There are about 500000 things betheada would love to put in skyrim... there are about 420000000000 things they would like to put in skyrim. And there are 130000000000000000000000000 things they dont give a flaming bat poo about... Guess where romance lands?

They have already confirmed that there will be some more notible differences based on disposition, so if you break into somebody's house in the middle of the night how they react will be different based on if they like or hate you, it'll be more dynamic/fluid then oblivion's, "you got a few minutes to get out of here before I call the guards, even tho you have blantantly broken and entered into my house/mansion/castle".

That sounds great! The NPCs should certainly have some recognition of your friendship if you've helped them out before or had adventured together in the past. I remember when I was doing the Fighter's Guild quests in Oblivion and had completed Biene Amelion's quest you had to "trespass" into her home to turn in the quest. I talked to her and she thanked me profusely and told me I'd helped out greatly, then when I leave conversation mode she says something like "Get the hell out of my house!". Biopolar much? XD

I like the Bioware's relationships in Dragon Age (might be one of the only things I actually liked a a lot about the disappointment that was DA2) but Fable's relationships were just ridiculous. Someone likes you more or wants to marry you because you mimed silly things in front of them? Laughable at best. I'm not sure if they will pursue closer relationships in Skyrim because there isn't too much precedent, but I'd certainly appreciate it if they did.

What wonderful logic people on this forum have!

" X game didn't implement a feature to my satisfaction, so no other game should ever try it! "

Please. I guess no developer should have ever further developed the 3D camera system after the chaotic days of Super Mario 64... TES is a simulation of a world. Yes, dungeons and monsters are important, but I think people are underplaying the importance of cities and civilization. Sterile quest depositories don't really work anymore given how rich and realistic the world looks - civilization/relationships/societal ills etc should be explored as well. I don't see what it has to do with Fable or anything. Perhaps there's just a few NPCs around who have dialogue trees that are more detailed in that direction if you choose to explore it. Doesn't have to be a defining gameplay mechanic, and by no means would anything like that be compulsory.

Excellent! thanks for confirming that.

I also completely agree with your take on relationships and would like to add that adding them as bioware did was extremely bad for their franchises in my eyes. ME2 and DA2 went from interactive plot driven role playing with a little romance to a game all about relationships and the plot as a secondary thing, not to mention that going to their forums now completely makes me cringe with the why isn't [INSERT CHARACTER HERE] romanceable and there are not enough/ too much characters of a sixual orientation in this game.

My mage frequently engages in intimate relationships with two very clear sides. One side casts lightning bolts. The other side takes them in the face. Its very harmonious.

Lotta Fable bashing here, and frankly, I'm glad to see it. That game takes pride in something it did terribly, and I never understood why. Just because you can, doesn't make it a good thing.

The problem with Fable NPC's, is they operate on a Hive-mind mentality. There are no real "People" just copies. For an in-game relationship to work like they want it, you need a reason to care about the NPC, and that's hard when the most they do is screech at you in an annoying British accent.

Personality alone is 'doing something", hell, I'd marry Crassius Curio in Morrowind over any of the doppelganger NPC's in Fable(1-3) and I'm not even Homosix type, but aside from having a unique personality, he actually offers a lot to the player in terms of contribution.

Hell, even the Scout in Seyda Neen has more personality than the NPC's in any/all Fable games.

Dragon Age and Fable.

Gross.

I don't want that in a game, period. I don't care who doesn't like it, and I shouldn't have to care.

It would ruin the Elder Scrolls series.

I am somewhat sitting on the fence here. While I'm a svcker for a good story and characters you really get attached to like in Halo Reach or Star Wars: Republic Commando, I could see how in a game with Dynamic story that could get messy if even the slightest thing bugged up. Obviously Reach and Republic Commando are waaaaay different than a Skyrim or Oblivion with the obvious time gap, but also due to the fact that RPGs are "take it as fast or as slow as you want and in whatever order" whereas the other 2 games are scripted and mission based, the timeline and friendships/relationships may get a little screwy if not hammered out. In Fable, the wife was all about six and the compliments on how naughty or nice you were, how strong you were etc. And it wasnt even fun six, just a black screen with some overused jokes meant to boost your ego with an occasional moan thrown in. But hey, I love her cuz shes the mother of my virtual children and dammit I promised till death do us part! Give me the house of earthly delights back from Morrowind, and a busty barmaid to warm my bunk and Ill be happy. I'm a hero afterall, cant be tied down to one woman while Im off saving the world now can I? I did like how you formed a sort of mutual respect with Martin b the end of the game, although it was short, it gave the final moments of the main quest chain a sense of importancy as opposed to the "messenger boy" quests in morrowind. Thos are my 2 cents, take em for what you will :thumbsup:

