Can We Posters Even Make a Difference Now? : V - Skyrim

» Tue Jan 11, 2011 11:06 pm

Should take a look at the suggestions thread that was going on before Skyrim was even announced. IIRC, was at thread # ~200 whence these forums were created.

Yeah. I think the devs have heard plenty of fan opinions about TES games in the years since MW and OB.

» Tue Jan 11, 2011 12:49 pm

Anyone else like me and DON'T want to "make a difference"? Anyone else like me just want to play whatever BGS is cooking up and believe it will be legendary and be remembered forever until the end of time?

» Tue Jan 11, 2011 3:46 pm

I think it's very unlikely that we will change anything. If something is changed it'd have to be something minor, not any of the game mechanics or player abilities.

If something is changed it'll be something like adding hardcoe mode, or the inventory menu layout.

» Tue Jan 11, 2011 6:54 pm

Bethesda's software development cycles seem to be a bit longer than most, but if anything, that probably means that we are WAY too late to the game. I would expect that at this point, they are polishing the details and doing game testing to make sure everything works. I seriously doubt new features will be added at this point unless they are either trivial, or extremely popular.

However, it never hurts to post ideas. You just never know when an idea will start a firestorm of support, and find its way in.

that's because it doesn't take skill to put 10 weapons in a game and let the enemy's die after two hits; see "Duty calls"

» Tue Jan 11, 2011 5:36 pm

Word.
I love talking about Skyrim without even considering whether anything I say makes it into the game. I like to debate with people about what might be in or out, or what should be in or out, but I don't really care how accurate I am until the game comes out.

Truth is:
I know that Bethesda has already made Skyrim. Nothing we say or do here on these forums is going to influence it. The way we influence this game is by buying it, rating it highly, buying DLC, and then by playing the ever-loving crap out of it.

If we want to change the game we download mods. The ES series evolves by watching the mod community. Those mods that have 140,000 unique downloads? You can bet they are in this game. If you want to change the next tes game, download your favorite mod and rate it highly.

i hate how they added the mods from FO3 to FNV, loses originality.

» Tue Jan 11, 2011 3:28 pm

Can We Posters Even Make a Difference Now?

Lets say "No" and stop posting so many threads with horrible ideas.

Honestly, with less than nine months out I imagine content-lock is in place or coming soon, certainly most of the ridiculous stuff being brought up is probably out of the question. While I'm sure some gamesas employees skim the forums, I'm sure they have their own ideas on how the game should run.

Their fanbase has already provided more than a decade of feedback to draw from. You can see the influence of popular MW and OB mods already - stuff that came out years ago that influenced their Skyrim design decisions years ago, when it mattered.

Lets get the game out and if you don't like something, make a mod or wait until somebody does.

I would prefer to see more speculation based on the tidbits of information we have, and far less "attn Devs - official - request thread for something that will never ever happen" style noise.

» Wed Jan 12, 2011 12:31 am

Dont forget DLC, that gives them some more time to add in things the fans want like say werewovles! (I had to!)

It would be interesting to know how long certain things take in game development like how long it takes to create a texture or model or animation or quest,

Yes Fallout 3 DLC after the first one was fanservice, the pit gave you unlimited .44 and sniper rifle ammo. Broken steel continued the game after end and added high level content, yes then killed by a ghoul reaver you got that you asked for

mothership zeta gave us alien epoxy (repair hammers)

» Tue Jan 11, 2011 3:01 pm

BioWare did Dragon Age 2 in about 1 year development and the result is awful. I think for games of this complexity changing things in the last moment is not a good idea, because the player can feel the improvisation in the game.

» Tue Jan 11, 2011 3:40 pm

Of course not, nothing non-trivial. I wouldn't want it any other way, companies who have listened to the vocal minority have often made terrible games.

Since when did futility mean we shouldn't do something anyway!

» Tue Jan 11, 2011 1:25 pm

They can surely generate a quest that takes an average of 1 hour to complete in 12 hours, if all the units work at the same time separately, like voice actors do their part at the same time as the programmers add the stuff to it. I think they could easily add quests these remaining 4-5 months that would take a slow player 100 hours to complete, including finding the quests. But that would mean everything is already done and the only thing remaining would be adding the quests.

» Tue Jan 11, 2011 8:15 pm

it'll make differences, think about it, even if your ideas didn't make it into the vanilla game, chances they can be added into a DLC.

» Tue Jan 11, 2011 11:08 pm

My main point is this: Can any of our suggestions at this point actually help Skyrim become better?

That's not a point; that's a question.

In some interview long ago, some spokesman for Bethesda said that we sometimes ask for things that they cannot possibly fit into their game, not because there isn't time to do it, but because it just does not work with what they already have. I guess it would be like suggesting to J. K. Rowling -- when she is more than halfway through writing a novel -- that she include a particular new central character for such and such a purpose.

I think that even now Bethesda is still open to suggestions, as long as they fit with what they already have in mind, and as long it can be done and tested and decided upon in the time remaining.

» Tue Jan 11, 2011 5:26 pm

I never expected them to. I just like discussing what it COULD have, and what it should have, too.

» Tue Jan 11, 2011 11:25 pm

We never made a difference from the start.

