Dissillusioned?

[Herculine]

I'm thankful that we have the Construction Sets for both Morrowind and Oblivion; I believe it's mods that keep these great games alive for most of us. But I can't help but feel that these tools totally shatter the illusion of game immersion for us. Being able to see everywhere and to see things I shouldn't know exist (like reference markers, for example), being able to manipulate everything in the world like a deity and seeing just how autonomous the AI setup is after having been so impressed by it -- things like this took much of the wonderment out of the game experience for me. I'm not trying to say that I wish the CS never existed because I love mods and modding, I'm just wondering if anyone else feels the same way I do. Does using things like TES4Gecko, Wrye Bash and the Construction Set spoil the immersion for you?

[myrmaad]

Not at all, for me. Not even a little bit.

 

I'm very blessed to have a strong imagination, ability for suspension of disbelief when it comes to fantasy genre -- games, movies, books, theater.

[Iapetus]

No.

I really enjoy using the CS. Sure, I suddenly see things that I could never see in-game, but that doesn't bother me one bit.

[LHammonds]

You are going about it the wrong way. There is no spoon.

 

The game IS the Construction Set and vanilla Oblivion is just an example of what can be done with it.

[dezdimona]

Not at all, for me. Not even a little bit.

 

I'm very blessed to have a strong imagination,

 

I second that! :biggrin:

[Rethrain]

A tad, you do lose that sense of wonder, but in the end you would have even if there is no CS. And it's quite like Hammond say it is. Mods infuse a small sense of wonder afterward. Even so, I remember NWN2 fans saying that the game (edit#1: NWN2 itself, I thought I needed to clarify) was just useful as a CS and pretty graphics, but I didn't think it was in a complementary tone.

[Herculine]

You are going about it the wrong way. There is no spoon.

 

The game IS the Construction Set and vanilla Oblivion is just an example of what can be done with it.

 

Beautifully stated; puts things into an entirely different perspective.

[Pronam]

I can join your view that it changes the immersion indeed at least for a bit, but indeed I couldn't do without the CS.

You could say that the fun of the game (CS+Oblivion) have a balance..Players generally lean at the oblivion side and modders at the CS side. You could say the experience is lessened at modders, but I think it is just replaced by another realism.

There are indeed modders that kind of lost the feeling with the game and spend more time in the CS than in the game.

 

I know a lot of different set modders though, to the very experienced ones that didn't loose the feeling with the game at all. They see it as a way to enhance the game, although you know you've just made a script that the companion will sit when you sit. When they are in the game, it looks great..This reflects at a lot of modders that are also roleplayers..

 

I think it is all just another stage of the experience of the game. Once this one is passed, the old experience gets united with the new one, creating one that is far better than you had before.

[Megatarius]

I've never used the CS, but I have used other such tools for other games in the past.

 

 

On the one hand the wonder at being in a world is gone once you look inside it, but it is replaced with an even better wonder.

 

 

 

I like going beyond the borders of the game and running as far as I can into the blank land until I reach the edge. Sometimes land is still there. The whole section of the map between Anvil and Leyawiin is my favorite place for this because the solid land ends and yet there's still land, whole mountain ranges, extending off into the distance, completely barren like an alien world. But you just fall through it into Blue Hell if you jump and then it makes a brown square to catch you before the game crashes from having to calculate too much falling distance. I noticed after a while that the game works by making a radius of solid land around you (until you go far enough off the map), and everything else you see, even distant hills about 50 yards ahead, is actually just the non-solid stuff. Also, the radius of solid land is created somewhat above the non-solid land. The non-solid land has a uniform distant grass texture that looks great in the fully developed game area, but the effect becomes obvious at the edge beyond the borders.

 

 

I just finished a degree in Animation and Visual Effects with a focus on environmental modeling. I know how it's all done. I can watch a visually stunning movie like Transformers Revenge of the Fallen or Star Trek and think of several different ways to create this or that shot. Sometimes it does ruin the movie. Sometimes the magic is gone when I think of all the long hours it takes the rigging team just to set up Optimus Prime's hand gestures. Knowing the technical reality of fantasy can ruin it sometimes, yes. Also really bad writing and directing can ruin things, but that's a different story.

 

 

But then the magic is back when I think, "Hey, I know how to make stuff like this, so why don't I just do that?" It's a better magic, to know how to do your own vision, than to just stare at someone else's.

[SpacemanSpIiff]

Nope, it wasnt the CS that ruined it, it was the degree im in down here at fullsail. Im in the game art bachelors program, more then half way through....yea, I know all the little secrets and shortcuts game developers make, and I know how most of everything you see in the game is done.

 

Most of the time I try to not think about it while Im playing a game...but man... :confused: