Brodo Swaggins

ElderScrollsOnline.com has been busy this week! Here are some things you may have missed: [*]ESO is going to be at Paris Games Week from October 30th until November 3rd. Let them know that you will be too on their Twitter! [*]Fan art, Gamescom cosplay, and more in The Tamriel Chronicle — ESO’s weekly update for all things community [*]There’s a new developer question of the week from Lead Loremaster, Lawrence Schick View Original Article

Voting for this year’s Golden Joysticks is nearing the final stretch, but there’s still time to support your favorite games.Dishonored and Arkane are nominated in six categories, including: [*]Game of the Year [*]Best Newcomer [*]Best Storytelling [*]Studio of the Year [*]Top Gaming Moment (Lady Boyle’s Last Party) [*]Visual Design Meanwhile, TES fans can show support for ESO in this year’s ‘Most Wanted’ category. Voting continues between now and October 18th. A week later, on the 25th, you can watch the awards streamed live. For more information and to vote, visit www.goldenjoysticks.com. View Original Article

For the record, you have to ask the questions on the official ESO site. This is just speculation on my part, but I expect the inventory space to be more limited than in the single player TES games.

The newest ‘Ask Us Anything‘ for The Elder Scrolls Online is now online. Visit the official site to get answers about weapons, inventory items, PvP, and more. Here’s a sampling… Will there be items or spells players can obtain that will cast an appearance illusion over them, making, say, a Breton look like an Argonian or a frost troll for a limited amount of time? Yes. We have a disguise mechanic in the game, which allows you to equip an item that changes your appearance. This can be used for costuming purposes or, for instance, to infiltrate the camp of an enemy. There are also spells that change your appearance for a limited amount of time—these can change your appearance in more drastic ways than disguises can. Read ‘Ask Us Anything’ – Variety Pack #8 View Original Article

Get a closer look at the creation of the clannfear, an aggressive Daedra you’ll encounter in The Elder Scrolls Online. Visit ElderScrollsOnline.com for this, plus the newest  from Lead PvP Designer, Brian Wheeler.View Original Article

Take to the slopes of Skyrim with our new line of snowboards from Never Summer Industries. In addition to the Skyrim themed board, aptly titled “Alduin’s Bane“, the collection includes limited-edition boards for Fallout (“Vault 101“), DOOM (“The Forgotten Son of Phobos“), and The Elder Scrolls Online (“Ebonheart“). Too early for snow? Take a look at what else is new this week… [*]For the ultimate in comfort, relax in our leisurely Vault 101 tracksuit. [*]Go old-school with our new DOOM t-shirt featuring the original game’s box art. [*]Quick head’s up that we still have limited quantities of our Dragonborn/Dragonpriest collectible statue. View Original Article

Take to the slopes of Skyrim with our new line of snowboards from Never Summer Industries. In addition to the Skyrim themed board, aptly titled “Alduin’s Bane“, the collection includes limited-edition boards for Fallout (“Vault 101“), DOOM (“The Forgotten Son of Phobos“), and The Elder Scrolls Online (“Ebonheart“). Too early for snow? Take a look at what else is new this week… [*]For the ultimate in comfort, relax in our leisurely Vault 101 tracksuit. [*]Go old-school with our new DOOM t-shirt featuring the original game’s box art. [*]Quick head’s up that we still have limited quantities of our Dragonborn/Dragonpriest collectible statue. View Original Article

