Latest Information (07.05.2011 - 21:17 GMT)
Upper and lower body armor is combined (Greaves and cuirass). This allows for more characters on the screen, better visuals and a lot more armors.
Quests are more like Oblivion's than Fallout 3's, in that there are more, but smaller quests.
Sprinting while wearing heavy armor drains stamina faster than if wearing light armor.
You can make friends by doing things for them, making them act differently, and even join you on adventures.
You can get married, and if you own a house, he/she will move in with you.
There is a set of armor made of (something from) dragons. There is both heavy and light variants of this.
Common armor, like leather and steel will have a more Nordic feel over it.
Enchanting works like in Oblivion, with the exception that it's now a skill and can be improved upon. The effects you can use are also changed, as well as how you learn to use these effects. You learn it by "breaking down" a magic item you find.
Racial movement speed is the same, and is governed by your equipment. Encumbrance is based on your stamina attribute.
There are non-lethal tavern brawls in the game.
Some buildings can be destroyed, but destroyable buildings are rare.
Dragons leaves marks and scars everywhere.
Males and females have different animations, and beast races have some different animations.
There is a sort of Karma system in the game, but there are no numbers. If you have been bad, people will acknowledge this, but no number will indicate this.
The blacksmith's shop includes a forge, a grindstone, and a smithing bench. You can improve your weapons at the grindstone. The higher your skill, the more you can improve them, and the more damage they'll do. Same thing for armor with the smithing bench, only the armor rating gets better. The forge is actually used to create new weapons and armor from raw materials.
The only sounds your character makes are combat grunts and shouts.
Overview:
1. - Combat
1.1. - Melee/Archery
1.2. - Magic
1.3. - Way of the Voice (Dragonshouts)
2. - AI
3. - Environment
4. - Plot
5. - Lore
6. - Graphics & Effects
7. - Sound
8. - Creatures
8.1 - Dragons
9. - Character, Leveling, Stats & Skills
10. - Interface
11. - Quests & Dialogue
12. - Misc Features
1. - Combat
* An overhauled combat-system.
* Inter-changeable dual-wielding with both weapons and spells. Dual-wield any combination, even staffs!
* Staggering effects and camera shake.
* Switching between loadouts on the fly is made easier thanks to a new quick-select menu that allows you to "bookmark" all of your favorite spells, shouts, and weapons for easy access.
* 'Magnetism' in your attacks draws them more towards enemies rather than allies.
1.1 - Melee/Archery
* Special kill animations: Depending on your weapon, the enemy, and the fight conditions, you may execute a devastating finishing move that extinguishes enemies with a stylistic flourish.
* Ranged combat has been improved by significantly increasing the damage bows deal.
* The draw-time of the bow has been increased, making is slower.
* Shield bash - If you hold down the block button, you'll attempt to bash the enemy with your shield.
* Specializing in a particular weapon is often the best way to go, as you can improve your attacking skills with perks. For instance, the sword perk increases your chances of landing critical strikes, the axe perk punishes enemies with bleeding damage after blows, and the mace perk ignores enemy armour.
* Timing-based blocking system that requires players to actively raise their shields to take the brunt of the attack instead of simply holding the block button.
* When backstabbing characters from the shadows, a dagger deals significantly more damage than any other type of weapon, making it the perfect tool for an assassin.
* Blunt & Blade skills have been replaced by Two-Handed & One-Handed.
* You can use Power Attacks, which uses Stamina and staggers enemies, by holding down the attack button.
* Torches can be used as a weapon.
* You can poison your weapon.
1.2 - Magic
* Spells needs to be equipped to be cast.
* There are over 85 spells to choose from, each with three different ways to cast.
* You can blast enemies with a flame ball from afar, hold the button down to wield the spell like a flame thrower or place a rune on the ground to create an environmental trap that spontaneously combusts when an enemy steps on it. Each spell has the same amount of flexibility.
* If you cast a frost spell, you'll see the effects on the enemy's skin. If you're wielding the flame spell like a flame thrower, the environment will catch fire for a short while and burn anything that comes into contact with it.
* Fire deals the highest amount of damage, lighting/shock deals less damage, but drains the enemy's magicka, while frost deals the least damage, but drains stamina and slows down enemies physically.
