Here you go. If anyone has anymore questions that aren't listed here, post down below, I will try to answer them and update this information if it is something that I can answer/left out. Feel free to discuss the information of Skyrim here so that the forum doesn't get cluttered with repetitious threads. I reposted it here because the old thread had dropped off the first page and had gotten off topic though several helpful pieces of information were added. If any more information is released through twitter or other means, feel free to post it here so we can add it to the compilation.

Features of Skyrim:

Combat- The combat system has once again been overhauled. Now you may choose what you place in each hand, whether it be a sword and shield, dagger and sword, two swords or even a weapon in one hand and a spell in another. Assaulting with your shield is now apart of melee combat, being able to shield bash them to stagger them to give yourself an advantage in combat. The back-peddling speed when in combat has been slowed that you can no longer continuosly string alone an npc or creature in combat. Two-handed weapons ARE still in the game, that did not change. Spells can now be dedicated to a certain hand meaning you can fight with your left hand aflame while your right hand is charged with lightning. Ranged combat has been improved by increasing the damage bows deal significantly, so much so that it is possible for one to one shot an npc from stealth but also so the draw time of your bow has been increased.
Improved Radiant AI- The AI for Skyrim is a vast improvement over that of Oblivion. The AI will now react to you killing people. If you kill a shopkeeper they will react in a proper way to it. Also it is said that if you drop a sword on the ground near NPCs they will react to that as well, such as a child might try to give you the sword back or two men will fight over it. Also if you say, level your a few schools of magic to a high level, you may be challenged by a mage on the street that just might have been passing by in a western style duel. This event would not happen if you decided to have raised blade instead of Alteration. Even leveling skills has an effect on how the world changes around you. NPCs will dodge spells. When you approach an enemy, they will engage in dialogue with you from a far while continuing to do their task or making gestures or pacing around, depending on what their personality is. This is the replacement for what the NPCs do in Oblivion where the enemy would run up to you and then begin the zoomed in dialogue. The game world truly feels more real due to the fact that NPCs will talk to you from a distance if required and will continue smithing or washing dishes while talking to you and may even make cursory glances over their shoulder at you while talking for realism unparalleled. Also, the one thing that many people will be happy to know, Bethesda has confirmed that they have added many times the amount of dialogue that was in Oblivion and has hired MANY more voice actors to play NPCs. /rejoice all.

Environment- The environment is that of a mountainous range area close to that of Alaska. The north coast is icy and cold with glaciers, snow, etc. In the middle of Skyrim is a massive tundra (with several different environments in that one area) where you can see the mountains at the edge.- (Thanks to Reach and Riveon) There are numerous ruins spread through Skrim. Each of the dungeons and ruins are completely customized and unique, no one part of one dungeon will look like another. This area is also said to be inhabited by the usual wolves and other creatures but also trolls, Sabertoothed tigers and Mammoths. Also there will be giant spider(s) in Skyrim as well. The draw distances have been greatly increased allowing for little to no grid pattern or low resolution distance land. Also it has been stated that wherever you can see you, can go in Skyrim.

Plot- The plot is that you are possibly the last Dragonborn, a group characterized by their ability to hunt dragons. The Septim line was a prominent Dragonborn line protected by the Dragonguards which eventually became the blades. After the death of the Septim line, the Blades were hunted down and killed one by one and now are almost completely gone. The return of the dragons was foretold in the Elder Scrolls and was ushered in by the destruction of the Staff of Chaos, the creation of the Numidium, the events at Red Mountain and the Oblivion Crisis. There is a blade you come across that will train and guide you through the game. The last event to unfold before the dragons return was the people of Skyrim turning against each other which is happening at the beginning of the game. Dragons start to appear in greater and greater numbers as the game goes on and will eventually culminate with Alduin possibly coming into the world, but we have no idea yet.

Graphics- Skyrim features True shadows, more hyper-realistic faces on NPCs and more distinction between the races. The normal creatures that you are used to have been updated graphically and look much more appealing (especially Trolls). There will be HDR and many other environmental effects that are at the cutting edge of gaming now and including greatly updated water effects. Dynamic snow, a first to my knowledge in gaming, in which snow truly falls from the sky and lands on objects.

