New Fan Interview at TES Forums

[HardCode]

There is a new Fan Interview posted at the TES Forums. I am interested to see some reactions to the Bethesda responses (or lack of).

Here is one:

Can we "roleplay through dialogue" this time? Meaning, are there different dialogue options that may fit different character types? Some sort of "dialogue tree"?
There are many more places with dialog choices than there were in Morrowind. For standard dialog with characters we still like the topic lists, though we make sure they don’t get anywhere near as long as they did in Morrowind.

Sounds like "no" would have been a simpler answer?

Another major point for those who thought they would fix the game via mods:

Will it be possible to ADD new weapon types via the CS, defining new fight animations etc?
No

Not a lot of good news in that fan interview. Although, one interesting thing:

Will adventurous NPCs *claim* the loot from a dungeon before I get there to explore it?
No, we set them up so that they don’t process while you’re not in the cell to avoid just that situation. While it might be realistic that they’d clean out a dungeon before you’d have a chance, I don’t think that’s in any way fun. There are some “adventurers” who you will see in dungeons that will work with you and do their own looting, but you have to be there.

A little competition in the looting. That can be neat if done well.

Is it me, or is the word "add", as in to increase to, consistantly written as "ADD", as in Attention Deficeit Disorder, throughout that interview?

 

[FrancoTAU]

I dug that the NPCs in Wizardy 7 would swipe some loot if you took too long. It got a bit annoying tracking those fuckers down if you needed something though. It's too bad Wiz8 didn't have an updated version of the competing NPC adventurers.

 

[LlamaGod]

in Gothic 2, NPCs would attempt to loot enemies they killed, but you could try to snag the items first.

I always thought it was funny when you died, some NPCs would do it to you and while in 'death view' you'd see 'Lost item: Potion' and stuff.

 

[Lumpy]

As you highlight in turn the Admire, Boast, Joke, and Coerce quadrants, the person 's face shows his reaction to each of the actions. For each of the four actions, he will Love one, Like one, Dislike one, and Hate one. Don't take too long, because the person 's disposition is steadily falling. The person 's disposition goes up when you select a Loved or Liked action and goes down when you select a Disliked or Hated action.

OMEG. MINI GAEM!!!

 

[LlamaGod]

is that a dialog mini game?

okay...

dialog mini games are > then actual good roleplaying dialog, I guess.

 

[Chefe]

Looks like Heroes of Oblibion has some new material to work it. Thanks Bethesda!

I enjoyed this:

our uber-complex clothing system

*ahem*

No, we do not use cloth physics for clothing.

Ooooooh.. STATIC clothing. Sounds uber-complex!
Idiots.

Will you take advantage of fast hard disk and large amount of RAM?
Yes

What stupid fuck decided to include that question?


Few more:

Not at this time.

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

Oooh, great responses. No explanation. Nothin'. Why did the allmighty devs even decide to include these questions? To make the post longer?

Did anyone notice that most of the "No" answers were on graphical things such as flowing rivers, water reflections, hearing thunder while inside a house, etc.?
Why, why I ask you, why the FUCK are they putting all this effort into graphical prowess and "teh immershun" if they're going to half-ass it? What the fuck is this game even about?

This is, by far, the shittiest interview I've ever borne witness to. The devs didn't explain anything. Hell, I think Fake Pete does a more adequate job of explaining these things than Bethesda's fuckers.

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

Will our actions and decisions in the course of the game have true consequences in the game world? Can you give an example?

This question hinges on how you define “true” in the context of that sentence. Certainly resolving the main quest is a major world-changing event that produces obvious differences as you walk around the world. There are several quests where you’re offered a moral choice. For instance, whether to trust a guard’s version of a story vs. a citizen calling the guard corrupt. Past actions may also come back to haunt you. There’s a point in the main quest where you’re tasked with marshalling armies from each of the counts of Cyrodiil to help in a particular battle. If you’ve made them angry through other quests, they may disagree to provide aid.

Can we "roleplay through dialogue" this time?
Meaning, are there different dialogue options that may fit different character types? Some sort of "dialogue tree"?
There are many more places with dialog choices than there were in Morrowind. For standard dialog with characters we still like the topic lists, though we make sure they don’t get anywhere near as long as they did in Morrowind.

I know you guys are gonna go all sour grapes over it, but I think it's something. It's not gonna be Fallout, but a step up in quest and dialogue writing can only be a good thing and will make the game more enjoyable. Considering the freeform gameplay I liked before should still be there, this news makes me rather happy.

 

[DMKW]

its good to know that there will be a blood sucking animation now for vampires instead of that crappy spell. and being able to suck blood from sleeping NPC's is a nice touch. i'm also diggin the whole ressurecting recently fallen enemies to be your undead minions.

