Oblivion: any thoughts?

[Guest]

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This looks like the 'next big thing' in the CRPG area (especially
single player) and I wanted to get some impressions of what you folks
have seen so far. I'm an jaded mofo yet I feel the great weight of
can't wait for this title, mostly due to the sandboxing potential and
the fact that from what I've seen, the ES team is dedicated to creating
a living world with animals and people that actually do stuff rather
than an entire continent of store manniquins (moody dark elf store
manniquins at that!).

The only complaints I've read are that there's no horse combat and
something about a quest compass??

 

[Guest]

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If they could only add online play to this game, it would be even
better. It would be awesome to travel around this world with a buddy
or two.

littlemute wrote:
> This looks like the 'next big thing' in the CRPG area (especially
> single player) and I wanted to get some impressions of what you folks
> have seen so far. I'm an jaded mofo yet I feel the great weight of
> can't wait for this title, mostly due to the sandboxing potential and
> the fact that from what I've seen, the ES team is dedicated to creating
> a living world with animals and people that actually do stuff rather
> than an entire continent of store manniquins (moody dark elf store
> manniquins at that!).
>
> The only complaints I've read are that there's no horse combat and
> something about a quest compass??

 

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Why not just play Diablo, Everquest, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft
or Guild Wars?

The whole point of the design is a single player experience where you
can play in a big-ass world without all the other people around.

 

[Guest]

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littlemute wrote:
> This looks like the 'next big thing' in the CRPG area (especially
> single player) and I wanted to get some impressions of what you folks
> have seen so far. I'm an jaded mofo yet I feel the great weight of
> can't wait for this title, mostly due to the sandboxing potential and
> the fact that from what I've seen, the ES team is dedicated to creating
> a living world with animals and people that actually do stuff rather
> than an entire continent of store manniquins (moody dark elf store
> manniquins at that!).

I'm very interested in it so far. I've heard that every NPC is fully
voice acted in Oblivion which will be a much needed change from the
"signpost" NPC's of Morrowind. It sounds like they have seen some of
the things Gothic 1 & 2 have done and made some improvements. I'm sure
it will still have the ass-tastic "skills get better as you use them"
game system (which I hate) but I can probably overlook that if the game
world is highly immersive. With so few other RPGs to look forward to
Oblivion will probably be a must buy for me.

Is there a release date for the PC version yet?

> The only complaints I've read are that there's no horse combat and
> something about a quest compass??

No horse combat is really no big deal to me.

Knight37

 

[Guest]

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Riding through the fields cutting down peasants on horseback has a
certain appeal though.

EB has it listed for 11/21. That's pushing it close to the Xmas bubble
but from what I've read it's pretty close to done.

As for the skills, I have an old camera that I used for Ultima Online
and Morrowind to hold down keys while I sleep and then wake up to 10
level ups and 100 skill in sneak or sword if needed! I wonder if
there's anything online about the skills sytem for Oblivion yet?

The modding is going to be tough having to voice all NPC's if one
wanted to make quests, but man that's a great addition. It's one of
the things that put Jagged Alliance into the stratosphere for
immersion. "There ain't nuthin' down there for you!" and "I'm looking
to get in on a good shootin'"

 

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littlemute wrote:
> Riding through the fields cutting down peasants on horseback has a
> certain appeal though.
>
> EB has it listed for 11/21. That's pushing it close to the Xmas bubble
> but from what I've read it's pretty close to done.

Cool, right before the Xbox 360 launch then (11/22). I was worried they
were going to push it back until after the 360 version to try and sell
more 360's. This is good news.

> As for the skills, I have an old camera that I used for Ultima Online
> and Morrowind to hold down keys while I sleep and then wake up to 10
> level ups and 100 skill in sneak or sword if needed! I wonder if
> there's anything online about the skills sytem for Oblivion yet?

LOL. I guess now is the time to be doing some research about this game
but all the bits I've seen so far look very promising.

> The modding is going to be tough having to voice all NPC's if one
> wanted to make quests, but man that's a great addition. It's one of
> the things that put Jagged Alliance into the stratosphere for
> immersion. "There ain't nuthin' down there for you!" and "I'm looking
> to get in on a good shootin'"

I imagine that for modding there will be some kind of conversation
system that doesn't require voice work. I don't expect many mods to
have full voice work and the ones that do probably will have mediocre
at best voice work.

