I don't want this to become a rant thread, but I must admit I am extremely disappointed that levitation has been removed from this installment of the elder scrolls. It has apparently been confirmed by Pete that this is the case, however I couldnt find the exact quote that stated it. I was hoping that it was just further speculation about a misprint in some article. I didn't mind them removing a few weapons or streamlining the skills further. To me that just made this game just a tad different than its predecessors. However, finding that levitation is not going to available... was the first really negative thing to hit me about the game. Most of my characters used levitate from time to time. I never really used it to exploit the game... since alot of combat took place indoors anyway. I am a big explorer at heart and I like to get into places that were hard to find or access. Levitation was necessary for alot of this or just to get out of a rock or tree that I accidently got stuck inside. Anyway.... I am just bummed a bit about it right now. I know I will still get the game and hopefully... *crosses fingers* hopefully.. it is something that can be modded. I still trust Bethesda to make a great game, but for me this was a big shock.

yeah that is pretty much me too. that sucks that levitation wont be in Oblivion.

And before anyone asks, here's the quote:

The post

Well hopefully we won't be getting stuck in rocks or trees this time around. I have mixed reviews as I didn't really like the levitation spell in morrowind, and it was easy to exploit so *shrug*

I don't think I exploited it. It was a nice spell

The first big disappointment that hit me was no mounted combat. I got over it. Levitate is the same way, and even easier to mod in. Frankly it makes the game more intriguing now that I'm planted to the ground. I plan to mod something more like a big jump to get to roof-top than actual levitation.

heh, yes The breton spell of house jump....

Apparently it is because the playable area is fenced in by unpassable mountains instead of vast amounts of water (because it would make no sense to use water on a land locked province). But you'd think they could just use vast amounts of repeating plains or you could have an invisable wall at the top of the mountain you can't go through, so you could see through to the other side of the mountain, but you wouldn't need to do much work to put something there, just put some empty plains or you could even make that wall no so invisable, like a fog barrier or something so you can't see more than a few metres through.

I also note there is no longer jump. What about fortify acrobatics? Because they should know someone like me will try to stack fortify acrobatics and jump over those damn mountains, if not then I'll just try stacking speed if governing attributes still make a differance and try to get over it. Theres no way they are keeping me from getting over that mountain range.

lol very nice Pisces. very nice. But you all forget we still will have the console on the pc so we can get over the mountains no matterwhat....I like TCL (or whatever it is/was) I haven't played morrowind in forever...

the mountain thing doesn't have to do with levitation, because they are using invisible walls. They're aren't purely locking you in with mountains, they're doing both. They said it is possible to get on top the mountains and ypou can look out at mile of environment they had to out in place so it's wouldn't look weird when you get on the mountain tops.

Ok, I found out the real reason:
"Here are some of the primary reasons people used Levitation in Morrowind (gleaned from the multiple threads on the subject):

1. To escape combat
2. To exploit AI that couldn't deal with flying targets
3. To reduce travel time by flying over hazardous and/or impassable terrain
4. To get to areas specifically designed to be levitated to
5. Because it's cool

A few response:

1. In Oblivion, mages have a wide variety of tools at their disposal if escaping combat is the goal. Casting Invisibility on yourself for example is a good one. Enemies lose track of you. They'll wander around, trying to find you, and if enough time passes they'll drop out of combat. Calm will put targets into a stupor during which they won't attack or follow you around for the duration of the spell. Demoralize will make a creature or NPC flee, and Turn Undead will do the same for the undead. Obviously, Paralysis is good for making a hasty retreat as well. These spells and others can of course be used for tactical advantage in combat as well. In addition, pure mages are not necessarily at such a disadvantage in combat anyway. For example, the Shield spell will improve your armor rating, and all of the Elemental shields (Fire, Frost, Lightning) will improve the armor rating in addition to resistance to the elemental magic. Factor in new features such as continuous regeneration of magicka and the fact that spell costs go down and effectiveness goes up as your skill in a spell's dominant effect increases, and mages are much, much more effective than they ever were in Morrowind. In other words, the need to flee combat is reduced.

2. In Oblivion, the AI has behavior to handle it when an opponent is unreachable, so even if Levitation was in, this wouldn't be a "viable" strategy.

3. Horses and fast travel help to reduce travel time.

4. Obviously there aren't any such areas in Oblivion.

5. Yeah, Levitation is pretty cool. But there are lots of other cool effects in the game, new and old, and many of the old with new functionality. There's no shortage of "cool" in Oblivion.

While I'm sure some of you will miss the spell effect out of nostalgia, you won't find yourself NEEDING to Levitate in Oblivion."-MSFD (dev) quote about levitation

Well although that actaully isn't a reason at all it is fair enough but I just have one thing to say: The telivanni will really laugh at us.

okay now that I hear that it makes *some* sence(sp?) i will still miss levitation....

