[Charlotte Henderson]

Another two words: Non-Enchantable...

Problem solved

I think that if they were to offer levitation as a spell, then they shouldn't omit it from the list of spells available for enchanting. What could be done instead is limit enchanting so that players can not create CE items until they reach a high level of mastery. In addition, make it extremely expensive to enchant an item with levitation (when purchasing it from an enchanter), so that you would only be able to afford an item enchanted with levitation after playing for quite a long time. Also, levitation could have a constant drain on the charge of your enchanted item, rather than utilizing the cost-per-cast method (e.g. levitation could cost 5 points of charge per second, rather than, say, 25 points of charge per use for 30 seconds).

[rheanna bruining]

This just reminds me of a funny spell idea I had. Levitate on target. They get no control. They just go straight up, for the length of the spell, and then fall. Nothing they can do about it.

[Ruben Bernal]

Levitation should be that, just levitation.
It's an up/down movement, different from flying.
The way they should implement it is as just that, allowing you to move up and when near something you can stand on move to the side (sidestepping as you now have something to put under your feet).

[Alba Casas]

Levitation was fun, you could find some nifty stuff in dungeons that way. I was disappointed that Oblivion didn't have it and eventually started using TCL anytime my mages would normally have cast levitate. Unfortunately Oblivion doesn't have any hidden goodies in those inaccessible places like Morrowind did. Its so hard for me to not want to explore every little nook and cranny. I really miss that experience.

If Skyrim doesn't have levitate it won't be the end of the world for me, but I'm going to keep hoping until we find out otherwise.

[Richard]

I just remember that a lot of dungeons in Morrowind were designed vertically, so even with the Levitate spell it was still a challenge because archers could pelt you from the sides as you floated by. However this added immensely to the mood and feel of the dungeons, while the dungeons in Oblivion were too 2-dimensional, and just about ONLY made of stalactites and no dungeons made of bricks or steel or anything else man-made.

I think some of the design decisions of MW were actually influenced by having the spell, and not the other way around. So by cutting out the spell from development early on, the game itself was crafted in a different way and thus lost some of its coolness (compared to MW) from a design standpoint.

Again, if you take the time to program some extra features into a game, then it opens the doors to tons of ideas. For example, there will ice in Skyrim.... does that mean you can slide around on it? Do you need special boots to walk on it? What happens if you get stuck in the middle of a lake? Is there a way to force yourself to move, albiet very slowly, so you can escape that situation?

I really think Levitation should make a return in Skyrim, just heavily modified to look and feel more visually appealing to that whole idea.

[Louise Lowe]

It would be cool if it is in, but if it's not, I wouldn't mind that much.

[Blessed DIVA]

God forbid people should be able to play the game the way they want to play it. If you don't want to use levitation, don't don't make a magic character. A warrior can beat a mage to death just fine, thanks.

I hope the level designers do put some goodies up high for magic characters or acrobatic characters to reach.

[Erika Ellsworth]

How's about make it more of a leap and glide?

It could be a dragon shout. You leap high into the air and your weight/gravity is lowered a lot so you gently glide back down and you can control your direction and speed. Once you safely reach the ground you must wait for the dragon shot to recharge. Think of it like the grappling hook and Parachute effect in Just Cause 2 (but without multiple grapples), or the gliding affect in Crackdown or Prototype also, it could have a badass animation (like the jump animation in Crackdown).

It would be awesome to go gliding off the highest mountains for about half a minute, and safely reach the ground. Except it would be restricted near cities so players don't simply leap over the walls. Also, it would be magically riding the wind, which really fits into the Nordic style of the game.
Udig, svckA?!

[NAtIVe GOddess]

Levitation should be in as an Alteration perk. Yes, a constant effect. The down side being your legs atrophy.

[Kelli Wolfe]

1. Make levitation hard to purchase or learn.
This could be done by; A. making it so that you need to meet a certain rank in the Synod or College of Whispers (or whatever mage faction(s) they have in Skyrim) before a trainer will even offer to teach the spell, B. making the spell very expensive, and C. making it so that only a handful of trainers in the whole province will know the spell and be able to teach it.

2. Make levitation have a constant drain on your magicka.
Levitation would be severely limited if there were, for example, a 5 point/ second magicka drain. That means that if you have a magicka pool of 50, then you would be able to levitate for 10 seconds. At 100 points, you could levitate for 20 seconds. If you become a god of a mage, and have a full 500 points of magicka, then you could levitate for 100 seconds (a total of 1 minute, 40 seconds). That isn't even taking into account that you may want to cast a slowfall spell, or toss a few offensive or defensive spells while levitating.

I think that if these 2 things were implemented it would ballance Levitation a lot.