Creatures- So far it has been shown that we will have wolves, trolls, giant spiders and of course dragons. There are also Saber-toothed tigers, Mammoths, giants, Ice Wraiths, giant spiders and possibly werewolves. The most shocking creature of all is monstrous and unimaginable....Children!

New leveling system and Stat system- You no longer choose between Major and Minor skills anymore. Now there are 18 skills you can choose to level from but you now level from skill in a different way. You no move along to another level by leveling skills like before but the lower the level the less it attributes to the leveling process, for example, by leveling your Destruction from 9-10, it will give less to leveling than say leveling Destruction from 30-31. You gain perks as you get skill levels that give you bonuses like those in Oblivion, Daggerfall and Fallout. Each star in the sky of the menu is a perk. There may be a perk tree taking the form of constellations that will allow you to easily keep track of your perks. (perks information thanks to Orzorn.) Known skills are Smithing, Alchemy, Destruction, Alteration, Illusion, Conjuration, Restoration and Enchanting. You will be able to mine, farm, cook and cut wood but it has not been confirmed that these are skills are or just things you are able to do. Bethesda has said that they have given you things to actually do in towns so that the world feels even more real and immersive. You can smith your own weapons using ore you have mined or grow your own ingredients for Alchemy.

Skyrim Geography-
Skyrim Map is http://apoapsis.net/images/skyrim_map.jpg (special thanks to Karstux for editing the map we saw in the video)
Cities include Whiterun, Windhelm, Riften, Solitude and Falkreath.
Skyrim is traditionally divided into nine "Holds," administrative subdivisions similar to Cyrodiilic counties. Judging by the map, each Hold will be a discrete geographical region with its own look and feel. The northern and eastern Holds are known collectively as the "Old Holds," and have a large Nord majority, are the bastions of Nord traditionalism, and are ruled by hereditary aristocracy. It seems likely that the Old Holds would be the main power center for the anti-Imperial Nords. The Old Holds are as follows:

- Winterhold consists of Skyrim's northeastern coast. Winterhold contains two cities - Dawnstar, and its capital, also named Winterhold. The city of Winterhold is likely one of the game's five major cities. Winterhold is historically one of the most important power centers in Skyrim, rivaled only by Whiterun and Solitude. It is a major trading port with a flourishing economy, and is located near the ruins of Saarthal, the original capital of Skyrim. After the destruction of Morrowind, Winterhold became the home of large numbers of Dunmer refugees. It contains both the famous College of Winterhold and the Ysmir Collective, a library rescued from the destruction of Morrowind.

- Eastmarch is in eastern Skyrim, on the border with Morrowind. Eastmarch is described as "Volcanic Tundra," and its only city is Windhelm, the ancient capital of the First Empire, traditional capital of Skyrim, and one of the game's five major cities. During Tiber Septim's reign, Windhelm was an important Imperial garrison, defending the Dunmeth Pass to Morrowind..

- Rift is located in southeast Skyrim. Rift is described as "Fall Forest," and its only city is Riften. Riften is one of the game's five major cities, but we don't know much about it other than that it sits on the edge of a lake.

- The Pale is a valley, located in north-central Skyrim. It is described as "Snow" and apparently contains no cities


The remaining holds are much more cosmopolitan. With one notable exception, while these Holds may have a hereditary aristocracy, they are effectively governed by elected councils called "Moots."

- Falkreath Hold is in southwest Skyrim. It contains the city of Falkreath, but Falkreath does not appear to be one of the game's five major cities.

- The Reach consists of western Skyrim. It consists of "Canyons and Mesas." The Reach is supposedly the most cosmopolitan Hold, with large Orcish, Breton, and Imperial populations. The Reach does not appear to contain any large cities.

