THERE WAS UPON A TIME

hello ,
my name is Raul, I'm from Italy, but
I live in Dublin, Ireland, at the moment.
I would like to know if you like my ideas,
I tried to contact Todd Howard, to comunicate directly my ideas, but there are to much walls, to much burocracy....
all I want, is share with the people that make this beautiful games , my ideas
I'm not sure if this is the right place, I've never been i a forum....anyway, if you like just read this Email that I sent to Todd Howard....let me know what you think...
Thank you!


I'm a composer, a music composer, and a painter, but beside that, I love videogames, or better, I like the potential that videogames can deliver in terms of emotions.
I belive that we are able to feel more than what we could imagine...we just need to find the keys to open this potential.
Interactive games are a formidable sort of key.. i just think that, at the moment, we are in the prehistory of the videogame expression;
just at the beginning of understanding what interactivity really is.

I'm not a programmer or a graphic designer, or a president, after all, I'm just an ordinary man.... but I am a man of ideas.

I hope you will take the time to read this message, it's important, for you, for me........................................................
..............................................................

Thank you! i appreciate....
First off all, I love your videogames and philosophy, ...but you are
doing some mistakes that prevent you to create something very, very special...a MASTERPIECE.
I perfectly understand that talking is easy and I know it takes a lot of talent to create games like you are doing..
Despite this, I'd like to offer you my personal and critical vision of game designing....I will explain how some of your choices are not effective and will present my personal solutions.


THE BIG MISTAKE

All your mistakes are originated by....THE BIG MISTAKE.
THE BIG MISTAKE is that you approach your goals with a logic mind, forgetting the emotional impact of your choises.
I will give you a simple example of that:
in Oblivion you use the tecnologies of lip-sync, facial expression, dubbing the dialog with sampled voices;
why? because you think you can reach a better level of realism, but it does not work at all!!!
There is a disconnection between the voices acting and the facial expressions...when the voice express angry, the facial expression is weak, it does not convey angry.....It's what I call a "conflictual emotional message"....the result? our brain won't belive....our emotional level is not engaged....
I'm from Italy and I know very well the importance of body language....in your games, there is an attempt to simulate this, but is weak and again, the player is not engaged.
There is NO EMOTIONAL CONNECTION with the NPC...maybe it could be done, but, at the moment you are not able to do that....so you need to find another solution...maybe a simple one! Yes a SIMPLE ONE!
You see? the mistake is done, you did not consider the emotional impact...the tecnology, in a way, made you a prisoner.
I was mentioning a SIMPLE solution:........Just dont show the face that is talking...use the power of the immagination of the player!!!
When you read a book, the characters are so real in our mind that we don't need lip-sync or face animation tecnology.
If you use a really talented voice actor, you will deliver that emotional impact that you are not able to express with your current tecnology.
Have a look to some clips of BALDUR'S GATE 2...
Simple solutions are smarter solutions, in terms of money, time resources...please think EMOTIONALLY!!!!!
Another SIMPLE IDEA....you are using a lot of different voice actors....some are very good, some are not good...and EMOTIONS are soooo DELICATE!!! just a bad acted voice will ruin the flowing of an emotion....so...seat down please.......why don't you use a SINGLE beautiful, soulful voice!!! Have you ever listen a book read by some amazing talented reader? you can find plenty in any bookshops...please have a try!!!
Again, you see? think EMOTIONALLY, think SIMPLE...you will save also resources to dedicate elsewhere.

I remind you that what you've have done is beautiful, so, please don't feel upset with me if I tell you where your games need to improve.