I would also like to see that as long as you are levitating you must have that spell equiped in one hand and continually hold down that hands cast button.
This way there is a penalty to using Levitation in battle as it reduces your ability to dammage your enemy or block their attacks.

[DAVId Bryant]

In a game where you have to make your way through perilious mountains, surrounded by snow and blizzards and the Nines know what more, Levitation would ruin the experience, just going OVER the peaks... maybe some kind of very short and rare levitation sources (potions, scrolls), would be ok, but definetely I won't miss it if it's not in.

[rolanda h]

In a game where you have to make your way through perilious mountains, surrounded by snow and blizzards and the Nines know what more, Levitation would ruin the experience, just going OVER the peaks... maybe some kind of very short and rare levitation sources (potions, scrolls), would be ok, but definetely I won't miss it if it's not in.

These type of options have always been Present in TES. Even in Oblivion the safest and quickest way to get from Lewawin to the Imperial City was to use water walking and go down the river.
As long as there is ballance limits like I listed in my last post then Levitation can be an asset to the game and not ruin the game

[Tania Bunic]

depends how skyrim is built, the reason it wasen′t in oblivion was because the game was divided into cells and unless you entered at specific points it wouldn′t load right (aka going threw doors)

[Taylor Thompson]

I'll mail everyone in this thread a 100 dollars if levitation is in vanilla Skyrim.

YaY money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Causon-Chambers]

Indications of levitation in Skyrim:

For:
-We'll be fighting dragons. Levitation would go a long way towards balancing the playing field.
-Myriad of mountainous terrain, of which levitation would be most suited for.

Against:
-Oblivion didn't have it and was a success, bethesda may have decided that it's time best spent in other areas of the game.

Hinging Unknown Factors:
-Open Cities. If this is the case, levitation is much more likely to be in.
-We may see short bursts of levitation as a Dragon Shout rather than a Spell Effect.

You don't need levitation to level the playing field, that's what dragon shouts are for. But as the OP quoted my suggestion, if levitation is going to return it should not be like it has in the past TES games and should constantly and rapidly drain your magicka so that you can't go more than 50-70 feet in the air and 30 feet in any direction before you run out of magicka. Levitation should only be a tool to get to places you normally couldn't not something where you can fly all over the world, which is not supported by any lore.

[Ray]

Levitation should only be a tool to get to places you normally couldn't not something where you can fly all over the world, which is not supported by any lore.

As usual, what the hell are you talking about?

The longer your levitate and the faster you levitate, the more magicka the spell costs. How is this cheating, or even different from a magicka-draining system? It's actually even more difficult with Morrowind's system because you need the skill and maximum magicka to cast the spell in the first place. If you're not sufficiently skilled, the spell will have a minuscule success chance. The only thing the devs need to do to make it balanced is cut down on the magic items and potions that provided the effect. Sometimes I wonder if you even played TES III or just like to justify Oblivion's failures of imagination. You surely haven't read any of the lore you talk about. There are freaking zeppelins and spaceships and you're telling me Levitation spells aren't realistic? You had to be an uber mage to get anywhere using levitation, and anyone who puts the effort into powerful magic should have access to, well, powerful magic. If we have to suffer through unexplained teleport-style fast travel, the least they could do is allow 5% of us to fly.

Levitation was FUN. It had no drawbacks. The game should be FUN. The end.

[Mrs. Patton]

I wish levitation was in, but I'm quite sure it's not. Heck, without any dev confirmation, I can safely say it won't be in. I loved levitation in MW.

[R.I.P]

Levitation will not be in Skyrim for exactly the same reason it was not in Oblivion.

Cities are going to be in their own separate cells and having levitate would mean you would be able to see the big empty spaces where towns are supposed to be.

This will just simply be how it is, there is no changing it.

If this game was PC only or if Microsoft/Song had brought out new consoles in time for Tes5 being released then it would be feasible to have cities in the same cell as the world but on the 5 year old hardware in 360s/PS3's it's just simply not possible with the technology they are outfitted with.

Sad but true.

I really wish new consoles would come out so that they can stop holding back games on the PC. PC only titles are able to accomplish such amazing things with the new hardware available to them, One can only dream what Skyrim would have been like if it was PC exclusive/Developed for the next generation of consoles.

[Rachel Tyson]

Yes, but only if there are open cities. Without open cities, then no, I don't want to see levitation.

[sara OMAR]

As usual, what the hell are you talking about?

