Character development in Oblicion

[LoginToDownload]

I'm pretty sure "Character Development" here is meant in more of a narrative sense than a gameplay sense.

[jaysus]

sounds like the op meant the quests rather than the levelling... who knows...

[tungol]

sounds like the op meant the quests rather than the levelling... who knows...

who indeed? and since he hasn't been back to clarify, I'm thinking blacksnake may have been right. (about op being a troll, that is.)

[Creixhitme]

Sorry guys but I am back to clarify.. I did mean a more sort of narrative development, meaning personality and actual in depth soul development and crap. The skills and attribute system I personally like more than any other game out there, as your skills increase so does your 'level' instead of the other way round. But i actually meant the sort of character as in characteristics of their mind, not physical attributes.

[tungol]

Ah, good!

Now this I totally agree with.

Apart from what guilds you join (and you can join them all if you want), there's really nothing at all to identify what sort of person your character is. I had a thief character, and figured he really wouldn't fit in the Blades, so he didn't join. OK, fine. He shoots himself in the foot, basically, for the sake of aesthetics. Likewise for the guilds. The only one you might NOT want to join is DB. The others are all benefit with no consequences. Even the "role playing" responses you can make (e.g. "He's lying face down in a pool of blood.") are completely without significance.

 

I'm (very slowly) working on a world mod, and I had this idea: suppose I made it so as you talk to people, the answers you give, or in some cases the questions you ask, determine what sort of interactions and quests will be made available to you in the future. Unlike in Vanilla, you wouldn't be able to do all the quests. By gaining access to some, you'd be shut out from others.

 

In some ways, the quest mods you install develop your character somewhat. Oh, and I guess choosing Mania or Dementia is a little bit of character development.

 

Something else I was thinking about was building relationships. Sure, you can get that shopkeeper to like you if you keep selling to him. But why bother when you can just zap him with a spell? But I think having a relationship with a NPC is perfectly possible through the CS, but it would have its own variable--it wouldn't be Disposition--and you could only boost it or damage it by long-term interaction. Then you could get access to special items, quests, lodging, companions, whatever. Likewise, if you did have a companion, how you treated them would affect that relationship ("looks dangerous; you go first" isn't going to fly for too long.). Seems like there was a companion mod that worked that way. It may have been the alchemist companion, but I don't know. (Don't use 'em.)

[GenghisKhanIT]

Character development in Oblivion would suck if it was a "guided" RPG.

 

It is not.

 

Just consider it as a fantasy action/sneaking game with character improvement in the process. From this perspective the game is very good as it is.

 

Really, BethSoft did not try to add any distinction driven or determined by the game between all the possible characters you could create. Your character is a murderer, a paladin or a sorcerer only based on how you play it and in this is really open RPG.

 

I guess something more was planned basing on fame/infamy points. For example the often mentioned point of not allowing you to get certain quests if your f/i was too high or low. Or people fleeing from you when infamy is very high or adorating you when fame is very high.

 

Overall, I think that unluckily the game was rushed to the shelves because being already late, so this feature, and many more, were never brought to completion.

 

More clues of this are: telekinesis spell, willpower chance to resist spells, disposition mini-game, "jokes told" and more I can't think of at the moment.

[Creixhitme]

Hmm. I wondered about some of those things myself. Well games are always late...if theres one early ill be surprised. I do agree with what you said about the kind of role-playing game. But still....I guess, to do something so complex as to add it in a free RPG would be rather difficult and take a lot of work. Games Like Assassins's Creed have pretty good character devlopment, but in the game theres only one way to go. In neverwinter nights the character development is pretty good.

 

However what I don't like in Oblivion is how, like even if your a sick male without a father who murders kids for fun, you still have to be Martin's friend and save the world. I mean, you don't have to, but whats the point? The fame/infamy system is alright, but it really isnt that complex, and doesn't have such a large effect on gameplay. All it really does, is either make guards say "Top of morning watch and all's well! How can i help you" or "You call yourself a citizen of the empire!?" and yada yada yada. You can make decision in quests, but, even what you say...it's not very descriptive. You click the topic and what-ho! You can't say like "Hmm. Close shut the jaws of Oblivion...What did he mean?" or "Ah the old man babbling about Oblivion and jaws and some poo."

 

Also in response to the free rpg thing the npc really don't have such development either. It's all vague. The strongest example I can think of is Martin, or the fighters guild champion. Theres really very little NPC depth too

[tungol]

I think some of this shallowness (and of other annoying things, like not having any spears), especially for the NPC's is the result of trying to cram a game this graphic-intense onto two CD's (and that includes KOTN & SI!)

But by the time ES5 is out, mods will have satisfied all these desires.

 

And then we can start working on a new set of deficiencies.