Elder Scrolls V: How can Bethesda learn from Bioware

[Zeromaeus]

And that, children, is why VATS shouldn't be in Skyrim.

Who said it should be? VATS was just the remnants of Fallout's turn-based-tactics gameplay crammed into a neat convenient feature for when you want to play Fallout the RPG instead of Fallout the shooter. TES has always been slashy, slashy adventure time. Why would it get VATS?

I think a lot of people on the Bethesda forums argued about it around the time Fallout 3 came out. I highly doubt they'll go that route. Speaking of Skyrim... I'm a little worried about that setting. Isn't it pretty much always snowing in Skyrim? I hope they can find a way to give Skyrim a dynamic ambiance.

Where did you hear of Skyrim being the new area, btw? I coulda sworn that I heard Black Marsh...

 

[Fappy]

How can you say that Oblivion's setting was any good? It was the same square of land copied and pasted a million times over. Yes, Morrowind's setting was good, but if the setting was really the focus of Oblivion, then they need to focus on something else instead.

Well, I actually enjoyed Oblivions setting, cause it wasn't drastic changes like most fantasy games, it was slow. You had different settings, you had a marsh, a forest, a farmland, coast line, and a snowy mountain area. So, it wasn't one square piece of land copied over and over. It just wasn't abrupt changes, so its easier to miss. Besides, you mean to tell em you didn't find the old ruins cool looking?

The old ruins were cool looking the first time I saw 'em. After going through the same old ruins in different locations another five hundred times for side-quests and leveling, no, they weren't very cool.

Dwemer Ruins weren't a whole lot better... besides... you know, having actual good/cool loot and some really interesting lore to back them up.

 

[thethingthatlurks]

How can you say that Oblivion's setting was any good? It was the same square of land copied and pasted a million times over. Yes, Morrowind's setting was good, but if the setting was really the focus of Oblivion, then they need to focus on something else instead.

Well, I actually enjoyed Oblivions setting, cause it wasn't drastic changes like most fantasy games, it was slow. You had different settings, you had a marsh, a forest, a farmland, coast line, and a snowy mountain area. So, it wasn't one square piece of land copied over and over. It just wasn't abrupt changes, so its easier to miss. Besides, you mean to tell em you didn't find the old ruins cool looking?

Yes, it was varied, but it didn't really feel like it. It's hard to explain, but the swamps around Bravil did not seem too different from the mountains, or the area in between Kvatch and Anvil. But maybe it was just the bandits wearing glass armor that made it all look samey, or the fact that I could have sworn that a beggar in town A was running town B...
Oblivion was a great game, but it wasn't the sort of thing you'd want to play again ten years from now. RDR showed how an open world should be done, and I wouldn't mind something like that for TES, along with about 100 more voice actors (don't have to be big budget, I'd actually prefer amateurs), overworked skill systems, primarily designed for the PC to take full advantage of technology, and a main story that is as good as Morrowind's.

 

[Fappy]

And that, children, is why VATS shouldn't be in Skyrim.

Who said it should be? VATS was just the remnants of Fallout's turn-based-tactics gameplay crammed into a neat convenient feature for when you want to play Fallout the RPG instead of Fallout the shooter. TES has always been slashy, slashy adventure time. Why would it get VATS?

I think a lot of people on the Bethesda forums argued about it around the time Fallout 3 came out. I highly doubt they'll go that route. Speaking of Skyrim... I'm a little worried about that setting. Isn't it pretty much always snowing in Skyrim? I hope they can find a way to give Skyrim a dynamic ambiance.

Where did you hear of Skyrim being the new area, btw? I coulda sworn that I heard Black Marsh...

I just keep hearing everyone say Skyrim haha. Personally Black Marsh would be pretty damn cool and would make for a pretty dark story.

 

[Zeromaeus]

How can you say that Oblivion's setting was any good? It was the same square of land copied and pasted a million times over. Yes, Morrowind's setting was good, but if the setting was really the focus of Oblivion, then they need to focus on something else instead.

Well, I actually enjoyed Oblivions setting, cause it wasn't drastic changes like most fantasy games, it was slow. You had different settings, you had a marsh, a forest, a farmland, coast line, and a snowy mountain area. So, it wasn't one square piece of land copied over and over. It just wasn't abrupt changes, so its easier to miss. Besides, you mean to tell em you didn't find the old ruins cool looking?

Yes, it was varied, but it didn't really feel like it. It's hard to explain, but the swamps around Bravil did not seem too different from the mountains, or the area in between Kvatch and Anvil. But maybe it was just the bandits wearing glass armor that made it all look samey, or the fact that I could have sworn that a beggar in town A was running town B...
Oblivion was a great game, but it wasn't the sort of thing you'd want to play again ten years from now. RDR showed how an open world should be done, and I wouldn't mind something like that for TES, along with about 100 more voice actors (don't have to be big budget, I'd actually prefer amateurs), overworked skill systems, primarily designed for the PC to take full advantage of technology, and a main story that is as good as Morrowind's.

I'd do a voice for peanuts.

 

[Snotnarok]

Bethesta needs more balance in their games, having a stat determine how many points overall you get to spend on a level up is NOT a good idea. It basically forces you to put points to something otherwise your character suffers for it.

Also Bethesta needs more/better animations, I often think they just reused Morrowinds stuff.

 

[Drexlor]

[HEADING=1]The Bethesda Dialogue Test[/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]Determining Whether You Have Enough Voice Actors[/HEADING]

Test 1: A character is speaking. Does the character responding have the same voice?
Yes.
You need more voice actors.

