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Interview The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Q&A

VentilatorOfDoom

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Tags: Bethesda Softworks; Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

<p>XBox360Achievements <a href="http://www.xbox360achievements.org/news/news-8567-The-Elder-Scrolls--Skyrim-Q-A-With-Lead-Designer--Bruce-Nesmith.html" target="_blank">offer an interview</a> with Skyrim Lead Designer Bruce Nesmith.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>At the BFG Showcase in Utah, Todd Howard briefly touched upon the ecology in the game world, specifically mentioning packs of wolves hunting mammoths. What sort of effort has been put into the ecology and what can we expect to see wandering the various environments of Skyrim?</strong><br /><br />When we first sat down to make the lists of creatures and encounters, we organised everything by ecologies. Every creature fits into a set of creatures so that the group makes sense as a whole. You won&rsquo;t find random mixtures of monsters in a dungeon, or wandering the frozen steppes. They have defined predator/prey and ally/enemy relationships. So we have giants that keep herds of mammoths -- if you don&rsquo;t disturb them, they won&rsquo;t bother you. We have wolves that hunt deer. We have undead draugr that climb out of coffins to attack those that disturb their rest.<br /><br /><strong>What can we expect to see in terms of item/weapon drops? Are they random? Scripted? Should players expect plenty of neat, unique items and plenty of loot?</strong><br /><br />All of the above. I like to describe our loot drop system as controlled randomness. The sets and groups of things you can find are tailored to the situation. Necromancers don&rsquo;t drop the same loot as bandits. Within those groups there is randomness. We might know the bandit chief will drop a magic weapon, but not which weapon. The Necromancer will drop a staff, but exactly which one is random.<br /><br />The rewards from the quests are much more controlled. Rescue the son of a clan&rsquo;s matriarch and she will give you a specific reward. Frequently these are unique items that aren&rsquo;t found elsewhere in the game.<br />One of the hallmarks of our games is an abundance of loot. We have thousands of different weapons and pieces of armor, not to mention potions, scrolls, alchemy ingredients, jewelry, gems, etc. Also many of the unique daedric artifacts are making a return. So we&rsquo;re giving the player the best of both worlds.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/103296-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-qaa.html">Gamebanshee</a></p>
 

Sceptic

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Re: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Q&A

The rewards from the quests are much more controlled. Rescue the son of a clan’s matriarch and she will give you a specific reward. Frequently these are unique items that aren’t found elsewhere in the game.
Truly, Skyrim is revolutionary like no other game before it.
 

MMXI

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Comments said:
In the past RPG's needed extensive numbers of stats and skills to represent what the player was trying to achieve, but now game engines can accurately reproduce a lot of it in real time action, so the need for these skills is gone.
:what:
 

CappenVarra

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So, they're implementing both encounter tables and drop tables, which (gasp) exclude obviously absurd permutations, and include initially non-hostile entities? Wow, if they keep it up they might reach 1st edition D&D sometimes this decade! Truly, we live in the Age of Progress.

MMXI said:
Comments said:
In the past RPG's needed extensive numbers of stats and skills to represent what the player was trying to achieve, but now game engines can accurately reproduce a lot of it in real time action, so the need for these skills is gone.
:what:
Bethseda's tagline, didn't you know?
 

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CappenVarra said:
So, they're implementing both encounter tables and drop tables, which (gasp) exclude obviously absurd permutations, and include initially non-hostile entities? Wow, if they keep it up they might reach Chainmail sometimes this decade! Truly, we live in the Age of Progress.

Nerded up. :smug:
 

Rivmusique

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MMXI said:
Comments said:
In the past RPG's needed extensive numbers of stats and skills to represent what the player was trying to achieve, but now game engines can accurately reproduce a lot of it in real time action, so the need for these skills is gone.
:what:

I've seen this reasoning before and it might even be true if games could do that. But they cant. I mean, look at combat alone, I am yet to see a a sword/shield game with a decent real-time combat system. It's always just hold block button, wait to get hit, use the opponents recoil to land 2 blows, repeat. The best I've seen is, sadly, Mount and Blade. So yeah, stick to stats and skill please.
 

kofeur

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Re: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Q&A

I've yet to see a 'modern' RPG where the opponents flee when they're low on health...
 

