On Oblivion as "hell": It is not the Christian Hell in the sense of "this is where the bad people go when they die." It is hell in the sense that (a) it's not a very nice place, and it's where the equivalent of demons (the daedra) hang out. I would say that Todd chose to use "hell" because it's a concept non-fans of the Elder Scrolls can readily grasp. That, or, like me, he just takes great pleasure in causing you confusion.

On Daedra as Good or Evil: As some have said, they are neither. Some are certainly more aggressive than others. Some have a greater tolerance for mortals. But, I wouldn't say that any are good or evil. Some people think of Azura as a "good" daedra. That could end up being a very dangerous misconception in the Elder Scrolls world.

Lots of stuff I would have liked to have done. I would have loved to develop the vampire clans into really large factions. It would have been great to develop the slavery themes a lot more, and explore what the Twin Lamps faction was up to. I always thought the Argonian and Skyrim missions needed more going on. I would have liked to explore the drug trade in Morrowind to a greater extent.

Really, I think the list could go on and on. Sadly, there is never enough time to develop every single theme that you want to, so you have to pick and choose.

Oh, and I really wanted to make snowballs a thrown weapon in Bloodmoon. We actually tried, but it looked goofy.

I was really referring to "mainstreaming" as it seems to be used over and over again in various posts on various gaming sites across the internet -- as a naughty, naughty word. Personally, I don't see it as a bad thing. Mainstream means to me that more people are playing. I like that. It's not that it directly puts any more cash in my pocket, but I will always want lots of people to be playing games I work on.

I believe that making improvements to the game will often make games more mainstream, primarily because better games sell more copies. It's not a really complicated concept. (It also, of couse, isn't always true. Plenty of terrible games sell plenty of copies, and plenty of great games gather dust on store shelves.)

However, the minute you use the word "mainstream," people take it to mean "selling out," "lowest common denominator," and "dumbing down." It's knee-jerk and wrong, but it's the way of things.

Sub Wrote wrote: "that kinda worries me...like if a fellow adventurer gets to a treasure before u...that would suck if the treasure was a rare weapon or peice of armour...but im sure the devs will work it out so that that doesnt happen..."

Work so it doesn't happen? I think that sounds sweet.

In Morrowind, I always wanted to create a sort of "Life of Brian" NPC who was always showing up to quests just after you finished them. Now, I could pretty easily set up an NPC to actually compete with you for them.

Vega wrote: NPCs will chat amongst themselves and ALL of the dialogue will be spoken, leading to situations where you'll be able to hang around and listen-in to private conversations.

An interesting comment, and yet, isnt it a bit of a stretch? didnt they already say every NPC would have recorded dialogue AND additional readable script? i mean, even if the entire MAIN plot were done in voice, theres got to be text for minor quests (they cant possibly take it out completely or do they expect every added MOD quest to include voice as well?)

I would suggest that the PC Gamer article means exactly what it says. Either that, or I've wasted a whole lot of time recording temp audio for my quests and NPC conversations.

In an effort to keep the first page of each forum from becoming a mass of pinned threads, we try really hard not to pin anything that's not officially released information. Also, that way no one can come to me and say "hey, why didn't you pin my thread, since you pinned those other ones?"

I would argue that there's a world of difference between a "linear" game and people having problems finding a very small, hidden object in a large dungeon.

Anyone who's been on the forums since Morrowind's release can attest to the widespread problem people had finding the puzzle cube. I'm not saying it's the best example for the discussion at hand, but it counts for something.

I haven't said a word about how the system will or will not work. I was merely addressing the opinion that pointing out where the puzzle cube was would be "boring".

As with all other things game-related, when it's decided we're ready to talk about it in depth, you'll know.

Here's the thing:

I've said it before - we're around on a daily basis, and we're reading. When we're ready to comment on things, you'll all know.

One thing to keep in mind - Now that NPCs have full schedules and move around quite a bit, it can be quite annoying to find a specific person without a pointer, such as returning to a questgiver for a reward or another quest. This was something of an annoyance for me in the Gothic games, and our world is much, much larger than theirs.

We'll talk more about it in the future. Don't let your eagerness to assume get the best of you just yet But, as usual, I enjoy listening to your ideas on the subject.

If you're saying you didn't like them because the art was too low-res or not up to your vaunted standards of quality, well ok

If you're saying all elves should have skin as smooth as a baby's behind, come on! You might not have noticed, but Morrowind is not exactly paradise. The whole desert thing, the ash storms, the sun beating down on you, it's not exactly good for the skin, you know. You try living in a tent in the Ashlands your whole life sometime. I don't care how much moisturizer you use, you're gonna get weathered, elf or not.

