Oblivion Thread

[funcroc]

Interview: Oblivion in Hindsight at Next-Gen.biz

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=c...d=2759&Itemid=2

 

Some developers say that with an open-ended game, you have to sacrifice a good deal of the story, as a lot of the action taking place is out of the creators' hands. Did the Oblivion team take this concern into consideration as you were crafting the story?

 

No, not really. Our big, open-ended games are all about the story, or stories. We give you dozens and dozens of stories you can participate and you can pick and choose which ones to follow through on, or ignore them all and go out and just explore and kill stuff or pick flowers or whatever. The story of Oblivion, or your game in Oblivion, is what you make of it. If you just want to focus on saving the world, or being an assassin, or becoming the head of the mages guild, then that's what Oblivion is for you. We let each designer focus on their area, on the story or stories they're working on, and once they all get put into the world they just sort of work. As I said above, part of that comes from doing a number of these games and knowing what works, and what doesn't, and focusing on the kind of experiences that capture people's imaginations and let them get sucked into the game until it's 3 am and they're still in their work clothes and haven't eaten dinner and have to get up for work in 4 hours. A hungry, tired workforce -- that is our ultimate goal.

[Judge Hades]

Damn! I had forgotten all about that What do  you think he/she did? Wouldnt it be an interesting turn of events if it turned out you were jailed for something really uncool and creepy like rape, prostitution, trafficking, spouse-beating, child murder or making a coffee table out of a hitchhikers ribcage?

 

 

I think that would make a lot of players very uncomfortable

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well, have you noticed that there aren't any children in the game. You character was a child killer but since you ran out of children to kill you decide to SAVE THE WORLD!

[Tigranes]

Finished MQ. Gameplay-wise the last section was absolutely horrible, but then so is all Oblivion battles involving allies. I had half the Legion attacking ME with daedra attacking THEM and gah.

 

Predictable ending, it wasn't so bad though. If we had more time and dialogue to flesh out Martin it would have had some impact. Not that one plays TES for the MQ, of course, so it was good enough.

[mkreku]

I kind of liked the ending. It was a lot better than in Morrowind, for example. Better than Daggerfall too, in fact. It was cinematic, hectic and looked pretty damn impressive on my rig.

 

I didn't like getting stomped on though. Grr.

[Judge Hades]

Realism at its finest. The world is saved by a Level 2 n00b ex-convict. Yay!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

In real life, what level are you?

 

Roflcakes, anyone?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I am a 6th level expert, 2nd level Warrior.

[Tigranes]

I kind of liked the ending. It was a lot better than in Morrowind, for example. Better than Daggerfall too, in fact. It was cinematic, hectic and looked pretty damn impressive on my rig.

 

I didn't like getting stomped on though. Grr.

 

Never finished Morrowind MQ, always stopped before going to Red Mountain. I guess that's credit to Oblivion.

[Cantousent]

Speaking of keeping allies alive, I went to a tough spot with three people. One of my allies died right away. Of the other two, I suspect one could not die and the other was a disposable guard. Whenever I talked to him, he said, "I don't think we're going to make it out of here alive." I swore I'd keep him alive and spent the rest of the time making sure he got out carrying his shield.

[metadigital]

Realism at its finest. The world is saved by a Level 2 n00b ex-convict. Yay!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

In real life, what level are you?

 

Roflcakes, anyone?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I am a 6th level expert, 2nd level Warrior.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Expert in what? "

[Arkan]

Quick question...at what value does hand to hand start affecting magical creatures?

[Arkan]

Nobody?

[Cantousent]

I've seen that it starts hurting ghosts and such at level 50. Personally, I advocate magic. No need to get close enough to be hurt that way.

[Judge Hades]

Expert in what? "

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

In being a cranky old man.

[Darque]

Expert in what? "

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

In being a cranky old man.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Oh, you definately have that down to an artform.

