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quote:
Originally posted by Anonymous
Your wrong.. At level 3 there was a vampire lair. It was still a vampire lair when I was level 22. Besides The type of location is set otherwise the strategy guide maps would be totaly useless if the inhabitants of location would change from a goblin lair to a vampire lair.
Ok sorry, maybe I should have expressed myself better and have replaced vampire by "ancient vampire" or however the high level vampires in Oblivion are called.
My point is that Oblivion does not really offer open-ended gameplay. What Bethesda has done is simply adding a fourth dimension that gives the illusion of open-endedness:
In any other RPG, e.g. Gothic for that matter, the position of the player is simply given by his 3D-position (x,y,z). Monsters, items, NPCs etc. that the player faces are determined by that position alone and the player is free to move as he likes.
Bethesda now added a "w"-component represented by the player's level. Thus, whatever the player sees is determined by x,y,z, and w. However, the open-endedness of Oblivion is restricted to the x,y,z components - you are not free to move in w-direction as you like.
A step in w-direction is only possible by leveling up, and there is no way back - ever!
Pretty much the same like Dungeon Siege  |
Tue Apr 11, 2006 10:53 pm |
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Moxie
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 12 Apr 2004
Posts: 38
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Back to sales, this is good news for Gothic and all PC RPGs. Developers trying to convince investors that RPGs with depth can pay off (even on consoles) now have some hard numbers to show.
This probably also means that Oblivion may have the most impact as a game since Grand Theft Auto 3. It's unwise for RPG fans to splinter over details. We should cheer for any decent RPG because it only makes the world better for us in the long run. |
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Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:38 am |
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puredesighee
Guest
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You can solve the game on level 1, if you never rest to level up.
Yes, the levelling system, although allowing free range to go anywhere, does get rid of one of the most important aspects of RPG, which is a sense of accomplishment. I felt in Morrowind the cardboard NPC's destroyed the immersion factor for me. In Oblivion the levelling system is an issue.
I.E. People being too hard to kill that later become beatable and then fodder for your might. When the world always matches you, what is the point of levelling up? There is also the issue that at high levels bandits on the highway have equipment that could be sold for a lifetime of luxury - why are they still bandits?
Thankfully, the mod system makes it possible to transform Oblivion into the game you want it to be. There are two major mods that change the levelling system substantially, to give the sense of accomplishment and the sense of challenge - Oscuro's Oblivion overhaul and Francesco's overhaul. I use Francesco's as it is less drastic and therefore seems more stable potentially, but many people love Oscuro's. They do substantially change the feel of the game - for the better. Here are the list of mods I am using, which in my opinion, make Oblivion fulfill it's promise.
AFCharLevelingMod - Change the way you level up, so you don't have to grind out skills you don't care about to get proper multiples when levelling up.
Attack and Hide Medium - Allows you to sneak attack, run away, and have the potential to hide from your pursuers like in Thief (in vanilla game, once they lock onto you, there is no losing them)
ChaseCameraMod - Changes the camera in third person view to what PC gamers expect, instead of the clunky default console camera approach.
Compass_Marker_Reducer - Allows new points of interest to show on your map only when you are within eyesight of them, instead of magically adding them to your map from a mile away.
CompleteNames - Gets rid of the generic NPC names and gives them all unique names. (Imperial Guard Posthumous instead of Imperial Guard).
CoupDeGrace - Adds a weapon which has a chance to insta-kill a sleeping enemy
DEJ_harvest - removes the graphics from harvested alchemy herbs for 3 days so that you know what you have harvested and what you haven't.
puredesigheemod - Some things I changed myself. Greater chance to recover arrows from inventory. Doubles the length of days, which makes thievery better.
dyeso_Promptat2Items - Instead of bringing up a "How many do you want to sell/drop" windows at 3+ items, it does it at 2+
Extended Death Camera - Just for fun. Let's you see what happens to your body with the ragdoll physics after death. Also gives you more time to quick load instead of having to go back to the main menu.
Francesco's Levelled Creatures - Talked about above. This or Oscuro's is essential in my opinion to an RPG experience with Oblivion.
GuilesNameReplaceScrolls - Just for immersion. Changes the names of all the scrolls from "Flash 5 points" to "Junga's Minor Jolt", etc.
KT_DetectHostility - New spells which when cast on someone lets you know if they are friend or foe. Useful in the wild when you run across a shrine and just don't know how they feel about you.
