What Skyrim Learned from Fallout 3

[Fajita]

I wonder if they learned to make a real PC interface rather than rely on the mod community to fix their mistakes?

Also I wonder if they fixed my major gameplay gripe about the bethesda games since Oblivion. Having markers on the map for undiscovered but "important" locations really breaks the immersion. Instead there should be environmental clues, npcs, and artifacts (maps and whatnot) that point you toward the interesting sites.

Now you can get a mod that turns those off but then you as a player going through the game the first time will miss a lot of stuff because there isn't anything in the environment that leads you to the cool places.

Also repeating having a total of 3 cave systems in your game then re-using them 100 times is just amateur.

You can change the opacity of your hud, so yes you can turn off your compass.

 

[Spencer Petersen]

And on that same topic, don't have an ending that ends your game and prevents you from playing after the events of the main storyline.

Pretty much this.

I simply hated that system on Fallout 3 and after all the complains and a DLC to open the world again guess what? They've done the same shit on New Vegas.

Having the game continue after the end is a shitty excuse to make the story meaningless. I'd rather have the story come to a satisfying conclusion and end on a high note than just roll credits and pop back up without anything changing.

Here's an idea. Put a clear PONR that the game autosaves at and can be accessed at any time to allow you to avoid being locked into the ending unwittingly. That way you can get your side-quest on after completing the game with a simple quick-load.

You know, it's funny you mention that, because that's exactly what Obsidian did for New Vegas: A big screen popped up telling you that this is where you can't come back from, and make sure you're ready etc. Immersion breaking, sure, but a lot better than Fallout 3 where if you forgot to save before the last mission you were out of hours of progress, or worse, your entire save.

That exactly why I feel New Vegas was so superb was because it had actual closure. While being able to play afterward would have been tits I feel the work required to implement every change that comes across in the ending scroll would be far too high and the payoff far too low to make it worthwhile. And if they let you play without making a change then it would undermine the significance of the ending altogether.

I also find it much better from an RP standpoint. The arc of your character in NV and FO3 (vanilla) had a definite beginning, middle and end. You emerged into the world, changed the world, and moved on. In FO3 (with the Broken Steel addon) the arc was cut down to the beginning and middle, with the middle stretching to the point where you got bored and just quit the game or started a new guy, making your character and consequently the game feel like it never amounted to much. For any of the game flaws, I feel what I did in NV and FO3 (vanilla) actually had impact, and seeing how little the world changed after Broken Steel all I felt was that the story didn't need me to progress after all.

 

[ASnogarD]

My biggest fear is that it will be as unstable as Fallout 3 ( PC )... I still havent been able to play again since the last attempt had me walk about for a long time, finally find my objective point and...

...crashed to desktop, re-load has me at the beginning of the walk. GTFO my PC !

I also believe it uses some of ID's tech as well, so there may be a few *koff* RAGE moments in there, Bethseda dont have a good recent history of smooth or even relatively smooth launches.

I'll wait for after the launch to see how Skyrim is, but it does intrigue me.

 

[Vault Citizen]

"You'll still run into the weaker stuff and you'll just decimate it."

I guess we can add him to the list of people who don't know what decimate means. Does anyone have that clip where the Mexican tells that bald guy he doesn't think that word means what he think it means?

edit - my mistake has been pointed out to me (twice), I just assumed he was wrong because removing one tenth of is the only context with which I ever have heard the word decimate.

 

[Blunderboy]

I might try and hibernate until November 11th.

 

[Pat8u]

"You'll still run into the weaker stuff and you'll just decimate it."

I guess we can add him to the list of people who don't know what decimate means. Does anyone have that clip where the Mexican tells that bald guy he doesn't think that word means what he think it means?

definition of decimate
1.Kill, destroy, or remove a large percentage of.
[link]http://thesaurus.com/browse/decimate[/link]
sounds about right,
an alternative to that sentence would be
"You'll still run into the weaker stuff and you'll annihilate/destroy it."
Hmm that thesaurus's definition defies my dictionary, anyways Decimate may not mean that but it has taken on a new meaning
(words can change meaning you know)


OT: They have different story teams people!

edit: wait he was using decimate in the "correct way" anyway, he meant that you will be able to kill large packs of the weaker stuff.

 

[vivster]

i thought they would've learned from fallout how to NOT do things^^

 

[Cpl.Flint]

And on that same topic, don't have an ending that ends your game and prevents you from playing after the events of the main storyline.

Pretty much this.

I simply hated that system on Fallout 3 and after all the complains and a DLC to open the world again guess what? They've done the same shit on New Vegas.

Having the game continue after the end is a shitty excuse to make the story meaningless. I'd rather have the story come to a satisfying conclusion and end on a high note than just roll credits and pop back up without anything changing.

Here's an idea. Put a clear PONR that the game autosaves at and can be accessed at any time to allow you to avoid being locked into the ending unwittingly. That way you can get your side-quest on after completing the game with a simple quick-load.

You know, it's funny you mention that, because that's exactly what Obsidian did for New Vegas: A big screen popped up telling you that this is where you can't come back from, and make sure you're ready etc. Immersion breaking, sure, but a lot better than Fallout 3 where if you forgot to save before the last mission you were out of hours of progress, or worse, your entire save.

That exactly why I feel New Vegas was so superb was because it had actual closure. While being able to play afterward would have been tits I feel the work required to implement every change that comes across in the ending scroll would be far too high and the payoff far too low to make it worthwhile. And if they let you play without making a change then it would undermine the significance of the ending altogether.

