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Bethesda’s Todd Howard, Game Director for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, recently ran down a few more changes in Skyrim over Oblivion and grouped them into five topics: travel, dragons, the country, quest adjustments, and character statistics.

In terms of travel, Howard was somewhat vague, but he did state that players can use boats for transportation between fixed points, as was the case in Morrowind.  Horses have not been confirmed but Bethesda is working to implement them.  Acrobatics and Athletics skills have been removed, replaced with a simple sprint meter.

Dragons can show up as random encounters, and will have infinite numbers to prevent players from completely wiping them out.  They’ll also display a variety of behaviors, with some opting for traditional fire-breathing attacks and others attempting to speak with you beforehand.  Dragon shouts, which the player will learn at various locations throughout the game, are tracked separately from your magicka meter and require no magical aptitude to use.

Howard noted that Skyrim covers about the same size of land as Oblivion, though it will feature a more diverse landscape: standard woods, pine thickets, misty mountains, grassy and volcanic tundra, even glaciers further north.  Skyrim has five major cities, each with distinct architecture and culture, and about eight smaller towns.  Players will have some ability to alter local economies, though what form this will take is not specified.

Quests will have some degree of procedurally generated content, such as swapping in new characters if quest givers are killed.  Earning someone’s trust may require a small miscellaneous quest, whereas larger tasks will draw in people with more extreme reactions to the player.  This can even pull in dragons, making their appearance more likely if you’ve been avoiding them so far.

Oblivion‘s eight attributes and 21 skills have been pared down to three attributes and 18 skills.  Skills still level up with more frequent use, but they now also encompass perks, which are selected upon leveling up.

Skyrim is due for a November 11 launch this year.

Source: IGN