SansSword

Killing everything off is one extreme; having zero respawn is the other extreme--a nice balance is just that, a nice balance Keep in mind, TES games are designed to have the potential of being never ending, if you so choose (otherwise, just play the main quest and be done)--in order for a game to be never ending, there needs to be never-ending content Plus, returning to a particular dungeon or fort later on often yields different, improved loot, weapons, armors for the loot-aholics--if you're a completionist, you'll want to re-explore these areas at some point

Respawns are standard in many, if not most, RPGs--that allows the player to constantly have content, to level up, to increase skills, to earn money & items, etc.--take out respawns, you lose that vehicle to improvement, can only do things once Think back to the glory days of Final Fantasy, with good old-fashioned truly RANDOM encounters--you don't get random encounters much anymore, can pretty much choose your battles now--those monsters all respawned because they were random--revisit an old area and you still got attacked, the only difference was that you owned the monsters this time around Now, in games such as Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale, games with a definitive end, you can get away with no respawns as you generally only go through an area once--the player actually stops leveling, thus no need for anymore monsters In TES RPGs, however, there is no technical hard cap--even in Oblivion you could keep leveling past the soft-cap, although it was very difficult and time consuming (and arguably not even worth it--much easier in Morrowind with the master trainers, just had to have a lot of gold)--therefore, infinite respawning monsters makes sense so the player always have something to face A modder should be able to (or it may already exist) design a quick Checkmark mod where the player can check off dungeons they've already explored, honestly something Oblivion and Morrowind should have had anyway

Man, very very very well done, especially with the syncing to the music This is almost professional level, very expressive Edit: a good link for Facebook pages

This is just one small section of the story that will be posted very soon--unfortunately time really caught up to me and I won't have it fully finished before Skyrim drops (my original goal) So here is a bit of one segment I did tonight, just to whet your appetites I like hyphens and ellipses -------------------------------------------------------------------- When everyone had regained their seats, the big orc suddenly became tranquil, pensive almost—‘Tonight . . . tonight is like wen me mumma used ta take me to duh brij in duh park at Wayrest, bak before Orcs was outlawed’—he trailed off, gazing just above the flames into the darkness—‘Doze days were so happy, I just luvd duh brij, luvd goin out on it, abuv duh wata, banging akross duh woodin planks, duh wata wuz so sparkly, so clean, buttaflies evrywere—tried to catch sum but dey too fast—I miss dat brij,’ the big orc said sadly Hoffstaff looked up at the green beast—the Nord sensed something in him, honesty? Melancholy? He’d never expected to hear a sad tale from an orc, of all things, and felt a bit of sympathy for him ‘I remember taking a trip to Whiterun after we’d moved to Bruma—things are different now, of course, after Jsashe had her way with the city’—Hoffstaff shook his head in dismay—‘Anyway, you could see the great mountain peak of Skyrim there, the Throat of the World, and growing up I always wanted to climb it, to conquer it as a Nord, like my father had—I remember being saddened when he told me I was too small to make that climb; maybe when I was bigger, an adult—I asked him why couldn't he take me, why it was impossible—he said it just wasn’t meant to be, not yet, and that I would understand when I got older’—the Nord shuffled his feet—‘I still haven’t been to that mountain, still have not climbed it . . . still have not conquered it—and now they’re gone, my parents, my father . . . if I ever go, it’ll be alone, on my own’ He cleared his throat, an uncomfortable lodging suddenly appearing there—‘Maybe that’s why I became a blacksmith—don’t have to deal with cold or regrets, just heat and pressure, can bang all your problems away’ ------------------------------------- Stay tuned for the Fires...

Just like politicians: they're eager to say what they're against, not what they're for As for Oblivion, same as Morrowind: The freedom

You have no idea how glad I am not to see the current Activision release on the list (omitting name for obvious reasons) That said, I think it'll probably come down to Skyrim and Arkham City--both will be very, very playable & polished games--that's not to slam Zelda or Uncharted but I just don't think they will get the top slot--not even mentioning Portal, oops! Course, depends on how many 12 year olds vote

So I was looking at the official Bethsoft map for Tamriel and noticed the games that have been released all feature provinces with serious mountains in them (High Rock, Hammerfell, Morrowind, Cyrodiil, & now Skyrim)--can check for yourself at http://www.uesp.net/wiki/File:TamrielMap.jpg Obviously in game design mountains provide stark contrast for players from standard lowland fields, swamps, even hills. But I was just struck that Summerset Isle, Valenwood, Elsweyr, & Argonia seem to lack these mountain chains, at least in the illustration, which seems quite accurate as we've already played these aforementioned games and generally know where the mountains are. The southerly provinces seem much flatter and less vertical, hills, swamps, & flatlands. Perhaps this was a primary reason they haven't been done yet? Fewer interesting contrasts for the players? Thoughts?

