Oblivion radio interviews

[Razorwing]

Neocast radio interview [Feb 16th 2006]

I found a link to a podcast interview from Neocast, dated February 16th 2006, where they interview Pete Hines on Oblivion.
- DOWNLOAD HERE -

? At 07:12 into the clip Pete talks about the main nemesis in the story, which I thought was interesting.
? At 12:33 he discusses the benefits of playing on dual-core processor computers.
? At 14:29 has an interesting portion about the latest rumors regarding the shadow system changes:

Neocast: Just in general, not necessarily comparing a 360 version to PC version, there were rumors that the shadowing I believe, or the lighting, for the game was toned down recently so that the PC version matched the visual quality of the Xbox 360 version.

Pete: Nnno. That's not true. So what we did... this all started because ... we had to do a different shadowing system than the one we had originally intended because it was too expensive. And it was too expensive on anything, it wasn't just too expensive here or there, it was... it just didn't work right. And the only place we had actually shown it was in the very first cell of the E3 demo, where if you watched those videos we released, Todd picks up a rib cage and shows off some of the lighting on the individual objects and such. That's actually the only place we've ever shown anybody the game looking like that. So the rest of the stuff that you've ever seen has basically been with that system either turned off or completely out and with the new system in. So, the issue was individual shadows for every single object in the game and it was so ridiculously expensive that we just... the game wouldn't run looking like that.

So we came up with a system that actually worked as opposed to trying to shoe-horn something in that just didn't work. There's been a lot of discussion about that, but it's really sort of, people "Oh, it looked so much better with the old system!" but no-one's ever played the game with that system in and you only saw that one little prison cell with it working like that, so it's one of those things that got blown way out of proportion just because people didn't quite sortof get what had changed and what was different. We don't make decisions based on this platform or that platform. It is, what are we gonna do in the game. This is the game - what is the best decision for the game. And so we changed the way we did shadows in the best interest of the game.

Neocast: That really makes sense. So in other words the system you originally showed in that one portion of the original E3 video you'd need like a supercomputer to run.

Pete: Yeah, it's wasn't feasible, it wasn't practical... it didn't work! You try things in the game and some stuff work and some don't. We did three different combat systems [*snip*]

? 32:20 - Pete Hines says that as far as player characters go we're limited to what the facegen system in character creation can supply. Or in his words, "It's not something we're planning to officially support, or do, we have a wonderful character creation system with a gazillion different sliders and ways to customize." "You can not use the Construction Set to change what your character has or does or looks like."
BUT there seems to be a window of possibility for customizing the way NPC looks that goes beyond the boundaries of the facegen system, which I'm sure is good news for everyone hoping to mod or play with new races.

? 41:00 - Pete says, "There are no dragons in the game."
A little bit later he says they plan to release the game simultanously not only on both platforms but on all continents. Yaay!

? 47:10 - Regarding the rumor on ESF that Pete recently confirmed a release date of March 24th in an interview with CVG: "I can 100% confirm that I've never told anyone a release date other than Early 2006 and anybody who says otherwise isn't telling the truth." But he also says they *have* a date in mind, but it's confidential.

[KuKulzA]

Originally posted by Razorwing
I found a link to a "podcast" interview from Neocast, dated February 16th 2006, where they interview Pete Hines on Oblivion.

http://www.poweruser.tv/podcasts/neowin/Neocast3.mp3

[.....snip.....]

"It's not something we're planning to officially support, or do, we have a wonderful character creation system with a gazillion different sliders and ways to customize." "You can not use the Construction Set to change what your character has or does or looks like."

[.....snip.....]

so if I wanted to replace my face with an ash zombie (no face).... I'd have to make a replacement model right?
I cannot edit the model itself... so I would need to import custom made?

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by KuKulzA
so if I wanted to replace my face with an ash zombie (no face).... I'd have to make a replacement model right?
I cannot edit the model itself... so I would need to import custom made?

The way I understand it is that the player can't go beyond what the face generation system provides, but that there is some room for customizing NPCs beyond that restriction. That's just my interpretation of what he said though, so I could be wrong. But I don't think I am. Then again if there is even the slightest window open I bet the mod community will find a way to pry open the system to allow for new races and/or new faces. I'm interested in following those developments because... eheh... my player character would feel naked without a proper beard.

[Harikari]

Just give him 5 o' clock shadow, that would sorta do

[Razorwing]

- DOWNLOAD HERE -

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Summary by Deathbane27:
Introductions... "Tell me about yourself"... Big sandbox game... Main Quest storyline summary... Pete stutters almost as bad as I do... Todd Howard is the big "graphics whore" of the company... Player choice... voice actors... No new info as of the 10 minute mark. Still listening.