We would like to welcome to the Bethesda Blog Mike Hancho — commonly known by the forum community as Balok, creator of Helgen Reborn for Skyrim. When he’s not too busy rebuilding Helgen, Mike is an Operations Manager for a construction company in Clemmons, NC. Recently we caught up with him to discuss Skyrim modding… How did you get involved with modding? It all started with a radio! I loved the “Built for the Future” mod for Fallout 3 and wanted a radio near all the lockers I used to store my gear. Getting started, I was completely overwhelmed and not a little bit lost, so I went through the basic tutorials and figured it out from there. Since Fallout 3 was my first Bethesda game it eventually led me to the official Bethesda forums where I learned about Oblivion. I bought it and spent the next year playing it. I made a couple of unreleased mods that I used for my personal enjoyment and then Fallout: New Vegas came out. After playing it for a while, I decided to write and build my New Bison Steve Hotel and Afterschool Special mods. Then I joined the Boulder Dome team and built all the interiors for Inner Boulder including the Haunted Toy Store as well as Harcort Positronics and the Android Manufacturing levels. That led to Skyrim and here we are! When I think of Helgen Reborn, the first thing that comes to mind is Oblivion’s popular mod, Kvatch Rebuilt. Do you view this mod as a spiritual successor? In all honesty, no, not really. Although I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that the name alone drew some attention to my project because of the popularity of Kvatch Rebuilt. In the beginning Helgen Rebuilt was a sort of working title, but I discovered someone had already uploaded a mod by that name. However, by this time I was well into development and into my closed beta test, and several of my testers liked my suggestion of using Helgen Reborn as they felt it was truly Reborn when it was finished, so I stuck with that. If anything, I see Helgen Reborn as the successor of my New Bison Steve Hotel and Afterschool Special mods for Fallout: New Vegas. I learned enough techniques building those mods that I felt confident enough to try something a little more ambitious. And since I like taking things you guys leave destroyed and turning them into places that are once again useable, Helgen was the obvious choice for my next project. Is there anything about the mod that you’re most proud of? Yes, several actually, as it’s difficult to name just one. But I’d have to say I’m most proud of the writing, especially the little speech Marcus gives during the funeral service. The performance Ben Britton delivered was amazing, and sometimes it still chokes me up when I listen to it. And believe me, I’ve heard it 1000 times by now! I would also have to say I’m especially proud of the Private Tower, Display Room and Cavern. There was over a month of work in that level alone. Lastly, I really loved how the packages and work stations turned out for all the construction workers. It was extremely difficult to figure out where I could position idles and furniture markers without editing the vanilla navmesh. Everything had to make sense especially since I have a construction background, lol. Most people probably don’t take the time to actually watch them for any length of time, but if you do, they’re pretty cool, and given the limited vanilla assets I had to work with I think I pulled it off pretty well. What assistance did you receive on the project (be it direct support, advice, etc)? I had 20 voice actors, four artists who contributed textures, nine beta testers and a handful of folks who submitted screen captures that I turned into the custom artwork you see throughout the mod. Then, there’s dozens and dozens of people who helped me with with everything from writing suggestions to the actual scripting. They and many others helped nursemaid me through learning the new changes with the Creation Kit. And of course the official tutorials at the CK wiki helped a lot too. Your mod was recently featured on PC Gamer’s website. What was that experience like? Incredible! First, I spewed many adult beverages on my monitor reading Christopher Livingston’s “Living in Oblivion” blog back in the day, so I was thrilled that he was the one who wrote the article. In fact, my Independent guard “Kindrick” was 100% inspired by that series. His character was “Nondrick” and was always getting chased by wolves, and never did anything exciting. So, Kindrick is “kin” to Nondrick, (great-great grandson) and wants to be the first in his family to be an adventurer. So yeah, there couldn’t have been a better author to write it, and I couldn’t feel more honored than I do with that recognition. That honor is now equaled by getting to do this interview you you! It’s all very humbling, but also makes the stupid amount of work that goes into this stuff a little more worth the effort. Have you put any thought into what your next project would be? Well, I’m still not finished with Helgen, if there is such a thing as “finished” when it comes to modding. I’d like to add a couple of mini-quests for the town once it’s completed such as finally getting Joto a dog, playing cupid for Meen-Lei and Wanan-Dun and getting Froki and Haming to move into the empty house on the hill. I also hope to get some more generic dialog in place for my characters, and I’m currently overhauling the radiant quests and turning them into non-radiant custom locations. So, nothing in terms of new mods, but I will continue to develop Helgen Reborn. What other user mods are you currently enjoying? To be totally honest, sadly, I don’t have a ton of time to actually “play” the game. I spent over a year building and testing Helgen Reborn and primarily used a vanilla load order for that. Since I released, I’ve still been working on it, fixing bugs and adding new features, so I’m still pretty vanilla in my load order. It seems every time I do try to play for a while I begin thinking about things I need to be doing for Helgen Reborn, lose focus and have to exit the game and fire up the CK and get to work! As a result I’m woefully behind in trying out mods, but I’m really looking forward to trying Hunting in Skyrim. I’d like to give Moonpath to Elsweyr a run through as well. I’m also looking forward to fully exploring Falskaar, and Wyrmstooth both. I’ve never been into gameplay overhauls, but there are a few tweak mods I’ve seen I’d like to try. I’d also like to play the Civil War overhaul at some point. Final thoughts? I’d like to thank Bethesda for the incredible games they produce, and for giving us users and modders the permission, encouragement and tools to play around in their playground. I’d also like to thank all the folks who have helped me directly or indirectly along that way. I’d also like to thank Matt for the opportunity to do this interview. Lastly, I’d like to thank all those who have played Helgen Reborn and endorsed my mod. Thank you for the interview! Want to see more Skyrim modding interviews? Be sure to make suggestions within our official forums! View Original Article