If that were the case we'd probably have the same annoying level scaling in Fallout 3 as we had in Oblivion.

» Tue Jan 11, 2011 7:44 pm

I highly doubt much if any of what is said here can or would be implemented.

I know most of the stuff I harp on about is early to mid project goals.
Small things that make sense or add overlooked opinions that prove both popular and not require any level of overhaul could still be included.

However apart from lock bashing no idea seems to have a consensus, be unique, be easy to do or requires a shift in the game.

Myself, I just hope that spare time is spent working kinks out of the game.
More importantly that the team spends time reading through the story and dialogue looking to refine it, if it needs it that is.

» Wed Jan 12, 2011 2:42 am

Honestly, with less than nine months out I imagine content-lock is in place or coming soon, /snip

Quoted for truth. Much of the fan base don't seem to realize this - At this point, it's more than likely that the codebase has been locked down. Whining for saucy graphics, which so often seems to be the titular theme in these parts, makes no difference - The game's gonna look the same way it does now, give or take. The only consequence of such threads would be moderators trying ever so harder to keep things civil. Frankly, it is this poster's opinion that such topics were blacklisted all together.

» Tue Jan 11, 2011 10:57 pm

I think Mods have more impact because the developers can test the implementation and how they effect gameplay, asking for anything major at this point won't make much of a difference.
It's still fun to speculate on a good idea though.

» Wed Jan 12, 2011 4:50 am

I’m not sure what development methodology they are using or their timeline (each software company is a little different on the approach) , But I would guess the core of the development is complete, and the main quest is complete. They may be adding/tweaking some final quests and locations though. I would think the last 3-4 months would be dedicated to final user acceptance testing, and tracking/correcting any bugs in a series of sprint releases. (Let us hope they get all the major bugs corrected)

» Tue Jan 11, 2011 10:55 pm

Thats rubbish.The developers do listen,but just because every idea of ours isn't put in doesn't mean they don't listen. Have you ever thought about it from a dev's view?
You make a game for 50+ million xbox user's,49 million PS3 user's and millions of PC user's,input your ideas ,time ,money,creativity in the game,whilst looking into what fans want,( within reason ) and try and please everyone......You CAN'T,end of story!

Your comment to me is invalid and total rubbish.

*Edit* Also there will be certain things that can be changed,it's not out of the question. There is also DLC.
Games like fifa,call of duty etc are made in a year,every year,so 4-5 months is still enough time to change things if you look at it like that.
I also believe,the way some companies release info,do it in a way as to see what feedback they get....why do you think alot dev's are showing up on this forum at the moment,especially since the trailer release....They are interested in the reaction.....think on people.

Your the one that should think on. From gold stage to distribution there s at least 2 month, this mean 09. Beta to gold stage could take month, years.
The only thing they will change now are very minor features probably txture related, a weapon or armor here, a horse maybe there, where already in late beta where they are testing the hell of the game for bugs and glitches for all paltforms and all kind of hardware.

Medium to major features are frozen but for deffects. DLC wasnt in the OP scope.

So no we can t change anything but gfx.

» Wed Jan 12, 2011 1:35 am

We still have room to make minor suggetions i'd say. We could say, "That spider model we saw, Horrible!" and they would have the power to look back at it. Other than that, not for release.

» Tue Jan 11, 2011 3:28 pm

I think generally what they are doing now should be QA and balancing. Sure they can always touch up little things but I would think that 98% of the game is done and will not change.

» Wed Jan 12, 2011 5:30 am

Does it matter?

We're just posting what we WANT in the game, not what will BE in the game. Most likely we will make no difference, but if ANY of what we want is in the game, then good for us, but we are just wasting time until Skyrim releases just saying what we want to be in the game, and who knows what of what we want will be in it, though hopefully the game will be wonderful, etc, etc... (something something something).... Note, I haven't read the thread, so if anyone has come close to what I said, then okay, but if I am off topic completely, then I really didn't mean to be, and I apologize....

» Wed Jan 12, 2011 5:44 am

A lot of people see topics and say, "I thought this was confirmed, why are people speculating?" and it just seems like people forget these forums are also for speculation on what we believe should be there. So multiplayer, a condemned topic in the least, may be confirmed to be out, but we can still speculate about it.
Same goes for everything else. It might be a waste of time, it might make no difference, but we can speculate on how it should be, or what we want.

And this has been brought up a few times, im just saying its odd to see people say, "You can't change it, why even discuss it?"

» Tue Jan 11, 2011 7:46 pm

They still look at the forum i suppose and its not quite late.... Also the game is done their just adding small things in and fixing stuff now... I hope they did look at what people thought of the water's raft in the gameplay trailer and fixed it..

And the post above me.... Where have you heard Multiplayer is basically out :shakehead: I would be quite ashamed of Beth if they added in Multiplayer...

» Wed Jan 12, 2011 4:17 am

I don't know about you but I'm having a bit of fun reading/discussing ideas people have for the game regardless of whether or not they are good or bad ideas or if they will be implemented or not, and to me if it's fun then time is not wasted.

And it gives all of us somewhat patient waiters something to do in the spirit of total game immersion until we actually have the game w/ which to immerse ourselves in.