I dunno about you but the Radiant Story was my biggest worry so far especially how prevalent it is compared to static ones. I was afraid that they'd get lazy with quest writing but as they have described how it's simply a means not an end I'm mellowing to the idea now. I wouldn't get the same message if it's merely tagged under bug fixes.

On one point, I like generated stuff.
The reason I like it is because it allows for more things in the game, like a bigger world.

I honestly would have prefered if Bethesda had done something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8qa-naczjg&feature=player_detailpage#t=65s (and in return get like a 40% bigger world, and where all dungeons and such are more spread out)
I call it random handcrafting
Now I'm not sure if that's what they've already done, but the world size being the same size as Oblivion's, tells me that it's not done like that. Random handcrafting could be great, since it goes so fast and you still have full "handcrafting" control over it. Trees and foilage and such can be randomly added like that, and it would still be able to look natural (as long as it's done well, of course. If not, anything random could be horrible ^^).

I think the context of the preview of the interview was clear: Bruce is talking about how they got to the point they are now. It is completely insane to assume the next OXM update is Bethesda telling us they made a mistake and that the have to start some things over. I think it is pretty obvious Bruce is talking about mistakes that are looooooooooong behind them.

Lets face, radient story could be the next level scaling.
No more distinct caves, forts and ruins, no more well placed bosses, just everything everywhere tailored to the same slightly challanging, built for you kind of thing that people hated about level scalling.
My guess is, that's what they are trying to fix. (have watched the podcast on live btw) they've over used it and realised it's flaws.

Yeah, and I'm glad they're at least admitting to them. But I'm just paranoid a bit. I try to understand the rationale behind it. This is potentially bad press, admitting that you did Radiant Story wrong. Certainly the article itself is shining a somewhat negative light on it. I mean, if you realize the flaws, you can just fix them with the public not knowing any better. To me, though I'm not a beacon of absolute truth, it just seems that they are attempting to explain reasons why people might not like Radiant Story.

I need to stop being a pessimist. I really hate pessimism. That article is just spreading FUD

I was never worried because I understood from day one what radiant Story was....they said what it was. The "getting lazy with quest writing" was something YOU assumed, and nothing Todd has said justifies you thinking that.

Like I have said like 4 times now in different posts: you guys are putting things in the devs mouths, and you are settting yourselves up for some really dumb dissapointment, just like with Oblivion's Radiant AI (where people assumed too much from a little info).

This article is just damage control. Bethesda feels that Radiant Story is getting overhyped and they just want to fix that.

None of the things you listed have any relation to Radiant Story.

I am glad they are not trying to stuff us up with automated garbage like they did in Oblivion.
I am to applaud that they are backing up and reviewing it.
Stuff as sayd by someone before:
"Save my son from the mudcrab in the troll infested cavern", Please save my daughter from the dragon X in place Y" when you just wen t out of the place and there was no dragon nor daughter, ir its a place your hitting for the 10th time or "You have to kill (insert companion name) i ll pay you 10 gold" in plain companion face would be absolutely crapstatic, and is the sh**** Radiant AI caliber we ve been shoved in in Oblivion.

So yes i admire them for after hyping the crap saying , well its not that great, its svck a bit so we ve backpedalling and using it more wisely.
Tell me which developpers or game producers did such in the last decade ?
Most sell stuff that are only repixelization of the same crap (BF, COD, WOW, and almost all MMO and so on), that only if you really like that crap you re happy.

Without having read the full coverage, i'd say, yup, that is my take too. They decided on a preemptive strike of honesty because of past failed expectations on the Radiant AI department. But that is still commendable.

Todd had already hinted at that by saying (i'm paraphrasing) ?The main thing about Radiant Story is to not oversell it. (...) We're still tweaking it (...)?

No, they are talking about how they got around using it wrong WHEN THEY FIRST GOT IT, which means like 3 or four years ago. It is obviously not bad press. How stupid do you think they are? read the preview well.

I dont think its that bad, reading the rest of the article I suspect he is just saying that when they first implemented the Radiant Story they went overboard and did to much so that those random encounters in a town where the game was calculating what level you are and where you had not been yet, and coming to the conclusion that a quest was needed were not so random and the next thing you find is that as soon as walking into a town the residents are lining up to give you quests.