If you go up against a guy with 100 skill in his weapon, and you've got 10 in yours, start saying your prayers now. I don't care how much Counterstrike you play, you're probably going to die. We're not removing stats. I don't know where you would get this idea. We're not dumbing it down. I honestly don't know how you would dumb down Morrowind's combat. I don't know what you could remove or make simpler. Maybe you'd just make every combat automatically resolve as soon as you approached the enemy

However many it takes for the game to feel alive. I don't see what's tough to comprehend about that. If it needs more we'll make more, but there's no point to throwing in thousands of filler NPC's just because you think some arbitrary number is too small. Just ends up watering things down.

He's got irises in his eyes, they're not just black. It's just shadowed. You can kinda sorta see them if you jack the brightness way way up. They're animated and move around and it's pretty cool. He can use weapons, but a lot of the time he just likes to beat the crap out of you :) Best looking minotaur in a game I've ever seen, but I enjoy reading the debate :) Keep it up!

One of our themes for taking screenshots this time around is "no gondola drivers" So while pretty much everything is subject to change until the game is on the shelves, I seriously doubt you'll see any omissions like that in Oblivion. All screenshots we've released are 100% in game showing stuff we've already got implemented. We haven't done any special poses or anything like that, with the exception of magazine covers.

Here's what you do - Think of an arbitrary number that would make you happy. Ok, that's how many NPCs we have. Now good luck counting them all without using the editor.

Here's what we do - Play the game. Look around. Do we need more NPC's to fill up this place? Ok, we'll add them.

Pretty simple.

Soulreaver2105 wrote: spatial event? o0 Could anyone explain that to me? 5E5E

Basically means you move around a lot more, rather than just standing relatively still clicking over and over again like Morrowind. Stuff gets knocked off the tables by your sword, magics flying all around. A lot more movement and kinetic feel to things. Stuff like that.

Lots of good suggestions in here. I will mainly address the scripting issues since that's one of my main areas of responsibility.

I wish we could do them all, but we only have a limited amount of time to devote to upgrading the scripting system (we also have to make the game itself work!).

What you'll see in TES4 is a scripting system that is quite similar to MWs, for good and bad. Unfortunately we were not able to tear it down completely and start from scratch, but we did make some significant improvements. Among them:

• Variables can be used as parameters for most function calls
• if statements can use the full range of logical operators: &&, 7C7C, >, !=, etc., as well as nested parens
• ability to call functions on any reference anywhere
• integration of script functions with "conditions" in the editor -- basically, any function that returns a value will be available to
conditionalize dialogue, etc.

Some things that are very unlikely to be added:

• string variables (sorry)
• arrays
• lists
• pointer variables

The language is unlikely to be further revised at this point, but functions are easy to add (we are adding them all the time as needed), so many of the things you ask for in that department are more likely to be included.

You will have everything you ask for. Scripting is no longer used to control AI, and it is very easy to give quite sophisticated behavior to NPCs through the editor.

I know we have not released any screenshots or even concept sketches of the beast races. Perhaps our friend missread or perhaps even the magazine is in error...

Respectfully,
Mav

So what makes you think the people working on graphics are going to be working on other parts of the game? Or the people making quests are working on creatures? We do have a decent-sized team.

Characters will not age. The comparison photos were indicating that you can easily set the age of characters in the game and the face will be automatically altered appropriately.

What if the quest lines that ARE there are more involved, interesting, challenging, entertaining and better-designed than those in Morrowind?

Perhaps you missed the point of my post, which was speculation that the ESRB might not grant even an M rating to a game that contained highly detailed, realistic nude characters AND the ability to commit violent acts against such characters. This is neither a non sequitur by any stretch nor an indication of my own opinions on the subject of sex and violence in the games.

"Always use best attack" is the primary reason why combat wasn't much fun in Morrowind. You'd only ever see one animation for a particular weapon. And there wasn't any point in not picking always use best attack, because it always had a higher damage rating than the other two. The system described will give you a wider variety of animations and even (horrors) add some STRATEGY to your melee combat.

The die roll you're talking about was the die roll "to hit". Remember pressing that attack button, seeing that one animation for best attack, seeing the sword go right through your opponent and NOT hitting the guy? THAT is the die roll being talked about. And that is the die roll that has been eliminated. No more "but my sword went right THROUGH the guy, why didn't it hit?"

Oblivion is still a stat-based RPG. But it's going to be a lot more fun to play, and there'll actually be GOOD REASONS to select different attacks, unlike Morrowind.

Actually my work PC has a Radeon 9800 Pro with 256MB. But the game isn't done yet, so at this time it is impossible to give meaningful answers to any questions about performance or minimum system requirements.

