Oh, it was. All the more so for how much he seemingly enjoyed it. :|

That wouldn't have anything to do with the guy hanging out in the noble area of the Redoran compound in Vivec, would it? (I think it's Redoran) Mr. I'm writing a play, please act for me? or something along those lines.

I like how certain things in the game change depending on what gender you are. There's that guy hanging outside one of the smaller towns in Morrowind. If you're female, he asks you for a kiss. If you're male, he attacks you if you don't give him x sum of money.

Wait, that brigand on the bridge? That guy DESTROYED me on my first playthrough.

In Oblivion, there's a quest involving a group of female murderers who seduce men in a remote cabin and then rob and kill them. If you're male, they make you a mark, and you infiltrate and take them down. If you're female, they ask you to join them and you infiltrate and take them down. Which is stupid, you should have been able to join them for real.

I've yet to meet the guy as a male so I'm not sure how tough he is yet. My male character is still in Bamora. Not doing much with him though. I made him to see what it was like playing through as a male; made him Dunmer to see if everyone still called me 'outlander' all the time. Yes they do.

I'm positive that people react to you based on your race in Oblivion, so I would assume it'll be the same or better in Skyrim. Hopefully more gender-unique quests, those increase replayability.

Yeah. I know the beast races are slave races in Morrowind so they may not get as good initial reactions but I think they get better ones amongst either other. I'd have to check. I know my khajits do better talking to other Khajit's than my other characters, but the two of them also have fair personalities so it's not really even.

I nearly always choose the sign of the lady when I start a new character, because the personality and endurance boost is really handy. I think two of my other characters (I have 5 or 6) have the signs of the Ritual and one of the Steed. I think my argonian has the sign of the steed because she can move darn fast, which is great when diving for pearls early game so underwater things don't kill you. Slaughter fish are *almost* as bad as cliff-racers some times. Well, actually perhaps not. They are a -distant- second though.

Actually, speaking of racial characteristics, I really, really hope that they get a better voice for female elves in Skyrim (I think they all use the same voice set) because... their grunts and battle cries sound like some kind of wounded animal, just hideous and extremely jarring to hear.

Morrowind didn't have any picks. You got what you got and I think it was more or less the same no matter who or what you were. Saves time in character creation though.

I know gender has an effect on characters that varies per race but I never figured that out until later in the game. It explains why my argonian has abysmal personality (I think she started at 35), the males have higher personality than the females. Not sure what the females have. Never payed enough attention. They might be faster or have more endurace or something. Blah. Later in the game it's pretty much negligable anyway.

Are you aware that creating your character in Oblivion can take upwards of an hour, if not longer? :p

And the way Skyrim is boasting even more customizability... yeah. I don't mind, though, I like having my character look exactly how I want them to. You can always skip past it, since the game's 1st-person anyway, it won't matter that much.

I spend at least that amount of time anyway, often deciding between two slightly unsatisfactory options. Maybe it will be quicker for me if stuff looks good :D.

Well, on the other hand, the actual RPG character creation aspect seems really streamlined (only 3 stats, no major/minor skills) so it might pick up some of the slack with the added options in the aesthetic aspect.

I'd also like to see some gender-specfic armour.

I'd be okay with that, as long as it isn't super-heavy walking-fortress platemail for guys and steel bikinis for girls.

Oh, and on the subject of armor, I hope clothes are more like in Morrowind. I hated not being able to wear clothes under my armor in Oblivion.

And That it'll be illegal to run around in your undies! I loved killing guards like that. It was hillarious.

Something else kind of cool would be magical tattoos, I think. Maybe they'd have to be visible to function, so you couldn't stack up clothes and armor on top of them?

But, I'm just musing and speculating at this point. I'm out of actual news to share. :p

Depends on what the magical tats do. I mean would it just be like an enchanted item? I'd also like to see some glove like items... Sort of like the wrist irons. My wrist irons caused me to shock people.

Yeah, I figured it would work like any other sort of enchanted item. I suggested it mostly for dress-up purposes, rather than gameplay purposes. It would have to be balanced. Maybe only allow weird effects that people don't normally put on their clothes, anyway, for tattoos?

And gloves, yes. Absolutely. That was a huge flaw in Oblivion.

Were there gloves in any of the other Elder Scrolls games?

I'm not sure. I can't remember if Morrowind had them or not, but I want to say yes. Quiet will know, probably.

You said that Mystiqisam is gone right? Are they adding a new school to replace it?

I did say that, and no, not that I know of, unless you count Enchantment coming back. The Mysticism spells are all going to be spread out among the other schools.

How did Enchantment work? I never found a place to do it.

I... can't even remember. :P

Ask Quiet, she's much more familiar with Morrowind than I am.

