The IDEA of birthsigns was fíng cool. Their GAMPLAY application however, was far from functional. I guess they are concentrating more on making worthwhile racial benefits. And your logic about it being the same as a mage svcking with a two handed sword just doesnt make any sense.

Birthsigns are constellations you're born under. Technically not granting you their power but if you're born under them... you follow that path? And unlock certain traits through experience?

Any of that sound good?

I think that's a good reasoning how "unlocking" birthsigns could work. You always had that birthsign, but it doesn't take effect until you follow its path.

Not sure. I've always felt that while everyone in Tamriel is born with the potential to harness their birthsign's power, they may not truly realize it or be capable of doing so. Do you really think that lowly carpenter who has never adventured a day in his life would be going around using the power of The Serpent to poison his enemies? Doesn't seem quite right. Racial powers, I feel, are things that everybody is aware they possess.

But birthsigns are something, depending on your actions, you may not fully realize until later on in life - just as how we don't know we're the Dovahkiin nor have the power to use Thu'um until the events of Skyrim. Personally I think the average citizen of Tamriel doesn't walk around going, "yeah, I was born under the steed, I'm way faster than you guys."

But I know what you mean in a sense - sudden acquisition of a power without any foreshadowing would be kind of gimmicky. Then again, aren't perks doing that in a way?

Sheesh....

Nobody said you "build birthsigns over time". What Todd meant is that you still get in a way all the stuff you used to have...they are just shuffled around the system, whether they now make a perk, or other such thing.

Well then at chargen we can chose basic birthsign from such category as part starting specialization, for example choosing the sign of The Tower will give basic perks from The Tower perks tree in nebula of The Warrior, such chosen perks will not count in total perks limit and can work as starting traits, while furtherer playing of game we will rise affinity with such birthsign by investing more perk points into it.

But now its more like start with blank character, thats has only race traits and nothing more, does this mean during chargen quest we will rise in some levels and take some first steps in building of character?

As I understand the perks they fill out the constellations which are represented by the bithsighs. So your level 1 perk, just pretend that is your bithsign. So you pick a perk in the Thief constellation, hey you were born under the sign of the thief.

I was born under the constellation "The Big Dipper" but I didn't start using smokeless tobacco until my junior year playing for the high school baseball team. Clearly I didn't realize my potential as a Big Dipper until my late teens.

Hahaha + 1.

Pretty much. And the game already does this, I'm sure, but it's probably just visual right now.

It's not a perfect anology, but in Arnea/Daggerfall if you chose to generate your class through answering questions each response would gradually light up each constellation, one star at a time. The constellation that was strongest was basically your birthsign, in a way - so I think retroactively realizing your birthsign through how you act makes just as much sense as knowing it from birth.

yeah i like what they are doing with skills, and the attribute thing i think is good, but i still think they should keep birthsigns.
birthsigns are what kind of personalize your character.

You could just imagine it (I was :ninja:), but I agree you having in game birthsigns makes it feel more official. Even if they only gave slight bonuses in most cases.

Guess what, the birthsigns are gone and they're not gonna suddenly come back. So this thread is meaningless, please use one of the 40 other already existing threads about this topic. yeeesh... <_<

Actually, Morrowind birthsigns were a extremely simplified version of Daggerfall advantages/disadvantages...and now they are totally gone.

Daggerfall system wasn't related to the constellations, by the way.

There is this relevant quote:



http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/04/18/skyrim-skills/#more-57393

I don't like having all starting abilities just based on race.

It wouldn't be a TES game without the removal of content. That's their longstanding tradition. I never expected they'd do anything else.

I'm sorry, but that is a rather myopic statement. They remove some. They add some.
The new Dragon Shouts feature ia a removal of what, you say?

Spellmaking.

Are you positive about this? I wouldn't be.
For every feature removed, I'm sure i will be able to provide a new one when the game comes out. Anyway, feture removal can actually be a good thing. Take the speechcraft wheel.

To state the Elder Scrolls series disctintive feature is the consistent removal of content is just missing the forest because some obsolete tree bark has been removed.

Which TES games have you played? When did you start playing them?

AHAHAHAHHAH AHHAHAHHAHAH
HAHHAHAHAHHAHA

You seriously believe that?

Because, you know, it's not like the whole spell system got changed, and that made spellmaking problematic.

No, you're right, obviously it's the Dragon Shouts which doesn't even have anything resembling the old spell effects...

Birthsigns didn't make any sense in Oblivion. In Morrowind, the reason they were there was because you were "born under a certain sign". In Redguard, a whole plot point was made about a child being born under a sign (serpent). In Oblivion they were there because................ they were in Morrowind. In both Morrowind and Oblivion, birthsigns were pointless from a gameplay perspective except for the Atronach. I hope there's some way to implement that, since it was available in arena (sorcerer class) and daggerfall (advantage/disadvantage). The rest of the signs gave you a little attribute boost or some spell.

http://www.gametrailers.com/users/IW-Brooks/gamepad/?action=blog talks briefly about how you literally look into the heavens.

From what I understand is instead of making separate spells, you can basically do this on your own on the fly.