Knight37

 

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Mark Morrison wrote:
> I want a demo first - I'm no longer prepared to buy a new PC just to
> play the latest Elder Scrolls game. I'll see how it runs on my
> current system before buying.

I'm almost convinced to buy Oblivion sight unseen. I know I shouldn't,
but that's about how I feel about it now.

> Bunnies aren't just cute like everybody supposes !
> They got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses !
> And what's with all the carrots ?
> What do they need such good eyesight for anyway ?
> Bunnies ! Bunnies ! It must be BUNNIES !

I finally saw the episode where this came from. Hilarious! That was my
favorite Buffy yet. That and Evil Willow totally kicked ass. Not to
mention the Tabula Rasa episode was great also. I am now about halfway
through season 7 so I'm almost to the end, but what a fun ride it's
been.

Knight37

 

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Knight37 wrote:
> > As for the skills, I have an old camera that I used for Ultima Online
> > and Morrowind to hold down keys while I sleep and then wake up to 10
> > level ups and 100 skill in sneak or sword if needed! I wonder if
> > there's anything online about the skills sytem for Oblivion yet?

I wonder when they'll get rid of this. Maybe they should just get rid
of the levels altogether. Instead of a level 10 'jumper' you're just a
guy with 150 jumping skill

 

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wolfing wrote:
> Knight37 wrote:
> > > As for the skills, I have an old camera that I used for Ultima Online
> > > and Morrowind to hold down keys while I sleep and then wake up to 10
> > > level ups and 100 skill in sneak or sword if needed! I wonder if
> > > there's anything online about the skills sytem for Oblivion yet?
>
> I wonder when they'll get rid of this. Maybe they should just get rid
> of the levels altogether. Instead of a level 10 'jumper' you're just a
> guy with 150 jumping skill

I would prefer they ditched the whole Elder Scrolls system all
together, but I'm realistic and I know that ain't gunna happen. What
I'd like to see is a point-buy system and you gain xp for completing
quests and killing stuff. You know, like any NORMAL RPG. But since
that isn't going to happen, they could come up with a better way for
the stats to level up over time besides gaining "levels." The way it
worked in MW was just insanely unbalanced. Not to mention the magic
system was completely borked. But as long as you don't try to "play"
the system MW can be pretty fun and so I hope Oblivion just gets it at
least that right.

Knight37

 

[Guest]

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Mark Morrison wrote:
> I loved Tabula Rasa - more laughs in that one ep that in most
> comedies.

I loved Spike thinking that Giles was his dad. That part was hilarious.
Oh and "I'm a vampire with a soul.", "Vampire with a soul? How stupid
is that?"

> My 6 year old niece is a Buffy fan, and her favourite ep is either
> Fear Itself (Anya in the bunny suit) or the one with the ghostly
> Native Americans. She's highly amused at Spike getting filled with
> arrows while tied to a chair.

I remember that one but it's been a while back. I liked it. I also have
been going back and rewatching the older episodes (late night try and
go to sleep thing) and I'm in season 2. Just saw one of my all time
favorite episodes "Passion", which I thought was a pivotal moment for
Buffy, showing they could do serious as well as funny.

Knight37

 

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Mark Morrison wrote:

> Bunnies aren't just cute like everybody supposes !
> They got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses !
> And what's with all the carrots ?
> What do they need such good eyesight for anyway ?
> Bunnies ! Bunnies ! It must be BUNNIES !

Great show. After Buffy and Angel ended, I had little reason to watch
TV (but eventually I got World of Warcraft and I had no time for TV
anyway). Firefly was cool in its own way, too- but doomed from the
start (looking forward to the movie, though, Serenity).

 

[Guest]

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littlemute wrote:
> This looks like the 'next big thing' in the CRPG area (especially
> single player) and I wanted to get some impressions of what you folks
> have seen so far. I'm an jaded mofo yet I feel the great weight of
> can't wait for this title, mostly due to the sandboxing potential and
> the fact that from what I've seen, the ES team is dedicated to creating
> a living world with animals and people that actually do stuff rather
> than an entire continent of store manniquins (moody dark elf store
> manniquins at that!).

You know, I'm excited about this one too. Like others have mentioned
it sounds like the world is going to be more Gothic-esque, which could
be amazing. However, I'm worried about something... I'm concerned that
both Oblivion and Gothic III are going to sacrifice scope and length
for improved production values.

I forgave Morrowind's inadequacies (deadish world, deadish NPCs)
because the gameworld was just so huge. It really felt like something
to discover a dungeon you'd never seen before out in the middle of
nowhere.

