This one an hour-long podcast. see here
Here is what I learnt from listening to it:
- "Spears" are not appearing inthe traditional sense. (I.e. not a skill)
- Weapons - three confirmed skills including:
- Perks - Are appearing, but are not like Fallout. Instead, of having, say, an "Axe" skill, it exists as part of the One-Handed skill, which gives the game a better overall balance, because as you raise your level, you start to specialise in that skill.
- Ability to shapeshift - something they are looking at doing
- Crafting - Spells, Potions, Other times - will exist within the games system
- Smithing will appear (Possibly as a skill)
- Enchanting - Is a Confirmed Skill
- Alchemy - Is a blended skill. Todd: ""it isnt THAT important anymore, but they are treating it in the Stealth category", and it is the most "Magical" of the Stealth List (EDIT: Sorry, I misheard it - YES, it will appear, it just wont be a MAGICAL skill anymore)
- Crafting - occurs within each discipline
- Confirms there will also be a list of non-"skills" based crafting, such as cooking,etc
- Magic: An emphasis on moving away from the "spreadsheeting" of magic (especially in terms of creating spells). The example used is "Fire" spells in Destruction, and how they want to move towards the ways in which it behaves:
- Fire you can put down like a rune
- Fire that lingers on the ground, like you're spraying a wall
- Fire that travels out of your hand, like a flamethrower
- Fire that you can charge up like a Fireball, and explode it far away.
- There is also confirmed that one of the Perk Trees of Destruction will be Fire-based.
- Mysticism - "is just a label" - the spells still exist.
- In other games, the skill was just a generic number, in Skyrim, it really feels like you are improving your skill (due in a large part to perks)
- 280 perks currently, and can earn one each level. (Therefore, two level 50 characters will be COMPLETELY different characters)
- No Classes (already confirmed, but still worth re-mentioning) - instead, it evolves naturally on the skills.
- Dragons - want to improve significantly on the one used in Redguard:
- They wanted to make it like a Boss fight (Todd's words: "wanted to make it like a mix between a Big Daddy and a helicopter in Half-Life 2"
- Confirmed that there will be multiple types of dragons appearing
- Not looking at making them ridable.
- Companion Characters: Confirmed. Unlike Fallout though, they arent "scripted" per se, but rather, they follow you if they like you, and other conditions. There can also be multiple companions following you. The disadvantage, is theres a slight tradeoff in terms of companion's depth.
- Radiant Story: Short version: "A tool to make Quests" - All of the stories and quests are still hand-written. Its conditionalised without having to handwrite every aspect of the quest.
- - The only way to know which quests are Radiant, and which ones arent will be to "compare notes with friends" (That sounds like a challenge :P)
- They are more like the "Random Encounters"/"Random Events", that are personalised.
- Factions: Some are confirmed as returning (doesnt want to be specific, yet)
- A few new factions, too!
- Q: Why do characters start in prison:
- Tradition (Partly)
- Like idea that there is a little bit of conflict.
- (Immediately to yourself start to tell a story of why, i.e. good character, obviously got the wrong person)
- 5 or 6 regions (examples mentioned) : pine forests, fall (?) forests, tundra, volcanic tunrda, Mountains, glacier area.
- HUD / Health System - Small compass bar always their (for direction)
- Health, Magicka, etc -> Come up when need to (e.g. if just walking around, and on full health, it wont show up, because it doesnt need to be)
- Shows up if someone hits you, though.
- Graphics development -> Generally done on the X-box first, because its smoother
- Achievements and Trophies: Different to Fallout, because there are more Quests than in Fallout 3
- Greybeards - are confirmed to be appearing (and live in the Throat of the World)
- - Fairly early on, the Greybeards find out about you, so they shout "Dovakiin" through the world.
- - They shout out your name, and the mountains tremble.
- - The 7000 steps: Todd himself "is going to count them" (Direct Quote) :)
- Levelling system: "It works like Oblivion" - no maximum level
- Theoretical Maximum, depending on skills, but not hard-coded.
- 1-50, but same amount of gameplay as Oblivion, due to much faster levelling
- Reason for this: To introduce the "Perks" system much quicker.