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Skyrim: even more info (OPM)

The French Official Playstation Magazine has some new information about Skyrim... Apparently there's some new screenshots too, but so far, I haven't been able to locate any scans. Anyways, here's the info, straight from Bethesda's own forums. Of course, lock if old.

- 'Magnetism' is used to prevent friendly fire in combat, by slightly 'pulling' your attacks towards enemies
- Some, apparently unique, enchanted weapons will have "concealed" effects. You won't know what those are until you try the weapon.
- You cannot block if you have a sword in one hand, and a spell in another. Only players wielding two-handed blades or sword and shield can use block.
- The Spell Shield effect returns.
- Taverns will play a large role in the game. You will be able to overhear people's conversations, start quests, acquire information, and much more.
- They mention breaking and entering to find out more about people, but I'm not sure as to what extent - "Because of the open world set up you can even progress by snooping around - following people, looking out for strange behaviour and even some light breaking and entering".
- Quest givers can give you more or less information about their quest depending on their disposition towards you.
-
One dungeon is called 'Bleak Falls Barrow', and it is inhabited by the Draugr (the undead Nord warriors we first met in Bloodmoon). As you proceed through the dungeon, you'll eventually encounter a 'ghostly dragon priest', and eventually the dungeon boss, a giant 'Frostbite Spider'. It is said the dungeon is 'terryfing'.
-
The quest to Bleak Falls Barrow is given to you by a shopkeeper called Lucan, whose priceless Draconic family heirloom (a golden claw) was stolen recently.
- Several new spell effects, including "Ice Trap" (only triggered when an enemy walks over it), "Circle of Protection" (push the enemies in your vicinity away), "Fury" (make enemies fight each other), and so on.
- One of the finishing moves involves "plunging your sword into your enemy's chest", coupled with gurgling death noises.
- The 'free-form' activities you can perform include cooking, woodcutting, mining and metalwork.
- A Dragon Shout that slows down time (a la Bullet Time) is mentioned.
- Some Dragon Shouts are found in dungeons.
- There's a city called Riverwood. It is described as 'A smattering of timber buildings, including a sawmill'.
- Radiant Story is in part inspired by the random encounters in Fallout 3.
- The game apparently looks amazing in motion, with great environment effects such as the wind making the water swirl and making waves.
- It is possible to raise all skills to 100 but not possible to get all perks.
-
The death of the King of Skyrim has sparked a civil war in the country.
- Dragon encounters aren't scripted. If one comes across a town in its travels, it might decide to attack it without warning. This may or may not involve setting it ablaze. ;)
- It talks about the improvement of NPC's and Radiant AI.
- Every big settlement is unique. The city of Markarth Side, for example, is set into "dramatic stone cliffs, with buildings teetering on the end of sheer drops."
- Haarfingar is said to be home to the largest trading port in Skyrim.
- The game apparently includes 'meteorogical effects': clouds gathering around mountaintops, etcetera.
- The glorious return of the Dwemer ruins is once again confirmed.
- One of the cities in Skyrim will apparently be heavily inspired by the Dunmer (Dark Elves), and may even be a full-fledged Dunmer settlement.
- They're trying to go back to the "eccentricity" of Vvardenfell. Every Nord faction will have their own customs, colors, and so on.
- The economy of the game is better developed than in Oblivion. If you destroy a city's means of income (for instance, their crops) they'll need to buy crops from another nearby city, and prices in the city will go up.
- Archers can 'hold their breath' while aiming. This consumes stamina, but gives the archer a better chance of hitting the enemy.
- A wounded dragon has a chance of crashing into the ground.
- You can cut dialogue short by walking away from the NPC.
- Dragon Shouts are assigned to the R3-button on the PS3 gamepad.
- Not every NPC will have a complete set of dialogue like in Oblivion. It'll be more like in Fallout 3, where only the 'important' NPC's have anything substantial to say.

An interview with Todd Howard in the same magazine gives us some more info (some of this may be badly translated, so don't immediately believe everything you see here).
- Quests can influence each other. Quest A may be changed for you because you completed Quest B beforehand.
- Quest givers now give more detailed instructions, in a style that's apparently akin to Morrowind. They might even escort you to the road, to show you where to go.
- The game has 120 unique dungeons, worked on by 8 designers.

Some non-magazine news:
- A week or so ago, Pete Hines remarked a trailer "may or may not be around a month away". A trailer at the GDC? It seems possible.
- A site redesign is coming soon as well, probably to coincide with the trailer reveal.

Stand fast, sons of Skyrim. We'll be feasting in Sovngarde soon.

