Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim announced

[WarrenM]

Skyrim is what Oblivion aspired to be.

[gmonkey]

Skyrim is what Oblivion aspired to be.

But Oblivion aspired so ilttle…

[Tracy_Baker]

So then, to people who have played it more than 20 hours, how is better than Oblivion??

Examples of what i am asking for:

Better art direction / art design
Less crashy
More involving combat
More interesting quests
Less dull npcs
Better balance in enemy encounters
Leveling system less broken
Better handcrafted dungeons
etc

So use a few arguments instad of saying “I hated Oblivion and I am loving Skyrim”. It would be useful to see why and how.

Yes to all of that. Further arguments would take up time I’d rather spend playing the game, so if all the great reviews and general praise it’s getting can’t convince you by now it’s your loss.

[DeepT]

Question to All Ye Elderscrolls vets about Bound weapons:

• What are the statistics on the Bound Sword/Bow? Any way to tell?
• Do they become more effective with skill level?

EDIT: Okay, found a way to find out #1. Unequip any weapon, then summon the Bound weapon and open the Inventory | Weapons window. It’ll show your damage with the bound weapon in the bottom right. Still looking for the answer to #2 though…

So what is the answer for #1? I am at work and can’t load skyrim to see for my self.

[Tracy_Baker]

The main thing that’s keeping me from getting Skyrim (other than a huge backlog, that is), is experience. Oblivion, Morrowind, and Fallout 3 received the same sort of glowing reception on release, by reviewers and fans alike. Everyone was talking like the games were some sort of new RPG paradigm. The “ohwaitthisisgoodbut” moments eventually came and suddenly all these games had glaring faults.

Also, Bethesda, with their tendency to plainly lie about their upcoming games, and their practice of shamelessly buttering up the press, leave me very reticent about giving my money away to them.

Of course they have glaring faults. All hugely ambitious monstrosities do. If you demand perfection from Bethesda games you shouldn’t play them, because they’ll never achieve that.

[TimJames]

So then, to people who have played it more than 20 hours, how is better than Oblivion??

I think it’s better, but I’d like to know why too! It’s easy to say “just go play” but I like to figure out why I like certain games and not others.

One reason it’s hard for me to understand is because I didn’t play Morrowind or Gothic 2. I played Oblivion but can’t remember which Skyrim designs already existed back then. My best reference point is Nehrim. I loved that mod so that’s why I’m excited about Skyrim. You can think of them as being in the same league, with Nehrim at the bottom and Skyrim at the top with additional polish and fleshed-out mechanics. Oblivion is in a tier below.

The main thing that’s keeping me from getting Skyrim (other than a huge backlog, that is), is experience. Oblivion, Morrowind, and Fallout 3 received the same sort of glowing reception on release, by reviewers and fans alike. Everyone was talking like the games were some sort of new RPG paradigm. The “ohwaitthisisgoodbut” moments eventually came and suddenly all these games had glaring faults.

I keep waiting for someone to say this too. It does feel a lot like Oblivion. But those incremental improvements add up to more than the sum of its parts.

Also, Bethesda, with their tendency to plainly lie about their upcoming games, and their practice of shamelessly buttering up the press, leave me very reticent about giving my money away to them.
Yeah, one thing’s for sure is the engine is very similar. But we already knew they were playing semantic games with that. The animation system looks passable now at least. And I like the depth of field to hide some of the plain-looking distant land.

[Tyjenks]

The main thing that’s keeping me from getting Skyrim (other than a huge backlog, that is), is experience. Oblivion, Morrowind, and Fallout 3 received the same sort of glowing reception on release, by reviewers and fans alike. Everyone was talking like the games were some sort of new RPG paradigm. The “ohwaitthisisgoodbut” moments eventually came and suddenly all these games had glaring faults.

Also, Bethesda, with their tendency to plainly lie about their upcoming games, and their practice of shamelessly buttering up the press, leave me very reticent about giving my money away to them.

This is me except I do like FO:NV, but did not play Fallout 3, yet.

As I have said elsewhere, I really, really want to like all of these games as a big ol’ world to roam around is, on paper, something I should love. In practice, I get too anxious while wandering around hoping more will happen. I am afraid I just need more free time to sufficiently invest in the games.

[TheWombat]

Skyrim, like Oblivion and Morrowind, are at their best when you are not pressed for time, when you have the leisure to choose where to go and when to go there, and how long you want to take getting there. I do think Skyrim offers a nice balance. If you want to start “doing something” specific, you can fast travel to where you need to be or at least close to it, and get down to brass tacks. Or, you can say “hmm, I need to eventually wind up there, so let me saddle up my horse and trot over thataway, generally, and see what happens on the way.”

It also helps if your expectations are reasonable. Mine were that the game would show substantial improvement over Oblivion in several areas, including visuals, combat feel, magic, AI, and environments. So far, I’d have to say Skyrim has lived up to my expectations, so I’m a happy camper.

[KevinC]

So what is the answer for #1? I am at work and can’t load skyrim to see for my self.

