I kept my mouth shut when Todd promised they were doing something "interesting" with the factions this time, but I figured I'd let you in on my musings because if we dont get more info soon, I suspect we will begin eating each other.

So I predict the Holds (which will be at war with each other) are joinable factions for which we can do quests, rise through the ranks, and ultimately unite to face to threat of the Dragons. Along the way there will be some choices to be made (do I serve the old-school axe-weilding Nord tribe, or ally myself with a mage-centric clan?) Joining one faction may flag you as an enemy of other factions. If you see a party of soldiers travelling the highway, check their insignia before revealing yourself! Full scale battles could also be possible...

A unified Fighter's/Mages Guild wouldn't work in a country torn apart by civil war, and choosing between political rivals sounds much more interesting.

If this turns out to be correct someone owes me a fishy stick.

Something like obsidian did with Fallout: New Vegas? That would be interesting in a TES game, though i'd like to see how they would implement it.

Off Topic: Does anyone know the max amount of npcs the new engine can have on screen? in Oblivion it was like 13-22 right?

I take it you haven't played Morrowind, because they have the Telvanni house (Magic based) the Hlaalu house (Stealth based) and Redoran (combat based) houses as joinable factions which is exactly what your describing so no, I don't think that's what Todd meant when he said new, but hopefully he does that too

I remember the vampire clans being a lot like that too.

EDIT: todd could also mean we wont be able to join them this time around, that would svck.

I like your idea ... so long as we get good ol' guilds AS WELL AS. *Thumbs up*

I doubt we'll be able to join all nine Holds, but I'd be willing to bet that we'll be able to join Windhelm and Solitude, since I believe one of the maps we got a peek out during one of the videos had them labeled as essentially the capitals of the two factions in the civil war.

Beyond that, I'm sure we'll also get more conventional guilds, as well (I believe the Dark Brotherhood is already confirmed). It'll be interesting to see what exactly they've got to replace the traditional Imperial guilds that were a staple of the previous games.

I wouldn't be surprised if we can join at least two of the major warring factions in the game. Although if we can, it might not be part of the main quest. It could also be something like Morrowind's great houses where they were independent from the main quest, and you could complete it without joining any of them, if you so choose.

And I'm sure we'll still see guilds in the usual sense, at the very least, we know the Dark Brotherhood is in, I suppose it might be that they're going to be like in Tribunal, as in, not a faction you can join, but more likely, they are a playable faction. In this case, the whole "doing something different" thing may just indicate that we'll see some factions we didn't see in past games.

Yes! I hope it's like New Vegas, but with the two major factions being less black and white, so one might be more military/Imperial-based, and the other might be more traditional and viking-like, but don't make either one of them the bad guys that just wanna hurt everybody. Also there should be an option to go it alone, and eventually unite both sides in the end

Could the some the the various faction groups be similar to rival tribal entities?

And joining one of them would provide a few quests, access to supplies, personal relationships within that group, etc.?

that would be cool... though i with that many holds i would suspect that there will be 2 main sides where the holds are divided between them. each hold having its own lord and the lords of one side will have an alliance as will the lords of the other side.

Being able to participate in the disputes between rivals villages/tribes would make sense of the ability to affect a town's income by destroying its sawmill (as mentioned in various articles).

You could also goad a dragon into attacking your enemy's settlement, sneak past their defenses, assassinate their Elder, sell the survivors as slaves and eat their babies.

There's nine hold and I don't think we will have nine factions. Then you add in the tradional guilds like mage's and fighters and then that would be ten plus.

I was suggesting the traditional guilds would perhaps be absent (though we do have confirmation the Dark Brotherhood has survived), and no I dont think 10 is an unfathomable or prohibitive number.

So... are you saying that the Imperials will be mage-centric, while the rebels will be warrior-centric? I dunno... its Imperials vs Rebels, that much we DO know. I'm hoping we can join a Hold or two, but my first impression is that its going to be an alliance of Holds against another alliance of Holds. I don't see mage vs warrior coming into play, and actually I rather it didn't. Its much more interesting with warriors and mages on both sides, and of course it doesn't really leave anything for the thieves.

That sounds a lot like New Vegas, which isn't a bad thing necessarily. Look at it this way, if you're a cop your gangster friends aren't going to want to be your friend anymore.

FWIW, I think Morrowind had at least ten joinable factions.

Factions could be interesting.... well as long as each and every one had a decent perk for joining aka a fortress, well off income,or spells and such you couldn't get anywhere else. if that was in then that would be vary epic other wise

it would be join a faction any faction they all give the same no ones going to care in the long run

if you have something to work to you'll be more motivated to pick it and it might make the choice a bit harder to make

this should be interesting :biggrin:

I would rather have regular guilds than have them dominated by political "holds".

Im the complete opposite myself. More political stuff and faction wars like Morrowind has IMO.

What on earth would be the point in that?

Well they said their doing it differently this time, just a more pessimistic guess, also there are a lot of ways you could be involved with them without actually joining them. Also, from the feel i'm getting from the game i don't really think were gonna be Fighters guild masters/archmages/grayfoxes/listeners this time around.

They've said some will be returning. That implies at least 2. Also, though both would be preferable, I'd rather have unique guilds dedicated to your skill type or some interesting aspect or gameplay style rather than just political holds. I mean there's really not that much diversity you can have in 9 Nord/Imperial based political factions.

Maybe you can only join "one" this time around, fighters guild won't take mages guild members.