Game News Five Changes from Oblivion to Skyrim

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Bethesda Softworks; Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

<p><a href="http://pc.ign.com/articles/116/1164053p1.html" target="_blank">IGN explains</a> how Bethesda evolves The Elder Scrolls with their next installment, Skyrim.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Bethesda's ditching the eight main attributes you may remember from Oblivion. Intelligence, Agility, Speed and all the rest are out. Instead, you get Health for hit points, Magicka for magic points and Stamina for doing anything athletic. It's a loss of a layer of complexity, but it's not necessarily a bad thing according to Todd Howard. <br /> <br /> "In Oblivion you have your eight attributes and 21 skills. Now you have 18 skills and three attributes. What we found is that all those attributes actually did something else. A fan may say 'You removed my eight attributes!', and my answer is, which ones do you want? They're all a trickle down to something else. Now when you level up you can just raise your Magicka. In Oblivion you have to raise your Intelligence knowing that you're Intelligence raises your Magicka." <br /> <br /> Howard says it's a natural evolution and makes it sound sensible. I'm not really bent out of shape about it because it doesn't sound like there'll be a lack of decisions to make anyway. Like in previous Elder Scrolls games, skill levels increase with use. The more you use a sword, the better you're able to wield it. In Skyrim, each skill increase contributes to your overall character level, sort of like experience points. If you boost a skill that's at a higher level, you'll see a bigger increase on your character level gauge.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>That means you'll get the most benefit from leveling the skills you use most. If you're a badass Destruction magic user, it's beneficial to your character leveling rate to continue using Destruction magic. There's nothing preventing you from trying everything else out, but concentrating on a few skills to level is going to be the most efficient way to gain power. After level ups you'll be able to pick Fallout-like perks within each skill category, giving you additional abilities like zoom-in and slow time while using a bow. Considering each perk will have multiple levels and there are multiple perks within each skill category, it sounds like there'll be a lot of ways to keep you busy while determining how to specialize.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/102564-five-changes-from-oblivion-to-skyrim.html">Gamebanshee</a></p>

 

[Xor]

Bethesda's ditching the eight main attributes you may remember from Oblivion. Intelligence, Agility, Speed and all the rest are out. Instead, you get Health for hit points, Magicka for magic points and Stamina for doing anything athletic. It's a loss of a layer of complexity, but it's not necessarily a bad thing according to Todd Howard.

Oh god, really? I haven't been paying attention to skyrim because it will suck, but holy shit I didn't expect it to suck that quickly.

 

[Micmu]

I am surprised they kept stamina, actually. Most games do just well will HP and Ammo.

 

[Phelot]

"In Oblivion you have your eight attributes and 21 skills. Now you have 18 skills and three attributes. What we found is that all those attributes actually did something else. A fan may say 'You removed my eight attributes!', and my answer is, which ones do you want? They're all a trickle down to something else. Now when you level up you can just raise your Magicka. In Oblivion you have to raise your Intelligence knowing that you're Intelligence raises your Magicka."

I swear he's a master at hyping. He said the same thing about all the skills clipped from Morrowind. "Hey, if you really think about it, we're not actually removing anything!" or he simply states that no one uses them...

But TBH he's right. Oblivion's attributes were a level of false complexity, a middle man in a sense because they didn't implement them correctly and/or underused them. Such as speed. In Oblivion you could already outrun just about anything from what I recall even with a low speed. Increasing it just decreased the tedium of running around the game world, but in the end it didn't actually do anything gameplay wise. Same goes with acrobatics. When was that ever used in Oblivion?

So they seem to have a really cool system where they essentially can't make use or implement correctly the previous games features so they simply discontinue them and then praise their wise decision.

 

[Morkar Left]

Yes, my comment is as rich in content as skyrim will be....

 

[Bahamut]

[bethesdianmindtrick]These are not skills youre looking for[/bethesdianmindtrick]

To bad many morons/bethfans fail this INT check, now the third time... howard is full of shit

 

[Melcar]

Took them long enough.

 

[Elhoim]

In Oblivion you have to raise your Intelligence knowing that you're Intelligence raises your Magicka.

Seems he will have to raise his intelligence more.

 

[Gerrard]

There was really only one change needed from Oblivion.

A change of developer.

 

[Gragt]

Hahaha! Dumbing down at its finest. It of course makes sense from a rather simplified game like Oblivion were pretty much everything is solved through combat and where many attributes are simply not needed, but that of course runs counter to making a quality proper RPG with a decent system like the early Elder Scrolls. It's not entirely out of the question if they have a decent skill system with many checks, like Fallout 3, but I somehow doubt they are aiming for that.

