Nameless Voice on 20/6/2011 at 14:28
I just hope there's still some way of making your character faster, I hated having to run slow as molasses in Fallout 3 with no possibility of running any faster.
jaxa on 20/6/2011 at 14:39
I'll miss Morrowind's crouching tiger hidden dragon style jumping around, and Oblivion's infinite forward flip.
With dragons and maybe some other flying creatures featuring prominently in Skyrim, I am now optimistic about levitate making a comeback. Aerial battles = awesome. When it's not a silt strider.
Edit:
(
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Skyrim)
"Stamina can be expended quickly by choosing to "sprint", and backward movement is slower than forward movement."
And it looks like levitation is fully dead.
dexterward on 20/6/2011 at 15:30
"Streamlined"... eh... remember when it was actually quite a cool word, bringing to mind some sleek airliner or a car.
Guess it was sort of inevitable, given current (casual) design philosophy and how Oblivion was already trimmed. Still, it sucks big time.
Regardless, I`ll play it for sure and most likely love it too - simply because Bethesda is unmatched in creating true open worlds. Oblivion, despite it`s game-breaking leveling flaw, was still amazing. FO3: currently my best-game-ever (dethroning Thief after a decade...or well, kind of, Thief is actually outside any rankings ;)
I`d hate if they do this to Fallout though...somehow Vats & stats work really well for me there.
Sulphur on 20/6/2011 at 16:41
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
That doesn't even make sense. Skill-based levelling is the heart of The Elder Scrolls, they're hardly going to change that.
Yeah, I knew that one was coming. Whether it's the heart of it or not, there's a reason why 99% of other RPGs go in the other direction - because it works with minimal fuss and confusion.
Quote:
And there's no "picking" of primary skills any more. All your skills contribute to your levels now.
Considering that Skyrim's going with an NPC level 'lock-in' system like FO3 depending on your level once you enter an area, if this means that you now level up at a ridiculously fast rate simply by changing the skills your characters focuses on from time to time, it's still borked.
AltF4 on 21/6/2011 at 01:33
I admire a system that lets your skills improve statistically the more you use them in game, but the marriage of major skill upgrades to level upgrades (and therefore automatic NPC power-ups), was one of the the key problems. When combined with the fact that if you didn't level your endurance/health correctly, you'd be way underpowered very quickly. Breaking my game play to practice block/heavy armor/ armorer before levelling was really game breaking, and impractical when dungeoneering. The fact that certain skills levelled quicker depending on whether they were major skills AND part of the speciality group that was selected at character creation (magic, stealth, combat), resulted in levelling that approached terminal velocity.
It looks like Skyrim is attempting to address this by divorcing the skill upgrades from the 'attribute' improvements - ie, by letting the player choose which main 'attribute' they level, so that health/magika/fatigue is no longer tied to the skills you have increased each level. Ie, if my stealthy mage-archer only improves marksman, stealth and alteration, I can still improve my health points when I level.
I'm not sure if I've got my info correct, but I remember reading that levelling would actually be based on XP, much like Fallout 3, rather than skill increases per se ?
Given that there is supposedly many hundred hours of content in the game, I'd love to see a user controlled slider to set the rate at which you gain XP/skill increases. Unlike other RPGs, I actually enjoy playing TES games as a lowbie...
Nameless Voice on 21/6/2011 at 02:35
Quote Posted by AltF4
I'm not sure if I've got my info correct, but I remember reading that levelling would actually be based on XP, much like Fallout 3, rather than skill increases per se ?
An Elder Scrolls game where a thief becomes a better thief by killing another troll? I really can't see that happening.
No, as I understand it, the new levelling system is based on your skills, and the skills that affect levelling the most are the ones that are the highest, so as you begin so specialise in archery (for example), archery will become more and more vital to your character's levelling.
AltF4 on 21/6/2011 at 04:04
hmmn - ok, fair enough. I should know my now that internet > my memory :)
Then I guess I'll to have wait and see how the levelling is balanced re npc power this time round in Skyrim, or wait for the inevitable mod that allows some user control of the levelling speed.
I do remember a quote from Todd Howard where he indicates that levelling is 'faster', and that the game (from their point of view) is a 1-50 level range type of game, compared to Oblivion which was more of a 1 to 25 level range.
Nameless Voice on 21/6/2011 at 11:34
I also seem to recall that they said that NPC levelling was still going to be in, which I frankly hate.
I'd much rather see the Gothic / Risen system, where insanely tough monsters live in certain places and will wipe the floor with you if you're not ready, rather than them just magically not being there until you're strong enough to fight them. We'll see...
dexterward on 21/6/2011 at 13:44
I hated monsters leveling in Oblivion - but I think it was due to devs messing it up. It actually works quite well in FO3 - it`s hard to say due to it`s open nature, but so far monsters/areas are either challenging enough or totally outta my range. With few that are easily defeated. Grand.
Granted, I play with slow XP mod and on hardest so again, hard to say really. But if they managed to pull it off in Skyrim it would be great...or just leave breathing space for modders.
It`s no mystery they aim at more casual gamers with this fast leveling. I can understand that - not everyone wants to actually live in these games like me, but it`s not too much asking to leave proper Hardcore option in game, is it now?
Also playing Risen at the mo...mixed feelings about their system. I sort of like it in jRpgs which are more linear, but here - in supposedly semi-open world, these effectively serve as impassable barriers, sort of limiting the island which is not that big to start with. Or maybe it just annoys me because a) they won`t let me upgrade the armour b) guy`s jog is excruciatingly slow c) there`s no good indication to how strong they actually are, leading to many backtracks/trial&error to-and-fro - see b)
Still love it though.
Nameless Voice on 21/6/2011 at 15:00
Fallout: New Vegas handles it even better, as there are parts of that map that always have Deathclaws and other tough monsters in them. Sometimes, if you're low level, you might meet more young ones, but there are still enough adults to making going there pretty much instant death unless you're very well levelled, skilled and equipped.
