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- thousands of towns, fortresses and villages to explore
* - there is about 300MB of terrain and 92MB of sky graphics
packed onto the DAGGERFALL CD!
- texture maps considerably more complex and detailed than
ARENA's, allowing for larger, even multi-story buildings.
* - all the countryside terrain and fixtures on top of it
* (e.g. buildings) are randomly generated once by Bethesda
* before copying to CDs. Thus everyone will be playing the
* same game world (unlike your individual random generation
* in ARENA).
- much improved plot over ARENA; your character is asked to
undertake a special mission for the Emperor and obtain
artifacts before rival groups of the court of the town of
DAGGERFALL can get them & use them to instigate an uprising.
In investigating the court of DAGGERFALL, stories of madness,
unrequited love, dark sorcery, seduction, betrayal, and a plot
to recreate a powerful force from thousands of years past
will be revealed.
- the plot is a lot more "active" than ARENAs, involving many
non player character types.
- keeping with TES "open ended" philosophy, it is even
technically possible to win by working against the Emperor
- conversation remains handled via a menu driven branching
strategy, with the new feature of being able to select
your conversational goal.
- greatly improved player interaction with NPCs, both in
dialogue and action. For example, depending on the
circumstances, the completion of say a mini-quest by a
character will be remembered later on either
positively or negatively by a particular NPC social
group, a NPC, a NPC's family, the NPC's allies or enemies,
or all of the above. DAGGERFALL keeps track of your
characters reputation with each NPC. This applies even
to characters that are imported into later games in the TES
series. Player language skills, though based on the common
tongue, will reflect specific groups & social affiliations
and will also affect interaction with NPCs. Character
clothing, weapons & armour, which can be changed in shops,
also affects NPC interactions
- adventure in intricately designed caves, castles, homes,
highlands, lowlands, rivers, cliffs, sand dunes, swamps,
underwater and different dimensions: a whole range of
environments
- many objects in the world have mass and can be moved or
picked up by the character. These objects follow the normal
laws of physics eg. inertia. Some objects, such as houses
and pebbles, can't be moved.
- buy & use houses, castles, ships and other crafts. Property
can be furnished with furniture & treasure. Option
available which will protect your property against burglary.
- travel from town to town by foot, horseback, horse drawn
carriage or ship. Beware! you can be attacked while using
any of these transport methods.
- use banks to safely deposit gold, get letters of credit &
take out 1 or 3 year loans to finance large purchases
- join guilds, temples & knightly orders to help enhance
your character's reputation with various social groups;
trade goods and services, even smuggle
- new spells include identify, polymorph, shadow, slowfall,
telekinesis, teleportation, waterbreathing and water walking:
there are some 78 standard types
- create more unusual and powerful spells with the spellmaker
- customizable spell duration icon which flashes towards the
end of the spell period
- new improved special effects eg. polymorphing
- surface dependent walking sounds
- 3-D graphical movement is handled much more efficiently
than in ARENA
- random monster encounter will be largely done away with. It
will only occur where it has a direct relationship to the
plot, or in a "cleared out" dungeon in a period of time
- Each created character, must take 3 primary
skills, 3 major skills, and 6 minor skills. When characters
begin the game, they are naturally better at the primary and
major skills, and worse at the minor and miscellaneous skills
(the latter being the skills not chosen, but in which
advancement can still be made with great difficulty). It is
easiest to advance in primary and major skills, because of
the formula used to check the chance of increasing a point
every night, and due to you're character being most likely to
use the primary and major skills and thus advance in them.
Advancement of your character's primary and major skills will
cause them to advance in their class as well.
- customizable character classes. Characters will be able to
take on up to 7 special advantages/disadvantages, which
will increase/decrease the amount of experience needed
to make the next level.
- Bethesda has attempted to reduce the potential power of high
level characters in DAGGERFALL by including negative effects
for some of the items produced by the ItemMaker and by
ensuring that, for instance, "high level characters face up
against up high level monsters". There will be no
"levelling up" like that occurring in ARENA, an orc
will remain a weak monster, regardless of your level
increasing the relative "toughness" of some of the monsters
- the imbalance in ARENA towards spellcasting character
classes has been partly addressed by allowing all non-spell
casting classes in DAGGERFALL spell points equal to half
their intelligence.
- advanced, multi-channel, digitized sound effects and music
- although speech will be a part of the game, there was not
enough room to implement full speech
- enjoy a large variety of song/ballad lyrics written
especially for DAGGERFALL
- a large variety of quests and adventures offered by
individuals and guilds
- a standard character generator similar to ARENA will also be
available, allowing you to choose one of the 18 character
types from that game
- create potions and magical items as an extension of ARENA'S
SpellMaker. Like in character creation, items can be made
more powerful if a side effect is included
- Magical items appear with a green background in your
inventory
- have eavesdropping ability
- you can choose an option so that the terrain will have an
affect on your constitution
- read virtual books graphically covering aspects of Tamriel
- Like ARENA, the layout of major dungeons are fixed. The
random dungeons will be more variable than those in ARENA,
which only had 4
- Unlike ARENA, there will be no dungeon riddles
- a new CHILDGUARD feature which allows parents to set the
amount of violence and sex displayed with password protection
Your character will be able to have romantic relationships.
- will be a CD-ROM only game
- the following Virtual Reality Helmets will be supported:
Virtual I/o, CyberMaxx, Forte VFX1
- the interface will be completely mappable by the player
- a calender system conceptually similar to ARENA's is used,
however DAGGERFALL will have local and regional holidays as
well
- the automap is colour coded for urban areas to identify
different buildings eg mages guilds

