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This interview consists of two parts because of its length. An annotation at the end of this video and a link in the video description lead to the second part.
Welcome my friends, to the long awaited interview with SureAI.
Today, Johannes and Nico are joining me. Hello. Hello.
Let's get started. For the viewers who don't know anything about it:
What is Enderal?
Enderal is a total conversion of Sykrim. It's a special kind of modification. We replaced the whole world, gameplay mechanics, story, music and other stuff.
Enderal will be its own game with completely new assets. You'll only need Skyrim as a technical base.
What would be the main aspects in which Enderal differs from Skyrim?
There are many. The first thing that comes to mind, would be the story.
We will try to make it interesting, complex and accessible. Like we did in Nehrim.
There will be a strong focus on the story. Another thing would be the feeling you experience while playing.
You won't concentrate only on the gameplay rules, but much more on the virtual world and what it'll try to tell you.
This is not only about the story, but also for example about the colors in a level or what NPCs say.
In summary, I think you could say that besides the story, Enderal will be offering a new
type of gaming experience. The main focus won't lie on some sandbox principle.
We got many gameplay aspects where we differentiate ourselves, like the new class system.
In general, our environment art is more diverse. We will probably have less dungeons, but with much more variety.
We changed the skill system completely.
No learning by doing anymore. We applied an experience system.
You don't do quests anymore e.g. for a staff you won't ever use yourself, because you don't play a mage.
You get XP for picking locks, learning new things about the world and many more possibilities.
These should be motivating factors behind everything you do.
Let's get to some starting questions considering Enderal.
Where will the story begin?
The story will begin where Nehrims ended. What happened in Nehrim, will be the starting point for Enderal.
Where exactly will Enderal start? Nehrim gave us a creepy beginning. How would you describe the feeling of the starting area?
That's a good question. I think that the starting scene will be surprising.
It will be creepy and dark. Not necessarily like in a cave,
but I think you will have to experience it for yourself.
How big will the world be? At first you planned 10km² and a higher amount of quests in comparison to Nehrim. What is your current status?
At first, we wanted to do it this way, but
if there are multiple level designers and everyone is working on his own projects, it can get bigger much more quickly.
We measured the size recently and right now, Enderal has about the size of Skyrim (=35-40km²).
It's a little less than in Nehrim, but only if you count in all the mountains and terrain you couldn't access.
You will be able to traverse Enderal much more, there will be no high mountains as filler like in Nehrim.
That sounds nice in combination with the higher quest density.
We know that in Nehrim, there really weren't that many side quests.
We want to change that. The main quest will guide you to most corners of the world.
Another question: will there be more horror/creepy atmosphere in Enderal? Comparable to the starting dungeon of Nehrim? After that, it was quite rare.
Definitely. I also like authors like Lovecraft, who had an influence on the stuff I created.
It will be much more macabre and dark than the story of Nehrim.
You will cry.
Great!
Will there be more complex boss fights with multiple phases?
Yes. Not only in the main quest, but also in smaller dungeons.
Will there be some sort of scaling on the boss fights in order to make it harder for characters with high levels?
We know of that problem and it's really hard to find a middle ground.
But the bosses during the main quest will be harder than the ones in Nehrim and
they'll sometimes be doing a certain percentage of your health as damage.
So there will be an indirect method of scaling, yes.
Finally my viewers will stop crying that the fights are too easy for my character like they did during my Let's Play of Nehrim.
You collected everything in your vicinity! Of course! Why else would it be there?
That's right, I also do it this way.
Will there be synergetic skill combinations? Like the flammable oil you could ignite in Skyrim?
Yes. We tried to improve the combat system.
For example, there is a talent called Blade Dance. While the talent is active, you're on a timer.
If you manage to land 5 hits on your enemy, the 5th hit will be critical.
So you should play offensively while this skill is active.
This way we keep the combat much more dynamic and fun than it was in Skyrim.
For a specific skill combination example: you could combine Blade Dance and another talent which increases your attack speed.
For more information, see our Dev Blog about the skill system (link in the video description).
There will also be possibilities to interact with the environment for combat advantages.
Nice to hear. You can find links to further interviews and additional information in the video description.
Another thing would be the crafting system. In Nehrim, crafting became quickly unimportant. Especially if you collected a lot of loot in dungeons. How will this work in Enderal? Will the crafting be of more significance?
We improved the crafting system a lot. In Enderal, it will be possible to craft items for all levels.
This way you'll always be able to craft something better, than the stuff you can find.
We also adjusted the crafting system in order to let the player find blueprints for certain items.
You won't learn to craft new items with perks like in Skyrim. In order to craft an item, you will need the blueprint and all the necessary ingredients. Many of them.