I'm pretty sure I'll manage without levitation, didn't use it that much... Only to get on high towers and practice my marksman skills on guards But of course I'll still miss taking the short cut over a mountain to a place, but hopefully a horse ride will be a good replacement...

From a modder's perspective I rather like that there won't be any levitation this time around, because I think it makes it a lot easier to create fun challenges for the player.

Wait a minute, I don't understand. Did they remove only the spell 'Levitation' itself or the entire spell category that levitation was in? (Was it alteration or something?) If they remove Levitation, 1) are they still keeping the other spells that are in that category, 2) and are they going to replace Leviation with another spell? *is confused*

I'm just worried about the spell-cutting...
Hopefully, most of the other spells are not cut... unless I missed something?

They didn't include the levitation spell. The spell school Alteration is still in.

I can't see what spell could replace levitation. It sounds more like the spell (or a similar spell) will not be needed in the game.

I haven't heard anything about the Jump spell though. It might still be in. If not, there's always Fortify Acrobatics.

http://www.elderscrolls.com/codex/codex_magicskills.htm

No jump, it says fortify but I haven't heard what can indeed be fortified.

The Codex doesn't have to list all the spell effects we will see in Oblivion.

Correct. I would loose some interest in the game if the Devs decided they wanted to share all the information in the game with us.

It makes sense that the Jump spell would not be in Oblivion as long as levitation was out. If they don't want people casually flying over the walls of a city then they wouldn't want people jumping over them too. Get my reasoning?

I agree with Neela, I'm disappointed that it's out. Presumably, the game will work fine without it, but I remember the first time I learned Levitation in Morrowind. I was suddenly struck with a sense of awe... "Here are some game writers", I thought to myself, "who are 100% confident that their world is solid from any possible angle."

Hmm. I wonder what the lack of (built-in) Levitation will do for using the Oblivion engine in the "Tamriel Rebuilt" project? If the spell can't be modded in, importing those Telvanni towers on Vvardenfell will be a bit of a problem... and if it can be modded in, what are they going to do when moving between Vvardenfell and Cryodil? Have the whole of Cryodil be a no-levitate area?

In a weird way I'm relieved.

Yes, I used levitation in Morrowind but I always found it odd that I never saw a NPC floating by.

Levitation was pretty easy to come by, so it wasn't easy for me to grasp (from a character perspective) why nobody around me was ever walking like a netch.

Also...

I was well over 100 hours into the game before I drank my first rising force potion.

The impact <heh> of suddenly being able to rise above the ground was memorable. I don't think I'd still remember the moment had I flown from the beginning.

To my thinking, Oblivion will just be that much better (with regards to realism) if you remain on the ground.

Plus... having my feather potion wear off before my levitation left me in the oddest condition, too heavy to move, while floating?

Well I did like levitation. It was very useful when surrounded by enemies but then again so was divine intervention.

I Morrowind i normally used levitation when I needed it and since there will be none Oblivion obviously I will not need it. As long as some sort of intervention is available I think i will be fine without levitation.

Bye Bye Scroll of Wind-Walker

I have faith that it will be modded in quite easily... In the opening scene of the first Video, it shows the character picking up and tossing around a ribcage,... if thats how Telekinesis will function, then it shouldn't be too hard to mod in a "flying carpet" type mechanism to essentially bring back flight!

Who knows... maybe they are saving it as a guaranteed "hype" for an expansion

The troubling thing about the removal of levitation is that is seems like it was done to avoid having the player breach the map edges (mountains etc) but with the TESCS having allowances for modders to create land further than the barrier, will this mean that 'chunks' of mountain will have to be effectively moved? To me this would seem slightly surreal - especially if you got used to a massive mountain range only to see it effectively shift a few Kilometers away and probably look even different when you d/l a mod.

I don't think that is Telekinesis, since that scene is the beginning of the game, unless you meant that is how it will work from far away. I'm hoping they leave the spell available to use in the TESCS and merely didn't put it in the game.

The player not only will breach the map edges with levitation (although they could put that invisible wall up), but there is also the towns, which I believe someone else mentioned here already. You could levitate right into the low detail versions of the buildings (no NPC's, no clutter, etc.) and have to walk out of the town to get back in it.

By Mr. SmileyFaceDude taken from the Dev Quotes 6

Yeah, Telekinesis will just be a ranged version of normal interaction... But with maybe a bit more strength when it comes to tipping a bookcase or something... Maybe... Hopefully...

And yeah, someone will use the Havok to make a flying machine mod or something, or someone may make a "noclip" mod.

The primary gameplay detraction created by the removal of Levitation for me is simple -

No third dimension.

Of course the game will still look excellent and all, but the 'feel' of vertical motion in the game (adding a z-axis to the world) truly added a lot to gameplay experience. So all those people/objects/buildings in Morrowind not only looked 3-dimensional, but could be viewed/fought/experienced from above as well. And the Superman rush of blasting through forests and over mountains, or swooping down on a monster from on high at 90 mph...

Highly cool. And, unfortunately, highly dead.

Cheers,

Michael