perhaps even new dragon shouts, but one thing I'm worried about is character advancement. The leveling system is based on the advancement of all skills, rather than your major skills like in previous Elder Scrolls titles. Ignoring the soft cap at level 50, theoretically, by advancing all 18 skills to 100, the maximum possible level is 81. The question I'm trying to bring up is how will they work with this? New locations and gear are fine, but what about advancing my character? A nice, steady character progression has been one of the things I've liked most about Skyrim, but only after 5 or so days of playing it, I've reached level 33. Not only that, but what about new perks so skill specialization stays fresh? I know it's probably jumping the gun so early after the game's release, but it never hurts to speculate, especially considering the delicate balance the game's mechanics are currently holding.

How do you guys think Bethesda will handle this? Will they add entirely new skills to allow a higher level cap while still keeping the skills balanced? Will they just increase the level 50 soft cap? And how will they handle character progression in general outside of new equipment and magics? Post and let everybody hear your thoughts.
 

ToastiestZombie

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Mar 21, 2011
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I think they would have learned from Oblivions and Fo3's expansions and do more stuff like Point Lookout and Shivering Isles. As in a world a quarter of the size of Skyrim with more characters, side quests and enemies. The perfect expansions would include one of the other regions of Tamriel with a bit cut out of them, like they hinted by putting in the land mass for Morrowind and Cyrodill in skyrim.
 

Solo-Wing

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Dec 15, 2010
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Game has been out for a little more then a week and there is already talk of expansions? For shame. Let Bethesda at least spend a bit of our money first!

OT: Land expansion. Like the Shivering Isles were to Oblivion, we need somehting to give us more World map to travel.

Also.... Horse Armor. We need our Horse armor.
 

DevonFahrner

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Nov 22, 2011
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That seems very likely. One thing I didn't really like about Shivering Isles was that it only existed in it's own little pocket-dimension. It was cool as hell, but it did not feel like it was a part of Tamriel itself. Hopefully, Skyrim will let us visit more actual regions within the continent, sort of like how Fallout does it by letting us visit the different states within post-apocalypse U.S.
 

DevonFahrner

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Nov 22, 2011
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True; horse armor is a must. And no doubt that sweet 7 million they've earned is giving the compensation they deserve for such an epic game. Nice avatar by the way.
 

joe-h2o

The name's Bond... Hydrogen Bond
Oct 23, 2011
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You'll get to play as a dragon, just minding your own, then some Nord will get all up your business yelling at you in your own language.

For some reason he wants to kill you, and so begins an epic quest to discover your true nature, your long lost and now-occupied-by-Nords homeland, and to rise to the top of Dragon-kind.

Prepare for....

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Wings of Destiny.

(Sneak will still be OP - you'll be able to creep up on NPCs in dungeons as a 40 foot hulking dragon and stealth-roast enemies without being detected)

"Is someone there?! I swear I heard something! Oh well, I guess Bob here git a little hot under the collar..."
 

ToastiestZombie

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Mar 21, 2011
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DevonFahrner said:
That seems very likely. One thing I didn't really like about Shivering Isles was that it only existed in it's own little pocket-dimension. It was cool as hell, but it did not feel like it was a part of Tamriel itself. Hopefully, Skyrim will let us visit more actual regions within the continent, sort of like how Fallout does it by letting us visit the different states within post-apocalypse U.S.
TBH, I think the Fo3 dlcs were about as seperate feeling as the shivering isles. But, it doesnt mean we cant get something better for skyrim.

Also, press the button at the bottom of each post that says QUOTE. Dont press reply, that just means you are replying to the thread. If you press quote people can see what post you wanted to reply to and it looks a bit better than a random post agreeing with a poster above. Welcome to the Escapist to!
 

Mike Richards

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I'd love to see a little piece of the Morrowind mainland, it wouldn't be that hard since they share a border and apparently a lot of shit's been going down there recently. I'd also love to see a bit of Cyrodiil, even only one city, just to know what it's like after 200 years and a massive war.

But more then anything else they should do Summerset Isle. Think about it, it'd be around the same size as Shivering Isles, it'd be drastically diferent both visually and in content, and best of all we'd have the chance to kick some serious Thalmor ass. I'm pretty annoyed at them for the war, and it'd be great to knock them back in line.
 

Delsana

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Aug 16, 2011
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Has Bethesda REALLY been reliable?

2 out of the 5 DLC content packs for Fallout 3 were garbage (The Island, The Pitt and the Alien one)

I would argue all of the Fallout New Vegas DLC packs have been nothing but repetitive and regurgitated garbage, because most of it was cliche, stereotypical, extremely basic, and very dull.

Oblivion... oh gosh the amount of things they tried to make me buy on that... and then 5 different versions of the GOTY version came out and then of course an actual "expansion" followed by another. At least they stopped the DLC spam with that.

The only thing they've reliably done is constantly add new bugs.
 

