Interview Gavin Carter talks about Oblivion

[Drakron]

Actually if you press Attack and your weapon isn't drawn, your weapon is automatically drawn for you. You have to press Attack again to do an attack, though.

Congratulation, you just invalidated everything you said.

If casting using weapons was put because "ready spells" was a nuisance then the same thing now done with weapons sould been done, when casting a spell the weapons and shields would be put away and the spell casted and then it would revert to use of weapons.

Instead we have the muchkin "casting when having a uber weapon and shield", by making weapons and shields go away when casting it means players were forced to lose some of their uber items.

I think you're overreacting to not enough info, and I'm sorry I can't go into any more detail. There is of course much more to the game systems than has been said here & elsewhere. I also know that you're not a big fan of Elder Scrolls games to begin with, which doesn't help

When there is smoke there is fire and I started to see smoke with the "bows only" anoucement that just killed any interess I had on the game, this "casting when using weapons" just adds more smoke.

As to the enforcing stereotypes, remember that you CAN raise every single one of your skills to the maximum amount. It just takes longer to do it if they're not major skills to begin with. And once you've done that, then certainly class is irrelevant. But it's not irrelevant to start, and it's not irrelevant for much of your progress through the game. If we didn't want class to matter at all, we wouldn't bother including it.

Because they DONT, making a custom class with the best skills was already common in all previous games of the series.

This just makes things easier, classes have always been something players tend to ignore.

Casting with weapons just makes muchkin builds easier but that is the game segment Bethsoft is after, those Xbox morons that got your game because in the collection of shit that was Xbox release titles there was a couple of titles that standed out, Halo and Morrowind.

 

[Atrokkus]

MSFD, what about dialog? What about characters?
This is much more important, really. At least for most of us here.


And a follow-up question (again): what's with Mana system and will pure mage be balanced and powered up? In MOrr it was pure shit compared to battle mage - this just doesn't make sense. A pure mage just HAS to be more proficient in magic than battlemage, because the first focuses purely on magic skills, while the latter relies on both combat and magic.
And the reason? Fucked up mana system. Will you do anything about it?

 

[Fintilgin]

It's way, way too late now, and I'm sure they wouldn't pluck suggestions from random forums, but I did think of a way to work with the mana problem.

I thought it would be neat if for every 10 points in a spell casting skill you get an additional 0.1x multiplier to your mana. This would represent an inherent 'chanelling' skill or the fact that as you become more skilled you can draw more magic power. So having a spell skill at 100 would give you a 1x multiplier. A pure mage with, say, six spells schools averaging around 80 would have an extra 4.8x mana. An average fighter or other class might only have one spell school as 'support' and thus have far less mana even with birthsigns and racial bonuses. The more you use magic, the more you can use magic. Seems to fit the general Elder Scrolls philosophy.

It would also help you put really HIGH powered magic out of the reach of casual dabblers in the mystic arts by giving them very high mana costs.

If you factor high skill reducing the cost of spells you could make 'pure' mages even more distinct and uniquely powerful. A spell that cost 500 mana to cast for a character wtih a 5 skill might only cost 50 for a character with a 100 skill.

I also think it would help to make it harder to raise stats. Make it so that even if you powergame it's not really easy or possible to have all your stats as high as you can in Morrowind. That would force you to make harder choices on if you wanted to focus on your more physical or mystical stats.

It seems to me that a Battlemage should never be as good at fighting as a pure fighter or as good at spell casting as a pure mage. Their power should come from flexibility and a wider 'toolkit'.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

I agree with Bryce. Morrowind had a lot of small issues for me which were fixed in mods (ala Cliffracers). That doesn't mean the game is excused. It just means I had to spend a few hours deciding which mod to pick, running through them until I get one that works the way I want and then hoping it hasn't kludged some other part of the game (which some of them actually do).

You're exaggerating a little, it took you few hours deciding which mod to pick? This stuff takes minutes. There's even mods that detect whether there will be a conflict between the mods themselves. And making mods dealing with creature AI is child's play. I know that those things don't excuse the game but it also doesn't mean that the game is total crap. Sure Morrowind is overrated but its flaws, for many like myself, weren't that hard to overlook even without the mods.

• Go here: http://www.rpgplanet.com/morrowind/modcontrols/mods.asp
• Hit search.
• Type "Cliff Racer"
• Read through all 15 results and let me know which one to pick.

Do I want the simple one on the front page or the one two pages in that does a bit more? That hunt to extinction doesn't sound bad. Maybe I'll download that, install it and try it out. Half an hour later. Nope don't like it. I want to uninstall it - is it going to fuck my save game now? How do I uninstall it...

