MrSmileyFaceDude said:
Yep, ignore the other 23 questions, and only read the third sentence of question #6. Make sure you also ignore the last two sentences of question #6. Bear in mind as well all of your worst possible assumptions about glowing auras, Crazy Taxi style floating arrows and huge radar screens.
Alright let's be fair, and address all 23 points.
1. What improvements have been made to the Enchantment/Enchanting system, visually and logistically, since Morrowind? What of the Magic system as a whole?
It's purdier, and you don't have control of triggered effects. It's automagic, so you don't get confused about when is the best time to use the special charge on your foozle. And you have to use a soulgem or go to town to reload.
2. Is the combat system best suited to individual, or "group" combat? Might NPCs work alongside each other and employ tactics which utilize each of them in a joint strategy? To what scale can we expect to see battles taken?
It is of course completely optimized for both. Here's some double speak and some ugly if statements we added to fix the most ridiculous bugs. It could be a good fight, fat old rpg gamer pathetic twich micro reflexes vs. crappy FPS ai.
3. Can you share more with us about the skills available in Oblivion; what may have been added, removed, or merged; skills perks; how *many* major/minor skills our character may choose?
X-boxers throught Morrowind was like 4 times lamer than Halo, so we've freed them from the tyranny of choice with weapon skills. With MW, when you exploited the open ended nature of the game to design your own character, it could potential end up non-munchkin. We've fixed that.
4. In magic-based duels (mage-vs-mage), will the NPCs involved employ a more 'intelligent' strategy than what we saw in Morrowind?
I'm gonna read read something from one of my Hype Cards (TM) and you're not going to ask me to explain or justify it, okay?
5. We're aware that RAI gives schedules and desires to individual NPCs, but how will RAI work on a larger, social scale? For example, how might an NPC work in a guild environment, based on both its own goals, as well as those of the guild it is a part of?
Emergent AI to do cool stuff like that takes really smart people. We've got some old guy that worked on a voice recognition expert system in the 1960's. We like if statements.
6. Concerning the Dynamic Quest Compass, how might it replace the previously text-based instructions Elder Scrolls fans have become accustomed to? Furthermore, will the compass be an option which can be turned on and/or off at the player's leisure?
X-boxers can't read good. You won't mind you'll like it (pulls out baseball bat), trust me you'll like Daggerfall: Rails.
7. Will Radiant AI be applied to creatures, and if so, in what ways? Will creatures be placed on a schedule similar to humanoid NPCs; might some work together while hunting, to form 'packs'? And to what extent can they be used by the PC to carry packages. And as compared to NPC's?
YES. Oh that doesn't answer all of your question? Um they pretty much just attack you.
8. Have there been any changes to the list of joinable factions? Specifically, any info in the Nine Divines and/or Imperial Legion? Are there 'minor factions' outside of those listed in prior interviews, and ifso what can you tell us about them?
TYRANNY OF CHOICE. You owe us bitch.
9. In Morrowind, guild involvement was minimal. Other than people calling you master, there was little that changed as you gained rank. Can we expect that to change in Oblivion? How so?
YES. We promise. You get enchanting bonus as you level up yer guildz. <jedi> That is all the justification you need to believe the rest of the bs in this answer. </jedi>
10. We know that vampires will be found in Oblivion; what details about them can you share with us? Also, will there be any types of 'werecreatures' in the game?
Vampire in, but SEKRET. nowhere (ha!)
11. Besides being a faster means of travelling the world, what features can we expect to see with and from horses? How diverse might they be? Will your encumbrance or stats affect them in any way? And what will happen when a mounted character is attacked? And, aside from Horses, what other beasts may be in store for players as pets (such as the dog at E3)?
if (horse) { can_attack == 0; speed += 10; }
It's too hard to use horsies well (stuffs mount & blade dev in trunk).
12. In what ways will the player be able to physically customize their Oblivion counterpart at character creation?
Our barbie mini-game is the best. We've went all out on the surface here.
13. How are beast races being altered, based upon past appearances, traits, and possible perks--along the lines of claws giving the beast races a boost during hand-to-hand combat--for Oblivion?
You change skin color. They all walk the same to save us time to spend on erosion and putting light blooms on everything.
14. how will NPC's travel between cells, will they apear or open outside (loading) doors and step in the void?
We took the lame easy way, but we wasted lots of time trying cooler things before deciding on this, promise!.
15. Do NPCs have specific animations for actions such as shopping, praying etc?
They sit and kneel and all walk like humans.
16. What direction are you going in terms of NPC voices? As we already know there is over 50 hours of recoded dialogue in the game, but its been estimated that that only amounts to 3 minutes of dialouge per npc. Are NPC voices going to be as they were in morrowind, as in every race male/female will have a different voice, or will there be more of a variety in NPC voices?
Picard and Wonder Woman wil just not shut up. We've also got tons of repetitive useless banter by sex/race for atmosphere.
17. How will subtitles be used with the all spoken dialogue system? And if the game has prerendered cut scenes, will they have optional subtitles? (MW didn't) What about subtitles for sound effects? What about overhearing conversations?
We've done The good thing here and provided optional subtitles. Of course we've dumbed everything else down so much that no literate people will buy the game, so it's just more wasted time.
18. We know that there will be additional autonomous regions besides Cyrodil, including the plane of Oblivion. Can you give us a rough number about how many such places there are and how many square miles it will add? And will this be limited after the main quest? or will we be able to go there even after the MQ?
um 16 and for the other, I haven't added it up so it must be infinite.
19. What can you tell us about how water will 'work' in Oblivion? Will it use fluid physics, or be a static object set at level 0, as in Morrowind, or will there be mountain lakes and streams this time?
I'm not going to answer that. Instead I'll say it looks insane.
20. How diverse will the music of Oblivion be? Will it change according to the environment around the Player character? Will x-box 360 users be able to use their own music?
It's the bomb, don't worry, you can use your Papa Roach or Def Leppard music.
21. How exactly will the weather system work in terms of detail, immersion and interactivity. Will seasons and storms be included? To what extent will inanimate objects be affected by weather (i.e. combustible objects)? Will it affect Creatures/NPCs/PC?
Each region has a different weighting for weather. It's sweet. Storms aren't as ninja as MW. Super leet RAI let us (rainging && go_inside)
22. How will cells be handled this time... will you be able to create multiple exterior cells (like an improved "behave like exterior" command) and actually landscape in them?
editor is the rox0r
23. In a recent interview with gamespy you said modders could drop a block into the world and apply whatever material. Will this material alter the duration and volume of footsteps and will the natural environment - such as other nearby materials - contribute to that aspect as well? Will footprints be visible on some surfaces?
editor is the rox0r
24. Are you now going to include comprehensive documentation (including the scripting language, game settings etc) rather than the totally inadequate documentation that was provided for Morrowind? Are there any other ways that Bethesda is going to help Oblivion modders in their work?
editor docs isn't the rox0r.
Whew, so after all that, Oblivion is still making a beeline away from Daggerfall. Maybe it will be a good game, but to us it's just the corpse of daggerfall with the heart and brains ripped out, and a nice suit and a bunch of makeup applied.
If you want people to be as excited about the changes as you are, you need to go to a Halo forum rather than an rpg forum.
