What Skyrim Learned from Fallout 3

[Greg Tito]

What Skyrim Learned from Fallout 3

Making Fallout 3 has helped Bethesda fine-tune its flagship RPG franchise.

Bethesda Softworks released the last iteration of its Elder Scrolls series of RPGs more than five years ago, which is why the gaming world is so hotly anticipating the release of Skyrim on November 11th. In between, the Maryland-based company wasn't idle, spending time crafting the reboot of a different franchise with Fallout 3. As Game Director at Bethesda, Todd Howard worked on both games, and he thinks that Skyrim will benefit greatly from his experience with Fallout 3.

Gone is Oblivion's monster leveling system where all enemies progressed at the same pace that your character did. "Skyrim's a lot more like Fallout 3, where as you level up you are going to see harder things, but the easier things stay around as well." said Howard. "You'll still run into the weaker stuff and you'll just decimate it."

The conversation system has also been tweaked. "There's very few completely random conversations," said Howard. "We've gone more towards a system, like we did in Fallout 3, where they have a specific conversation with a specific person about various topics."

Lastly, Howard made sure that the open-world was just as strong a vehicle for narrative as the quests. "We realized in Fallout 3 that that kind of environmental storytelling, where you come upon a little scene, is really good," he said. "And so we've tried to do it a lot more."

My excitement to play Skyrim is reaching fever pitch. Crap, I need to watch that live-action trailer again [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/trailers/4848-Elder-Scrolls-V-Skyrim-Live-Action-Trailer?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=videos].

Source: PC Gamer [http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/26/todd-howard-on-the-lessons-skyrim-has-learned-from-fallout-3/]

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[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Here's another tip: Don't have a shitty ending. And on that same topic, don't have an ending that ends your game and prevents you from playing after the events of the main storyline.

nuff said just about.

OT: Really excited, i really don't think i can be disappointed, from what i've seen and from what i've played through in morrowind/oblivion, i think 3-4 weeks of my life are going to be socially dormant this upcoming month =]

 

[C-Mag]

Oh good, I always felt that one of FO:3's strongest aspects was coming across those little areas, and you could see what must have happened there. It was very interesting.

 

[doomboy29]

November can't come fast enough.

 

[Valok]

And on that same topic, don't have an ending that ends your game and prevents you from playing after the events of the main storyline.

Pretty much this.

I simply hated that system on Fallout 3 and after all the complains and a DLC to open the world again guess what? They've done the same shit on New Vegas.

 

[chaosyoshimage]

Fallout with swords, never gets old, except for months ago. Anyway, obligatory, "I can't wait for Skyrim" comment, except I have to since I have no money...

 

[Drakmorg]

I'm just glad that they got rid of Oblivion's terrible lockpicking minigame for something similar to Fallout 3's.
But all that other stuff is nice too.

 

[Eventidal]

Hopefully they put a few machine guns in Skyrim... that would make things badass. I can imagine it now, my character riding on a dragon, my awesome bandanna of infinite ammo flailing in the wind, totting duel M240s in my arms as I descend upon a helpless village.

I can almost guarantee you it won't be in the game, but I can also almost guarantee you some users out there will mod it in and you can live your dream.

 

[Spencer Petersen]

And on that same topic, don't have an ending that ends your game and prevents you from playing after the events of the main storyline.

Pretty much this.

I simply hated that system on Fallout 3 and after all the complains and a DLC to open the world again guess what? They've done the same shit on New Vegas.

Having the game continue after the end is a shitty excuse to make the story meaningless. I'd rather have the story come to a satisfying conclusion and end on a high note than just roll credits and pop back up without anything changing.

Here's an idea. Put a clear PONR that the game autosaves at and can be accessed at any time to allow you to avoid being locked into the ending unwittingly. That way you can get your side-quest on after completing the game with a simple quick-load.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

I wonder if they learned to make a real PC interface rather than rely on the mod community to fix their mistakes?

Also I wonder if they fixed my major gameplay gripe about the bethesda games since Oblivion. Having markers on the map for undiscovered but "important" locations really breaks the immersion. Instead there should be environmental clues, npcs, and artifacts (maps and whatnot) that point you toward the interesting sites.

Now you can get a mod that turns those off but then you as a player going through the game the first time will miss a lot of stuff because there isn't anything in the environment that leads you to the cool places.

Also repeating having a total of 3 cave systems in your game then re-using them 100 times is just amateur.

 

[dragongit]

If they can learn anything from their previous games, is to make a PC launch that isn't buggy.

 

[lovest harding]

And on that same topic, don't have an ending that ends your game and prevents you from playing after the events of the main storyline.

Pretty much this.

I simply hated that system on Fallout 3 and after all the complains and a DLC to open the world again guess what? They've done the same shit on New Vegas.

Having the game continue after the end is a shitty excuse to make the story meaningless. I'd rather have the story come to a satisfying conclusion and end on a high note than just roll credits and pop back up without anything changing.

Here's an idea. Put a clear PONR that the game autosaves at and can be accessed at any time to allow you to avoid being locked into the ending unwittingly. That way you can get your side-quest on after completing the game with a simple quick-load.

Thanks, Spencer, for saying exactly what I was thinking.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

Cue at least one person coming in here to comment on Mr. Howard's use of the word decimate. A note to that future commenter, and everyone else who gets in fits over this:

It has taken on a different meaning in modern vernacular. Get over it.

As for this news, it's finally good to see a clear-cut explanation of how Bethesda is replacing that awful level scaling from Oblivion. I remember Howard's first explanation of the new system being very vague. Personally, I'd still prefer certain areas to be "off-limits" due to strong monsters, but I guess this will have to do.

 

[Braedan]

I've kept myself in as much of a media blackout as possibly to avoid disappointment like I had from Oblivion.

That said, what little news I have been hearing is making me very happy, such as this. It is quite difficult trying not to read everything...

 

[Irridium]

Will the story not suck as hard as Fallout 3's?

Because that'd be great.

I actually loved almost everything else about Fallout 3, but the story... *ugh*.

Also don't put in an area run by invincible children who ***** you out every fucking chance they get. That was just infuriating.