THE DEEPEST DIMENSION

There is another area in which you MUST improve drammatically...the worlds you create FEELS lifeless.
I think, part of the problem is related with the lack of emotional involvement with the NPCs...they basically don't feel alive....they are like puppets playing a part; you feel very lonely in this world.
I appreciate your attempt to make the world more alive with the Radiant AI tecnology...but it does not convey the feeling of a breathing living world.
It's more a patch then a real solution.
My suggestion, and again is a simple idea, is a voice that accompanies the player
during the journey...it could be the voice of your thoughts or your personal Pipboy 3000...
The radiostations that broadcast messages in Fallout 3 is going in this direction, but you have to go deeper.
This voice should be seen as a 4th dimension in your game...the DEEPEST dimension... I try to explain this important concept;
immagine you meet a NPC, what you see is a 3D model, but to engage and feel it is alive, you need more...a voice that will describe the NPC..a voice that tells you details, emotional details.....the voice:"his eyes have something strange, be careful, and look his hands....are thin...and his third finger is trembling...be careful, be careful..." and the good news is that you don't need to rappresent this visually!! it's all in the 4th DIMENSION, THE DEEPEST DIMENSION!!
The voice will tell you what are you doing or seeing...if you are looking to a particolar building, the voice will tell you emotional details about that, or immagine if you enter in a bus, the voice:" you don't need to pay, here on this planet the public services are for free.."
In a way the voice, will confirm your actions, will comment your actions, will rise doubts, will play with the player psycologically , will fill the world with emotional details that the visual dimensions is not able to offer...you wont feel alone anymore...or if you need to give a sense of lonlyness, just dont make the voice speak...you decide, you are the psycological master, you play with the mind of the player...
Convey a lot of resources on this aspect...don't use the same sentences for the voice...if you are revisiting a location, like a planet more times use different sentences...the voice:" you are back again on this beautiful planet.....and...it's the 3rd time you are here...and....it feel so good being back here, the smell of the flowers reminds me of my summer in my youth.....and.....that's the 4th time......and ...again here.......and.....oh! I love to be back, where do you want to go now?..."and so on...fill and think the world with the 4th DEEPEST DIMENSION!!!

I remind you that what you've have done is beautiful, so, please don't feel upset with me if I tell you where your games need to improve.


THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH

The dimension of the world in Daggerfall was huge, and then you made a choice;
you decided to reduce this world....I think is a mistake...
I think you took this choice, because you wanted a more realistic world, a world filled with textures, objects, things...the more realistic you want to be , the more you need to add things, a house need textures , tables , fornitures, glasses, plates, stuff that make you prisoners because the resources are limited, first off all the time...and you have to shrink the world.
Again the same mistake, you are thinking in a logic way...the more realistic, the better.....Wrong!! You have to think EMOTIONALLY....a small world kills the feeling of freedom, a world that you know you are gonna visit all, is not an EMOTIONAL WORLD...you need to feel that the world is so big that you will never visit it all...and that is, my friends, is a big psycological aspect you did not took in consideration.
The feeling that in this huge world there are things you will never see is powerful, because your immagination will fill that gap, you immagine what there will be out there.. and then your exploration will be more exciting...the unknown.
There is a game out there, called MINEFIELD, have a look in Youtube...a huge explorable, SIMPLE world and will give you an immediate feedback of what I'm saying.
So, build a huge world, but more simple, dont feel it with objects, be minimalistic....a bedroom for example could be made just with a single bed....an hospital bedroom with a bed and a red cross on the wall.....make every object or building very simple...the immagination will fill the world....have a look in youtube to MERCENARY, DAMOCLES...an old game that can teach you alot of in terms of freedom and huge worlds.
I know, it's a choice between a more visual realistic world and a big one...less detailed, but you are forgetting the power of immagination....... which world is more real? the one that looks or the one that feels?
How long does it take to build a highly realistic house? think of that, you can spend the same time building 20 simple houses.....

I remind you that what you've have done is beautiful, so, please don't feel upset with me if I tell you where your games need to improve.


