This, with emphasis. I'm not buying a home moviemaking kit, I'm buying a game and anything that isn't about said game is a secondary concern if one at all. The developers should, in my opinion, focus on making the game and machinima conerns belong firmly in the "modder fodder" category.

Well, that "modder fodder" has kept Morrowind, and hell even Daggerfall, alive to this very day. Modding is an extremely important asset especially in single player games on the PC. You have to take into account that people like to have a community as well as a game, because once the game's done a few times you'll just drop it and forget it. Because we have stuff like this - boards, modding websites, machinimas - we have a chance to keep our love of the game fresh.

Yeah, just imagine the things we could've seen if Assassin's Creed 1/2 or Bioshock had full modding support. The games would've been played a lot more.

I'd really like to see them expose the XYZ coordinates of the camera through the scripting language. Give us functions to get and set the coordinates. Many modders wished we had this functionality in Oblivion.

I've done some stuff in Morrowind and Oblivion but honestly, I'm not too proud of any of it.

I'd be happy to show you something I made in Fallout 3 though. Making Machinima in F3 is essentially the same as working with Oblivion.

http://www.drakortha.info/#/dc-chronicles-s1-episode-1/4547088683

Assassin's Creed is a game that I have absolutely no idea why modding isn't available for it. Such a great parcour experience...

Why does this thread even exist? Just watch the game trailer that's confirmed to be in-game. Notice all the cinematic camera angles? There's your machinima tools.

well..i completely agree with you but the problem is their work load is crazy.. they are working on brink..rage..hunted..and skyrim all at the same time

Dude, that's stuff available only to the developers. We are talking about making it available to PLAYERS. Duh.

You've got mods, you've got the construction set, you've got the consoles, by using these tools you can make npcs do pretty much what you want (Theres even mods so you can control npcs actions) and you can add a mask into their inventory if you like and they should auto equip it, if thats not enough you just go to the construction set and do pretty much the same, then save the .esp, load id and viola!

These games have plenty plenty PLENTY machinima support, the only downside is that you need to work for it. is that so bad?







Ever heard of a command in oblivion called TFC ? you can get ANY angle you like with that. and no you obviously haven't looked much into the elder scrolls series, they use the console to get camera angles, possibly freeze the game and whatnot. theres also a TCL command to disable collision (noclip)

The free cam mode is very limited in what you can do. Theres no tracking or any kind of other useful actions.

I liked what I saw in the trailer. There was a lot of smooth movements and character tracking. I'm just hoping there is a little more than console commands this time around :tops:

Don't cater for them. Don't cater for anyone, only the game. You can always attempt to create a mod that makes creating Machinimas easier, and I'd rather that the devs focus on making a great game than spending time adding a function that only a small fraction of their community will use. It's as simple as that.

Edit: Some may ask," why not make a great game AND add functions for Machinima creations?" This is real life. Time is a limiting factor. Cost is a limiting factor. Demand is a limiting factor.

*eyeroll*, "Dont cater to them" I dont see people saying that kind of thing when talking about how they want the UI to not be consolized for the PC. Or asking for things like the lock-on to be optional, because thats not catering to a specific crowd despite the developers design decisions is it? Or more recently people complaining about DLC not being expansion length, despite the fact that an expansions usually 30-40$ and a DLC like Point Look is about half as long as Bloodmoon was, so with 3-4 midlength DLCs youre getting way more game for the same price as most expansions.

For the record, I dont give a rats ass about Machinima. Honestly I could not care any less about it.

Bethesda Game Studios is not working on any of those titles besides Skyrim. Bethesda Softworks is publishing all of them but each one is being worked on by a different developer.

Brink = Splash Damage
Rage = Id Software
Hunted = ? (can't remember)
Skyrim = Bethesda Game Studios

Now you know why Pete Hines is the hardest working man in the game industry. He's going to have to clone himself if Zenimax keeps acquiring studios left and right.

I care little for the PC version of the UI, and I'll be using the PC version of the game. I trust in Bethesda, but if there's something wrong with the UI, there will probably be a Darnified version or a suitable equivalent.
I wasn't even aware of the lock on issue.
DLCs are DLCs, they always come out great as long as horse armor is not involved.
You're presenting multiple examples of the straw man argument, not a very useful method of getting your point across.
As I said, the amount of people that create Elder Scrolls Machinimas are a small fraction of the overall fan base. The devs will aim to please, if they even care, the majority of the fan base.
You don't care either. I'd say point proven?

The Sims 3 has a feature where you would enter free cam mode and you could set coordinates using CRTL and pressing a number between 5-9. You could then have the camera smoothly transition between the coordinates you had set.

It's not as in-depth as the editors in GTAIV and Halo. But it's damn better than just a TFC command.

This is a good example of the features in the Sims 3 free cam. I want to encourage everyone to watch this to see how powerful it can be before stating that it isnt useful. I can even see modders making better videos for their mods with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnsYUBIrPJM

Even Minecraft has a quick button on the keyboard that allows you create smooth camera movements.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7jNXTNVGlQ

A lot of you are saying that you don't want this sort of thing because it would take development time off the actual game or it just isn't worth Bethesda's time. But from looking at the trailer they seem to already have a tracking camera. Wouldn't it take less development time to leave it in, rather than spend "TIME" taking it out?

Then it's settled- you've already got your "turn game into amateur moviemaking system" feature, and they can now continue to focus on what they intend to make, a game. Win-win, you've got your tracking camera and they don't have to take any more time away from the game on things that won't in any way enhance or impact gameplay.

As long as we can set up the tracking cam as a stationary one too lol. I personally don't care on this issue, but if they can make it good without skimping on other stuff why the hell not?

They should make it hard to make good Machinimas. That way we only get see the good ones anyway and there arent a whole lot of stupid videos.

And make it harder for me to capture a simple camera shot? What good will that do? It's like if you stripped down the GECK to make it really difficult to mod. Do you really think any good would come of that? No, modders might just go make mods for another game if they don't have something decent to work with.

Look, I know Machinima isn't a huge thing when it comes to the elder scrolls, and it never has been. I completely understand the other side of the argument here. Bethesda's games are well known for having a excellent modding community and their games have great replay value because of this. I just think it would be awesome if we could give people tools to do more with these games. There would be more good Machinima's if they were more accessible and less frustrating to make.

(I wouldn't mind having a little more competition also :ninja: )