Review Morrowind reviewed by an EXPART

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

Actually I started working for Bethesda about a year into Morrowind's development, so I'm not so sure about the history of those decisions.

 

[Jung]

Well, one or two glowing reviews might indeed be suspect, but Morrowind received a very large number of glowing reviews and numerous awards.
http://www.elderscrolls.com/links/links_reviews.htm
GameRankings.com bears this out, the average review with 151 reviews counted for the PC version is 89.9 -- not too shabby.

While obviously it's not a game for everyone and it's certainly not without its flaws, Morrowind WAS very well received.

And don't worry -- it doesn't bother me if some people didn't like it. All feedback is good, positive AND negative.

They are all suspect to me since I know what huge flaws exist in the game. Most reviews don't even mention them.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

One of the good things about random locations is that, even if there's likely a "sameness" to the entire scenario (something which happens with tiles), is that player rarely know what to expect from them. Enemy placement, trap placement, item placement, constantly changes, and this makes adventuring in them much more exciting than coming upon the same dungeons over and over.

Ditto for random quests, although quite obviously, a random quest which has to be assembled from a pool of conditions will never be as well developed as a uniquely scripted quest, but I think there's places for both of them. Guilds, for instance, could give out random quests to newcomers before they prove themselves to the Guild, and the unique quests could become available only when a certain high rank has been reached.

 

[Volourn]

"is that player rarely know what to expect from them."

MW is an exception for games that use random dungeons. Players should expect boredom... :twisted:

 

[Vault Dweller]

Random dungeons, huh? How about actually playing a game before commenting on it?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Actually I started working for Bethesda about a year into Morrowind's development, so I'm not so sure about the history of those decisions.

What were you responsible for?

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

I'm a programmer, and I worked on the magic system, some stuff to do with lighting, and various other misc. stuff.

For Oblivion I'm working on the magic system and combat AI, along with some game system stuff.

 

[Volourn]

"Random dungeons, huh? How about actually playing a game before commenting on it?"

Surely felt random. :D


"magic system, some stuff to do with lighting"

Ah.. Take credit for the stuff MW did decent to good.


"various other misc. stuff."

O.o. This could mean anything. :twisted:

 

[Vault Dweller]

I assume that you can't answer any Oblivion-related questions, but what are your thoughts on the MW magic system? Was there anything you wanted to add/change/remove?

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

I assume that you can't answer any Oblivion-related questions, but what are your thoughts on the MW magic system? Was there anything you wanted to add/change/remove?

Right, I can't comment on Oblivion... I think overall the magic system is pretty good... there are certainly some exploits & outright bugs in Morrowind, and some balancing issues. There have been a couple good mods that addressed some of the balancing issues in terms of spell cost & such. I like the flexibility of the system, being able to combine effects into one spell, and I like the alchemy system quite a bit (minus the exploits of course). I'd say more, but I'd probably start getting into things I shouldn't be discussing just yet

 

[geminito]

I avoided the exploits when I played Morrowind. It's a single player game, so I don't worry about the exploits too much. If I want the game to be fun, I do what's fun. Exploits aren't fun.

Now, in MMORPG's, it's another story. Balance becomes a big issue. Exploits are show-stoppers. But we don't like MMORPG's around here, do we?

 

[jiujitsu]

MMORPGs are the spawn of Satan. :evil:

 

[FireWolf]

That's a bit unfair, I'm sure the Spawn of satan actually have some redeeming features.

A summary of the gripes I had with Morrowind could be that it felt dead. No relationships with NPCs, guilds or settlements. The problem with being able to ask everyone about everything makes dialogue become a labour. You're stuck trawling through pages of text just to see if this NPC has more info than the last and when, in the majority of cases, they don't, this becomes an onerous task rather than fun gameplay. When you combine this with characterless dialogue which, for all intents and purposes, seemed more like monologue it just becomes excessively tiresome.

I'd still like to see what the future has to offer, though.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I don't think Morrowind was too bad a game, and we did choose it as one of our top 3 games a couple of years back at the Codex, after all. Certainly isn't as good as what that reviewer, wrote, though... and that review is indeed poor.

I didn't choose it for my top three picks. It was fun exploring around, but that's about it. In fact, the only real reason I found to advance in the game was so I could explore a little more. The story might have been decent, but given that the dialogue system was so crappy - and so was the combat, I really didn't use it for anything more than an excuse to level up a little bit in order to wander around areas that would get me killed otherwise.

 

[Stark]

besides the less than satisfactory dialog system and combat, the lack of memorable NPCs is another short coming. I can't honestly recall any MW NPC's name right now but i can for BG, and BG is much older than MW. I can also speak a little about the personality of NPC in BG or Fallout but not so for the any of the hundred NPC in MW.

have a few NPCs that tie in tightly with the main quest, and allow their personality to show via the dialog, would help alot towards improving the overall feel of the game.

as for the dialog system...

for more important dialogs, can we be given proper choices (as in full sentence dialog options) to choose instead of the keyword clicking? allow us to make some choices via dialog, and show personality via the coversation. The existing system works fine for player to gather non-quest related information, but it stops the protagonist from exhibiting any personality at all. I feel like I'm playing someone with no personality.

I guess what I'm proposing is really a hybrid system. I'm not sure how good/seamlessly a hybrid system will turn out though.

 

[DrattedTin]

Morrowind actually had the capability to use conversation tree-like effects in the dialogue, it was just rarely used, and if so limited to stuff like 1. Do X, 2. Do not do X.

 

[Anonymous]

Morrowind's NPCs sucked balls, everyone stood around rooms totally silent until you came near them. Walk into a bar and nobody is drinking or sitting, makes sense!

 

[Sol Invictus]

There weren't any animations for drinking and sitting, and at the time it would have been rather difficult to correlate the character to the environment with the NetImmerse engine they were using. I'm sure we can expect to see proper physics and sitting characters in Oblivion.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

There weren't any animations for drinking and sitting, and at the time it would have been rather difficult to correlate the character to the environment with the NetImmerse engine they were using. I'm sure we can expect to see proper physics and sitting characters in Oblivion.

Difficult? Every indoor location was it's own separate area, so it wouldn't be difficult to do at all. You could even cheese out on the name index of the location and just parse the first few letters to determine what type of environment you're in - or even what type of object you're sitting on. IIRC, the bar stools were different models than the chairs, so if you're in a bar and you're sitting on a stool, then you should be randomly drinking something. If you're in a bar and sitting at a chair, you'd be doing table stuff periodically.

 

[Dhruin]

The NetImmerse engine seemed pretty flexible to me...from Freedom Force to Sea Dogs to DAoC. I'd guess any limitations were because Bethesda chose not to do it.

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

NPC's and dialogue are definitely areas we're working on significantly improving with Oblivion. The GameInformer article has some info on this, and there'll be more information showing up soon.

 

[Vault Dweller]

What about guilds? Any improvements there? Any chance for "job board" mechanics (like those in space trader games)? Any guild management features once you are at the top?

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

I'll have to defer that to the designers... more info will be coming soon!

 

[Volourn]

LOL

Perhaps, you should check what happens when people - developer or web owner - overhypes soemthing by checking out a NMA hype threads awhile back. :D

They get devoured unmercifully..

 

[Seven]

LOL

Perhaps, you should check what happens when people - developer or web owner - overhypes soemthing by checking out a NMA hype threads awhile back. :D

They get devoured unmercifully..

Smiley's not actually hyping anything. Really though, I think I prefer his honesty to that of Peter Hines, but lets not get into that again.