THE ELDER SCROLLS CHAPTER 2: DAGGERFALL FAQ, v0.992

DAGGERFALL includes many additions and improvements to the ARENA gameworld such as (*'s mean updated info since last FAQ version):

      - Bethesda's new full, 3-D X(n)gine(Tm) (also used in 
        Bethesda's Terminator Future Shock and Tenth Planet, the 
        latter to be released in 1997), which promises to redefine the
        role-playing genre.  The new engine allows quicker actions, 
        unrestricted viewing angles and complete freedom of movement.
        Having taken 3 years to make, this powerful proprietary 
        technology allows full 360 degree rotation with fully 
        textured polygons, multiple shaded light sources, VGA 
        graphics and specialised video effects.  The X(n)gine can
        create weather such as snow, sleet, and fog, as well as 
        realistic shading and a fully contoured fractal terrain.  
        Weather effects will vary somewhat depending on the time of
        year.
      - the X(n)gine will not support 3D Accelerated GFX boards in 
        the initial DAGGERFALL release; but it is certainly planned
      - the video refresh rate will vary depending upon what is on 
        the screen at any given time.  The 3D X(n)gine should average
        between 16-20 frames per second and should probably never
        have to do more than 40.  It has no ceiling.
      - a fully topographical landscape with elevations marked every 
        6 metres, an area approximately twice the size of Britain
      - 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, 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 and wagon
        or ship.  Beware! you can be attacked while using
        any of these transport methods except ships.
      - 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.
      - experience DAGGERFALL's Legal System, complete with courts &
        jails.  Avoid being caught possessing illegal substances!
      - shop at furniture stores, armouries/weapon stores, tailors, 
        book stores, alchemists & pawn shops
      - 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
      - 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

"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."