Will do when she gets on.

Somebody looking for me? :)

Yes, Morrowind does have gloves but they aren't that high up the enchantment scale if I remember correctly (certain articles of clothing can hold more enchantment points than others). Some of the magical ones you find are pretty nifty but few and far between. Two of the "Sanguine" items are gloves and grant I think +5 bonus to two skills. Can't remember which one's precisely but I think one is security.

The enchant skills affects magic items you have as well as items you attempt to enchant yourself. If your "Enchantment" skill is high, then items you wear or use will recover their charge faster, and your chance of success when trying to enchant something is better. When you pay someone else to enchant something for you then it always succeeds but costs a bundle. You can enchant something yourself but there's a chance of failure that get's higher the more difficult the item. You improve your enchant skill by making magic items or by using them, though the latter brings it up very slowly.

You can get enchanting done at the mage's guild or maybe the odd freelancer. The option shows up in the dialogue area. Enchanting requires that you know the spell or effect you want on the item, the item you want to enchant, and a loaded soul gem of the approprate strength (the more valuable the soul in the gem, the more stuff can be put on the enchanted item.)

I wonder, since they're bringing back enchantment, if they're going to go back to Morrowind's charge-based magic item system. In Oblivion, all magic items were constant effect, and you didn't get things like rings of fireball or whatnot.

Of course, there's going to be a smithing skill that's supposedly analogous to Enchantment for mundane gear, so maybe they're coming up with a whole new system.

I liked the charge system, or rather, I don't mind it. I like being able to launch fireballs and what not without sucking up my own magic power. My character is level 40 ish and I still feel I need to skimp on spells a lot of the time. Of course, I don't sleep much so that may have something to do with it. Thanks to MW's levelling system I've outleveled myself 4 times or so, so the next 4 times I nap I'll be gaining levels and I don't want to waste them on stats without bonus multipliers!

Have I mentioned they're revamping the level system, so that higher-level skills (which are harder to train) give more experience toward a level-up than lower-level skills? It isn't just a flat 10 skill-ups or whatever anymore.

Do all the skills count or just certain ones? One of the snags with the major/minor skills thing is that character who start out with higher number in those skills are able to level up less than those with lower numbers. And it was easy to level up fast than one might want too if the major skills involved the easy ones like athletics or acrobatics, given how much I use the two.

I think all of them will count in Skyrim.

Athletics and Acrobatics don't exist anymore, though.

WHAT! O__o! They took out my two favorite skills! That's evil, I'm not going to be able to jump on water without water walking anymore. I spent HOURS mastering that skill.

Well, stuff like that might come back as perks, keep in mind.

You can jump off water? I only ever used the spell because Alteration is a minor skill of mine (or possibly major, not sure). I usually just jump as far as I can and swim the rest of the way when crossing water. I like being able to jump across the river in Balmora, more for braggin rights than anything. :)

I think, think, mind you, that in Oblivion, with either 75 or 100 Athletics or Acrobatics, you could run/jump on water. I don't remember that being the case in Morrowind, though.

I have 100 arcrobatics in MW but I haven't actually tried to jump off water. It will give me something to amuse myself with I suppose, and see if it's possible. Combign that with scrolls of Icarian flight and then see where we get, maybe? ;)

I am waiting very impatiently, I have it on preorder already D:

It was 100 Acrobatics in Oblivion. I had so much fun making guards chase me, and jump out into the lakes, and watch as the gurads drowned themselves.

Something I'd like to see is the guards reacting to your threat level. Like, if you murder a dozen of them, they call in some kind of elite squad to deal with you, and if that doesn't work, maybe actual heroes decked out in magic gear with all sorts of skills mastered.

Not that I don't like running amok, but it would be fun to have a challenge sometimes, late in the game.

And, Lucifer, is there a bonus for pre-ordering it, do you know?

I am super excited for the new Elder Scrolls game! I've only played Oblivion and I actually haven't beaten it but nonetheless I love the game!
I've been wondering when a new one would be coming out and I pretty much squealed with delight when I saw the promo/commercial for it.

It does seem a bit foolhardy of guards and assassin types to keep charging the guy who has corpses all over his front yard. I stopped collection Dark Brotherhood armour after 6 sets. Right now I'm trying to finish off my Indoril collection. Still need the cuirass and greaves. Morrowind wont let me try and steal them off a guard (darn realistic theiving :p) and I'd rather not kill any. Found the rest of the pieces in a cave and from pilfering bed trunks.


I have even watched the promos or anything but I do like the thought of another Elder Scrolls game. I like Morrowind still quite a bit but the landscape does get dreary on occassion, and one only wants to put up with so many cliffracers.