It's certainly scripted. Why? it's a trailer!

I don't believe dragon fights will be heavily scripted, at least if they take place in large open areas as implied by the trailer, however for this particular one? Well, I don't even think it was gameplay footage, never mind unscripted.

Of course it was scripted, but all in game. I doubt we will get to see things through the dragon's eyes (as in the beginning of the trailer), nor will be crossing mountains or flying above cities with the camera.

Just like any trailer (film, game or otherwise), they probably storyboarded it out, and crafted together the end product. But from the Tweets, they used the game engine and the in world environment to "record" the images.

Like all of you I am excited as can be.

Storm

I'm only saying that we have nothing else to go on except for their word. Some of it may be partially scripted, who knows. I know we don't, only bethesda does.

Just saying that we shouldn't assume anything.

Well if it wasnt scripted its sad because it means dragons are dumb as doorknobs.
I may not be sripted but you can bet your ass they did this ficght a thousand time to get thse scenes.
If dragons where semi intelligent it would have pushed the fighter down hill
A whip attack wit his tail after the breath while fighter is blind.
and so on... well its a game and well the video althought not impressive is nice and bring hopes. They better put water instad of white pule on those waterfalls worse water i ever seen in my life!! How can they focus that to put in the trailer ?

I highly doubt it

Even if it wasn't, the battles are still going to be epic. Everything the dragon was doing will be seen in the game. It's truly going to be a sight for sore eyes.

is it so hard to believe that it was unscripted and that they just made look cooler with camera angles

It was scripted but with normal gameplay which means it's still going to be epic

Guys, i personally think that almost all of it was non scripted, besides the part where he shouts to cast a spell. Look very closely at the way they cut from scene to scene. They probably only showed the most fluid of movements that the dragon did, and cut out some of the choppy ones. But im not completely denying that they could have lied about it all being non-scripted.

No, they never said the Oblivion *trailer* was unscripted. The trailer most definitely was. The demo, which is what some people call the trailer, was set up specifically for the demo, and the ai set to run behaviors in very short time periods. It was very planned, but not exactly scripted. Not that people will believe it, but whatever.

I think the Skyrim trailer was unscripted. Edited, yes. Scripted, no. Watching the pc mess up due to the player's having a problem wouldn't make for a good trailer. Great blooper clips, but a lousy trailer. People will believe what they want, though.

Of course the dragon fight was scripted but mostly just on paper. The devs can spawn an enemy at will and change the camera angle while fighting. That one fight was pieced together from dozens of different fights.

Oh come on people, you cant possibly believe that the fight with the dragon in the trailer was unscripted can you? I mean look at it, most of it was visual flair, just look at the animations of the Dovahkiin and compare them to the actions in the rest of the trailer, if that is actual gameplay footage then there is no way it can be anything more than a quick time event.

I think the problem people are having is the definition of scripted. On some level sure it was scripted it is a trailer after all. They will come up with a script for what actions they want to take place and will have them happen. Some like the dragon fight require them to control both ends of the deal the player and AI, otherwise it would probably not pan out so well like with the cliff edge etc. But it very well could all be in game animations and how fights look and feel, they just made sure everything happened at the right place, time etc.

The problem people are having is reading what they want to see. The way i read it guys Nick isn't confirming that the dragon flight in the trailer was unscripted he's saying that can happen dynamically in-game. Not in this trailer.

All of the creatures in the game have scripts running on them. So it by nature has to be scripted. So then one of two possible scenarios were used:

1. Either Bethesda wrote some additional coding in order to make these scenes work out the way they did OR
2. The playtesters were required to film (using FRAPS or something like that) everything they did in their games for days and days. And they just took the most interesting dragon bits and edited them together to create this movie.
Either way, it's scripted. But what people are trying to actually ask is "Did this battle happen just like that?" or "Was it arranged to LOOK like it happened just like that?" In which case I think the answer is the LATTER question.

You can take tons of film when crafting a movie, but you only edit together the best parts that are the most interesting.... doesn't mean you didn't shoot them, but they might not have even been shot the same day, but then in editing them they are worked to create the illusion that this all happened naturally one after another. I think Bethesda is only guilty of EDITING their footage ... but I don't they are guilty of FAKING their footage. I think someone there was playing those exact scenes, but later the Director of this video is the one that put them all together to make what we saw, which is essentially a more interesting compilation of what actually can occur in the game.

I'm sure the dragon flying off toward the mountain was a real thing that happened to SOMEONE ... but who knows how many times they ran around filming that before someone got that scene to naturally occur?

