Three separate statements, none of them connected.

Interesting.

First of all, I wanted to add that I'm quite the average hardcoe player out there (like a whole bunch around here) but I do understand that we're NOT the majority of players. Obviously, our need for "survival realism" isn't something that the average player wants or matters at all. So this all need to be optional so that it doesn't degrade the gameplay of the bigger bunch of players. For example, when people are asking for removing fast travel or making it optional and add travels like in Morrowind, well just think about it. Making fast travel optional (you can tick an option to enable/disable it) is pointless. Fast travel is there, you're free to use it or not. Disabling it won't change the fact I want to use it or not. Also, we hardcoe players are also the same RPlaying type. We do NOT play like the other. Most players play the game to have an epic journey, kill monsters, loot treasures and live the story. Us, role-players, could just wander around and act like going out in the fields, enjoy a beer at the tavern, stare at sunset and pretend to actually live in that world. So, really, we could "emulate" those Morrowind-like travels with fast travel. Just walk until you get to a npc with a horse/carriage/boat/whatever and when you do, use fast travel to emulate you using it. It's really the best of worlds. Also, as much as I like travelling around, there's always some situation where I don't feel like walking from one point to another, especially if it's like the 5th time I'm doing it in that playthrough. When those times come, I enjoy fast travel.

Also, it's important to understand that there's lot of features to implement for that game and it's clear that the devs won't be working on most of those "hardcoe" features until all of the "normal" features of the game are all done. That could mean they won't ever have time to make them. I would certainly enjoy them very much, but I'm not waiting for them to be in the game on release day. I think it would be more realistic to believe we could find those hardcoe features in a mod or in an update or DLC. Most probably in a mod. Just hope modders get all the tools to make something very nice that doesn't feel... well, amateur.



On my hardcoe style of play, I enjoy having to eat, drink and sleep. I'm dreaming of a game where weather affects my character and where being out in a snowstorm is a threat in itself and not making a shelter and a fire would be very risky. Then again, since it's something that need to works toward realism and immersion, it needs to be well done. I agree that having bars or numbers that indicate when you'll be hungry, how much you need sleep or just a pop-up message that says "You are sleepy." or "You're freezing" is a total immersion-breaking concept even if it works toward realism. There's much better way to signal those status to the players without breaking it sense of immersion. For example, when you're starting to be tired, your character could yawn. When very exhausted, field of vision could narrow more and more to simulate your character trying to keep his eyes open. If freezing, you could hear your character shivers and even have in-screen frozing effect (like icy starting to form on the edges of the screen and working toward the center as you get more and more cold). Those are just ideas, but it shows that it's possible to make things "hardcoe survival" without breaking immersion.



Well, it could work with both systems. You got your fatigue bar that decreases very slowly depending what physical activity your doing (fighting decreases it more slowly, for example) and that doesn't refresh until you eat/drink/sleep. But it could ALSO work like in oblivion using the actual fatigue bar color overlay that decreases much faster. Say the bar is green, a red overlay start at zero and add to the fatigue bar until its all fully red, at with point you're fatigued and can't make strong attacks and power attacks anymore. This overlay would decrease by itself very fast (like in Oblivion) so while in combat, you need to step back a bit, take back your breath, and resume with the fight. The effect is that you get tired faster in combat when it's been a long time you haven't slept or ate. The good side of this system is that you don't need another independant system to rule over sleep and eating since it already affects a lot your character and his stamina.



Yeah, I don't think seasons are needed. Seems like the land of Skyrim is much diversified for this exact sake : the devs wanted the player to live through a lot of diversity in the lands. That diversity is location-based, bot time based. So you could see all that diversity even if you play very fast (some people are not much into side quests) and you wouldn't need to wait until fall so have regions with colored leaves or winter to have snow, or spring to have rushing currents, etc. It's way better in that way, IMHO.



I understand that it ruins realism for some hardcoe player since every location is pinpointed on the map and on the compass. But then again, I hate it when I'm searching for a spot in a game and I walk just by it and miss it then I'm going around in circles for hours just to notice it was there the first time and I didn't saw it. It could get really frustrating. Then, it's also very rewarding when you just decide to venture into the wilderness for fun and stumble on old ruins that you didn't knew was there. But, the difference is there : you weren't searching for anything in peculiar. It's also true that those location markers on the compass in Fallout could be fun since you were just wandering around then a pip appeared on your compass then you would walk to it and discover a new interesting spot (that was then added as a marker to the map). This system worked very well, I think. I'm pretty sure Skyrim will be going this way. We, hardcoe players, only need a way to hide the compass (I want no HUD!).

P.S. : Sorry for bad grammar, I'm not native english !