Roguey

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Re: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Q&A

kofeur said:
I've yet to see a 'modern' RPG where the opponents flee when they're low on health...
Fallout 3/New Vegas
Confidence

Governs how likely the character or creature will avoid or flee from threats.

0 Cowardly Will always avoid/flee. Cowardly actors NEVER engage in combat under any circumstances.
1 Cautious Will avoid/flee from threats unless the player stronger than them.
2 Average Will avoid/flee from threats that are stronger than the player.
3 Brave Will avoid/flee from threats only if severely outmatched.
4 Foolhardy Will never flee or avoid anyone.
I've seen it happen a few times. I guess most of them are set to 4.
 
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^Raiders and similar lowlifes almost always flee when injured for me, makes me wish for a mod that gradually changes combat music to Yakety Sax the longer an encounter lasts. Morrowind and Oblivion also have this, you can manipulate the NPCs' willingness to flee with the Rally / Demoralize spell.
 

MMXI

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Rivmusique said:
I've seen this reasoning before and it might even be true if games could do that. But they cant. I mean, look at combat alone, I am yet to see a a sword/shield game with a decent real-time combat system. It's always just hold block button, wait to get hit, use the opponents recoil to land 2 blows, repeat. The best I've seen is, sadly, Mount and Blade. So yeah, stick to stats and skill please.
Do you honestly think that the purpose of statistics in an RPG is to simulate things that are currently too difficult or expensive to compute in real-time?

:retarded:
 

G.O.D

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All of the above. I like to describe our loot drop system as controlled randomness.
The sets and groups of things you can find are tailored to the situation.
Necromancers don’t drop the same loot as bandits.
Within those groups there is randomness.
We might know the bandit chief will drop a magic weapon, but not which weapon.
The Necromancer will drop a staff, but exactly which one is random.

The rewards from the quests are much more controlled.
Rescue the son of a clan’s matriarch and she will give you a specific reward.
Frequently these are unique items that aren’t found elsewhere in the game.
One of the hallmarks of our games is an abundance of loot.
We have thousands of different weapons and pieces of armor, not to mention potions, scrolls, alchemy ingredients, jewelry, gems, etc.
Also many of the unique daedric artifacts are making a return.
So we’re giving the player the best of both worlds.

It's a small thing to barf about but still
As usual he's sellin air

So exactly NOTHING has been changed then!
All of this also was in the previous games... only in a more derp like form...
And now they want to take credit, not for making something work good/realistic/rewarding...
But for how it should have been in the first place, 2, arguably 3 games earlier...
What a learning curve it must be.

Not buying, Todd! :thumbsup:
 

GarfunkeL

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Re: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Q&A

kofeur said:
I've yet to see a 'modern' RPG where the opponents flee when they're low on health...
Fallout 1. Baldur's Gate 1 if they botch their moral roll. Heck, Pool of Radiance had enemies fleeing when losing a fight.

Ninja-edit: fuck, didn't spot the 'modern' part, sorry :(
 

Kaanyrvhok

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Is Obvlion and Morrowind modern enough? Enamies fled in those games. Didnt they even surrender in Oblivion?
 

Visbhume

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MMXI said:
Do you honestly think that the purpose of statistics in an RPG is to simulate things that are currently too difficult or expensive to compute in real-time?

:retarded:

Uh... yes? Statistics serve to abstract away things that are either too complex to implement, or outside of the intended focus of the game design. Taking statistics themselves as the core of RPGs has always seemed dumb to me.
 

Rivmusique

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MMXI said:
Do you honestly think that the purpose of statistics in an RPG is to simulate things that are currently too difficult or expensive to compute in real-time?

