The Elder Scrolls V:Skyrim is announced

I agree Carabas

I'm not really comfortable with being thought of as some sort of expert. I'm not really, I'm just really pumped for Skyrim.

And I'm more than happy to just blend in here, and be part of a 'flat structure', to quote a bit of management speak

Whilst I remember, I've been having a bit of a rethink with my site.

I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do what I had in mind by starting with a Wordpress blog - even with a host of plugins. I'm coming around to thinking I might be better starting with a CMS / Portal for the 'content' and then add a simple forum for the interaction.

So, the 'coming soon' page has been taken down for the time being whilst I figure out what I'm going to do. Still, the game isn't even coming out for about 9 months, so I've got time to get things properly set up

Please keep up posted Paul. I think most of us here share your interest for the new Elder Scrolls game. I have real life friends who are not that much into gaming who are really excited about it so that says a lot.

Paul71 wrote:

And I'm more than happy to just blend in here, and be part of a 'flat structure', to quote a bit of management speak

Well, I'm glad you've decided to join us here. I'm not familiar with the term you mention (I'm afraid management lingo is not my strong suit) but I personally dislike hierarchy and verticality and I'm not fond of artificial barriers that prevent people from communicating either. Language is the only real barrier that should exist on an internet forum.

I have two questions.

1) I understand that the AI being used is the same one used in Oblivion. Have they improved it? It didn't impress me that much in Oblivion.

2) Construction set. Has lip-sync problem been fixed in the CS?

I'm almost certain that the second question hasn't been answered yet. In fact nothing has been said about the Construction kit other than the fact that there is one

As for the AI, well the devs have stated that it will be vastly improved - that the NPCs will 'feel' much more realistic, with proper daily schedules, careers, local economies etc. The World itself is meant to be much more dynamic and simply be more involved and realistic than it was in Oblivion

So, I guess the answer to the question is 'we will see' - but do remember the incredible step forward that Oblivion made from Morrowind. In MW the NPCs stood around on the spot, or walked in a pre-defined triangle! Remember how somebody would say 'Hurry up Outlander, I haven't much time'. And you'd think, yeah, because you want to go and stand over there for a bit...

If Skyrim takes the same leap forward that OB was over MW, then I think we will all be impressed

True about Oblivion and Morrowind. Much as I loved Morrowind that bothered me. Also the pathing in Oblivion was much improved. I all most screamed when trying to get freed slaves to a safehouse. It was crazy. So I am quietly optimistic. They wouln't lie to us would they?

I do hope they did something about the lip-sync. I am already planning a mod based of course on how Skyrim goes and if I can get scripting help. I am very excited about this. Voice Actors a must. Lip-sync of some sort a must. Otherwise everyone being voiced will need to wear something that covers their mouth.

Now I am off to test a mod for someone. Thanks for the AI update, Paul. :

While I was at NEXUS to get a download I checked out their information on Skyrim. Not much there or any thing new but it was heartening. Creation Engine the reviewer was caustiously optimistic. AI sounds good and I found the Havoc really interesting. If they pull it off and follow through that would improve the game immensly right there. I don't want to get my hopes too much I did that with "Dragon Age" and was disappointed. Too much hype is bad.

Here is a link to the Games.on.Net review of Feb. 6th. We may have it above but doesn't hurt to repeat if you missed it.
Games.on.Net

I liked this little excerpt.:

Spoiler:

Given the "sandbox" style that Bethesda games sport getting some randomly generated stuff into the game seems to be a valid way to increase replayability.

True, I also gather that the ranking used in Oblivion and the guilds have been done away with. I will get game just out of curiosity if nothing else. Good ploy on their part I think.

I hope you can get the English version, Cara. I seriouly plan on modding this game and I'll need all the help I can get. I just hope that lip-sync has been improved. If this is their own engine maybe it has.

Nakia the Rogue wrote:

... and the guilds have been done away with. .

I don't know where you heard that Nakia, but I certainly haven't picked it up.

In fact the vibe has been that there will be more Guilds than in Oblivion (which would not be difficult actually). The Dark Brotherhood have been confirmed, and since the Mages Guild split into two (The Synod and the College of Whispers) there are likely be two (at least) mage-orientated guild.

I'll be amazed if there isn't some sort of Fighters / Mercenary type Guild, so that's four that we can say are a 'shoe in'.

And then there's the Thieves Guild....

Paul, remember I have a rather serious vision problem and especially when reading something with a glaring white background I miss words so it is quite possible that I mis-read that. I am sure that I read that the Oblivion ranking system would not be used. Not sure but I think it was the Informer.

Glad you caught that one. I also tend to leave out the word not and that has caused me some serious embarrament. That one has nothing with seeing but some kind of mental block.

Nakia the Rogue wrote:

I hope you can get the English version, Cara. I seriouly plan on modding this game and I'll need all the help I can get. I just hope that lip-sync has been improved. If this is their own engine maybe it has.

I will certainly get it from the UK. It's much cheaper and I won't have to deal with the embarrassment of playing a localized version with horrendous voice acting. Trust me on that but localized versions are often really bad. Translations are rarely any good and if the VA actors are not great it can ruin the game. I remember playing Fallout 2 in French and it wasn't too bad actually (the French Myron was hilarious, the translation was far from perfect actually). Most of the time original voices are way better. Especially since the English version can get big names like Patrick Stewart, Sean Bean or Terence Stamp in Oblivion!