WHO ARE YOU?

this chapter is dedicated to the NPCs and the idea is the same...the mistake is giving to the realistic appearance more importance then their emotional presence.
The NPCs you create are more and more graphically realistic: motion capture, facial animations, highly detailed 3D models and textures...this take time and resources and you will be again prisoner of your own tecnology.
My suggest is to simplify the NPCs visual appearance and dedicate more resources to their emotional presence, use the 4th DIMENSION...create a imaginary world around it, like in a book....there is a game called KILLER 7, it's an amazing example of an artistic vision....so simple, so effective...the NPCs are unforgettable..visually very simple...even the AI is almost not existent...but they feel real...some of them say things with a written message and the sound that rappresent their voice is just a bunch of noises, but they seems to talk...no need to hire expensive actors for the dubbing....
The best NPCs is the one that we will remember....
a NPC that gives just information is a wasted one.....and there are plenty of this kind in your games.

I remind you that what you've have done is beautiful, so, please don't feel upset with me if I tell you where your games need to improve.


I AM YOUR ENEMY

Why you design the missions manually? because the AI will never be able to do that...design a mission, create a world, requires intelligence, human sensibility...an artistic vision....I perfectly agree with you, so why don't you apply this concept as well to the enemy behaviour? The problem with the NPCs enemy you create, is that you give to the AI this very important task...the result? an enemy that will fight and react over and over and over with the same behaviour....even if the AI is sophisticated, at some point will become predictable anyway....
There is nothing more boring to see an enemy and say: "oh, not again!!"...really,
take responsability for the enemy actions...you won't let the CPU creating a story, so don't accept that the CPU drives the enemies!!!
The solutions? A very, very flexible editor that allow you to create very quickly individual behaviours....every creature, every enemy has to be a surprise for the player!!! The player must feel that every encounter is UNIQUE!! and this is a very, very, very, very, important statement...in real life we never meet clones, everyone is so different from each other...if you miss this in the world you create, you miss to create a MASTERPIECE!
I can give you a simple example:...the behaviour editor should say for goblin 1:"attack for 3 seconds, retreat for 5 seconds, lanch 3 arrows....scream 2 times...run away...come back after 1 minute....attack till the end"....and for the goblin 2:"attack with a stone...run away forever"....goblin 3:" run in circle, scream 4 times, stop 2 seconds....turn opposite to the player for 4 seconds....scream with a different sound...run away....
In this way the behaviour is unpredictable...exciting...you dont need to see a perfect strategy! the perfect strategy is a predictable one if repeated even just twice!!!
And that is, my friends, a mistake that everyone in the game industry is doing....
Repeating a behaviour twice is a very, very, very ,very, BIG MISTAKE.
If I'm roming in a world and i don't know what i'm gonna see, I don't know who I'm gonna meet , i'm on the path to create a MASTERPIECE.
Just few months ago, I was thinking that a competent AI was essential for creating a
videogame...I was wrong, you can do even without.........again the focus is to create surprise, the perception of life...and it can be done without AI, with simple AI, or a very elaborate AI....the best? a combination of all of this.
You are working on Skyrim, introducing Dragons....that's cool....I cannot wait to see what you are come up with....but let me just tell you what I would like to see...personality!! make dragons that are intelligent.. sensitive....they have deeper feelings then us, we are the primitive!! Make dragons that flying over you not for attacking, but for observing....they try to test you, to understand you, let them fly high and make them screem....they understand that you are a threat, so they want to scare you psycologically...they don't want a war, because they know that terrestrial creatures are brutal..a threat to their survival.
Make the confrontations rare, create situations in which they have no other choice then to fighting you....
and please, make every drogon unique!!! dont repeat behaviour....dont relay on AI routines that repeat themselves ....create a flexible editor to script the Dragon behaviour, just in this way you can create individual personalities.
A simple example, dragon A: "fly in big circles, scream, scream, look down to the player, leave for 1 minute, fly very close in a straight line to the player, leave": dragon B:"fly in big circles changing altitude for 1 minute....stop in the air....lanch a ball of fire from distance....scream.....fly again in circles for 4 seconds in one direction, turn back for 7 seconds, look down...etc....";
in this way you can tailor the behaviour very effectively...giving personalities, giving the impression that the dragon is thinking....it's a kind of creativity that just a human mind can create...do you want a nervous dragon? well, make it fly like a mad one, make it scream again and again....AI routines do not understand situations, emotions , state of mind.

