» Wed Sep 01, 2010 10:58 pm 
Anywayz, I tried to think that if I was going to purchase the next oblivion game, what would I like to see in it. And so here are some of the things that crossed my mind:
1. Leave the brown out of it. As a colour scheme (with the shading technique I'm guessing here that's what it's called as I'm not a programmer) leave the "brown" filter out of it. It's been done in way too many games and it just looks dull and boring now. Some might argue that it sets the mood of the game but I'm not convinced, I always like my game, no matter what genre to be bright and full of different colours to stimulate my brain not cloud it over. As zero punctuation mentioned on one of his reviews he's sick of every game looking like it's being played through a used teabag
2. Night time and dungeons must never really be very dark. I've spoken with friends on this and we agree the biggest downfall of so many games, including (and a primary candidate) fallout 3. When you have to start messing around with the game brightness and tv brightness settings to try and get the brightness "just right", it really detracts from the game. Bearing in mind a lot of people that play games, myself included, might be playing during the day on a weekend because we work. That leaves me with 2 choices really which is, a) play the game with an extreme brightness setting almost bleached out or B) draw the curtains. Drawing the curtains though, immediately gives me that guilty feeling like I should be enjoying the good weather instead of playing video games. A decision, I'm guessing, most studios don't want a person to make because they'd rather have us enjoying the product.
3. Part online component for dungeons. There should be certain dungeon areas that require 2 people to play through. A lot of ideas can be taken from wow here ie pick the dungeon from a menu (or maybe a town bulletin board) and wait for someone to respond ie search the que's already in place, a message will come through stating player(x) would like to join you for dungeon(y) (Of course I'm an xbox gamer so it would be a buttoning affair, no specific text involved*) then you could see the persons stats that wants to join before you accept. After accepting you should both be placed into the dungeon together ready to go. A few hints from wow can be taken here ie the loot is shared ie every 2nd body is lootable by you vice versa for your questing team mate. The thing about the dungeons is that the stats on these weapons shouldn't be any better than the ones in the normal world but they should have a unique look and they should have a small percentage chance of dropping (reason being you don't want to alienate people that don't have an online possibility too much). And if they do drop the need or greed system should apply. Obviously a decent challenge boss at the end would be a real nice touch. As well as this if the your team mate leaves before the end of the dungeon they forfeit all dropped loot, even rare items.
4. Melee combat is everything (well almost
). Now this is a big point of contention but I think that magic should be secondary, essential to stats boosting and have some cool close combat spells, but primarily this should be a secondary skill entirely. My reasoning behind this is that oblivion is the one game where a shield can be used and is a combat system that is done well so the game should concentrate on this and increase the fun factor here. Maybe make the shield a right or left block option and make the combat have more soul. Like make it less of a flurry of sword "lashes" and make a damage scale that will increase with better timing. I'm thinking of 3 types of strikes here, glancing, the lowest strike that does damage but would not have been clean ie hit enemies armour, shield or word. Standard damage hit, where the weapon strikes opponent who is ready for the strike but wasn't able to block it. And of course the critical strike, strike to the back, strike to the enemy after he has lunged and missed in a prone position, and striking a stunned opponent.5. And finally art direction. The elder scrolls has had the same art style for 3 and 4 but since they were huge games it wasn't just like it was 2 games worth of artwork it's hundreds of hours of gaming time with the same artwork
I was never a huge fan of the original character models, although you can't really stray too much from these models it just needs a new touch and I would think artwork along the lines of the "white knight story". Not as jrpg as that but definitely along those lines, with softer not such "hard" models. I'm sure the purists here would say it's bad idea because skeletons should look a certain way and goblins should also look specific but I definitely think it needs a new that makes it feel fresh and more relaxed, not trying to be so olde world.Anwayz, that's just my 2 cents worth and things I would love to see in the next iteration of oblivion. Hope you guys enjoy my ideas. bb for now.
Falinx.
