Probably a stupid question, but what were we told we WOULD be able to do in Skyrim and or what were we told Skyrim would have (Dynamic weather, Dynamic economy, far larger cities/towns/hamlets) but had to be taken out either due to engine limitation or limitations?

Probably that but mostly the time limit they set wasn't enough for a game like skyrim hopefully they learn next time. Skyrim turned out fantastic despit what some "fans" say.

It's not a stupid question, but a rather redundant one perhaps.

I can remember in the days before 11/11/11 when some of the devs (Pete Hines, for instance) were being very forthright and honest about what would make it into the game, and what would not. An example is merged greaves / cuirass. They told us long before 11/11/11 that these pieces would be merged, and then they had to weather the storm of complaints about this. But at least they put that info right up front.

There are probably some examples of things that 'slipped by' the devs, so that people thought they were getting a few things that did not make it in. There's a list of 'broken' quests that I suppose could be added here; people expecting these quests could be finished, but for whatever reason they could not be.

From what I understand, Beth didn't do such a good job before Oblivion came out. They promised several things that did not make it into the game, and seem to have learned from these mistakes.

Do doubt some of the promised features were axed due to the deadline. However some of them and some additional were later immplemented with patches and DLCs.

If one needs something to point a finger at, point it at the hardware limitations. To squeeze Skyrim to function at all on the old console generation must have been an immense task.

What were we promised we'd get but instead never did - dynamic weather, economy, etc?

Not much really, as stated they didn't fanfare the features, just what was changed from previous games (Birthstones, Attributes, Merged armor actually they didn't say anything about merged armor before the quakcon vids and dev presentation vids) dual wielding, perks and dragons.

The "Dynamic" Economy might be one but it was a passing remark, as was the "Radiant System" not being as roboust as they mentioned ala you get missions based on your characters skills etc etc.

but again its not Molyneux status, and yes I do use these as examples to fault Beth from time to time.

IIRC we were supposed to able to sabotage the sawmills as part of the dynamic economy, but I can't say that particular omission affected my enjoyment. I mentioned it in 'what would you have put in' thread, but apparently (according to the Elk anyway) there was a correct treatment of Nordic religion planned alongside the Imperial cult, but that never made the cut: a great shame imho.

What does dynamic weather mean? I know it's a dumb question, but if I don't ask I'm never going to know!

Change of seasons.

All of which have been added back in by modders.

I don't believe for a second it has anything to do with release dates, I firmly believe that things like dynamic weather etc where just to much for the consoles to cope with. The fact that Skyrim looks so good and runs so well on the 360 (PS3 not so much) is testament to the fact that Bethesda made a real solid effort in creating the game but hit a brick wall with the hardware limitations in my opinion.

Had the game been released on current gen hardware like the Xbox One/PS4 then I believe we would have seen a vastly improved game.

Seriously, I think the adoption system in Hearthfire was actually cut content from the vanilla game (possibly due to the 11-11-11 deadline). Consider much of Honorhall's dialogue.

Constance: "I'm sorry, the children aren't up for adoption right now. You should leave." (implies that they might be up for adoption later, after Grelod's "departure")

Runa: "...Come on, adopt me. Pleeease?" (why would she say this if it weren't possible)

Hroar: "It's too bad the orphanage ain't lettin' us kids be adopted. I'd be the best son ever." (similar principle)

Grelod: "I'll hear no talk of adoption!" (yes, she's not allowing it, but she's not long for this world)

Also, you're allowed to get married and own homes, and parenthood is a natural extension to this. And note that all five of the "vanilla" homes could be outfitted with a kids' bedroom, some of them without deleting any existing stuff.

heh nice conclusion there, didn't consider it. lets keep it out of mind, don't want to realize you chugged any amount of money for cut content if that were the case. since such practices were/are beyond Beth....right? because they're like they only "AAA" company/Dev studio I has respects for.

becausea kid want to be adopted.. its called "being in character"

and those homes could not have the Childs Room adition until after hearthfire was installed

With the way they ended up running on the consoles, I would have to assume it was due to console limitations.

what do you mean? Skyrim runs fine on my 360. 30 Frames like any other game

It suffered from FO3 syndrome. Aka, the longer you play with the same character, the more unstable the game becomes.

For me, the game ended up choppy/laggy, would freeze/lock up the xbox, and certain areas ended up no go zones (despite turning off autosaves, cleaning cache, yaddayaddayadda). Basically, the game ended up unplayable unless I started all over again, just like FO3... Other games though? No problemo~

i think its safe to say its because of the way the games handle save files