Face it, Skyrim is influenced by Bethesda's Fallout 3 in some ways, big or small.

I like Skyrim and Fallout 3, so please don't turn this into a "Which is better?" discussion

But really: What would Skyrim be like if Fallout 3 never came to be? Would it be more similar to Oblivion/Morrowind in terms of anything?

Thoughts?

Honestly, I don't think they would have chosen Skyrim for the provence of TES V. It would have been something like Black Marsh, Elsweyr or Summerset Isles. I think the Fallout stuff helped them decide the location based off of the landscape of Fallout.

I think the only major difference would be the leveling system, which, while overly simplified, has changed largely for the better (would have preferred attributes remained and they just removed multipliers.)

Other than that the leveling system would still be a pain in the ass, I think there might have been less essential NPCs, but the increased number of those was more-so of a trending increase in Bethesda's design.

How is Skyrim influenced by Fallout 3? ... Or rather, what about Skyrim is not simple evolution from Oblivion?

It wouldn't have been as good, I'm thinking, if only because Fallout 3 was that much more experience with this generation of tech.

I find it funny that people called Fallout 3 Oblivion with guns and now people are saying Skyrim is Fallout 3 in a fantasy setting.

if Fallout 3 = Oblivion and Skyrim = Fallout 3 then wouldn't Skyrim = Oblivion?

Yet this is not the case and people complain it isnt like Oblivion.

Definitely. I would've not chosen Skyrim either.

At best, it would be more similar to Fallout. They were probably going to implement those changes anyway, doing it in Fallout first gave them a chance to see what worked and what didn't.

And they took what worked and threw it out and took what didn't and called it Skyrim >.>

Good point; I hadn't thought about it like that.

None of it is similar to Fallout.

Fallout 3 is Bethesda's only game in the ... series; and it's (FO3) very akin to Oblivion, but for some cosmetic changes.
What I have seen of Skyrim is what I would expect of the next TES game.

If Fallout 3 had not happened Skyrim may have followed Oblivion. The big difference would be the leveling system. Instead of stupid perks and a leveling system that svcks it probably would have been more traditional. Why Bethesda choose to simplify things so much I wont ever understand. The older system worked much better and allowed for more customization. The current one is so unskilled people can play the game.

Perks
Lockpicking, except you can open any lock
Speechcraft, except you can't see the chance of success
The amount of spells you have at your disposal is probably about the same as an average of Oblivion and Fallout

Do you mean Fallout or Fallout 3?

Lockpicking in FO3 is essentially the same as Oblivion; all that changed was the method used... It actually got simpler from Oblivion's.

For an advancement on Lockpicking, I would have expected a more interactive 3D system that let you pick the lock... Something similar to this >> http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj125/Gizmojunk/lock4.gif

To be fair, I never mentioned it being similar to Fallout, only Fallout 3.

That is why I said "Bethesada's Fallout 3" in the OP.

Thats my opinion, though. I know what you mean though

I meant Fallout 3, of course.

Indeed.


I doubt Skyrim would be noticably different; for all we know Fallout 3's lockpick minigame was modified from TES brainstorming sessions.

All of their recent games are essentially the same game with the same intent (which is not at all a bad thing). FO3 just has FO series baggage and vestigial cosmetic aspects.

This for me as well. I wouldn't have expected them to remove so much stuff but it didn't really come as that much of a surprise as they where well on there way with cutting mechanics when they made oblivion from morrowind.

I think you are right about this. It hadn't occured to me at first; though IIRC there were perks (of a different sort) in Oblivion. Seeing how Skyrim so depends on perks... instead them being what we'd usually consider meant by the term "Perks", I've changed my thinking on it. Without FO3, I now think that TES6 might not have been so perk-centric as it is. (But I also wonder if Witcher 2 didn't have an effect on their design.)

Ah. That's clear now.
*(FO1 also had perks, lockpicking, and speech; and Drugs were basically spells. )

Well if you go that far, you could say diablo had an effect on there design because the way perks work now, it similar to the skill tree's D2 used.

I'm probably going to go out on a limb here, but I remember the discussions prior to the announcement of Skyrim when discussions focused on what people thought would make the next TES game the ultimate title in the series. Generally it was take the quests and depth of Morrowind and the graphics of Oblivion and you'd have the best of both worlds.

If that was the ultimate goal of Bethseda then I think they've had "epic fail".

They've certainly surpassed my expectations in the graphics department. Quests and depth of the game not so much. In my opinion even Oblivion with all its faults had better quests.

But I'm not about to stop chasing butterflies and standing on mountains enjoying the world around me in Skyrim.

Its funny how the 1337-kids always seem to forget that without the so called "unskilled people", which btw is the majority of the players (otherwise thee 1337-kids wouldn't be so 1337), the studio wouldn't have the budget to publish the game. So, you may want a game suited for 1337-people only but you will never get it. The game isn't "dumbed down", they just cater for people who are trying a TES game for the first time, as you once did.

Now get of my lawn...

perks-this is obvious
greaves and curiass- I think fallout might of had some effect on this
magic- they seemed to really focus on combat/stealth but magic kinda lacks might be due to fallout? I mean combat/stealth were in fallout but not magic
random encounters- I think we owe these to fallout
dungeon design- in fallout they had there own story likewise in fallout
merchants- npcs start running out of cash
level scaling- they had made fallout so it was a survivalistic enviorment where scavengers survived level scaling was a huge part of that

all I can think of for now

Wait didn't Morrowind have limit funds merchants? Didn't the games before that too? I don't remember much before Morrowind.

That's a very good list.
Also, crafting (but you don't need schematics)
Fatalities/finishing moves & decapitation