Don’t you just love nosey gamers who can’t resist taking a closer look at their game files? One such gamer, going by the username of Mardoxx, over on the Nexus Mods forum took a close look at the files contained within the latest 1.8 update for Skyrim, and what he found was some rather interesting snippets of information pertaining to a new piece of DLC titled Dragonborn.
According to the Mardoxx the main locations of the new DLC are Raven Rock, Miraak Temple, Castle Karstaag and Telvanni Tower. It’s worth pointing out that Telvannai Tower probably isn’t its actual name, though, as according to Elder Scrolls lore a Telvannia Tower is a giant spiralling plant grown by a pretty powerful wizard, from the house Talvannai, obviously. So actually calling it Telvannin Tower in-game wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense, reinforced by the simple fact that the file which alludes to this locations existence says, “TelvanniTowerMarker.” Other files also seemed to hint at new armor types called Bomemold, Chitin, Nordic and Stalhrim. In all honesty I’m expecting that “Bomemold” is a type on either Mardoxx or Bethesda’s part and is actually mean’t to say Bonemold. But who knows.
By far the most exciting thing to come out of Mardoxx’s poking around is several files which seem to reference combat while mounted on a dragon! Hold your horses….dragons a minute, mind, this is still very much a “maybe, possibly, could be” scenario. These files could just be referencing a single scripted event in the game. Still, riding dragons was of course a feature originally shown off in Bethesda’s Game Jam week, a week in which the team were given free reign to create whatever the hell they wanted for the game. Quite a few of the ideas and features shown in that video, like mounted combat, a vampire skill tree and being able to become a vampire lord have all already been added to Skyrim, so throwing in the ability to mount and ride dragons as well isn’t exactly that far-fetched. Mardoxx also discovered some files which seem to hint at allowing players to cast spells while mounted on a dragon as well. Fireball-hurling, dragon-riding badass, anyone?
Mardoxx also uncovered some stuff which hinted at new Dwemer items and new creatures, but he labeled that as, “Not that interesting.”
However, just to once again demonstrate my geekiness, having a dragon you can ride which can fly could be a bit of a problem for Bethesda. You see, experiments have already taken place in which players modified their game to make their character run at the speed a dragon can fly. They then proceeded to see how long it takes to get from one end of Skyrim to the other. The answer was around 30-seconds. Presumably, then, any dragon you could ride would have to be slowed down a little, otherwise it’d feel like a pretty small map to fly in.
You can check out Mardoxx’s thread and the files he discovered here:
http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/807818-spoilers-from-beta-18/
