2 new Oblivion movies

[Lumpy]

http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/702/ ... ids_1.html
Maybe, maybe, some of you might be interested.

 

[Zomg]

I wish they'd either use some LOD trick or compromise on the character models so that they could throw a lot more characters into the towns. They seem totally barren, and given how small they're going to be (inevitable with hand-crafting) that's just a shame.

There's a lot of stuff I could nitpick but I don't care enough to formulate sentences.

 

[Micmu]

More NPCs in town? Even now it had framerate issues on Xbox.
Time to dumb down the graphics. I wonder how much "optimization" can be done without reducing objects & poly counts.

 

[Lumpy]

More NPCs in town? Even now it had framerate issues on Xbox.

What? There were very few NPCs.
And another thing that worries me: the woman only had the "rumours" dialogue option.

 

[Micmu]

What? 49 hrs of Patrick Stewart!

 

[ExMonk]

And a new "Impressions" article that goes with the videos. The videos were shown by Pete Hines at the Xbox360 kick off event.

After Pete showed off the parts of the demo we'd seen at X05 and again at an event in San Francisco, he moved into some new territory. The first was a city that we've seen a few screens of before but never anything in motion. As one of Oblivion's nine major cities, this one seemed huge. As we walked through there was evidence of a great attention to detail including towering rock walls, quaint cobblestone houses, gardens of small trees with bright red leaves, and a gigantic stone chapel. There was a brief conversation with an NPC about getting work with a local Fighter's Guild, but nothing much beyond that.

One thing worth noting is that when Pete switched over to the menu screen we got a chance to see some of the better armor in the game. The avatar was decked out in all gold and silver plate armor that shimmered brilliantly. The helmet and breastplate were the most ornate items from what we could tell; the helmet had a set of gold horns and the breastplate was inscribed with an impressive amount of curvilinear etchings.

Next, Pete guided the character through a forest area toward an area of stone ruins. lThough the graphics in the area were gorgeous, there were a significant number of objects that would pop in and out of visibility. Pete was quick to say that this build is still being worked on, and that by the time TESIV releases later this year the framerate and popping issues will be resolved. Will this actually happen? We're assuming so. After all, it was basically the reason the game was delayed in the first place. As Pete said today, all the game's content is finished and now the development team is hard at work on fine tuning.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/668/668503p1.htm

Popping graphics. Hmmm. At last we hear the reason the game was delayed. Or at least one of the signficant reasons. The article has other bits of new information. Worth the read.

 

[DarkSign]

all the game's content is finished and now

Someone, somewhere should be happy.

 

[Twinfalls]

What a ghost town. The Hines even says it's the middle of the afternoon when most people are out and about!

I simply do not understand Bethesda's problem with generic npcs with titles like 'warrior' or 'mage' so that you know to not bother speaking with them.

It reminded me of a cool documentary from the 70s I saw recently by a guy called Werner Herzog - he went to film in a town called Guadaloupe which was evacuated because of an impending volcano eruption. Yet he found a few people still there who had chosen to meet their fate rather than leave.

 

[Lumpy]

What a ghost town. The Hines even says it's the middle of the afternoon when most people are out and about!

I simply do not understand Bethesda's problem with generic npcs with titles like 'warrior' or 'mage' so that you know to not bother speaking with them.

It reminded me of a cool documentary from the 70s I saw recently by a guy called Werner Herzog - he went to film in a town called Guadaloupe which was evacuated because of an impending volcano eruption. Yet he found a few people still there who had chosen to meet their fate rather than leave.

I think I prefer fewer, unique NPCs. Morrowind could have easily had 5000 more NPCs, since it required no work at all to make one. But they were all similar, so you'd only need to speak to only a few during the whole game, and find out everything.
If they made each one unique this time, it would be great.

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

Actually the number of NPCs walking around in town varies tremendously. Sometimes it'll be pretty busy -- sometimes it'll be quiet like it was when Pete was walking around in Skingrad. It depends on the NPC schedules. There are also certain events where there'll be more people around.

As to the woman and her rumors topic. Maybe if she liked your character more, she'd have more to say. Maybe if you were in a certain guild, or had a certain level of fame or infamy, she'd have a quest for you. Maybe if you'd completed a certain quest, or talked to someone else first, she'd have additional things to talk about. Or maybe someone else will give you a quest that leads you back to her, and then she'll have things you can ask her about or confront her with.

 

[Lumpy]

Actually the number of NPCs walking around in town varies tremendously. Sometimes it'll be pretty busy -- sometimes it'll be quiet like it was when Pete was walking around in Skingrad. It depends on the NPC schedules. There are also certain events where there'll be more people around.

As to the woman and her rumors topic. Maybe if she liked your character more, she'd have more to say. Maybe if you were in a certain guild, or had a certain level of fame or infamy, she'd have a quest for you. Maybe if you'd completed a certain quest, or talked to someone else first, she'd have additional things to talk about. Or maybe someone else will give you a quest that leads you back to her, and then she'll have things you can ask her about or confront her with.