5456468087_e7272c96c1_o.jpg


February 18th is apparently the ideal date to conceive if you want a child born on 11.11.11. Any brave souls out there fancy naming their child Dovahkiin?
 

SnakeXs

about the same metal capacity as a cucumber
K I love it all and my hype train took off full steam a long time ago, but

- Dragon encounters aren't scripted. If one comes across a town in its travels, it might decide to set it ablaze without warning.

C'mon. I mean, c'mon.
 

Zeliard

Member
"Dragon encounters aren't scripted. If one comes across a town in its travels, it might decide to set it ablaze without warning."

It's always with the stuff like this that I truly have trouble believing Bethesda in, and that I think does them a Molyneux'ish disservice. Beth always likes to try and hype up supposed non-scripted portions of their game even though they don't end up amounting to much in practice, and when you play the game, disappointment sets in.

Do I actually believe there can be a dragon randomly coming to a Skyrim town and setting it ablaze before you've even been there (or even a town you've already been to)? Not till I actually see it. That is something that would have huge ramifications on the gameplay and progression and would indeed be quite awesome and effective as an example of a persistent world that goes on without you, but I'm just not believing it given Beth's similar type of hype in the past.

Edit: Yep SnakeXs.
 
Indeed, I'm a little skeptical about some of the stuff, myself. It all sounds very good, but some of it just seems... Like it can't be.
 

_Bro

Banned
The last 3 bulletpoints are all that matter.

Now I'm excited.

edit: obviously ignoring the rest of hype in the information. i'm sure the best all of this will amount to dragons near mountains that will have preset clouds around them.
 
Zeliard said:
"Dragon encounters aren't scripted. If one comes across a town in its travels, it might decide to set it ablaze without warning."

It's always with the stuff like this that I truly have trouble believing Bethesda in, and that I think does them a Molyneux'ish disservice. Beth always likes to try and hype up supposed non-scripted portions of their game even though they don't end up amounting to much in practice, and when you play the game, disappointment sets in.

Do I actually believe there can be a dragon randomly coming to a Skyrim town and setting it ablaze before you've even been there (or even a town you've already been to)? Not till I actually see it. That is something that would have huge ramifications on the gameplay and progression and would indeed be quite awesome and effective as an example of a persistent world that goes on without you, but I'm just not believing it given Beth's similar type of hype in the past.

Edit: Yep SnakeXs.
Agreed, there was lots of hyperbole in the Oblivion info we got many years ago. I'm still excited for Skyrim though!
 
Zeliard said:
Do I actually believe there can be a dragon randomly coming to a Skyrim town and setting it ablaze before you've even been there (or even a town you've already been to)? Not till I actually see it. That is something that would have huge ramifications on the gameplay and progression and would indeed be quite awesome and effective as an example of a persistent world that goes on without you, but I'm just not believing it given Beth's similar type of hype in the past.

Yeah, standard case of overhype. "Set a town ablaze" probably means it shows up and people get scared and run around but in the end nothing major actually happens to the town.
 

FoxSpirit

Junior Member
The dragon thing could easily be true.
It simply depends on what the "sets town ablaze" actually does. Maybe all it does is add some charred textures which NPCs fix over some time and a few houses are inaccessible due to renovation. *shrugs*
 
BuddhaRockstar said:
Yeah, standard case of overhype. "Set a town ablaze" probably means it shows up and people get scared and run around but in the end nothing major actually happens to the town.

Right. I was going to ask what would happen if you need to go to a town for a quest or something, and it's been burnt to the ground.
 
LeoStenbuck said:
Right. I was going to ask what would happen if you need to go to a town for a quest or something, and it's been burnt to the ground.
Some clarification here is neccesary: the original text apparently only said "attack the town". I'm assuming outright destroying towns won't be possible.
 

Booshka

Member
I wonder how the weather effects will look on console versions, I can't imagine seeing gusts of wind that cause ripples over water being achievable on anything but a great PC rig. I really want to get a good PC for this game, I've played the last two Elder Scrolls on consoles (Xbox and Xbox 360) loved them, but I know what I am missing by not being on PC.
 

SnakeXs

about the same metal capacity as a cucumber
FoxSpirit said:
The dragon thing could easily be true.
It simply depends on what the "sets town ablaze" actually does. Maybe all it does is add some charred textures which NPCs fix over some time and a few houses are inaccessible due to renovation. *shrugs*

Gameplay wise, even being most generous to them, the best it could mean is a dragon sees a town, attacks the town from above with some fiery fire, and some random unimportant NPCs die. Any NPCs related to quests that die now have their quests given to a sister, or friend, or creepy uncle, or whatever.

