Skyrim's interface, crafting and Fallout 3 recycling explained
Bethesda has explained some of its more controversial design choices for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
"In a game like ours you spend a ton of time looking at your interface, looking at your inventory, going through your items," Bethesda vice president Pete Hines told Destructoid when asked about Skyrim's new interface design, which has previously been described as inspired by Apple and iTunes.
"So we spent a lot of time figuring out how to make that a more fluid system, how to allow you to inspect stuff. You know, you find these cool things in the world, and then they become these tiny icons in a list when you're not using them. We wanted you to interact with those more."
Hines also spoke about the game's increased emphasis on crafting and item creation, which has ruffled a few feathers among those less keen on inventory management.
"It's providing a much wider range of things you can do in the game," he said, noting the Smithing-based skill of mining - and making ingots, and using those ingots to create, upgrade, or reinforce items - as well as Alchemy and Cooking as examples.
Another little decision which raised eyebrows amongst the hardcore Elder Scrolls fan is a change in lockpicking, which in Skyrim, will be very similar to that of Fallout 3.
"Almost kind of sort of exactly like Fallout," Hines admitted.
"We did change it a lot from Oblivion. We found the lockpicking system from Fallout 3 was more intuitive, and felt a lot more like lockpicking. It's almost kind of exactly the way it worked in Fallout 3."
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is due on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in November. See the full interview below.