I remind you that what you've have done is beautiful, so, please don't feel upset with me if I tell you where your games need to improve.


WHAT TIME IS IT?

This is a very important chapter.
In your games, the world is still....after I complete a mission in a dungeon, I can wait all my life that something happening....no one is coming, nothing happens, no one is looking for me....that's because you design the world in this way...you create boxes...missions....and the feeling of passing from one box to another, one mission to another, shatter the feeling of being in a living world....Radiant AI is just a superficial surrogate for giving the impression of life....what I see, is just puppets moving around.
Sorry if I'm a bit rude, but that's the feeling....
Again you forgot a very important element of the real world, you forgot probably the most important thing....TIME....
I'm aware that in your games you implemented time, but the way you introduce this concept is very weak and superficial.
In your games there is no urgency...everything happens because the player triggers the events....the time does not flow, the time does not pass, the time is still, there is no life....things are not happening....
The solution? A timeline where events happen indipendently by your actions....this gives the feeling of a real world...In the real world, we are conscious that events happening, and even we dont see or partecipate, we know.....
You see? the world you have to create is more and more inside the mind of the player....place you will never visit, but you know they are there....events that are happening even if you are not there, but you know something is happening.
I'll give you an example....suppose that the voice tells you:" tomorrow at 4 o'clock PM, if you travel to Callisto moon on the X and Y coordinate, you will assist to a beautiful
solar explosion".....so at this point is up to the player to go or not....and even if the player decide to dont go because is busy with some mission, he will know in his mind
that something is happening...and probably he will enjoy in his mind the scene of a solar explosion...how powerful is that!!!!!!
Fill your world with events, even simultaneous events, fill it with NPCs that are looking for you, that chase you...create NPCs with a deep story that the player may even never met....
This is a big revolution in the mechanics of the gameplay....the world you built till now is a Facade, like a far west city, like an amusemant fair,...a world without the 4th DIMENSION and a world without the 5th DIMENSION, THE TIME.
It's important that the player feels the time flowing, passing beside you, devouring you, filling you with melancholy....
Create NPCs with a destiny, NPCs that will accompany you, that will die because you decide to embark on a mission in which the destine decides they have to die....
in this way one NPC can live long and tell it's story or dying almost immediately, because you chosed unluckily the mission in which it's gonna die; and all his knowledge, all what it is, will get lost, will disappear like tears in the rain.....
The emotional feeling of this loss is real, because you really cannot talk with it anymore...you won't have the occasion to listen to it's story....again, you have to create a world inside the mind of the player...that is so important.
Create things that the player maybe will never see...and, I tell you, it is NOT a waste of time..because he/she will know that are there....again is all in the mind of the player....
I know that in your games there are missions to be discovered, but the feeling is not delivered properly...again, that' s because you don't feel things are happening...
One last thought, you dont need to build a world that last 100 hours long...make it 50 hours or 40, 30, 20...but make it full of events, full of memories, full of characters the player will remember...
Don't give to much food to the player, leave the player at the end of the game just a little hungry....

I remind you that what you've have done is beautiful, so, please don't feel upset with me if I tell you where your games need to improve.


WHAT WAS THAT SOUND?

I like the music in your games, but even the best music, repeated over and over, will start to annoying ....the solution?
well, guest what? ....be simple!, use simple melodies of just few notes, rhytmic patterns..single sounds....create hundreds of them...again listen to KILLER 7....it uses plenty of simple sounds to give character to an ambient....do you remember the film PREDATOR? the music was just a simple melody of few notes and a catchy drum..ta ta ta ta ta ta....the film ALIEN as well....so, use more simple and more varied sounds.... instead of 10 long compositions, use 100 different music units.


