Skyrim - Previews [Updated]

If you use a skill enough, you are allowed to pick a perk which enhances that skill (silent run, for example). But that perk will affect your character ONLY when you use that skill. If you don't use that skill, you are as good as a character without that perk. You may have 50 perks, but as long as you don't use them; they are non-existent.

Where did you read this? Skills and perks are not things you activate on and off. A perk for swordplay means it only "works" when using a sword, sure, but that's the whole point. Someone who wants to be a sword and shield warrior type will pick perks that enhance sword and shield tactics and buff their vitality. Someone who wants to be a sneaky bow and arrow type will pick perks that enhance stealth and bows.

Since one character can only pick 50 out of 250 or so perks it makes each character much different. If you want all the stealth and bow perks it excludes getting mace or heavy armor perks, and so on. It makes for more unique characters than ever before in TES, because in every game before you could max every skill and have a player as adept as possible at everything.
 
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Where did you read this? Skills and perks are not things you activate on and off. A perk for swordplay means it only "works" when using a sword, sure, but that's the whole point. Someone who wants to be a sword and shield warrior type will pick perks that enhance sword and shield tactics and buff their vitality. Someone who wants to be a sneaky bow and arrow type will pick perks that enhance stealth and bows.

Since one character can only pick 50 out of 250 or so perks it makes each character much different. If you want all the stealth and bow perks it excludes getting mace or heavy armor perks, and so on. It makes for more unique characters than ever before in TES, because in every game before you could max every skill and have a player as adept as possible at everything.

Exactly. At least, that's how understand it given the info that has been released about how the perks will work. I also think that with the perk system (which is a bad name when I think about it; it's more of a skill tree), there will be less jack-of-all-trades characters. Sure, a player can still improve any skill they want, but if perks enhance and customize skills the way that it looks like they will, then a player will not want to use skills that haven't been upgraded and will therefore specialize. Either way, it sounds appealing to me so far, and is a welcome improvement over the static skills/attributes of previous ES games. If one is able to look beyond the loss of attributes with an open-mind, the new system actually sounds like it has a lot more depth and allows for far more meaningful level-ups and character development.
 
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So, while the perks define a skill, attributes define a character.
And skills define …?

Anyway, I don´t think any definitive info on perks was given yet.
Is every perk strictly tied to progression of one respective skill or are there, for example, more "general" perks which have none or solely char level requirements, perks which affect more skill than one, perks which can be accessed via progression in more than one skill or perks which demand certain level in several skills?
Or is this kind of info available already?
 
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And skills define …?

Anyway, I don´t think any definitive info on perks was given yet.
Is every perk strictly tied to progression of one respective skill or are there, for example, more "general" perks which have none or solely char level requirements, perks which affect more skill than one, perks which can be accessed via progression in more than one skill or perks which demand certain level in several skills?
Or is this kind of info available already?

As I understand it perks are tied to skills at least part of the time. For example to get sword perks you need to have a certain level in blade weapons and so on. While the skills will be unlimited, as usual in TES, the perks will not be. So what you will do is level up the skills you use most naturally, then perks you want will naturally be made available.

It's more "design your character through gameplay" than ever before, and this time due to limited perks the character you end up with is more unique and limited than ever before.

It's pretty exciting if you ask me.
 
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It's pretty exciting if you ask me.

Count me as someone who is also excited about this system. When I first heard about the "perks," I was a bit disappointed because I thought they would be like the Fallout perks. While Fallout's perks were somewhat fun, I didn't like how general they were and how they (mostly) couldn't be upgraded or customized; they basically felt tacked on and lacking in meaning. Now that I know how Skyrim's system will work, it sounds like a very innovative blend of skill trees and ES' limitless skill usage. As in, it won't corridor the player into a singular build, but it also now allows for specialization and customization. I think that Skyrim is now one of the few games that I really look forward to playing this year, and it seems like it has a very solid design so far.
 
