Interview with Todd Howard up where they ask him fan questions:
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/podcasts/archive/2011/02/03/toddhowardse.aspx
Quite interesting, some things I remember:
- no spears
- only 3 weapon skills, one handed, two handed and archery with branching 'perk trees' within each skillset to give the sword, axe, blunt, dagger specialisation you had in previous titles.
- Perks trees also present in magical skills, eg. destruction will have different kind of fire spells, like runes you cast on the ground that explode when enemies walk over, the traditional fireballs as well as flamethrower like spells.
- game has about 280 perks (including levels of the same perk). Perks largely determine the capabilities of a character (as opposed to the raw level, which has a minor effect). Due to the perk branching even a lvl 50 character who has all his skills at 100 will only get to pick 50 of the 280 perks available.
- there might not be rideable horses - they want a much better implementation than in Oblivion and it'll prob only be in if it can hold up to the likes of RDR.
- spell creation will probably not be in as it is too 'spreadsheety' and the ability to wield different spells in each hand somewhat compensates for it.
- world size is about as big as Oblivion in terms of landmass, however the mountainous terrain tend to make it feel larger to travel across.
- all new facial system, character creation may not be as tunable as it was in Oblivion but yields far better looking results.
- you can't ride dragons, big focus on dragons - they have a dedicated dragon team that has been working on them for 2 years.
- have companion NPCs like Fallout, however companions won't be as deep characters won't be as deep but you can have large numbers of companions unlike Fallout.
- Werewolves, vampires, shapeshifting etc. is been explored and will be in if it works in the game.
- Lots of crafting, it seems each specialisation gets one crafting skill, ie. combat - smithing, magic- enchanting and alchemy has been moved under the stealth banner. Also crafting that doesn't require skills such as cooking etc.
- radiant AI works to tailor mostly minor quests to your character, eg. you go into town and a person you know has had their child kidnapped and the game will send you to a nearby dungeon that you haven't visited and can determine the loot you get to match your character & playstyle.
- very commited to 11/11/11 release date
- no comment on question on multiple endings like Fallout 3
- HUD only appears as needed, small compass bar is the only thing always onscreen.
- PC will ship with higher resolution textures than the consoles, PC also gets different UI.
- Xbox 360 seems to be lead platform
- Achievements/trophies to be similar to previous titles
- 3D,Kinect, Move support unlikely as expected
- you level much faster than in Fallout 3 & Oblivion, due to the necessity of handing out perks at a reasonable rate.