I'm sorry, but what part of "without losing our hardcore rpg fans" don't you understand?

Also, EVERY business -- from a kid mowing lawns during the summer to a convenience store to a game developer to a massive corporation -- is in it for the money. Otherwise there's not much point in having a business, is there?

You're walking through a seedy part of a town in Western Cyrodiil. People mill about, some engaged in conversation, others minding their own business, out on their own errands. Suddenly, an ugly man decides he doesn't like you. Maybe he's drunk, maybe he's just a bully, maybe he's just showing off in front of his friends -- but for whatever reason, he has taken your measure and decided he can best you.

He comes charging at you, with a nasty looking mace in his hand and a look of hatred on his face. Onlookers move back to make room for what should be an entertaining fight.

Quickly drawing your sword and shield, you wheel around to face him. He's upon you pretty quickly though, and you barely have time to raise your shield (hold right mouse button) before his first blow thunders down upon you.

But you block well, and as he recoils from the collision, you quickly perform left & right slashes with your sword (left click, pause, left click). The bully realizes this isn't going to be easy.

He backs off a bit, and starts dodging around you. First to the left, then to the right. You maneuver to keep him in view, looking for an opening. Suddenly he steps back, raises his mace in both hands, and steps forward, bringing the mace towards your head in a crushing blow!

But you're quick -- you step to the side as he attacks. As he passes by, you execute a spinning maneuver and slash him in the side (hold left mouse button and left maneuver key). The hit is solid, and your foe staggers from the blow.

But it's not over yet. The bully swings his mace wildly -- his first swing misses, but the next one connects for a blow that sends you staggering. Pressing his advantage, the bully bears down on you with a power attack of his own. OUCH. This isn't going well. You take a glance at your health meter, it's getting a bit low. You quickly back up out of the bully's reach and raise your shield (hold right mouse button).

He's hurting, too. You circle each other for a time, looking for an opening, trying to recover some fatigue. Finally the bully charges forward with a devastating overhead blow, perhaps hoping to break your shield. But the shield holds and the recoil send him staggering back. This is your chance! You perform a mighty forward power attack (hold the left mouse button, press forward) and connect solidly. The blow staggers your foe once again, and you perform 3 slashing attacks in rapid succession (left mouse button, pause, left mouse button, pause, left mouse button), and finally the bully collapses to the ground, defeated.

The crowd disperses, going back to their own business.

I am a programmer, and I'm working on the magic system and combat AI. Maverique is the lead character artist. She and her minions make and animate all the creatures, characters, armor, weapons & clothing VXSS is one of those minions, making & animating cool, creepy critters! Seen the daedroth in GI? That's one of his babies.

I'm not sure what the global distribution plan is for Oblivion -- I'm just a programmer & don't get into the business end of things much. I do know that localization has been a higher priority for us from the beginning, and so the TESCS is being set up to make it easier to translate to other languages.

Oblivion is neither a twitch game nor an FPS. Combat is still largely stats based. The only stats-based difference is that there's no longer a die roll to hit for melee weapons. If you're close enough and facing the right way, your weapon will hit. You may not do any damage, but it'll hit.

The Elder Scrolls games have *ALWAYS* been about a balance between player skills and character skills, and that hasn't changed. The removal of "to hit" roll is not meant to de-emphasize character stats, and I don't believe it does. The fighting controls in Oblivion are nearly identical to those in Morrowind, however now selecting different attacks has greater meaning. You can stand there and button mash if you want to, but you can also fight strategically -- maneuver, block, select different attacks,

And quite frankly I'm tired of people accusing us of dumbing down the game. We're not. We're taking the ideas of the previous games and trying to improve the playing experience for EVERYONE, including CRPG fans. I would have thought that the Xbox version of Morrowind -- which left out NONE of the content or features of the PC version -- would have shown people that we are not in the business of catering to the "lowest common denominator". We happen to think that console gamers are smarter than that, and the success of Morrowind on Xbox proves that console gamers actually ARE interested in games with MORE depth and complexity than some people seem to think they are.

Every game eventually ends up in bargain bins. If you don't want to pay full price for a game, wait a few months.

As far as delayed global distribution of games, having to wait longer than folks in other countries isn't a valid excuse to steal a product. And if games are not made available in your country, perhaps you can get someone from a country where the game IS available to send it to you. I know I've met people from all over the world on the Internet who would be happy to do so for me. Beyond that, I guess the only thing you can do is appeal to the software publishers, let them know that a market exists where you live.

On to "I try before I buy". Again, if you wait long enough, there'll be enough reviews, impressions, articles, etc. written about the game so that you can make an informed decision -- and again, the game will probably be available for a much lower price so your risk is lessened.

