I agree, seasons would definitely be very visible. The summer forests would be lush, filled with green and life, blue sky and mild breezes. I definitely think it wouldn't be a waste either. Lots of people seem to want them.
And the technology that the new engine has concerning dynamic snow can be applied for rain and leaves too. Rainy months can be wonderful with lots of mud and the rain actually becomes dynamic!
Leaves can be bound to trees with scripts and be dynamic as well. Imagine when a windy breeze comes by, moving all the leaves on the ground. That would be. Awesome.

And concerning the time issue that MagicSteel spoke of, I'm sure that either...
1) the number of days can be reduced. The number of days aren't exact, they have changed before from the TES games, although with minor changes. Considering that Skyrim is north as well, their calender could be changed in a logical and lore-friendly way.
2) the timescale can be set properly so that everyone can experience 2-4 seasons during a gameplay time.
3) the speed of the character can be reduced a bit. In Morrowind, the speed was pretty low, and therefore the game world seemed a lot bigger. In addition, lowering the speed of the character can help time pass

It would be fantastic but it's too much to ask for. It's just a feature for enhanced immersion and those are not on the priority list. Afterall it's only a 100-man studio having three years making the sequel to one of the largest open world games on earth. You can't expect "the total RPG", literally.

It may be discussed. Yes. But before, Morrowind and Oblivion have been pretty groundbreaking for their time. Both in features and in graphics.
We that have seen the GI pictures know that the graphics look pretty good. But not groundbreaking for their time.
I'm hoping Bethesda has focused on some other points to make up for this. Fully featured seasons would definitely be groundbreaking. I think it would drag even more attention to the game.
Considering they already seem to have come quite a bit on the way with dynamic snow, I feel that it's not too much to ask for.
What they need more is a blend shader (which are out there fully usuable, not hurting the performance either) and a color grading (very easy for them to do) and some smart scripts (I'm sure they can pull this off nicely).

It's been more than three years.Oblivion was releassed 2006. Five years. Besides, they didn't start when Oblivion was released, they have been working on it since the end phase of Oblivion.

you do realize that a 100man team is HUGE for a game company that makes single-player games.
also take a look at what they have told us already.

-they have shown us that the radiantAI has gone under a massive change. so npc/mob behavior that varies from season to season is highly plausible.

-they have shown us that dynamic snow is possible within the engine

-and they have shown us that the world is huge, and highly diverse.

-one screenshot shows a lush forest with orange and golden leaves and leaves and sticks coating the ground. sounds like fall.
there is also another piece of artwork that shows a large city in the middle of a valley with what looks like the same trees.

do your homework please.

Past Elder Scrolls games have been groundbreaking yes, but the last two launched right at the beginning of a generation. Skyrim does not. This is a huge difference. Skyrim should be compared to Fallout 3 when it comes to design philosophy and technology advances, namely that Fallout 3 was technologically and graphically not groundbreaking at all.

And Skyrim comes out only three years after Fallout 3, while they had 4 years to make Oblivion.

Very good point! BUT, this time their team has increased. They have hired more new very very good people. They said they've been able to hire the best.
And with a new engine also comes, apart from better graphics and performance, the effect of having things go A LOT faster. Newer engines are capable of greating much more in a much shorter time. We don't know much about this engine, but I believe, considering it's new, that Bethesda has made it easier and faster for themselves to great this world of Skyrim.

I don't believe that time has been or is an issue. I'm saying that a new generation is coming up. With tessellation and everything being dynamic, I think we're entering a new era. I hope Skyrim will take part of it in its own unique way by having seasons.

this IS the beginning of a new generation. DX11
skyrim will probably not support DX11. you are correct about that.
but this is not gamebryo, gamebryo is the old engine that f3/ob/mw ran on.
seasons were an idea that was played with in oblivion by the modding community. THE OLD ENGINE with OLD TECHNOLOGY
and its been almost 5 years since they have been working on this game.
give me a break

I hope they have seasons, obviously. There is a chance, a small chance. But how many games can you name that have seasons?


About the team size you are wrong. 100 people team is the norm, even for single player games like The Witcher 2, Dragon Age 2, Uncharted 1, Deus Ex 3, Assassin's Creed 1&2, Bioshock, Tomb Raider, Mass Effect, God of War etc. All those studios, Bioware, Naughty Dog, Ubisoft, Sony Santa Monica, Irrational games, Eidos and Crystal Dyamics have +90 man dev teams.

And look at how small all those games are compared to Oblivion which is huge in all aspects (landmass, quests, lore, items, dungeons, buildings, NPCs, voice work, stats, features).

