Todd Howard Talks Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim’s Engine Advancements and Skill Streamlining

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Dan Webb

Considering that nearly 5 years has passed since Oblivion graced our consoles, it’s no surprise that Skyrim’s engine is... slightly more advanced, shall we say. At Bethesda’s BFG Showcase, Bethesda Game Studios’ Game Director, Todd Howard took to the stage to talk a bit about the game before demoing it. The engine advancements were no doubt top of their list of talking points.

“When we finished Fallout 3 we said, okay, it’s Elder Scrolls time again, we really miss this, we’re going to dive right in,” enthused Howard. “Do we wait for a new console cycle, because you know, with Elder Scrolls we usually like to start over, but we felt we had a real big laundry list of things that we knew we could do on the current generation of consoles.”

“We just felt that there was so much we could do with this current generation so we rewrote the entire renderer; we have full shadows and everything now; we rewrote all the caching; the AI systems; the quest systems; the dialogue; the interface; the animation system, we’re using Havoks behaviour system, which is one of the most advanced animation systems out there.”

“By the time we were done, we had rewritten all the gameplay, all the graphics in our engine... Enough that we’ve branded it the Creation Engine.”

But it’s not just the engine that got a rewrite, oh no, Bethesda were keen to rework and streamline the attribute and skill system too, as well as the levelling up system. But why?

 “You have the skills and then you have the three main stats, which is magika, health and stamina,” stated Howard as he gave some background to the new system itself. “In Oblivion you have your 8 attributes and then you have 21 skills... Now you have 18 skills and the 3 main attributes.”

“What we found is that all of those attributes actually did something else, so a fan might say, “You removed my 8 attributes!” and my answer is “Which ones did you want?” “I’ve got to have intelligence because it affects my magika!” “Well now we just have magika.” They all trickled down to something else so we just got rid of that. Now when you level up you can just raise your magika. In Oblivion you had to raise your intelligence, knowing that your intelligence raises your magika to cast more spells. We found that they all trickled down to some other stat.”

As you’re probably aware, the levelling up system has been tweaked somewhat in Skyrim as well. It’s now involves raising skill levels, which tie into the overall level itself.

“So what you do is: you’re raising your skills which are pushing you towards levelling up,” said Howard. “Then when you level up you get to pick a perk in those trees; and it’s like a standard skill tree, but they have requirements. Not just the one below it, but needing a skill value that’s high enough. What you tend to do is, you see a perk you like and then you say, I’m going to start using my sword more because I want that perk... but I know I need to get my skill up to pick it. That’s one reason that you level up faster.”

Yes, unlike Oblivion and Fallout, Skyrim is a 1-50 system, rather than a 1-25. However, the time to get from 1 to the end is the same... and no, we’re not insinuating there is a level cap either – there isn’t.

Okay, so there might be... According to Howard, there’s no level cap per se, but there might be a “mathematical” one.

“There’s probably some mathematical level cap, but like Oblivion, it’s just kind of however it works out. We don’t naturally set it. We do kind of balance this game... the levelling’s faster, so in Oblivion and Fallout 3, we kind of think of them as a 1-25 game; this is a 1-50, but what that means is that we just sped that up. It’s not like it’s going to take you longer, and because there are so many perks and the power really comes from the perks, we wanted to get you going faster. You level faster and then it slows down. I think the mathematical count is somewhere around 70...”

And no, there will be no athletic and acrobatic skills this time around either, so no running and jumping across The Shire like a bloody idiot.

Thank heavens!

Does that mean that players can mix and match a little more then and be more diverse, you know, rather than playing one particular play style and sticking with it?

“It’s up to you really,” said Howard, “You can spread yourself on all of those skills, but what happens is all of those perk trees have skill requirements, so it’s not like just picking this one. You have to have a skill of about 30 or 40, so if you want the better stuff, you’re going to have to put your time into those skills, but you can still... What it allows you to do is change your mind, more than anything else.”

Don’t forget to check out our Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim preview from the BFG Showcase and keep an eye close to the ground for more Skyrim news this week. Oh, and there’s some new screens to feast your eyes upon.