Highly doubt it. Persistent Worlds are largely online only, such as WoW, Everquest, or Neverwinter Nights, aka. worlds that keep on existing even after you have logged off (due to the other people playing the game on servers). In a Persistent World time passes 24/7, all the time--the game world runs independently of the human players it contains. I don't see how that could happen with an offline single-player game. That said, it might be cool to somehow have some timekeeping kernel of the game always running (perhaps an on/off toggle if the player wouldn't want to use it) on your system, thereby keeping track of the time passing inside Skyrim and thus having the NPCs continuing with their daily tasks or perhaps other, non-critical events happening that would be different when the player officially entered the game again.

Let's see, largely in order...(non-Bethesda games) FF7 Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross Icewind Dale Deus Ex Kotor 1 hmm...probably missing a couple but these are probably the tops...no, I haven't played BG or Fallout yet (playing it through now, really hard!), and did first couple of major areas in NVN before getting tired of it, 2 party members just isn't enough...but I will be getting the BG collection soon so that will be taken care of at least =) Mainly, those five games listed...I fell into their worlds, totally, absolutely...story, atmosphere, dialogue, music, everything--those are how a quality RPG should be made, and they're classics because of it

I encountered this relatively often in Oblivion, you probably have too but to much less of an extent than you're proposing I remember coming across Bandit camps where 1 bandit would rush me with a sword, 2 bandits would string arrows and fire from afar, and a Bandit Hedge Wizard would summon daedra and cast spells on me from afar Pretty good combo there, intense fights As for level scaling, I do prefer the Morrowind model. Have, perhaps, a corridor of level 1-10 beasts from Seyda Neen to Balmora (the first general corridor of content most players will follow) who stop leveling at 10. Anywhere from 1-10 this area will be a challenge but come back at 20 and you're like, Damn, this is cake, those damn worms used to knock the shutyomouth outta me. Then the next area from Balmora to (uhh, where do you go next? can't recall, Aldruhn?) the next city has monsters who range from 10-20 but STOP leveling at 20. Call it Limited Level Scaling

I get ya bud, but let's be honest, an RPG without combat (and graphic combat at this stage) is, well, Harvest Moon <Old Spice ad voice> Do you really want to be playing Harvest Moon? Do you really want to be playing Harvest Moon? That's what I thought :yes:

To the detractors of using anything to their advantage in a single-player offline game: Don't ever play online. Because other people won't do what you want them to do. Oh, and grow up. You play the game your way, I play it my way. 100% chameleon was left in Oblivion deliberately. End of discussion.

I laughed all the way through, especially about House/Horse Armor Seems OP got most of the categorical gripes that most people have in here; --class, skill, and racial customization --no spellmaking --dynamic weather --consoles vs pc's --and of course, good ol DRM Well done!

I like the idea, but I agree, doesn't make sense to do officially (or even unofficially, tbh) but that doesn't mean I wouldn't like to see Morrowind in nice high-res graphics with Havok ragdoll physics, (and a freakin usable compass ffs) etc etc Morrowind still looks, to this day, still pretty damn good. I'm always impressed when playing it how much of a leap it was beyond the games of its time and certainly its own predecessor. Nicely done map, btw, didn't know Daggerfall didn't cover the entirety of Hammerfell & High Rock.

Stop, just stop! Now I won't be able to sleep tonight, or raise a family or hold down a job Love Deus Ex series...ah, my new fascination

After a couple hours of play (or a day at most) it should be completely natural, I'm sure Not an issue, something we'll adjust to

Which is why I like the feel of Morrowind so much better--feels more lived in, worn, real.

Sorry, as a FF7 nut I feel I have to correct you. I believe you mean his Buster Sword? Carry on

