Oblivion's wasted potential

Post » Wed Aug 26, 2009 5:14 am

Would rather not have something half-finished that I have to pay full price for. I don't want huge gaping holes and obvious tell-tale signs of left-out content. Either get it all done in time for the deadline, or finish it post deadline as a "sorry, the evil powers that be made us publish this game before we were ready, but we'll finish it soon so you won't have wasted your $60 to $80." Or just scrub all signs of left-out content from the game so that no one is the wiser.

Which negative result outweighs the other? To have a game where lots of content had to be cut to avoid delays, or to have a game delayed at significant monetary costs to the company? Sure, you might get your nice game, but at the cost of the development studio going into a downward spiral that might result in them not being able to put out high-quality content?

And they already did delay Oblivion once. A second time would've been overkill. Just think of all the things that might've been cut had they not delayed the first time.
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Emily Shackleton
 
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Post » Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:47 am

And they already did delay Oblivion once. A second time would've been overkill. Just think of all the things that might've been cut had they not delayed the first time.



With tens of millions of dollars on the line, the pressure to ship as soon as possible must be overwhelming. Having managed development deadlines (not software, but the result must be the same) myself, design decisions may change daily. Aspects of the design may take longer than expected and decisions need to be made on how to reallocate resources. One must plan the inclusion of ll aspects that may be possible to complete. This must be especially true in works of art...in writing. In the end, it may not be possible to even clean up all traces of threads that couldn't be completed. If cleaning up hanging threads crates even more unfinished content, then the decision is clear, at least to me.
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Emily Jones
 
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Post » Wed Aug 26, 2009 7:18 am

You seem bound and determined to make out people in power as static individuals simply because they have specific military limitations placed on them.

That "little more than spying on each other and contemplating possible alliances" is the fuel for nearly an unlimited amount of scenarios that can be stretched out into a huge web of quests. That they can't exact physical warfare against each other is irrelevant. The Elder Council, other Counts, and how they can be manipulated, can earn action and dangerous consequences just as much as a blade can. To bring up a short sampling again, we have: Trade agreements, Imperial funding, Social networks and alliances, disputes over economic assets, matters of impugned honor. Never mind that small little issue of a whole county seat that got eviscerated by Daedra and is now sitting empty and devoid of leadership.

To be honest, this whole argument chain is sounding like, "Thick politics are not present in Cyrodiil, because Cyrodiil has no thick politics."


Thats what I meant to say... :embarrass:

But real political intrigue, just bordering on open conflict, would be something I would love to see in TESV, and something I missed in Oblivion.
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Austin Suggs
 
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Post » Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:52 am

Unfortunately, adding totally new systems like Physics, radiant AI, and fully voiced dialog can be expected to meet up with problems, unforseen costs, and delays. Budgeting the development time tightly enough that the game failed to meet deadline not once, but twice, means that either the amount of time needed was badly underestimated, or that the initial plan was too grandiose for the time and resources allocated. I'd expect that Bethesda now has sufficient capital at its disposal, following the commercial successes of both OB and FO3, that they can maintain sufficient "reserves" so that the company won't go "belly-up" if the next game doesn't ship on time.

I'd much rather have a game that's RIGHT, two years from now, than another "half-fast" attempt in a year that we'll spend the next 5 years complaining about, here on the forum.
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Victor Oropeza
 
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Post » Wed Aug 26, 2009 4:33 am

I think they can easily overcome this by using the Oblivion engine and rebuilding the source material (textures, quests, dialogue, ..) from the ground up. So what Fallout 3 was to Oblivion. Of course, to persuade mainstream/new gamers, they'd need to advertise with "Killer graphics"? or something alike. But they managed that with both Daggerfall as Morrowind (as Oblivion, but to the cost of everything referred to in this topic).

Adrian
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Shae Munro
 
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Post » Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:23 am

Unfortunately, adding totally new systems like Physics, radiant AI, and fully voiced dialog can be expected to meet up with problems, unforseen costs, and delays. Budgeting the development time tightly enough that the game failed to meet deadline not once, but twice, means that either the amount of time needed was badly underestimated, or that the initial plan was too grandiose for the time and resources allocated. I'd expect that Bethesda now has sufficient capital at its disposal, following the commercial successes of both OB and FO3, that they can maintain sufficient "reserves" so that the company won't go "belly-up" if the next game doesn't ship on time.

I'd much rather have a game that's RIGHT, two years from now, than another "half-fast" attempt in a year that we'll spend the next 5 years complaining about, here on the forum.


this.

all the other replies makes some of you guys sound more like sheeple who just open and swallow anything.
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ZzZz
 
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Post » Wed Aug 26, 2009 9:28 am

I would love to see the paper plot line that Bethesda worked up for the 'Nobility' guild.