Comments
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  • can't wait for this game. I like how they're making its easyer to use, i found all those skills and atributes made it slightly confusing.
  • Wow.2
  • No more jumping around like a fool, hell yeah
  • Sounds an interesting system I suppose the big danger is that it may feel 'dumbed down', hopefully it won't and will just feel a more logical method of levelling, we shall see!
  • this sounds very interesting... cant wait to play it:)
  • This does sound interesting. I'm intrigued at seeing how all this will work out! Though disappointed about the Athletic and Acrobatic skills, I loved jumping around everywhere like an idiot!
  • @1 Yeah, there was just too much clutter for me but I still loved Oblivion. Every time this game pops up, I want it more and more.
  • elder scrolls! daddy can't wait to get his hand's on this
  • I liked the depth of the skills in Oblivion. It seems like each new Elderscrolls game is being more simplified than the last. Oblivion was simpler than Morrowind and now it is looking like Skyrim is even simpler than Oblivion. I can't say I am enthused being an Elderscrolls junkie.
  • This is very intruiging, but @9 you make a valid point I don't think it will lose it's magic though
  • @9 I also as an elder scrolls junkie have found the games draw cards to be its open environment and quest lines. All I really want is them to bring back GLASS ARMOR
  • @9 as an Elder Scrolls junkie myself, I can honestly say I'm hopeful. I never bought into this 'dumbing down' idea that people threw around with Oblivion. Yes Morrowind had more options, but sometimes they're just too much. Not difficult per-se, but it's just variety for the sake of it. Oblivion trimmed some things from Morrowind with no detriment at all. I'm surprised by the removal of stats a la strength, intelligence et al, but what Todd says is true, these stats just filter down to affect something else, so why not just affect it directly instead? I'll be interested in seeing how things like carrying capacity and increased damage will be worked out, but I expect they'll all be in the perks. As surprising as it is, I like the stat removal as it means the game is more about player choice than reliance on stats. I always felt that ES games were hindered at times by the stats. not in terms of how much information there was to deal with, but, for example, you play this game, get immersed in what's going on, then you just start swinging your weapon side to side, and it's the stats that decide if you kill someone. IF you used a bow, it could take you numerous shots to take someone down, even if you lined up a headshot. With the removal of stats and adding of perks, I'm hopeful it will allow a more real feeling to the game.
  • Some very interesting changes, I'm eager to see how it works out. Bring on November!
  • @9 &12. The multitude in stats and magic classes just added another layer of replayablilty to me. I probably started over whenever I got ridiculously strong just to see how much mysticism or illusion or some other trait would make me adjust my game play. It looks like ass now but Morrowind in my mind was the most enveloping and enthralling game of the series so far. Yes, fast travel has "dumbed" the game down because now you dont have to set return markers or figure out if a stilt strider or a boat would take you closer to your destination. Miss that game; still have Morrowind but my black brick cant handle it anymore.
  • Jumping around like a bloody idiot was my favorite part of Oblivion lol.
  • Well I couldn't stand the random chance in Morrowind skills. Much prefered the 100% success rate of lockpicking/enchanting/blocking/etc. I felt much more in contorl of what was happening in Oblivion.
  • I have to admit I am a little apprehensive of the changes. One of the biggest draws for me to oblivion was the leveling system. It added hours and hours of gameplay because I would see some spell I would like to use or some random cliff I wanted to climb and would have to level my skills up accordingly. Not to mention it was a blast to save the clothes you start with, power level and go through the rest of the game with your enchanted shackles,vest,and pants without anything being able to hardly touch you. With the recent trend of games being "dumbed down" (DA 2 and ME2 anyone) It makes me very weary to hear things like this. Bethesda has a good track record so I have faith despite the apprehension.
  • I'm disapointed to hear about the lack of athletics and acrobatics. jumping about like a twit and being fast as hell were damn useful at times. though I suppose the upshot of the system is I don't need to keep track of my skills like a damn accountant just to get a +5 boost per level this time. Even still, everything I've seen so far has me really looking forward to this game.
  • “When we finished Fallout 3 we said, okay, it’s Elder Scrolls time again, we really miss this, we’re going to dive right in,” Yay so when this game releases, they'll say, It's Fallout time again, we really miss this! *Happy face*