- Whiterun is located in south-central Skyrim. It is described as "Tundra." Whiterun contains two cities: Markarth Side and its capital, also called Whiterun, one of the game's five major cities. Whiterun contains the Throat of the World, the tallest mountain in Skyrim, and the second-tallest in all of Tamriel, after Red Mountain in Vvardenfell. At the peak of the Throat of the World is High Hrothgar, the home of the ancient greybeards, masters of the ancient Nord art of thu'um. Tiber Septim established an Imperial College of the Voice in Markarth Side to promote the study of thu'um, but in practice the College serves more as a babysitter for young Nord nobles. The city of Whiterun was once known as the "Imperial City of Skyrim," but its fortunes declined late in the Third Era. Near the end of the Third Era, the city and Hold were effectively ruled by a witch named Jsashe, a self-proclaimed "priestess of Lorkhan." According to the map, Jsashe's Coven is still the supreme ruler of Whiterun.

- A Hold of uncertain name in northwestern Skyrim, on the northwestern bank of a large river delta. It contains the city of Solitude, one of the game's five major cities and Winterhold's traditional rival as the most important city in Skyrim. Solitude is the northernmost city in Tamriel, and a major trading port. It was also the home of Potema, the "Witch-Queen of Solitude," an aunt of the Empress Kintyra who attempted to usurp the Imperial throne. There is still a movement, called the H?rme, who considers Potema and her son Uriel III to have been the last true emperors of Tiber Septim's bloodline, and actively oppose the Empire. Solitude is an ally of Dawnstar in Winterhold, and is also an active sponsor of exploratory expeditions to the Sea of Ghosts and beyond.

- Another Hold of uncertain name in northwestern Skyrim, southeast of the river delta. We know basically nothing about this one.


Skyrim's royal family all claim descent from Ysgramor, the warlord who first conquered Skyrim. When the succession is in doubt, a Moot is convened, consisting of representatives from all nine Holds, to elect the new King from the members of the royal family. Given what we know of the Skyrim Civil War, this probably didn't work. (All information about the Holds are thanks to Arilias' hard work, thanks.)

There are nine holds in Skyrim. The four traditionalist Old Holds are:

- Eastmarch (Central East, Volcanic Tundra; Major Settlements: Windhelm)
- Rift (Southeast, Fall Forest; Major Settlements: Riften)
- The Pale (Central, Snow)
- Winterhold (Northeast; Major Settlements: Winterhold, Dawnstar)

The only other Hold identified before Skyrim was released was supposedly the most cosmopolitan and naturally diverse:

- The Reach (Canyons and Mesas)

Judging by the anolysis of this map, we now know at least one more:

- Falkreath Hold (Southwest; Major Settlements: Falkreath)

That means there are three more regions identified on the map that we haven't been able to make out the names of.

If anyone can get anymore information of villages or cities from the Skyrim map on the behind-the-scenes video please post it here so we can compile it.

Level Scaling- Okay, this is the biggest thing I see. Level-scaling has been in every TES game in some respect. The level-scaling is more like Fallout's level-scaling meaning that this TES game will be similar to Daggerfall in most respects.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Content is explanation of Fallout Level-scaling. So please no more "OMG HE MADE EVERYTHING UP!" posts<<<<<<<<<<<<
All items have the same set stats, and all non-human enemies have the same HP and stats across all levels. Quest rewards are always the same. This makes it so it better than Oblivion's Level-scaling. NPCs are scaled in their equipment.

Random spawns out in the world are scaled (stronger enemies appear at higher levels), but weak enemies aren't written out of the system, just become less common. Unlike Oblivion where imps and boars become impossible to find at higher levels, A single spawn at lower levels can have enemies spawning in pairs at higher levels.
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After you enter an enclosed area, all enemies will be set to your level there for the rest of the game. You cant keep coming back to the same ruin to get better stuff as you level
Stronger enemies exist in the world at the start of the game. You're usually given enough warning if you don't want to fight anything too strong. The fallout system was created from Oblivion's but Fallout was a testing ground for tweaking level-scaling from too easy from almost no level-scaling (Morrowind) to too much level-scaling (Oblivion).
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>End of Fallout level-scaling explanation<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Finishing Moves- Finishing moves are visual effects that happen when killing an npc or creature. These finishing moves are unique to each weapon and to each creature. This means that killing a bear with a long sword will look different than killing a troll with a long sword but also killing a bear with a mace will look different than killing it with a longsword. Thus it makes killing creatures and npcs even more exciting and gets rid of the repetition.