THE DIET OF THE THIRD DIMENSION

Does anybody else in here remember the sprites?
why the game industry forgot them?
Because, we are doing the same mistake, over and over again...chasing a more realism, thinking that it will bring a more fulfilling experience.....Wrong!
How boring is watching a painting that depicts perfectly the reality! it's a copy, and copies of things will be always not beautiful, not powerful.
We don't need to chase realism, but chase what move us, what rise a new emotion, a new state of mind.
Have you ever thought to create a videogame with characters rappresented, not by amazing 3D super animated 3D models, but sprites? simple hand crafted animations?
The advantages will be immense....no need for tecnology that change and improve every 6 months, just skilful artists that can craft very easily hundreds of characters....
How long does it take to create one single super realistic 3D character, create it's animation?
I'm sure with the same time you can create at least 20 different sprite characters that move differently..that look different....you can decide the quality of the animations, with loads of frames to make it fluid or just a bunch for a more frantic experience...do you remember ALIEN TRILOGY? or ANOTHER PLANET? BALDUR'S GATE?
Sprites don't look or move realistically, but they have an inner quality that 3D models don't offer...if
I can do a parallelism, it's like the cakes cooked by our mum and the industrial cakes.
Raise the hand who prefers traditional animated cartoon, versus computer animated cartoons....you see?
Sprites are great, and you know why? because they are SIMPLE, in one day of training everyone can do a beautiful sprite....how many people work in Bethesda? 100 ? my godness! why dont you try this experiment...everyone of you has to do an animated sprite....in one day you will have 100 characters ready to use for a videogame.....powerful!!!!

I remind you that what you've have done is beautiful, so, please don't feel upset with me if I tell you where your games need to improve.


SLOW DOWN

There is another mistake you keep doing...the fast travelling.
Moving from one place to another, instantly, it does not work emotionally...basically, it's like to admit that travelling in the world you created is boring.
Travelling should be one of the major pleasure in a RPG.
Travel is a powerful moment, like in real life, to build the tension, the waiting for something to happen...to have the time to enjoying the leaving of a place to enter in a new one....this process take an emotional time that the player should experience....the fast travelling kills this phase!
the solution? well, the player does not need to travel for hours...but you MUST create a sense of TRANSITION....make the player travel...for example, in FALLOUT you can create an helicopter that the player can call and take to destination automatically...don't let the player piloting the helicopter...he/she, is just a passenger......let to the player the ability to look out through a little window like he/she was in a tank...or a big window, in the style of a B17 bomber.
Create tension during the fly, with a voice that tells you about the mission, or the danger you are gonna face once landed...
In Skyrim, you can use the underground....water channels that drags you to the destination very quickly....it is even an excuse to create a new gameplay....you are dragged by the corrent of the water very fast and use the roots of trees to change directions in this labirint of tunnels.....
The important message here is to create a sense of transition.

I remind you that what you've have done is beautiful, so, please don't feel upset with me if I tell you where your games need to improve.


HEY!, I'M TALKING TO YOU!

Another mistake; in Oblivion, the voices of the NPCs are dubbed....the voice of the player no......no?....no!!!!!!
That is a very bad mistake....I think you chose this solution, because otherwise, you should have dubbed the lines of the player for a male voice, a female voice.... for races ....etc....too much....so, ok..."we dont make the player speak".....terrible solution!!!...the conversation, feels unnatural, it seems the NPCs are talking to nobody!! they are more alive than the player!!!!!!
The solution? be SIMPLE! as I said before, use just one single voice for every character....NPCs....the player him/her self!!
A soulful voice will do the magic of creating an emotional connection.
Another mistake that everyone in the videogame industry is doing, is to let the player fooling around when he/she is talking with an NPC....talking and then jumping around when the NPC is engaging in a conversation with us is terrible!!! expecially if the NPC does not react to this unnatural behavior;
would you like if someone ask you something and then does not wait for the answer, but leaves or jumps around you?
No, No, Nooooo!!! is unacceptable...we will react stongly...don't let to the player the ability to do that...or if you want to give this freedom, make the NPCs reacting properly!!!!!
The example i told you just now, teach you an important concept: dont be afraid to LIMIT the freedom of the player, you must limit his/her behavior if it risks to shatter the feeling of a belivable world;
Limiting the actions of the player it can be even a tool to pilot the emotional feelings....if you look at the MASTERPIECE KILLER 7....the author, SUDA51, is so courageous to even limit the exploration of the world....you can move just on predeterminated paths.