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

Oooh, great responses. No explanation. Nothin'. Why did the allmighty devs even decide to include these questions? To make the post longer?

Did anyone notice that most of the "No" answers were on graphical things such as flowing rivers, water reflections, hearing thunder while inside a house, etc.?
Why, why I ask you, why the FUCK are they putting all this effort into graphical prowess and "teh immershun" if they're going to half-ass it? What the fuck is this game even about?

Maybe because they do NOT only concentrate on graphics? Anyway, no is a straight and honest answer. I thought you hated this PR drivel?

 

[Chefe]

Will our actions and decisions in the course of the game have true consequences in the game world? Can you give an example?

This question hinges on how you define “true” in the context of that sentence. Certainly resolving the main quest is a major world-changing event that produces obvious differences as you walk around the world. There are several quests where you’re offered a moral choice. For instance, whether to trust a guard’s version of a story vs. a citizen calling the guard corrupt. Past actions may also come back to haunt you. There’s a point in the main quest where you’re tasked with marshalling armies from each of the counts of Cyrodiil to help in a particular battle. If you’ve made them angry through other quests, they may disagree to provide aid.

Can we "roleplay through dialogue" this time?
Meaning, are there different dialogue options that may fit different character types? Some sort of "dialogue tree"?
There are many more places with dialog choices than there were in Morrowind. For standard dialog with characters we still like the topic lists, though we make sure they don’t get anywhere near as long as they did in Morrowind.

I know you guys are gonna go all sour grapes over it, but I think it's something. It's not gonna be Fallout, but a step up in quest and dialogue writing can only be a good thing and will make the game more enjoyable. Considering the freeform gameplay I liked before should still be there, this news makes me rather happy.

We heard this same thing about Morrowind: There are several quests where you’re offered a moral choice. For instance, whether to trust a guard’s version of a story vs. a citizen calling the guard corrupt.

And what happened? It appeared in ONE quest. One quest right in the beginning of the game. That's it.

 

[HardCode]

The Persuasion mini-game sounds abso-fucking-lutely horrible. Now, to persuade NPCs reaction to your PC, you have to quickly point-and-click all over the fucking place? They should have just put in a round of Tetris for persuasion. At least that is fun.

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

If you are not going to believe the interview any way, then there is really little point to you reading it, and to bitching about it.

 

[Chefe]

Maybe because they do NOT only concentrate on graphics? Anyway, no is a straight and honest answer. I thought you hated this PR drivel?

I do hate PR drivel. That's why I hated this fan interview. It was just more "things will be awesome trust us" on the gameplay side (except for a few instances where they actually bothered to explain why it was going to be so awesome). What I found ironic is the much-touted graphical capabilities pretty much turning them up empty-handed, as all the little things that really matter in that respect won't be appearing in the game.

 

[Chefe]

If you are not going to believe the interview any way, then there is really little point to you reading it, and to bitching about it.

Believe what? That everything's going to be awesome? What about the questions with magic? No real information given. With that quest example you quoted, that looks like it was just copied from a previous Morrowind interview, so I have a right to be skeptical seeing as how they already lied once and they're not doing anything with the new game that leads me to believe they've grown as a development team.

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

The Persuasion mini-game sounds abso-fucking-lutely horrible. Now, to persuade NPCs reaction to your PC, you have to quickly point-and-click all over the fucking place? They should have just put in a round of Tetris for persuasion. At least that is fun.

Hmmm, I understood "don't take too long" to mean, "don't try out too many options" as in every time you sselect a different persuasion option, disposition goes down a bit.

 

[don_tomaso]

@chefe

well uh apperently some of the questions had been labeld "yes/no" questions by the interviewers, they only wanted a yes/no answer on those cause they thought there would be to many questions otherwise.. um, or something like that

 

[Zomg]

Hmmm, I understood "don't take too long" to mean, "don't try out too many options" as in every time you sselect a different persuasion option, disposition goes down a bit.

And I understand "Don't take too long," as "Don't take too long." :D

 

[Elwro]

If you shoot an arrow and hit an NPC while you are undetected, you drastically raise your chance of being detected. However, it’s not guaranteed that the NPC will detect you immediately. If he doesn’t detect you, he’ll go into a combat ready state, waiting for you to show yourself.

Of course, only an idiot would show himself. So the guy doesn't take cover, but just calmly waits for death. How radiant!

And if the NPCs are only processed when you're in the same cell as they are we can say goodbye to NPCs travelling through the world etc. With some effort they could make some "shortcuts" and make it so it wouldn't be noticeable; I wonder if they'll do it.

