I was reading the new article on IGN and it basically said you choose your race and appearence, then you're done with character generation. At a glance this can mean one of two things:

1: That we choose them later as in Oblivion.
-or-
2: That Birthsigns as we know them are out.

However, I also had the thought that maybe at the beginning, or perhaps your first level up, the first set of perks you choose from would be the Birthsigns. Frankly I like this idea, as it would be a good way to introduce the perk system when we haven't had a lot of time to decide which way we want to go and what to focus on. Does anybody else have a thought on this?

I think we pick a race, gender, appearance and that's it. We'll get racial bonuses though.

One of the articles confirmed that birth signs are out. You can go on bethblog and scavenge through all the articles to see which internet site made that confirmation. Personally, racial abilities are what were the most relevant. Players will now be able to shape their own constellations in the sky through their choices in weapons and skills. Birth signs merely gave another special ability.

Watch the new interview with Todd on http://bethblog.com/. Birthsigns are out.

So it's racial bonuses and that's it.

Another dumb exclusion.

if true this would ruin the came for me

hth do they take out birthsigns

Wow

I just realized how much work modders have in front of them.........lots and lots of work.

Word. Has this been confirmed?

~ Dani ~

It makes little sense that they would get rid of birth signs when this game is going to have more of a emphasis on astronomy, but I can live without them I guess. :cold: I'll be fine. . . someday.

Yeah, it's going to be difficult to mod anything character related. Attributes were intuitive and easy to work with. Relying on perks isn't good because then you'll need an abomination of a script or else people are going to end up forced into picking certain perks or skills. Birthsigns weren't much different, but it is annoying seeing as most of the character customization is now out. And with no character creation at all, that means we're starting out completely useless. I guess my PC history is going to be something along the lines of "Been in jail for a long, long time. Which is why they're apparently not good at anything."

I love the new system. Thanks Beth.

I will second that. I am very happy with the changes.

I third this. I only picked "The Lady" anyways.

Birthsigns were almost completely useless in Morrowind and Oblivion. Why would I want a useless lock-picking ability that doesn't work on most doors (and that I cannot revert) when there will likely be perks that are much more useful and practical to the player as they progress?

It would be one thing if birthsigns actually added something to the game, but they were really irrelevant in regards to racial abilities, which made more sense.

Yeah, I always thought it a nice feature that further separated TES from other games.

I agree, I only found the tower worthwile as a younger player, but now i realise they are all as redundant as each other.... no offence to the birthsign lovers..

I still like the birthsigns. so hopefully there will be a mod for this eventually.

Most of them were of little use, but the apprentice and mage werre both really good, especially at early levels when mage-type chaarcters have the biggest problems.

While I don't mind them taking out birthsigns as we know them in TES, I was hoping for an overhaul of the system.

Rather than a few early stat boosts that don't matter in the long run, I was hoping for something that follows your character the whole game.

Ie. The Warrior: small bonus to % of damage dealt out with every hit, The Serpent: small % that a stealth attack will automatically kill the victim.

Yeah, I hope we will be able to mod in perks that are not skillbound.

Yea, I usually always went with the Mage sign.

What's great though is the new perk system will likely support these options. BGS is just making the game more practical and efficient for the player.

Yeah, I've got to agree that attributes and birthsigns were pretty much useless in the previous games, without much measurable impact on the game experience. Attributes barely did anything beyond deriving other stats and playing a role in the formulas, while birthsigns either gave you some useless abilities or huge, unbalanced stat bonuses....

I would completely support an overhaul to the attribute and birthsign systems where they actually have a real, noticeable impact on the game, but if they just kept them how they are now I'd prefer them to be scrapped.

This is how I have been looking at the changes as well. I like what they are doing. It makes a lot of sense to me.