Today on the official ESO website, check out a new art showcasing heavy armor concept for the Wood Elves, Dark Elves, and Redguard. View Original Article

Lucky you. The 7th ESO “Ask Us Anything” Variety Pack is up at ElderScrollsOnline.com. Questions cover PvP, achievements, guilds, and more. Here’s a sampling… Can you explain the guild stores a bit more? Do I have to be a member of a guild to buy from it or is it a public store in which a guild of crafters and merchants offer their products? Will I be able to set my own prices or would this be regulated by the guild leaders? – By John Connor You will need to be a member of a guild to use its guild store; right now, there isn’t a public storefront for them. If you have permission (configurable by the guild leader) to sell items on the guild store, you’ll be able to set your own prices. Visit ElderScrollsOnline.com to see more questions the ESO team was sent back in time to answer. View Original Article

Normally you expect to find Draugrs lurking in dungeons and tombs of Skyrim. This weekend a pair made their way across the country. Skyrim fans Bill & Brittany Doran made their annual trip to Atlanta’s Dragoncon dressed as a pair of Draugr Deathlords. Taking advantage of the long weekend. we were fortunate to also see them on the final day of PAX Prime in Seattle. They posed for [many] pics, checked out The Elder Scrolls Online, and were nice enough to talk to everyone about their costumes. Be sure to check out Bill’s blog, Punished Props, for an extensive look at the countless hours spent creating the Draugrs’ weapons, armor, and body suits. And as a bonus, see the costumes in action in the video below. View Original Article

Visit ElderScrollsOnline.com for the latest community highlights, including… [*]Your chance to create an in-game Emote for teh game. Get the full contest details, including rules, here. [*]Fan art, Gamescom cosplay, and more in The Tamriel Chronicle — ESO’s weekly update for all things community [*]The latest Developer Question of the Week from QA Tester Lyndsay Beaver. [*]Details on the latest round up Beta invites… check your inbox! View Original Article

Nominees for the 31st Annual Golden Joysticks were announced this morning, and we’re excited to share that both Dishonored and The Elder Scrolls Online were nominated by gaming’s longest-running award show. Dishonored racked up an impressive five nominations, including Game of the Year, Best Newcomer, Best Storytelling, and Best Visual Design. Additionally, the Lady Boyle mission was nominated in the Best Gaming Moment Category. Meanwhile, the ‘Most Wanted’ category for games on the horizon includes The Elder Scrolls Online. To vote for these games (and your other favorites), visit http://www.computerandvideogames.com/joystick/. View Original Article

Today at ElderScrollsOnline.com, get answers to your questions about UI, character roles, magic use, and more. View Original Article

If you haven’t already, watch Warialasky’s new Skyrim machinima, Skyrim: Into The Void. Featured Friday on the LA Time’s website, the new project pays homage to Dawnguard and the Dark Brotherhood.For more awesomeness from Warialasky, watch .View Original Article

Learn more about the Flame Atronach’s move to ESO in a new “Creating ESO” feature at elderscrollsonline.com. View Original Article

I just wish they released some updates beyond the "Ask the Developers" or whatever that series is.