 

[Chefe]

The Persuasion mini-game sounds abso-fucking-lutely horrible. Now, to persuade NPCs reaction to your PC, you have to quickly point-and-click all over the fucking place? They should have just put in a round of Tetris for persuasion. At least that is fun.

Tetris also has better music.

At least, better than what's downloadable from the ES main page. Zing.

 

[bryce777]

I dug that the NPCs in Wizardy 7 would swipe some loot if you took too long. It got a bit annoying tracking those fuckers down if you needed something though. It's too bad Wiz8 didn't have an updated version of the competing NPC adventurers.

It was always fun to take those bastards out and steal their map pieces, but they would get those map pieces WAY too quickly.

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

And if the NPCs are only processed when you're in the same cell as they are we can say goodbye to NPCs travelling through the world etc. With some effort they could make some "shortcuts" and make it so it wouldn't be noticeable; I wonder if they'll do it.

that was a specific quote regarding dungeon plundering NPC's - elsewhere in the interview travelling NPC and guards are specifically confirmed:

Will there be traffic on the roads outside / between the cities? Armed noble escorts in carriages, merchant caravans, weary travelers, etc? It is the Imperial capitol, after all.
Yes, you will see NPCs traveling along the roads. Guards will regularly patrol the roads as well, making committing crimes outside of towns a bit more tricky.

 

[Nael]

If you shoot an arrow and hit an NPC while you are undetected, you drastically raise your chance of being detected. However, it’s not guaranteed that the NPC will detect you immediately. If he doesn’t detect you, he’ll go into a combat ready state, waiting for you to show yourself.

Of course, only an idiot would show himself. So the guy doesn't take cover, but just calmly waits for death. How radiant!

And if the NPCs are only processed when you're in the same cell as they are we can say goodbye to NPCs travelling through the world etc. With some effort they could make some "shortcuts" and make it so it wouldn't be noticeable; I wonder if they'll do it.

I think you're reading a little too much into that. He didn't say he'd stand still. He said he'd wait for you to show yourself. You can run around and still be waiting for somethin

 

[Shim]

Ahhh, Oblibion - what to make of it all ? Dunno about you folks, but I get two feelings for the price of one everytime I read some 'new' info;

- Oooh, that sounds good (draggable corpses, competing adventurers, new scripting functions, blah blah..)

- Argh, not a good sign (still no real news of dialogue options, mini-games, "No" answers, etc)

Either way, Im hoping Oblivion turns out to be successful. Im sure others will agree that the first-person RPG has great potential and if Oblivion urges other developers to consider investing in the RPG market then thats something positive at least. Even if Oblivion turns out to be an action RPG / RP 'lite' kinda thing it may introduce the joys of immersive RP to a wider audience. Yeh yeh, I know we dont really want a new era of shiny-gfx action RPGs to take over but Im remaining optimistic nonetheless...so there !

 

[Drain]

And if the NPCs are only processed when you're in the same cell as they are we can say goodbye to NPCs travelling through the world etc. With some effort they could make some "shortcuts" and make it so it wouldn't be noticeable; I wonder if they'll do it.

Basically all NPC's in the game have different processing levels. The processing level depends on proximity to the player character. So when NPC's are in the same loaded area as the PC, have all their graphics & such, they're in high processing level. Otherwise, NPC's are in lower processing levels, and they move up & down as needed.

At each processing level, the NPC AI packages are updated at larger increments of time. At the highest processing level, they're updated as often as possible, up to (but not necessarily) once per frame. At lower processing levels, NPC's may not be updated any more often than 15 game minutes (time is accelerated so that's actually around every 30 real-world seconds). Lower processing levels do increasingly basic things -- at the lowest processing level, basically all they need to do is update their position within the world, and perhaps move to a higher processing level if they get "close" to the player character.

 

[Balor]

We’ve read that it's possible for "friends" to join a faction along side you and you can watch them progress. Is this governed by RAI or is it a specific quest thing? Is it even possible to make friends like that?
Radiant AI is a global system that governs every action of NPCs. While we use it to do grand, overarching things like dictating how and where NPCs spend their days and nights, we also use it in much smaller sequences to do things as mundane as moving a character across a room to pick up an item. So, in a way, everything NPCs do is at some point governed by Radiant AI. In certain factions, you will meet what we term “continuing characters.” These are characters who you will come into contact with at several different points throughout the questline. You can talk to them, watch them grow, influence them, and perhaps even go on quests with them and alter their paths through the game.

Pete? Pete? What the fuck with you? You speaking fucking generalistic PR noncense that has nothing to do with question asked! Pete? Oh, damn, take him away, he's hopeless.
___
Notice how he didn't say a word whether it's possible or not.
I take it as 'No', personally.