 

[Reptilian Shapeshifter]

Your shit ration has been increased to 30 grams per week. Doubleplusgood!

 

[Trash]

I still fondly remember the 'they removed the climbing skill' rants they had here with Morrowind. If only we had known...

 

[Sulimo]

A fan may say 'You removed my eight attributes!', and my answer is, which ones do you want?

How about all eight, mr. Howard? Damn, thank god he's just some PR-guy, if he was a politician he'd be the finest demagogue of this generation.

Howard says it's a natural evolution and makes it sound sensible.

He's a PR-dude, it's his job to make bad decision sound sensible. Someone should sent these game journalists to school to explain the various methods companies use to make you doubt your views.

After level ups you'll be able to pick Fallout-like perks within each skill category, giving you additional abilities like zoom-in and slow time while using a bow. Considering each perk will have multiple levels and there are multiple perks within each skill category, it sounds like there'll be a lot of ways to keep you busy while determining how to specialize.</p>

Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't those things done with at 25%-50% and 75% points in Oblivion? How is this an improvement? I'd call it change for the sake of change.

Then again, it's not like any of us hadn't seen this one coming.

 

[Raapys]

A fan may say 'You removed my eight attributes!', and my answer is, which ones do you want? They're all a trickle down to something else. Now when you level up you can just raise your Magicka. In Oblivion you have to raise your Intelligence knowing that you're Intelligence raises your Magicka." .

Okay, so what do I do if I want to increase, say, my speed or carrying capacity?

Also, why stop there? If it all trickles down to other skills, why not just have one skill?

 

[Jaesun]

Enjoy your hiking sim Crispy.

 

[Excidium]

A fan may say 'You removed my eight attributes!', and my answer is, which ones do you want? They're all a trickle down to something else. Now when you level up you can just raise your Magicka. In Oblivion you have to raise your Intelligence knowing that you're Intelligence raises your Magicka." .

Okay, so what do I do if I want to increase, say, my speed or carrying capacity?

That's what perks are for.

 

[Higher Game]

I still fondly remember the 'they removed the climbing skill' rants they had here with Morrowind. If only we had known...

So true.

 

[Decado]

"In Oblivion you have your eight attributes and 21 skills. Now you have 18 skills and three attributes. What we found is that all those attributes actually did something else. A fan may say 'You removed my eight attributes!', and my answer is, which ones do you want? They're all a trickle down to something else. Now when you level up you can just raise your Magicka. In Oblivion you have to raise your Intelligence knowing that you're Intelligence raises your Magicka."

The hilarious(ly stupid) thing about Howard's reasoning is that he can't see past the combat angle. "Well," he says, smarmily, "you only used intelligence to level up your magicka." That's right, Todd, because you guys programmed it that way. More to the point, you never put anything in the game to make intelligence anything other than a second-hand bump for other shit. You never had, say, dialog checks dependent upon intelligence, or weapons dependent upon a strength requirement, or persuasion checks dependent upon a personality requirement. It's like you guys never even thought about that shit, like it never even entered your empty fucking heads.

In short, Howard is right for all the wrong reasons. Instead of building complexity into the game, they're "streamlining" it out. Gah whatever, more of the same old bullshit.

 

[Disconnected]

But TBH he's right. Oblivion's attributes were a level of false complexity, a middle man in a sense because they didn't implement them correctly and/or underused them
[...]
So they seem to have a really cool system where they essentially can't make use or implement correctly the previous games features so they simply discontinue them and then praise their wise decision.

I agree with the "TBH he's right" bit. Not so much with the rest. Of course false complexity is pretty open to interpretation, but until now the TES systems have been very close relatives of D&D. The characteristics system had three serious problems in the earlier games, the combination of which really ought to be considered fatal. Because the various incarnations of the system have all sucked ass. Anyway, the problems were something like this:

• The system lacked differentiation/specialisation. A thief was more a case of being a mediocre alchemist/fighter/whatevs, than a case of being an outstanding thief.
• The system lacked Cool Shit™. Thieves couldn't go slit people's throats, fighters couldn't cut them in half, and wizzers... Well, maybe apart from flying in Morrowind, magic has always been kind of uninspired in TES.
• The levelling mechanics sucked. I really shouldn't need to clarify why anyone with half a brain considers previous TES levelling mechanics to be some of the very worst video gaming has produced so far.

