I'm going to have to disagree with you, nearly all of these are not that amazing. And yes, I've seen that list before, too.

Spellmaking can easily be tied to a skill such as enchanting. I'd like to see it tied to a skill instead of just being a feature that stood on its own.

I'd like to point out that the majority of those spells are designed to break the game and completely trivialize combat, NPC interaction, attributes, and skills.

I'm not saying I'd want to use any of those spells in Skyrim. Nor would I expect you to be able to (there were tons of spell-combos and intreresting tricks possible in morrowind and not Oblivion, and vice-versa). I'm not a huge fan of any spells in that list, all the spells I've made are more geared to increasing role-playing value.

My point is spell-making is incredibly versatile and there were lots of options, and you could be pretty inventive with the things you made. Taking that ability out is a HUGE problem for me. I hope it's a mistranslation though.

where is the italian magazine post?

Can I read the Italian version?

EDIT: I just checked a number of Italian websites with info about Skyrim and there is no mention of this. Can anyone point me to the original post or the name of the magazine?

Yeah, spell-making creates some potential balance problems but - so what? It's a single-player game. And I was just using that list as an example of the many options spell-making created.


Having a bow breaks the game and trivializes combat, giving me the unfair advantage of range. I guess we should parse the weapon choices down to only one, since apparently choices are the last thing people want.

Judging by the quality of the magazine, I'd say it's more misinterprative. It's possible spellmaking is gone as a feature on it's own, but instead added to enchanting. And the 2 spell things at once give you a wide possibility considering there are 85+ unique spells.

So is it in or out?

I'm happy that Bethesda is trying new things with magic. I think the old system was a little bit bland, and from what I've heard so far I think the mechanics of being a wizard in Skyrim will be a lot more interesting than they used to be. When I first played Morrowind, I did not have access to the game manual. While this hindered me somewhat at first (I did not know how to run), I eventually began figuring out the different aspects of the game mechanics on my own, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Oblivion was not as exciting for me because I already knew how everything worked; I was originally hoping that if another ES game was made, it would incorporate a magic system that would be dynamic, opening up new features to explore as the game progressed. In my opinion, the original "spellmaking" ability in Oblivion (and Morrowind) did not do this sufficiently; it didn't bring anything new to the table, unless the spell effect was interacting with some glitch in the AI programs.

What do you mean "so what"? Balance is one of the most sought after aspects of a game, multiplayer or single player.

Yes, bows were unbalanced. Bethesda already stated that they are attempting to fix that in Skyrim.

But those two points are irrelevant to the bigger fact that we still know nothing about the magic system in Skyrim. There are many conceivable possibilities that would both justify and lessen the effects of removing the magic creation system.

Thats the funniest part of it all. No one has a clue.

Yup. We have no high ranking people saying anything, and this info is from a badly translated or badly written Italian magazine article.

Well, Todd said sometime back that they didn't have it in, but they were trying to work on it.

Maybe the Italian mag took it too literally meaning "THERE WON'T BE SPELLMAKING!!!!!" instead of "There currently isn't spellmaking, but they're working on it?"

Or at least I hope that's the case, instead of Bethesda just ditching it like they do with every other mechanic with slight issues.

My first char is always a scholarly mage, I found the spellmaking system in Morrowind and Oblivion very much vital to the experience.
Il ignore the whole "overpowered spell is bad" side of the debate, in all games there's going to be an exploit. What spellmaking gives me is a sense of achievement and also ownership. Below is my experience rping a mage.

Spellmaking was not easily available in Oblivion, you had to work for it. You start off a prisoner with bugger all, you quest explore and develop your magical powers. You join the Mage's Guild and further your powers. Like a typical novice you save your money and pay trainers to teach you the fundamentals of each spell (they are spell trainers, not VENDORS). Eventually with a repertoire of half baked journeyman spells you get accepted into the Arcane University where the real magic is done. You quest and level and eventually you are the Archmage and a master in several schools of magic. You reward for the diligence to magic is that you can now use the spellmaking altar to its full affect. The spells you made yourself are powerful and unique, lesser mages can only dream of knowing the intricacies of their weaving.

To me my custom spells are what a rare artefact sword is to a seasoned warrior. Imagine if you are limited to a standard iron sword for the whole game. Sure it do more damage as you levelled but it would still be the same damned sword. This is what standard spells are for a mage.

I hope I managed to articulate my point somehow.

Im not miffed, but people could do some pretty cool stuff as mentioned in alink someone else posted.

But still im not angry.

I think this is bogus information. Something this big would have been mentioned in the Game Informer coverage. Not just an Italian magazine. I think it's definitely either a mistranslation or someone is being intentionally misleading.

EDIT: What the game informer coverage did mention though, is that spell effects currently can't be combined. As is if you shoot an Ice spell and a Lightning spell they wont morph together to become something new. Or if you are creating a new spell, you can't place a fire spell and poison spell together to try to create something new, they will still have their independent effects. I think that if it is a mistranslation, it would likely have been referring to this.

He was referring to combining spells while dual wielding not making custom spells.

Well I am very happy to hear that they are redoing the magic system completely.

I personally won't miss the magic creation system, and I have played several mages in the past. I only found myself making spells as an end game feature when I needed something to be more powerful than anything else I could buy. The system actually felt tacky and it really wasn't immersive to me personally.

I think that if this new magic system is well done like they have envisioned than I am totally excited about it. Some people will be sad that the old magic system is gone, but this new one sounds better. And if it actually is better than I hope Bethesda isn't dissuaded by all of the preemptive cries about whether or not this single feature has been removed, postponed or replaced.

I'm pretty sure this is a misunderstanding and the article was referring to combing a spell from each hand to "create a new spell". Traditional spellmaking is most likely still in,

Well damn, never thought of that before but you have a point.

To me that means no, but thats for you too decide.

the Italian cover said that you could not COMBINE 2 spells to make a new one

No spell making or no it hasn't been removed?

oh the agony :biggrin:

I say we all have a nice cup of tea and calm down. We can raise our torches and pitchforks when something official and definite is stated.