[Arkan]

I've seen that it starts hurting ghosts and such at level 50.  Personally, I advocate magic.  No need to get close enough to be hurt that way.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

But magic doesn't really fit my character concept.

 

I'm playing an heavily armored (but unarmed) tank. It's been pretty fun, actually.

[metadigital]

Monk?

[Hassat Hunter]

Could get some minor help here with the

Pale Pass Quest

...

 

 

After battling through more minions than an avarage Diablo2 Act I finnally arrived there, and found a locked old chest just before arriving at the fort. Needed a key. Ah well, should be somewhere around. And indeed I found a key and note in some nearby crate. The note told me he hid an amulet in a chest in the valley; no real trouble linking it with my found crate.

NOT...

Searched the whole valley (bumped into each Invisible Wall available) and didn't find another chest that could be meant by the note. Anybody knows where the chest is, if I need something else to open the chest or is this a bug?

 

 

Bug: When running around there bumping into the invisible wall can get the mini-map cleared of ALL items. This also includes the "here are you" Hero Icon...

 

 

Inside the Pale Pass Fort I found a grate. A nearby lever would open it. Now just to the right is a chest behind another grate. But there seems to be no way to open it. Locking the lever grate didn't open this grate, and I see no other way in. Does anybody knows how to get to that chest?

 

 

Query to SS: Did the Ingame help and manual creators work together with the devs. As both the manual and ingame help says on Lockpick upgrade "From now on only 3 tumblers can/will fall when you break a lockpick" but the real ingame way is "From now on 1 succesfully upped tumbler will not drop when a lockpick breaks. Works for all the locks difficulty levels..."

 

EDIT: PS. If there is a system to "re-plant" objects like food on locations make sure that the "bowl" underneath it is also spawned if needed. Flying apples for everyone! (gotta love no physics )

Edited April 21, 2006 by Hassat Hunter

[Hassat Hunter]

Well, I found another (very funny) nice bug. It involves the AI going back and forth so fast it looks like there are 2 of them. Screens don't work... pictures look bad and movies (how low the resolution, and how short the movie) are way too big

 

So does anybody knows how to reduce the size of a FRAPS-movie (as to make 0:02 not take up 5MB)?

 

EDIT: Adding best pic (note: 1 skeleton is visible on this pic... do I have to say more?)

Edited April 21, 2006 by Hassat Hunter

[alanschu]

Just put it through Windows Media Maker or whatever. It comes with Windows XP. It's what I did for my Vampire: Bloodlines movies that I posted a while back.

[Darque]

You posted VTM:B movies?

[alanschu]

Yeah. One was a demonstration of how sloooooooooooooooooooow walking everywhere was.

 

The other was what to do and what not to do against the Werewolf. Surely you remember that

[mkreku]

Hades once claimed he always walks in the games he plays.. for role-playing purposes. I would love to see him playing Oblivion too..

[Darque]

Yeah.  One was a demonstration of how sloooooooooooooooooooow walking everywhere was.

 

The other was what to do and what not to do against the Werewolf.  Surely you remember that

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

omg! I missed that

 

Did you make a character like the one Hades had for the demonstration?

[Hassat Hunter]

Found it

 

Can't get the movie maker to work though, or is that the wrong program?

 

EDIT: Changed link to go direct to Alanschu's Wherewolf post...

SECOND EDIT: I am an idiot... here is the 2 seconds movie

Edited April 21, 2006 by Hassat Hunter

[alanschu]

You made it with FRAPS right? Which should give you a huge AVI file IIRC. Just import that file into Windows Movie Maker, drag it into the timeline, select save movie, and pick a small file size (which I think it does by default actually, since the uncompressed movie file has plenty of room for compression left in it).

 

 

And yes, my character was a Malkavian. I wanted to play through as one still, and after Hades had his problems with the werewolf, I had additional motivation to go through with it as I could also film a "How To" series of movies for the werewolf, that BC found.

[Darque]

Awesome

 

Thanks Alan and HH :D