  • Such a mixed bag here. The engine overhaul is great. But i cant help but feel like they are dumbeing down the stats and level system yet again. As a fan of TES since Arena, the series hit the pinacle of character building with Daggerfall and has been steadily dumbing it down since. This news is just confirming to me that skyrim will not be what daggerfall was, modernized. I still cant wait for the game, but im quite disappointed by this news. I wonder how much more can they strip out for TES VI...
  • As interesting as it sounds, I will still invest all of my time to see how ME3 ends especially after readin preview in GI^^ I so can not wait for both, but I will have to wait for Skyrim a bit longer;-)
  • This game is going to be amazing in my eyes. Everything I see makes me so giddy. Only one person said what I've been thinking with all this "dumbing down"... you no longer have to keep such intense track of skill use to get the +5 attributes. I know they weren't needed but I couldn't help myself but focus so hard on power leveling that it took a lot out of the game for me, I've actually never finished Oblivion's story because of the amount of time I've spent power leveling. It's a shame really, I loved the game and had hundreds of hours on multiple chars/platforms.
  • Well I'm torn since I like the way they are trying to streamline it to make character development more fluid and natural but they seam to be getting rid of attributes and skills that actually made sense and replacing them with yet another bloated tree system. One of the best features of the elder scrolls series was that the skills increase as you use them instead of having to "level up" like a traditional rpg which meant you didn't have to bother with planning your characters development but by using another development tree system, they have taken a huge leap backwards. Why can't they keep the attributes but instead of having a choice of which ones to increase at level up they increase as their associated skills increase which will make the whole level up redundant and keep game play more fluid so you can spend more time exploring and doing quests intend of looking at your character sheet.
  • @14. Agree to disagree I guess. I don't see the removal of these things as removing the replayability, rather it just takes it out of stat management and more into our active gameplay choices. I also don't buy into Fast Travel dumbing anything down. If you don't like it, don't use it. If you can stop yourself, that's not the games problem, it's yours (I mean that 'you/yours' generically, not specifically aimed at you). @20. You're not the only one that seees Daggerfall as the pinnacle, Daggerfall was excellent, but tbh I really don't understand that point of view anymore, not completely. From an RPG players point of view, I understand that seeing stats being removed is a shocking blow, stats are what make a good rpg right? Sorry, but no, a good RPG is not in the stats but in being able to become the role you're playing. Just because Daggerfall was stat heavy doesn't make it better. Preferable to you, yes, and I can understand why and I'll never say it's not worthy, but actually being better, no. The old system that they've been using since Daggerfall was flawed. It worked better in Daggerfall because game engines were not as advanced as they are now. Moving around and blithely mashing the right mouse buttom was fine, as it was with Morrowind. I'm not saying it wouldn't be fine now, but it would lose something in my opinion, 'fine' wouldn't be good enough. These changes keep the game more fluid and more about player action and suits modern gaming much more. @23. The see where your coming from, but remember, the base skills still get better with use as they always have, and the better we get at them, the more proficient we are with their use, as it has always been. The skill tree is just a perks system to further tailor our character to our liking, much like the perk system in Fallout 3. The idea is that rather than being stuck with major and minor skills from the outset, we can tailor our character as we play to suit our needs, so, if we start playing a pure mage, but find we often fall back on daggers if we get overwhelmed, then we can start developing our dagger (or, probably, blade skill in general again) skill and that will still add to our overall levelling up. The problem they found with the old system was that people were restricted to beginning of game skill choices as those were the skills that best helped us level up and become strong. Now we are free to change things on the fly as we need.
  • Can't wait to devote my life to this game, just like i did Oblivion and Morrowind. I absolutely love the gameplay and story.
  • @24 i agree with most of your post actually, although i personally feel that stats and skills are important in addition to roleplaying, they are two sides of the same coin. That said, daggerfall is obviously dated, but also morrowind and oblivion just lacked some of that je ne sais quoi that daggerfall had at the time it came out. I understand that in order to really mainstream a game you need to make it more accessable, which inevitably leads to it losing some of the features long time fans may find important. However i still hope that the newest entries will be essentially what daggerfall would have been if made today. And news like this where they take another hatchet to the character building, is disappointing. I want a game with both heavy character customization- which daggerfall was a great example, AND excellent role-play, which bethesda has excelled at for years.
