Game News Super duper illegal Oblivion video at Playfuls

[Drakron]

Well a interesting tab bit that mr. :D here did not said was that it seems we can turn off mini games (at least the thief lock picking one) and that is a plus for me.

 

[Twinfalls]

"Auto lockpick". What will be the point of using the minigame? After a little while, it'll just be too easy to switch this 'on'...

A suggestion for MSFD: If it's not already there, put some text onto that fast travel interface, like 'the journey will take X days' (and ideally 'The journey will take X gold' as well).

In the E3 video, it's a teleport interface, with no sense of 'travel' (Todd even says 'so you can get straight to teh fun'.

Not very immersive at all....

 

[truekaiser]

"Auto lockpick". What will be the point of using the minigame? After a little while, it'll just be too easy to switch this 'on'...

A suggestion for MSFD: If it's not already there, put some text onto that fast travel interface, like 'the journey will take X days' (and ideally 'The journey will take X gold' as well).

In the E3 video, it's a teleport interface, with no sense of 'travel' (Todd even says 'so you can get straight to teh fun'.

Not very immersive at all....

how about copying daggerfall's fast travel. give the player a option to travel recklessly or not as well as a option to sleep outside or use inns..

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

"Auto lockpick". What will be the point of using the minigame? After a little while, it'll just be too easy to switch this 'on'...

A suggestion for MSFD: If it's not already there, put some text onto that fast travel interface, like 'the journey will take X days' (and ideally 'The journey will take X gold' as well).

In the E3 video, it's a teleport interface, with no sense of 'travel' (Todd even says 'so you can get straight to teh fun'.

Not very immersive at all....

I think thats actually a good move. Even a well designed minigame can become annoying, so those should ALWAYS be optional, IMHO. I thought it was interesting that none of the testers seem to have succeedes at sneaking or lockpicking - how will the game assign a stealth classed when its that hard in the beginning. Or were the testers just clueless?

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

The lockpick minigame is much easier when your security skill is high.

 

[elander_]

POOOUUER CRYYSTALLLS !!!!

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

The lockpick minigame is much easier when your security skill is high.

Which in the opening dungeon depends solely on your race? Will only kahjiit and bosmer receive stealth class recommendations?

 

[Drakron]

The lockpick minigame is much easier when your security skill is high.

I disagree, I find it much better when I am not forced to play some mini game to use a skill.

At this point I start to see you really dont know much Oblivion, one of the Codex issues with Oblivion was the mini games being made a part of gameplay and not something we could just turn off and you said nothing about it.

 

[Elwro]

At this point I start to see you really dont know much Oblivion, one of the Codex issues with Oblivion was the mini games being made a part of gameplay and not something we could just turn off and you said nothing about it.

So you're saying that if a Bethesda developer doesn't answer a question on RPGCodex it means he doesn't know much about the game?

I thought the point was to ask many questions just to see which parts of the game were being kept secret. It was very easy e.g. to get an answer to a question about combat, and I think almost impossible if you asked about magic. I wouldn't risk the conclusion that MFSD didn't know much about magic in Oblivion .

 

[Twinfalls]

The lockpick minigame is much easier when your security skill is high.

I disagree, I find it much better when I am not forced to play some mini game to use a skill.

What do you mean "You disagree"?? He's telling you how it it fucking is, not giving an opinion.

 

[NeutralMilkHotel]

Disagreeing with a design decision, maybe?

 

[Twinfalls]

Still doesn't make any sense in relation to the MSFD quote he used. At any rate, there's an 'auto-lockpick' now so he should be happy.

 

[NeutralMilkHotel]

I could've sworn that in a huff he said he wasn't going to get the game, so I don't understand why he gives two shits in the first place.

 

[Twinfalls]

Indeed.

 

[HardCode]

Don't split hairs on "I disagree".

Regardless, I think mini-games should be something on the side for fun, that you can have your character engage or not at you option, which is just that ... for fun ... not part of a skill or other necessary, integral function of the game. For instance, something cute like a lute minigame that you activate by equiping the lute, and play some "fat lute tunes."

I don't think a minigame belongs in such a common event like lockpicking.

Heck, you could improve mixing ingredients for Alchemy with a nice minigame, because that is basically what it was in Morrowind. Well ... maybe they already did something like that.

Gambling would be a good minigame too. Not necessary to the game, but just an aside.

I liked the quick, easy method of lockpicking in MW, and dragging that out, even with another mouse click, could turn lame after a few days of playing.

 

[Twinfalls]

Yeah, fair enough, and I guess that's Bethesda's thinking too. If you enjoy the lockpicking mini-game itself, then that should be the sole incentive to use it, which should be the case with any mini-game in an RPG I suppose.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I have to agree with HardCode. I'm not a huge fan of forced minigames. Sure, you can make the point that it makes the event interactive, but it also makes the event boring after a while. Do you really want to go through the same minigame every single time you need to get in to a chest or locked door? I don't. I have skillz. I just want the shit inside the room/chest. I'll have my fun with the lewt and a lot more of it than I would playing the same tumbler toss every pick session.

