Preview THE Oblivion article

[Naked_Lunch]

edit: yep... http://www.elderscrolls.com/images/art/ob_pc/obliv06B.jpg

Plastic, plastic everywhere.

It looks like a dungeon to me.

Yes, a PLASTIC one!

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

That's up to your imagination. When you get there and see the battle, you can assume they arrived a week ago, or that a fight just begun, because the cheif zombie's goblin girlfriend left him.

If they're hand done utilitizing the talents of eight Bethesda designers who have three or so years to work on this, then I don't think it should be up to my imagination. 200 dungeons divided by 8 people over the course of 3 years is only 8 dungeons a year per person.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Well, you know, the guy played the game for 8 hours, but at the end of the day we can't control what he decides to end up writing about. Apparently the author's interests differed from yours. Nothing I can do about it.

Elaine: Perhaps there's more to Newman than meets the eye.
Jerry: No, theres less

 

[Tintin]

Elaine: Perhaps there's more to Newman than meets the eye.
Jerry: No, theres less

Perhaps Newman and Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion are different.

Yes, a PLASTIC one!

Dungeons would be made with stone, not plastic.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

ES 4.

 

[caveyboy]

Elaine: Perhaps there's more to Newman than meets the eye.
Jerry: No, theres less

Perhaps Newman and Elder Scrolls 3: Oblivion are different.

Yes, a PLASTIC one!

Dungeons would be made with stone, not plastic.

THE COW IS BACK!!!

plastic...that's just crazy...

 

[Naked_Lunch]

Yes, a PLASTIC one!

Dungeons would be made with stone, not plastic.

Earth to dummy, my comment was about how PLASTIC the dungeons LOOKED, not what they were built out of.

 

[Tintin]

Yes, a PLASTIC one!

Dungeons would be made with stone, not plastic.

Earth to dummy, my comment was about how PLASTIC the dungeons LOOKED, not what they were built out of.

Isntitfunnywhenpeoplethinkyouareseriouswhenyouarenotbuttheythinkyouaresotheygetallangry allthewhilstunawarethatyouweren'tserious?

 

[caveyboy]

you made my eyes bleed...

 

[Naked_Lunch]

Yes, I find it quite hilarious.

 

[bryce777]

While I like the idea of monsters hating one another and the idea of battles in dungeons, it does have to make a little sense about it. If the goblins are a new presence in the dungeon, I can see how they might be waging a war against the undead for control. However, at some point one side has to win and one side either would be erradicated completely or flee the dungeon. The idea of goblins hanging around for an extended period of time in a dungeon with overwelming undead would be rather silly. Now, goblins accidentally tunnelling in to a crypt a week ago and are trying to keep the undead at bay makes more sense.

This is the sort of thing that needs an actual human to script it, and can't be randomly done in a way that makes sense.

My big beef is that they try to make everything too generic in the elder scrolls games, too formulaic. This sort of thing is a step in the right direction, but ultimately one needs to have scripted things for life to make sense.

Their dungeons remind me a lot of the rubicon random dungeons in planescape:torment. Honestly that was more enjoyable, and their generic "A goody!" and "Magic item!" and "A clue!" were actually very funny.

 

[Fintilgin]

If they're hand done utilitizing the talents of eight Bethesda designers who have three or so years to work on this, then I don't think it should be up to my imagination. 200 dungeons divided by 8 people over the course of 3 years is only 8 dungeons a year per person.

My biggest hope is that the dungeons are at least a bit bigger then those in Morrowind. Way too many were a couple rooms, a hallway, and a tiny flight of stairs. It was so frustrating to spend more time exploring the outside of a huge imposing looking ruin then the inside

Now I don't want inanely giant Daggerfall style dungeons of course, but I wonder if MSFD can tell us if the average Oblivion dungeon is the same size/a bit bigger/a lot bigger then those in Morrowind?

