Very likely it is hardcapped. Or we would have it anyway.
Very likely it will be like trying to mod extra armour slots into Oblivion.

Mind you, this is conjecture.
But it is a logical extrapolation.

Don't care about losing spell making, but I'm hoping that there will be a way to build up a system that allows for spell combinations, because everything we've been shown thus far hasn't shown spell combinations (and likely that won't be in game). If it's moddable, then I'm actually happier with the new system. As is, I'll have fun the first time around with the ability to lay traps/power up spells with two like spells in each hand, and afterwards hopefully the system will be expanded

I'm not going to pass judgement until I play it, because both Morrowind and Oblivion had very, very awkward magic systems with overpowered cheese as well as a lack of variety in the ways spells functioned. There were lots of spells, yes, but many did pretty boring things like increase/decrease stats, or basically functioning as(often superior) alternatives to non-magic skills. Magic felt more like a math system than something mystical, and although I enjoyed solving it's math problems, the fact that they could essentially be solved made magic pretty dull after you'd done so. A mage could pretty much do everything better than a thief or a warrior by the later levels.

I am assuming the loss of spell making will be more than made up for by Skyrim's focus on making spell casting more involved by letting us do things like charge up and/or combine spells to improve or alter them on the fly.

Like Todd had said, the "spell making" in the game makes it feel less arcane and ancient. Being able to just chose everything about the spell takes out the mysteriousness and ancientness of being magic. IMO, I think this a good step for the game, although it may be letting down some of the hardcoe old TES fans.

Good job in getting an answer, GnarlKhalid. And good work in getting a straight answer out of Pete. My guess is he knew damned well that it had not preveiously been confirmed as removed, and was just trying to pass off a MAJOR concern for many players and perspective buyers as a bit of passe` old news. His way of dropping it in an "oh, btw" manner, hoping not too many folks would notice, rather than making a big press announcement headed with, "All you mage haters are going to orgism over this. . . but BOY are the rest of you going to be P*ssed OFF!"

That said, the topic of spellmaking outside of dual wielding has been so hush hush that most people here have already assumed it to be removed by default. If they had some AWESOME blow your socks off spellmaking abilities on top of the dual wielding, they would have noised it about.

This is basically just a confirmation of what many of us have long suspected. Magic in Skyrim is going to look much better, but it is very likely going to be FAR LESS efficient, far less managable, no matter how high your mastery and perk selection, and possibly far less effective as well. It is starting to seem like the best case scenario is still going to be a crappy situation, where with a crapload of perks you can possibly manage magic use almost as productive as Oblivion's.

What? :huh:

Pure speculation bordering on paranoia.

That, and in addition it completely removes the magic from TES.
No more wizards.
Only apprentices that blithely cast what master taught.

No difference between spells, plasmids, mutant powers, psi abilities, pokemon.
All boxed-in, pre-made.

The defining quality of the series, the very aspect that allowed it to grow to this level, removed.

"They have removed the crunch from crisps!" 'you hater. all the things the crunch did are still there. Its redundant.'

Sounds like a receipt of making mages something I want to play again. I want challenges again (and not boiling down to only combat), not simple solutions to everything where you can just spam spam spam magic like it wasn't magic at all. We either get super convenient, or we get powerful, obviously we can't have both to maintain some balance. As inconvenient as having to rest to regain magicka was, at least it made you think twice before using it, and magic felt powerful and actually magic.

Todd said that in his role as a salesman, doing what salesman have done since the days of rags, old iron and snake oil: try to turn a negative into a positive.

Customer:"This dress is musty, out of style, and it has ragged threads and a tear right wear the ass goes!"

Salesman: "No, no, good lady, its VINTAGE! It is old fashoined elegance. The frayed edges give it an air of authenticity, while the tear allows it to maintain that modern, sixy edge!"

As ever, Caveat Emptor. The only mystery that Spellmaking removed was the uncertainty that comes with not having a damn clue as to how effective your spell is or should be. Having spellmaking allowed a mage character to truly feel learned in the magical arts, like a genuine master who could weave intricate patterns of spells to yield masterful results.

It won't be impossible to live without, even for mage oriented characters. But its removal is not any kind of damned gift to anyone who ever had even the slightest use for it. . . except of course for those damned contrary clowns who love taking full advantage of every ability the system afforded them, and then boldly and ingraciously complaining about how it worked too well, and did too good a job of aiding them in doing exactly what they were trying to do.

