Small details, big difference - Part I

As of Western RPG's, it has always been the small details, which add up to the big, and in The Elder Scrolls' case, often awesome picture. In the following article, I will show you what little details I've caught a glimpse of, which I personally think is very "def." (meaning cool.)

1. Holes and cracks in the roofs and ceilings of dungeons and ruins

Look at the detail!

2. Bats - In the E3 demo, we saw bats appearing, or more like fleeing, when the Dragonborn proceeded through Bleak Falls Barrow

Looks like we found the batcave!

3. When you summon a creature, it will enter out of a sort of Void / Portal thingy. In the demo, I got a short glimps of a Frost Atronach being summoned

Right now the Atronach is kinda crumbled together, and when it is out of the void, it stands up fully in a stunningly realistic motion.

Dwarven Ruins be back, lad!

Most of us who played Morrowind both remember and enjoyed the dwemer ruins, or dwarven ruins if you prefer. Morrowind was kind of an alien world, with giant mushrooms and strange creatures you don't normally see in western fantasy games. It also had Cliff Racers, which made us want to poke our eyes out, but that's another story.

To me, the dwarven ruins were sort of the only thing I could relate to except for stuff like grass and water. Naturally, not seeing them in Oblivion, was kind of a set back, yet a minor one. Instead they were "replaced" by Ayleid ruins, which in a way were also kind of cool.

It is however with great joy that I can announce the return of Dwarven ruins in Skyrim. I think it only fair to assume that they won't look that much alike those in Morrowind, though. It's exciting and you're happy, and that's final!

Level up! Yeah!

This might not be a Pokémon game, but levelling is still quite intriguing. Naturally we are all up to date on the whole "there will be perks" and the attribute,as well as skill thingies.
If not, I suggest that you read my articles on them. Just click the keyword in the bar to your right.

But for short: Every level, you get to pick a perk. There are only 3 attributes: Health, Magicka and Stamina. There are 18 skills, of which 16 are known and confirmed. All in all, there are 50 levels. You can level beyond that, but you won't get to pick a perk, and a only get a minor attribute bonus*1.

*1 (I think, but I am not sure)

If you played Oblivion, you are probably among the dreadful horde of players, that are hating on the levelling system. Back in good ol' 2006, everything levelled along with us. Suddenly a couple of measly bandits were wearing hardcore glass armor, solely because we rose a couple of levels. It's like that we, in spite of our efforts, never really became anymore powerful than to begin with, and that is crap.

Fortunately, Bethesda can take a hint. For Skyrim, they have adopted the same system, used in Fallout 3. The so-called "level lock." It works like this: Apart from a few 'fixed' places, dungeons and areas you enter, will "lock" to the level you are in when you first enter it. So if you visit cave A when in level 7, there will still be level 7 appropriate monsters when you return, 20 levels later.

A lot of concern for this system has been expressed, but not to worry. First of all, you can see that it worked great in Fallout 3. I personally didn't even notice, let alone know about it, before I read about it whilst finding info on Skyrim.

There are 150 dungeons, at least, in Skyrim. So fear not that all of your re-visits will be ruined. Also, it is important to note that the "areas" are not the same as the 9 regions in Skyrim. They are not marked, but indicated by the developers. Ergo, we don't know how many there are or where they are.

When that system is paired with radiant story, which sends you to new places all the time, you will constantly be finding new scenery as well as challenges, and when you come back to where you started, you will feel like a new man. Or woman, which I've noticed a disturbing amount of guys choose to play as.

So how do we level up? You all remember the major and minor skills from Oblivion? Where you picked 7 major skills and when you increase them enough, you level up? Well, that has been axed! No more! Fight the power! Viva la Revolution!!! ... Erhm, as I was saying: You no longer pick any major skills. Every skill contributes to your level progression, whenever they increase. The higher the skill level, the more the progress.

If you want a little boost, you can visit the doom stones, as they were called in Oblivion. Some of them corresponds to a specific skill, so when you 'use' it, that skill will level faster for a fixed period of time. I'm not sure if they're still called doomstones, but hey... Who cares?

Okay, I kinda do. But we'll see in time.

*EDIT
They are called "Guardian Stones."

Dungeons

So what is one of the most important elements of western RPG's? Dungeons, of course! But you knew that already!

Some of us remember the dungeons of Morrowind as great and interesting. Also hard to find your way through! Still, Oblivion shows us a much better time when it came to dungeoneering. Still, after a while they became a little too dull and familiar. They all looked like each other and used a lot of the same textures again and again.

Luckily, we've already confirmed that Skyrim will be a lot better!
Here is some info on what the dungeons in Skyrim will feature:

In Oblivion they made use of 1 dungeon designer, which is probably why creativity eventually took a serious blow to the head and started copying itself. In Skyrim, BGS have made use of a whole 8 dungeon designers and promises us great dungeon variety. As they say themselves: "Every dungeon is unique."

Not only do we know that dungeon designs will vary, but also the number! Skyrim will indeed feature at least a 150 dungeons, not including PoI's. There were about 200 in Oblivion, which you could say is a step down, but I won't, 'cause for one thing, I never really visited every dungeon and secondly, I'd rather have 150 unique dungeons, than 200 copies.

A interesting thing we've seen in the demo from E3 is Todd Howard's visit to Bleak Falls Barrow, an old temple created by the Nords in order to worship dragons. Here we see how the holes in the ceiling, allows access for some beautiful sunlight. We will see this in several dungeons, holes in dungeon ceilings, allowing this beautiful effect.

Several who saw the demo first hand has stated that almost none of the textures look alike, not even the spider web hanging from the walls.

Not only do we have a bunch of unique dungeons, but the team has also stated that they will be bigger than those in Oblivion, so that is definitely a step up. Of course they also say that some dungeons will take a lot more time to get through than others. They've often referred to these as epic dungeons, which they only calm down due to their size.

There are, as always, different types of dungeons. We have Bleak Falls Barrow, which sported its very own unique touch, but we also have some other types, like we had in oblivion. There well be different kinds of ruins, unlike Oblivion where there were only castle and ayleid ruins. Through pictures, we know that there will definitely be castle/fort/tower/whatever-you'd-like-to-call-it ruins like in oblivion.

Moreover, the cavern / cave dungeons will sport different climates. Again I'd like to refer to Oblivion, in where we saw caves made out of... Well, dirt. In Skyrim, we will also see hard rock in different formations and carved stone as well. The actual climates are interesting. We can see completely dead dungeons, as well as some frozen over and some which are lush, with plants and roots.

Skyrim's dungeons will also feature a fixed group of enemies. That is so we don't run into creatures that has absolutely nothing to do with each other, in the same dungeon. We won't find a Minotaur among a bunch of Goblins, so to speak. And if we did, the Minotaur would probably be the only one standing. Anyway, BGS have really emphasized the importance of which creatures arr in which dungeons and how great they've made it for us.

In Oblivion (again,) we saw some awesome traps in our dungeons. Of course they all featured either spiked chainballs or big-ass timber getting thrown right at our faces, but they were amusing and a fun addition to dungeoneering nonetheless! The developers have confirmed that we once again will see traps, in this fifth installment in the series. With glee, we listen intently. Only, there is not much to hear, so far. They say that we will see new traps with more variety, and in addition to new traps, there will also be puzzles included, when we venture into the unknown depths of random dungeon.

I've always enjoyed two aspects of RPG's: The role-playing part and the dungeoneering, which, funnily enough, are also the key aspects to a western RPG! This title seems to be shaking up both of them and can we be more psyched? I think not!