While not completely like oblivion they should use that button to allow you to cast certain spells even with your hands full. For example a battlemage with a shield and mace would be able to cast a spell that surrounds his weapon in fire with RB but wouldn't be able to cast a fireball since he has no free hand. There could also be special spells that can only be cast with RB like a fire breath spell or a blink spell. That way you can still have hybrid warrior/mage classes but if you choose to use a shield or second weapon your magic choice suffers a bit.

I had to Google this. I'd never heard of Euphoria before (I mainly play Bethesda's games, with a few MMOs thrown in). It does sound like a great system and I would be in favor of Bethesda adopting it.

But, as Lach says, the deficiencies in Bethesda's past animations have nothing to do with the game engine. Traditionally, animations have been created by modelers in graphics programs like 3DSMax or Blender. The game engine merely plays the animations.

Skyrim's animations could have been much better. I honestly don't know why Betheda's animations have always been so poor. Animations have always seemed to be a very low priority at Bethesda.

Here is a YouTube link to a good video showing how the Euphoria engine has been used in several games for anyone else who does not know of it and want to learn what I was talking about. Just add the text to the end of YouTube's URL since I cannot post full links.

/watch?v=c7fJGAK7EbQ

At the 6:00 minute mark it explains more in depth how it works behind the scenes. It would be so cool to see NPCs in TES6 reacting the way the bots do in the video to getting shot by arrows or magic etc ~ so much potential!

That was astounding, Rinzuka! Thank you for linking to that. I hope Bethesda licences this new technology for the next game. It looks truly revolutionary to me. It strikes me as being the animation equivalent of Radiant AI. I completely understand why you want this now.

Here is a click-able link to the video if anyone is interested in watching it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7fJGAK7EbQ

And that about sums up everything Bethesda does. Potential. They've never really managed to reach much of the potential of the systems they use. Even if they were to adopt Euphoria to deal with physics and animation, i severely doubt it would look much better than their current product.

I'd be all for it, and honestly wish that more developers would start using that sort of reactionary animation model instead of the current focus on pre-animation and motion capture, but to be entirely honest, i don't have faith in Bethesda's ability to use such a system to it's full potential.

Under the assumption that Shouts are going away, and are not being replaced, that does open up a potential Command-Input for further use. I wouldn't make it a Spellcasting button, though, but rather a sort of catch-all readied action that you can then link things to. That allows you to cover a wider range of actions, such as Kicking, Throwing, using a Power, or Casting a Spell. I'd also be more inclined to make it so that Spells have to have some kind of Skill or Perk Gating to lock out their use without some investment.

I did some more digging and it appears that the creator company "NaturalMotion" does not sell the Euphoria engine for use, instead they market themselves as a consultant type company that will work with game developers through the creation of their game to integrate their physics engine. This sounds extremely expensive, in the millions of dollars range is my guestimate, bummer.

I think making a kicking/punching would be weird but being able to equip throwable weapons or some other actions would work, although I see potions working better as a quick selection tied to the dpad rather than on RB. Something like the Witchers quick selection wheel for LB selecting what you want on you RB something like a spell or throwing weapon.

I don't mean to troll, but, is anyone afraid that next TES chapter is going further down the line of Fallout 4's less and less rpg elements?

I don't think Fallout 4 has less RPG elements. It focuses on different elements, sure, not less. In fact, in terms to dialogue interaction and build variety, it's a pretty solid step up from Skyrim. I also find that it's Perk-Function is superior to either Fallout 3 or New Vegas, allowing for more diversity and more impact in your choices. It's not perfect, no, but it's not nearly as bad as some people seem to think. It's just different.

A lot is going to be dependant on the control scheme, true. By and large, i think Skyrim has the right approach using the Triggers (gonna refer specifically to Controllers here, since a keyboard and mouse is far more adaptable at base) to control each hand, but i think the bumpers can be better suited as quick-use and Radial-menu systems. One focusing on items, the other focusing on 'Powers'.

Doom shows that you can use a radial menu for quick-selection without breaking the flow of gameplay, so implementing a similar system in TES shouldn't disrupt things much. It would also offer basically 2 Favorites menus with a little more concise function than we've had in the past. The biggest problem would be that the Power option would be almost exclusively loaded with magical effects, which sorely limits its use for non-magical characters.

One solution to this would be to allow it to also handle extra 'Moves' or 'Attacks' which aren't part of the normal Hand-Controls. Things like a quick kick, using your shield to shove an opponent, or even offloading Power Attacks onto it (and in the process offering different kinds, such as a Heavy-Chop or Half-Sword-Thrust) could round it out and make the feature more useful all around.

I personally hate the each hand had its own attack when it comes to dual wielding, the cons of not being able to block or parry are greater than the dps you get and you only really need to choose which sword to hit with when you cheese something like like a stagger or paralyze.


It's fine for magic though just need to make dual casting automatic and I think the casting system is great.

Well, as i said, I think they have the right approach by using individual hand controls, but like most things they have handled it in a rather sloppy manner. It's biggest defining element is being a straight up DPS increase, and even then it's not that great at it.


The ability to directly control each of your hands, however is something that has amazing potential, and can easily be used to create a far more interesting and variable combat system than the alternative. Abandoning it because of usual Bethesda lack of polish doesn't really offer anything.


Expanding weapon rules to make Weapon choice and use more important, expanding control over attack-types (either through anolog control or through Click-Hold variables) and increasine the range of possible interactions surrounding particular actions would make combat more interesting, and make the individual-hand control approach shine.

Assuming they keep a trigger-to-hand style of control, they could re-purpose the shoulder buttons as secondary functions for whatever's in that hand. Parry for swords, some sort of grapple for unarmed, perhaps a knife throw for daggers, etc.

Ok so everyone is set on controllers... I'm way old school and prefer ye goode olde mouse & keyboard combo. But that's just me.

I guess controllers or paddles will eventually make for more immersive character control with VR headset et al.

Oh I thought that was par for the course. Besides Bethesda leaves the polish to the modders. I haven't played a vanilla TES since Daggerfell. I have always loaded up numerous mods to make for a better, more polished experience. Usually starting with the graphic and UI overhauls - then heading for the extra NPC's, extra quests etc. In my mind Bethesda creates a gaming environment / platform for game creators. So I am quite happy without too much polish. Having said that they really need to work on a much better combat and magicka system as per our discussion thread.

I really love the way they are going more realistic and gritty, less cartoony / Joel Schumacher in colour and style.

How would you all feel about a bit more of a survival slant - so the necessity for sleep, food and more in-depth crafting?

I think a lot of us here prefer mouse and keyboard (I know I do), but the player can map those controls however they want. We need to focus on the controllers when considering user input because they're the most limited input method that will be widely used.