Dialogue-
Conversations have evolved greatly over the TES series. Oblivion was the start of the true immersion into the gaming world with their voice over conversations and radiant conversations between villagers allowing for over-hearing information and then using that information to gain quests. In Skyrim the convesations no longer occur in a zoomed-in view of the person speaking to you. When an NPC talks to you they will move about, occasionally looking at you, or turn away to continue a task like woodcuttings or minding a counter. Secondary conversations you overhear also provide info without you ever needing to engage in dialogue. Townspeople might mention a missing item, or comment on an unusual situation and those details will automatically enter your log allowying you to explore those avenues at a later time if you so choose. Also when you walk within range of an enemy npc and they notice you they will begin dialogue with you from afar, making gestures or pacing back and forth as if they were a real person.

Extra Features-

Sprint has been added and drains stamina when used.

Dragon Shouts are abilities give you powerful effects to use in battle. There are shouts such as ones that are a "blink" effect (meaning that you teleport a short distance, like 60 feet or something like, that value is a guesstimate to show that it is a very short distance, not fact) and other combat effects. It's not quite certain how we acquire them other than absorbing dragon souls. It's also not certain if you can use them at will or only in dragon fights.

Random quests have been added in which you can get at random for being in an area at the right time (or wrong time)

Decent sized towns through out Skyrim that are open. Possibly Open Cities (I'd bet my life on it though)

HUD free first-person view and improved third person view. There may be an option to show a HUD but it has not been confirmed yet.

You can now view items in your inventory with great detail, seeing them as you would in the game world instead of just a representative picture. You can zoom in on these models and rotate them to see them in better detail.

In-depth character customization that allows to change your character physique, give them a beard (possibly women with beards? hmy: That's Nord women for you) and other more detailed changes to your characters body.

Radiant Story in which if you kill a shopkeeper and he gave a quest, his daughter might inherit the shop and if she knows that you killed her father, she may not give you the quest that her father would have given you. If you killed him inside a secluded house and no one discovered you then she won't know you killed him and thus will be willing to give you the quest. All your actions in Skyrim will affect how the game will progress more than any other TES game. The people will truly treat you differently upon how you act.

85 unique spell effects, which is far more than most other TES games. -(Thanks to Raziel for the info)

Speculation- From screen shots of the menu in Skyrim, many have speculated that the attributes have been removed and repurposed elsewhere into the game such as in perks or racials. This cannot of course be confirmed as of this time. They have been instead replaced with straight value increases for Health, Magicka and Stamina for when you level.

Ranged combat shouldn't be able to be abused from stealth like in Oblivion due to the fact that NPCs are FAR more intelligent than any TES game ever and possibly any game to date, we shall see.

It hasn't been confirmed that spells will have finishing moves but I can say it is almost certain to have finishing moves for spells.

There was also a Auto-take gold option shown on the ideas board on the behind-the-scenes video.

Possibly flaming arrows. This was seen in some concept art in the Behind-the-scenes video. This may mean there may be other types of visually magic arrows as well.

Possible picture of Javelins in the Behind-the-scenes video. So possibly the return of throwing weapons.

Bethesda's new editing tool is called the "Creation Kit". Whether or not it will be released to the public to mod Skyrim is unknown but seeing as how Bethesda has given us tools in the past to edit the game, I would think it wouldn't be a leap in logic to think they would for Skyrim.

There is a stick in the left hand of an adventurer. This stick seems to be sort of a staff/scepter or some other magical piece of wood that shines with what looks like white, magical light. Possibly a version of a torch or staff. There is another example of a staff like item that can be equipped to one hand in this http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/7006/skyrimconceptart.jpg. (Thanks to Cipher_8 for the picture) This possibly means that staves are now one handed weapons.

Halberds have been confirmed to have been at least concept art. This bodes well for more 2h weapon diversity. Here is a http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/1909/54424078.png of the Halberd art. Look two pictures from the left of the bottom right picture of the bearded man.

So why was the other one closed when it didn't reach the limit?

Because I requested it since the old thread had a lack luster topic name that didn't clearly declare itself to everyone and the topic of the original thread had started to get off topic. So now it has a title that will more clearly represent what the thread is.

There's little chance a thread like this doesn't get off topic. People will want to discuss mostly everything about the game.