:retarded:

:? Yes :lol: that's pretty much it...
 

MMXI

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:retarded:

So assuming that we now have the technology to do away with statistics, we should? Haven't you two realised by now that statistics as an abstraction is important for reasons of actual role-playing? That without the statistics you basically are your character? Seriously, guys. Are you trolling?

:retarded:
 

Grunker

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I fucking hope they are. Otherwise I'll use this argument as a basis for my "Boxing is objectively better than Chess"-thesis.
 

Sceptic

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Kaanyrvhok said:
Didnt they even surrender in Oblivion?
No they didn't. Another much-hyped feature that never made it into the game proper.
 

Kraszu

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MMXI said:
:retarded:

So assuming that we now have the technology to do away with statistics, we should? Haven't you two realised by now that statistics as an abstraction is important for reasons of actual role-playing? That without the statistics you basically are your character? Seriously, guys. Are you trolling?

:retarded:

You are the controller. Ryse will be the best rpg ever.
 

kofeur

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Re: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Q&A

Roguey said:
Fallout 3/New Vegas
Confidence

Governs how likely the character or creature will avoid or flee from threats.

0 Cowardly Will always avoid/flee. Cowardly actors NEVER engage in combat under any circumstances.
1 Cautious Will avoid/flee from threats unless the player stronger than them.
2 Average Will avoid/flee from threats that are stronger than the player.
3 Brave Will avoid/flee from threats only if severely outmatched.
4 Foolhardy Will never flee or avoid anyone.
I've seen it happen a few times. I guess most of them are set to 4.

Haven't played Fallout 3, couldn't do it...
Haven't played New Vegas yet, but that's because I'm waiting for GOTY version with all the add ons
Was it better implemented in New Vegas?

Clockwork Knight said:
Morrowind and Oblivion also have this, you can manipulate the NPCs' willingness to flee with the Rally / Demoralize spell.

But this was you forcing them to flee and not the ennemies fleeing because they were about to die

I remember, there was a game where ennemies would flee when near-death, try to heal, and then come back and attack you when fully healed. Forgot which game it was though...

Black Crypt had monsters who would steal your things then teleport away!
Haven't seen any fun mechanics in AAA games since those days...
 

kofeur

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Sceptic said:
No they didn't. Another much-hyped feature that never made it into the game proper.

Like the presentation where one of the NPC cast silence on her dog... :M
 

abnaxus

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Sceptic said:
Kaanyrvhok said:
Didnt they even surrender in Oblivion?
No they didn't. Another much-hyped feature that never made it into the game proper.
Only your own character could surrender in Oblivion, but it was pretty much useless save if you for some reason accidentally made a villager hostile.
 

Sceptic

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kofeur said:
Like the presentation where one of the NPC cast silence on her dog... :M
I don't remember this one :lol: link please?

abnaxus said:
Only your own character could surrender in Oblivion, but it was pretty much useless save if you for some reason accidentally made a villager hostile.
It didn't work on most people anyway. I only remember it working on guard, and it immediately went to STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM so you were much better off just reloading. I never even got it to work on escort NPC's who got hit because they stupidly jumped in front of me as I cast a Fireball. Which made it all the more irritating when the only way to get them back to normal was to kill them unconscious then wait for them to get up.
 

Rivmusique

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MMXI said:
:retarded:

So assuming that we now have the technology to do away with statistics, we should? Haven't you two realised by now that statistics as an abstraction is important for reasons of actual role-playing? That without the statistics you basically are your character? Seriously, guys. Are you trolling?

:retarded:

Yes, we should. If it was ever possible to show character development separately from player-skill development without the use of statistics. Which it isn't. And wont be in any foreseeable future.
 

kofeur

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Sceptic said:
I don't remember this one :lol: link please?

Check this video

It wasn't silence but paralysis.

The video shows you so many things that were never seen in the real game... :M
 

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