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As I understand it perks are tied to skills at least part of the time. For example to get sword perks you need to have a certain level in blade weapons and so on.
Yeah, that´s what I gathered as well, the question is if there are any exceptions or variations in this.
For example, how encumbrance is dealt with and so on.
And I think it would be good if some perks would affect not only one skill, but several, like increase damage of all melee weapons etc - these could be available, say, at every 10th character level or have some other prereqs and work as sorta more general substitutes for attributes.

It's more "design your character through gameplay" than ever before, and this time due to limited perks the character you end up with is more unique and limited than ever before.

It's pretty exciting if you ask me.

I´d need more info on perks and how exactly they interact with other systems to decide if I consider it a good thing or not, but I think it definitely has potential.
Even if it ends up as a system which doesn´t allow players to sufficiently define their characters on the most general level, it might still be significant improvement gameplay-wise.
And I can already see how seeing the level up screen will be more interesting.
Also, those dragon shouts seem to be tied with exploration which, at least on paper, is certainly a good thing.
 
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Where did you read this? Skills and perks are not things you activate on and off. A perk for swordplay means it only "works" when using a sword, sure, but that's the whole point. Someone who wants to be a sword and shield warrior type will pick perks that enhance sword and shield tactics and buff their vitality. Someone who wants to be a sneaky bow and arrow type will pick perks that enhance stealth and bows.

Since one character can only pick 50 out of 250 or so perks it makes each character much different. If you want all the stealth and bow perks it excludes getting mace or heavy armor perks, and so on. It makes for more unique characters than ever before in TES, because in every game before you could max every skill and have a player as adept as possible at everything.
I think you misunderstood my post. Obviously I wasn't talking about something which can bu turned on or off, unless if you want to twist it. It's weird. Weird and unprofessional too.
Get the irony? ;)

I must add that this is not unexpected from XBox360 fans whom Oblivion was their first entry into TES series. I can understand that. What I do not understand is why they are so fanatically defensive of something which they have discovered just recently, and they are so bold to accuse veteran PC fans of TES series of being biased/whining/weird/twisting facts/afraid of innovation/haters/unprofessional etc.
 
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So every rpg from beth is going to go the fallout 3 route mixed with fable 3 from now on? I'm not liking this information. As for the graphics who care if its only dx9.
 
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One piece of information got all my attention: the wood cutter. Does it mean that NPCs can activate containers by themselves? Would be welcome.

The other brilliant piece of news is that enchanting weapons is available at last in this series. A feature that was sorrowfully missing from the previous games. Oblivion is five years old by now and finding an interviewer who actually played the game might have be difficult, it is understood,let alone the previous iterations.
 
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He justified this by stating that the original eight all "trickled down" into each other and that this change allowed players more direct control over their characters.
Hard to understand. Oblivion's system was transparent and gave direct control over shapping the character's attributes. You could end with the exact attributes profile you wish. More direct control would imply the capacity to increase the stats directly rather than computation through levelling up.

I wonder how Skyrim can give more direct control than the previous systems.

Since there are no classes in Skyrim, there are no hidden differences between two different characters with completely different play-throughs. Let's say we have three high level characters: an assassin like character, a heavy fighter and a mage (all human). Those characters may have different skill-sets, but they have the same values for speed, strength, endurance, personality, etc. They can carry the same amount of weight, move with the same speed and so on. This means there are no fundamental differences between characters and since the game gives you the ability and even encourages you to use and thus, upgrade all of the skills - like it or not - you will end up with a jack of all trades with a rather different set of perks.

Hard to say. Perks are numerous and very likely, include passive "strength", "agility" etc bonuses, transparent or disguised like perks making the player jump, run faster etc…

The Jack of trades's comment might be influenced by the fact the developpers exhibit their game and show around various abilities available in the game.
For example, the resolution of the pursue of the freed man (spoiler: his head cracked open by a bow shot) is one to exhibit the zoom ability.