Can't afford it? That's too bad. I'd love to have a Corvette, but I can't afford it -- so, like everything else I can't afford, I just have to either do without, or save up for it.

There is absolutely no valid justification for software piracy.

1. The magic system has many changes and improvements. Don't take the fact that we haven't SAID anything about it as an implication that we haven't done any development on it. We haven't said anything about LOTS of features of the game, but that doesn't mean we haven't worked on them already.

2. The "special moves" Pete talks about are accessed by holding down the attack button for a brief time, rather than clicking it and releasing immediately as you would do to perform standard attacks. In addition, you can hold down one of the directional keys to select one of the attacks. You'll have basic forms of these "power attacks" at the beginning, and earn more as your skills increase. Power attacks can do more damage than standard attacks, but they also burn more fatigue and take longer to perform, so you need to be smart about when you use them. It's similar to how you would hold the attack button longer in Morrowind for a more powerful attack. In fact, as has been pointed out in this thread, aside from blocking being mapped to a separate button instead of being automatic, the combat controls are IDENTICAL to Morrowind's -- but selecting different attacks now actually MEANS something.

1. It is extremely unlikely that we will ever release any of Morrowind or Oblivion's source code (or that of any other game we develop).

2. The TESCS is the tool our designers and artists use to build the game world, define dialog & quests, populate the world with NPC's and creatures and items, etc. You get the same tool we used. Of course, we can't distribute other tools we use, such as 3D Studio Max and Adobe Photoshop. But we did release the exporter we use to get the artwork into the format we need.

3. The TESCS (for Morrowind and for Oblivion) has exactly the features we need to develop the games, and nothing more. We don't budget to add in features we'll never use.

4. The TESCS is just that -- The Elder Scrolls Construction Set. It's not meant to build a totally different kind of game. It's not meant to allow mod makers to build a soccer game or a racing game or a MMORPG or an online deathmatch. It's designed to create Elder Scrolls titles. If we had a need for it to be more flexible, it would be.

5. Despite Morrowind's CS limitations, the mod community has come up with some pretty impressive mods, doing things we didn't even realize was possible. I don't expect that situation to change for Oblivion's CS. That said, the new TESCS has a lot of powerful new features, and I'm sure that the things the community comes up with will be even more impressive than what they've done for Morrowind.

Again, the TESCS has what WE need to make the game. We use 3D Studio Max, so we have an exporter for that program. We don't use GMax, we don't use XSI or any other 3D modeling apps, so we haven't developed exporters for those. Doing so would involve a fairly significant amount of time and money that we really need to spend on making the game and the tools we need to make the game.

So it is extremely unlikely that we will develop and release exporters for apps other than 3D Studio Max.

The other thing you should bear in mind is that Half-Life is powered by the Source engine, which is a general purpose engine meant to be marketed and used for other games (such as Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines). Same thing with Doom 3 and Unreal.

TES games use a commercial GRAPHICS engine and physics engine, but all of the game systems -- data handling, AI, magic, combat, etc. -- are custom made for Elder Scrolls games. Bethesda doesn't market this stuff to other companies.

So it makes sense for Valve to offer exporters for a variety of art tools, because their engine is going to be used by developers who use a variety of art tools. But since the TES technology is not used by other companies, that requirement just isn't there.

OH NOES!!!1! They are giving us the option of not having to walk to places we've been before! How COULD they?!!

Jeeze, Krunky, you make it sound like it's the end of the world.

1. You can only use the map-based fast travel to go to places you've already been. So you'll HAVE to walk to each possible location AT LEAST once.

2. Time will pass when you fast travel this way. That means that if you've got a long-duration poison effect on you for example, it may KILL YOU while you're traveling.

3. You won't be able to use it if you're in combat. Even if you're trying to run away from a creature. All NPC's and creatures will have to be out of combat with you in order for you to use fast travel.

4. You won't be able to use it from inside. You have to be outside to use the feature.

5. Use of map-based fast travel is optional. That means you don't have to use it. At all. Ever. If you want to walk back & forth between two locations over & over, feel free.

SC_Wolf wrote: "Is there any random factor included in how you calculate the health damage of a successful hit? In other words, we know the 'To Hit' roll is gone, but is there still a 'To Damage' roll?"

In Oblivion, weapons have a single damage rating. This number is then plugged into a formula that takes into account your character's relevant weapon skill, your strength, your luck -- stats which are unlikely to change in the middle of combat -- as well as your character's fatigue and the weapon's condition, both of which will most certainly change during combat. Plus, you get a bonus if you do a power attack vs doing a "regular" attack. So the amount of damage your character can do can vary attack to attack based on a pretty large set of variables.