Patrick Stewart has done videogame voiceacting before, Sean Bean and Terrance Stamp have not. That's something I didn't know...

A bit on the "ease of use" features and how annoying it was to find people and figure out Alchemy in Morrowind... yadda yadda... info is easier to digest but not "overly" helpful...

No new info as of 20:00...

Yet another rehash of Radiant AI...

This is looking like it's going to be entirely useless.

NEWS FLASH! Dear Gaming Steve and every other gaming site out there: NO ONE visits your site exclusively for ALL their gaming news! Stop asking the same questions as everybody else!

Guess you gotta do something to pay the bills...

No new info as of 25:00...

Long bit about setting the RAI so it wouldn't break the game... (Game first, world of AI second).

INFO AT 29:10.

Different towns sell different types of horses "I think there's 5 types..." They vary on speed and hitpoints (since horses can and do get attacked by wolves when you're in a dungeon, for example) (and they take falling damage).

That was more "recent" than "new", but anyway...

Long bit on the combat system... no horse combat because it didn't fit in with the melee combat system... Controls, item hotkeys... yada yada yada...

No more new info at 35:00...

A bit where Pete describes some bow vs. magical combat he observed one of the reporters playing... the enemy ran out of charge on her staff and mana and charged in to melee range... enemies will switch weapons based on range... yada yada...

37:00. Balance... stat/skill progression... super items were the main balance problem in Morrowind. Most of the items in the game are scaled more closely with your level to avoid getting overpowered and making the game boring just from picking up one new weapon...

Widescreen supported on PC version if your video card supports it.

Creatures and generic NPCs respawn after a certain number of game days (Pete doesn't remember exact number). Creatures move around a lot more so if you go back to the same place it feels more varied. Pete describes the combat situation changing a lot when the "boss" of a dungeon was found in different areas. Most dungeons will have some items that respawn with the monsters.

42:00. Level check for determining enemies and items when you enter a cell. Over 200 dungeons, so don't be going back to the same ones just because stuff respawns, mkay? (This ain't EQ. )

43:00. Guards will assist you if NPCs are attacking you...

43:40. Guards won't "detect" stolen items and arrest you for it, but if you're arrested for whatever reason, they will take all your stolen items. But they don't do random searches.

There are travelling NPCs, but most merchants have established shops.

46:00. Q: How long will guards take to respawn after you kill them? A: Not sure. (Named NPCs don't respawn, "generic" ones like guards and bandits do.)

Q: Mercantile skill raising? A: In MW, skill ups were on per-transaction basis. in Oblivion, skill ups are based on per gold basis.

Q: Armor wearing reducing Magic? A: Penalty to spell effectiveness. Amount not specified. Skill perk at high levels of armor skills that removes the penalty. Armor skill raises by getting hit while wearing it.

Q: Quest log? A: Much better organized this time. 3 sections in journal. 1 tab for completed quests, 1 tab for current quests, 1 tab for your "Active" quest (selected on Current Quests tab). Map/compass shows marker for Active quest (if it has one). Much more streamlined and helpful, no need for a notebook.

Q: Disarm and "neck strike" in hand to hand? A: Skill perks in power attacks for various weapon skills. Power attacks gain chance to disarm/paralyze etc. ("At like 100 skill", so not sure if there's one at 80...)

Q: Shadows? A: We showed a glimpse of the full-shadowing in the prison cell a the E3 demo... and that was the only place it worked, so it was never implemented in the rest of the game. All other places and screenshots are shown with the current shadow system anyway. Player/NPCs/Creatures and tree canopies cast shadows.

Q: Monsters getting stuck? A: Yes, our pathing system is much better.

Q: Character customization? A: Only face, hair, and skin tone customization. No fat/skinny characters.

Q: Content updates? How will that work? A: No current plans for downloadable Expansions. Looking at small but fun things for downloadable content. Plan is to have one available at launch (content peeps haven't been on the game for a while, it's all been bug testing) and to do regular basis updates for both platforms. Not going to talk too much about things until they're sure they're going to work.

Q: Hand to hand combat? Combos? Uppercuts? A: New animations, but not getting into Mortal Kombat or Dead or Alive. It's fisticuffs.

Q: Are there going to be mini-bosses in every dungeon? A: MOST dungeons have bosses and boss loot at the end.

Q: If you kill an NPC in front of a villager, will they react? A: Yes. Some NPCs will go to defend the one you're attacking. Some will run away. Some will watch. And they'll treat you differently afterward. Most respectable folks won't talk to you if you have a big bounty. You still keep infamy after paying off bounty.