Can we get rid of speculation from the initial post. I think a statement of facts is best and all speculation removed, My particular beef is on the snow building up and potentially causing avalanches. It is misleading. Going with that logic it would mean you could be buried by an avalanche - a logical progression of argument but which is mostly likely false. It only build up false expectations.

Again, for good measure, here is a more simplified list, with simple statements from the article (until now): http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1156675-what-we-know-until-now/

Well I'm up for discussion about the information about the game, I just don't want conversations leading into "What game has better graphics?" or "X game is better than Y game". I have changed the statements about the snow as time has passed and a few have pointed out that it might not possibly build up due to the wording in the magazine being obscure. I agree that it is still a little obscure at this point as well.

thanks for the link

Wha?

For those that are looking for a quick run down of what the new features are, head to his link. For those that have questions about the information and/or need an in-depth explanation of the information we know as of now, read the orginal post here. All of the "speculation" is well defined as speculation or examples of what the game systems might be like (which the speculation/examples are an extreme minority, such as the Fallout level-scaling explanation and the section clearly marked as "Speculation.).

90% of the information given here are facts that are explained in depth without transcribing directly from Game informer and statements made by the developers and the 10% that is not is labelled as speculation and/or examples



In combat, there are now finishing moves. They didn't go into much depth about finishing moves except what I listed above about there being different finishers depending on what kind of weapon you have and what the creature is. They didn't say anything about whether ranged attacks or spells have finishers. When I said "I am almost certain they will." That means that it would make sense that they would and it was speculation. Now, if I had said "It hasn't been confirmed but Skyrim WILL have have spell finishers, then it would be false information of me saying it will. But since I said I am almost certain they will, that was clearly speculation as I used "I am almost" meaning that it was my opinion and that it was not certain.

Quite a bit more than just the snow building up and causing avalanches in there - the OP states that bows and stealth won't be abusable because the "NPCs are FAR more intelligent than any TES game ever and possibly any game to date", which isn't stated by the article... er... at all. There isn't even anything that so much as implies that in the article.

"Ranged combat shouldn't be able to be abused from stealth like in Oblivion due to the fact that NPCs are FAR more intelligent than any TES game ever and possibly any game to date, we shall see." The use of Ranged combat shouldn't be able to" and "we shall see" are indicative of uncertainty and speculation. I'll move all the speculation down to the the speculation section even though they would be better in their corresponding sections where they are clearly marked as speculation but subtle linguistic markers. But apparently some people aren't understanding them so I'll move it to a place clearly marked and that can't be misconstrued.

I understand the avalanche thing, because I made a large speculation with that, letting myself dream, so I removed that even though I didn't say that it actually happened in the game. The ranged combat +stealth thing was also speculation but has somewhat of a good chance to be true but I don't even see why people had problems with the Spell Finisher comment in the topic. I said that it wasn't confirmed and I even added another facet of explaining that it was not confirmed. That's twice it was made clear it wasn't in the magazine and still people have issues with it.

It has nothing to do with people being unable to understand things. You've made statements about the AI in terms of how they'll react to stealth and combat actions when the article only ever talks about AI in terms of events on a broader scale. You stated, as a fact, that "NPCs are FAR more intelligent than any TES game ever and possibly any game to date" in the context of being able to handle stealth attacks, something that is in no way indicated by the article. That's not "clearly marked as speculation" and you aren't using "subtle linguistic markers", you're drawing conclusions from nothing and stating them as facts.

EDIT: If you want, I could list off the pieces of speculation that you stated as fact. It'd take a while - there's a lot in there - but I could try.

I like how it is described as being much more damaging but harder to pull or slower, cant remember how it was stated

I like using bows, but I did not like the fact that if I shot some1 in the head or groin they didnt take much damage, so the idea that it will do more damage pleases me

I'm not saying people didn't understand it, just saying people were getting confused about the meaning of the subtle linguistic markers and thus I moved it so we don't have anymore people complaining that I'm making things up. I'm in no way insulting anyone. And it is a fact that they are FAR more intelligent than in any TES game ever and then I used the word "possibly" for the any game to date. It is not speculation whether the AI are smarter than they have been in the other games, IT'S A FACT.