If both games are able to present at least a Gothic II-sized world and
still pack in all the features they're claiming, Oblivion will be a
must-buy-and-play-ASAP title.

(Oh, and for the record, I liked Morrowind's levelling/skilling system.
Took a while to get used to, but once I understood it, it was easy to
shape my characters exactly the way I wanted.)

 

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Memnoch wrote:
> Unbalanced or not it did make sense that if you practised with a sword you got
> better at using a sword. Other games don't make sense in that you could do the
> same and suddenly it would mean you could run faster or read another language.

I fall in the camp of "which is more fun" every time over "which is
more realistic." To me it's just more fun to have skill points awarded
for doing stuff and get to spend them however I want. It's one of the
things I dislike about DS2, but at least there is the skill tree now
and you can spend points in order to get the various skills and powers
in addition to the skills that level up from use. In that regard it's a
major improvement over DS1.

Knight37

 

[Guest]

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I can't think of a better reason to upgrade. What are you going to
wait until there's a new version of Excel? If Doom 3 didn't do it, or
Halflife 2 (or the Vampire game), what's it' going to take to justify
an upgrade?

 

[Guest]

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Knight37 wrote:
> Memnoch wrote:
> > Unbalanced or not it did make sense that if you practised with a sword you got
> > better at using a sword. Other games don't make sense in that you could do the
> > same and suddenly it would mean you could run faster or read another language.
>
> I fall in the camp of "which is more fun" every time over "which is
> more realistic." To me it's just more fun to have skill points awarded
> for doing stuff and get to spend them however I want. It's one of the
> things I dislike about DS2, but at least there is the skill tree now
> and you can spend points in order to get the various skills and powers
> in addition to the skills that level up from use. In that regard it's a
> major improvement over DS1.
>
> Knight37

Not me, I like the way Morrowind is (without the levels).
Immersiveness is something I always appreciate. If I use a sword for 1
month, that doesn't make me use a bow any better. Morrowind system is
just fine, you use a sword, you get better at it. What I didn't like
is the level thing.
Another thing I didn't like about Morrowind is that creatures adapted
to your level. So, if I was level 1 and decided to go around the
world, I'll be seeing level 1 creatures everywhere, but if I was lvl
100, then everything around me would be lvl 100. Forget that, set
creatures in the environment, and if I'm stupid enough to wander where
I shouldn't, so be it. Don't artificially restrict me in where I
should be, but don't change the world around me just because I am
'level 5'.

 

[Guest]

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Nostromo wrote:
> I still don't get the yanks' association with the Gulf War with this gem of
> a series - it's sci-fi ffs! The fact you let Fox kill it because of your own
> stoopid fears & prejudice (not to mention there goes "Freedom of Expression"
> down the toilet every time you let politicians & businessmen do this to you)
> is just pathetic & sad.

I have no idea what you're talking about here. I even googled a bit
and I still don't know what you're talking about. Firefly was canceled
because people didn't watch it. (Or not enough people watched it,
anyway.)

[begin rant]
My wife keeps saying "If networks would just produce quality
programming, people would watch it!" But I disagree. Networks don't
care how smart or innovative their programming is- they just care that
people are watching the commercials. Also, networks LIKE shows that
generate controversy, because that gets viewers- temporarily anyway.

The reason we have 1,001 reality shows, and "talent" contests, and 23
spin-offs of Law & Order and CSI is because that's what the majority of
viewers want to see. If Firefly ever got American Idol's numbers, I
promise you that show would be on today.

This applies to all other mass media. Why does Hollywood keep making
dreadful comic book movies, sequels to mediocre movies, and remakes of
films that have already been done? Why do The Sims and its expansion
packs occupy 5 of the top 10 PC game sales slots week after week after
week? Why were there 32,000 World War II and Vietnam FPS games
released this year and only 3 RPGs? Why do radio stations only play
stuff you've already heard a thousand times before?
[end rant]

Firefly was a good show though... great characters and dialogue, as
usual for Mr. Wheadon.

 

[Guest]

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On 20 Sep 2005 06:49:04 -0700, "littlemute" <littlemute@woodenmen.org>
wrote:

>This looks like the 'next big thing' in the CRPG area (especially
>single player) and I wanted to get some impressions of what you folks
>have seen so far. I'm an jaded mofo yet I feel the great weight of
>can't wait for this title, mostly due to the sandboxing potential and
>the fact that from what I've seen, the ES team is dedicated to creating
>a living world with animals and people that actually do stuff rather
>than an entire continent of store manniquins (moody dark elf store
>manniquins at that!).
>
>The only complaints I've read are that there's no horse combat and
>something about a quest compass??