I would love to see that too but..
they allready said that there will be different regions with different weather! like in Oblivion

Looks like seasonal areas.

compared to the last games of somewhere between 50-60 ppl its huge. im going off of previous titles.
i think in fallout 3 they had a bit more of a team.
my point still stands.

as per games that have seasons. i can name a few, but they are not massive open world games. daggerfall was but thats way back in the day.
pokemons recent titles did i think.
which is why i want bethesda to pull this off so bad. it would kick ass. an elder scrolls original feature.
they did it first.

yes, what i think too. and thats good enough for me. as long as theres variety :wink_smile:

though i cant refuse actual seasons would be awesome..imagine visiting a city for the first time, and its summer..then you come back a while later and its al snowy :rolleyes:

I've said this before, but seasons are the key to getting Skyrim to feel like the cold and frigid north without having it all look the same everywhere.

The real Scandinavia, of course, isn't frozen all year long - it has a spring, summer, and fall, when the peninsula is actually quite beautiful. Northern countries get their reputations as frigid hellholes from their harsh winters. So, having seasons would allow for some breathtaking, varied landscapes in the summer, while still making Skyrim feel like the home of the Nords.

The entire world is covered in snow during winter, and look very repetitive.
AI can't possibly be programmed to understand every single aspect of every season that it's dealing with, so NPCs will undoubtedly do stupid things that wouldn't be done in that season, breaking the immersion you're attempting to gain with seasons, destroying the point of having them in the first place.

The team would have to literally retexture and redesign tons of content just for winter and summer, redirecting time that could be spent elsewhere, like designing the Main Quest, Quests in general, Items, Regions, etc. IMO, I'd rather have unique regions than seasons, but I really don't care. I also don't see why so many people want seasons, but whatever.

Seasons would be nice. They would make the game more realistic.

No. You have a good point but you're also missing a lot of facts.

1) NPCs, that can be a problem I guess. I agree with you on that. But when Bethesda has seemed to learn a lot more about AI now, and improved it way further than before; I'm sure they can tell the farmers to stop harvesting and such during the winter. It's not a miracle that is required. The AI doesn't need to change completely. Just a few simple changes like not harvesting.

2) There would be no need for retexturing. Snow is dynamic. It literally falls on the surface of every object. I'm assuming rain is dynamic as well then. Leaves could share the same dynamic feature in autumn, falling and have physics. It's not a preset texture.
I'm also not sure if you've heard of blend shading. It's a rather new feature. Check it out. It basically allows you to change the in-game texture without changing the texture. A very cool feature. Works great real-time with not many downsides it seems.
With blend shading, a script could focus to add different shades on foliage for certain seasons.
In addition, a simple but practical color grading can help even further. That's probably the easiest thing.

Thanks to these features, I believe Bethesda could pull off real seasons without too much sweat. If you think that time could be spent elsewhere, then you'll finally end up with a game being no different from any other games, or even worse concerning bringing new features than other games. If every game company would say that, we still would have had 2D graphics. But still, it's your opinion; and I respect that.

3) Environments are unique still in their shape and structure. Seasons would make them even more unique. It's like a bit of unique cream and cherry on top of an already unique ice-cream. Makes it much more delicious
I don't see why anyone wouldn't want them.

Wait, so snow is actually rendered as a dynamic object and not just a static texture with no collision? If that's the case, can it pile on top of armor? That'd be amazing..

I've somewhat heard of Blend Shading. If Blend Shading and Dynamic Snow are both supported and well optimized by this new engine, I have no opposition. I really have no opposition in the first place to seasons, but my concern would be gone.

yes it would be awesome to see the snow melt and flood the low lands while having mild to rainy weather and then freeze again during the winter with blizzards and snow flurries

That would be really hard to implement, but I guess it would be cool.


I would be happy with just having dynamic weather at different areas. From what we've read, snow actually works realistically, so theres no reason why they couldn't make it snow everywhere during winter and have less snow in summer...


But, it really doesnt matter one way or another. When you're in snowy mountains, it's always snowy.

yes, the old issues with oblivions seasons are a thing of the past.
dynamic snow...so im guessing dynamic weather in general, and falling leaves and twigs are highly possible.

GAAAAH!
Sorry, my brain melted from awesomeness. But yes, if at all possible, seasons ought to be in game. And if they can really pull off this supposed "dynamic snowfall", then seasons should be no problem.

Though seasons are a great idea they just are not practical. At the current time scale (which is extremely condensed already) an in game year = 146 hours. Calculate in resting and waiting and a year might take 100 hours. Days are already too short and it will really show now with dynamic shadows.


I really don't want to see the timescale condensed any further nor do I want large chunks of time passing in the blink of any eye. I'd actually like to see the time scale increased from 24min=1Day to 48min=1Day.

No, I don't want any nice features in my game, I voted no!

Another great poll!

my idea was to shorten the year, its a new game set in a new era and it is the northernmost province of the empire, i dont see why skyrim cant have a unique calendar.
i do agree that the length of day is too short though.

and why are the seasons themselves not practical? i see tons of reasons how they could effect the player, quest availability, npc behavior, anual events, seasonal alchemy ingredients. etc. the list continues.
also there are the more hardcoe elements of the different seasons. like animal behavior, temperature [maybe], and even travel.