Cheese = overpowered stuff and/or abusing faulty game mechanics. Which there were a lot of in Morrowind and Oblivion. My Oblivion character could kill anything without it ever seeing him, mainly using invisibility and weakness stacking, my Morrowind mage literally could not be hit in melee and one shot everything since there was no limit on potion stacking, basically fortify your int to any number you care to reach, make potions fortifying other stats, and pretty early on you can have 2500 strength, agi, intelligence for thousands of seconds just by drinking a couple potions made when you had 50000 intelligence.

Forgive me for saying, but it sounds like what you really want is NOT TO HAVE MAGICAL POWERS!

"Ugh! This task is so hard! I wish I had magical powers so I could make it more managable!" :banghead: > :sorcerer: *viola*
:rock: . . . :unsure2: "err. . . that worked even better than I thought it would. Almost like actual magic or something. I don't like this ability. I don't like having rare and wonderful powers anymore. I want to like normal people again. "

And one of the benefits of having great power is that it can make certain situations far more easyily handled to one's satisfaction. . . which is convenient.

Because the power of a spell is relative to its magicka cost. An increased cost in magicka correlates to a greater time for charging before the spell can be cast. The amount of time a multiple effect spell would take to be cast would make it obsolete against standalone spell casting methodology. Combinations of spell effects can be achieved by dual wielding and casting spells as warranted. The new magic system does not eventuate with convoluted lists of spells. Spells cast with the new magic system can be tailored to the situation as needed rendering real-time spell modification as opposed to Oblivion's system where you had to pre-make a spell to cast it differently. As such the new magic system is superior to that of Oblivion and spell making has been rendered obsolete.

Well it sounds like there sort of is a way of "spell making" per say since you can combine spells to make them have different effects. So instead of spell making your just spell combining instead which could lead to an endless combination of spells and effects you get if there are enough base spells to combine that is.

Honestly I could care less that the old spell making system is gone, after all were have two enormous games (Oblivion and Morrowind) where we can do that if we want. I mean the point of making a new game in a series is to make them "new", Everyone always gets so scared of getting rid of the old repetitive systems or trying something new within a franchise. Anyone who ever says the "old" saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" still lives in the dark ages and never moves forward with innovation.

I hope everything in the game is done differently and new. I think that would create a much more memorable experience and give me a much greater sense of adventure like the game was intended to do. So many fear the unknown, no cowards should be allowed to play The Elder Scrolls.

This really svcks. :sadvaultboy:

Using bugs to rationalize the removal of spell making? Like I haven't seen that a million times. :rolleyes:

Who's to say a spell making system in Skyrim would be riddled with the same bugs? Certainly not you, or anyone else on this board that isn't a developer working on the game.

There is no spell-combining. Sorry.

There was mention of dual-wielding spells and that equates to using two spell effects if not at the same time then in rapid succession which equates to the same thing.

I don't know why people are getting this "spell making = unbalanced" logic from.

Poor balancing makes something unbalanced, not the thing itself.

Been thinking about this. I think spell duration will be customizable without having to create new spells. Cast a spell, say, Detect Life, and it will remain active until you stop concentrating on it, or run out of magicka. So, at lower levels you won't be able to make it last very long, but at higher levels, you can pretty much make it last as long as you want. Spells will probably have a base cost/second. Cast, say, a fireball on someone, and at higher levels you could just sit there, with your fist clenched, while they're immolated. The damage will be customizable in that you can choose to keep frying the opponent for as long as you have magicka. Probably have a set damage/second, with perks in destruction that will increase it.

As for customizing the range of spells, I don't know. Maybe a perk, or maybe there are spellbooks out there that will teach more than one version of a spell.

I'm not saying that the new system will cover everything spell crafting did, or even that it will be an adequate substitute. I'm just trying to think of ways where the new system might have elements of the old, and trying to figure out what spellcasting in the new system will be like. I'm really just brainstorming here.

Keep in mind, we don't know all that much about the overall system. We still don't know what the perks will be for the individual schools.

Carrying two different spells is not 'spell-combining', because you will not gain new effects by doing so.

I'm hoping that no spell making means there'll be some really powerful spells, like the ones we were able to make for a high level mage in Morrowind and Oblivion.