I want a demo first - I'm no longer prepared to buy a new PC just to
play the latest Elder Scrolls game. I'll see how it runs on my
current system before buying.

--

Bunnies aren't just cute like everybody supposes !
They got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses !
And what's with all the carrots ?
What do they need such good eyesight for anyway ?
Bunnies ! Bunnies ! It must be BUNNIES !

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: (More info?)

On 20 Sep 2005 10:32:07 -0700, "Knight37" <knight37m@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>wolfing wrote:
>> Knight37 wrote:
>> > > As for the skills, I have an old camera that I used for Ultima Online
>> > > and Morrowind to hold down keys while I sleep and then wake up to 10
>> > > level ups and 100 skill in sneak or sword if needed! I wonder if
>> > > there's anything online about the skills sytem for Oblivion yet?
>>
>> I wonder when they'll get rid of this. Maybe they should just get rid
>> of the levels altogether. Instead of a level 10 'jumper' you're just a
>> guy with 150 jumping skill
>
>I would prefer they ditched the whole Elder Scrolls system all
>together, but I'm realistic and I know that ain't gunna happen. What
>I'd like to see is a point-buy system and you gain xp for completing
>quests and killing stuff. You know, like any NORMAL RPG. But since
>that isn't going to happen, they could come up with a better way for
>the stats to level up over time besides gaining "levels." The way it
>worked in MW was just insanely unbalanced. Not to mention the magic
>system was completely borked. But as long as you don't try to "play"
>the system MW can be pretty fun and so I hope Oblivion just gets it at
>least that right.

Unbalanced or not it did make sense that if you practised with a sword you got
better at using a sword. Other games don't make sense in that you could do the
same and suddenly it would mean you could run faster or read another language.

 

[Guest]

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On 20 Sep 2005 09:53:25 -0700, "Knight37" <knight37m@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>Mark Morrison wrote:
>> I want a demo first - I'm no longer prepared to buy a new PC just to
>> play the latest Elder Scrolls game. I'll see how it runs on my
>> current system before buying.
>
>I'm almost convinced to buy Oblivion sight unseen. I know I shouldn't,
>but that's about how I feel about it now.
>
>> Bunnies aren't just cute like everybody supposes !
>> They got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses !
>> And what's with all the carrots ?
>> What do they need such good eyesight for anyway ?
>> Bunnies ! Bunnies ! It must be BUNNIES !
>
>I finally saw the episode where this came from. Hilarious! That was my
>favorite Buffy yet. That and Evil Willow totally kicked ass. Not to
>mention the Tabula Rasa episode was great also. I am now about halfway
>through season 7 so I'm almost to the end, but what a fun ride it's
>been.

I loved Tabula Rasa - more laughs in that one ep that in most
comedies.

My 6 year old niece is a Buffy fan, and her favourite ep is either
Fear Itself (Anya in the bunny suit) or the one with the ghostly
Native Americans. She's highly amused at Spike getting filled with
arrows while tied to a chair.


--

Bunnies aren't just cute like everybody supposes !
They got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses !
And what's with all the carrots ?
What do they need such good eyesight for anyway ?
Bunnies ! Bunnies ! It must be BUNNIES !

 

[Guest]

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Bitstring <1127229454.452474.288820@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, from
the wonderful person Knight37 <knight37m@gmail.com> said
>
>littlemute wrote:
>> This looks like the 'next big thing' in the CRPG area (especially
>> single player) and I wanted to get some impressions of what you folks
>> have seen so far. I'm an jaded mofo yet I feel the great weight of
>> can't wait for this title, mostly due to the sandboxing potential and
>> the fact that from what I've seen, the ES team is dedicated to creating
>> a living world with animals and people that actually do stuff rather
>> than an entire continent of store manniquins (moody dark elf store
>> manniquins at that!).
>
>I'm very interested in it so far. I've heard that every NPC is fully
>voice acted in Oblivion which will be a much needed change from the
>"signpost" NPC's of Morrowind

ha, never mind the signpost NPCs, even the signpost =signposts= were
screwed up (until you installed the user mod). 8>.

