Game News Five Changes from Oblivion to Skyrim

[empi]

Bethesda are truly talented. Who else could have found a way to dumb down possibly the most dumbed down RPG of all time? That is a special gift

 

[ChristofferC]

With all that shit removed, have they finally found time to implement ladder climbing?

 

[Karmapowered]

Skyrim - it is good for what it is, the REVENGE!

 

[Azrael the cat]

I've got no interest in TES these days anyway, but if I had, I doubt that I'd be concerned about this change. He's right in that the skills they cut did nothing useful in game, aside from decreasing the tedium of running. Yes, I guess if I was interested in the game I'd prefer that they did something cool with acrobatics, and build quest mechanics around athletics, but I don't know many crpgs that do that with acrobatics/athletics anyway. There's a difference b/w a broken mechanic that needs fixing, and a random mechanic that doesn't actually do anything relevant.

And I actually agree with his comment on the stats. TES games have no crpg mechanics outside of combat, crafting and exploration. There's never been 'int' checks on dialogue or quest options turning upon primary stats. If the only thing that intelligence does in your game is raise magicka, then rename the damn thing the 'magicka' stat and erase the double-up. It's just updating older idiocy (wanting to compete with crpgs that have complex character systems, but not being able to create a complex character system that brings that depth into gameplay, so artificially expanding the skills and stats to give the illusion of depth) to newer idiocy ('streamlining', because the less thought the better ) - the resulting 'net idiocy' remains the same. If they were to transform the illusion of depth into actual depth, that would be a substantial improvement and cause for :D , but 'net idiocy = constant' =/= .

I could probably deal ok with a crpg that eliminated or minimised stats while keeping 10+ skills - if intelligently applied, that gives you plenty of room to design a deep character system around, especially if you then combined it with a couple of additional progression mechanics (e.g. Deus Ex's biomods and weapon upgrades). I get antsier these days about crpgs cutting skills (that tends to take away practical gameplay mechanics) but the ones cut here were already pretty irrelevant.

Personally, I haven't seen anything so far that really adds or detracts to what I'd expect Skyrim to pan out like. Certainly this isn't a significant change. I'd expect something maybe halfway between Oblivion and FO3 - more attention to skillpoints than Oblivion, but with the same goddawful writing and lack of meaningful choice (I'll believe Pete's claims on choices when I see it in non-demonstration gameplay - otherwise that sits alongside the Oblivion Radiant AI and the FO3 'omg so many endings' shtick).

 

[Black]

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

Do you really want attributes in your "rpgs"? C'mon, really? Attributes?
It's 2011, grow up!

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I think the Codex should stop covering Skyrim, on the basis that it's no longer a RPG.

 

[Twinkle]

Can the prestigious internet magazine stop posting news about fantasy GTA-likes, huh? Because it may as well start covering multiplayer shooters - they tend to have XP, unlockables, perks and classes nowadays.

 

[Disconnected]

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

Do you really want attributes in your "rpgs"? C'mon, really? Attributes?
It's 2011, grow up!

But in all seriousness, when was TES ever RPGs? Short of making Skyrim a RPG, the best thing they could do is turn it into a free-roaming Severance: Blade of Darkness. And from the sound of things that's pretty much what they're doing.

 

[FaChoi]

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

Intelligence knowing that you're Intelligence

That YOU ARE Intelligence

Why am I thinking about 3 dog fighting the good fight now.

 

[Reptilian Shapeshifter]

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

Do you really want attributes in your "rpgs"? C'mon, really? Attributes?
It's 2011, grow up!

But in all seriousness, when was TES ever RPGs? Short of making Skyrim a RPG, the best thing they could do is turn it into a free-roaming Severance: Blade of Darkness. And from the sound of things that's pretty much what they're doing.

If only. That would mean the combat might actually be good, instead of mindless hackamole bullshit.

 

[Fowyr]

Simply unbelievable! Ooops. I forgot what this is new Bethesda.

 

[Excidium]

With all that shit removed, have they finally found time to implement ladder climbing?

No, it's too much for Beth programmers. Like animations for moving diagonally or spear combat.

 

[Lieutenant_Charon]

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?

We can infer either no encumbrance or a flat encumbrance (which can be raised by perks).

Similar deductions can be made with the other attributes. Damage will be entirely weapon and skill based, health/magicka/stamina regeneration likely only affected by perks, flat movement speed, to say nothing with how the removal of personality affects things.

I guess the goal is to let people be awesome at everything.

So when does TES cease to be an RPG and become an action/adventure game like LoZ?

 

[Excidium]

So when will people cease to beat this dead horse?

 

[Metro]

So when will people cease to beat this dead horse?

You can lead a horse to water but you can't beat it to death... enough.

 

[Zeros]

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

Do you really want attributes in your "rpgs"? C'mon, really? Attributes?
It's 2011, grow up!

But in all seriousness, when was TES ever RPGs? Short of making Skyrim a RPG, the best thing they could do is turn it into a free-roaming Severance: Blade of Darkness. And from the sound of things that's pretty much what they're doing.

Severance's combat was tactical, fast paced and engaging. What part of that sounds like TES? :D

 

[Disconnected]

Severance's combat was tactical, fast paced and engaging. What part of that sounds like TES? :D

None of them, which was my point. The Skyrim hype sounds like they've finally dumped the TES gameplay, in favour of letting players unlock more & more moves/combos in whatever style of combat they use. That's pretty much how Severance worked.
Of course, the fact that the concept can be executed extremely well - Severance is a blast - is no guarantee Bethesda won't fuck it up. It certainly didn't help Bethesda that others had been producing solid characteristics based combat (and more) systems for a decade before Bethesda had their first go at it.

 

[MicoSelva]

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.

 

[tindrli]

<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> </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>

Truly disastrous times for RPG-s

 

[hakuroshi]

While attributes were rather meaningless in vanilla TES since MW at least, it was possible to use them in CS for various rpg-like effects. Not anymore.

 

[Commissar Draco]

After F03 I was expecting to the level of MW. Now it's not even worth stealing.
Shame becouse Graphics and art direction this time look decent.

 

[mondblut]

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

Seems he will have to raise he's intelligence more.

repaired

 

[Kalin]

Because your character in Skyrim can speak the language of dragons, you'll also be able to use dragon shouts. These are learned in the depths of caverns on stone slabs called word walls. When you string words together, it produces magical abilities. You can scream out force waves, slow time and crazier stuff depending on how much effort you're willing to put into finding word walls. The shout system is on a separate resource system from magic, which means even if you decided to play as a ropey muscular monstrosity who only knows how to crush things with heavy stuff, you should still be able to take full advantage of this system.

 

[Black]

I think the Codex should stop covering Skyrim, on the basis that it's no longer a RPG.

Didn't stop Codex gay lords to cover every bioware and bethesda non-rpg ever.

 

[Vibalist]

Because your character in Skyrim can speak the language of dragons, you'll also be able to use dragon shouts. These are learned in the depths of caverns on stone slabs called word walls. When you string words together, it produces magical abilities. You can scream out force waves, slow time and crazier stuff depending on how much effort you're willing to put into finding word walls. The shout system is on a separate resource system from magic, which means even if you decided to play as a ropey muscular monstrosity who only knows how to crush things with heavy stuff, you should still be able to take full advantage of this system.

Heh. This reminds me of a quote from some site that reviewed Oblivion back in the day. "Fret not, you can be a hearty warrior through and through and still rise to the top of the mages guild". This feature was seen as a good thing.