Am I the only one worried that spells are going to be lame again?

Or that these "Live Cities" are just going to be a bigger version of Fallout Towns? 10 or so Unique Named NPC's with 30 or so "Skyrim Travelers" walking around.

Regarding cities, I want them to be like Assassin's Creed cities; Bustling with people and activity.

Regarding spells, I was sort of hoping like a more detailed and complex Bioshock Plasmyd System for Skyrim.

Sort of like:

A. Normal Shot:

1. Fire - Fire Ball
2. Frost - Icicle Launch
3. Shock - Lightning bolt

B. Charged Shot:

1. Fire - Charged Explosive Fire Ball
2. Frost - Multiple Icicle Shot
3. Lightning - Chain Lightning

C. AoE:

1. Fire - Fire Explosion
2. Frost - Icicles Sprouting from the Ground
3. Shock - Lightning Storm

D. Close Ranged Spread Shot:

1. Fire - Fire Shotgun
2. Frost - Icey Myst Shotgun
3. Shock - Short Range Lightning Sparks

E. Spell Streaming:

1. Fire - Flamethrower.
2. Frost - Icey Myst Stream,
3. Shock - Electrical Stream.

Then there'd be the ways you cast them.

1. Standard One Handed Cast - Standard Casting.
2. Dual Handed Casting - Quicker Casting. Dual Wielding Swords.
3. Staff Casting - Stronger spells. Sort of like a two handed sword.

Not just that but better summons, and over-the-top spells like friggin' tonadoes or something.

I just sort of don't want them to repeat Oblivion... I mean, not that I didn't play the crap out of that game, but I Ioved yet hated so many things about it.
I mean; who came up with Touch Spells? And for that matter... All those pointless named NPC's in Imperial City?

Umm, you complain about generic names of town inhabitants in Fallout 3, then complain about named inhabitants in Oblivion? I don't get it.
Other than that, though, I agree with most of what you're saying. From what we've been reading, it seems like the magic sytsem will be much more in depth. In Todd's interview with the official XBOX magazine, he said something about spells affecting the environment, but wouldn't go into any details. Imagine using telekinesis to push an enemy into a pool of water then using a frost spell to freeze said pool. I doubt you'll be able to do stuff like that, but how damn cool would it be? Or use the " Fus Ro Dah" (sp.?) shout to blast a couple of them into a river then zap them all by launching a shock spell at the water. This would be so cool...

Tell me at 1:38 if theirs just fire, lightning, and frost spells.... :cryvaultboy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjqsYzBrP-M

the filler NPCs to add life will just be 1 liners. Ya know, like how half the oblivion NPCs only had rumors... just a lot more of them

The only thing that worries me about the magic system is the potential for no spellmaking. Otherwise, what you described is essentially what I understand the spell system to be.
Now I am worried about the citizens of each city. Talking to everyone, and each of them being a living, breathing, talking, person was the immersion maker for me.

So I am concerned.

"It is illogical to suffer consequences before they befall" - T'pau

Maybe it will be like fallout where 50 filler npcs run up to you and give you useless drinks and other junk.

Sigh...
Even more to dislike. I didn't play fallout much, forgot about that...

Maybe Beth decided against that, but now that I think about it, that sounds like something in radiant story.

Well, if the game is as good as the gameplay trailer... I don't think we should worry.

What I meant was I wanted there to be hundreds or thousands of them cramming into the streets like a real city should have; not just thirty generic characters named "Skyrim Traveler"
or "Skyrim Immigrant" packed into one small space roaming around aimlessly... Like Fallout. Or named characters with their own little programmed schedule and name... because that
convinced you they were real people, right?

Cities in Skyrim should be bustling with activity, billions of people crammed into the streets roaming in crowds. Your character is just another little ant inside the city limits, albeit a heavily armored
two handed sword wielding one. At night, the crowd recedes, there is still activity but not as much.

It shouldn't be dead outside the city walls either, people should be going in and out of it and there should be billions of houses and farms on the outskirts as well. 'Cause not everyone
is able to live inside the walls.

Cities with life, people! Imagine it!




All I saw was a Two Handed Big Fireball charging, a Staff casting a blue ball and an AoE Fire Explosion... Well that's one of my wishes down! I was really hoping for a Blue Ball Casting staff!

So you'd rather they have no name like in AC, rather than actual names, or even generic ones?

This is the part I care about. You don't want a bunch of unnamed NPCs and then the NEXT DAMN LINE you say you want it to be like AC (which won't happen because everything has much higher poly counts and more objects have physics and better AI), AC has like 10 characters that have actual stories in the games. The rest are just filler.

NPC's better have induvidual names thats one thing I will say now, even if they have only generic lines like in oblivion they better have names. If they have a name like 'Riften Citizen' I will scream and smash my controller against the wall.

Edit: Also to what people may think about having '1000s+' of NPCs roaming about a city, well sadly that is not possible just yet. Come back in 2020, we will see how things are going. I'm hoping for about 100ish for busy citys but realise that could also be a bit much too.

I'm okay with them having any name as long as there are billions of them... and it's not too awkward to roam a city with all of them present.

I think you're asking for too much out of the wrong game.

So do it in a smaller scale, but not too small... And are you actually saying that we can make 256 people play on the same server, but not have 50 plus NPC's in one area? Well... If we haven't...

We have 9 months to go.

I think you are vastly underestimating Bethesda. They can do whatever they want.

They can, but they are not making a TES game with NPCs with no backgrounds to them. I'm not underestimating them at all, I just know how they like to make their games, and respect them for that.

I'm sorry... No background to them? 'Cause every character in say, Fallout 3, had a background... Or maybe in Oblivion... Where the only background they had was worth a sentence in Wikipedia and the underlying paragraphs just detailed their schedule.

Backgroundtastic.

You do need to consider funding, time and if any changes they make will compromise what is already there.

Well of course. But they have nearly a year to do it. And if it actually does compromise anything then don't do it!

I really don't think it's THAT hard though.

A name generator would be nice for the NPCs other than that I don't care, not everyone would want to talk to you.

I think if you have enough fame people should sometimes applaud, possibly have songs in taverns about your exploits. I'd prefer this to having people give you items. Obviously don't have them applauding everytime but if you have completed a heroic quest and word of your deed has met a settlement then I think something like that would be appropriate.

Settlements should have something around 20-30 inhabitants walking about. Maybe asking too much but I think it is fairly reasonable if they are non essential AI, maybe give them random routines aswell.

I think your spellsystem details exactly what I do not want and what I would consider to be lame.

To have the vast intricacies of spellmaking replaced by holding down the button for the same spell, but more powerful is just..
terrible.
Would be very Fable, or indeed Bioshock, but it wouldnt be close to the quality I expect from Elder Scrolls spellmaking.

It could be. I have no idea. But, you should know that this game is going to be spectacular either way. I know it. The shear imagery is enough to make me buy it. But, Skyirm is far more than just a pretty face. It's soon to be the revolution the video game world needs. :]

its more of a background than in AC where they all just walked around waiting to be killed