As Beth have well and truly finished with ES4 do you think there's any chance that these paper resources would ever be made public?
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Heather Stewart
 
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Post » Wed Aug 26, 2009 5:10 am

Not that it wouldn't be too much of a stretch, but looking at the big picture, just about any TES game has vast amounts of "wasted potential".
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Robert
 
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Post » Wed Aug 26, 2009 1:14 am

Not that it wouldn't be too much of a stretch, but looking at the big picture, just about any TES game has vast amounts of "wasted potential".

Good point.
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City Swagga
 
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Post » Wed Aug 26, 2009 11:43 am

Unfortunately, adding totally new systems like Physics, radiant AI, and fully voiced dialog can be expected to meet up with problems, unforseen costs, and delays. Budgeting the development time tightly enough that the game failed to meet deadline not once, but twice, means that either the amount of time needed was badly underestimated, or that the initial plan was too grandiose for the time and resources allocated. I'd expect that Bethesda now has sufficient capital at its disposal, following the commercial successes of both OB and FO3, that they can maintain sufficient "reserves" so that the company won't go "belly-up" if the next game doesn't ship on time.

I'd much rather have a game that's RIGHT, two years from now, than another "half-fast" attempt in a year that we'll spend the next 5 years complaining about, here on the forum.


I agree with this. I'm not sure how Bethesda let Oblivion's deadline and/or budget spiral out of control. I can only guess that it was largely due to what Kovacius mentioned above, in addition to working with a new platform. Whatever the case, they should have both the capital and the experience to make a proper ES game this time around. Even though I'm just as anxious as any other TES fan to hear news of the next game, I'm glad that they are keeping tight-lipped about it. I think it helps alleviate any external pressure (from the fans) to release the next TES game prematurely.
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Code Affinity
 
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Post » Wed Aug 26, 2009 9:02 am

Oblivion was the perfect setting to do some Italian Renaissance-esque scheming politics, as well as some Roman civil war politics. After Morrowind and the Dunmer Great Houses, I was really, really disappointed.
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Stephy Beck
 
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Post » Wed Aug 26, 2009 7:14 am

replaying morrowinds campaign Caius says something along the lines of that the emperors health is failing and other factions are at work to try and gain the throne.
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Breautiful
 
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Post » Wed Aug 26, 2009 12:00 pm

I know politics are a bit of a touchy subject around here, but I'll go ahead anyway. When I began to play Oblivion I was hoping to see a development in the storyline that would have driven the Empire to become a sort of a police state. Whilst being a good guy and all that, Ocato would have been overly suspicious of assassins and terrorist, and would have started a witch hunt to imprison and execute all daedra worshipers (a kind of a patriot act if you will). Obviously Ocato would have considered Martin as a hoax and he would've probably set a bounty on Martin's head. This would have brought much more suspense into the plot, since you and Martin would have been hunted by Ocato's allies all around Cyrodiil. As Martins champion you would've had a much harder task to convince the counts to support the out-of-the-blue emperor.
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Deon Knight
 
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Post » Wed Aug 26, 2009 4:08 am

I know politics are a bit of a touchy subject around here, but I'll go ahead anyway. When I began to play Oblivion I was hoping to see a development in the storyline that would have driven the Empire to become a sort of a police state. Whilst being a good guy and all that, Ocato would have been overly suspicious of assassins and terrorist, and would have started a witch hunt to imprison and execute all daedra worshipers (a kind of a patriot act if you will). Obviously Ocato would have considered Martin as a hoax and he would've probably set a bounty on Martin's head. This would have brought much more suspense into the plot, since you and Martin would have been hunted by Ocato's allies all around Cyrodiil. As Martins champion you would've had a much harder task to convince the counts to support the out-of-the-blue emperor.

Aye, infiltrating factions for spy work would have been a lot of fun. It was my Role Playing reason behind making my DB character join the Mages, Thieves, and Fighters Guild. My thoughts were to 'recruit' members that got kicked out for brutality/breaking the rules. Indeed, my thoughts behind assisting Martin was to have a high-ranking member (the to-be Emperor, no less!) indebted (unwittingly) to the Dark Brotherhood. Unfortunately, such options had not been incorporated/considered in TESIV, and my character ended up being a powerless faction leader in all the factions. :(
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Colton Idonthavealastna
 
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Post » Wed Aug 26, 2009 6:00 am

Unfortunately, such options had not been incorporated/considered in TESIV, and my character ended up being a powerless faction leader in all the factions. :(

Yeah, that was one thing that really didn't make much sense. Just think about what kind of turmoil would ensue if a single dude ended up being the leader of all the factions. I liked the thing about Morrowind that you had to make some compromises regarding the guilds. While I like to finish most of the quest available I really don't want to end up being th big boss of everything. I also would have liked some interaction between the guilds (assassinations, thefts, blackmail etc.)
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Hazel Sian ogden
 
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