4061

Fallout 3 is the game that finally got me to stop picking up everything.

4062

What was generated, and not randomly but based on your character’s level, was the content of the dungeon. Generated, but not random (in fact most modders turned that from “generated” to “random” and it still sucked in a different new way without fixing the root of the problem).

This sucked for the reason I explained here and again for the reason explained in that RPS article on Ultima 7:

Ultima VII was the first game I played that made me feel I was part of a world that didn’t revolve around me.
The dungeons of Oblivion, meaning the corridors and rooms, were assembled from certain sets (not so unlike Daggerfall, but in that case the assembling was random), so that also made them boring as there wasn’t that much variance after you visited one set. Most of them were just repetitions.

But in general the problem of Oblivion was that it was designed at its core as a fake bubble world that centered and depended on your character. So a true antithesis to the principle explained in the quote that made Ultima 7 and RPGs in general great: the exploration of a consistent world “out there”, where the player is the stranger exploring it.

4063

Really? How’s droping and re-working the entire leveling up mechanic is “more polishing”?

That was one thing that absolutely killed Oblivion for me and since it’s completely gone from Skyrim, I’d say “hated Oblivion (from the very begining), love Skyrim (so far)”.

4064

I am a packrat, for sure.

I don’t know about FO3, but in New Vegas, giving me sidekicks with inventory capacity means I can load up other people with useless stuff to wade through. Plus, you gotta have spares of everything for repair and maintenance, right?

4065

Unfortunately there’s one thing in Skyrim that’s poking through the cracks about the idea of a consistent world that exists outside of me. On some reloads in the overworld, I encountered a different enemy than before. One time it was a large man with two-handed weapon, and the next time I went up the hill it was a conjuration mage.

It’s an unfortunate limitation of the technology that everything needs to be instanced just in time. I can’t wait until we’ve moved beyond that.

4066

Uhhh… that mod makes the game look like ass. You get zero benefit from a sharpen filter, because it sharpens the distance as much as it sharpens everything else, making the whole scene look flat. His “AA replacement” bullshit makes subtle but noticeable bright marks on high contrast edges of objects.

Try it for yourself, seriously. This is like a Photoshop amateur’s definition of making something look “better.”

4067

Just picked up the hardcover collectors edition guide from the Fed Ex facility earlier. WOW, it’s like textbook quality (first game guide purchase in 13 years, since Age of Empires 1), without textbook prices.

Jesus, this thing is beautiful. I feel bad about not wanting to put it to good use till I complete the game a time or two. Soo many pages just dripping with gooey spoilers. But, it will look fantastic sitting on my shelf in the mean time.

4068

Well, that will probably never entirely happen. The next console generation will hopefully have around 8x the memory (4GB), but even that isn’t enough to simulate Skyrim’s whole world all the time. There will still be just-in-time instancing.

It’s just that hopefully the just-in-time radius will be 3x larger (e.g. just-in-time area 9x larger to match the 8x more memory), which should make it much, much less noticeable.

Personally I hope that future consoles enable Bethesda to start cranking up the character count. Cities as populous as Assassin’s Creed, or battles as large as Shogun’s? That could be insanely awesome…

4069

It’s still mostly a matter of spawn lists. With a static list everything would be fixed (but it makes sense to have spawn lists in the “wilderness”, as long you can’t generate a true ecosystem with all fixed entities that move around and live in the environment. But that’s less “game” and more technical experiment.

I would definitely use it if on my PC that difference of handful of FPS wasn’t crucial. It makes things look wonderful, especially long range and structures. I was also relishing looking at the stitches on someone’s cape. It sharpens things but also gives them an outline.

It helps a lot since textures are usually softened by the render.

4070

Aren’t there like a gazillion leveling mods for Oblivion though? Sure, “I hated Oblivion’s leveling system” makes sense, but to write off the game entirely because of a mechanic that’s reasonably easily replaced… well, your loss, really.

4071

Yeah, this happened to me last night. I was traveling along a road on my way to a quest destination and was ambushed by an assassin. I dispatched the assassin but was killed at a fort a little later. The reload put me back on the road and when I reached the place where the assassin had ambushed me previously, I saw someone at the side of the road. Thinking it was the assassin, I sneaked up and killed him with a well-placed arrow. Well, it turned out that it wasn’t the assassin this time but a wandering pilgrim who I had encountered before. Made me feel a twinge of guilt, but I looted the body all the same.

4072

I just got my SE guide in the mail. Looks nice on the shelf, but man the interior is just ugly.

4073

See above what I said about modders ;)

Switching the problem from one set to another doesn’t fix it. The problems of Oblivion are tied to its editor. In some ways it’s easier making a brand new game than trying to force Oblivion into a good one.

It’s a myth that you can completely change a game through an editor, you can only round some edges.

4074

No, it is just an incredible example of the depth of technology being used here. You died, so you reloaded, or went back in time! However, due to “the butterfly effect” your going back in time changed everything, even if only a little, due to ripple effects, and that indeed resulted in a different person coming down the road. Wow! ;)

I’m actually good with the person coming down the road in the overworld being somewhat random. As I was climbing up a mountain, at night, I was repeatedly killed by someone on the trail, with no way to avoid her, and every reload I was hoping it would be someone else this time. Never was. :(

4075

I’ve played a hell of a lot of myths over the years then.

4076

Ok gonna ask a very noobish question here- feel free to flame me but ONLY if you actually answer my question.

On the PC version, am I correct in thinking that you cannot have 2 characters at the same time-ie if you want a second character, you must delete your first, right?

4077

No, not true. But, you’ll auto and quicksave over your old saves if you don’t create a separate save game for your prior character.

4078

Anyone think that the General of the Imperial Legion is Colonel Ty from Battlestar Galactica?

4079

You are probably right, I probably could have modded the hell out of Oblivion and end up liking the result. It wouldn’t be the Oblivion game as released by Bethesda though.

Besides, who would sift through “gazillion mods” for a game they hated?

4080

It is. Check IMDB.