From what I understood on the levelling up system, the developpers are banking on the fast reward mindset.
-Skills advance faster and faster as you progress in them, meaning you level up faster by focusing on a specific set of skills, rather than spreading out.
-Going from 20 to 21 does more for the skill efficiency than going to 11 from 10.

This two elements, if confirmed, should warrant that players do not turn their characters into a jack of all trades.

I've started to replay Oblivion (havent played it in three years) to see what could be expected from Skyrim.
Among the questions, two:
- on path finding, the terrain and the differences in physical capacities makes that it is possible for a NPC following the player to get killed in stunts (a feature I enjoyed much as I killed a lot of enemies like that)
For Skyrim, it begs the questions to know whether or not the NPCs are able to determine if a path is lethal to them, attending that physical attributes are different, and that one character can run on a path lethal to others.
Indeed, if characters can not acquire perks boosting their physical prowesses, this issue is solved: a PC can not opt for a path lethal for his pursuers as averagely, they are all the same.

The other question is about classes. Skyrim says to include companions and no matter what, a living world demands that the radiant IA system sends fighters of the fighting guild around, let hunters hunt, let heroes perform their jobs.
Will they behave as their class? If you meet a warrior, will he play like a warrior focusing on warrior skills? Will a bard buff you up?
If indeed, there is no more class, the AI could be simplified.

Questions in hold.
 
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Kind of weird to twist his comment on mods to fit some kind of graphics whining. Weird and unprofessional too.

The modding scene will go first for graphics mods; which in the end will represent a substantial part of the available mods.

This said, the controls seem to have been thought for the console, side stepping is no brainer with a controller. Should be a different story on a keyboard if controller is not allowed.
 
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1up have their preview up. They have a really interesting section about magic:

It seems that there will be some sort of rudimentary spell combo system, based on some of the stuff we see Howard pull off. Putting a heal spell in each hand resulted in an ultra-heal spell of sorts. A note-quite-as-flashy-but-still-interesting scenario had Howard casting detect life and then an unspecified spell from the Illusion tree -- one that caused enemies to attack each other. Again, it's not flashy, but it was nice to have the detect life show you all the bad guys nearby, then to cast that illusion spell from afar and watch the mayhem through walls or hills without making any actual contact with the enemy.

The most interesting combination that Howard casted was a circle of protection paired with a chain lightning; this caused any foe to be instantly zapped whenever they attempted to close in for a melee attack. Until we get a deeper demo or some hands-on time ourselves, we don't quite know how deep the spell combination system can get, but it already looks pretty snazzy.
 
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I think you misunderstood my post. Obviously I wasn't talking about something which can bu turned on or off, unless if you want to twist it. It's weird. Weird and unprofessional too.
Get the irony? ;)

Not really. If I misunderstood you then okay, but I didn't purposely twist anything. In any event I still don't get your point. As a TES veteran I see this as creating more diverse characters than ever before. You haven't really refuted that in any logical way I have seen.

I must add that this is not unexpected from XBox360 fans whom Oblivion was their first entry into TES series. I can understand that. What I do not understand is why they are so fanatically defensive of something which they have discovered just recently, and they are so bold to accuse veteran PC fans of TES series of being biased/whining/weird/twisting facts/afraid of innovation/haters/unprofessional etc.

If you're talking about me then you're way off base, since I have been playing TES games since Daggerfall and only on the PC.
 
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The modding scene will go first for graphics mods; which in the end will represent a substantial part of the available mods.

This said, the controls seem to have been thought for the console, side stepping is no brainer with a controller. Should be a different story on a keyboard if controller is not allowed.

Agreed on the graphics. The modding community will step in to remedy any PC graphic shortcomings so I'm not worried.

On the controller, hopefully they will do what Two Worlds II did which is have it so that if you have an Xbox controller plugged into your PC when you load the game it sets the GUI to the Xbox version, otherwise it defaults to the keyboard and mouse GUI.
 
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