SKYRIM HYPE THREAD: UNDEAD CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE DRAGON'S SOUL

Max McGee
Okay, I was hoping it was that--like Morrowind in other words, more Nords because it's more LOGICAL to have more Nords-- not "everyone is human looking now because we're embarassed of the races/selling out".

You can still play as any race, right?

Yes, you can. I doubt they're embarrassed, considering how both of the bestial races have unique, appropriate animations for running/unarmed attacks/swimming/etc.

Wait, did you say that "Weapon Types" are not returning??

So weapons don't get worse over time with use?

I meant the ones that you specified. There are still certainly "weapon types;" skills were merged into one-handed, two-handed and archery, but 1H/2H trees have perks for specific weapon types. For instance, you can make axes bleed opponents.

As for weapon degradation, no. Like I said, it's bonus-based design for the entire game, not punishment-based. For example, heavy armor doesn't reduce your spell effectiveness; instead, wearing mage robes increases your magicka regeneration. It's D&D 4e philosophy compared to earlier editions, which I am a huge fan of and support.

No spellcrafting? That fucking sucks! Seems like an unjustifiable deletion to me.

Really? They wanted to hand-craft the entire world and each playstyle's experience. The way magic works now, there isn't Novice Fireball, Apprentice Fireball, Journeyman Fireball, etc.; there are still tiered spells overall, but generally only one or two of each spell. Different instances also play differently; Fireball requires you to hold the trigger to build it up to deal more damage and has splash damage; Sparks lets you tap the trigger for tiny blasts or hold it to produce a flamethrower that continually drains magicka.

Summary: there will be one Oakflesh spell you can improve via the Alteration tree, not 5 levels of Shield. That sounds so much better than spellcrafting to me.

Also, considering that they added smithing, cooking and made enchanting more accessible, I have absolutely no complains.

-Mysticism as a skill - all of the spells are still available, except possibly Telekinesis (but we've seen plenty of other really cool spells, don't worry - necromancy, metal transmutation, etc.). Mysticism spells have simply been moved to other schools of magicka

I just haven't seen mention of it. I don't know whether it's in or not. I've seen spells such as Detect Life, Telekinesis (both Alteration, thanks UESP) and Soul Trap (the latter is under Conjuration, which makes sense since conjuration is now the "dark arts"/necromancy as well as atronach summoning, and you can even get a perk that automatically applies Soul Trap to your bound equipment).

-Mercantile (now a Speechcraft perk)

Meh.

Maybe not! You can get perks that, for example, make characters of the opposite sex give you a 10% discount.

They removed STATS? Your characters no longer HAVE STATS? Please explain/justify.

Uh, yeah. This is one of my favorite changes. There's now just Health/Magicka/Stamina. You increase one by +10 each level.

Bethesda realized that the old stats did nothing but improve the secondary stats - Endurance raised Health, Intelligence/Willpower raised Magicka efficiency, Willpower/Agility/Speed/Strength/Endurance raised Stamina efficiency. There were a few other effects (Strength/Agility raising melee/ranged damage, Speed raising movement speed) that are now folded much more elegantly into perks and armor choices. Stamina is also now useful for all classes (affecting weapon damage and being the cost for power attacks like before, but also now used for sprinting and having max stamina determine max carry weight).

You might say "just tack on more secondary bonuses to make stats worthwhile!!!!" but honestly, The Elder Scrolls is about a single dude in an action-RPG. If you want statistics, play a turn-based RPG with multiple characters to compare against each other. Skyrim still has eighteen skills and ~280 perks. Yes, they took out athletics/acrobatics. If you think that skills involving running and jumping (which you... do, no matter what, the entire game) are worthwhile, we can't be friends.

Related: they renovated the leveling system. There are no classes, and all skills contribute to leveling up. However, skills that you've built up are worth more level XP, so you still "specialize" but without the paralysis of "what do I want my dude to do for a hundred hours" or the idiocy of the major/minor skillfuckery that Oblivion had.

Final important question: what are they doing with enemies? Do they level with you a la Oblivion (lame) or are they static-by-location like in Morrowind (brutal, but better).

A mix, Fallout-style. Areas have level ranges, say, 10-15. Once you arrive, it's locked-in. People are not alien to dying in streams and videos I've seen.