And that's even before the opponent's defense comes into play. The character's armor rating, armor skill, blocking skill if they're blocking, condition of the armor, condition of the thing they're blocking with, if any, plus their luck and fatigue and any defense bonuses (such as might come from the shield spell effect).

In other words, since the amount of damage done with each strike can vary hit by hit based on so many variables that can change during combat, there's really not much of a need to add a random element to damage.

Note that the to hit roll that was removed was for melee combat. We haven't said anything about what happens with ranged combat yet.

Traken wrote: Hmm, Exploit Dev time! J/k Will the enemies stay still long enough for a "non-twitcher" to get a few punches in?

It depends. Enemies have a "Combat Style" which dictates stuff like how often they move.

Well, you're exaggerating quite a bit. Oblivion has a different balance of player input than you seem to like, but it's not so extreme as to move the game out of the RPG category and into the action adventure or FPS genre. Stats still play a crucial role in the success or failure of your character's actions.

In Morrowind, you could press the button to have your character swing his sword, and the sword might go right through without so much as a "clank".

In Oblivion, your sword will actually hit your opponent. It may not do much damage, if any, if your blade skill, luck, fatigue, and strength, aren't good enough. Also the sword's damage rating and condition come into play, as do your opponent's armor rating & armor skill, luck, fatigue, and other stats. And when your character takes a hit, the same is true. Your opponent's skills & stats & weapon & its condition determine the damage, which is attenuated by your character's stats & armor & its condition. And of course as you use skills, they improve, and as you level up, you can raise attributes, etc.

Sounds an awful lot like an RPG to me.

Yes, there is a light source in the room not within view of the screenshot, and no, it's not enchanted. What you DON'T see is that the details on the sword are all normal mapped, meaning that they look 3D. Hard to see that when it's not in motion.

What Pete's trying to say is, don't assume that EVERY PERSON ON THE TEAM works on graphics. We have some people who work on graphics -- the artists, of course, and some of the programmers -- but everyone else works on other things. There's no "working on graphics at the expense" of anything going on here.

Our amazingly talented environmental artist Noah, who is responsible for the trees, other plants, grass, etc. as well as the sky & weather art, has done (as usual) an incredible job creating highly detailed custom textures for the tree bark for a variety of tree species, as well as meticulously creating all the various types of leaves and leaf clusters.

It's my opinion that people have preconceived notions about what certain creatures should look like, and that those preconceived notions are not always going to show up in every game. We could make traditional creatures that looked like every other depiction of those creatures you've seen in books, movies, or other games, but then where's the originality in that?

lyobovnik wrote: I suppose I'll get censored or lambasted for saying so, but...

If we want to talk about originality, I think the real question is not whether a depiction of a minotaur is or is not original.

The question is more vaild if instead the originality of having minotaurs at all is what is in doubt.

That's not a bad point, however, one of our stated design choices with Oblivion was to go in a more "traditional" fantasy setting than Morrowind had. And thus the choice to include "traditional" creatures like Minotaurs. But this IS the Elder Scrolls -- our dwarves are tall, our wood elves short, and so why not take some liberties with "traditional" creatures?

The only effect the Take 2 co-publishing deal will have on the game is to get more copies into the hands of gamers, and more quickly. They're helping out with distribution, not bankrolling development.

The screenshot is very much from an earlier state of the game, and a work-in-progress, showing terrain that is far from complete. Just about every portion of the environment shown (excluding the character and the horse - which I say only because I'm not directly working on them) has had, or will have extensive work done, on that particular aspect of the game, at some point in the future

For example, terrain now has a separate fog color from the sky, so it appears to have a blue-ish hue in the distance. The mountains shown in the screenshot are completely untextured and do not even have normal-mapping present.

I don't think I can speak specifically about the trees yet, but all aspects of them shown in the screenshot will be tweaked at the very least. There are features in the game currently that have been added to them since this screenshot, which will help their appearance. Don't even get me started on how unbelievably temporary the sky art is...;-)

Bottom line: Every screenshot/video/article etc. that you see of TESIV will be very much a work-in-progress, up until the moment when the game box is finally in your hands. Screenshots, in most cases, will have been taken weeks, possibly months before they are distributed to print/web publications etc.. Have faith. We will not rest until the game is as beautiful and fun as we can make it, to the best of our ability.

Hopefully, showing you all what we have in the meantime, is better than having to wait completely in the dark until the game is in your hands.

I've sent info to a number of mags, and there isn't a magazine on the planet that hasn't gotten information if they've asked for it. The more pages they plan to devote to the game, the more info and screens they'll have. The (overseas) magazines that have the most interest in providing the most info are the ones that say they've been flooded with requests for info on the game.