ResonanceGames

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Feb 25, 2011
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Tribunal, Bloodmoon and Shivering Isles all got it right. The just need to do something like that.

With the success the game is having, I'd be surprised if there aren't at least two large expansions over the next few years.
 

lord.jeff

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Oct 27, 2010
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Why do they need to raise the level cap or add skills for the expansions? They haven't had to do that in the past and everyone was just happy with just having more stuff to explore.
 

DevonFahrner

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Nov 22, 2011
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ToastiestZombie said:
DevonFahrner said:
That seems very likely. One thing I didn't really like about Shivering Isles was that it only existed in it's own little pocket-dimension. It was cool as hell, but it did not feel like it was a part of Tamriel itself. Hopefully, Skyrim will let us visit more actual regions within the continent, sort of like how Fallout does it by letting us visit the different states within post-apocalypse U.S.
TBH, I think the Fo3 dlcs were about as seperate feeling as the shivering isles. But, it doesnt mean we cant get something better for skyrim.

Also, press the button at the bottom of each post that says QUOTE. Dont press reply, that just means you are replying to the thread. If you press quote people can see what post you wanted to reply to and it looks a bit better than a random post agreeing with a poster above. Welcome to the Escapist to!
Thanks for the advice! Great comments as well.
 

DevonFahrner

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Nov 22, 2011
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Mike Richards said:
I'd love to see a little piece of the Morrowind mainland, it wouldn't be that hard since they share a border and apparently a lot of shit's been going down there recently. I'd also love to see a bit of Cyrodiil, even only one city, just to know what it's like after 200 years and a massive war.

But more then anything else they should do Summerset Isle. Think about it, it'd be around the same size as Shivering Isles, it'd be drastically diferent both visually and in content, and best of all we'd have the chance to kick some serious Thalmor ass. I'm pretty annoyed at them for the war, and it'd be great to knock them back in line.
That friend, is a genius idea. Like you said, Bethesda would about as much space to work with as Shivering Isles, and since the Thalmor have already been established in the main game, all they would have to do is expand upon them. Plus, it could turn into a much more personal narrative if your starting character was an Altmer or Dunmer.
 

Combustion Kevin

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Nov 17, 2011
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maybe it will be a continuation on the storyline.
for example, what if you perform a pre-emptive attack against the dominion with whoever you sided with, stormcloak or empire.

then get to see a bit of THEIR lands for yourself in the process.
 

keideki

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Sep 10, 2008
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DevonFahrner said:
Bethesda has always been reliable when it comes to delivering huge, unique, and well-crafted expansion packs for their RPG's. Without a doubt, they are going to deliver the goods with Skyrim. I can definitely see them giving us new locations, equipment, magic, and perhaps even new dragon shouts, but one thing I'm worried about is character advancement. The leveling system is based on the advancement of all skills, rather than your major skills like in previous Elder Scrolls titles. Ignoring the soft cap at level 50, theoretically, by advancing all 18 skills to 100, the maximum possible level is 81. The question I'm trying to bring up is how will they work with this? New locations and gear are fine, but what about advancing my character? A nice, steady character progression has been one of the things I've liked most about Skyrim, but only after 5 or so days of playing it, I've reached level 33. Not only that, but what about new perks so skill specialization stays fresh? I know it's probably jumping the gun so early after the game's release, but it never hurts to speculate, especially considering the delicate balance the game's mechanics are currently holding.

How do you guys think Bethesda will handle this? Will they add entirely new skills to allow a higher level cap while still keeping the skills balanced? Will they just increase the level 50 soft cap? And how will they handle character progression in general outside of new equipment and magics? Post and let everybody hear your thoughts.
It never hurts to speculate??? I assume you don't know much about day trading then?

OT: If it goes anything like previous expansions then it will be content only. One of the fun things to do in TES games is try to make different types of characters. Sure you could make a character that is good at most of the skills, but why not challenge yourself and make a couple characters with different skills. For example I took certain skills and made a paladin like character. If you have multiple characters the expansions can serve as new content so you don't do the same thing over and over.
 

Anjel

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Mar 28, 2011
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joe-h2o said:
You'll get to play as a dragon, just minding your own, then some Nord will get all up your business yelling at you in your own language.

For some reason he wants to kill you, and so begins an epic quest to discover your true nature, your long lost and now-occupied-by-Nords homeland, and to rise to the top of Dragon-kind.

Prepare for....

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Wings of Destiny.

(Sneak will still be OP - you'll be able to creep up on NPCs in dungeons as a 40 foot hulking dragon and stealth-roast enemies without being detected)

"Is someone there?! I swear I heard something! Oh well, I guess Bob here git a little hot under the collar..."
AN INTERNETZ FOR YOU! Seriously this did make me laugh because I had considered the possibility of playable dragons in a mod but never considered the comedy factor.

On topic, I'm hoping for more landmass, higher level cap and a crap ton of new quests. Your standard DLC stuff... uh, no, no I wont suggest horse armour - let's face it, it's in the bag either in DLC form or as a user mod.