* You can dual-wield spells to double the damage at a higher magicka consumption.
1.3 - Way of the Voice (Dragon Shouts)
"A long practiced spiritual form of Nordic magic, also known as the Tongues, that is based on their worship of the Wind as a personification of Kynareth. Through the use of the Voice the power of a Nord can be formed into a thu'um, or shout - which has a large variety of applications (anything from sharpening blades to a long range weapon). Master Voices (known simply as Tongues) have legendary, and often unbelievable powers, including talking to people of hundreds of miles away or teleportation. The most powerful masters must even be careful whenever they speak, as their voice can cause great destruction and they are commonly gagged. During the Conquest of Morrowind, the Nordic war chiefs were also Tongues (Derek the Tall, Jorg Helmborg, Hoag Merkiller). They needed no typical siege weapons when attacking a city as they merely used the Voice to break down the city gate and allow their armies to storm in. The future of the Tongues was forever changed by the most powerful Tongue, Jurgen Windcaller, also better known as the Calm. Jurgen converted to a pacifist and refused to use the Voice for any martial purposes. In a confrontation with 17 other tongues he reportedly swallowed the Shouts of the 17 for three days until they lay exhausted, later to become his followers. Today, all Tongues live secluded lives on the highest peaks of Skyrim in tough conditions and contemplation, and have only spoken to announce the destiny of the great Tiber Septim (who later created an Imperial College of the Voice in Markarth, returning the Voice to the art of warfare). Those known as Dovahkiin, Dragonborn, can use a type of magic known as "Dragon Shouts." Dragon shouts are spoken in the Dragon Language, and can manipulate dragons in a variety of unknown ways, as well as performing other kinds of magic, also undocumented."
* You will be able to use Dragon Shouts.
* There are over 20 different Shouts.
* You collect words for these shouts around the world, either from ancient runes or by slaying dragons, and there are three words for each shout. The amount of time you hold down the shout button is how many words come out, and the more words you use, the more powerful the shout becomes.
* One shout lets you slow down time, another lets you move stealthily close to an enemy in a mere instant. One shout will even let you summon a dragon!
* Shouts has a cooldown time, which is universal, meaning that if you use one shout, every shout will need to cool down.
* Confirmed Dragon Shouts with names in Dragon language: "Yol Toor"- Fire breath, "Iiz Slen" - Ice crystals, "Strun Bah Qo" - Lightning Storm.
2. - NPCs & AI
* New, updated Radiant AI: You won't find townspeople loitering aimlessly in town squares anymore. Each NPC performs tasks that make sense in their environment. To impart the towns and cities with a greater sense of life, Bethesda has populated them with mills, farms, and mines that give the NPCs believable tasks to occupy their day. The improved Radiant AI technology is also more aware of how a citizen should react to your actions. As you perform tasks for them or terrorize them by ransacking their home, the NPCs develop feelings about you. If you're good friends with a particular NPC and barge into his house during the middle of the night, he may offer you lodging rather than demand you leave the premises. If you swing your weapon near an NPC, knock items off their dinner table, or try to steal something of value, they'll react with an appropriate level of hostility given their prior relationship to you.
* If you drop an item on the ground near NPCs they will react to that as well, such as a child might try to give you the sword back, two men will fight over it or someone might even try to kill you with it if they dislike you.
* when NPCs think they see or hear something, they go into an alert state, instead of instantly attacking you. Players with a higher sneak skill will have more time to duck back around the corner or find sanctuary in the shadows.
* When you approach an NPC, they will engage in dialogue with you, while continuing to do their task or making gestures or pacing around, depending on what their personality is.
* If you kill a shop owner, their family member will inherit the shop and will be angry about you, but still give you missions, which could then improve your relation with them.
* Main-Quest Givers are Essential (Not kill able)
* You can make friends by doing quests for people, making them act differently towards you, and they might even join you on an adventure.
* Male and female characters will have some different animations, and beast races will also have some unique animations.
3. - Environment
* Skyrim hosts very unique landscapes and dungeons.
* 5 major cities: Solitude, Riften, Whiterun, Windhelm, and Markarth.
* Eight or Nine smaller towns.
* More than 130 dungeons, ranging from 15 minutes long to about 1-2 hours.