Q: Looting towns and housing? Junk in barrels and crates strewn around? A: There's more clutter like paintbrushes lying around in the world, but we're more careful about not leaving large piles of gold in crates, but you'll still find a few stray gold pieces.

Q: Dungeons? Are they are harmful or are there "friendly" ones with merchants? A: They're all evil!

Q: Is skill training going to be more developed/interactive? Can you spar in the guild houses? A: Um.... uh... thinking... You can improve skills just by watching people train with eachother! Sweet! But no, no sparring partners. Go to the Arena.

Q: Will weapons actually "break"? A: No, it just becomes unusable?

Q: Weapons clash in mid-swing? Recoil? A: Staggering, yes. No weapons colliding in mid-air, though. You have to block.

Q: Inhabited area sizes? A: We've got big cities and smaller towns and settlements. Encampments... standalone inns... little of everything.

Q: Monsters? How many types? I saw 3 types of goblins... A: 40 or 50 something base monsters ("goblin") with lots of different types of each ("goblin shaman, goblin fighter...").

Q: Plane of Oblivion? Hush hush? A: Not a "you're not worthy, it's too awesome" thing, but more of needing to have some secrets. In Morrowind, it had all been seen before the game came out. We want some "first time" thing for people to see when they play for the first time.

Q: Achievements for 360? A: Had 100 at first, but they cap you at 50 per game. They had 6 at VERY first, but when they started playing the 360s and seen how other games used it, they added a bunch more micro achievements so it would scale better on the gamercard score.

Q: 16 square miles? What does that actually mean? DQ8 reference. A: We just told them so they'd stop asking how big the game was. What matters is the scale, how it feels once you're playing, how much stuff to do between points A and B, not whether the distance is X or Y miles. Pete likes how some people play the game for a bit, then pan around the world map and are amazed about how little they've explored. They've definately made it big enough.

Q: If you just do the main quest, about what % of world map will you have seen? A: We send you out a bit to explore as part of the MQ, use it as a point to send you out.

(No actual answer to that question. I somehow doubt anyone's decided to just burn through it and check yet. )

Q: Release date? A: Very Soon ™. A couple of weeks away, probably, from announcing exact date. We have a date in mind, but it's not done until it's done. We've seen enough games that thought they were finished and had a few delays. We don't want to slip, we want to ship on that day.

Q: Regions? A: Simultaneous, but Europe will be a few days behind of course.

71:30. Side tracking. Goes into Fallout. No Fallout 3 at E3 this year... Bethesda is publishing 2 Star Trek games but it's an outside developer making them. Star Trek games will be shown at E3...

Ah, more Oblivion.

Q: What is your favorite feature in Oblivion? A: I don't know if I have one. I'm so close to it, done however many demos, years, seen other playing it... I do love the graphics, people will be playing and see something amazing like a waterfall in a cave and be awed. It adds a lot to the experience. If there's one thing I think I like the most it's how much we've improved on every part of the game from previous games. He likens the game to a pregnancy and they're at the stage where they just want to get it OUT.

Q: What's the longest you've heard of people playing Elder Scrolls games? I've heard 1500. A: Yeah, I've heard the 1500. I get all the email to Bethesda... Loves how much people love the game... That's more important than the 1500/1600 hours.

Q: Finally... Morrowind for the Xbox, Oblivion for the 360... Elderscrolls 5 for the Xbox720? A: No, we're hoping to do more than one Elder Scrolls game this console cycle. God help us.

Steve: I'm going to play some more now, mkay?

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[Vrenir]

The only thing I'm not liking in this interview is the whole respawn in dungeons thing. I can see how it'd make the game more interesting, being able to go back again and do more stuff, but I'd assume that means no more clearing out a cave and camping there with hoards of wealth. Of course, if only normal cavey things respawned that would be one thing, but if you come home to find a bunch of gobblins or smugglers in "your cave," that'd be a bit wierd and inconvenient.

[Caligula Superfly]

Any non NPC monster would respawn in MW, I don't think this is much different.

[Razorwing]

- DOWNLOAD HERE -

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Transcript by BloodBrethren:
- To get to the Mages University in the Imperial City you have to get a referral from each mage guild in each city.

