In the latest IGN Skyrim publication http://pc.ign.com/articles/116/1164053p1.html, there's a couple of paragraphs or so mentioning the fast travel system in Skyrim. We're already well-aware that carriages will be in the game as an alternative to using map travel, but more interestingly Todd makes a mention of boats: "there are boats but you don't sail them around."

So, I'm a bit confused here. When he says "you don't sail them around", I'd assumed he means they'll have Morrowind-style travel services available (as opposed to realtime ship departures like in WoW). It'd certainly complement the carriage system well. Yet at the same time, for all we know he's just saying "Skyrim has boats in it but they don't do anything". Which may be a more realistic interpretation - but at the same time, it seems like kind of a redundant thing to say. It'd be like saying "Skyrim has rocks but you can't throw them at people". Not to mention every TES game has had boats, visual or otherwise, since Daggerfall.

Ideas?

CLARIFICATION: I don't care if we can sail them or not. That's not the point. I was just wondering if they'll have travel services like in Morrowind or just be decorative like in Oblivion.

I think he may be implying there are some boats for fast travel - but they cannot be directly piloted a'la horses.

They can do anything, but not everything.

I think it's fine. A tiny little let down but nothing big.

could a boat be pulled by a horse? I think that may be possible if it was a steamboat type of thing and you had the horses on a wheel

but I think all that todd is saying is that you will not be able to directly control it, it does not necessarily mean that they they just sit there

I certainly lol'd when the article said "Do you think real men walk between cities and fast-traveling is for trust fund babies with a grossly exaggerated sense of entitlement?"

I think you're probably right about boats being the equivalent of carriages, otherwise why would Todd have mentioned it? They had boats in Oblivion you couldn't sail either - think the port in Anvil. Lots of pirates and wenches and pirate ships but no sailing.

I'm assuming they'll be like the games before. They're there simply for aesthetic purposes. They will not sail in real-time.

****VERY IMPORTANT PLEASE READ****

You guys know the scene from the recent movie Beowulf (animated) when they are on the longboat in a turbulent sea, I WANT THAT and a bunch of Nord theons/huscrals with me. Land on a beach and Pillage, [censored], slaughter a whole village while listening to this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPRt6Tt6RyM

Maybe take a few slaves and sell them or sacrifice them to some god ect and so on.

Hopefully this game shows the true barbarity of humanity, especially considering the level of social/technological progression the world of oblivion is in (medieval esq europe near the fall of Rome.)

This.

"there are boats but you don't sail them around.", sounds exactly like the ships in Oblivion - they sit in port, providing another "interior cell" that you can enter.


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edit: Um. You do know that the Nords aren't Norse Raiders, right?

I took it to mean that you won't be able to pilot a boat in real time, which I don't want to do anyway. I'd rather use boats for fast travel.

They will probably sail in real time, but we just can't sail them. They won't be static.

Soooooo...why was this comment more important than all of the others on this thread?

I certainly wasn't saying that boats would be pulled be horses, lawl. I meant that you don't pilot them, unlike horses. I suspect boats in Skyrim will either be for fast travel, or stationary scenery.

Wasnt really i was hoping someone would post the scene from beowulf.

Canol boats often were. Maybe the Nords have secretly built Tamriels first canol network

Im not even sure why this was brought up like it was important if we can't sail them around then whats the worth mentioning them. they'll be as they were Oblivion and morrowind, no much in the way of news.

I don't think the boats would be usable. If you look at a map of Skyrim there are no bodies of water. Now we haven't really seen the true in-game map of Skyrim, and who knows if there are rivers that you can use boats for.

In MW they served the purpose of fast travel.
In OB they just sat there and usually had a few pirates.

ah ****! they took out triple dragon fights. no epic battles to look forward to. couldn't they have just scripted it as an event and lower the stats of the dragons to make them individually much weaker than the player but still require the player to use all the tricks he/she know to avoid the less lethal attacks that comes from multiple directions? i know people will probably be creating weapon mods based off other games like the Tsurugi from FFVII:AC. it would make for some epic video recording.

the heck does that have to do with this thread

it was mentioned in the article that was linked.

Well there were ships in the trailer that were on the water. Maybe it could be possible to stow a ride in one of those.

With more non static things in the world like windmills and waterwheels, the boats will not be static.

Here's to hoping they at least float around a little bit in the water instead of the completely static ones in Oblivion. Maybe then we can just mod them to move around. :brokencomputer:

I hope you will be able to see boats actually move and stuff. I agree they shouldn't be static like in Morrowind or Oblivion, and by the look of it, Skyrim is going to feel a lot more lived-in, and so I certainly hope boats will be awesome.

I think Todd was referring mostly to large sailing ships the kind we saw in Oblivion and MW. Since this was part of a fast travel discussion the ships probably have a fast travel capability. Do they stay put? Who knows.

However I would be really disappointed if they have little row boats on random docks like in Oblivion that you couldn't use and were pretty pointless. I mean they have done both horses and small boats with Assassins creed, so I think we may see some small boat piloting. I just like to have things that appear in a game that have a purpose. If they leave row boats out, that's fine, but if they put them in at least make them usable in some fashion.