QuakeCon - New Info

[Argonanza]

AND KILLABLE BEES!! And did you guys hear, they're going to post the characters they made on respective sites! One guy made an Argonian (a big-boned she-Argonian, but Argonian none the less)!

[POMC S117]

An Argonian? Yes!

And again, killable bees and honey!

[slack90]

You, OP, are a godsend.

[BootySweat]

animal companions confirmed

http://twitter.com/#!/DCDeacon/status/1 ... 0564133889

[POMC S117]

OMG! Dogs will be amazing! There better be Border Collies!

[soda popinski]

http://kotaku.com/5828687/an-hour-with- ... ts-amazing

[soda popinski]

http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/pc/elder-scrol ... 740p1.html

[POMC S117]

Failed link. It doesn't work.

[soda popinski]

They both work for me, which one are you having problems with?

[POMC S117]

The latter.

[The-Shadow-One]

oooh ghost wolf comanion.. interesting..

[soda popinski]

Looks like the original one i posted was rerouted through the UK so maybe thats part of the problem.

Try this one: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/elder-scrolls-v/1186740p1.html

Otherwise go to gamespy.com and its on their homepage

[POMC S117]

It doesn't work, and neither does the gamespy website.

If it's not enough hassle, could you maybe copy and paste it here?

[soda popinski]

http://www.gamespy.com/

Is anyone else having trouble with that one?

[POMC S117]

Thanks! It works now!

[BootySweat]

Here is a recap of all the new info learned during QuakeCon:


25 new things learned on August 5 and August 6
- joinable Rebel faction
- pickpocket skill provides greater RP opportunities and much more realistic thievery for thieves
- myriad options for facepaint
- char gen remembers your settings when switching to different races
- even minor NPCs have much more complexity and depth compared with Oblivion
- you can persuade various random NPCs to accompany you and they feel like fleshed out, interesting companions
- there are six different stages to crafting items (refining crude ore, assembling materials, not sure what the other 4 stages are but it sounds a hell of a lot more complex than Oblivion and Morrowind crafting)
- more realistic alchemy labs instead of spamming health potions in the middle of a dungeon
- in addition to alchemy ingredients there are also reagents (more complex alchemy system than Oblivion)
- some spells you find as spell tomes and others you purchase from merchants, but spells definitely not perks
- hand to hand attacks have a much improved gravity and physicality
- the first encounter with Rebel soldiers (Stormcloaks) escorting a prisoner sounds AWESOME - you can choose various options, like setting the prisoner free, giving him a sword, etc. Quests in general sound like there are more ways to complete them
- Bosmer look better than in Oblivion
- traveling merchants camp beside rivers
- you can learn Alchemy by trial and error, tasting unknown ingredients or making potions with unknown effects
- lockpicking mini-game improved
- Bards confirmed in Falkreath
- MYSTERIOUS BLACK DOOR!!!!
- you can hold onto your perk slots instead of choosing a perk at each level up
- you can add laugh lines in character generator
- you can give a Dunmer one red and one gray eye in the character generator
- loading screens look cool
- after murdering innocents in Falkreath Hold, the PC in one of the demos crossed the border into White Hold and no one bothered him
- there is a Two-Handed perk called "Barbarian"
- "DOZENS" of sliders for character creation[/list]


20 more new things we learned on August 7 and August 8:

1. Aurora Borealis confirmed
2. Animal Companions (not Bosmer racial ability) confirmed
3. Bosmer "Animal Allies" Racial Ability confirmed
4. NPCs can throw rocks at you if they are on a bridge above you
5. Joinable Stormcloaks Rebel Faction has branching path quests
6. NEW JOINABLE FACTION (Riverwood Tavern Warrior Clan) CONFIRMED
7. Glow Worms confirmed
8. Killable Bees and insects confirmed (you can harvest their honey)
9. Mysterious Courier Carrying Letter about Investing in Mine Operated by Giants (different ways to handle quest)
10. Branching Path ways to enter Whiterun City Gates
11. Fast Travel costs money (might be negative for some)
12. You continue earning perks all the way to mathematical cap (70 - 80) (perks do not stop at level 51)
13. Stormcloaks control North Keep tower (area where Todd fights Frost Dragon in Demo)
14. Water Ripples look Fantastic
15. Complete one handed and two handed perks list confirmed
16. Branching path non-linear side quest to resolve love triangle between Sven, Camilla and an Elf
17. More than one type of poison (Bosmer immune to "most" poisons
18. You can hire bards to play music in a tavern and if you get them to play the right songs in the right order, everyone gets drunk and you can pickpocket them more easily
19. The Jarl of Whiterun is named JARL BALGRUUF
20. The GIANT RAG-DOLL ANIMATION HAS BEEN FIXED (when he falls from the dragon he no longer looks strange)

[Eltee]

Bootysweat? You and River, you guys are my heroes. The information/compilation heroes of UESP.

[soda popinski]

Did anyone ever get a translation of that french article?