There's no getting around it! If relationships in games are implemented well it can only make the experience much better. :twirl:

Right now, it's one thing to have good companions who you want on your side any time you enter a sticky situation or to pal around with your character. It's another to want to have six with them. The former has been done very well or poorly, depending on how well the virtual buddies are, for most gaming genres. The latter has been nothing but laughably embarrassing at best, to a completely horrid abomination that causes an almost permanent cringe at worst.

The only game that had done it well was probably The Darkness. Every other game out there has been the range I described above.

So you'd like to see in-depth relationships in a Duke Nuken game? If anybody answers yes to this, then they are either a fool or a troll. Even indepth relationships DO NOT add to every game or game experience, and the setting/style of the Elder Scrolls is generally of a champion exploring by themselves, it's not , it is a solo game of a solo experience of an adventurer that won't spend very much time with anybody to develop such relationships to begin with.

I definitely see your point. When I wrote that I was really only thinking about RPGs/games where it would makes sense. I do happen to think it could work in the TES universe, and it would make these games even better than they already are.

But that's the point! You get to make it up, which I feel would actually add to this experience.

HL2 is great, but I guess I've sort of gotten over shooters by this point. I prefer the story to the actual combat in most games now. With exceptions.

Ohh but Bethesda added romance already. It's in Morrowind with Crassius Curio, don't yall remember?

IMO HL2 was a great game but it would have been substantially better if the relationships were deeper. TES does not even go as far as HL2 though, I feel completely detached from everyone in TES.

and what I am saying, is I think I know what you are after and it just simply isn't feasible to begin with in TES. I said earlier on that there is really only two ways to implement romance into such games what for simplicity sake I will call the Bioware way and the Fable way.

The Bioware way has you interacting with party NPCs a lot, getting to know them over time and developing romantic feelings over time with them. Now if Skyrim were to follow fallout 3 it might be possible to build in triggers for the limited and unique companions that fallout 3 had, however I believe it's already been hinted that it'll be more bland/generic companions in Skyrim... more like Oblivion, there is just no feasible way to write enough verstile, dynamic and solid triggers to accomidate that style. Also add on to this, there are 10 races, each race had two genders, just to fill in all possibilities you'd need at least 20 different possible events to occur at every trigger... even for a party based RPG that's really just pushing the amount of scripting requirements needed to a VERY difficult area, for the solo style of the TES series... it just ain't going to happen and for good reason.

The Fable way is just not worth even talking about, it's horrid and should be avoided at all costs.



It's not the point, the point is, it's unrealistic for what your character is actually going to be doing... you are going dungeon crawling alone for days on end, travelling around the country away from people. It's just not in reality to think that if you spend a few days doing errands for somebody and then you spend 3~4 months away from them that they'd ever fall in love with you or that an adventurer would fall in love like that... also there is the additional point of that it'd actually be hard to write such features in. I don't want to see fable styled relationships after all...

As for most Shooters, most shooters today are junk. They care more about "realism" and "graphics" then they do about gameplay. Half-Life 2 was good because the game itself was actually good to play... it didn't focus on just shooting things in a "realistic graphical enviroment", it had puzzles and a well written story line (despite lack of any real interaction). If a Half-Life 3 comes it, it will probably again make a lot of these non-realistic, realistic war-simulating shooters look crud yet again.

Yeah, unfortunately for these reasons Bethesda probably won't delve any deeper than they did in the last TES. At least I have ME3! And god :flamethrower: FABLE

Yes, I agree. And Dragon Age type relationships worked for Dragon Age cause it was a party based game. Skyrim is not. And I havn't played Fable 3 but wasn't that all about the populous either loving or hating you? Sorry, but in my ind Fable cookyness would be the end of TES, so please noon of this either. And that leaves romantic relationships, which to be honest with you, I've never had the time for in TES games. I mean, I'm always of around the country side, and I may wanna sweep my floor, but I don't wanna have any tie downs back at home. (Bearing in mind that is purely a comment for the game world, not this make believe world we call life)

We have a romance thread and a family thread. I think that is enough threads to discuss relationships.