* Approximately the size of Cyrodiil in areal, but the rugged landscape makes the world bigger, as you will need to go either over a mountain or around it to get to places instead of just straight forward - this makes it feel bigger.
* In the northern parts of the county Solitude is the Bard's College, a busy port town.
* Windhelm is the largest city. It has a palace that looks spectacular. This is also the hangout for the Imperial Guards who monitor the path to Morrowind.
* Traps and puzzles are used to make dungeons more interesting.
* Fish jumps out of the water.
* Birds flies in the air above you.
* Every town has it's own Economic System. If you destroy a city's means of income, they'll need to buy from another nearby city, and prices in the city will go up or some products will not be available in that city at all.
* Every big settlement has it's own unique culture & architecture.
* Dwemer ruins are scattered across Skyrim.
* High Hrothgar WILL have 7000 steps.
* There exists a carriage system that will take you to major locations.
* Some locations will have enemies that are too strong for your level, and you will have to come back when you are more powerful, and vice versa.
* You can knock oil lamps to the ground, which will then cause fire damage and you can try to catch your enemies on spikes. These are some of the effects
* Butterflies will fly around beautiful new flowers which can be picked for alchemical purposes.
* The major cities are not open.
* Over 100 points of interest across Skyrim. (including Giant camps, Necromancer lairs & Altars to different gods (Aedra and Daedra))
* There are hidden caves, hidden ships and secrets in the water.
* The higher you climb, the more severe the weather gets.
* There are rivers inside dungeons.
* Some buildings can be destroyed, but destroyable buildings are rare.
4. - Plot
TES V takes place 2 Centuries (200 years) after Oblivion. The King of Skyrim is dead, which has sparked a civil war. You are the last Dragonborn, a group characterized by their ability to hunt dragons. You are a prisoner. The Septim line was a prominent Dragonborn line protected by the Dragonguards which eventually became the blades. After the death of the Septim line, the Blades were hunted down and killed one by one and now are almost completely gone. The return of the dragons was foretold in the Elder Scrolls and was ushered in by the destruction of the Staff of Chaos, the creation of the Numidium, the events at Red Mountain and the Oblivion Crisis. There is a blade you come across, named Esbern (Voiced by Max Von Sydow.) that will train and guide you through the game. The last event to unfold before the dragons return was the people of Skyrim turning against each other which is happening at the beginning of the game. Dragons start to appear in greater and greater numbers as the game goes on and will eventually culminate with Alduin possibly coming into the world.
5. - Lore (UESP)
Thanks to the guys over at The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages for this list!
First Century
4E 1 — End of the Oblivion Crisis
* The banishing of Mehrunes Dagon from Tamriel by the Champion of Cyrodiil, Martin Septim, and the avatar of Akatosh ends the Oblivion Crisis. The Septim bloodline ends and the Amulet of Kings is destroyed. The Third Era ends, marking the beginning of the Fourth.
* The Fourth Era begins with no Emperor on the throne of Tamriel. High Chancellor Ocato, the Elder Council, and the Blades try to maintain order. The provinces start to take opportunities on the state of Empire.
4E ?? — The Empire Collapses
* Black Marsh secedes from the Empire; it is soon followed by Elsweyr.
4E ?? — Titus Mede is crowned the new emperor by conquest.
4E ?? — Morrowind is conquered by the Argonians.
* With the absence of Vivec, the Ministry of Truth becomes unstable. Vuhon creates an Ingenium in order to keep the rock stable by using first dozens of dying souls, then a small number of living ones as fuel. Sul fights Vuhon over his wife, who was being used as a living battery causing the Ministry of Truth to crash into Vvardenfell, destroying much of the island and killing many of the people. The Argonians of Black Marsh invade and conquer the crippled Dunmer.
4E ?? — The Thalmor seize control of the old Aldmeri Dominion (Valenwood and the Summerset Isle).
* The goal of the Thalmor is the pacification and purification of all of Tamriel – to bring about a new Merithic era. The Thalmor have many sympathizers throughout Cyrodiil and are thought to be funding insurgent groups to fight against the Empire.
4E 18 — Prince Attrebus Mede is born.
4E 23 — Annaïg Hoïnart is born.
4E 40s — The Infernal City
* Umbriel, a floating city, appears on the coast of Black Marsh, heading toward Morrowind. The city of Lilmoth, Black Marsh, the home of Annaïg, is destroyed in the process.