So for those of you that scoffed at my earlier comment about letting your local game magazine know you want info, scoff away. There's a reason other developers post news items asking their fans to contact such-and-such magazine to let them know they want info on game X (although, in our case you'll want to say "Oblivion" and not "game X" or lord knows what you'll end up reading about...10 pages on City Dump Tycoon). It's because that's the way things work. Consumer demand = press coverage.

In any case, in a roughly two weeks we'll be releasing some info online and there will be a couple sites that will have additional info as well. Stay tuned....

Remember, there are no stupid ideas, only stupid people.

Not dissing, just asking a question. Where have you ever seen us say anything about a combat system that involves pressing lots of buttons to pull off different moves, that we would need to explain that we aren't doing that? I think my opinion does matter. If Oblivion were a game that required me to hit some sequence of buttons to fight, like it's Dance Dance Revolution, I'm not playing it. Or I'll play some kind of pacifist character.

Regarding the use of Speedtree, please don't view their demos as indicative of what Oblivion looks or behaves like. As you guys know, we're very much into modifying and improving upon any middleware we license. I assure you there will eventually be videos released of our forest scenes that will simply amaze you.

1) You'll find that Todd doesn't change what he thinks or believes to suit an audience. If that's what he thinks fantasy is, that's what he thinks fantasy is (fantasy, not roleplaying).

2) The people registered on this forum probably constitute 3% (or less) of the people playing Morrowind. I've had the chance to talk to a lot of Morrowind players who never once posted here, and never plan to. I consider this the hardest of the hardcore. The casual fans, the guys who like FPS games and tried Morrowind because it looked cool, don't post here.

3) People can just to play the same game for very different reasons. Some people love Gran Turismo for the unbelievable depth and ability to tweak every little thing. Some love it for the fact it's a fun racing game that looks good. They're both right, and it's not misleading to market the game that way to both audiences.

4) Honestly, and this is just my opinion, I think the hardcore RPG guys are going to love what we have in store for them in Oblivion. The depth, the level of polish...it crushes Morrowind. That doesn't mean that other people won't want to buy it and play it because it's a beautiful game that has fun combat and cool quests. We'll make enough copies for everyone.

Game development is like making a 12-foot putt. It looks like it's really easy to do until you actually have to do it.

We don't make games that aren't ready to be released when they're finished. Period. Oblivion isn't finished, and won't be for quite a while.

Hosting forums: does not alter/harm one's gameplay experience.

Hosting mods: gives the appearance of "sanctioning" or "approving" mods that may alter/harm one's gameplay experience.

So, you will never, ever see us host anything that isn't "official." "You" may understand the difference and be willing to forgive if things go wrong with a fan-created mod, but I assure you that "others" do not. So we will continue to support the mod community as best we can and let them do the great things they do, just as we did with Morrowind.

I can't confirm whether everything in the article is true. It was written in German and I don't speak German. There is no mounted combat in Oblivion.

And now, I'm going to go play some Oblivion on my PC from the future.

The Mad God wrote: With the new physics engine taking care of most of the work, will it be possible to implement these weapons?

I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of weapons like this. However I do want to note that I think you'd be suprised at how realistic physics can actually ADD to the workload rather than relieve it! It can be suprising how much effort can be required to make physics look and feel great.

For example, it took me only a few hours to get basic arrows flying through the air, based off of some other code that was written. However, getting them to bounce in a way that we felt looked good? DAYS. And that's not even considering all the other physics-heavy behaviour they have.

The sad fact is that many development studios can't afford to bankroll their own game development. So they rely on publishers to give them the money to create these games. The problem with this is that the publisher then feels they should have input into the game since they are spending the money. Hence Atari and EA have such a big influence on a game they publish.

Just glad here at Bethesda we are our own publisher and developer and have free reign to make what we want.

Technology and development time create limits to what you can create. So while a realistic medieval city might have 50,000 or 100,000 people, it would be unrealistic to expect a city of this size in a game anytime soon. We make the cities and towns in the game as big and detailed as technology allows us to, but sometimes this means the descriptions of the size of a city from Elder Scrolls lore might not match up exactly with the game design. Having said that, the place is still amazing to see, and you really do get the feeling of an immense capitol in how the architecture is done. The city streets feel narrow and the buildings tend to surround the character on all sides. It's an impressive sight.

It is a shot using real in-game assets. The guy on the cover is actually the "player character" who we use most often when we're playing the game right now. Obviously he has been posed by hand for purposes of the cover, but there is no graphics magic or sleight-of-hand going on. That is how his armor will look when you play the game. The same for the horse, his face, and the castle in the background - all in-game assets that are rendered in real time by our engine

Trust me when I say this, everyone. You will do PLENTY of exploring and walking in Oblivion. There may or may not be other modes of transport (cant say at the moment).

