Had such a brilliant response from my first post that i decided to post again!

Now we have all seen and heard a lot about skyrims gorgeous environment and the potential of this new creation engine. but i wonder how our characters adventures effect our surroundings .

for example if cast fireball ive read that the area around the target also catches fire .... but will this fire disappear once the enemy has been slain .. or will the fire spread to neighboring trees or cause wildlife to flee ???

i may be a tad naive but this level of environmental impact would create a deeper richer experience

It will disappear, BGS didnt want to ruin the world they used so many hours to create.

Fire spells do indeed set the environment on fire, other effects would be the ground being torn up by a dragon etc....

I am not sure if these effects are permanent though, My guess would be they probably fade over time.

Structures are not destroyable with the exception of scripted events

For a wildfire to start, if the area hasn't been in a drought recently, takes allot of work, one piddly fireball wouldn't do it. Especially in the lush, green environment of Skyrims' forests.

Yes it would catch for a little while, but it would burn itself out in minuets.

I agree it would be pretty cool tho.

It might seem like that on paper, but the reality of it is not that at all.

It wouldn't create a deeper or richer experience in anyway besides there being a great big bleak patch anytime you use a fire ball.

Go play Far Cry 2 to find out how deep and rich it is.

They had a ton of debate about this concerning whether or not outside weather effects would clip through ceilings.

The end result was, only Dragon Shouts would cause this.

So as for your,"Will a fireball light an entire forest on fire?" No it most likely won't.

If it did, I would be incredibly impressed. If it didn't I wouldn't be surprised.

In the end, people need to stop questioning ridiculous things and need to remember that this is just a game, this isn't some alternate reality simulator.

As amazing as that would be we sadly are not at that level of technology yet.

Uh that is precisely what video games are lol

I don't know about anyone else but I had a lot of fun setting grass on fire in Farcry 2.

Okay that sounds a bit insane...

well now that were talking about the environment, will my characters carbon dioxide emissions from exhaling cause global warming and ultimately death?

Doesn't it make more sense for it to catch a small area on fire and gradually over time just like in real life, the environment would repair itself. So if a dragon scraqes up the ground, as time progresses you would see the grass or snow slowly cover it up.

I didn't know super meat boy was an alternate reality simulator.
Neat.

Screw houses, I'm just going to dig myself a hole and live in it.

played far cry 2 loved setting grass on fire lol ! . i strongly agree with the fact that designers would hate to see there work burnt black by my recklessly aimed fireballs .. never crossed my mind at all to think that the environment would be to lush to catch light ! im not expecting bushfires ill admit but will any combat penalties apply to enemy's influenced by the environment . eg burning grass= aoe fire Dot .. frozen ground cause slow movement ???

Bit excessive isn't it

Minecraft!

There was so many issues with FC2 - but running about burninating everything was the coolest feature in that game.

only a short fire, no enviormental damage bigger than that. they dont want to destroy the world or something. word of god

Burning things was indeed a lot of fun in FarCry 2. I first found out that grass would burn when I fired of an rpg at a car, turned around to see everything behind me burn and my car catch fire and explode. Then I had to walk.....
Would be awesome if you could burn down forrests and villages, but that might be asking a bit much. Imagine having as a final goal to burn the entire land of Skyrim to ashes! That would be insaaaane