Boring

[MDRud216]

After some rapid posting in the official oblivion forum it dawned on me. After you beat morrowind once it becomes extremely boring. And now I know why, the caps are too high.

 

As soon as you reach the point where you are powerful enough to take on anything you lose the suspense of vulnerability. I hope this will be overcome in Oblivion, but it would require more then just setting caps lower.

 

1. Traveling through the wilderness I don't want to see a grizzley bear and think nothing of hacking it down with my sword or outrunning it- no matter how powerful you are a grizzley bear should always be able to kick your butt.

2. When you come across a "pack" of wolves they all just run at you and you can hit them all with swords or outrun them. They should have the AI to use pack tactics, using drivers and other wolves to flank you, and again, even if you can kill gods you should not be able to outrun preadators.

3. The paw swipe animations and jaw snapping that deals out damage is not scary, i want to be running from a grizzley bear and get tackled from behind, my screen go black and when i see the bear it is thrashing and swiping at me while i am under it. More realistic, diverse and threatening sound effects would help in this category.

4. Animals should see you long before you see them... and in the case of the wolves: be hunting you long before you see them. And to elaborate, you should be hearing twigs crack in the woods and light footfalls, breathing before you see them.

5. hmmm, what else does morrowind need that Oblivion should have if it is going to be succesful to me? Anything else that will give you a near constant sense of danger! I want it to be a relief once i set foot inside of a town. "phew, i made it." and be scared to leave again.

 

Disclaimer: Yes I know that the elder scrolls games are for making characters that become heroins and fight demons and gods and... grizzley bears, but before that (at least) you need a sense of danger, and afterward if possible. But if not, your super character will drive you into boredom like mine did.

 

So there are some replies I better say: So, what do you guys think?

[Dark0ne]

Totally agree with the comment about Morrowind's combat content only being thrilling for the first 25 levels or so. Anything above that and you won't have a problem. Hence why I think there need to be some high-level dungeons, all the way up to challenging for level 60's. I'm not sure how many mods there are out there for high level characters, but I'm sure there are some.

 

As for a grizzly bear always being able to take you... hardly. There are people in this world who can kill a grizzly with a bow and arrow, so why shouldn't a master swordsman be able to?

[Dilvish]

I agree. At some high level the challenge will go away. For me, at level 25 Tribunal and Bloodmoon are still a challenge. I would say at about level 40 the challenge begins to fade. That's when I start thinking about starting a new character.

I have fifteen developed characters now. Fourteen of them are rich and famous and have retired. Their average level is 38. My highest level character is at level 61.

Putting a level cap on Obilivion would outrage the players who like to have characters of undisputed and invincible uberness. Players who like to roleplay with diverse characters who have vulnerabilities will tend to start new characters periodically.

[_Atti_]

yea...not to mention when wildlife allies with berserkers,ghosts,treespirits:)

 

wildlife is hunting YOU,its all the meaning of their 'lives':)

 

in the book of the aiprogrammers at Bethesda even the 'horkers' and wolves/bears are good friends:)

[MDRud216]

the vulnerability is harder to do in an rpg, obviously because you are getting stronger all that time. On the other hand an fps like STALKER will undoubtedly have that sense of constant danger because you don't level up.

 

I don't think a swordsman could take down a grizzly, the latter weighs 4-5 times as much and is at least that many times stronger.

[Switch]

I like being able to, eventually, reach a point where my character is unbeatable. But I agree it happens way too fast in Morrowind. :P They could certainly have done with some high level dungeons with specific spawns for 50+ players with nice loot as a reward.

 

I expect Oblivion will be much more difficult than Morrowind. Morrowind was sort of a first stab at a modern RPG by Bethesda, they concentrated mainly on the storyline and non-linear gameplay, details etc, not combat. We've seen from the reviews that there will be a far more interactive battle system in Oblivion, not a simple point and click system.

[Adras]

Well, I hope its not too complicated. I like stuff thats indepth, but I dont want to do a whole bunch of crap just to thud someone on the head with a rather sharp piece of enlongated metal.

[MDRud216]

all hail a new combat system then!

 

edit: oh and another thing! the saving system needs desperate revision. You can never feel scared when you know that whatever happens you can just load it back up and go around the danger, or save before you go into a fight and keep trying it over and over until you beat it by sheer luck. Or save before you enter an unknown dungeon. I don't know exactly what else could work though.

[Raven7669]

I agree with you on the saving system, but thats only if you take advantage of it. You could always police yourself if your character dies start another one. Its nice to be able to reload in case you stuble into something over your head. Can you imagine losing weeks of character development just because you run into a grizzly. I realize this takes away from the reality but then again it is a fantasy world.

[Abramul]

Methinks an option like "Divine Saves" would be beneficial. If active, one would only be permitted to save at holy places. Of course, if you wanted to be evil, you'd have to go to UNholy places, but same idea.