That makes it more fun :mohawk:

They made the mistake of not announcing the name of the mod when they first came out and said they revamped them based on a mod. Everyone jumped to the conclusion that it was done based on Duke Patrick's mod. However they have since come out and named the actual mod as being "Better Bows", not Duke Patrick's.

Edit: We'll, I just searched around for Better Bows too, and I couldn't find it either. I really thought there was a mod with that name when Oblivion first came out. Perhaps Todd couldn't think of the name of the mod off the top of his head during the video interview and just spouted out something that sounded plausible.

I'm aware of only a handful of semi-popular archery mods, such as Duke Patrick's, Eagle Eye, Ultimate Archer.

Duke Patrick's is the only one I know of that fits perfectly with what Todd described.

I know it's not really bow-related, but I hope this is just their general approach to Combat overall. Less about Outlasting your opponent, and more about outskilling your opponent. A light-armored Opponent should go down in one to two power attacks with a level-appropriate warhammer or battleaxe, and the same should go for the player (On the Hardest difficulty).

Absolutely!

Before modding Oblivion, higher level melee combat was a duel of patience between two people hitting each other with wet noodles.

After installing a lot of mods, the game is much more balanced and difficult to make it through any battle without dying several times (at least at intermediate levels, haven't gotten to a really high level in the modded version yet).

nm

No where does it say that they got the inspiration from a mod, only that they decided on a different approach from Oblivion.

Second paragraph: "After playing an Oblivion mod that turned the bow and arrow into a formidable weapon capable of one-hit kills, Bethesda decided to adopt that approach."

lol I love how TorrgusTherred just ran away to never return after he was schooled in this thread.

Why would you even respond with "Nope, you're wrong" if you don't know something? What ever happened to asking for a link?

I don't recall where, it's one of the many interviews. Todd specifically named "Better Bows" as the mod they used for inspiration.

It was in one of the video interviews that came out of the Utah gathering. He called it "Better Bows" but searching for such a mod yields no results. So either the mod author pulled it, or he just made a name up off the top of his head to keep the interview flowing smoothly. Perhaps the Buddha will know if such a mod ever existed.

Edit:
I just checked with the Buddha and a mod of that name didn't exist (at least before 8 Jan 2008).

There is a mod called "Better Arrows and Bows" but it just changes the animation speed for arrows and time to draw your bow, doesn't fit at all with what Todd described in the interview

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=38099

I think it's safe to say that they look at the kinds of mods people make and play with them themselves, and all of these factor into their considerations for the next games. Mods give an example of what players want to see, and the most popular mods are the kinds of things most people want to see. I believe it was Obsidian who picked up Oscuro for Fallout New Vegas, because his mod was one of the most popular for Oblivion.

I don't think it matters which mods in particular they used. They don't need to say which ones they liked the best. I've always just accepted the idea that the developers like to play their finished games and get mods for them, and if there is a mod they truly like, it might make them say "Oh, we should have done that". Todd Howard was a fan of the plasmids in Bioshock, and now look at the way Skyrim's magic system is implemented.

Found a mod called Better Bow but doesn't have much info:

"Description:
All this mod does is change the Iron bow into a weapon of mass destruction thats worth about 1000 gold"

http://elderscrolls.filefront.com/file/Better_Bow;67992 :spotted owl:

Another one Better Arrows and Better Bows:
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=38099