Almost everyone seems disappointed by the reduction in skills. Hope they're amenable to change!

Otherwise I just don't know enough to make a judgement either way. But to anyone that's played a lot of games the word "streamlined" has become something of a curse. Fable 3, heavily "streamlined" and for the majority of fans worse than the second. Just for one example.

the scaling is like the style they used in fallout 3, not oblivion. big scary monsters will still be big scary monsters no matter what your level

Well that's sort of an untrue generalization. :mellow:

I think that if they pull this off right (and from what I've read so far, they will), then the game will be able to have a much better and more unique skill system. Read the thread made by Orzon about this before instantly bashing the skill changes. More =/= merrier.

Nope, not swayed. Reduction from Daggerfall to Morrowind was a bit of a disappointment, from Morrowind to Oblivion was definitely bad, and now a third time is somehow supposed to get better? Perks might be neat, but I'll take that AND a higher amount of skills thank you.

Tell me honestly, what is the point of having a skill like athletics that you increase by doing almost nothing? Should they include breathing skills too?

I am dissapointed with the skills being reduced to 18. Seriously! I can't stand this continued simpification of the skill system. Change and reorganise them to reduce redundancy and make them more even and useful? Definitely. Add more? Maybe. Take some away? You must be joking.

With the combat section for example, there would be 6 skills, almost definitely including smithing, hand to hand and block. I want long and short blade, blunt and polearms, but with only 18 skills, this is an impossibility. I am hoping this is not limited further by having a skill for 1 and 2 handed fighting.

On the other things, I am mostly meh. Dual weilding could be great or flop (and I've stated better not be a skill).

I can't say there was anything that dissapointed me that much. The TES community is some of the biggest whiners in history.

I have not had a chance to get GameInformer yet, but based on an article in The Escapist, the changes noted so far are quite promising.

My biggest worry at this point is the possibility of a dull static unthreatening natural environment ...with far-too-easy puzzles. The second biggest worry is an uninspiring magic/alchemy/enchanting system.

Dull and static are not what the developers seem to be going for. Quest locations for certain side quests are determined randomly, AI has been improved, and dragons can attack towns supposedly all of a sudden.

I have a quick question.
Has there been any info about whether being out in the snow for too long affects the status of your character?
Environmental hazards and the like?

You know I've heard an almost identical post on almost every forum I've been on about a series of films, episodes or games.

What annoys me is so many people complaining about complaining (yes I get the irony that I am also complaining haha.). This is always the nature of discussion boards, and I think it's a good thing. Complaints lead to discussions. Sometimes the original complaints are silly, sometimes valid, and most of the time varies a lot on opinion. But they always lead into discussions where people are cooperatively criticising to get a better idea of what would make a better game. It leads to progress, to a greater understanding, and to improvement. And even if the Bethesda team don't take it on board, it's still fun to talk about. If you don't want to discuss it, all you have to do is not enter this thread.

Seriously? Are some of you guys ever happy?

What in the world suggests that this game will be "simplified", and what exactly is your definition of simplified? Less skills? Using this mentality, you'll never be pleased with modern games. Developers like to improve, and from what I'm seeing Skyrim is a testament to Bethesda's goal for a big-leap in the series. To relate it to Oblivion is just ridiculous.

What makes an RPG great for most is really the in-game experiences and the multi-leveled customization. Grow some cojones, change is good.

Most of us Morrowind and earlier fans did not like the casual changes in Oblivion, and would not like to see the series continue in this direction.

That is why.

It's going to.
So you might as well find another series to be a fan of. Or just replay the older stuff.

I love most of the info they have given so far, some concerns here and there, but I'm sure it will still be an epic game.

Radiant story telling might be a little hard to pull off. I remember the radiant AI of oblivion wasn't as good as it was hyped to be. While I wish there was no level scaling I'm ok with it if and ONLY if there are monsters I just cannot defeat when I am level 'X' but will be able to when I have advanced 10 levels or so. I love the feeling of defeating a monster that broke my back the first time around.

This is the first info reveal. They need to release info in stages, not all at once. this was the 'give us anything' that you guys (some of you.. probably the OP too) have been begging for. I need to upgrade my computer. This and crysis 2 are main reasons.

Or mod the new stuff. We can do that too.

Dull and static. By these I mean:
Can I (un)freeze the surface of a lake? Can a I light a building on fire? Can I chop down a tree, and use it as an ad hoc bridge? Can I tunnel through solid rock? Dig a trench?

Will there be hypothermia, altitude sickness, 'the bends' (from diving too deep), heat stroke (from dragon breath?) natural outdoor traps & avalanches.

Will the outdoor or dungeon environments test me in a deep logical non-monster driven way?

Other than the" zomg" part the rest is true and found on these forums like it or not. Not sure how I make YOU (or us if we agree) look stupid but whatever. That's not my point. Im just saying I don't under stand why people are moaning over details we don't have.

And feel free to explain how I "continue" to embellish considering it's my first post on the subject.

I haven't read the full article just some scans, so I can't really say anything about a lot of stuff but I will comment on the stuff I have seen.
Radiant story: interesting concept and increases the amount of quests while hopefully making them a bit less repetitive than Daggerfall (which I haven't played but what iv'e read had about six quests it repeated endlessly) and providing incentive to explore more dungeons. Oblivion had dozens of dungeons you had no actual reason to go into and thus most likely never got to see. And with the promised increase in dungeon variation this seems quite promising.
Level scaling: I have no idea why people hate this as much as they do. It's a simple anti-frustration feature. You won't get killed by high-level monsters while exploring when you're low-level, you won't get bored and annoyed by low-level monsters when exploring when you're high-level. Dungeons and quests will always be challenging and thus satisfying provided you have the difficulty at a level good for you.
UI: It does seem a bit cumbersome but I cant really say without seeing it in action.
Combat: Again, have to see it in action but having to have a hand empty to cast magic is actually pretty logical, shield-bash is always good, nice to see that some actual reaction times probably are necessary to fight instead of Morrowinds hit the attack button and pray to the random number god.
Dragons&Dragon killing: Awesome of course.
Graphics: Good, but art-direction is always more important than the amount of polygons and texture detail. And seriously the graphics only have to be good enough to provide an immersive backdrop to the gameplay.

This is what I don't like:



So....no consequences to our choice? They mentioned this like it's a good thing. It's not. Also, it makes no sense what so ever. If I kill someone's family member, he wouldn't give me a mission out of anger - he'd [censored] castrate me.



Even less skills. Removing a skill or two wouldn't be a problem, but this is 9 skills less than Morrowind, and as far as I'm concerned most of MW's skills were useful. Most, not all.

Dual wielding.

Level scaling on random quests.

EDIT: And that you may get someone returning your item if you drop it, or two people fighting for it. It just seems unnecessary clutter which some good time must have been devoted to it. Definitely not something which interests me.

Most of the rest I read was good.

On the bright said we get the enchanting skill back, which Oblivion lacked.

this is not minecraft, and i dont think any games on this scale allow for that