Total gameplay change? None.
 

Lakitu

st5fu
I want to literally feel the cold in this game. My big bad arse muscular as fuck Nord will naturally be resistant to it.
 

Booshka

Member
SnakeXs said:
Gameplay wise, even being most generous to them, the best it could mean is a dragon sees a town, attacks the town from above with some fiery fire, and some random unimportant NPCs die. Any NPCs related to quests that die now have their quests given to a sister, or friend, or creepy uncle, or whatever.

Total gameplay change? None.
Yea, I can't imagine a dragon would torch a town to the ground, with one of the buildings possibly being where you sleep and keep your loot. You go out questing and come back to find the house you had is destroyed and all the loot in it as well.
 

Kyoufu

Member
Is the combat actually going to be good this time? In oblivion I couldn't get my spells to land on enemies that ran all over the place...
 

branny

Member
Yeah, I think this is the last bit of info I'm reading on Skyrim before it comes out. As nice as it sounds, I don't want to go into the game expecting every mindblowing thing I've read about it because, so far, it all seems too good to be true. I'd rather be pleasantly surprised than let down.
 

kitzkozan

Member
Booshka said:
Yea, I can't imagine a dragon would torch a town to the ground, with one of the buildings possibly being where you sleep and keep your loot. You go out questing and come back to find the house you had is destroyed and all the loot in it as well.

Bethesda aren't good enough as technicians to pull off even 50% of what they hype. :) I agree that the idea sound much better on paper than what it will amount in reality until proven otherwise.
 

Booshka

Member
Kyoufu said:
Is the combat actually going to be good this time? In oblivion I couldn't get my spells to land on enemies that ran all over the place...
Touch spells were the way to go in Oblivion, much more powerful spells and were easier to land. If you were using target spells, you could treat them like rockets, shoot at their feet and let the area of effect damage hit them.
 
Kyoufu said:
Is the combat actually going to be good this time? In oblivion I couldn't get my spells to land on enemies that ran all over the place...
The "magnetism" talked about in the OP will hopefully help with this.

edit:I need new pics people!
 

Rapstah

Member
You will be able to overhear people's conversations, start quests, acquire information, and much more.
All of this was in Oblivion and horribly so. Dropping feature names won't mean shit until I've seen actual non-scripted gameplay of this happening.
 
Some of this sounds a little TOO good to be true. I remember they talked up Oblivion's world AI, saying how it was TOO good because they would start riots in game because of their super sentience!

And then the game was released.
 
- You cannot block if you have a sword in one hand, and a spell in another. Only players wielding two-handed blades or sword and shield can use block.

- It is possible to raise all skills to 100 but not possible to get all perks.

Meh and double meh.
 

Yo Gotti

Banned
Random dragons is awesome. I wonder how many dragons there'll be flying around at any given time.

As long as it's somewhat rare and actually threatening to you as a player in some way, it'll be awesome.
 
I just wish Dwarves would return to the world.


The random Dragon attacks sound awesome BTW. I hope there are other random attacks by other creatures in there too. I would like to see raiding parties or something along those lines.
 

web01

Member
Not being able to use shield + sword + magic at the same time sucks. Atleast allow us to use magic from our sword hand with a reduction in it's power.

Everyone who played like this in oblivion will be disappointed when the game comes out.
 

Dresden

Member
Yo Gotti said:
Random dragons is awesome. I wonder how many dragons there'll be flying around at any given time.

As long as it's somewhat rare and actually threatening to you as a player in some way, it'll be awesome.
Dragons are going to be the new cliff racers.
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
web01 said:
Not being able to use shield + sword + magic at the same time sucks. Atleast allow us to use magic from our sword hand with a reduction in it's power.

Everyone who played like this in oblivion will be disappointed when the game comes out.

Yeah, well, sucks to be them. It was dumb to let you do everything as if you had an infinite amount of hands. This balances it back out.
 

Snuggles

erotic butter maelstrom
Sounds nice.

I don't like the idea of magnetism, though. It sounds like auto-aim for swords. I enjoy the element of risk that comes from slashing near an NPC, the occasional accidental death can be a fun thing. Oh well, at least it has Dragons and stuff.
 

Salazar

Member
BuddhaRockstar said:
Yeah, standard case of overhype. "Set a town ablaze" probably means it shows up and people get scared and run around but in the end nothing major actually happens to the town.

Figuratively. Like "painting the town red".
 

Sophia

Member
I'll believe the dragon thing and the emergent gameplay claims when I actually see it happen in a demonstration and surprise everyone.
 
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