Moreover! While some might disagree I am very much of the opinion that TES & other action games are not RPGs. Role playing games, at least to me, are games where players assume the identities of their characters and act through them. Which means that just like a psychotic horse-eating dwarf character's dialogue choices shouldn't involve teenage girl-like pony worship, combat performance shouldn't involve the player's skill.
At least to some extent, TES games have always been player skill based, rather than character skill based. And while it would be a gross exaggeration to say the skill-bits have been great, they have always been better than the stat-bits.
Of course, I'd love a TES-like RPG... But that's a pretty different discussion, and one that applies at least as much to the Twitchers, Gothics, Risens & whatnots of the world.

Whatever, I guess my point is this: a popular definition of insanity is to do the same thing over & over, expecting different outcomes. Bethesda has tried to make their characteristics system work 4 times now and have failed pretty damn hard every time. I'd be far more worried if they hadn't dumped the entire concept by now.

 

[Sulimo]

Rockville, MARYLAND - There has been a startling new development today on the premises of Bethesda Softworks, publishers of the best-selling videogame series "The Eldest Scolls: Oblivion." Inspired by the Canadian company Bioware (Developers of such successes as "Nights of the Old Republic" "Dragon Age: Original" and Game of the Year 2011 "Dragon Age II") they have decided to completely overhaul their prime game mechanics.

"It all started when Todd played Dragon Age II during work hours", Pete Hines, Vice President of Bethesda Softworks, explains. "After a while productivity went down, so we went over there to see what all the fuss was about. Words fell short for what we saw. If I had to pick one word, and one word alone for the epicness that was ramming and gnawing its way through my cornea, I'd have to say 'Awesome.' It was clear our new game, Skyrim, would nary stand a chance against such a bulging and throbbing mythological monstrosity. It called for a completely new mechanic in our games, and we're proud to say we have now implemented it."

The name of this new mechanic? 'Radiant Awesomeness.' Pete will help us through the basics. "Before Skyrim, we had a complicated system of statistics and numbers that relegated the abilities and talents of the player character. Despite all our efforts to make it more accessible to the general public, this proved to be too much of a brain-crushing exercise for the modern, developed player. To ease the transition from shooters and action games to RPG's, we obviously had to do something drastic. This is where Radiant Awesomeness enters the field. Before, in Morrowind or Oblivion, you had to carefully select which attributes you would invest in in order to make a feasible cookie-cutter character. Now, all that old shit is gone.

We have 1 attribute which you gradually raise during the course of the game, i.e. the aforementioned Radiant Awesomeness. We have subtly implemented the Radiant Awesomeness into the game mechanics, in fact, the first few minutes you won't even notice it is there. It's the little things that give it away. The fun starts the moment you press a button - any button. Once you have done that simple act - pressing a button - something awesome happens. At first it might be a small awesome thing. A tiny humanoid sparrow might fly up to you and start quoting Shakespeare, for example. A delicate rainbow might appear before your very eyes, and the faeries will sprinkle faeriedust around you. Like I said, little awesome things, to keep you engaged. But remember, every time you press a button - any button(!) - your radiant awesomeness will increase, so after about twenty minutes of gametime you will raze castles with the click of a button; you will tastefully rape wenches - and they will enjoy it; you will put out the sun with your pinky finger and you will ride dragons to Saturnus. This, my friend, is Radial Awesomeness.

I, for one, can't wait to see how it all turns out. The Elderest Scrolls V: Skyrim will be in your local games retailer 11-11-11. Keep an eye out, this one will be golden.

 

[felipepepe]

Also, why stop there? If it all trickles down to other skills, why not just have one skill?

The AWESOME skill.

 

[Xor]

Rockville, MARYLAND - There has been a startling new development today on the premises of Bethesda Softworks, publishers of the best-selling videogame series "The Eldest Scolls: Oblivion." Inspired by the Canadian company Bioware (Developers of such successes as "Nights of the Old Republic" "Dragon Age: Original" and Game of the Year 2011 "Dragon Age II") they have decided to completely overhaul their prime game mechanics.

"It all started when Todd played Dragon Age II during work hours", Pete Hines, Vice President of Bethesda Softworks, explains. "After a while productivity went down, so we went over there to see what all the fuss was about. Words fell short for what we saw. If I had to pick one word, and one word alone for the epicness that was ramming and gnawing its way through my cornea, I'd have to say 'Awesome.' It was clear our new game, Skyrim, would nary stand a chance against such a bulging and throbbing mythological monstrosity. It called for a completely new mechanic in our games, and we're proud to say we have now implemented it."