15 damage unperked, 23 perked. It does not scale after that, and I’m unsure if the 1H damage perk was working for it as well.

[nKoan]

Totally agree. On days like this past Saturday or Sunday, the game is wonderful. I got to spend 2 full days playing, and I actually found riding around on my horse discovering new locations to be relaxing.

This morning, on the other hand, I wanted to play for an hour or so before work. I decided not to play, since I figured traveling to any dungeons or whatnot would easily eat up most of that hour.

[Papageno]

General soul-trapping question, as I never got far enough in Oblivion to do this: do you cast the spell on your enemy before he/she/it dies, or after? Also, is any type of enemy eligible (like wolves, rats and such) or does it have to be humanoid?

[skyride]

The main thing that’s keeping me from getting Skyrim (other than a huge backlog, that is), is experience. Oblivion, Morrowind, and Fallout 3 received the same sort of glowing reception on release, by reviewers and fans alike. Everyone was talking like the games were some sort of new RPG paradigm. The “ohwaitthisisgoodbut” moments eventually came and suddenly all these games had glaring faults.

Maybe it’s time to move on, this genre is clearly not for you. Even with all the glaring faults as you call it, I still had 60 hours of fun with Oblivion but never finished the main story. You make it sound like these games turned out to be utter shit with just fanboy hype at launch.

[Sepiche]

General soul-trapping question, as I never got far enough in Oblivion to do this: do you cast the spell on your enemy before he/she/it dies, or after? Also, is any type of enemy eligible (like wolves, rats and such) or does it have to be humanoid?

Before. Once you cast you have 60 second (if memory serves) to kill your target and get their soul. Enchanting a weapon with the soul stealing spell can be a handy option too. Pretty sure most any soul is acceptable.

[nKoan]

General soul-trapping question, as I never got far enough in Oblivion to do this: do you cast the spell on your enemy before he/she/it dies, or after? Also, is any type of enemy eligible (like wolves, rats and such) or does it have to be humanoid?

I have an enchanted bow for soul trapping, so I can’t really answer your first question. The enchantment seems to say “If the target dies within 5 seconds, its soul will be trapped” but I’m not sure how that translates to a spell. My guess is that you have to cast it before the creature dies.

As for the second question, all creatures work. I filled a bunch of petty gems going out hunting for skeevers, wolves, etc.

Furthermore, the petty gems are great for recharging your enchanted items, but suck for the actual enchanting.

[skyride]

General soul-trapping question, as I never got far enough in Oblivion to do this: do you cast the spell on your enemy before he/she/it dies, or after? Also, is any type of enemy eligible (like wolves, rats and such) or does it have to be humanoid?

I’m a little bit confused too but I did manage to trap a couple of souls from the zombies. I cast it before and I don’t think you have to cast on the mob, you just cast before the encounter but have to kill something in 60 seconds. For some reason I’m not getting souls from humans, do I need a better quality gem?

[nKoan]

I’m a little bit confused too but I did manage to trap a couple of souls from the zombies. I cast it before and I don’t think you have to cast on the mob, you just cast before the encounter but have to kill something in 60 seconds. For some reason I’m not getting souls from humans, do I need a better quality gem?

You need a bigger/better quality gem.

[Desslock]

The interface sucks in an entirely new way from Oblivion, but otherwise they’ve improved on it in just about every way. I especially like that they learned that not every dungeon needs to sprawl on for what feels like forever, and that there’s always a shortcut to the exit once you’ve cleared it.

The key to the interface is to get used to using the keyboard for it, instead of the mouse. It’s growing on me a lot since I made that switch.

I love the dungeons, but they’re a lot lengthier than the ones in Oblivion so that seems like a strange comment. Exits are nice though.

[Tom_McNamara]

I’m a little bit confused too but I did manage to trap a couple of souls from the zombies. I cast it before and I don’t think you have to cast on the mob, you just cast before the encounter but have to kill something in 60 seconds. For some reason I’m not getting souls from humans, do I need a better quality gem?

Standard soul gems don’t work on humanoids. You need a different kind, like in Oblivion. They’re pretty rare. There may be a way to make them – the Dark Brotherhood would probably know.

[TimJames]

I forgot one other major flaw with the interface: dual-wielding. It unbinds my number key when I’m swapping between a torch, bow, and dual daggers. Is it like that on X360 too?

It might even be something to keep in mind for new players deciding on a character build.

General soul-trapping question, as I never got far enough in Oblivion to do this: do you cast the spell on your enemy before he/she/it dies, or after? Also, is any type of enemy eligible (like wolves, rats and such) or does it have to be humanoid?

I guess we should be thankful you didn’t make a new thread for this, but for gameplay questions come join us in the spoiler-free thread dude!

[Telefrog]

Standard soul gems don’t work on humanoids. You need a different kind, like in Oblivion. They’re pretty rare. There may be a way to make them – the Dark Brotherhood would probably know.

soul gems

They are the Black Soul Gems, correct? I haven’t used any yet, but I have found a couple in a vampire cave.