Well it hasn't been stated here or anywhere else yet if there will be more damage depending on where you hit somebody. They just made it clear that it was now possible to one shot someone while through the use of sealth. Hopefully they do add in bonus damage for hitting someone in the head or heart.

Not in terms of the combat or dealing with stealth actions, it's not. Unless I'm mistaken, the article didn't mention combat AI even once. It talked about improvements and expansions to the Radiant AI (scheduling and general behavior) system, but that's not the same as fixing the combat AI. If you want to claim otherwise, tell me what page they talk about it on and I'll take another look for myself.

And I never once said the combat AI was better either. I said that since the AI is far better than it is only logical that they would also be smarter in combat and thus not fall prey to infinite loops of death. It is subtle linguistics. Subtle linguistics relies on a word or a few words to be indicators of the context of a sentence such as "possibly" and if people skip or ignore said words, the meaning of the sentence changes drastically. Such as if you read "and possibly more than any other game to date." If you don't read possibly and process it with the rest of the sentence it becomes this "and more than any other game to date" which has a drastically different meaning and is exactly what you have gathered from the information. It was a simple case of misreading on your part, it all happens to us, I mean I completely substituted out an entire game name earlier today when I was typing (hurray for my brain farts).

Overall I think this is a good post and as more info comes out if will become more refined.

No. It's a logical leap. They stated that the NPCs would be capable of doing certain things in certain situations that are absolutely unrelated to handling stealth characters or to combat in any way. You stated, because of this and as a fact, that bows wouldn't be exploitable because the NPCs are far smarter than they are in any TES game. That conclusion does not follow. It's not logical. It's not subtle linguistics. It's you gathering that because they've updated the scheduling system and added a few quirks to it, they've made significant improvements to AI systems that are pretty much completely unrelated to it as well. Particularly given Bethesda's history (Radiant AI most definitely didn't represent an improvement over Morrowind as far as combat abilities and dealing with stealthed NPCs with ranged weapons), nothing about that isn't speculation.


It's got nothing to do with misreading. The problem isn't that you've claimed as a fact that the AI is better than every game ever made. You didn't claim that, and you made it clear that that was speculation on your part. My problem is that you did claim for a fact that it's better in ways that the article doesn't support even remotely.

If they are going to do scaled equipment, have it where maurauders and bandits have weapons with the same stats as the weapons on your level, but it have where they appear to wearing weaker armor like leather. Once you go to loot their body, the high stats of their armor when they were alive go back to regular leather armor stats.

That radiant story sounds pretty sweet, but I hope that some times if you do kill a family member and a relative knew about it you will be rewarded, its not like everyone in Skyrim likes everyone in there family.

Your failing to read the sentence for what they are. Not once did I claim either of those to be fact. The only thing I claimed to be fact is the AI in Skyrim will be better than the other TES game, which is a fact. You need to read the sentence about the ranged combat and the statement about it that it was better than every game ever made because your not grasping what words of uncertainty mean. They mean that the sentence is not fact and never claimed to be. If you can't see the clearly stated meaning of the sentence, then I'm sorry, I don't see how I can get it much clearer and you will just have to wait until Bethesda releases gameplay videos so you can find out for yourself.



There may be some time that might happen. Maybe some guy hates his brother and resents that he owns the family business and then when you kill him he rejoices and gives you money or gives or a quest or something.

About the AI stuff, with it being better: what they say in the article is mainly marketing blurb, like we already heard for Oblivion. So everyone should take it with a bit of skepticism. Don't assume immediately that the AI will be grand, if it's better than the one in Oblivion, it might be enough, as long as NPCs don't stand around anymore looking at walls.
Sleign, when you say that it is a fact that the AI will be better, you're just basing this on the fact that Skyrim is the most recent TES, right?

No, I'm basing it on the fact of the information given in the GI article. As for skepticism about the Radiant AI, I work in the VGI and I realize that some things that to be cut because there isn't enough time to finish it or they just aren't refined enough. This was the case of Radiant AI in Oblivion. It had to be cut from Oblivion so Oblivion just had scripted AI, as is apparent when you mod the game. Bethesda has had 5 more years to work on the system they already had pretty much complete and that's plenty of time to finish a nearly complete system and refine it.