"What is wonderful about ARENA and DAGGERFALL is that you can be
and do whatever you want with virtually no limitations," said
Bethesda President Chris Weaver. "Aside from all the
sophisticated technology operating in the background we think
that freedom is one of the most important features of TES series.
The vast detail of the computer world we have
created and the freedom to explore and live an unhindered life
has hit home with numbers groups of "non-standard" role players.
A case in point is the thousands of ARENA users over age 55. We
are very gratified by such cross-over demographics."

"We've taken the best elements from the highest quality game
engines out there, and improved upon them", said President Chris
Weaver. "X(n)gine has the immediacy of DOOM and DARK FORCES and
the greater flexibility of DESCENT all in one engine."

"X(n)gine is the most sophisticated 3-D engine currently
available." Weaver said. "The speed, clarity and dynamics are
better than all the others within the 3-D genre. It's as
realistic as you can get within the current limitations of the
PC. We believe it is also the fastest at moving real world polygons."

*"Daggerfall is the largest, most detailed CRPG ever created for a
*computer. There are something on the order of fifty thousand
*people, six thousand towns, tens of thousands of buildings, caves,
*dungeons, etc., etc.....Every single editor who has visited our lab
*has told us that Daggerfall will redefine the entire genre."

====================================================================


(3) DAGGERFALL PREVIEWS =============================================

FOR A WIDE RANGE OF DAGGERFALL INFORMATION:

a) the Bethesda Software WWW Page:
http://www.bethsoft.com/cgi-bin/DAGGERFALL.cgi
ftp.bethsoft.com/pub/ScreenShots/DAGGERFALL/

b) the Bethesda Library Section in the GAMAPUB Forum on Compuserve
Both b) and c) provide access to the Box Cover Artwork, DAGGERFALL
Midis and DAGGERFALL Screenshots listed below

c) Bethesda Software US BBS Number:
(301) 990-7552

*GENERAL INFORMATION ON THE PREVIEWS BELOW:

*The various zipped files available are not listed here.
*Nor is the initial release date of the files.
*Below are details of the box cover artwork, 12 midi sound files that
*will be in DAGGERFALL, 6 autodesk flic animations and 168
*screenshots.

BOX COVER ARTWORK:

dagboxc.gif (256 colour 550x757 194KB)
dagboxc.tif (true colour 625x860 1.6MB).
dagboxc.zip (zipped true colour version 908KB)

The Box Cover Depicts the Underking, one of the most powerful bad
NPCs in DAGGERFALL

DAGGERFALL MIDIS:

Note: These are general MIDI files and should be played with a sound card
capable of wavetable synthesis.

dag_l.mid (10KB) A MIDI sequence that brings to mind a wild ride
through the woods
dag_2.mid (16KB) A MIDI sequence that brings to mind a fast paced
chase
dag_3.mid (10KB) A stately MIDI sequence that seems to tell the epic
story of DAGGERFALL
dag_4.mid (5KB) A cautious MIDI sequence, perhaps of a thief
creeping by
dag_5.mid (9KB) An eerie MIDI tune reminiscent of a ghostly
midnight encounter
dag_6.mid (7KB) An adventurous MIDI appropriate for a sea voyage
*dag_7.mid (23 KB) DAGGERFALL theme music
*dag_8.mid (6 KB) A "sunny" MIDI tune perhaps of some care-free
* playing
*dag_9.mid (6KB) A powerful MIDI that highlights the approaching
* danger
*dag_10.mid (13KB) This one brings to mind running after the elusive
* solution to a quest
*dag_11.mid (5KB) This is a breezy, flutey melody with a bit of a
* meditative air to it
*dag_12.mid (14KB) A lightly brassy tune that lends itself to a
* parting, sad, anguished, and emotional. Very nice

AUTODESK ANIMATIONS

These are Autodesk Animations (flics) of some of DAGGERFALL's
*monsters. You will need an appropriate viewer to see these, such as
*contained in the file AAPLHI.ZIP

*deathani.flc (3086KB)
gargoyle.flc (52 KB)
intrbook.zip (5800 KB) A portion of DAGGERFALL's opening sequence
lysawake.zip (6300 KB) This powerful shade directs your journey
rat.flc (35 KB)
spider.flc (48 KB)

DAGGERFALL SCREENSHOTS:

As the final release date for DAGGERFALL draws nearer, Bethesda
claims it will be releasing new straight-from-the-game screenshots
almost every week.

*2moons.gif (320x200 5KB)
army.gif (640x400 149KB) and cameron.gif (640x400 121KB) are both
shots from the opening animation we showed at CES: the former
is of the army of DAGGERFALL meeting the army of Sentinel at
the Battle of Cryngaine Field, and the latter is of Cameron,