Looked like there was a lot of info

[POMC S117]

Could you post a link and I'll translate it for you?

[BootySweat]

Could you post a link and I'll translate it for you?

Here is a link: http://www.jeuxvideo.fr/jeux/the-elder- ... kyrim.html


Here is the partial translation we have so far:



Translations from Marcel Dragonborn:
---A word about atmosphere :
"Côté ambiance, il faut reconnaître que c'est ce qui impressionne le plus au premier coup d'œil. Graphiquement, le jeu n'est pas une révolution par rapport à Oblivion, mais on sent que les développeurs se sont focalisés sur les détails afin que le joueur ait davantage l'impression de progresser dans un monde qui pourrait évoluer sans lui."

Atmoshpere is what impressed them the most at first glance. In terms of graphics, the game isn't a revolution compared to oblivion, but the devs focused a lot on details so players have the feeling they are in a world which can evolve without them.

---About weapons
"Les armes semblent avoir une réelle présence dans notre main."
Weapons seem to have a real presence in your hand, you feel their weight as you wield them.

Bow will take a little practice.

---Creatures
"Creature animations are impressive."

"Du côté des ennemis, nous n'avons pas encore pu observer des dizaines d'adversaires, mais il semble déjà intéressant de noter que chaque créature a des techniques qui lui sont propres et un loup n'aura pas du tout la même approche du combat qu'une araignée géante ou que ces horribles morts-vivants que sont les Draugrs."
Regarding ennemies, though they didn't fight tens of them, they noticed that every creature fights whith its own techniques (then they mention Spiders, wolves and draugrs).

---Misc
You don't have to spend perk points as soon as you level up, you can save them for later.

Lockpicking has been improved, but they don't say how.
[/quote]


My own rough English summary of some highlights from reading the article:

Dual Casting Perk: it seems that you are only able to dual cast spells after you get a dual casting perk:

"mais on peut aussi thésauriser afin que notre magie destructive soit suffisamment haute pour nous permettre de prendre le dual casting qui permet de lancer des sorts avec les deux mains"

This seems quite odd, as I cannot fathom which magic skill it would be associated with dual casting.



Jarl of Whiterun: Also, the name of the Jarl of Whiterun has been revealed: JARL BALGRUUF

"Une carte qui permet de rapidement se retrouver et de prendre le chemin de Whiterun afin d'informer le Jarl Balgruuf que des dragons ont été observés dans les environs."

Quests from Hilde and Sven: There are numerous quests you can pick up in the Riverwood tavern, or when speaking with Hilde and Sven (the mother and son arguing about dragons in the E3 demo when you enter Riverwood)

La vieille Hilde prétend avoir aperçu un dragon, mais son fils (Sven) la croit folle. Ce même Sven rencontre des difficultés dans sa relation avec la belle Camilla alors qu'un prétendant aux oreilles pointues veut tout gâcher.

Hilde claims to have seen a dragon, but Sven thinks his mother is nuts. Meanwhile Sven is too shy to deliver a letter to his sweetheart and asks for the PC's help. However there is a third party involved in this matter, an elf who wants to ruin everything (this seems to be the same letter that the Italian journalist delivered)



Riverwood Tavern Quests:

"Au détour d'une taverne, nous rencontrons également quelques guerriers qui recherchent des volontaires pour rejoindre leur clan alors que de nombreux petits boulots n'attendent que nous ! Au total et sans vraiment chercher, il n'aura fallu pas plus de trois minutes pour obtenir une jolie poignée de quêtes.

Nombre d'entre elles sont sommaires, mais même les plus simples se font en plusieurs étapes et pour ne prendre que l'exemple de Sven / Camilla, il est possible d'aller directement voir Camilla pour remettre la lettre du grand timide. On peut toutefois préférer rendre d'abord visiter le prétendant elfe afin de voir ce qu'il a nous offrir."

About these quests:

• there are some warriors looking for volunteers to join their clan
• other quests involving small jobs we can do for the quest giver
• even the small quests involve a few steps
• in the case of Sven's quest, it's possible to go directly to Camilla to deliver the letter or talk with the elf first
• within three minutes he had collected a lot of quests

[sjketcheson]

Here is a full translation of the French article for your perusal. Not really much of note unfortunately! Still, I can imagine you would want to read it even if it doesn't say anything revolutionary, just so you can devour any last little detail about Skyrim

Cheers:


First presented to a small audience, The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim was then invited to E3 in Los Angeles. In both places, it wasn’t a playable version and when Bethesda offered to let us try a pre-alpha of the RPG, we didn’t make them ask twice – although the test only ran an hour and only on Xbox 360. A pre-Alpha still has much work to be done, but we would still like to make note of some of the promising aspects.

An all new engine since Oblivion

In order to accelerate things, Bethesda removed the majority of character creation from this pre-version. We were still able to get a look at the tools available to personalize your characters’ face. You can really feel the progress since Oblivion, and Todd Howard should be proud. We were able to have fun with many combinations without coming up with unrealistic characters, and this is due to the accordance of the different options for faces. Those familiar with the Elder Scrolls won’t be surprised to find the same races from Oblivion (Argonians, Bretons, High-elves, Imperials, etc.)

