Yea, it's only perks capped at 50.

Where was this confirmed? People keep saying this but I haven't seen it anywhere.

f the 120 is a minimal number, they'll keep adding more and more all the time untill their time is up

If you enter a dungeon, the dungeon will "freeze" the enemies at the level they were when you first entered. So if you find it too hard, you can come back again after you
have leveled a bit.

This I like

SALT LAKE CITY (PressFire.no): This is part two in our The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim mini-series. It is recommended that you read http://www.pressfire.no/nyheter/PC/3339/Vi-har-sett-The-Elder-Scrolls-V-Skyrim article first, which includes a review of the Skyrim demo we were presented. This article will review the things we learned at the demonstration, and elaborates some of the things that came up there.

- "We are not quite sure whether we should include horses, but we're still trying out different things," said Todd Howard, game director.

- "But if we do not have horses, how much should we sell the war armor for?", croaks a "distressed" public relations manager.

- "Maybe we should sell the horses as DLC?", replies Howard. Laughter from the audience. I'm a little nervous myself, for they've done similar before...

Howard sits ready on the podium to receive questions from about 100 eager game journalists from around the world during an hour-long Q & A session about Skyrim, where a bit of more or less interesting information would be presented.

One of the most popular topics is, of course, the leveling system. Will the enemies go up in skill with you, as they did so terribly in Oblivion? There were several sighs of relief from the audience when Howard explained that they do not, in a way.


A level cap around 70-80

On one side of the map, you have areas that are too difficult for you to go there right away (but not impossible if you put your heart into it), but on the other side there will be dungeons you can practically rule. However, whatever level you are will have an affect on what awaits within. If you a high level, there will be more resistance inside the first time you enter.

Dungeons will be locked to the skill level that you had when you first entered, so you can come back later and finish the job with better equipment.

Furthermore, your total experience is modified by how you use your skills. If you use swords often, your sword skill will increase, and will then contribute to your total level. The higher the skill level of an individual skill, the more experience points towards your total level you get.

Each weapon and armor class will also get stronger as you play through a separate Perk system, not totally unlike what you find in Fallout 3. When your skill level goes up, it will gradually unlock special things you can do with it, such as slowing down the time it takes to shoot a bow, increase the critical strike damage of a knife, or kill enemies slowly over time with an axe by making bleeding damage. All perk levels have the ability to be upgraded, so if you were planning to unlock everything, you have a lot of work set out in front of you.

There is no limit to your total level either, but Bethesda claims that it will probably get very difficult around 70-80.

Todd Howard claims that the game world is about as large as in Oblivion, but since you will want to travel around the mountains instead of running straight through shallow plains, it will take more time to travel around. There will also be a relation between your altitude and the difficulty of enemies. The higher you are, the harder it is to kill your foes.


A different experience - every time you play

There will be several areas in the game that differ from each other both visually and in terms of content. We have already seen the mountains and groves that are spread around, but there is also a private and lush grass area enclosed by a glacier.

Skyrim's map is divided into nine different holds, home to five cities larger than any of those in Oblivion, and all of those with unique characters and styles. There are also many smaller villages and scattered settlements. Around the map you will also encounter well over 120 dungeons - a figure that is likely to increase towards the game's launch.

The world map is now in full 3D, you can zoom in and spin it around as you please, and fast travel to areas you've already visited. Howard also promises that the game will have at least as many secrets to discover as its predecessor, and also have proper "otherworldly" stuff like the painting mission in Oblivion or Tranquility Lane in Fallout 3.

- "This is, after all, a game that contains spells and magical creatures", laughed the game director.

To make the story a little more unique for each player, Skyrim takes advantage of a system called Radiant Story. This was used to a lesser degree in Fallout 3, as Radiant AI, which mainly decided where, how, and when you met random enemies while wandering around in the wilderness.

This time it's more of an augment to the system, and it will sew more variables that will color quests to be unique to each player. For example, the system, instead of notifying you about saving the same person from the same dungeon the first time you go into the same town, will mix things up a bit. Instead, you will get to rescue "child of a store owner you have visited" who lives in "nearest town that likes the player" from "closest unexplored dungeon". This makes it slightly different every time you play, as it can be completely different people, villages and dungeons in question.

Furthermore, the system may also create unexpected resistance against you if you end up on the wrong track, and may also send some fearsome dragons in your direction from time to time.


More focus on voice acting

There is not a fixed number of dragons (theoretically, it can spawn an infinite number of them), and with the exception of a few dragons that are important to the main story in the game, none of those are pre-programmed to do anything. They can just slip quietly over you and disappear into the distance, or team up in a small herd and decide to give you a heavy beating.

- "I tested out the game a while ago, and then added the possibility that the three dragons could come at you at once," says Howard.

- "I ran it, I was just fine getting up a mountain, but I eventually stood no chance against the dragons, so we'll just see if that possibility is going to end up in the game!"

Someone in the audience asked if we can ride the dragons, but alas, it will not be possible.

Bethesda has also emphasized that they should have more variety and detail among Skyrim's inhabitants. That they have daily routines and jobs that actually mean something to the ecosystem, I've already seen, but the way they interact with the player is also important. Drop anything on the ground, for example, and a person who does not like you could steal it, while someone who likes you will pick it up and return it to you.

Also the criticism that there were too few voice actors in Oblivion has been something the developers have worked on. This time there are many more, and there is supposed to be a lot more work in both performance quality and how much dialog is actually recorded. Several celebrities are on board already - such as the Swedish actor Max von Sydow - who are cast in important roles.

Another thing Bethesda has done is to look at all the player-made modifications done to Oblivion and Morrowind and see if there are any of these that would fit in Skyrim. The completely new bow system was taken from such a mod, where you must hold the button to shoot the bow properly. If released early, you will not get enough power, but you keep it held long enough, the arrow will have tremendous impact damage. This is also why arrows will be harder to find than in previous games.


As the magic hour is ending, the journalists ask the silly questions ("Are there children?", "Can we kill children?", "What about dismemberment?") (Yes, no, maybe!). After a tragic question from a German about how much better the game will look on PC than on Xbox 360 and PS3, the event is over.

And with that, so begins the seven-month long wait for a chilly evening in November.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" will launch November 11 for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

T
I also hadn't heard them explicitly say that they've taken ideas from player-created mods before, though I'd never doubted the idea.