Skyrim co-lead designer and former Elder Scrolls loremaster Kurt Kuhlmann has revealed that the game’s Civil War questline was almost much different from the one that appeared in the final product. According to Kuhlmann, the version of Skyrim‘s Civil War that never made it into the game was “pretty far along” before it was removed.
One of Skyrim‘s defining features is the numerous questlines that gamers can play through, allowing them to climb the ranks in various organizations across Skyrim. These questlines include the likes of the Companions, the Dark Brotherhood, the College of Winterhold, and the Thieves Guild, not to mention the main quest. Throughout it all, Skyrim‘s Civil War almost goes under the radar. It has never exactly been a fan-favorite, although the effects of the storyline do have a lasting effect on Skyrim‘s world. However, it could have been far more interesting to play, had its cut content been included.
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Skyrim’s Civil War Questline Was Almost ‘Much More Dynamic’
Speaking to PC Gamer, Skyrim co-lead designer Kurt Kuhlmann expanded on the idea that the game’s Civil War questline was supposed to be a lot bigger. “The Civil War was originally intended to be much more dynamic, in the sense that we were tracking if you went around and killed Imperial soldiers… and we would say, ‘OK, you’re harming the Empire in this hold’… so we could see the balance of power in this hold is shifting towards the Stormcloaks, and at some point, if it shifts far enough through your open world actions, it could trigger the Stormcloaks to attack the capital city.” This would see the open world change as players play, even more so than it does in Skyrim‘s existing Civil War, and create the feeling that players were really affecting the state of the land throughout their playthrough. Kuhlmann says it was “pretty far along before it got cut.”
Kuhlmann explains that the existing Battle of Whiterun was an example of what was planned in the cut content of Skyrim‘s Civil War questline. “But we had it sort of working with attacks on all the main cities in all the holds [in a] systematic way,” Kuhlmann said. “So I still feel like we maybe could have pulled that one off.”
In the end, performance concerns were the deciding factor in removing the content from the game. The developer “had so much trouble getting it to run; it had to have so much special handling,” Kuhlmann explained. “The production decision was: we cannot make this good and make sure the frame rate is good in all the cities under all circumstances… we were really pushing it on the 360.” Given how many rereleases Skyrim has had over the years, it’s easy to forget that the game was released on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 towards the end of their lifecycles. In this context, it’s understandable that a more complicated and dynamic Civil War questline simply wasn’t feasible.
During the interview, Kuhlmann also explained why he left Bethesda ahead of The Elder Scrolls 6, claiming that layers of management as the company expanded led to communication issues across the board. At the moment, the developer is well into the development of The Elder Scrolls 6, but no release date has been given for the long-awaited title. The last official trailer for the game remains the 2018 teaser trailer, which many feel was revealed too early.
- Released
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November 11, 2011
- ESRB
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M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol
- Developer(s)
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Bethesda Game Studios
- Publisher(s)
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Bethesda Softworks