Wilderness encounters change primarily based on elevation (Todd Howard's goal for a game world so mountainous was "the higher it is, the harder it is"). While climbing the 7,000 steps to High Hrothgar, I watched one dude kill some wolves, then a lone ice wolf. The ice wolf was tougher but manageable since it was 1vs1.

Then he encountered a frost troll. He tried sniping it from above, but it regened too quickly while he was charging up another lightning bolt. He saved, attempted melee, died horribly.

Hooray for sprinting!

Is the alchemy system returning?

Yes. There is a crafting skill for each of the three overall specializations: crafting for the sign of the warrior, enchanting for the sign of the mage, and alchemy for the sign of the thief. Wortcraft is now more important for alchemy, as you use it to discover primary effects (or you can randomly mix ingredients together, but if they don't have similar properties then you've wasted them).


Related to the omissions/changes: birthsigns have changed dramatically. There are now clusters of Standing Stones all over Skyrim, kind of like the Doomstones in Oblivion. Now they change your birthsign completely; you have none during character creation. Known effects are listed here:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Standing_Stone

EDIT: Streams have confirmed that the Lover raises all skill gains by ~10%, but it is not on the UESP yet.

ShortStar
Every complaint will become some fan made mod. There aren't stats visible but they're still there. Use them and they'll get better.

what

I only understood about 27% of that but



pretty sure you can see your skills?

I plan on a more in-depth response later, Max, but for now: from my impressions from streams and pirate's impressions, it's still a complete Elder Scrolls game/experience. They enhanced the action elements; they didn't take out anything for the action. The cities are bigger and more interesting than ever, helped by an army of voice actors.

Listening to the various accents of people in Whiterun was an eargasm, helped along by much better writing. I haven't played New Vegas yet, but I assume the writing itself is comparable between Oblivion to Skyrim as it is from FO3 to FO:NV.

It's gone as its own skill, but not as an option. Khajiit have bonus unarmed damage (and a unique animation where they splay their claws out and rake opponents instead of punch; Argonians have a similar animation (their hands look amazing) but no bonus damage) and heavy armor has a perk that boosts unarmed damage when you have gauntlets equipped.

Trust me, I'm on top of this. Khajiit monk is my favorite TES class. I'm just not going to play one until somebody mods in a toggle for Khajiit nighteye.

It's a really cheap perk; only requires skill level 30. You need one point in the initial Heavy Armor perk and then one in the unarmed fighting perk.

Anyway, they actually might run into issues if there were a specific unarmed skill. You see, one of the new ways to get information out of people is to get into a brawl - you must use your fists, or else it counts as assault and becomes illegal. Complete unarmed mastery could turn that into an accidental bloodbath.

The best part is when your companion starts commenting on your ability/inability to brawl. While you say STATS R GUNE BOO HOO, your Health/Stamina still play a role in brawls. Power attacks use up waaaay more Stamina, to the point where the starting 100 Stamina is almost totally drained by a single 2H power attack, so if you want the upper hand and to deal more damage in a brawl you should have that physical endurance.

You can also learn to roll in the Sneak tree (moved from Oblivion's Acrobatics), which should be useful for dodging quickly.

STATS: you have 18 + 3 of them, fucking deal with it


Restoration was, somehow, made badass. Like, seriously, your paladin or healer-dude character will be amazing. You can get an auto-life perk (sort of, 250 HP auto-heal when at <10% HP once/day), a perk that makes you deal more damage to undead, increased magicka regen (oh hey WILLPOWER in a place where it makes sense, I love it), and my favorite: instead of having stamina restoration spells in the game, you can get a cheap perk that ties HP restoration to Stamina restoration - so casting Healing also aids your Stamina. This basically means that a Resto-specced character can SPRINT FOREVER.

Conjuration is also nifty (note: EVERYTHING IS NIFTY), such as perks that let conjured weapons inflict Soul Trap or banish other conjurers' summoned/animated allies. Other awesome perks include Lockpicking perks that increase loot quality and an Alchemy perk that lets you get 2x items when harvesting from plants. (You can also harvest insects, fish and ore now, so the distinction is important.) Also, harvesting never fails in Skyrim.

I do not give a fuck about "losing" stats. You get so much more customization with this system it's not even close to being able to say that it's not even funny.

Bretons get +10 starting Conjuration (the highest) so good pick, Max! I'm going to be rolling a Dunmer Nightblade, focusing on Sneak/Illusion/Conjuration. Playing the Dark Brotherhood by animating my marks post-mortem just sounds too tempting.