Maybe, maybe... But, please tell me, do the NPCs have, on average, more topics than that woman?

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

Once again I have to spell it out. The point is, the number of things an NPC has to say to you depends on a large number of factors -- her disposition towards you, faction membership, quest status, etc. Factors that can and will change as you play the game.

 

[Twinfalls]

Yeah it's actually much better that only the topics from which you'll gain some distinct information are displayed (note this is the key difference Lumpy), rather than every single possible goddam topic like MW.

It'd still be better if you had actual PC lines like "Hello, can you tell me where I could find some work" etc - as we had in Daggerfall.

 

[Zomg]

Do we need to do a sidequest to unlock the real voice acting by a professional? :D

 

[ExMonk]

Once again I have to spell it out. The point is, the number of things an NPC has to say to you depends on a large number of factors -- her disposition towards you, faction membership, quest status, etc. Factors that can and will change as you play the game.

So, what you are saying is that CHOICES WILL HAVE CONSEQUENCES on dialogue available. Hmm. Imagine that. In Oblivion. A Bethesda product. Are you listening rpgcodexers?

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

Once again I have to spell it out. The point is, the number of things an NPC has to say to you depends on a large number of factors -- her disposition towards you, faction membership, quest status, etc. Factors that can and will change as you play the game.

That definitely sounds good. I guess the thing that everybody is left wondering is how many cases will there be that are like that, and how often we will see true dialogue choices, as in dialogue trees. There is just no telling from what we have seen so far.

BTW are there no "I won't talk about that to soemone like you" tyoe replies anymore? I was just thinking it would be easier for the player if he gets an idea that it might be worthwhile to come back to this NPC later and check if she has more to say, once your reputation increased?

Nevertheless, what you have already said here and on the TES forums, has reduced my worries quite a bit. while I don't know the freqeuncy, I at least can assume that there is SOME good dialogue with choices in the game.

 

[Chefe]

My God, that fighter's guild chick was ugly.

And yea, what's up with the ghost town? It was definitely day in that city.

 

[Elwro]

The point is, the number of things an NPC has to say to you depends on a large number of factors -- her disposition towards you, faction membership, quest status, etc. Factors that can and will change as you play the game.

Just like in Morrowind!

Heh, deja vu.

 

[crpgnut]

That's why she's in the fighter's guild and not working as a courtesan

I enjoyed the physics seen in the combat with the ghostly knight. I really liked how the body was tossed around after the death blow. I'm assuming that because the ghost was only partially corporal that it weighed less than a human would. Those same physics when fighting a large creature would look silly.

I also liked that tougher battles seem to last a little longer. It'll be nice to waltz through the simple monsters while having to pay attention to the tough ones.

Interesting things being tracked this time. Number of days as a vampire, necks bitten, houses owned, etc. I couldn't read all of them as it was quite blurry. Anyone have an IGN insider account? If so, could you make a list of everything on that page? This will probably be over at the TES forums though.

 

[jasondragon]

What is with character faces? They all seem similar, big and blocky aka fat faces. Perhaps I should make a screenshot comparisons of what we've scene.

 

[OverrideB1]

So, consequence to actions finally rears its head in Oblivion - that, at least, is good to hear. Being as I'm at work ATM, I haven't seen the new films so I'll reserve judgement until I've seen them.


@MSFD:
Is this philosophy (actions having consequence) carried through to other areas of the game or is it only for dialogue?

 

[Micmu]

What is with character faces? They all seem similar, big and blocky aka fat faces. Perhaps I should make a screenshot comparisons of what we've scene.

Now expect "you haven't seen it all answer.
Yeah, this FaceGen thing looks a bit strange to me, especially because NPCs have family similarities.

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

Well, 2 of the NPCs that came within visual range were both Redguards, so there'll be somewhat of a racial similarity anyway, but in general every NPC's face is different.

And GhanBuriGhan, yes, there are definitely "I don't like you enough to tell you more" types of dialogue.

Oh another thing that's not shown in that video, is that topics you've already discussed will be gray. If they have more or new info about a specific topic, it'll appear in gold, just as if it were a new topic. In addition, you'll see questions you can ask and responses you can choose from in the topics list, too, so it's not always just one word.

 

[thomase]

Its the noses. All of the noses look pretty much the same. They are rather wide and generally big. Does Facegen allow adjustment of nose size, distance between the eyes, length of face, width of face, width of mouth, size of lips, height of cheekbones, etc.? I know that we have heard that facegen allows lots of customization, but I have seen no specific mention of exactly what parameters you can change. If it basically just amounts to skin, color, eye color, hair color/style, and age-related features (wrinkles), then everyone IS going to look basically the same. From the screenshots I have seen so far, I haven't seen much variation in fundamental face structure. You have to be able to change the underlying bone structure for faces to look truly different...

 

[DarkSign]

Changing bonestructure = changing model + texture + animation.

Kind of hard to automate production of all those three.