 

[Drakron]

In SC or Thief when you lockpick you simply move the pick around until it clicks, the location of were it clicks is either set or random.

There is no way it became much "easier", it can be "faster" to when you reach the location it clicks faster or perhaps the clicking area being larger (that I doubt) so you can move end the mini game faster.

The purpose of those systems in SC and Thief is because they add tention, you usually dont have the option of fighting the guards and you need to open locks during the time the patrols are away and so you need to "get it right" before they come back.

In something like TES its a question of killing anything near it, its unlikely you have to face patrols (and if you have its a question of killing then) and so there is no point of such gameplay element.

And the mini games were the last drop for me, I HATED GTA:SA because the damn mini games and I avoid games like that if I know in advance, without then its a question to see if there is enough for me to want to play or not ... I am waiting to know more of the reviews and guides before making a final decision, also there is still the persuation mini game that I dont know if it can be turn off or not.

 

[Twinfalls]

I have to agree with HardCode. I'm not a huge fan of forced minigames. Sure, you can make the point that it makes the event interactive, but it also makes the event boring after a while. Do you really want to go through the same minigame every single time you need to get in to a chest or locked door? I don't. I have skillz. I just want the shit inside the room/chest. I'll have my fun with the lewt and a lot more of it than I would playing the same tumbler toss every pick session.

Yes, you're right. It's a good decision by Bethesda to allow the mini-game to be bypassed when the player wants.

Now, sorry to harp on about this, but MSFD - if you can, Pleeease do something about that fast-travel interface. Not having any text like 'the trip will take X days' and 'the trip will cost X gold' is one of those little nails in the role-playing coffin. As Truekaiser said, bring back the Daggerfall options - stay at inns (higher cost), travel recklessly (may arrive at night with gates shut).

In the video, it's teleportation you've got, not fast travel....

 

[Drakron]

He is a programer, its not like he can just alter a part of the game because we asked it.

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

Drakron, the thing is, the lockpick minigame really DOES get easier to play when your security skill is higher. There are different difficulty levels of locks, basically you have more or fewer pins to set. But each pin is easier or harder to set correctly depending on your character's security skill. If you have a high security skill, even a hard lock is easier to pick because each pin is easier to set. It's hard to explain without a visual -- but the game is definitely much easier to play if your character's skill is high.

And you CAN get caught trying to pick a lock.

I'll post a suggestion to indicate how long it'd take to travel to a particular place. It doesn't cost any gold, because it simulates your character walking or riding there. Also, we're not talking about the entire continent, here, like in Daggerfall - I don't think there's a trip that would take more than a couple days' travel, depending if you're on foot or horseback. And it isn't really teleportation, because game time does pass. But knowing ahead of time how long it'll take is a good idea.

 

[Drakron]

And if set to auto pick?

What it does? check the character skill vs the lock dificult?

 

[Twinfalls]

I'll post a suggestion to indicate how long it'd take to travel to a particular place. It doesn't cost any gold, because it simulates your character walking or riding there. Also, we're not talking about the entire continent, here, like in Daggerfall - I don't think there's a trip that would take more than a couple days' travel, depending if you're on foot or horseback. And it isn't really teleportation, because game time does pass. But knowing ahead of time how long it'll take is a good idea.

Thanks. I think it'll make a real difference simply because being told 'the trip will take X hours/days' will help you feel you are actually travelling. You see, in MW, you would walk up to a silt strider or boat, so that feeling was set up already. Here, there's no such thing.

If you've got a horse, it's supposed to be quicker. Yet how do you know if you're not told? I thought this was one of the 'rewards' of getting a horse...

I take it being poisoned still takes its toll over fast travel? How about random encounters during travel?

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

Drakron - each time you hit the auto-attempt button, it does a die roll of your skill against the lock difficulty. If you fail, the pick breaks. If you succeed, the lock opens.

Poison & all magic updates as you'd expect. Random encounters -- no. You have to walk for those. I think that the people who would always choose fast travel over traveling on foot or horseback are also people who would get annoyed at having their trips interrupted. I know that as I've been playing the game, I rarely fast travel. The journey, while it takes longer, is much more fun, and you don't miss out on all the things you can discover on the way.

 

[Twinfalls]

Fair enough. The difference between Oblivion and Daggerfall here is that the imprecision of Daggerfall's map made it next to impossible to travel in real-time from one location to another, let alone the huge distances, so you basically had to fast travel.

Still - get that time-forecast put in at least, it'll definitely be a good thing.