Some new info in the recent Todd Howard interview published by Norwegian magazine Gamer.no





This is great news IMO. I hated casting spells over and over in a meaningless way to get to Journeyman or Expert level, etc.

Rest in pieces repetitive spell casting! :celebrate: :celebration: My poor fingers can rest.

If we get perks from skills and not from leveling up, then we can obtain much more perks than, for example, 1 perk per level in FO3. Sounds like fun!

So how do you think this will work? what do we get when we level up? increase to Health, Magicka and Stamina only?

Very good news. Skyrim is going to be unlike any other Elder Scrolls game ever. :foodndrink:

Yea you pick one perk and get to increase either health, magicka, or stamina upon level up.

What button mashing? In Oblivion holding the button down casts the spell over and over. Do you have to spam the button in the console versions?

We still only get one perk per a level though, with the current max being set at 50. So yeah, it is a much better system in my opinion.

Hmm.. yes, that's what I thought previously as well based on prior interviews.

Maybe it's the translation, but it seems that in this new interview, Todd is suggesting the perks have nothing to do with the character level and are obtained solely based on increasing the relevant skill.

You have to press the spell button everytime you want to cast a spell.

Yes, "mashing" the button down on my keyboard for a long time, or even taping it down or setting something heavy on my keyboard is something I never ever want to have to do in future TES games.

i'm assuming you will need a certain skill level to unlock the different perks. So 75 to unlock expert perks, but we only get one per a level just like Fallout 3. From what I understand of that article it has been translated twice, once by google so I would just chalk that up to poor translation. Todd, and the marketing guy who's name I can't remember, have both confirmed that it's a perk per level until level 50.

I have a good bet on "every spell will have a separate cooldown" todd already confirmed it about dragon shouts.

That way we gotta use other spells while loading the massive ones.

Not on the PC (at least for a restoration spell).

No. The massive ones will just use more magicka.

No you. He said the battle will have more variety. if there is a spell who takes alot of magicka - who cares? use it til your enemy dies.
However, cooldown force you get creative about spellcasting.

How will I be able to increase how fast I run?
What about how often I resist magick?
What about how much crap I can carry and how much damage I do with heavy weapons?
What about crit rate with smaller weapons?

ALL of these are now in perk form then? If so I think im finally seeing that no attributes arnt such a bad thing, because really they are still there, just not in number form.

I think you misunderstand this part. It's been mentioned that you can only choose 1 perk per level up for a total of 50 levels. All the skills do is unlock certain perks and make them available, much like in Fallout 3 where you couldn't take Demolition Expert until your Explosives skill had reached 60 points. So if you had leveled up One-Handed and Destruction enough since your last level up, you'll have a perk from each of these skills that you'll need to choose from. There just won't be any generic perks that only become available simply for achieving a certain level, like Action Boy/Girl in Fallout 3.



That simply means there won't be any generic perks like there was in Fallout 3, they will all be like the Demolition Expert perk instead.

I think you are right, although hopefully we will have more details at E3.

When I first read Todd's answer to the question, I immediately assumed perks were awarded in-between character levels, as soon as you increase a particular skill.

I'm saying that if you cast a massive spell it will drain more magicka. The cooldown is in waiting for your magicka to regenerate. Spells will not and should not be tied to the same cooldown as shouts.

That would either put you way past the 50 perk total in the end, or you would max out your perks in no time, long before you were able to get any of the good ones. Many people would end up nerfing their character if that were the case since it would be like "Oh goody a perk, let's take it." and soon they wouldn't be able to take any more.

i've always hated when you summon a skeleton and just spam the spell "turn undead" on it and your conjuration skyrockets. Hope to not see this in Skyrim, which i doubt there will be.

I agree I'm glad we no longer have to worry about Repetitive Spell Casting. Casting a Spell just to raise a skill like Restoration or Illusion gets old after a while although it's totally worth it long term.

But we're still raising skills by repeating them.

I know but since they got rid of major minors we don't have to worry about spaming spells unless you really want to get that Special Alteration perk.

I don't even see why you should bash spells just for levels. I understand healing yourself while walking somewhere just for levels, but you really don't need to stand in one place and cast a spell forever. Maybe some people like that, but I play games for fun. Not for levels.

I wonder how this is supposed to work though. I doubt it will be much different from Oblivion or Morrowind. That's the main problem I have with the ES way of leveling skills. And it's a problem that can hardly be resolved in a computer game. There simply is no way to make sure a skill is only raised if you actually do something useful and not just spam.

If I understand this interview correctly, we will be raising skills by using them in actual, meaningful situations, such as healing during combat, or attacking enemies, as opposed to sitting around casting unlock 1000 times on a door.

I don't know how they got around that problem, but he seems to be confident that they came up with something that works. Hopefully more info at E3 on this.



I really hated that as well, and never did it to increase character level.

But unfortunately, if you want to be able to cast a Journeyman level Restoration or Conjuration spell in Oblivion, for example, and it's important to your style of play, then you inevitably have to spend some time sitting around casting bound dagger or healing for several hours to get up to Journeyman.

Thankfully, it seems the devs found a good solution and completely eliminated this repetitive stuff. And whether you do it while you are standing in one place or walking around, I hated every second of it.