Epic Battles

Post » Fri May 27, 2011 11:19 pm

It'd be nice but it probably won't happen, at least not to the degree that most would like. Personally, I'd be happy with 50-100 NPC battles, although even 50 is probably pushing it. Who knows, we'll just have to wait and see what this new engine is capable of.
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Adrian Morales
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 6:39 pm

Yeah :D
Was always laughing in Oblivion when they talked about an epic battle and there where round about 6 soldiers standing around ^^
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Honey Suckle
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 9:37 am

I'm all for Epic Battles. But it has been confirmed that there is a new engine :celebration: . So I don't know why you are asking the question or why some people voted no.
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Alberto Aguilera
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 11:56 pm

mount and blade warband lets you fight with over 200 combatants at a time. 250 seems to be the limit before the AI ends up hampering itself and soldiers start getting stuck. i used to have several texture replacers and mods that added new gear and it made the game look very nice indeed. of course then i updated and forgot to carry them over so now i have to redownload them. :banghead: personally i think the weapons and armor are much better in warband than in oblivion but im a realist when it comes to weapons. everytime i see one of those ridiculous oblivion warhammers i just cringe.

unfortunately we wont get to see this for one simple reason..........consoles. a console could never hope to run a game like warband and thus you will never see it in skyrim. yeah to flushing another good idea down the drain for the sake of "mainstreaming".



'Yeah' for a company realizing that in order to stay competitive in the marketplace, profitable enough to add new games/ staff/ ideas to improve, and becoming popular amongst people in all walks of life- some ideas need to be 'watered down.' Bethesda could never have had this longevity if it only did ideas that a few people hoped and wished for, it had to make itself popular to large groups of people. Too bad PC hasn't adapted to more console gamers.
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Sammygirl
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 8:21 pm

No. I'd say around 15 vs 15 at max. Looking back at GameBryo, it's hard to even get 15 people at the same time on screen. A new engine, I'd say, won't do much in that aspect. it will sure liven things up, but won't make it "EPIC" (all CAPS)

it will be "epic" though, compared to Oblivion that is
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Heather M
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 4:34 am

Well, one limitation would obviously be hardware limitations, and I won't go into that.

An almost bigger concern, which applies to both small and bigger battles in the previous games, is that the AI isn't built to handle it. You can't just line up 50 soldiers on one side, 50 on the other, say "go" and call it a battle. The result is just 100 soldiers moronically charging at each other with absolutely no sense of tactics. I wouldn't call that a battle. The attempts in Oblivion (Kvatch, Bruma) should prove this point - it's pretty annoying. Soldiers of old weren't stupid; and even the Vikings used battle formations during their battles. (Such as the Svinefylking, for instance)

If battles truly were implemented, I'd much rather see some small scale battles with some decent tactics that WORKS. By that I mean at the very least units working in some sort of battle formation, adapted to suit the weapons they were using. (One can imagine archers lined up behind tight echelons of pikemen/spearmen/swordsmen, maybe with some skirmishers starting the battle off by throwing spears at the enemy then rapidly retreating behind the echelons of front-line soldiers. As the battle progresses, the different formations are maneuvered against eachother, "pushing" at eachother until one side breaks ranks) THAT would be a welcome addition to the series.
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Judy Lynch
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 5:21 am

epic battles wont happen , a new engine is required and would be nice.
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JaNnatul Naimah
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 4:23 am

I wouldn't mind taking part in epic battles, but we all know that's not going to happen. Not in a game like this, anyhow. The best thing that can happen, as was mentioned above, are "illusionary" battles. As in, you have a badass battles in the background, which is mostly static (and may change depending on your actions) and you only get to fight a few enemies at a time. It's not the "real" deal, but if they can pull something like that off - I'll be more than happy.
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Rob Smith
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 11:06 pm

Epic battles and being force to attend such event? Hell no. Lacks the stealth/diplomat/bribing route, not to mention if there is an epic battles, the player would be force into that battle, one way or another.
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Ray
 
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Post » Fri May 27, 2011 7:13 pm

Epic battles and being force to attend such event? Hell no. Lacks the stealth/diplomat/bribing route, not to mention if there is an epic battles, the player would be force into that battle, one way or another.


I agree with you actually, but only sort of. See I prefer a thief/diplomat style character myself, which in Oblivion became highly based as more of an assassin unfortunately as that's all the game really allowed. However, its precisely as you said if such a system were put in the game, they would almost certainly force us to attend. None the less, wouldn't it be cool if you weren't forced to attend? If you could fuel and stoke the fires to the political tension that led to just such conflicts, and then as a thief take advantages of the lack of security in major cities, castles, or treasure vaults, or even to assassinate key political figures interfering with your progress in some way?

Of course this would also require radical redesign, as for the most part it was never really in your interest to kill key characters to advance your missions, the story lines were just never that deep, and the consequences of character loss were never really a large concern from one NPC to the next, so there was no benefit. The interactions among NPC's and the ranks in various factions, and royalty would have to be much more integrated, complicated, and interactive for such political intrigue to take place and be useful, thus the entire concept falls on its face, and we're back to square one with no real good reason to have massive battles, unless your a hack and slash warrior role-player..
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Monika
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 6:48 am

Epic battles are only really possible for a game in which NPC's act more as a whole as opposed to having a seperate AI programmed into them that makes them attack.

What I'm saying is it'd be cool, but I doubt it's really possible unless you take away the radiant AI and the ability to talk to everyone.
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Rudy Paint fingers
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 6:14 am

I agree with you actually, but only sort of. See I prefer a thief/diplomat style character myself, which in Oblivion became highly based as more of an assassin unfortunately as that's all the game really allowed. However, its precisely as you said if such a system were put in the game, they would almost certainly force us to attend. None the less, wouldn't it be cool if you weren't forced to attend? If you could fuel and stoke the fires to the political tension that led to just such conflicts, and then as a thief take advantages of the lack of security in major cities, castles, or treasure vaults, or even to assassinate key political figures interfering with your progress in some way?

Of course this would also require radical redesign, as for the most part it was never really in your interest to kill key characters to advance your missions, the story lines were just never that deep, and the consequences of character loss were never really a large concern from one NPC to the next, so there was no benefit. The interactions among NPC's and the ranks in various factions, and royalty would have to be much more integrated, complicated, and interactive for such political intrigue to take place and be useful, thus the entire concept falls on its face, and we're back to square one with no real good reason to have massive battles, unless your a hack and slash warrior role-player..

By all mean, I would be happy if that the case or such Epic Battles is only heard/happen in the background and the PC is really just a covert within the whole frame work of thing, kind of like how Daggerfall did this with their storyline with politics and how Morrowind manage to sway everyone to support ya rather than having a full pledge army at Mount Doom. Hell, such skill can even defuse war and reduce useless blood shed. I am quite aware that such design might require a bit more dip in the resource pit but I can only hope that such a storyline branch is possible and show that huge amount of violence is not the only way to end things off.
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Zach Hunter
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 7:36 am

Epic battles are only really possible for a game in which NPC's act more as a whole as opposed to having a seperate AI programmed into them that makes them attack.

What I'm saying is it'd be cool, but I doubt it's really possible unless you take away the radiant AI and the ability to talk to everyone.

This concept is resolved with the idea of a meta-AI. Computers are great at things like setting priority for certain AI functions dependent on circumstances, as a matter of fact this is a must for any sort of good interaction among groups of NPC's rather they are talking or fighting, and the degree can vary greatly, from individual NPC's fighting solo, to small bands coordinating skilled ambushes, to massive armies moving in tactical formations, all you need is a couple different AI's and a few IF THEN functions.
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maya papps
 
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