  • i wish they still had luck as an attribute
  • @26 I understand perfectly where you're coming from. As an RPG vet of 20+ years of gaming, I've seen it all, as I'm sure you have too and the stat building has been a corner stone of RPG gaming since pen and paper D&D. but I remain hopeful. These stats were invented in gaming to replicate things we couldn't practically do. We can't swing the sword ourself, we can't block the attack ourself, we can't cast teh spell, so we needed a strong game engine to do it for us, letting us just mash some buttons to command it. Back with Daggerfall, the sophistication of the engines was such that the best it could do compute probability and present it in the form of damage, health etc. Now though, the game engines are so sophisticated that they can more acurately replicate the 'reality' that these stats were made to represent. A game engine can allow us to fight and play in real time, to use real time reactions, to react to any tactics we may choose to implement, to allow us to make the choices an do them, instead of us relying on stats and mathematical computations to levy success or failure. In many ways, we don't need the stats because the game engines allow us as the player to replace them. The replayability and customization offered by stats is now in our hands with practial gameplay choices instead. I find that exciting. Stats,for all the great things they've done (they have, after all made it so we could play almighty RPG's over the years) have always been rigid, they needed to be. What we now have is fluidity and dynamic gameplay in its place. I think it will prove to be an amazing trade off. I admit, my PoV on this is somewhat different. I have a background in Theatre so I see roleplay as about what the person does, not what the subject makes us do. Taking the roleplaying out of the stats and putting into the hands and minds of the player is only a step up in my book.
  • No more jumping around to level up my acrobatics skill? There goes my Little Bunny Foo Foo build! AAAAAAaaahh!! Actually, I really like acrobatics. There was something fun about being able to escape guards or other baddies by leaping off a cliff or rooftop.
  • @28 I think we agree on most of this, which is good. The only bit I really disagree with is that roleplaying and stats don't really need to be opposing forces. I don't think the roleplay aspect is really hurt at all by having stats. Even in real life, you can apply a "stat" to yourself- how much can you bench press, what did you score on the SATs, etc. Its all just a numbers game anyway. I think a perfect example of where I think that TES has been heading, is the same direction as Final Fantasy did, its just earlier in the transition to a completely mainstreamed for the masses type game. But if you look at the latest single player FF game, you only have three stats- HP, STR and Magic. Yeah, it boils it all down to the very basics and is easy to understand, but it also loses some of the variability and customization. Daggerfall era may have only had these stats for calculations, but thats why I ask for a modernized version- I could think of a lot of really cool stuff they could use the stats and skills for, especially as they relate to roleplaying.
  • As an avid Elder Scrolls fan, there are two things that make this game stand out. The gorgeous environments and the attention to details regarding gameplay and features. In the former, this game looks like it will be leaps and bounds above any Sandbox game we've been given to date. It looks absolutely fantastic and I can't wait to see how much it tops the Shivering Isles world (My favorite Sandbox ever.) Gameplay, on the other hand, seems to be getting more and more dumbed down with every iteration. Not to say the game isn't going to be fun. Being an avid FPS fan, I can deal with basic gameplay. What's upsetting is I lose favorite features with every game. IN ESIII we had things like Icarian Flight, Divine Intervention, Mark, and Levitation spells. You could leap large distance and run extremely fast with high skill levels and the world became a playground where you could do whatever you wanted. Oblivion lost all of those spells and more and only made up for it with an enhanced combat system and more combat-related magic (we need more non-combat related spells.) Than now we're losing Athletics and Acrobatics, so on top of my missing spells it seems like my abilities are going to be streamlined even more. (When will I ever get to see the day where a game lets me play as a crazy Redguard that wears nothing but a leather helmet, casts levitate, and bombards stragglers from above with a Severed Nords leg?)
  • Cant wait! When this game releases im going to make an fort out of my room and play it for months to come...
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