The fast travel map is an option. We are good here, but we cant program the game to make you select those fast travel marks! If you feel that the map is "unrealistic", then simply don't use it. I completely understand how some of you may want to roam the beautiful landscapes and all that.

As a converse to the fast travel, if you use it, there is a "penalty", and a glaringly obvious one. You may miss something. We stuck plenty of stuff out there for you to stumble across... little nooks and crannys with things. If you fast travel back instead of walking a different route, you may never see these things. The more you fast travel, the more you can miss... it's possible.

We only placed this feature in there just in case you wanted the OPTION. It is not a requirement. The game is designed to be what you make of it. If you want to rush through and miss the sights, then so be it. But if you don't, we would never force you to skip ahead. That's the beauty of Elder Scrolls... choice.

Slay?! Slay the dragon?!

Well heck, if that's what you all wanna do, I will NEVER put a dragon in the game!

Hmmph.... how you like THEM apples?!

shouldnt reply to this (in case I steal this wonderful idea)..... but THAT IS A WONDERFUL IDEA!

Dunno why my brilliant mind hasn't thought of this and tried to throw it on the design table yet...... oh wait, I DID think of it! You stole my idea! Bah.... *scribbled down idea of keyring/swiss army knife key filter*

See, we do read the forums and we do appreciate your thoughts and input on how to make a better game. Heck, I like this idea.

I feel like I am on "Big Brother" or "Real World", the way you all quote and watch over us. It's getting kinda scary.

( ED: YOU BETCHA! >:) )

You kiddin?! We do the best darned dragons in the world! You just havent seen them yet.

Now, does that answer your question about dragons in Oblivion? *shrug*

Unsure if any of you play Final Fantasy XI Online, but when you unlock the Dragoon job-class, you "somewhat" raise a wyvern from the egg. The wyvern aids you in battle and performs special attacks as you do. They do not grow in the game, they just get statistical increases. In all, the idea of a "pet" are very interesting to me. I play FFXI and I play the Dragoon class (when I'm not playing my female ONLY mithra class.... ya, I am a man in kitty drag!). I have to admit, I like having a familiar a lot.

Dragons, large battles, and such in TES..... hmmmm. Tell ya what, I hope to be able to talk more about this real soon. Till then, keep your knickers on.

We have everything from mice to moles to crickets. The most fearsome you have ever seen even! You thought sleeping at night with a singing cricket outside your window was bad. You wait till you meet the one that plays a 14 piece drum set outside your window.

Hate to say it, but even though Max should ship with a lifetime prescription of morphine, the pain is easy to deal with than most other packages I have worked with. As for the Max version we are using being compatible with work you may be doing in other versions, dont look at me. When a project starts, we work with what is up to date. As the years go by, versions change, and for us to update versions, that means a LOT of changes to the work we had done for the last 2-3 years. You be the judge.

I might get beat up by other artists here for saying this, but I say this at least once during every project. Your feedback is both appreciated and on occasion laughed at. I know that if it's one of the creatures I was working on, I might take your input into consideration, especially since I always think my work could use more and more and then more.... and then after that, more polishing. Just not enough time in the world to improve CONSTANTLY.

Now, this is not an invitation to act like an art lead and start tearing into everything you see (cause like I said, I laugh and sneer at most of the feedback), but on occasion, I will take notice of some criticism and look into the matter. Thing is, I can only do this with creatures I work on. I dont dare tell another artist that fans thought their creature needs work on something.... cause then they wanna beat me to pulp, as well as you.

Just my 2 cents on fur.... fur has not been done right TO DATE in any game. It isnt fur, it's fuzz. I have only seen fur shaders that could do a good job with thick grass and weeds. It simply looks like a poof ball. I guess it would look ok on something like a pomeranian (sp?) though, heh.

"Most" hair you see in games (on heads) is actually modeled and animated by hand or manipulated with a physics engine. Final Fantasy game stend to to a great job with this. A technique us Yanks are afraid to use, and thus, have yet to carbon copy. Hopefully, in the very near future though, a shader will be available and usable (simply put, a hair shader is EXPENSIVE on hardware).

Oh, please remember, when I said I appreciate criticism, I didnt mean I was looking for feature requests. 2 totally different things.

Actually, in MW, we used a segmented AND a whole body skining animation system (both really run off the same system, but that's a more in-depth discussion). You will see even in screenshots already out that it is much the same, but drastically improved. No more intersecting joints, as screens will show though. And of course, there are whole body skins (mostly for creatures and characters that do not call for armor/mesh changes). Just think Morrowind, but heavily improved by the hands of those mighty folks at Bethesda.