This. They've been very proactive about taking down the beta videos for the last two months or so. Even moreso than previously. They probably have a 10 by 8 room full of 20 underpaid interns browsing all of the sizable TES sites/forums all day looking for links.

This summer, Amazon UK kicked off a fan vote to determine “the generation’s greatest game”. We’re excited to see that two BGS games, Skyrim and Fallout 3, made the tournament… and that Skyrim was voted as the overall winner. Up against some of our favorite games, it’s an honor to see Skyrim come out on top. To everyone that voted, thanks for your support. View Original Article

Click here to view the video

Announced today, you can pre-order the limited (250 total) Dragonborn – Morokei Dragon Priest statue for $370 at store.bethsoft.com. Designed by artist Alejandro Pereira, the 16-inch tall statue will release in Q4 of this year and is limited to 250 pieces worldwide. Want the original statue? You can still reserve the original Dragonborn statue here. View Original Article

Can’t make it to QuakeCon 2013? You’ll be happy to know that we’re streaming content live from the show. In addition to featuring shoutcasts for all three of QuakeCon’s tournaments at Twitch.TV/QuakeCon, we’ll be livestreaming some of the event’s biggest panels and presentations. Beginning this Thursday, tune into Twitch.TV/Bethesda and catch these scheduled events: Thursday, August 1st QuakeCon 2013 Welcome (4:30 pm CST) – id Software’s Tim Willits and Bethesda’s Pete Hines kick off the festivities with news and announcements surrounding the show. QuakeCon Keynote Presented by John Carmack (immediately following the QuakeCon 2013 Welcome) – As is tradition at QuakeCon, id Software co-founder and technical director John Carmack takes the stage to for an educational and entertaining discussion about his work, technology, and what’s on his mind. Brace yourself! Friday, August 2nd The Elder Scrolls Online | Gameplay Presentation (12:30 pm CST) – Check out the first streamed gameplay of The Elder Scrolls Online, live from QuakeCon 2013! Don’t miss never-before-seen areas as ZeniMax Online Studio’s creative director, Paul Sage joins other members of ZeniMax Online Studios team to show off the latest chapter in the Elder Scrolls saga. The Physics of Light and Rendering |A Talk by John Carmack (5 pm CST) – John Carmack returns to the mains stage to explain how light behaves in the real world, and the approximations and compromises that are involved in simulating the behavior with computers. This lecture will be geared towards those interested in the interactions of light in the world and how computer software simulates it. Note: Not for the technically faint at heart. Saturday, August 3rd Dishonored | The Brigmore Witches Game Presentation (12:30 pm CST) – See gameplay for Dishonored’s final add-on, The Brigmore Witches, two weeks before its August 13th release date. On stage to share the game and answer fan questions will be Arkane Studios’ Raphael Colantonio, Ricardo Bare, and Seth Shain. Have questions about the content? Be sure to ask them on Twitter using the #BrigmoreQuakeCon hashsign. From Sketchbook to the Big Screen | A talk by id Software’s Hugo Martin (3:00 pm CST)  – Before becoming id Software’s art director, Hugo Martin was an integral part of defining the vision for one of the most entertaining blockbusters of the year, Pacific Rim. A must-see panel for artists interested in breaking into the entertainment industry. Attending QuakeCon? See the full slate of panels and presentations at QuakeCon.org. View Original Article

Like to roleplay? The newest Ask Us Anything at elderscrollsonline.com is just for you! View Original Article