I'm a modder myself so I do know how to pick and install mods and yes, I am over-exaggerating to an extent but picking a mod and trying it out isn't a simply "5 minute process". Very few people would also consider modding AI in Morrowind a "piece of cake". I mean, did it literally take you 5 minutes after you opened up the editor for the first time to figure it out and make a successful mod yourself or did you spend a day mucking around with it and looking for tutorials? I know that's what I did when I first took a gander. Unfortunately, most people don't do that or don't even have the experience to be able to do that.

I'm also willing to bet you have a background in computer programming like myself. That makes things easier but for your "average Joe" picking a mod, installing it and then getting burnt because your saved games are rooted is enough to put them off mods for good. I didn't even try many mods myself but my own experience included mods that displayed error messages constantly, one that destroyed a save game and several that just plainly sucked and weren't worth the download.

No, one or two things doesn't mean the game is total crap but the reality is only the people who actually enjoy the game they found in the box (at least to some extent) will ever bother with mods. Your average gamer won't think "Wow, this game sucks. Cliff Racers (+100 other little things that irked them) really take the fun out of it. I know, I'll find a mod site and spend the next few days downloading and trying out some seven hundred different mods to see if any of them make the game any better." In reality, it's more like "Oh well, I'm going back to playing XYZ Commando 4".

As you said yourself, you enjoyed the base product even without mods. Those who didn't aren't going to feel compelled to mod it. After all, if the developers can't make a game you enjoy, how could the modders? And if the modders can, wow, those developers must really suck (looks at MSFD).

As to the enforcing stereotypes, remember that you CAN raise every single one of your skills to the maximum amount. It just takes longer to do it if they're not major skills to begin with. And once you've done that, then certainly class is irrelevant. But it's not irrelevant to start, and it's not irrelevant for much of your progress through the game. If we didn't want class to matter at all, we wouldn't bother including it.

That's one thing I never really liked about Morrowind. By making one uber character, I could do everything there was to do in the game. There was simply no desire to "start again" just to grind my way up to "Uber" again, find all the same items and max them out because all you were really doing was changing what your face looked like (IE: Superficial difference).

To me it was like joining the guilds really didn't mean anything or have any substance other than providing quests (generally lame Fed-Ex ones at that). So it wasn't like I'd level up my "Thief character", enjoy the game that way then start again as a combat or diplomat character to see how the game played differently - expressed through joining different guilds and what-not. Instead, you just have a "Jack of All Trades" - and he's pretty farking good at them all too. I prefer "the Fallout way" where starting again nets you a different quest, a different outcome, some new experience that you couldn't get before because you didn't have the skills or had helped out a different faction previously. Morrowind just let you help everyone out which to me, meant the guilds had no relevance at all.

That's my $1.57.

 

[bryce777]

I agree with Bryce. Morrowind had a lot of small issues for me which were fixed in mods (ala Cliffracers). That doesn't mean the game is excused. It just means I had to spend a few hours deciding which mod to pick, running through them until I get one that works the way I want and then hoping it hasn't kludged some other part of the game (which some of them actually do).

You're exaggerating a little, it took you few hours deciding which mod to pick? This stuff takes minutes. There's even mods that detect whether there will be a conflict between the mods themselves. And making mods dealing with creature AI is child's play. I know that those things don't excuse the game but it also doesn't mean that the game is total crap. Sure Morrowind is overrated but its flaws, for many like myself, weren't that hard to overlook even without the mods.

Uh, you dont see the cliffracers in a couple minutes.

You can't choose mods intelligently til you know what is actually wrong with the game. I hate mods because they usually spoil a game if you try them willy nilly.

You can't tell me there aren't lots of moronic mods either, and the last thing I want are mods that make the game easier, generally speaking.

 

[Atrokkus]

To me it was like joining the guilds really didn't mean anything or have any substance other than providing quests (generally lame Fed-Ex ones at that). So it wasn't like I'd level up my "Thief character", enjoy the game that way then start again as a combat or diplomat character to see how the game played differently - expressed through joining different guilds and what-not. Instead, you just have a "Jack of All Trades" - and he's pretty farking good at them all too. I prefer "the Fallout way" where starting again nets you a different quest, a different outcome, some new experience that you couldn't get before because you didn't have the skills or had helped out a different faction previously. Morrowind just let you help everyone out which to me, meant the guilds had no relevance at all.

Absolutely right.
But I guess that was their concept: to allow the player to become a god. And not even a demigod, but a true avatar of some uber-deity. Well, if that's so - okay, but still it ruins the fun.
As I call it, "Manchkinarium"
Well, for that purpose (ubering your char) I'd rather choose Diablo II - it's at least made much better there, and fun to play (even a 1000th time over)

Guilds - abosultely boring. FedEx quests and voila! you're the new guildmaster. After that, you make another check in your Uber-deed list and forget about that guild completely, never to return, because it will offer NO interest.
In BG2 you first had to fight over your fortress(guild, grove, etc), and then, becoming a leader, the fun didn't end. You had to sort out problems, improve your guiild, do other fun stuff. Now THAT is a great example of guild-system.