I remind you that what you've have done is beautiful, so, please don't feel upset with me if I tell you where your games need to improve.


MENU, LIKE IN A RESTAURANT

Someone in the past invented the system of talking to the NPCs with the choice of multiple answers or questions........everyone uses this technic now!!.....and I think is another ENORMOUS MISTAKE...
This system does not feel natural and belivable.....you think that giving multiple choices of answers and questions will deliver more freedom....but it does not work! , it breaks the flow of the conversation....the EMOTIONAL FLOW....
Comunication is a very delicate and highly sophisticated process....reducing this with a list of sentences to chose from is not right....., going through all the sentences is boring, too.
If you want to give the impression of choices, possibilities, the impression of influencing the world....do in other ways...

I remind you that what you've have done is beautiful, so, please don't feel upset with me if I tell you where your games need to improve.


OTHER WAYS

In my opinion, to create a belivable and emotional world, you have to create, what I call: " a web of belivable and varied behaviours".
Don' t give this task to AI routines; as I said, AI does not understand situations, behaviours, conflicts, danger, feelings....even a very sophisticated AI is far, far, far away to accomplish that.
YOU have to do that, with your intelligence, sensibility, your artistic vision!
You have to create a simple world, with a strong attitude to the concept ACTIONS vs REACTIONS.
The more you want a realistic world, the more you are in prison...and you will struggle to create " a web of belivable and varied behaviours"....think emotionally, not logically.
You need a tool, a very DEEP but VERY QUICK to use EDITOR...to script events, reactions, behaviours.
I will give few examples of my vision...
Immagine you are in a futuristic city with thousands of people.....don't create thousands of 3D models...it's a waste of time and resources!!!...just create floating icons....it will give the impression of a crowd of people...you see? no need of animations....be simple.....and if you use the 4th DIMENSION...the voice will engage the player in the world...like a book does!
Imagine, the player kills a random NPC....you must create a reactions......script loads, hundred of different reactions!! everytime the player will kill someone, she/he will be rewarded with a reactions......example: the crowd will react with violence, chasing you....or....the crowd, will just scream louder and louder, creating a surreal and upsetting feeling....or.....a child, will go to the dead body, scream and cry....coming to you acting like crazy.....trying to kill you.....
It's up to you create a deep reaction, even multiple reactions, even reactions that will happen in the future.....for example....after few days...in another city.....the wife of the murdered man will hunt you for the revenge....
You don't need always an elaborate reaction....even a simple one, will give the impression of a reacting world...the player is there and will affect things....
The player throw a sigarette on the ground? someone will tell you to stop....maybe someone else will kill you for this little action....or the voice, will tell you that's a bad thing to do.....EVERY ACTION LEAD TO A REACTION.....this is the way to create a real engaging and belivable world.....put all your effort on this.....be simple, be emotional, be an artist when you create the reactions.....you have to read the mind of the player....anticipating what he could do...

I remind you that what you've have done is beautiful, so, please don't feel upset with me if I tell you where your games need to improve.


THIS IS THE END

I hope that you enjoyed my ideas, and hope you will implement some of them in one of your future videogames.....
If the drummer does not play the drums, if the guitarist does not play the guitar, if the singer does not sing....they will come up with a revolutionary record, KID A.
You should follow their example and create a third game, beside ELDER SCROLLS and FALLOUT 3; a game with sprites, with no spells, perks, or weapons, a game with no dialogs, no missions....a primitive game....1 hundred people working on this!!!...I'm sure is gonna be a great game...no, better... a MASTERPIECE... if you do that, you will start to explore what ineractivity really means....we are just at the beginning.