Light Elven Weapons and Mithril Armor - Doesn't make sense that these weigh more than steel or iron. They are elves for god's sake.
LowRechargeCost - One of the effects of the Francesco/Oscuro mod is that you get less mega equipment at high levels, and thus less money. This lowers the cost to rechare your items (which was too high even without the overhaul mods, IMHO)
Marksman Velocity - Increases the speed of arrows for you and enemies based on the type/quality of the arrow. They were a bit lazy in default Oblivion. There is another one that does this for spells - Arcane Velocity - that I haven't used yet.
Mercenaries - Allows you to hire mercenary NPC's. They can fight for you or guard your houses, etc.
MoreMerchantMoney - Increases the amount of money merchants have, based on their mercantile skill. The harder they are to bargain with, the more gold they have. Does not increase it by obscene amounts like other mods. Mixed with the lack of cash from Franceso's mod, it introduces balance.
Natural_Weather - Without a performance hit, improves the look and feel of skies.
No compass quest marker - Just removes the red arrow on your compass that constantly guides you towards your goal, even if your character should not really know exactly where the goal is.
No Psychic Guards Harder - People screaming for guards will only be heard for a particular distance from their house. If the screams are not heard, the guards do not come. More like Thief.
NoLoad - Just gets rid of the console "Loading" sign every ten seconds when in the wilderness.
Quest Award Levelling - Many quest awards have different levels based on when you do the quest. Do it at 15, get the level 15 version. At level 10, get a weaker version. This makes the quest items level up with you. Mixed with the fact that loot is greatly reduced with Francesco's mod, makes the special quest items more useful throghout the game.
Quiet Feet - Performance mod. Creatures with more than 2 feet use a lot of memory to generate separate foot sounds for each foot. You don't really hear a wolf's footsteps on the grass as they charge you anyway - this just removes the foot sounds to increase performance.
Reduced Backwards Speed - In the vanilla game, you can run backwards as fast as forwards, like in a FPS. This makes it too easy for archers and mages to just keep going backwards firing at creatures, and is not believable - who runs backwards as fast as forwards. Slows it down a bit so enemies will be able to catch you and you need more strategy than backwards circling and constant firing.
Theiving Gold - Mildly increases the amount of gold you can get from items you steal at people's houses. It was a little nerfed in the vanilla Oblivion, and with the massive drop in gold from Francesco's/Oscuro's mods, gives opportunity to make money. Really is not a major increase, but makes random thieving more rewarding and worthwhile.
TJ_HorseNames - Just gives unique names to all the horses.
VanityCameraSmoother - Very small. When looking at your character in vanity mode, just slows down the camera so you can actually see yourself.
I also added the increased textures mod on far away objects, so they look less like soup and more like mountains and buildings.
Of course, the most essential BTMOD, which more than doubles the amount of items you see in each inventory/spell list screen. it also increases the size of the map to use the whole screen, instead of the console friendly small version.
I also shrank the crosshair by 50% to make it less obtrusive, and to make it easier to actually shoot people with arrows - the crosshair used to block them out.
Moved the sneak icon from the middle of the screen to the bottom right, next to the health/fatigue/etc. icons on the bottom. Less obtrusive and thus more immersion when sneaking.
I also moved the icons at the bottom of the screen more towards the bottom of the screen (but still fully visible) so that they weren't so obnoxiiously in the way when moving around the world.
Better normal map on faces, so they aren't quite so ugly.
Moved the map out by 25% so you can see more of Tamriel, or the cave you are in, on one screen.
And of course, implemented significant performance and visual enhancing settings in the ini file, based on the tweak guide at tweaktown.
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May seem like a lot, but it is a looong game if played at a leisurely pace, and I had a lot of fun trying out mods and seeing what creative things people have come up with. I now have no major annoyances with the game, and really enjoy playing it. |
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Wed Apr 12, 2006 4:02 am |
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Gorath
Mostly Harmless
Joined: 03 Sep 2001
Posts: 6327
Location: NRW, Germany |
quote:
Originally posted by Moxie
Back to sales, this is good news for Gothic and all PC RPGs. Developers trying to convince investors that RPGs with depth can pay off (even on consoles) now have some hard numbers to show.
This probably also means that Oblivion may have the most impact as a game since Grand Theft Auto 3. It's unwise for RPG fans to splinter over details. We should cheer for any decent RPG because it only makes the world better for us in the long run.
+1
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Webmaster GothicDot |
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Wed Apr 12, 2006 4:02 pm |
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