Interview Skyrim, DLC, Buckets

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Bethesda Softworks; Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

<p>Joystiq had a <a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/11/skyrim-to-have-multiple-dlc-releases-powerful-buckets/" target="_blank">brief chat</a> with Bethesda's <a href="http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y233/Bahamut_ZERO/Untitled-1-2-2.jpg" target="_blank">Todd Howard</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Game Director Todd Howard was at the Spike Video Game Awards yesterday to accept a well-deserved Game of the Year award for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and he said to Joystiq that the game's popularity has surprised even the development team. "We thought it would do well," he said, "but it has gone above and beyond." One of the surprising effects of that popularity is the many YouTube videos (and "arrow in the knee" references) out there, but Howard says one in particular stood out to Bethesda. "I think our favorite really is putting the buckets on the heads," he laughed. "It was like day two, and we went, what? Do we fix that? Our lead programmer is pissed and wants to fix it, and I said I'm not sure we should. That's one of those where maybe we leave it in."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yeah, most of Skyrim's bugs are pretty endearing anyway, so why bother.</p>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/106036-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-interview.html">Gamebanshee</a></p>

 

[J_C]

I think our favorite really is putting the buckets on the heads," he laughed. "It was like day two, and we went, what? Do we fix that? Our lead programmer is pissed and wants to fix it, and I said I'm not sure we should.

Yes, leave that in the game, as a testament to how shitty this game is designed.

Also:

 

[Derper]

Mods will fix it.

 

[commie]

Amazing that they are actually proud of that shit and are using it as a selling point. Had Obsidian, CDPR, Larian come up with a hearty laugh at bugs and idiotic limitations in dialogue in their products and talked about how they'll leave it in for the lulz, what would happen?

 

[Gord]

 

[Jaedar]

 

[Serious_Business]

Amazing that they are actually proud of that shit and are using it as a selling point. Had Obsidian, CDPR, Larian come up with a hearty laugh at bugs and idiotic limitations in dialogue in their products and talked about how they'll leave it in for the lulz, what would happen?

This, is an outrage! The council would step in if the geth attacked a turian colony!

 

[Vault Dweller]

Should be added to the Codex' collection of developer emoticons.

 

[Crooked Bee]

 

[Luzur]

What is it? Dragons?

 

[Mastermind]

Amazing that they are actually proud of that shit and are using it as a selling point. Had Obsidian, CDPR, Larian come up with a hearty laugh at bugs and idiotic limitations in dialogue in their products and talked about how they'll leave it in for the lulz, what would happen?

Bethesda intentionally left bugs in Morrowind too. Like the infamous infinite duration spell one. It's nothing new.

 

[Phelot]

Well, the buckethead deal is something you actively have to try in order to see it so I wouldn't really call it a bug since it doesn't seem to cause any issues.

 

[Rhalle]

It's surprising that the bucket thing actually works, that the NPCs 'line of sight' really is a line of sight that originates in their eyes/head.

 

[felipepepe]

Amazing that they are actually proud of that shit and are using it as a selling point. Had Obsidian, CDPR, Larian come up with a hearty laugh at bugs and idiotic limitations in dialogue in their products and talked about how they'll leave it in for the lulz, what would happen?

This, is an outrage! The council would step in if the geth attacked a turian colony!

Ah yes..."bugs". We have dismissed that claim.

 

[gromit]

It's surprising that the bucket thing actually works, that the NPCs 'line of sight' really is a line of sight that originates in their eyes/head.

Yes, I like the implications of that. The more common-sense in the engine, the better. Along those lines, the only appropriate fix for this is to have NPCs not tolerate having buckets on their heads, and/or you putting them there - not sure that'd be done gracefully in a patch.

 

[villain of the story]

It would be pretty easy, actually. NPCs sometims react to when you move a body around so the reaction hook is already in the game. Tie that to a backlist of items with things like buckets in it and add an NPC reaction.

But anyway, yes, line of sight works amazingly precise for a Bethesda game.

 

[Derper]

Now do a shop with the bucket and only Petes crazy mouth showing.

 

[Xor]

Someone needs to add a head bob.

 

[gromit]

It would be pretty easy, actually. NPCs sometims react to when you move a body around so the reaction hook is already in the game. Tie that to a backlist of items with things like buckets in it and add an NPC reaction.

Well, no shit, you can have people react when the player is engaging with an object. I'd imagine "player is moving an item" is a very well-defined state. I believe in Oblivion, they even told you to stop moving around owned items. So, you bring your own basket, and you're moving it now -"I see you like waving baskets around, eh?" and "put that down or there'll be trouble" are equally retarded utterances, and equally ineffective.

As for smartly detecting the actual act - something like "has a bucket has come to rest on my head" can come out pretty hackish if there isn't a system in place already for things like that. One approach, as holistic as the problem itself, which addresses several other nasty tricks, would be including some kind of "has a placed object interfered with my line-of-sight" bit in certain AI packages. That's something a LOT of games could use, come to mention.

But then, again, what do you do about it? The common sense option is for them to take the damned bucket off of their head, and maybe fling it at you, but that's special case animation - not patch material. I bet the closest you'd see to that is magically bucket-repelling heads that flip them right off. The best I could figure with the resources and functionality at hand is to have all items released by the player either trigger the "I think you've dropped this" bit if it's player or "publically" owned, or have it instantly go into the shopkeep's inventory. Neither of which is graceful.

Anyway, this is the kind of bug quirk that you literally only encounter if you go looking for it - especially now that word is out. The only way it ever influences the game for most people is by being a bit of a temptation, or a reminder of the artificiality of the world. The series has always kind of asked you to play along in order to get anything out of it. It is a little annoying to essentially have to LARP to "steal right" - no buckets on heads, no plain-sight lifting of unmarked (but clearly "actually" owned) items... but it's also way more fun.

So: kudos to whoever thought to try it out; yes it's pretty silly; they have got to have better things to fix.

 

[Morbus]

It's surprising that the bucket thing actually works, that the NPCs 'line of sight' really is a line of sight that originates in their eyes/head.

Yes, I like the implications of that. The more common-sense in the engine, the better. Along those lines, the only appropriate fix for this is to have NPCs not tolerate having buckets on their heads, and/or you putting them there - not sure that'd be done gracefully in a patch.

The easy way out of it would be to have small items not break line of sight. Simpler than doing the animations of NPCs getting their heads out of the bucket.

Theh again, most of Skyrim's NPCs have their heads in a bucked, seemingly, even when you don't mess with the physics engine.

 

[felipepepe]

Someone needs to add a head bob.

 

[Xor]

Amazing.

 

[Redeye]

Someone needs to add a head bob.

The crafting system should allow making a helmet out of a bucket.

 

[gromit]

The easy way out of it would be to have small items not break line of sight. Simpler than doing the animations of NPCs getting their heads out of the bucket.

Then you're removing the ability to legitimately use clutter as cover, so that a few chuckle-fucks don't cheat in a single-player game... *shrug*

 

[Crispy]

Someone needs to add a head bob.