Not like it mattered anyway, you can still make yourself into whatever you want.

It bothered me at first, but now I accepted it. You'll still be able to play the type of character you want.

Classes were restrictive before? :laugh:

That's news to me

so its gonna be like fable??

You mean like being able to purchase titles?

I'd like the option to lock skill increases off so I can slow leveling down to enjoy the game better. The way this new system is described it will force me to increase my level where previous games I could just stop using class skills and my level would be frozen.

If they give you the option to lock your skill increases so you can use skills and play the game without leveling then I don't really care about the loss of classes.

At first I was apprehensive about this news but after thinking about it I'm eager to try out this new system.

Admittedly the announcement of Skyrim got me all geeked to play an Elder Scrolls game again. I've re-installed Morrowind and Oblivion with the intent to finish them both before Skyrim's release. However, I didn't just install and play. I meticulously planned out my character's skills, birthsigns, specializations, etc. I then mapped out my leveling to get the 5/5/1 attribute bonuses every level. THEN I installed and played the game. Reading the forums I can tell I'm not the only one who maps out these sorts of things.

The new system gets rid of the number crunching, the efficient leveling, and imho will add a whole new level of immersion into the story and surroundings for me. The numbers won't be swirling around in my head as I'm playing and allow me to just get lost in my surroundings rather than game mechanics. My only hope is that with sufficient play time all skills can still be maxed out and I will truly be a king of all trades.

I believe this is something like Galsiah's Character Development mod for Morrowind? Best leveling mod there is.

This is exactly what I wanted, and I am super excited!

I suspect you won't get that option. But it also sounds like it won't be needed.

In Morrowind and Oblivion you needed to control your skill increases so that you could get the attribute multipliers. But it sounds like those sorts of weird incentives are going to be removed. So I'm not sure why you'd want to lock skill increases...

i like the new approach and it really isnt that different than oblivions or morrowinds except that you dont have a menu screen anymore. you had major an minor skills already that levelled at different rates they are just eliminating the initial choice and making you pick your specialities over a longer period of time. this might be the first TES game where im not using a mod like nGCD of GCD. then only think i would have changed is making perks available every 2 levels instead. new vegas was more stringent on the perks and much better for it.

I'm really fine with eliminating those initial classes, and if one wants to have titles, one can join guilds and faction and get to higher ranks to get some titles.

Those ranks can have titles which applies to the person which is in the ranks.

I just hope the game offers the player more feedback that they are a certain type of character than just perks. There's the Radiant Story, but I'm skeptical they can keep it from feeling stale after a certain point. What I'm thinking is more along the lines of how the player can actively change the gameplay experience, depending on what skills he or she uses. I want to feel like I'm a particular type of character (class), and not just imagine in my head that I am. Some examples could be stealth-users having some sort of camouflage system during daylight hours, in addition to hiding in the shadows at night; acrobatics allowing the player to climb walls, houses, mountains, etc., destruction magic having much more elaborate visual effects, secondary effects like being able to root someone in-place with an ice spell, calling down a bolt of lightning with a chance to kill the target outright (ok--a high-level lightning spell); combat stances (which sounds like they might be doing for Skyrim); location-specific damage at melee range with status-effects like FO3. I would also like to see quests that offer not only different ways to solve them based on use of different skills, but different outcomes and especially some kind of lasting feedback in the game that you did a certain quest and did it a certain way. However they might do it, make every skill actually seem cool and powerful, like something I actually want to use.

The new thing is "You are what you play" and I think this is great. I hope Bethesda commits to this idea with gusto and finds many different ways to reflect this in the game.

I think they've made the right decision. This way you won't have to "plan" your characters and levels and so forth. Excellent!

Seriously.

Good riddance to classes.

I don't like the idea of getting rid of classes. The only reason they got rid of them was because of leveling. Now you can level up using any of the 18 skills and this makes no sense. I want to be able to level up only using the skills a mage would use, I think that this new system is gonna force you to be a jack of all trades without you even trying to do so.

Will have to see how it plays, but I foresee good things in the lack of a set class.

I'm pleased to hear they've been scrapped. I loath being locked into certain skills to level up.

I'm the type of person who will go into the game with the intention to play it a certain way, and end up doing something completely different or even just everything. But of course, I'm stuck with having to focus on certain skills. It's a much better system to just have the freedom to do anything, I think. It's not like they've prevented the ability to still create specific characters or anything.

I voted other for them to do something completely different, not every game feature has to be like Morrowind or past games.

All skills counting towards your level is GCD-style, but all skills (presumably, not confirmed) starting at the same level is not. It would be nice to have some character diversity even in the beginning.

I may be one of the few people who liked the class system, I found it to be a defining trait of the TES series as a whole. I'm still not sure if what they did was the best choice, but its not going to stop me from buying the game and trying the new system out anyway. I think it may have a definite impact on role-playing though, but hopefully mods will fix that problem.

No I liked the class system myself, but the problem was it lacked enough depth (i.e. possibility to orient towards nature/survival and social/lore) and enough skills to support it properly. I guess I don't mind removal of the predefined class system, and instead "play the character buildup" through the first few levels, but I would still like to pick a class name for identification purposes rather than having to put it in the character name. Or just type in my class somewhere. And have NPCs reference it from time to time.

never used pre-made classes to begin with, they were always oddly set for my tastes

I'm glad. Firstly, I would always make a custom class with the sole exception of one Morrowind playthrough as a Knight and one Oblivion as a Crusader. The thing is, the class system was outdated and was too easy to exploit, and given enough time you could be a jack-of-all-trades no matter the class. I did, in a suggestions thread, ask for some manner of leveling overhaul that was more organic and intuitive. I got what I wanted, and I have no complaints so far.

Honestly, by all reports the class system isn't even removed, it's just organic rather than a fixed-at-character-creation thing.