- 1 Mage Guild Referall quest he did was in Bruma wherein a mage has disappared and the head mage was really worried. Bruma was described as a log cabin type town, when he got there there was a huge snowstorm, so visibility was downgraded, and most NPCS were inside their houses. The char investigated the situation, asking around. This really shady NPC Mage seemed to know, so the char persuaded him to tell more info about the disappearance. The NPC mage agreed, and npc told him to meet him later on tonight in the basement. SO the char rested awhile in the mages guild quarters in Bruma, and when nightfall came he visited the basement, and behold, the NPC mage was there. They conversed for awhile, and suddenly the NPC mage casted a spell and the Missing mage suddenly appeared. The situation wasn't as bad as it seemed to be, the Missing mage and the NPC mage were just playing a prank on the head mage because they disliked him, thus using an invisible spell to worry the head mage. After the quest, the head mage was relieved and the char. got a referral from teh mage guild in Bruma. This all took in about 20 minutes to complete. Note, that this quest was one of the first quest he took after getting out of the prologue dungeon, so i guess quest are scaled to your level? Are they? Anywayz, THe char then went on to the next city - Lagawiin all the way to the south.

= The Mages guild in Legawiin was also in some deep [censored], and the head mage girl was going crazy. Legawiin is described as a woodsy type esque town, very pleasant. So it turns out, the reason the Head mage girl is going crazy and people think she is on crack is because she lost her dead fathers amulet and she was seeing visions of spirits and ghosts.
She says, that her father died in a fort not to long ago, and this amulet was given to her, without it, she goes crazy and sees ghosts and spirits. She said to try and investigate the grave of her father in the Fort, and maybe you could find the amulet there. So the char. heads on to the fort, he is given a quest pointer in the map, which is very helpfull, since you could get lost so easily. You can't immmedietely fast travel to that quest location because it hasn't been discovered yet, but the quest pointer really makes it helpfull in getting there by foot/horse. So the char get to the fort after encountering several monsters and bandits on the way there. HE gets to the fort and it is garissoned by more bandits, so he plows his way all the way through the fort until he reaches the grave, and low and behold the amulet is inside the cask of the father!. (The fort was described as "very active" btw, and bustling with activity). But tehre was a surprise! On the way out of the the fort, this shady lone mage steps in your way and blocks your path! He seems to be a psycopath since he is obsessed about making the head mage girl crazy and depressed, so he doesen't want you to return the amulet to her. He says that you will die just like his father did in the fort!, so the char. (A mage too BTW), duels this mage outside the fort entrance and almost looses his life, but in teh end his destruction spells and summoning spells outst the mage. He doesen't want to take the trek back to Bruma and knows he is pressed for time, so he just fast travels back to Bruma and returns the amulet to the head mage, and she becomes normal again, also the char. gets a referral from the mage's guild of Bruma. So now the char has 2 mages guild referrals, 6 more to go.

-There is 1 more referral quest that he did, before he had to go, and that was in the city of anvil. Describes as very medieval and active port city, with alot of blacksmiths where all teh good weapons are. To destroy the rumor of cities not being active, he litereally saw 20+ people in view, in the port section of the town!!. ANywayz the mage guild quest was that merchants were being killed around town frequently, and what their worried about is that the killer seems to be a mage since all the deaths of the victims were from ice spells. He asks you to go to the nearby tavern and inestigate. he also asks you to disguise as a merchant. You do so and you walk in, people are hustling, gambling, drinking, etc, very active. You ask the bartender if they knkow anything, the bartender seems reluctant to say anyting, but this nearby girl mage in the tavern too, whispers to you to go speak to her, you do so, and she seems very nervous, she tells you that she thinks the murderer is in this very tavern!, she tells you to get a room for the night and she will meet up with you up there when night comes. Now the guy really thought that this nervous girl was really the murderer and was prepared for anything that might happen, he really thought he was going to get ambushed in the room, but nevertheless he rented a room, when he entered the room, a mage was in the room, not the nervous girl mage, but an older mage, he was just sitting there, and greeted you then left, really shady. So you rested for the night, and when you woke up the nervous girl was there...she didn't attack you, but stayed true to her word and she told you that the mage that was waiting for you in teh room earlier was teh murderer :0 , she told you that to lure him, you had to go outside the tavern and walk this certain path. really exposing yourself to the murdeer (Note that this took place at night and most people where in their houses, and the guards were mostly stationed in the port area, far from this tavern). So the char. walks outside the tavern and walks the path, suddenly the murderer appears out of the tavern and runs to you and shouts that hes going to kill you and steal all your money! This mage was very powerfull and the player couldn't take him 1on1, the mage was casting summoning spells and ice spells that did major damage, but alas the nervous mage girl from the tavern rushed out and helped you out, she blasted and charred the mage to hell! and instantly killed him. Misssion acomplished! and you got your referral from the guild in Anvil!.....

[Roger the Shrubber]

truthfully, i cant wait for ragdoll physics. imagine killing something and watching it fall down into a hole, then hit a rock, flip a few times, lather, rinse, repeat... :banana:

[Harikari]

Then into a tenderizer