> It sounds like they have seen some of
>the things Gothic 1 & 2 have done and made some improvements. I'm sure
>it will still have the ass-tastic "skills get better as you use them"
>game system (which I hate)

YMMV, obviously, because I prefer it to the 'hey you got more
experienced by arrowing 10 orcs, now you can magically achieve +5 in
lock picking'.

Yes, it is open to abuse by people swimming upstream all day, but hey
who cares about what other people do ...

--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
Contact recommends the use of Firefox; SC recommends it at gunpoint.

 

[jake]

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Josh Mayfield wrote:

> You know, I'm excited about this one too. Like others have mentioned
> it sounds like the world is going to be more Gothic-esque, which could
> be amazing. However, I'm worried about something... I'm concerned that
> both Oblivion and Gothic III are going to sacrifice scope and length
> for improved production values.
>
> I forgave Morrowind's inadequacies (deadish world, deadish NPCs)
> because the gameworld was just so huge. It really felt like something
> to discover a dungeon you'd never seen before out in the middle of
> nowhere.

Oblivion isn't shrinking, but that's not such great news. In an
interview, one developers mentioned the world will be a few times
bigger than MW. But he also said that alot of the wilderness terrain
was being pre-generated - not handcrafted like Morrowind. There will be
*more* to explore, but it will be, to a greater extent than in
Morrowind, semi-random filler. I'm worried that exploration will no
longer be its own reward.

Fewer sidequests (confirmed) will compound the problem. In MW, the
player might take a curcutious land trek to complete a few quests, but
pick up a few more quests along the way. In Obl vion, the player might
end up only hitting the roads and wilderness to follow the new "plot
compass" or (whatever it's called) to a new main-plot or quest-centric
location. Nothing on the way but monsters and maybe a dungeon or
something. No sidequests to pick up, and everything too far apart to
make completing any sidequest you already have impractical.

And since I'm on a worry rant - what about the setting? The graphics
will be stunning, but could the Imperial province be bland compared to
Vvardenfell? Can they really pull off something like the distinct
regional architecture of the three Great Houses in the Imperial
province?


Jacob

 

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wolfing <wolfing1@yahoo.com> wrote:
>Immersiveness is something I always appreciate. If I use a sword for 1
>month, that doesn't make me use a bow any better. Morrowind system is
>just fine, you use a sword, you get better at it.

If you use a sword in Morrowind you soon become insanely good at it and
combat is no longer challenging. This realism argument is bogus to
begin with, there's very little you can learn on how to fight better
with a sword in combat and not die in the process. If you want learn
how to fight with a sword you need to practice with someone who both
can teach you something and isn't trying to kill you.

Ross Ridge

--
l/ // Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU
[oo][oo] rridge@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
-()-/()/ http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/u/rridge/
db //

 

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GSV Three Minds in a Can <GSV@quik.clara.co.uk> once tried to test me with:

> Yes, it is open to abuse by people swimming upstream all day, but hey
> who cares about what other people do ...

Yeah but I'm more of a "gamist" rather than "simulationist". I just find it
more fun to have a solid game system where you spend a specific amount of
"points" that you earned via questing/killing/whatever and build out the
character however you want it to without the drudgery of having to be a
neophyte in whatever skill you happen to desire. Of course, different
strokes and all and I'm glad that some people enjoyed MW's system, because
other than that and the cardboard NPCs the game was solid. Well, it had
pretty outrageous hardware requirements for it's release date also.

--

Knight37 - http://knightgames.blogspot.com

Once a Gamer, Always a Gamer.

 

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"Josh Mayfield" <ultibloo-usenet3@yahoo.com> once tried to test me with:

>
> Firefly was a good show though... great characters and dialogue, as
> usual for Mr. Wheadon.

I've been meaning to pick up the DVD set and watch it.

--

Knight37 - http://knightgames.blogspot.com

Once a Gamer, Always a Gamer.

 

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On 20 Sep 2005 08:17:34 -0700, "Knight37" <knight37m@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>Is there a release date for the PC version yet?
>

11/21 AFAIK. The same time as the Xbox360 version... maybe...

It would be very wise of Bethesda to delay the Xbox360 release by
about a month for the PC players to find most of the residual bugs,
before cutting the Gold Xbox360 master.

They delayed the Xbox release of Morrowind by several months.
Considering the suspect line-up of release dates of other Xbox360
games, I would not be the least surprised by a Xbox360 Oblivion
delay.

John Lewis