I think this just saying that they are toneing it down a bit and he is just letting everyone know about the problems they faced when implementing the system.

None of that has anything to do with Radiant AI. Radiant AI just gives schedules to NPCs.

You can bet its NOT 3 or 4 years ago since Radiant story has been shown way after that timeline.
The damage have been done recently, less than 6 month.
So you bet thats in less than 6 month they had to backpedal, and now they came to the conclusion, its not that great, they are coming to the public saying:

Don t expect much of it.

Which is very comendable and i still applaud.


"None of that has anything to do with Radiant AI. Radiant AI just gives schedules to NPCs. "

What ?!?! you couldn t be more wrong.
Radiant AI was the main part of the stupid random NPC dialogues and stupid random NPC behavior. That was the so awesome radiant AI.
Some feature where scrapped from OB, probably because there were constraint and because it was crap and needed heavy work.

NPC schedule is another feature which have nothing to do to radiant AI as Morrwind modders did it. Its only laying pre programed path tied to a clock. Radiant AI...lol, it has nothing intelligent.

Radiant Story was simply being used too much, is all the article says. They realized they were over-using it, and decided to cut back on it because it would have made the world feel wrong.

Edit: I don't see where some of you are getting this idea that they are admitting that Radiant Story isn't as good as they said or that it will be terrible now or something. They simply used it too much. It'd be like having too many of one enemy in the game, or too much of a particular type of dungeon, or what have you. The just have to look at it and realize that Radiant Story had its fingers in too many pies, and needed to get peeled back some to give the game some breathing room. It isn't that Radiant Story wasn't functioning correctly or as planned, but that they used it too much.

Thats my feeling. I think BGS may have relied too heavily in the radiant story, just to realize it really isnt as feasible as initially thought. I think it is likely being scaled down ie. not as many quests will have the option to have multiple quest givers and things of that nature

Which isnt much of a surprise

What a misleading article. It makes it sound like Radiant Story was a huge mistake that they should never have implemented. What it actually means, or what they meant, is that they made some mistakes while using Radiant Story. OBVIOUSLY that's going to happen, but it makes it sound like it's this big disaster when it's actually just the typical trial and error that anyone working with a new system is going to do.

Over Hyped or not it's the fans like us who over hype it...Bethesda really hasn't said much about Radiant Story other than what the article it's self is saying.

Truth is, we still don't know much about it and what it's real function in the game will be yet.

Bethesda doesn't give a [censored] about bad press. if they did then Todd never would have mentioned their inability to do ladders as well as they'd like, because you see how much Bethesda's detractors have taken that out of context and gone HURR BETHESDA svckS.

they're honest about what they can do, and that's incredibly refreshing, especially considering the industry's trend of smothering every inch of their marketing with as much post-processing as they smother their games with, both intended to make the bits that are really ugly look less obvious.

like others have said, this is very likely intended to make people feel more comfortable about the idea of Radiant Story, with them saying straight out that it's not being overused and that there's still a majority of hand-placed content within the world. a lot of people have freaked out over the idea of RANDOM QUESTS and part of it was sort of grounded in logic but most of it was just I HATE CHANGE.

I'll put it up, I did it with this one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6Xn0GbweAE

Some people may have over-rhyped it but we are all just going off the information that they've given. Personally I never put too much thought into what radiant story truly will look like in the finished product, but thats just because the entire concept seems very pain staking for whoever has to work on quests; it just seemed too good to be true. With that said, if I were to completely rely on the info Bethesda has given thus far, I dont blame anyone for believing that the radiant story that has been described should be very impressive.

Who knows though. It may be as good as some people were led to believe.

I'd appreciate that. Thanks for your time and consideration.

Thanks. Would be very appreciated :foodndrink:

Actually, it sounds like Radiant Story IS a really powerful too. It's just that they don't want to overuse it and have scaled it back. That's a design decision and not a decision based off of lacking/over hyped tech.

hey no problem =)
just keep an eye out on my channel, doubt I'll make a thread, anyway feel free to though