The longer your levitate and the faster you levitate, the more magicka the spell costs. How is this cheating, or even different from a magicka-draining system? It's actually even more difficult with Morrowind's system because you need the skill and maximum magicka to cast the spell in the first place. If you're not sufficiently skilled, the spell will have a minuscule success chance. The only thing the devs need to do to make it balanced is cut down on the magic items and potions that provided the effect. Sometimes I wonder if you even played TES III or just like to justify Oblivion's failures of imagination. You surely haven't read any of the lore you talk about. There are freaking zeppelins and spaceships and you're telling me Levitation spells aren't realistic? You had to be an uber mage to get anywhere using levitation, and anyone who puts the effort into powerful magic should have access to, well, powerful magic. If we have to suffer through unexplained teleport-style fast travel, the least they could do is allow 5% of us to fly.

Levitation was FUN. It had no drawbacks. The game should be FUN. The end.

Correction: Fast travel is explained. Your character walks there... Simple as that. The only difference is you don't have a check box if you want to "Travel safe." "Rest at Inns" etc. Like in Daggerfall.

The only problem I see is the 7000 steps. Being able to just levitate up them would take away the... "awe" factor, for lack of a better term. Now if levitation did something like constantly draining your magicka so you couldn't use it for prolonged periods of time unless you were a really high level specialized mage then it would solve that problem.

[Taylah Haines]

Cities are going to be in their own separate cells and having levitate would mean you would be able to see the big empty spaces where towns are supposed to be.

We can already do that. You could stand on the nearest mountain and gaze at the IC or Chorrol's [censored] LoD buildings with the Marksmanship zoom feature. I don't know why they don't just put a big load trigger over all the towns, Half-Life style. If you cross the threshold over the battlements at any altitude under 100 feet you enter a loading screen and the town's cell. If they really wanted to be lazy, they could just make an invisible door that would block your progress and make you press the action button.

And I thought cities were going to be open this time anyways?

Correction: Fast travel is explained. Your character walks there... Simple as that. The only difference is you don't have a check box if you want to "Travel safe." "Rest at Inns" etc. Like in Daggerfall.

Then give me those options. And make there be a possibility of being waylaid. And make me tired when I get there. And make a nice little traveling graphics or cutscene like in other games. Surely you see the immense difference experiences and consequences between actually traveling and a magic Skip Life button. The entire fantasy genre revolves around the idea of an adventure, a journey.

The only problem I see is the 7000 steps. Being able to just levitate up them would take away the... "awe" factor, for lack of a better term.

Err, I don't see how that's any worse than the 95% of us who will fast travel to the top. And any low or mid level mage in Morrowind would be unable to levitate up 70 steps, much less 7000.

Now if levitation did something like constantly draining your magicka so you couldn't use it for prolonged periods of time unless you were a really high level specialized mage then it would solve that problem.

No it wouldn't. It would be the exact same system as the MW system, only easier.

[Sweet Blighty]

We may aswell have dragon mounts if people want levitation back.
To me ,it serves the same purpose.
And we CAN'T mount dragons.

Yeah being able to levitate is the same as riding a giant beast of destruction that has the power to burn down cities... Derp.

Anyway, it would be nice to have levitation back. Though I think it should require a master or expert of alteration to cast it

[Matt Bigelow]

i think that kovacius's point is genius.

[Danel]

Levitation should only be a tool to get to places you normally couldn't not something where you can fly all over the world, which is not supported by any lore.

Again, you're going to have to explain this one.

Simply because it nowhere explicitly states in some in-game or out-of-game text that "Oh, btw, if peeps have enough magicka or ability or what have you, it's perfectly OK for them to use levitation as much as they want," doesn't mean in the slightest it's unsupported. If there is a presence in the world that is powerful enough (and seeing as I became a God-Killer in Morrowind, and that we pretty much should be considered a foretold God-banisher in Skyrim, I think that test is passed), then they should be able to channel raw creatia however they please. This can be gathered not just from in-game texts detailing all the comparable magical happenings since the Dawn, but common sense regarding what was presented in-game.

Never mind that a simple half-baked potion in the Infernal City reached from distant land to the underbelly of Umbriel. And that was probably no small distance.


I'll understand if levitation isn't added for gameplay structure reasons, or time constraints, or if it's gimped for structure or style reasons, but trying to pin it on non-lore support is just silly.

Cities are going to be in their own separate cells and having levitate would mean you would be able to see the big empty spaces where towns are supposed to be.

Unless you've got a reliable link, no dice.
If it's a "There's no way they're going back to this style," then there is one very easy solution: Umbra - Occlusion-culling middleware that allows the game to not render anything that is not within the player's vision. Or, if they didn't want to license it, just like they're apparently not licensing SpeedTree anymore, who's to say they didn't create their own occlusion-culling support just like they did their own tree-support?

[NO suckers In Here]

Levitation will not be in Skyrim for exactly the same reason it was not in Oblivion.

Cities are going to be in their own separate cells and having levitate would mean you would be able to see the big empty spaces where towns are supposed to be.

As far as I know this isn't confirmed?