Test 2: Congratulations on hiring more voice actors! Have you hired someone famous?
Yes.
Do they die during the tutorial?
Yes.
Think of the starving children your wastefulness could have fed. Did you even consider utilizing their talents?
No.
You are the reason children die of cancer.

Test 3: I saw a mudcrab today!
Hello!
Rewrite your dialogue trees.

Congratulations on completing this test. I look forward to halting, criminal scum.​

My thoughts exactly.

 

[Judgement101]

Bethesda's RPGs are much different than Bioware's so they don't have to learn anything.

 

[Zeromaeus]

You know what I'd like. More lore about the dragons. You know? The dragons that went poof sometime in history.

 

[blankedboy]

They need to learn from their own mistakes, and make a Morrowind-style game.
Also, they should focus on the game world WITHOUT making it just about 50 kilometres of grass, forest, and lake.

 

[Fappy]

How can you say that Oblivion's setting was any good? It was the same square of land copied and pasted a million times over. Yes, Morrowind's setting was good, but if the setting was really the focus of Oblivion, then they need to focus on something else instead.

Well, I actually enjoyed Oblivions setting, cause it wasn't drastic changes like most fantasy games, it was slow. You had different settings, you had a marsh, a forest, a farmland, coast line, and a snowy mountain area. So, it wasn't one square piece of land copied over and over. It just wasn't abrupt changes, so its easier to miss. Besides, you mean to tell em you didn't find the old ruins cool looking?

The old ruins were cool looking the first time I saw 'em. After going through the same old ruins in different locations another five hundred times for side-quests and leveling, no, they weren't very cool.

Dwemer Ruins weren't a whole lot better... besides... you know, having actual good/cool loot and some really interesting lore to back them up.

Yea I know, just saying that everything about Oblivion felt uniform, whereas Morrowind had a decent amount of variety.

I completely agree. Morrowind's greatest success as a setting was how Vvardenfell was split between the three houses, the temple, the empire and the ashlanders. The landscape was only really bland in the center and mid-northern part of the map and the variety of architecture and city design was freaking incredible.

 

[Zeromaeus]

They need to learn from their own mistakes, and make a Morrowind-style game.
Also, they should focus on the game world WITHOUT making it just about 50 kilometres of grass, forest, and lake.

No. They need to make and Elder Scrolls V kind of game. Take the best from everything, add more to it, and make it better. That's what Elder Scrolls does most of the time.

 

[Fappy]

You know what I'd like. More lore about the dragons. You know? The dragons that went poof sometime in history.

Apparently there is at least one dragon alive, but he's in the continent East of Tamriel where the Nevarine left to after Morrowind.

 

[migo]

I think the issue is Bethesda bit off more than they could chew. There's no way they can hire enough voice actors to have proper dialogue for a game like Oblivion. I haven't played Fallout 3, but it strikes me that with a post apocalyptic setting you could have far more monsters and far fewer characters to interact with, therefore dealing with it better. What they'd be better off doing is creating a new setting entirely, that's heavily populated with monsters and dungeons and quests, but sparsely populated with people, and even possibly throw something interesting in with some of the people speaking a different language so you need to figure out how to communicate with them otherwise, or just implement a "speak languages" spell that has dialogue subtitles come up. That's the biggest issue I had with Oblivion. Otherwise, it was great fun and I liked being able to run around and do whatever I wanted, kind of MMORPG style, without worrying about the main quest.

 

[ultrachicken]

Make better combat and characters is all that I want in the next Elder Scrolls. I don't like to make decisions that affect the main storyline because they either carry weight, in which case there is one choice that will obviously be better because it will have the least bad consequences, or the decisions don't really matter, in which case why have them at all?

 

[Zeromaeus]

I think the issue is Bethesda bit off more than they could chew. There's no way they can hire enough voice actors to have proper dialogue for a game like Oblivion. I haven't played Fallout 3, but it strikes me that with a post apocalyptic setting you could have far more monsters and far fewer characters to interact with, therefore dealing with it better. What they'd be better off doing is creating a new setting entirely, that's heavily populated with monsters and dungeons and quests, but sparsely populated with people, and even possibly throw something interesting in with some of the people speaking a different language so you need to figure out how to communicate with them otherwise, or just implement a "speak languages" spell that has dialogue subtitles come up. That's the biggest issue I had with Oblivion. Otherwise, it was great fun and I liked being able to run around and do whatever I wanted, kind of MMORPG style, without worrying about the main quest.

I like the foreign language idea. It wouldn't be hard to get voices, though. Not much talent is needed to make voices for peasants and the like.

 

[Fappy]

You know what I'd like. More lore about the dragons. You know? The dragons that went poof sometime in history.

Apparently there is at least one dragon alive, but he's in the continent East of Tamriel where the Nevarine left to after Morrowind.

Akaviri?

I know too much

But an Akaviri world sounds cool. It'd definitely give them an originality reboot.

Sadly all the humans there were eaten by Snake-Vampire people lol. Although, here's a cool bit of lore I learned recently: The Blades got their military tactics, weapons and armor styles from the Akaviri... which is why all the Blades stuff is so Asian in style and feel.

It would be pretty bad ass to have a TES game set there though. Who wouldn't want to be Monkey and Tiger people?

 

[Locko96]

I enjoy Bioware's games more but I think that it's good for Bethesda to have their own way of making games.

 

[burgbrand22]

What they both need to do is quit revolving their rpgs around elves, space marines, and jedis.

How about something more original.