I also find it much better from an RP standpoint. The arc of your character in NV and FO3 (vanilla) had a definite beginning, middle and end. You emerged into the world, changed the world, and moved on. In FO3 (with the Broken Steel addon) the arc was cut down to the beginning and middle, with the middle stretching to the point where you got bored and just quit the game or started a new guy, making your character and consequently the game feel like it never amounted to much. For any of the game flaws, I feel what I did in NV and FO3 (vanilla) actually had impact, and seeing how little the world changed after Broken Steel all I felt was that the story didn't need me to progress after all.

I felt differently. I loved the open ending in Fallout 3 with the DLC. To see the changes that have occured from before and after I think is a great way to end the story. To see what your story and mission has actually built up to. Yes, the general quality of life was still as bad as ever and it wasn't a massive amount changed (pretty much just quest stuff), but I think if it was built on properly it could have been far superior.

As much as I'm disappointed theres no open ending for NV, I can sort of understand why. There are numerous ways to end the game. To incorporate a different world for each ending would be a lot of work, especially if its to be of a high quality. I do hope one is incorporated into skyrim. One where your choices are reflected upon in the world.

Either way I can't wait to get my hands on this game. My bank balance is going to pay for this up and coming november.

 

[Quellist]

So right, from making Fallout 3 they learned two things many other games companies have known for years? congrats on losing the training wheels Bethesda.

Honestly, being attacked by random bandits carrying better armor and weapons than any shop ever could sell(glass/ebony armor anyone?) got very old after a while. After the first few hours play i don't think i bought a single piece of armor or a weapon, bandits were much better at equipping me which begged the question as to whether they kept sneaking through Oblivion gate or into old tombs to equip themselves?

 

[Torrasque]

Inb4 http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/9238/ncravatar.jpg
Except replace that with TEH GRAY FAWKS/MUD CRAABS!!?!?!?/DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE EMPEROR!?!?!?
And a picture of annoying fucking High Elves... Gawd how I hate them...

 

[Vault Citizen]

"You'll still run into the weaker stuff and you'll just decimate it."

I guess we can add him to the list of people who don't know what decimate means. Does anyone have that clip where the Mexican tells that bald guy he doesn't think that word means what he think it means?

definition of decimate
1.Kill, destroy, or remove a large percentage of.
[link]http://thesaurus.com/browse/decimate[/link]
sounds about right,
an alternative to that sentence would be
"You'll still run into the weaker stuff and you'll annihilate/destroy it."
Hmm that thesaurus's definition defies my dictionary, anyways Decimate may not mean that but it has taken on a new meaning
(words can change meaning you know)


OT: They have different story teams people!

edit: wait he was using decimate in the "correct way" anyway, he meant that you will be able to kill large packs of the weaker stuff.

Huh, I didn't know decimate meant more than remove than by one tenth. I stand corrected.

 

[draythefingerless]

"You'll still run into the weaker stuff and you'll just decimate it."

I guess we can add him to the list of people who don't know what decimate means. Does anyone have that clip where the Mexican tells that bald guy he doesn't think that word means what he think it means?

I guess we can add you to the list of people who still think they live in the Roman Empire? Decimate has taken the meaning of greatly reduce numbers(wich can be applied to killing a shit ton of enemies)

 

[Vault Citizen]

I guess we can add you to the list of people who still think they live in the Roman Empire?

Now that you mention it I did find the lack of Centurions in my area odd, I just assumed the empire was being lax when it came to military presence in peace time.

 

[cthulhumythos]

well that sounds nice. i was already going to get the game, but it's always cooler to have even more reasons to look forward to it.

 

[draythefingerless]

I guess we can add you to the list of people who still think they live in the Roman Empire?

Now that you mention it I did find the lack of Centurions in my area odd, I just assumed the empire was being lax when it came to military presence in peace time.

Its obvious Caesar has had to cut down on the military sector to pick up on ammounted debts. I hear the Senate isnt very happy with this decision....they might make some cuts to his measures.

 

[AssassinFisH]

Well I guarantee it didn't learn how to make combat fun! Bethesda have no idea how to do that!

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

If they can learn anything from their previous games, is to make a PC launch that isn't buggy.

Ditto. I'm hoping the biggest lesson they learned is to do a better job of coding the game engine.

Who am I kidding? They will never learn.

 

[Nudu]

The conversation system has also been tweaked. "There's very few completely random conversations," said Howard. "We've gone more towards a system, like we did in Fallout 3, where they have a specific conversation with a specific person about various topics."

This is exactly what I've been afraid off the entire time...

 

[Zanaxal]

Deleted Annoying Massively drawn out Oblivion Talking system? Hmm intrigued.

Deleted horrible lvl up monster system where theres suddenly a a fire breathing Minotaur giant outside the starter farm. Hmm what is this"

No silly Oblivion rift everywhere?? Omg, the game suddenly isnt a crap sequal.

 

[Klepa]

"You'll still run into the weaker stuff and you'll just decimate it."

Does anyone have that clip where the Mexican tells that bald guy he doesn't think that word means what he think it means?

I do not think Mexican means what you think it means.

Back on Track:

As long as the game's main questline doesn't involve farming repetitive boring copy/paste dungeons over and over, I'm good. I've put in countless hours in Oblivion, but I've never completed the main quest, because not playing Oblivion is actually more fun than the goddamn gates.