Hello fellow gamers.

After reading http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/11/skyrim-to-have-multiple-dlc-releases-powerful-buckets/ and seeing the phrase ""It was like day two, and we went, what? Do we fix that? Our lead programmer is pissed and wants to fix it, and I said I'm not sure we should. That's one of those where maybe we leave it in."

I started to think, that little bucket trick is a nice little ("kudos to the person who found it") type of thing. It's thinking outside of the box, really.

What I'd really like to know is why Something like http://i.imgur.com/BXCDR.jpg is totally acceptable to a Triple A Studio, and A Triple A Title. I mean there is a complete lack of any variation for the random thieves that spawn(at least in Riften). Is this A dev poke at Anonymous? Is it Laziness? Is it a lack of taking pride in what can be done while developing a title? It's sad to see the same face regurgitated back at me.

These bodies accumulated over days/weeks, I just stacked them up for the sole purpose to show the lack of what a Triple A studio should be ashamed of. I'm aware that it is common to do this in the industry(copy/pasting code), because of course, it saves time and money, but at least a little more effort could have been made. You guys aren't new to the industry. Anyways, I'd be more embarrassed over something like what is shown in the pic, then a nice little easter egg for someone thinking outside of the box...

yes, we all know modders can fix it, the question is, why should they have to when you, the devs could have at least made a few variations of your own. It would have been nice to see maybe a female random, or at the very least another face..I've seen the same face over and over again during a siege with the exception that maybe there are 2 or 3 different models used.

It annoys me when people refer to thee devs as "you". Yes, these are the official forums, and the devs read them sometimes, but you're lucky if they read your thread. Generally speaking, when you post a thread, you're talking to the forumites, not the devs. I know I'm overthinking that, though.

But, yeah. Couldn't they at least be randomly generated? There would be lots of ugly ones, but that's preferable to having them all look identical.

I wouldn't call Bethesda "lazy" by any means. They seem to have put a lot of time and effort into even small and simple things like decorating a random pool of water here and there. Even they have resource and time demands and the sheer scope and under the hood complexity of the game world will lead to unforseen conflicts or silly things being missed.

I am not sure what this thread is about.

I've seen AAA games do a lot worse than the Generic Thieves of Riften... Like every single character in Dragon Age.

I love it when people spending hours on a video game forum call people who have spent years developing video games lazy.

No, it isn't laziness. It's the simple fact that this world is enormous and they could test the game until ten years from now and not run into every bug. Their job is to make the game playable, which they did for most of their customers. The minor (non-gamebreaking) bugs can be patched out.

And how water is all the same...why cant some water be lava? or tar pits? that would be epic...right? But no, I agree with you...I consider all the people I kill faceless victims...I dont stare into their face after i decapitate them and wonder why they all look the same...and if I did...I would just assume they were all from the same guild and therfor looked the same.

All to have it devalued by something as simplistic as this.


While the world may be "enormous", Riften, isn't. There are some nice random thief encounters in the world, with different races...

It's annoying, but aren't you making a monster out of a mudcrab? Given the scale of the game, a flaw as small as this seems pretty easy to ignore. I have no experience in game development, so I have no idea how easy this would be to patch. Maybe it actually will get patched eventually; but, if it doesn't, does it matter?

Compared to Oblivion, which was a lot rougher, Skyrim is a very well-polished, so these things stand out more. I know that constructive criticism is good and all that, and I'm not trying to criticize you for stating your mind, but I really wish we could just ignore some of this in light of the awesomeness that makes up the majority of the game.

Here is another Prime example. A perched dragon takes to flight after being killed because, well, it is scripted.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoGTfOI-OKw

Even if it just rag-doll'd like everything else, that would be fine. There is a lack of either foresight or animation, whichever you prefer.

*shrugs*

There were more important things for the devs to do, obviously. Judging by the overall final product and the reception it's received from fans and critics alike it seems like they got it right.

Lack of lava and tar pits makes sense for the region Skyrim is in. No active volcanos there

AAA game production =/= infinite budget and time.

Except that, well the there are tons of things that they didn't get right. (Not going to re-hash the hundreds of bugs present)

After zooming in on the first claw to open a puzzle door, I though it was cool. Doing it X amount more times was...well over-used.

After snake/whale/wolf/dragon opening X amount of doors it got..old.

If this game is going to go on to claim all sorts of awards, It's flaws, however miniscule, need to be picked out. Some of these flaws exist in the same way. from the same studio, just in different releases/titles.


/edit
And it isn't just from Beth, it's throughout the industry

Hmm, well, theres frozen water, boggy green water in eastmarch with steam geysers, and fresh clearwater streams.. thats in keeping with the land and variable.

Don't have any complaints except the old "same as oblivion" fugly underwater effect.



Yes, because we all one shot dragons enough for this to be a major issue. I mean really. I like it.. death throes, and epic landing, much better than flopping over.. what an anticlimix.

Also, if you are 1 shotting ancient dragons.. its time to start your second character now.. game was never designed a single player god of all things, but thats a different discussion.

Technically, couldn't you say that it wasn't the arrow that killed the dragon but the poison and it didn't die until the poison took effect? :disguise:

it isn't an Issue, it's pure lack of knowing what the game can, and can not do, or let it's users do. hence, foresight.


I'm still waiting on bug fixes to finish that character's play-through. I'll not start another one only to waste time and have it break on me.

and @ Todd, I tell myself that but it's lol.

What kind of bow is that exactly?

The Riften street thief not having a randomized appearance "devalues" the game for you? Really?

:shakehead:


As for the dragon thing..... I'd bet that, if the "perch & take off" script were interruptable, there'd be videos of some other wacky oddness that people would have discovered. And it's not like characters that are so over-min/maxed that they can one-shot an Ancient Dragon with a bow, are 1) a common game circumstance, or 2) something that Beth would have take into account when designing particular visual mechanics.

I think I've killed that exact same thief in Riverwood.

This is simply another case of a player unwilling to suspend his disbelief. You have to take it as a personal fault, and not a fault of the game. One of the best games of all time used a simple "D" to indicate that there was a dragon in the room. I guess people just don't have any imagination anymore.

It's OK that most of you find it as acceptable. I understand that is how things are these days. Unfortunately this Studio should be setting standards, not following them. I know it, and they should as well.

Check youtube, there are tons of vids with the exact same scripted death from perched dragons. People just don't realize what they are seeing.


Was a pic/description in this thread IIRC.
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1296583-obvious-scripted-dragon-death/

Replace 'guild' with 'cloning vat' and you would have a point.

Right, I am reading the thread, and watched the video. I was just hoping for some background on where you got the bow from.

Nevermind, it looked like the same thread but wasn't. My apologies.

As A D&D player from the mid/late 70's, my imagination has been used quite a bit. My Condolences went out to Mr. Gygax when he moved on from this world. I recall reading the old paperback books where you "played" a game..via the book (it gave you paths to chose from, and when you chose a certain path, the book had you skip to a certain page, and went on with the story) I have been thru the age of MUDS. It seems like my imagination has grown beyond the scope of others.

If you want to call my imagination, or lack thereof, a personal fault, so be it. I can tell there is a lack of "imagination" being put out these days, and if I'm to blame, I'm not alone.