Special Edition Podcast: Todd Howard Skyrim Q&A:

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/podcasts/archive/201...

Just started listening to it. The music at the beginning still gives me tingles!

- No spears (NOOOOOOOO!)

- Perks don't exactly work like they do in Fallout 3; they act more like skill trees under specific aspects of combat. For example, the different combat skills will be divided into one-handed, two-handed and archery. Under each of these you will be able to upgrade with the various perks, which seem to be weapon-specific - swords, maces, axes etc. They want your levelling experience and skillset to feel more progressive than they have in previous games.

- There are a whopping 280 perks so far in the game, and even if you max out your character's level, you will have still only acquired around 50 perks.

- They're not quite sure what direction they're going in with mounts at this moment in time. They liked having them in Oblivion, and feel as though the world will feel too strange without horses for example, but didn't particularly like the feel of them in the previous game - especially after seeing what games like Red Dead have done with them. In other words, they're still deciding on how they will function and the extent to which you will use them. Todd felt that in the last game they felt like 'battlefield jeeps' as opposed to an animal you were riding.

- Another thing which is being played around with but may not make the cut, is the ability to transform into other forms - such as a werewolf. Todd states that they have experience with doing such things in previous games and are looking into the possibility, currently playing around with it. So yeah, could well be, but if it doesn't make the game's experience a better one then they won't be in.

- They're ecstatic with how the magic functions in the game, both from a visual and gameplay perspective. They're not quite sure how spellcrafting will be implemented, but there will definitely be crafting in the game. The crafting will be talked about at a later date; it's all in the game but will see a few changes prior to release.

- Companions will be in the game, but they will function differently to Fallout. They're going for a huge number of companions, but acknowledge that they will have to sacrifice personality to accomodate that.

- Dragons will be the enemy you'll fear most in this game. Knowing the significance of their inclusion and how they wanted them to function, they got a team of their best people to work specifically on them for about 2 years, and the results are staggering. They can nosedive, march around on the ground, breathe fire through streets and generally terrorise the cities. Not only can they make the encounters with them random, but they can even have multiple dragons in one position. Sounds like they're really proud of what they've achieved with dragons in this game. You will not be able to mount a dragon however, as it simply isn't in conjunction with the direction they've taken them in for Skyrim.

- Skyrim will be similar to F3 in the sense that its personality/identity will flourish. The six (?) regions in the game will feel completely different and unique from one another, and the culture of its people will be heavily evident. Ruins actually feel ancient, for example, and it won't feel like all the buildings were built at the same time 'like an amusement park' - as was the case in Oblivion.

- Size-wise, it's about as big as Oblivion, but the mountainous structure of Skyrim makes it seem larger.

- They're trying to make the game as HUD-less as possible; it will come and go as needed, in other words. The health bar will not appear unless it is being affected, for example.

- They're really proud of the face system in this game. Rather than choose a race and a class, you will simply choose your race and then have various customisation options. Instead of having lots of sliders, you will have preset facial features that you can edit in terms of size and position etc. They feel this is a much better way of crafting your character's appearance, and that each race will really feel different from one another.

- The Radiant Story, in short, conditionalises the various quests you can undertake. Todd was quick to emphasise that the main plot and certain quests are still hand-crafted, but that RS simply adds a heavy layer of dynamic to many of them.

- A little bit was talked about how the PC version will differ from the consoles, but the main message from it seemed to be that they're aiming to make the differences the same as for all their other games (e.g. higher-res textures on PC).

- They're 'very confident' about the 11-11-11 release date, and Todd states that they don't usually specify a release date when they announce their games - and wouldn't have done unless they were confident about meeting it. In other words, they're not anticipating any delays.

- Factions will definitely return, but will be talked about later. It'll be different than what they've done before, although some old factions will be returning.

- Your character will start in a prison again. Todd said that it's partly because of tradition (been like it since Arena), and partly because it helps you develop your own character's backstory right at the beginning of the game; you give your own reason for why your character is in prison.

- They're not necessarily aiming towards a particular ESRB rating, but they're assuming that it will be M (mature).

- Achievements/trophies will be balanced between specific quest lines and gameplay stuff.

- He doubts that there will be Kinect or Move support, and 3D support is highly unlikely. He did say that they could consider Kinect/Move support, but he would be 'surprised', as they're just trying to focus on the main game.

- Your character does not know that he is Dragonborn at the beginning of the game, but an event involving a dragon occurs to reveal it to him. The Greybeards, who live up on the world and are 'Masters of the Voice', find out about this fairly quickly and shout 'Dovahkin' (Dragonborn) into the wind, which rumbles through the entire region (the mountains shake etc.) and gets to you. You will then have to walk up the 7,000 steps to meet them - and yes, there WILL actually be 7,000 steps!

- Levels work like in Oblivion, in the sense that there is a theoretical max level, but no ACTUAL max level (I think?). The big difference they've made with Skyrim is that you level a lot faster due to the perks they have in place - which Todd says makes it more fun. They do talk about it as a 1-50 game, but the max level isn't actually coded in.

- Gameplay footage may not be too far off (little teaser there).

You should be able to morph into a Dragon later on. Not only would it make travel faster, but... Dragon Sky Battles(tm)! and Terrorizing Cities(tm)!!!

So, I watched that Youtube video and then clicked on this other video. Best. Song.Ever. Lmao...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRMQuY559ww&feature...

Really interesting discussion, and some intriguing points raised. I'll try and list the main ones for those who don't want to listen to the podcast (it is a whopping 60 minutes after all, but I'm so excited about this game that I wanted to listen to it all). Anyway...Man, that's a lot of points. Hype level increases with every passing second.

BC?