So you can join the Legion or the Stormcloak rebels. The Legion is the army of the Empire, and Skyrim is a part of the Empire. The Stormcloaks are trying to break off from the Empire and return to ancient Nordic traditions, including their religion (something about one god, most likely Ysmir or whatever he's called)

The thing that has me excited is I talked to someone who played and joined the Stormcloaks. He said you go across the country fighting actual BATTLES, and he described them as up to 100 vs 100 type skirmishes, where he's fighting to take over forts and villages. He said there are archers on walls he's picking off, charging the battlements with a sword and mace in hand.

This is basically 100% what I wanted in an ES game. Can Friday come soon enough?

yea thats sounds epic. if its true, skyrim is guaranteed for GOTY.

I agree, this is what I want in a TES game as well. For how long can such many battles last in the game, I wonder?

Thanks for the tips, hopefully they are true.

The source is as reliable as it gets, the only way it could not be in the game is if he over-exaggerated to get me excited, or if he himself was excited. But it sounds like regardless, the civil war will be an epic part of the game.

Awesome. I've waited so long for a single player game like TES to have these epic "mini" battles that occur on more than one occasion. Thanks again.

this information is false considering the nord want to worship the eight plus one(TALOS) who was banned by the Thalmor, also i HIGHLY doubt there is battles anywhere close to 100 vs 100 considering consoles couldnt handle this and would expect it to be 10v10 at most.

Yeah there's no way the consoles could handle 100 vs 100 without an intolerable frame rate loss.

^^ yea lol i dont think the engine ca handle that much let alone the console

I'm basing this off a ten minute phone conversation with my brother, so I'm just relaying information he's given me through his play time. He says the Stormcloaks are trying to go back to the ancient Nordic ways, and it has something to do with religion and one god. I figure the Imperials follow the Divines, while the Nords want to follow THEIR version of Talos (forgot what they called him, something very Nordic sounding)

And 100 vs 100 might be exaggerated, but he claimed it felt like a real battle with 'hundreds of soldiers.' I know nitpicking is in abundance here, but i'm just trying to relay the message that the Civil War = epic part of Skyrim.

The engine could not handle 100 vs 100 ON SCREEN, which is what would make it epic. It isn't epic if you're fighting ten at a time, which is what it will be (guaranteed); people marvel when you put a lot of enemies on screen (I remember a certain Unreal Engine tech demo that people were crazy about, and the enemies on screen were nowhere near 100).

So the real question becomes, so what? Regardless of the "size" of the battle, it's not on screen, so it's just like you went and fought an npc every twenty meters, every time the hack-n-slash'd victims of yore disappear (their dead bodies vanishing into thin air), which is just redundant, NOT atmospheric.

There is an engine that allows for hundreds of intelligent enemies on screen at once. It was shown off in Darkest of Days. Really cool game for what it was.

I'm think maybe 20 vs 20. This is a new engine and who knows what tricks they could pull. While it could be 50-50 50 of those could be scripted background characters. While it would be different for and Open World Game it is not impossible. Personally I'm hoping it is true that there are some decent battles and if it is his brother then I say we should give the benifit of the doubt with a healthy dose of skepticism.

I think it'd be hard to describe to someone who hasn't seen it. Neither have I, but I've played games with epic battles like that. MMOs, no less. In those where you're a single person and see everything from that person's eyes, you never see everybody. You always only see a few that are close, and you tend to focus on even less among them. To make a battle feel like 100 vs 100, you don't actually need to show 200 NPCs at once.

Thanks for this information, now I am too excited to sleep.

Darkest of Days

And yeah, I'm sure his brother wasn't meaning literally 100 v 100. It probably just felt very large. I agree, 20 on 20 would feel very epic to me for TES.

In regards to this, I believe they are referring to http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Shezarr_and_the_Divines. Shor is the Nordic name for the deity Shezarr (Cyrodilic) or Lorkhan (Aldmeri). The Nords are not and were not monotheistic. They believed in the Aedra like most other Tamrielic groups. However, this deity is the one that the Nords consider the king of the gods. He is known to be pro-human and anti-elf (referred to as the God of Man). This deity is completely different from Talos -- Emperor Tiber Septim venerated as a god.

That sounds amazing! I love ES

100 vs 100? Nah, more like 5 vs 5.

Engine is really similar to gamebyro from what I've seen so that many npc's will not be possible. Unless you have a super computer

Any chance you know anything about what the Imperials are trying to do? Their involvement with the Thalmor perhaps?

Rebel scum, trying to divide the Empire.

Asked this question a few times but I'm still unsure, lore wise wat would make more sense to join as a redguard?

The Imperial Legion would have traditionally been the best for any race, even other Nords would fit in. The issue is that this is no longer a traditional situation, nor a traditional rebellion. Tamriel is not united anymore. I guess its just how you want to role play it. /shrug

That's all the fault of the Thalmor!

Awesome info, thanks!

Please don't let the fun-svckers curb your enthusiasm.

I'm playing as a Redguard too and I decided to help the stormcloaks destabilize the Empire so that Hammerfell can swoop in and kick the [censored] out of some Thalmor a$$hats