I hear you but what we've seen in the past (TES 3 & 4) is a lackluster main story, devoid (in my opinion) of anything worthy of real emotion or excitement which leads DIRECTLY to the team's storytelling skills. If it ain't a good story, no method of telling will make it good, no? Garbage begets garbage, put good in get good out, etc. Basically, when a game has shocking set-piece events in it, that is worthy of attention and note, things that you'll remember. In TES. . .yea, I got nothin. What does stand out to me about TES is the freedom, 'go anywhere, do anything' as the team likes to say. And that really competes head-on with a good story. A type of game where the player can take a break from the main story any time he wishes, well, sort of kills the suspense and/or intrigue. Is it too much to ask for a solid, memorable story in a TES game? I don't know, maybe? What I was saying before was that TES isn't made to focus on quality of the story or even to make it memorable. TES is all about the freedom aspect. While I would love this to be different, I just can't see it being so, at least not yet. As for the NPC speech and conversations, that could always use retouching. While Oblivion was a great step forward, it was horribly awkward and forced most of the time but I see that as simply a stepping stone. It sure was cool to experience NPCs converse like they did in Oblivion (which itself was a big step forward from TES 3) (stalk stalk stalk, 'Good Morning!' stalk stalk stalk). Also, how would a player 'adjust,' in your words, the atmosphere of a particular quest or area? Wouldn't that all be already preset for you? TES is largely a reactionary world, I'd say probably 50/50 with either the player taking initial action or action happening to them. By the way, the Oblivion Crisis, I would argue, was extremely 'world-changing' as it precipitated the downfall of the Empire. May not have felt like it at the time but we historians know otherwise :biggrin: but a world more in flux would be great instead of the happy-go-lucky feel Cyrodiil had. I do think we will get that part, at least.

That was great. Blades dance was k-lassic.

Look, we all can agree that this ain't no Bioware release and probably never will be. Bioware titles as well as many JRPGs of the past were extremely well-written, comprehensive, and believable--they sucked you into the story with excellent dialogue, voice acting, and atmosphere. BUT THIS ISN'T A BIOWARE RELEASE! That kind of writing and story would detract from the amount of freedom that American RPGs tend to focus on. Bethesda made a conscious choice to focus on freedom of movement, choice in questing, opinion in decision-making, all things that are lacking in your traditional RPG, which tend to be extremely linear. Bethesda makes non-linear games. A bit more emotion and enhanced conversational AI from street NPCs would be great; I could see that really drawing you into their world and their concerns. But the question that that raises is how immobile do you make the player while this is happening? How long should a conversation be if you want to hear its entirety? How long is the player meant to wait? Some people would gladly wait to hear background, others want to get on their way ASAP. Bethesda games allow this, a more free-flowing open-world aspect to your standard RPG set. Plus, the main conflict and drama in any Bethesda game has always revolved around the main storyline, the MAIN storyline--everything else is just a time-filler. So summarily, TES games focus more on freedom of action than storytelling. As we all know, TES stories are extremely weak (I posted about this awhile back) and really should be improved for the sake of immersion. Some may mention Bioshock as an example of an excellent first-person experience with an excellent story--but then again, that is a Bioware release so it comes full-circle. But as we all know, Bioshock is also...very linear, not much freedom of action. In my book it's either one or the other. At least, that's what we've seen up to this point. Perhaps in the future the melding of the two successfully will come. And maybe even in a TES game!

How about this for a happy medium: an actual parchment MAP with locales and landmarks on it, with a big circle over where you currently are and a big X over your current objective. Bit more realistic that way, an actual map as Revengeance alluded to. You have to keep checking your map (as a real traveler does) as you walk, but you just head straight for the X that was marked.

Like I said, it's true that Bethesda could have done more to up the Oblivion awareness factor of the NPCs, but I think it's not so bad. I actually think it's pretty well-balanced. Remember Cheydinhal, those residents sure were petrified of the gate outside their city. Obviously, the main draw of the Oblivion gates was going inside them as opposed to their effect on the outside world. Skyrim dragons, on the other hand, are a lot more mobile than static Oblivion gates.

What I'm here for--great minds do think alike!

I think this is a brilliant idea. To elaborate it a bit: sneaking up on a bandit in a cave (or wherever) allows him to surrender to you. Then you have the option (obviously; this is TES, after all) of executing him or taking him to the law. If you bring him out to the nearest prison, you get a bounty of cash and/or some sort of faction/reputation increase with said prison guards, allowing better relations with them, perhaps better prices at their shop, easier recruiting of them to assist you in dungeon clearing, etc. So perhaps sneaking can be a fundamental element of Bounties. And perhaps sneaking classes (Thief, rogue, agent, etc.) can have an easier time capturing bandits/fugitives, or have an innately higher percentage of success. As for traveling, sure, you could slowly walk them out by yourself, taking the long route and get your reward. Or I would even allow fast-travel with a prisoner to the prison but give a lesser amount of gold/reputation/faction/standing. Gives the player an alternative for either choice--less time or more money/faction. Great option, this is. Gives the player a real viable alternative to the usual hack'n'slash and more like an advanced RPG.