Ok so we know that skyrim has:

- a civil war going on between the empire and the nation of skyrim, certain factions wish to secede from a unionized tamriel.

- that Radiant AI has gone under a major overhaul.
hopefully that means npc will recognize friendly when they are accidentally hit

- the world is much larger than before A MASSIVE DRAW DISTANCE "everything you can see-from the lowest valley to the highest distant snowcapped rock is traversable"

- its incredibly varied: it has plains and forests and tundras and mountains and valleys and glaciers!
different setting for tactical advantage
in the woods a more guerrilla, stealth combat would be favored.
on the plains you may want cavalry and archers.
in the hills and cliffs whoever has the high ground usually wins.

so, can we expect a full scale war?
i have mentioned this before somewhere but now that we have information it should be a good time to revisit the topic and....

DISCUSS!

If there is a full scale war I have a feeling I'm going to hate it.

Yup.


There's going to be a huge epic battle in it.

Sort of like the one in Oblivion.

The one with 12 NPCs? God, not again.

rofl, a handful of dudes representing all of cyrodil to hold back an entire plain of oblivion, some epic battle.

I hope you have different regions that are in conflict with each other, and instead of huge battles, you can pick a side and help them gain more power than their enemies. It would be like choosing between one of the great houses in Morrowind. At least, this is what I hope they have. Maybe as you finish more missions for a particular side, representatives for the other factions will become less and less friendly until they become hostile. Similar in nature to the different factions in New Vegas, you can choose to side with one, or you can play each of them against each other. Reading in the imperial library about Skyrim, they mention that some of the major cities/regions of Skyrim have been historic enemies of each other...so it would make sense.

that is not 'incredibly varied'

have you read the gi yet? it shows you how unique they are. not quite like cyrodil where it felt like each region was the same except with snow and a slight incline.
and it is varied, read the mag.

cryodil was disgustingly boring, and i dont know why people defend it saying they were inspired by lotr, middle earth looks nothing like it.
i hope skyrim is much better

oblivion was sort of an extreme
"varied terrain", I would say, would be several completely different climate zones and biomes, rather than the same climate area across the entire region.
if there were lush forests flowing into rocky wastelands with no trees in sight, that would be varied
not forests with snow and forests without snow

I suspect that the civil war is going to be similar to the conflict in New Vegas, in that there's a number of different conflicting factions, but instead of having an actual dynamic war going on its just scripted events that follow the storyline, and I hope that, like in New Vegas, you can choose which, if any, factions to help and determine the outcome of their conflict from your choices. While they might be overhauling Radiant AI, I'm guessing this just controls NPC behavior, like the Radiant AI in Oblivion except better, and I sure hope it's better, or their "overhaul" will have just been a waste of time. I doubt it can properly handle a dynamic war and even if it could, I doubt I'd want it. I really don't want dramatic changes occuring in the world of my Elder Scrolls game which I have no power to effect with my own choices while I'm off adventuring.



They say that it was inspired by Lord of the Rings because it was, and when I say it is, I'm not defending it, I'm criticizing it for being unoriginal, and worse, choosing something to rip-off that thousands of others have also ripped off, if you can't come up with your own ideas, at least you should draw your ideas from a source that hasn't been ripped off by everyone else yet. Now, it may not have been a successful attempt to rip off Lord of the Rings, but that doesn't change the fact that it was an attempt to do so.

I don't get how the variety of the landscape relates to the civil war, though, unless you're trying to discuss the tactical impact different types of terrain will have on batles.

IT IS!!! LOL!
and im so happy about that. and the graphics have improved making every area look so much more organic.
its huge too,
and the tundra looks awesome, they have a picture of a dude with some awesome [ebony armor?] fighting ice wraiths...its epic.

Hopefully you'll have to work your way through he conflicts. Either by siding with the arguments you stand for or trying to use the war for you own benefits.

right, like the fighters guild vs the thieves guild in morrowind.
you had to pick one or the other eventually...but there was a way to work for both if you did it right [ i didn't :banghead: ]

Gah, why are you still here? Not a single post has been positive. Go back to your generic FPS games.

The variation sounds great. I'm loving the birch trees shot. Damn, that's gorgeous.

this is exactly what i meant. thanks for reading through the lines...ill change the op.

nor did i

I sure hope we'll see conflict on a regular basis. If they randomise so much of the world, why not give us a small battlefield to stumble upon, and then help one side or the other. The ruthless rebels of the Nord or the doombringer-worshipping Imperials.

No, that would be stupid. This is not Eragon. We need to make some concessions to basic geographical plausibility.

I'd also like to see skirmishes we could take sides in, at least. I've got no doubt there will be quest chains for both sides of the civil war that allow us to fight the other.

Not very epic when the world was about to destroy they could get 10 guards to defend the realm :trollface:

yep
side note, change your sig.

it wouldnt be stupid, but it might not be skyrim, he speaks the truth.
but the world has been made. its done.

and what does Eragon have to do with anything.

What? Those pathetic excuse for reinforcements were a bunch of handpicked monkeys if you ask me.

I'm hoping for some really big battles, yes!
Like when a dragons attack a city I want to see the people being terrified in the streets! I want to see the town guards being afraid, calling for your help

And concerning a civil war, I want some moderately big battles, yes! Say between 40-60 NPCs.


Anyway the "big battles" shouldn't be very often. They should exist, but only a few times.

I never said anything about how I think skyrim should be, I was simply clarifying that the claim of "varied terrain" isn't entirely accurate.