Try to understand that skyrim as a whole has far more to it in every way than any of our previous other games. By that I mean everything from tech to polish to things you can do. Im not saying that all of those categories are bigger than that same category in another of our titles, Im saying as a whole far more went into skyrim. Since we are a limited number of people we can only address certain things. The werewolf and VL would not have made it in at all if 1st person had to be put in as well as it would have not been feasible within the time we had. As it is there were thing I wish we had had more time for with both of those forms to make them better. A good example of that would have been selectable howls. Its alot more difficult to do these things than people think. When fans, whos opinions I value deeply, attribute it to laziness, it bothers me. A number of us have worked alot of late nights away from our families to bring you guys this stuff. We know its not perfect and we love constructive feedback but calling us lazy or saying that we are trying to screw the very fans who make us great, well that just stings, know what I mean?
I hope you didn't take offense to my on-going http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1400513-an-idea-of-how-vampires-and-werewolves-could-have-been-done-thread-5/ about improving Vampires and Lycanthropes. I know that I used some semi-insulting phrases regarding design choices and stuff like that in the opening paragraph, but overall I've had a blast as a werewolf (and I do look forward to trying out the vampires once Dawnguard arrives on the PS3), but it wasn't intended to call you guys out as lazy or anything like that. It was simply a list of things I thought that could be done to give Skyrim players a lot more variety (and fun) when playing as supernatural creatures. I know that the outline I created is probably unrealistic, due to a wide array of factors, such as deadlines and the fact you'd have to create two new "Vampire Race" codes for characters and designate them to be at certain areas of the game world (eg: Volikhar being limited to the Pale, Winterhold, and Eastmarch Holds), and implementing and ensuring that the feeding mechanics worked differently for two vampire strains than it did for another, which sounds like it could be a nightmare, but it seemed to be a way of not only implementing new ideas into the TES series, but also celebrating the lore that's come before. It wasn't meant as a "Boo! I hate you all!" but as a "In a perfect world, here's how I'd envision these mechanics working in Skyrim, and I hope they get closer to this vision."
I dont disagree. There are things I would like to have been different as well. But take your change form at will example. Who do you appease one group without upsetting another? there are alot of people that want forced lunar transformations. Then there are some individuals such as yourself that want to be able to change at will. So we try to find a middle ground as best we can. We also provided the vampire lord form as a beast form that can change at will. I hope that relates some of the things we have to think about
I understand that it's difficult to juggle what a huge range of fans want, which is part of why my thread is so long, but I think there are ways to keep everyone happy. I, like many others, do want to be forced to transform under a full moon. I've accepted that we can't in Skyrim because the Companions are a modified strain of Lycanthropy, but with the inclusion of wild werewolf encounters, it seems an opportunity was missed to allow those that wanted Lycanthropy to feel like more of a mixed blessing or a downright curse to return to the ways of forced transformations. The Ring of Hircine could still be used by those who wanted to be spared the forced transformations, or they could just join the Companions. That's not to say I want the beast form power removed either. I want both, because then it isn't a matter of that form only being good once or twice a month. It can always be a good power boost or, but once or twice a month, it becomes a liability to the afflicted, since they wouldn't have control over their transformation.
The same goes for vampires and NPC hostility. I understand that some people must have been very vocal about how much they hated vampire debuffs, because they've been toned down substantially in Dawnguard, especially NPC hostility, which to me was the big kicker. Removing NPC hostility at Stage 4 removed any incentive one had to feed, which was weird because you guys made it easier than ever to feed regularly. The lack of aggression became all the more confusing with the glowing eyes, because they just screamed "I'm not normal!" to everyone who looked at them. On a strain of vampires like the Volkihar from "Immortal Blood," that don't socialize and can't blend in, glowing eyes would make a lot of sense and be really creepy and off-putting, but on this new strain it just seems like it'll be weird to play a vampire character, walking among humans, in the midst of vampires attacking towns, and nobody will raise an eyebrow at my glowing eyes.
I don't have a perfect solution. I don't know how hard it is to create a new race in the code, create models for it, and give them their set abilities and whatnot. I think it sounds very hard, but then again, I know next to nothing about this stuff, so it all sounds very hard to me. But it seems to me that the challenge of pleasing one group without upsetting the other comes from there being only one path to choose from. You're either a vampire, or you're not. You're either a werewolf, or you're not. There's no variety to choose from, meaning that someone's always going to be left out in the cold.
» Sun Nov 18, 2012 7:09 pm 
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