Thank you for your patience,
I dont know who will read my letter and if you received this letter...my hope is to be able to be in contact to MR TODD, and explain better my vision and other ideas that i have...my mail is: raulgubert222@hotmail.com

Raul

I remind you that what you've have done is beautiful, so, please don't feel upset with me if I tell you where your games need to improve.


ciao!

Way Too Long Lol

Your ideas are very well thought out but they're really things that would need to be considered during pre-production, not when the game only has a few months left before release.

I disagree with you about the larger TES II style worlds. I initially loved the scope of Daggerfall but when I actually started to push in to the wider world the illusion was broken: yes there were thousands of cities and dungeons but they were all pretty much the same thing with a little reshuffling. In Morrowind and Oblivion the world was far more vibrant and this gave me a much strong emotional connection to the world around me.

thank you for your reply Hungry Donner,
I agree with you, too late for Skyrim, but I was thinking for future games.....
yes , the world of Daggerfall and Arena were too big and all was the same, the world was repeating like a copycat but the people working at the time was just a fraction compare to the resource Bethesda has now , 100 people.....anyway thank you for the reply....ciao!

Here are my thoughs, as I read this:



Here's your 'big mistake': telling him he did a big mistake, what person would want to keep on reading from that point? for 10 years, his fans and sales proved to him he made little to none mistakes, and when this fella comes along and points out his "BIG MISTAKE", why wouldn't he close the mail right on the spot?
What made it worse is that you several times mentioned his 'big mistake' and even made it in caps for it to insult him even more.



Guess what? it turns out the "BIG MISTAKE" is his voice actors, and apparently getting better voice actors will somehow save him money.
I can't help but mention that your frequent use of un-required caps and constant "....." instead of normal spaces (" ") makes it seem that you haven't put a lot of though and effort into this letter, and that you were thinking about what to write, as you were writing it.




It was said and known that the NPCs in oblivion we're just there for you to talk to them, and that this will be fix'd in skyrim, as NPCs will now have something to do instead of worshiping you from afar.



How would you know? have you played the game yet? do you even know how the Radiant AI and Radiant Story systems work besides how he described them? What if they DO fix the problem, and what if its NOT just a patch like you imagine it to be.



Oblivion always had this thing involved when it was NEEDED! oh yeah, i can caps too.
When something couldn't be described to you visually it was described to you in text, Which is what quests are all about. Quests act as your thoughts and guide you through.
This can also be resembled in the dreams you had after sleeping. You do not need a voice actor for every single thing, because it may very well get irritating. You don't read quests you don't want to do, why should you have to listen to them, when you can just read it when you feel like it, and at your own pace.
This is why you can skip the sound files of people talking to you, because you may very well not care.

Point is, if a game feeds you too much deep dimension, and you will eventually choke on it. You don't want the game to hold your hand all the time, sometimes you need to take it your own pace. If you want deep dimension play amnesia.



I want what you're smoking.

Seriously, enough with the unnecessary caps, emotion will not make this game require dosbox installed.
Do you really suggest they reduce graphics in order to increase size?
How could it ever compete with today's video game market?

Oh.. wait tho, I'm not thinking "EMOTIONALLY". If you want emotion, you need environments that actually tell a story, and are so beautifully that they are asking to be explored. Daggerfall's environment did not do that, it was all just a flat world that looked the same. If it wasn't for the map you'd be lost.
What about progress? you really expect us to stay in the dos ages for more explorable empty content that looks the same?

_______________________

Ok ok, I'm sorry but I stopped reading there, your words and text we're incredibly nonprofessional, that I began doubting everything you said you were at the beggining. Instead of an artist and musician you seem like a 15 year old man that mastvrbates to the Skyrim Trailer.

I fail to see how a man could be an artist and musician if he takes a game so deep into account, and insulting its developers like this, when you didn't even play the game. Heck, theres 7 more months!

I managed to conclude 2 things from this:

- Never write a letter while on Marijuana.

- Being a famous developer must svck if you get so much spam mail.

Ehh... I only read the intro but, that is wayyyy tooooo longggg :tes: <

Well, I just can't be nice about this so I'll say it out plainly:
These ideas are horrible!!