The name of this new mechanic? 'Radiant Awesomeness.' Pete will help us through the basics. "Before Skyrim, we had a complicated system of statistics and numbers that relegated the abilities and talents of the player character. Despite all our efforts to make it more accessible to the general public, this proved to be too much of a brain-crushing exercise for the modern, developed player. To ease the transition from shooters and action games to RPG's, we obviously had to do something drastic. This is where Radiant Awesomeness enters the field. Before, in Morrowind or Oblivion, you had to carefully select which attributes you would invest in in order to make a feasible cookie-cutter character. Now, all that old shit is gone.

We have 1 attribute which you gradually raise during the course of the game, i.e. the aforementioned Radiant Awesomeness. We have subtly implemented the Radiant Awesomeness into the game mechanics, in fact, the first few minutes you won't even notice it is there. It's the little things that give it away. The fun starts the moment you press a button - any button. Once you have done that simple act - pressing a button - something awesome happens. At first it might be a small awesome thing. A tiny humanoid sparrow might fly up to you and start quoting Shakespeare, for example. A delicate rainbow might appear before your very eyes, and the faeries will sprinkle faeriedust around you. Like I said, little awesome things, to keep you engaged. But remember, every time you press a button - any button(!) - your radiant awesomeness will increase, so after about twenty minutes of gametime you will raze castles with the click of a button; you will tastefully rape wenches - and they will enjoy it; you will put out the sun with your pinky finger and you will ride dragons to Saturnus. This, my friend, is Radial Awesomeness.

I, for one, can't wait to see how it all turns out. The Elderest Scrolls V: Skyrim will be in your local games retailer 11-11-11. Keep an eye out, this one will be golden.

Simply amazing.

 

[Metro]

It's official: Skyrim has less character progression than Torchlight 2.

 

[Topher]

Probably just more shit to ignore. I still think it might manage to be a neat open-world action game and that might be worth a torrent at least... maybe?

 

[CappenVarra]

Rockville, MARYLAND - There has been a startling new development today on the premises of Bethesda Softworks, publishers of the best-selling videogame series "The Eldest Scolls: Oblivion." Inspired by the Canadian company Bioware (Developers of such successes as "Nights of the Old Republic" "Dragon Age: Original" and Game of the Year 2011 "Dragon Age II") they have decided to completely overhaul their prime game mechanics.

"It all started when Todd played Dragon Age II during work hours", Pete Hines, Vice President of Bethesda Softworks, explains. "After a while productivity went down, so we went over there to see what all the fuss was about. Words fell short for what we saw. If I had to pick one word, and one word alone for the epicness that was ramming and gnawing its way through my cornea, I'd have to say 'Awesome.' It was clear our new game, Skyrim, would nary stand a chance against such a bulging and throbbing mythological monstrosity. It called for a completely new mechanic in our games, and we're proud to say we have now implemented it."

The name of this new mechanic? 'Radiant Awesomeness.' Pete will help us through the basics. "Before Skyrim, we had a complicated system of statistics and numbers that relegated the abilities and talents of the player character. Despite all our efforts to make it more accessible to the general public, this proved to be too much of a brain-crushing exercise for the modern, developed player. To ease the transition from shooters and action games to RPG's, we obviously had to do something drastic. This is where Radiant Awesomeness enters the field. Before, in Morrowind or Oblivion, you had to carefully select which attributes you would invest in in order to make a feasible cookie-cutter character. Now, all that old shit is gone.

We have 1 attribute which you gradually raise during the course of the game, i.e. the aforementioned Radiant Awesomeness. We have subtly implemented the Radiant Awesomeness into the game mechanics, in fact, the first few minutes you won't even notice it is there. It's the little things that give it away. The fun starts the moment you press a button - any button. Once you have done that simple act - pressing a button - something awesome happens. At first it might be a small awesome thing. A tiny humanoid sparrow might fly up to you and start quoting Shakespeare, for example. A delicate rainbow might appear before your very eyes, and the faeries will sprinkle faeriedust around you. Like I said, little awesome things, to keep you engaged. But remember, every time you press a button - any button(!) - your radiant awesomeness will increase, so after about twenty minutes of gametime you will raze castles with the click of a button; you will tastefully rape wenches - and they will enjoy it; you will put out the sun with your pinky finger and you will ride dragons to Saturnus. This, my friend, is Radial Awesomeness.

I, for one, can't wait to see how it all turns out. The Elderest Scrolls V: Skyrim will be in your local games retailer 11-11-11. Keep an eye out, this one will be golden.

Simply amazing.