The one you mentioned was really the only one I remembered that did anything more than hear a different dialog outcome.




I never said the project lead did nothing, but he wouldn't have had as much influence clearly. And it was a joke man, chillax.

Then I can understand why you think what you think, but you gotta understand that not remembering something, is not equal to it not being there. I mean you would be pretty pissed if I said morrowinds main quest was linear because I couldn't remember the great houses.



I just don't see that, I mean he's the leader of the project, I imagine that at least that would be a position of much influence, sure not as much as a executive producer, but where talking a difference between great influence, and much influence IMO.

I suppose I'll replay Fallout then and see. But I think it's not so much as Todd Howard gaining of a position, but other devs stepping out of the limelight. That's the point I'm, trying to make.

I might misunderstood it, English is not my first language. But what I understand from this statement is, Oblivion was a mean to get attention of console guys. Now they are familiar to the game, they want more hardcoe RPG as PC guys(I'm a member.). So next game would be targeted for both PC and console guys who want a hardcoe game.

I think we're saved!


I had an idea for a start which will make best of worlds.

I think the game must start with a flashforward halfway around main quest.

Character with a powerful spell and a weapon. Cleverly hided face, race, inventory...

Cinematic opening which would make anyone's jaw drop with

awesomest

combat,
effects,
music,
hugeness,
anticipation,

cut to black

-Wake up, we are here.
-Why are you shaking?
-Are you okay? Wakeup!

-Stand up, there you go. You were dreaming. What's your name?
....
-Well, not even last night's storm could wake you. I heard them say we've reached [Province name]. I'm sure they'll let us go.

Good old Morrowind feeling everywhere, anticipation on how this is gonna turn into the dream setting...

Because it is a dream, it doesn't need to be 100% accurate, but you can taste both a mage and warrior class would be like. It is just a dream.

I don't think that's quite what Mr. Howard meant. I think, rather, he meant that Oblivion was the 'deep experience' and that the tutorial was the easing console players into the game, not so much that Oblivion as a whole was easing console players into wanting the deep RPG experience with the next installment of the series.

Edit: I also can't say I'm exactly filled with hope when I hear Mr. Howard say two of his big influences are Modern Warfare 2 and the Madden football series.

Well, they would have to do that scene in first person, without the character do any real action just a bit of walking and looking around (so it IS clear that you are looking true the eyes of someone). Since killing of things with your big axe won't make sense for you mage character, and blasting the things to death with a fire ball really isn't a good way to represent your barbarian half way trough the main quest.

I personally wouldn't really mind, and I certainly won't go screaming that I ruins the game or something, if the character you see in the flash forward isn't fitting the character you are going to play (but it is still meant to be your character) but I don't see a reason to do it since the whole reason for the cinematic isn't showing you what the player character of one of the designers did during the main quest but it was to show you what you will be.

...even if it's a dream...

Hmm, but can we say that then? Can we say, now that action oriented guys tasted how an RPG/Action open world game could be like, they would want to play a more hardcoe game?

I mean, we(Morrowind fans, mostly) say the journal pop-ups and quest markers are hand-holding and shouldn't be a part of open world RPG. Does this resonate on new TES gamer console guys? I think even a console player would see them as intrusive, hand-holding and immersion breaking. So maybe they want to play a game which is hardcoe on both RPG and action elements. I do as a PC guy. I want more action and a more detailed RPG.


Off course it will be first person. Everything will be hidden. 3rd person will be disabled, hud will be disabled, hands covered with gloves. But if you think yourself as a mage and there is an axe lying in front of you, you can ignore it naturally. There could be an action tutorial sequence, that can be dealt with combat, magic, stealth or a mix. It is your choice. It won't mean as final, a mage can still have wet dreams being a warrior chopping heads with an axe. You will still get your regular character creation. But I am just putting the face gen at bit further.

Damn good podcast. Very illuminating. I'm looking forward to more developer on developer discussions in the future.



I reacted just the opposite. I immediately thought that if an RPG handled character creation, skill assignment, etc. in the same way that Call of Duty handles it's class system it might just be a stroke of genius.



What you're essentially describing is an "http://www.giantbomb.com/abilitease/92-57/", and it's been done in many, many games before. Which isn't to say it's not a good idea. :]

Haha, I loved walking around as Lord Vader at the beginning of the Force Unleashed. Throwing wookies off bridges. Good times.

I agree. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the whole thing. It's interesting to look at things from the other perspective (that of the developers) instead of our own.


To be fair, I haven't put a whole lot of time into the game. Perhaps if I did I might think differently. My reaction though, was that Todd seems to be crazy for these 'perk' systems, and I absolutely do not like the way Oblivion handled skill perks. And so, to know that he's still crazy about them, well, I just don't quite agree. Although, perhaps they can be pulled off better, with new found experience on their (Bethesda's) part.

I played some of those games and it didn't make any sense in most of them. But I like the name abilitease because it is exactly what we need. Also I believe it will work, because it is a dream not a flashforward!

Bethesda tried different approaches in beginnings of their games maybe they try abilitease this time. I get the idea from Morrowind's dream intro anyways.

By definition the Executive Producer has no involvement in the dvelopment. They oversee finances and keepthe said development in check.
But Todd is also Game Director, so he's kind of his own boss.

In the Interview, they talk about not sacrificing the hardcoe crowd to reach more people, I'm surprised no one is specifically talking about that, since a lot of people in here are people who think that's what happened from morrowind to oblivion.

In any case, I think Todds answer could have been a little more affirming, but he basically said that the current audience is great enough, that they can make a more hardcoe oriented game, I think that is great. After all, the rpg console players (me included) want the same deep experience.

I heard it. Just didn't think it was worth mentioning and possibly started another flame war over.