Third Century
4E 200s — The High King of Skyrim dies.
4E 200s — The Nords of Skyrim engage in a civil war.
6. - Graphics & Effects
* Dynamic Shadows.
* Snow falls dynamically.
* Water Physics.
* Improved Faces & Models.
* Draw Distance greatly increased, allowing for little to no grid pattern or low resolution distant land.
* No more SpeedTree: they've created their own platform that allows artists to build whatever kind of trees they want and to dictate how they animate. Artists can alter the weight of the branches to adjust how much they move in the wind, which is an effective way of, for instance, actualizing the danger of traversing steep mountain passes with howling winds violently shaking branches.
* Havok Behavior - Havok Behavior is a flexible animation tool that allows the developers to rapidly prototype and preview new animations and blend them together seamlessly with a few mouse clicks and minimal code support. Bethesda is using it to create more nuance in character and creature movement, govern special effects, and even to control how characters struggle to move when trapped in environmental hazards like spider webs. Characters now transition more realistically between walking, jogging and, running, and the increased nuance between animations has allowed Bethesda to better balance the combat in both first- and third-person perspective by adjusting the timing values for swings and blocks depending on your perspective. Perhaps the most impressive use of the Behavior technology is how Bethesda is using it to create the dragon animations. Bethesda has worked meticulously to make sure the beasts look powerful and menacing when banking, flapping their wings, gaining altitude before making another strafing run, and breathing fire on their hapless victims. None of the dragons' actions are scripted, and Behavior helps make the movements look non-mechanical, even when the dragons are speaking/shouting.
* Wind will whip up the surface of bodies of water.
7. - Sound
* Jeremy Soule is back.
* Max Von Sydow will be voice-acting Esbern (The Blade).
* Lots of voice actors compared to Oblivion and Fallout 3
* There are a few more famous actors than only Max Von Sydow.
* Around 70 Voice Actors.
* Approximately 47.000 lines of voiced dialogue.
* The only sounds your character makes are combat grunts and shouts.
8. - Creatures
* Confirmed creatures: zombies, draughr, skeletons, trolls, giants, ice wraiths, giant spiders, dragons, wolves, horses, Elk, mammoth, saber-toothed cats, Centurion Spheres, dogs, Skeevers, boars, rabbits, Horkers.
* Random spawns are scaled (stronger enemies appear at higher levels), but weak enemies aren't written out of the system, just become less common.
* A single spawn at lower levels can have enemies spawning in pairs at higher levels.
* Stronger enemies exist in the world at the start of the game, but you're usually given enough warning if you don't want to fight anything too strong.
* Giants herds mammoths, and travels together in packs, ignoring the player if undisturbed.
8.1 - Dragons
* There are different kinds of Dragons.
* You can not fly dragons.
* Some Dragons are scripted, while others appear randomly.
* Dragons can pick people up from the ground.
* When dragons are critically injured, they can't fly, and will land or crash to the ground.
* Dragons leaves scars and marks everywhere; when they crash or land on the ground, when they breath fire upon th environment, etc.
9. - Character, Leveling, Stats & Skills
* 10 playable races to choose from.
* In-depth character customization that allows to change your character physique, give them a beard, and other more detailed changes to your characters body.
* No More Class Selection - Your class is now determined by which skills you choose to progress and what weapons/spells you choose to use.
* There are 18 skills, down from 21.
* 4 skills are removed: Mysticism, Hand-to-Hand, Acrobatics & Athletics.
* Armorer is replaced by Smithing.
* No Major/Minor Skills to choose from, so every skill increase will contribute to a level-up.
* No Birth Signs.
* Advancing a skill from 30-31 will contribute more to a level-up than advancing a skill from 10-11, making it better to focus on a smaller range of skills.
* You gain a perk every level.
* When leveling up, you can pick stamina-, health- or magic boosts.
* There's a soft level-cap at 50, but you can still level-up after this, but you'll gain no perks. (Highest possible level is estimated to around 75)
* Leveling is faster than in previous games.
* 5 Magic Schools: Destruction, Alteration, Conjuration, Restoration & Illusion.
* There's a total of around 280 Perks (Including Ranks).