This step finished, Todd Howard invited us to commence our adventure, all the while noting that the main quest is not active: the guys don’t want any spoilers whatsoever! Indeed, this first hands-on is a chance to speak to the feeling, to the ambiance and to the combat of Skyrim, not the storyline. The ambiance is what impresses the most at first glance. Graphically, the game isn’t a ‘revolution’ compared to Oblivion, but you can tell the developers have focused on the details, so that the player has more of a sense of progressing in a world that could continue to do so without him/her.

A living world, rich in opportunities

Thus, after having vagabonded about a bit, we found the path to Riverwood and it didn’t take long for to see the villagers going about their occupations. Here we could see a hunter discretely approaching a deer and there, two lumberjacks working some logs. This entrance to Riverwood is the first chance to enter into some dialogue, and since the main quest is off limits, we had to opt for some secondary conversations. Old Hilde imagines she saw a dragon, but her son Sven believes her to be crazy. This same Sven recounts his difficulties courting the beautiful Camilla, as another suitor with pointy ears is trying to ruin his plans.

At the tavern, we encounter several warriors searching for volunteers to join their clan and many little tasks (quests) await us! Many of them are brief, but even the most simple take several steps, at for example, the Sven/Camilla storyline – it’s possible to go directly to Camilla and give her the letter, or we can go visit the elfin suitor and see what he has to offer. After that, it’s up to us.

Following the pathway towards the first large city of Skyrim – Whiterun – we had occasion to cross several creatures, and it was very agreeable to see that not all wild animals are hostile! Of course, two wolves quickly put this theory to rest and it’s time for me to verify the competency of my character. Stuck at level 1, he can only wield a small, relatively modest axe, and his magical aptitude only allows a small fire spell. We quickly assign them to the two triggers, and it’s on to a combat much more dynamic than usual in the Elder Scrolls, where the weapons seem to have a real presence in your hand.

The basics are all in place

Likely because of the quality of the animations, we really have the impression of having an axe in hand, with all that this implies of inertia when determining the power of our swing. On the spell side, things are obviously much less subtle because the only limit to use is the amount of mana our hero has. In regards to the enemies, we had only seen up to then about ten, but it does seem of note that each creature has particular techniques that are unique to it – a wolf doesn’t have the same approach to combat as a giant spider, or as the horrible zombie-like Draugrs .

Directly linked to combat – but not only – is the evolution of our character, which is determined by two criteria: experience points (combats, quests…) and practice. The hero grows his competence in destruction magic, alchemy, or armor mastery by practicing; but his increase in level allows “perks” which can be attributed along a very rich perk tree. It is thus possible to specialize your character. You can acquire perks, and you can hoard them until your destruction magic is high enough to take dual casting (which needs no explanation in English!)

“The use of the journal for quests and of the map cannot be more simple”

If we had only seen the console interface (Bethesda speaks of a substantially different PC version), we wouldn’t have been disappointed by the work done on it. Other than the inventory, a little long for our taste, everything is very easy to use. A representation of the constellations allows us to see our skills, and the journal couldn’t be simpler. A map allows us to quickly find our way to Whiterun in order to inform Jarl Balgruuf that dragons have been seen in the area. He then invites us to explore the zone of Bleak Falls Barrow and the first dungeons.

In this zone, we discovered many creatures, tried many different combat techniques and were able to test the traps set in place by the developers. In terms of creatures, nothing much new of note, although it’s is worth noting that the animations – painstaking according to Bethesda – are impressive. In terms of combat techniques, cold steel, magic and distance weapons can be easily combined and everyone will find themselves ready to go, although the bow might need a little more practice than the others to be mastered.

Lastly, the traps are undoubtedly a good way to see just how each dungeon is unique: in our example, the traps are too specific (like the axes which swing making us time our run through them) to be reused at will by the developers. In spite of the short nature of our hands-on experience, there remains much to be said about a game that will likely hold most of its promises. We could speak to the (hooking – maybe pathfinding? i.e. collisions with objects?), of the possibility of eating raw food or of cooking it instead to obtain more nutritious items. The fans of RPGs like The Witcher might not be convinced by Skyrim, and it is still too early to confirm anything, but this quick view “pounded in a nail already well in place” since the first presentation of the game!

[soda popinski]

http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox360/the-e ... 4555695026

[magius241]

Wait a minute, as of this past week they were still in pre alpha?! How on earth is this going to be done by November!?

[Ryuhza]

Wait a minute, as of this past week they were still in pre alpha?! How on earth is this going to be done by November!?

SILENCE!!


They'll get it done!

[soda popinski]

Anyone know enough about it to explain it to us what it really means if its alpha or beta?

I get that its roughly the 1st version, 2nd version, etc, but fill me in with a bit more