Also, one guy complained that "how could that guy run down the hill and then the dragon follows him right to the edge?" Who says it ever worked that way to begin within? Maybe those clips are unrelated and just edited to APPEAR related.... Perhaps, again using my theory, when they saw that one of their playtesters had recorded a battle near the edge of the cliff, the video Director said "okay, I need some footage in game of the player running down the hill so we can sort of try to make it look like he's being chased" ... so yeah, that would be staged, but it's still coming from in game footage filmed after the dragon battle but edited PRIOR to the dragon battle to try and tell a story. Then he said "Can anyone get some footage of him shouting over the body of the dead dragon?" and the playtester go back to work recording more footage ...

Random footage tossed around (like a limp salad) just won't be as interesting as a solid (piece of steak) story is to our minds as consumers ...

I don't blame them one bit. I don't feel lied to or cheated. I understand as a consumer that some parts of a multi-million dollar epic RPG game's trailer videos are going to be EDITED (not faked!) to create a more impressive feeling for me, it's just SALES, people. There will always be SALES .... try to get past that, and just enjoy what they've given us... a really cool window into the game that can keep us happy for at least another month, when they can release another tidbit to enjoy....

Thanks.

This makes a lot more sense than the people crying "OMG SCRIPTED AND FAKED". More than likely that's what it is. I'm hoping all those animations make it into the game though. If that "out of breath" part at the end right after he kills the dragon is anything to go by, they may have finally added an animation for when your character is low on Fatigue.

...

Seriously going to play that card?

Two diftent things here, the video shows in game content from a xbox 360, no question about it.

The fight scene looked scripted simply as it would be hard to get the camera angles right while you fight real time. Think scripted quest content in Oblivion, the player and the dragon do a series of animations, however the animations is in the game. they just put them together to make them look good.
The other option would be to fight a dragon 50 times and record all of it and then clip the good part. This is also posible.

How are you suspect to kill your first dragon with a dragon shout? also not all of them does damage, one simply teleport the player a short distance.
Why should the bother to add it anyway then it would require more work for them and make people angry?

I'm not sure why everyone is saying that they said it was unscripted when what they actually said was that was not what they said at all. They said it was all in game. I have no clue how it was made because I'm not really too bright about it all but I would imagine the "owner" of that character made a save just before the fight, fought the dragon a few 100 times and then the it was edited together to end up with what we have seen. That doesn't mean it was scripted, because that would (I believe) require planning it before it was done. I am of the belief it was edited together much like movies are. Many takes and then putting together the best parts in the video. :shrug:

Many of us are really arguing semantics here. And putting words into Nick and Pete's mouth they did not say.

You are probably right, sounds easier than my idea of setting up a scene in a quest, just fight and save a lot during the fight. reload until you get it right and continue.

I agree with Summer. A very good piece of machcinema for the dragon fight. This may even make it into the game as the intro movie. The other quick scenes could easly be straight ingame footage. An awesome trailer. Well done Bethesda.

I actually think that the dragon fight is actually the first the dragon we fight in game. I mean the character looks to be kitted out very basic attire, he most likely only has that one shout we see him use which could be something he learnt while at the throat of the world as i honestly doubt we fight our first dragon without any dragon shouts. I believe the very start is most likely an ingame cutscene right up to where the character stops at the cliff. From there onwards, i believe the fight is 100% unscripted.

In the short scene where we see the player place and axe to the skull of one those new undead, at normal speed the we think the head is decapated. It is not! On the contray, when you slow the footage down, the head and nack bend back violently and then starts to come back up on the rebound. Seeing that was done in the first person view, i have no trouble believeing that the fight with the dragon was unscripted.

http://au.ign.com/videos/2011/02/24/skyrim-rewind-theater watch this and you will see what i mean

Okay, this is what I came to this thread to say (luckily, other people understood too) :





So what's important to remember:



What you saw in this video were the same graphics as will be on the 360 and the same animations -- all of this could have happened in-game. Some things might be changed (read: improved) before release (like the water, I hope :whistling: ), but what you see here is definitely the real deal. Stop complaining that it might be scripted -- that doesn't matter, because it's just a demonstration of the epic things you can do in this epic game.


Great work, Bethesda! :celebration:

TO ALL THE CRY BABIES READ THIS FIRST

Nice compilation. :trophy: .

I think this discussion can be closed now. Unless anyone with a strong sense of logic can add anything.