Any info about the voices in the next Elder Scrolls game?

I have no info about voices in Skyrim but bet they will be good on the whole.

Tell me about translations and voice acting. I played Prince of Qin a chinese game and enjoyed it. No problem They came out with a prquel that looked really great, released a demo that had the orginal Chinese voice with text translation, no problem I enjoyed it and was about to purchase it when they came out with a new demo verson. Voice over in English. It was so bad I didn't bother to buy the game. No way was I going to listen to that crap. I could have done a much better job.

The problem is that they don't expect people to bother watching movies with subtitles or playing games in the original language. What makes that even worse is that with DVDs it's not that hard to offer people the alternative. When I buy a game from a French store I'm taking chances (unless it's specified on the box). I remember playing the old Diablo and there was absolutely no translation. I certainly didn't mind but some players did. It's all about finding some sort of balance. The situation is ironic because for instance most French games nowadays are made in English...

The example you've posted made me think about Jade Empire (which I've played in French and patched in English). I found the few Chinese voices really great and wished they had made the whole dialogues in Chinese with subtitles. Then I'm the sort of player who enjoys the Witcher in Polish with subtitles and I don't speak either Chinese or Polish...

Nakia the Rogue wrote:

True, I also gather that the ranking used in Oblivion and the guilds have been done away with.

This sounds like a good idea to me. I always found it silly how the player can be the head of all the guilds in Oblivion, or most of the guilds in Morrowind. Moreover, it's silly how you can rocket through the ranks so quickly while all the other members remain at their current ranks. You can rise past NPCs who has presumably spent their entire lives working for the guild, and they seem not to mind that a young upstart becomes their boss after one week of membership.

I actually think that removing that mechanic from the game completely is a great idea, but the "I want it all" crowd will hate it, if it's true.

[quote="Carabas"]

Nakia the Rogue wrote:

Any info about the voices in the next Elder Scrolls game?

The one thing said officially is that there will be, quote, 'many more voice actors used in Skyrim'

I take that to mean that rather than wasting 80% of the voice acting budget on one well known 'name' who gets killed anyway by the end of the tutorial, they have decided to spread the money around a much larger number of lesser name but perfectly competent actors.

This is a big step forward for me. I thought it broke immersion that every single Nord, and every single Orc in Oblivion had exactly the same voice.

I'm also hoping they go back to the male Dunmer voice from Morrowind, but that's more of a personal hope than anything confirmed in any way

The first time I played Oblivion I stuck close to the main quest rather than exploring. I got used to Jaufree's voice being his then clicked on a stray NPC and almost went through the ceiling when I heard Jaufree's voice. Checked around and realized that they had used the same voice for each race, male/female. Almost threw the game out. So I hope they do use a variety of voices. I don't care who voices the main characters that has never been a selling point for me. I just want good voice acting.

Variety is good for the players and the voice actors. More enjoyment for players, more jobs for voice actors.

There was the same problem in Fallout 3 although it wasn't as bad. In all probability if they improved this for Fallout 3 they will improve this for Skyrim.

Quote :

I actually think that removing that mechanic from the game completely is a great idea, but the "I want it all" crowd will hate it, if it's true.

Bethesda has always been catering to that crowd. The fact that Fallout New Vegas (made by Obsidian) didn't allow you to side with every faction in the same game was vehemently criticized by that crowd.

The original Fallouts were all about making choices and buidling your character around these choices. The new Fallouts are just like Oblivion. No matter how you start your character can end up mastering everything. It's a rather big letdown for RPers who like to replay through games and enjoy making characters that don't end up looking like clones of each other but that's what more casual gamers want. Let's face it, they want games that amoeba or other protozoan could complete without breaking a sweat or god forbid stop a minute to actually do some thinking. That's why we have all these markers and flashing arrows.

It was confirmed by Pete Hines on the latest Bethesda podcast (download from iTunes if you want to listen) that a single playthrough of Skyrim will NOT allow you to experience everything.

In fact he said that you'd only experience 'about 25%' of what is there, although whether that was an accurate figure or simply a number he pulled out of the air was hard to tell.

So it looks like those who didn't like Fallout New Vegas because you couldn't do everything in a single playthrough will be equally annoyed by Skyrim. Personally, I'm with all those who think that its stupid to think that one character should be able to be head over every Guild and Faction, so more choice, more character specialisation, more diversity, is all great news for me....

Thanks Paul for this piece of information. I'm glad that Bethesda is taking notes from Obsidian. Fallout New Vegas is definitely a step in the right direction blending in together the exploration and world immersion that has become synonymous with Bethesda games and the story, world design and faction mechanism that is the hallmark of the Fallout series.

That is good news indeed. We need a good fantasy game with some true RPG elements!

The first ingame video of Skyrim has been released.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSRtYpNRoN0&feature=player_embedded

Permission to start drooling...

wow. i was not too interested in the game seeing i cant really get it for a while. but to be honest.. i wanna have sex with that trailer XD. that was awesome.

Interesting concept Jez

If anyone finds the low-res YouTube a bit underwhelming, I encourage you to download the hi-res version and play it on a good screen with decent sound.

http://cdn.zenimax.com/akqacms/files/tes/trailer_downloads/TESVSkyrim_OfficialTrailer_US_HD.mp4

Wow

Thanks for the link Paul. The youtube thing required registration (too much of a hassle if you ask me).

Looking gooooooooood indeed.