Will ruins eventually return to wildlife? I would like to think so, assuming we play 100 years in. Also, a function that I would personally like to ask between making characters is to wait some time. Perhaps years, most likely our characters take on a peasant job or such during this time. I would hate having to wait day after day ingame for my population to rise just so I could recruit soldiers.
Yes; shrines and ruins and things currently look a bit overgrown. I'll probably make it more specific according to how old they are, which shouldn't actually take too long. That's an interesting suggestion; I'll have to think about how that would work, if needed.
Woo!
Will armour/weapons be thicker/larger for bigger creatures? If a titan had a shield that was the same relative size, it would end up being several feet thick and utterly impenetrable to anything significantly smaller. Will this be the state of things, or will all shields be 3/8ths of an inch thick, for example? If size doesnt scale, I assume that large creatures would batter through gigantic armour like tin foil, because relative to them, that's exactly what it is.
Oh, yes - you can only hold/wield things made for your size. And larger shields and armor are indeed thicker and much tougher, while large creatures will find it much easier to break through lesser armors
![Smiley :)](http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/Smileys/aaron/smiley.gif)
.
Or, will outlaws use ruins as HQs?
Potentially - they may also make their own camps, the latter being the one I'm working on more atm, but I definitely want to allow ruins to be taken over.
That'd be cool too, but if not they should use tents or something burnable... yes burnable.... I like to burn said things. Burn anything wooden, please let me burn everything?
There is fire, but I'm not sure how much is going to be flammable yet, or how it spreads, or things like that...
Well now I know that you can serve in an army. But how will it work? Will we have to follow the leader around wherever he goes? Will it be automatic(the game moves your character wherever the leader goes)? Will we be given orders (for example: Regroup near city X, raid village Y)? I assume it will get very boring having nothing to do while following your commander or if it's automatic waiting and doing nothing while the game moves your character (or squad if you're in charge of one). For example if I'm the lowest rank in an army without anyone under my command will I just have to mindlessly follow my squad leader, or will I get orders from my leader to go to city X or help raid village Y?
Well, if you join a 'campaign' (as in, a military campaign, not campaign in the singleplayer-RTS sense) you will be serving in the army. You will have specific orders, but that's not exactly much different to objectives in any other game. Your troop will move around the map according to the commander's decisions, and you'll fight in appropriate battles. However, you will always have a choice about how to fight, whether to disband, to loot, sign up for optional missions the commander may want, volunteer, desert, turn on your allies, etc. Also, even at the lowest level, I think you'll be making collegiate decisions within your squad, and making those decisions well will have you quickly rise up to have command of a small squad of your own. However, all of this is in its earliest stages, but I hope to avoid making it 'mindless'
![Smiley :)](http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/Smileys/aaron/smiley.gif)
. But then, is following an objective in Skyrim any less mindless? You should have just as much choice about how to do the objective and whether to do it at all, and you should quickly be able to give your own objectives, too. When serving in an army your meta-objective, as it were, is to rise through the ranks, impress your superiors, etc. Additionally, there will be other options as well as the conventional military, like special units and similar. Stay tuned on that one.