But of course, the main thing MOrrowind lacked is NPCs and interesting sub-plots.
Man, it's just amazing how much excitement this HUGE world could offer if there was a conversation-system and interesting NPCs, instead of those wiki-dummies. It doesn't have to do anything with mainplot, but just different NPC's stories, problems and conflict, all on that beautiful worldmap. That would have been a great RPG that way, but no, it's just a disappointed player's dream.

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

All I'm going to say is that much of what has been mentioned in the last several posts are complaints about Morrowind that we have been well aware of since before starting work on Oblivion.

 

[Atrokkus]

Well, in this case, I hope you learn by your mistakes and will make a much better game, and even pure RPG (I hope).

Good luck

 

[Vault Dweller]

All I'm going to say is that much of what has been mentioned in the last several posts are complaints about Morrowind that we have been well aware of since before starting work on Oblivion.

Were you, by any chance, aware of complaints that MW was boring, that NPCs & dialogues sucked, that the game was dumbed down comparing to DF, and that the game sucked as an RPG in general? It looks like you've conviniently ignored those, and decided to listen to "plz maek it more simple, kthxby" complaints.

Also, an interesting observation. Before MW was released, I remember all the gaming mags raving about that NPC in the starting town that had a secret stash, and how you can wait till night and see where the stash is. All reviewers were like "OMG! It's so awesome and totally great! Teh revolushun is here!" Needless to say, it was one out of very few if not the only example of a somewhat complex NPC behavior designed exclusively to charm gullible reviewers.

Anyway, in regard to character classes, any chance of seeing these skills & features from DF?
Climbing, Swimming, Backstab, Critical Strike, Dodging, Medical, Etiquette, Streetwise. With skills like that you can define classes much better than with artificial restrictions.
Advantages & Disadvantages features in Character Creation: i.e. Restricted weapon, weakness to..., etc

 

[corvax]

Do I want the simple one on the front page or the one two pages in that does a bit more? That hunt to extinction doesn't sound bad. Maybe I'll download that, install it and try it out. Half an hour later. Nope don't like it. I want to uninstall it - is it going to fuck my save game now? How do I uninstall it...

Uhh...You're so indecisive. Hope the ladies don't complain

I'm a modder myself so I do know how to pick and install mods and yes, I am over-exaggerating to an extent but picking a mod and trying it out isn't a simply "5 minute process". Very few people would also consider modding AI in Morrowind a "piece of cake". I mean, did it literally take you 5 minutes after you opened up the editor for the first time to figure it out and make a successful mod yourself or did you spend a day mucking around with it and looking for tutorials? I know that's what I did when I first took a gander. Unfortunately, most people don't do that or don't even have the experience to be able to do that.

You slippery sloped from trying out a mod to making one. The first one is a 5-10 mintue process. But yeah, making mods is a little different as it took me some forum help and a little clear thinking to find out what to do. Modding AI can be difficult, however if the only thing you're doing is lowering creature responsiveness the process is a "piece of cake". Lowering AI variables and saving the mod isn't all that difficult. Overall maybe I over-simplified things a little and since you admit to exaggerating then maybe we can agree somewhere down the middle.

I'm also willing to bet you have a background in computer programming like myself. That makes things easier but for your "average Joe" picking a mod, installing it and then getting burnt because your saved games are rooted is enough to put them off mods for good. I didn't even try many mods myself but my own experience included mods that displayed error messages constantly, one that destroyed a save game and several that just plainly sucked and weren't worth the download.

Logic and critical thinking is part of my background, that's all. Sadly the average gamer Joe often lacks such things.

No, one or two things doesn't mean the game is total crap but the reality is only the people who actually enjoy the game they found in the box (at least to some extent) will ever bother with mods. Your average gamer won't think "Wow, this game sucks. Cliff Racers (+100 other little things that irked them) really take the fun out of it. I know, I'll find a mod site and spend the next few days downloading and trying out some seven hundred different mods to see if any of them make the game any better." In reality, it's more like "Oh well, I'm going back to playing XYZ Commando 4".

That's just being too picky on the average gamer part. I agree with your point though.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I personally don't care much for the idea of armor penalties and spell casting because they've always seemed more like something tossed in there for asthetics than anything else. If the system is skills based, which we know it is, then you'd think that's where the balance for a battle mage would come from. He's not as good as a warrior with his sword and he's not as good as a pure mage at magic.

I've never understood the hand gestures thing. I'm not sure why gesturing with your hands would some how allow you to channel elements.