You seem to think that modern technology is incapable of conveying emotions into people, that's just wrong. There are things simple text cannot show, like the tone of the speaker. Yes, you could add in how certain words are spoken, but it's much better to hear that, rather than being told about it. The best example would be accents, they're next to impossible to put in text.

And a single voice actor for everything? What? That doesn't make any sense...


Again, text cannot tell you everything. Also, you don't feel certain emotions just because that person told you that. Like if you're in a haunted graveyard, and the "voice" would tell you "You feel agitated, and scared of what will happen here", I would just shout back, "NO, I'M NOT!".

Also, it seems you want an interactive book, rather than a game.


oh boy...

First off, even the world of Daggerfall was limited. It was big, but it is possible to explore the whole. People don't do it though, because there's no reason to it, as everything looks the same everywhere.

Secondly, what you said already happened in all TES games. You cannot explore the entire world of Thamriel, there are many places left unexplored.

Abstracting the whole thing doesn't help...


Again, why does it need simplicity, why all the abstracting? If you want to make an NPC unique, you just need to make them deep. Make them say or do something interesting, and they'll become memorable. If you remove their voice and show them as a blob, they'll just be part of the background.


... I can hardly comprehend what your idea here is.

Remove every enemy's AI and give them pre-scripted behavior? That doesn't make the encounter more unique in fact it makes the same every time!

Or these scripts should happen when a said requirement happens, or just randomly? That's pretty much how AI works...

I agree on one thing, to make the world feel more alive, there should be some random events happening, that happens without our input. It doesn't have to be big things, or it could be just the illusion, with a weekly Black Horse Courier, that tells us some everyday happenings of the world.
But it's not as revolutionary as you may have think, other games did this, mainly sandbox-like space sims, there the economy could change depending on happenings of the world. Even in Oblivion there were some cases where somebody looked you up for a quest, if you were famous enough.

As for the rest, and "NPCs with destiny"... what does that have to do with time again?
You don't need to create things that the player will never see, you just need to be told about. Again, you cannot travel trough the entire world in most TES games, but you can still hear tales from other provinces.


I don't know if there's a need for music generator like in Left 4 Dead, but music should be a bit more Dynamic, I agree.

My own problem is that I doubt I could add my own music to the game :confused:


I remember the sprites, and they were really ugly.

And you're completely wrong how making sprites are easier. To create a sprite, first you have to make a 3D picture of it, either by a sculpture or in a program. Then you have to make different animations for different sides, and you have to capture them, frame by frame. And these frames need to be the same on every side, or it will look weird.

Also 3D pictures are easier to vary. With sprites everything will look the same, as you have to make different sprites for, different clothes, weapons, armor, while with 3D you can just add in the 3D model of the item.


While watching the whole traveling sequence the first time can be interesting, doing it for the 5th time will just become boring.

I tend to travel by train every week, and while at first it was quite interesting, by now I just want to get over it.


The lines of the player is not dubbed, firstly because dubbing all those lines would be impossible, secondly because it supposed to make you feel that you, the player is talking to this person.

And... again with the single voice actor? WHY?! It's like in a movie, everybody should be played by the same actor, it's stupid. This isn't an audiobook!!

(out of quotes...)
MENU, LIKE IN A RESTAURANT

We have this system, because you cannot add every possible answer in the game to everywhere. It's not just a technical limitation, but a human one as well, because nobody can think of all the possibilities for one part.

Older games had a system where you typed in keywords, but those weren't that different. NPCs would react to the keywords they're programmed to react. Even with modern technology while you can make the computer understand simple sentences, you cannot include all of the possibilities.



A simple game doesn't make a masterpiece.

And I'm not surprised if Todd wouldn't read trough this, as I had a hard time doing so...

Pheww! Thank god someone else took the time to say that! Great post well done Bukee!

hello everyone, thank you for your replies....I can see, it's not easy comunicate new ideas, but maybe it's my fault.
have a nice day
Raul