Elder Scrolls V Skyrim 'tells one story well,' says dev

Bethesda has said that the quest structure found in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim shares more similarities with its predecessor than post-apocalyptic stable mate Fallout 3.

Speaking during a fan interview on the developer’s official forum, lead designer Bruce Nesmith said the company is aiming to “tell one story well,” as opposed to offering multiple branching quests.

"We've focused on telling one story well," revealed Nesmith. "There are decision points in all the quest lines that can change things, but overall it's a single story.”

"Because the side quests are smaller stories, they are more likely to have major branches. For example, you can decide to save or betray someone, which changes the whole end of the quest.

"Overall the quest structure in Skyrim is closer to Oblivion than Fallout 3, in that there are many more quests, but they have fewer branches,” he explained.

Elsewhere, Skyrim’s lead artist, Matt Carofano, revealed that the fantasy RPG’s armour system will echo that of Oblivion, though the cuirass and greaves are no longer separate items.

"The armour system is very similar to Oblivion's," he said. "The main difference is that the upper and lower body armours, the cuirass and greaves, have been combined into one piece.

"This helps create armour styles that have the look we needed for Skyrim. In most of the Nordic designs we created, the upper armour would completely cover the lower armour, making it unnecessary.

"We get much better visual results combining those pieces, and it renders a lot faster too, so we can put more people on screen, so that was an easy trade-off for us. We can also make a lot more armours now, so the number and variation types are more than we’ve ever had."

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will launch on PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360 on November 11, 2011.