This way you'll be able to craft even powerful artifacts or set items. This way crafting will stay relevant until the end of the game.
Before we start with the viewer questions, a last quick one from me: will there be as many easter eggs in Enderal like it was the case in Nehrim?
Yes, there will be even more.
Nice, all the explorers will like that.
Right, the game is also being made with the explorers in mind.
Now let's get started with the general viewer questions. How long will the main quest be? Including side quests, explore time, etc.
The main quest will take you about as long as in Nehrim (40-90 hours).
It's harder to guess the needed time in order to explore everything, but because there will be more side quests, you're likely to need more time if you want to complete absolutely everything.
Will there be new races in Enderal?
Yes, but there won't be many more. In Nehrim, there were the "Normannen" and the "Alemannen"
- we combined those two into "Endraläer"/"Nehrimese". Then there are the "Qyraner" -
they have like the redguards a darker skin tone and last but not least the "Halb-Aeterna" will make their comeback.
So there will be the same amount of races, but this time around they're more diversified.
What difference will my choice of race make? E.g. will there be other skills?
NPCs will react in different ways dependant on your race. But there won't be any special skills.
We wanted to do it this way, because in previous Elder Scrolls games you wouldn't know what your racial traits were, until you finished creating your character.
That's important because some races just had flat out better traits than others.
That way it was a trap for players who just didn't know about all those traits off the top of their heads.
We want to make sure that the players fully develop their characters over time. Not making it dependant on some first choice.
Will there be any interface changes?
Yes. Right now we're using an interface modification, but it's not SkyUI.
Are you planning additional content after the initial release? (like Zerobilon in Nehrim)
Yes. And it will be for free.
Did you think about special regions, where you'll need a highlevel character?
Yes, there will be small regions all over the world. Sometimes you will need to backtrack to some areas because the first time you visit them, they'll be too hard.
So you could say that there will be exclusive content for players who explore a lot.
Definitely.
Will there be bounty hunter quests again or something similar?
Yes.
How will you be able to travel?
There is still no fast travel system. But you can rent flying gryphons called "Myraden", which will help you travel.
Later on, there will be - like in Nehrim - teleport locations. This time more of them.
Another word as to why we didn't want a fast travel system like in Skyrim.
It feels different if you just open a map and click on a location or if you need to choose a teleport spell or a rune.
It's more atmospheric. There is a reason why I can travel from point A to point B.
Nehrims system of teleportation was not flawless, it was quite uncomfortable. But we improved that through our changes.
We also hope there won't be any unnecessary travel paths and that the player will be dependant on magic and the world in order to make travelling happen.
Will there be more demanding puzzles than the ones in Skyrim? No "turn stone 3 times and you're done"?
Yes, but it is very hard to create puzzles which are demanding and solvable but not trivial at the same time.
Even the main quest will contain some puzzles.
We also implemented a mechanic whereby you will get small tips if you should need a long time to figure out a puzzle.
Will there be guilds with respective quest lines?
We don't have any classic guilds like the warriors or mages guild. But we want to implement unique factions with respective quest lines.
This depends heavily on how much time we'll have left for side quests after getting the main quest done.
Does it make sense to mix talents from multiple classes? For example, learning mage talents as a warrior?
Definitely. For example, as a sneaky rogue you could learn some illusion based skills from the respective mage talent tree.
This way you could make yourself invisible and/or trick NPCs.
You could also spend some points into the defensive warrior skill tree in order to push your life and resistances.
Will it still be possible to play as an efficient allround character?
We want players to focus on a few skill lines, like we said on our Dev Blog. It won't be possible to play as a character with all skills maxed out.
You could spread out your points, but then you wouldn't get any highend skills.
There are efficient and non-efficient ways to skill your character. It will be your task to find out what works best for you.
How will enchantments work? Are there small gems like in Nehrim?
We'll mix it up in Enderal. You'll be able to enchant your items like in Skyrim. There won't be any enchantment gems.
Set items will always be stronger than your own enchantments.
Can we expect more movie references like we saw them in Nehrim (e.g. Lord of the Rings)?
Sure. We don't know if they will be as obvious as the ones in Nehrim though.
Did you improve upon the features of Nehrim or did you focus on implementing new ones?
That's quite subjective because both is the case.
We decided to get rid of smaller features like the enchantment gems, but we also implemented quite a lot of bigger features.
We perfected features of Nehrim like the experience system and balancing. If you just think of our new talent system, you can see how big of a new feature that is.
Next, we got some questions concerning assets. Meaning textures, items and stuff like that.
End of Part 1. Click here or follow the link in the video description to get to the second part of the interview.