Bethesda’s Todd Howard gives six revealing answers in a Reddit AMA

Reddit AMA held by Todd Howard Wednesday. It was to mark the 10th Anniversary of the Launch of Reddit. Skyrim: The Elder Scrolls 5 It’s Thursday. (It’s also the day the game is re-released, for the 579th time, as The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim — Anniversary Edition

While the renowned creative director of Bethesda Game Studios didn’t give up any breaking news on Bethesda projects on the production line, Howard did offer quite a few entertaining tidbits for fans of the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series, both of which he directs. We have selected our favourites:

We know now what the spear gun was used for Fallout 4

A redditor inquired about Vault 120. This is an area in Fallout 4 that was discovered by asset- and data-miners shortly after the game’s 2015 launch. Howard confirmed that Howard had removed the asset reference content before the game was completed.

Smart play on going with a massive octopus as Vault 120’s boss: Cephalopods are a highly intelligent species.

Other references are made to submarine gameplay. Fallout 4. Less than a month after launch, a modder found a harpoon gun, unused in the game’s prop library. The weapon’s spears and the bubbles around it during a kill indicated that Bethesda had at one time planned to take players under water.

Nukapedia says Vault 120 would have been the location for a quest called “20 Leagues Under the Sea.” Nahant, and its Nahant Oceanological Society, would have figured prominently in the mission, but no other details are known.

Seriously, where is the Jarl’s wife?

Jarl Balgruuf, the Greater Skyrim players encounter almost immediately, has three kids — Dagny, Frothar, and Nelkir. But no one is able to identify their mother or whereabouts. She’s never even mentioned by any NPC. Data-miners haven’t turned up any cut content that might explain her mystery, either. Also, evidently Dagny and Frothar don’t have the same mother as Nelkir.

Howard refused to respond when Howard was asked about it.

Redditor Archabarka noted that “Mephala’s artifact is in Dragonsreach” — that is, the Jarl buried her Ebony Blade below his keep in Whiterun. The player retrieves it during the Daedric quest “The Whispering Door.”

There are two implications here, one is that Mephala is Nelkir’s mother, but the other fan theory is that the Jarl cheated on and killed his wife while under Mephala’s influence. In order to obtain the Ebony Knife, the player must first kill someone that trusts them, usually a follower.

TheEpicNate315 gave a plausible breakdown of the Jarl’s secrets in this video from 2020. Either way, Howard wasn’t taking the bait, and confirms nothing!

Take a look at these deets Starfield, why don’tcha!

Fans asked Howard a variety of questions, as one might expect. Starfield the science-fiction RPG and Bethesda Game Studios’ next big franchise. Howard replied with a few details. In reply, Howard said that fans can expect an announcement next summer at E3 in much the same fashion Bethesda revealed. Fallout 4 It was launched in 2015, approximately six months after its initial launch.

“We prefer to just show it, which should be next summer,” Howard said. “We’re happy with the advancements we’ve been able to make, some of which you can see in the trailer shot in-game.”

Other tidbits:

• Robot companions will soon be available Starfield. “Kind of,” Howard said.
• The creation of characters should be extremely detailed. “Really excited about what the team has done with character creation here,” Howard said, “including choosing background, skills, etc. You also can pick your pronoun (he, she, they) and we’ve recorded all the relevant dialogue to support that choice.”
• Despite the fact that “ladders are our arch-nemesis,” they do exist in Starfield. “It’s an animation,” Howard said, “and we use sparingly.”

Bethesda had a post-apocalyptic RPG idea in case they couldn’t acquire Fallout

“It was called ‘Apocalypse Road,’” Howard said, “and had a great logo with a street sign.”

Howard has talked about “Apocalypse Road” before, most publicly in Noclip’s 2018 documentary “The History of Bethesda Game Studios.” In that video, Howard mentioned the game and its logo to show that he felt acquiring Fallout from Interplay was too much of a longshot to start planning his own game.

Bethesda Game Studios’ new direction was to focus on Fallout. This post-apocalyptic RPG is a top choice. 4: Oblivion in The Elder Scrolls. Howard then viewed a science-fiction scene. Interestingly enough, we’re finally getting that in 2022 with Starfield

Howard spoke also about post-traumatic stress disorder (PPS).Oblivion plans in a 2018 discussion with Insomniac Games founder Ted Price for The AIAS Game Maker’s Notebook:

This logo was created for the series “The Countdown”. Apocalypse RoadIt had this beat that phonetically sounded like The Elder Scrolls. Also, I created this logo. It was a simple road sign that stated APOCALYPSE and the number RD. Then we had … someone knew the folks at Interplay, and they said, ‘But you really want that to be Fallout, right? We might be able get it. Would you want that?’ Absolutely, a million times.

Yes, Amazon’s Fallout TV series is still in development

We haven’t heard much about Amazon’s adaptation of the Fallout continuity since the series was announced during E3 2020. Kilter Films is developing the series. Westworld’s Lisa Joy and Jonah Nolan attached to the project

Howard said only that the show is still “moving ahead. Really excited to be working with Jonah, Lisa, and Amazon on it.”

Last year’s statement said Fallout’s executive producers are Joy, Nolan, Howard, Kilter Films’ Athena Wickham, and Bethesda Softworks’ James Altman. There are no casting options or launch windows yet.

Where’s The Elder Scrolls 6What about Dad?

The number one question in the AMA, of course, was “Any updates on TES6?” And the short answer is: no.

Howard stated that his son stood in solidarity with Elder Scrolls fans in any expressions of inpatience. “For Father’s Day this year, my son gave me a card that said, ‘You’re an amazing Dad, but where’s TES6?” Check back around Christmas, I guess!