 

[DarkUnderlord]

I mean, what's the purpose of becoming better, if the enemies become equally better too? We want to improve to become better than the adversary. But if that doesn't happen, "leveling up" is redundant and meaningless.

Levelling up IS redundant and meaningless.

200 dungeons divided by 8 people over the course of 3 years is only 8 dungeons a year per person.

... or one dungeon every 6 and a half weeks. Presuming a 5 day working week and an 8 hour working day, that's approximately 260 hours per dungeon or 15,600 minutes. According to an official report on commuting times in New York city, 15,600 minutes is the average time a New Yorker spends commuting to work every year.

COINCIDENCE? I think not.

 

[voodoo1man]

121 different plants are useless unless you can smoke some of them

Where's the poop? I like to smoke poop!!

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

This is the sort of thing that needs an actual human to script it, and can't be randomly done in a way that makes sense.

You can have random dungeons where creatures hate each other in a similar fashion to how space traders have factions of ships that hate each other. As for the tunnelling thing, just make certain critters tunnel. Eventually one will tunnel in to another random dungeon.

 

[Twinfalls]

Just saw the OXM scans, and the've got me more excited. There's a two-page overview of one of the cities - Chorrol, and it looks very impressive. Personally I was very pleased to see the Cathedral (massive) is called the 'Chapel of Stendarr'. Meaning all divines will have their own dedicated temple, again. Like Daggerfall. Quests this time sound like they'll be interesting, too.

Bad stuff: Downloadable content. You will have to get sucked into subscribing to MS' on-line pay-us-more regime if you want content that is ALREADY MADE BY THE DEVS. What's mentioned is horse armour, and HOLIDAYS!! This sounds like more than frivolous 'extras'.

A real kick in the teeth for Daggerfall fans, being forced to D/L holidays.

Question: the gates of Oblivion are made to look like gates to traditional Judeo-Christian 'Hell', ie all fire and shit. Was this what the original writers had envisaged for Oblivion? I thought it was more ambiguous, more an emphasis on duality, rather than a cliched 'hell' type place. It's certainly being translated as 'hell' for the dumb masses, too - the caption says "Oblivion, ie Hell"......

 

[Micmu]

Twinfalls, congratulations, you've succumbed to The Hype.

 

[Tintin]

So, is this quest up to the RPGCodex standards?

For instance, the sinister Dark Brotherhood employs you to attend a dinner party where you're tasked with killing all five fellow guests - without getting caught

sitting comes alive

The shot of Cheydinhal is nice..

 

[Jora]

Where can these scans be seen?

 

[Tintin]

Here

 

[Twinfalls]

Twinfalls, congratulations, you've succumbed to The Hype.

I'm just.....not.....strong enough....can't...fight it.....

 

[Twinfalls]

So, is this quest up to the RPGCodex standards?

For instance, the sinister Dark Brotherhood employs you to attend a dinner party where you're tasked with killing all five fellow guests - without getting caught

Only if it is an all-nude dinner party.

 

[tanjo]

Why have crenellation on the city walls and castle walls if there is no way for archers to scale said walls and defend the city/castle? The castle turrets (towers) don't have trap doors to access them from below. Also, there aren't doors on the sides of the turrets to walk along the castle walls. Lame. Morrowind had trap doors on turrets and regular doors to patrol the walls.

 

[Tintin]

Why have crenellation on the city walls and castle walls if there is no way for archers to scale said walls and defend the city/castle?

'

So tell Bethesda to take them off, then you can whine about how city walls and castle walls have no crenellation.

 

[Twinfalls]

Why have crenellation on the city walls and castle walls if there is no way for archers to scale said walls and defend the city/castle? The castle turrets (towers) don't have trap doors to access them from below. Also, there aren't doors on the sides of the turrets to walk along the castle walls. Lame. Morrowind had trap doors on turrets and regular doors to patrol the walls.

I think if you look at the turret in the top right corner, there's a door leading onto the walls. It's pretty blurry though.....