And I reply yet again on the dragon topic. Wait and see. Heck, I could break my contract and tell you EVERYTHING about the game (and get fired only to have to finally fill out the Exxon application on my table at home), and then what do you have? A game that you will play and know every little thing around the corner. Where's the fun in that.

And with that being said, we still do the best dragons ever.

As someone who worked on the Thief series for quite a few years, I'm really personally invested in Oblivion's stealth system. (which is ironic, because it was playing a Thief in Daggerfall that got me into Thief to begin with).

Anyway, I'm obviously not at liberty to give out any specifics, but you should know that thieving/sneaking etc. is getting a lot of tender loving care is TES IV.

Hello. I'm Emil Pagliarulo. You might remember me from such Thief missions as A Tale of Two Taffers, and When Blackjacks Collide.

Ba-dum-dum! But seriously, folks.

Emil here. For those of you who don't know me, nice to meet you. Those of you who do might recall that I was indeed a designer on the Thief series. I did work on Thief Gold, and was a designer of Thief 2, Thief 2 Gold (R.I.P. along with the rest of Looking Glass) and Thief: Deadly Shadows.

First of all, let me just say thanks for this thread. Seeing how passionate you are about stealth in Oblivion makes any improvments to the system that much more worth it. I was really surprised by how many of you are Thief fans, and how many of you are really invested in Oblivion's stealth experience. So I wanted to jump in here and respond to all your comments (and all my PMs!), and let you know that we are listening, and we do care.

Secondly, thanks for all the great suggestions and design ideas. Just about everyone who has posted in this thread (and others like it) has brought something new to the discussion. Whether it be an idea for a type of quest, or a method for improving the overall stealth/thieving/assassin experience. Please, keep them coming. On a personal note, it's this type of passion shown by the players that really motivates me to do the best work I possibly can. And I'm certainly not alone in that regard.

And last but not least... When having a discussion like this, I think it's really important to draw the distinction between the Thief games and stealth/thieving in the Elder Scrolls games. Thief: Deadly Shadows is a game about being a thief in a fantasy setting. It is about sneaking. And hiding in shadows. And lockpicking. And pickpocketing. And wall climbing. And disposing of bodies. It is all of those things...and NOTHING else. Thief: Deadly Shadows' 32B years of development time was spent solely on developing those stealth systems, and believe me the team could have spent a lot more time if given the opportunity.

Now take a look at Oblivion, and you'll see that there's stealth/thieving, but sooooo much more. Oh boy, is there more. Spellcasting. Melee combat. Individualized NPCs. Dialogue. Joinable factions. Multiple questlines. A huge landmass. Large-scale battles between the Nazis and Americans. Okay, everything BUT that last one.

The point is, there's just no way ANY game that offers as much as Oblivion does could have a stealth/thieving system as robust as that seen in the Thief series. It's just impossible -- unless you want a development cycle of 62B years. And really, nobody wants that. Take blackjacking, for example. That's one of THE core systems of the Thief series. Strictly designed, heavily tested, and really fundamental to the core gameplay. That's just not true for Oblivion, so the chances of something like that showing up are very unlikely. And rope arrows? If Thief: Deadly Shadows didn't even have time to get them right, you can be sure we're not even going to go near something like that.

Now for the good news. The Red Sox won the World Series! The Curse has ended! Southie rules!! Woohoo!!!!

Ohhhhh....you want good news about Oblivion... Okay, I have that too!

Leveraging our strengths as a next-gen RPG, there are so many things we CAN do to make Oblivion's stealth/thieving/assassin gameplay better than it's ever been in an Elder Scrolls title. Like designing quests that better take a stealth skillset into account. Building spaces that are more fun to break into, with multiple entrances. Improving NPC AI to respond better to a player using stealth, and give more appropriate audio feedback. Adjusting light levels to really have an impact on stealth and sneaking. Making lockpicking a more satisfying experience. And simply designing an RPG with a better fundamental understanding of what makes stealth gameplay fun. These are the things we're looking at and working on. These are the ways Oblivion's stealth/thieving system are really going to outshine any other RPG out there.

So in closing, let me just say thanks again, and keep those ideas coming. And remeber, Wazowski. I'm watching. Alwways waaatttcchhiiinnnggg....

The same argument could be said about having dust storms blind you, and make it hard for you to see for hours afterwords. Why not? It's realistic isn't it?

Realism and gameplay must be balanced to find the fun. The game world must be believable, but the game must be fun to play. I'm sure that 100's of hours of gameplay were logged by the Morrowind team, and I'm sure that at some point someone raised the same point that you did, but they probably lost out because more team mates thought that the game progress would have been too slow.

I never finished Morrowind, because it just took too long.