* Perks will, among other things, decrease the sound of your footsteps, Disarm enemies, give you access to Unique Special Moves.
* You can Sprint, which drains Stamina.
* Backwards running speed has been reduced, and you can no longer outrun NPCs while running backwards.
* There are three Archetypes: The Warrior, The Mage & The Thief. (You will not choose these, they are merely there for categorizing.)
* Each Archetype have a crafting-skill. The Warrior: Smithing, The Mage: Enchanting, The Thief: Alchemy.
* There are only 3 attributes: Health, Magicka and Stamina.
* Sprinting while wearing heavy armor drains Stamina faster.
* Your speed is governed by your stamina attribute and your equipment. Racial speed is the same, so a khajiit will run at the same speed as an Orc.
10. - Interface
* HUD-free first-person view. The HUD comes and goes when needed.
* Improved third-person view.
* When opening the menu, instead of returning you to the last page you visited as it did in Oblivion, you are now presented with a simple compass interface that offers four options. (Right: Inventory | Left: Magical Items | Down: Map & Quests | Up: Skills)
* Instead of relegating players to looking at an item's name and stat attributes, each possession is a tangible three dimensional item with it's own unique qualities.
* Mapping: Anything from your spell library or item inventory can be "bookmarked" to the favorites menu with the press of a button. How many items appear on that menu is up to each player.
* The map is a zoomed out version of the game world.
11. - Quests & Dialogue
* Radiant Story: Many quests are still completely governed by Bethesda, but the Radiant Story system helps randomize and relate the side quests to players to make the experience as dynamic and reactive as possible. Rather than inundate you with a string of unrelated and mundane tasks, it tailors missions based on who your character is, where you're at, what you've done in the past, and what you're currently doing. Radiant Story is also smart enough to know which caves and dungeons you've already visited and thus conditionalize where, for instance, a kidnapped person is being held to direct you toward a specific place you haven't been to before, populated with a specific level of enemy. Skyrim also tracks your friendships and grudges to generate missions. Do a small favor for a farmer and it may eventually lead to a larger quest. Some NPCs will even agree to be your companion to help you out in specific situations.
* Main Questline is approximately 30 hours.
* It's possible to play after finishing the Main Quest.
* Taverns will play a large role in getting information, gossip and rumors from a town as it's naturally where most people go after working, and you can listen to peoples conversation and learn more about the town and/or Skyrim itself.
* People will be more vague or specific when talking to you or giving you quests depending on how much they like you.
12. - Misc Features
* NPC Children.
* There are over 50 beards to pick from.
* There's two types of Fast-Travel: Morrowind-style & Oblivion-style.
* Every Race have a unique set of armor.
* There is no Multiplayer.
* You can buy houses.
* You can set oil on fire.
* You can hire companions.
* Nirnroots have made a return.
* There are more weapon and armor types in Skyrim compared to Oblivion.
* Soul Gems can be used like in previous TES games to trap souls.
* You can buy properties.
* Lock picking is still a mini-game.
* There are Chain-mail armor in the game.
* There's 13 different types of ore, which are used for crafting.
* There's a separate bounty for each of the 9 holds.
* Horses are confirmed, and they act more like real horses and are more detailed compared to Oblivion.
* Major Factions: Thieves Guild, College of Winterhold (Mage) and Companions (Warrior). (Their storylines are no longer unaware of other events in the world.)
* Other Factions: Dark Brotherhood.
* You can catch diseases.
* After killing an NPC, you can sleep in their bed.
* There will be less, but bigger (Expansion-like) DLCs compared to Fallout 3 & Oblivion.
* Upper and Lower armor is combined. (Greaves and Cuirass)
* Common armor like leather and steel have a more Nordic feel compared to Oblivion and Morrowind.
* You can get married, and if you own a house, (s)he will move in with you.
* There are non-lethal tavern brawls in the game.
* There is a "sort" of Karma system in the game, but it's not governed by numbers. Instead, people will react to what you do, and you will have to base how bad you are on that, and not numbers.
ALL CREDIT OF THIS INFORMATION LIST GOES TO THE GUYS OVER AT BETHSOFT AND NEXUS FORUMS
Media (Trailers, Screenshots and Art):
http://www.elderscrolls.com/skyrim/media/
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