Offsite Developer Quotes 2

Bribes, deer and the compass

Just because you can attempt to bribe someone does not mean they'll automatically accept it. That depends on their responsibility and a number of other factors.

And no, you can't get that close to a deer in the game unless you're sneaking, and good at it. They run away pretty much as soon as they can see you. Good luck hunting them. The most common sighting of a deer is their backside as they're running away.

As far as the compass goes, in playing the game I actually rarely use it. I'm usually spending too much time looking around. But the times when I've been looking for a specific quest target, or a camp or settlement where I can rest, it has come in extremely handy.

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E3 aftermath

The video is the same thing we showed at E3. It's pieces & sections of existing game content and a lot of stuff made specifically for the E3 demo (for example, the entire sequence inside the bookstore -- including all of the dialogue -- was made for E3 in order to demonstrate some of the things you can do with RAI.) The player character was beefed up, and the enemies seriously nerfed (to the point of one or two hits to kill) for the demo.

The forests and terrain (including the beloved soil erosion) are pre-generated in the editor and are then the same for everyone every time you play the game.

Lots of stuff has been heavily tweaked (and in some cases completely redone) since the video was made, and we continue to optimize and improve. We have a lot of people playtesting the game now (internally) and have been adjusting gameplay based on their feedback.

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On flora - harvesting and use of plants

Basically plants work exactly the same as they did in Morrowind. Plants are organic containers. The plant stays when you harvest from it, and then you can't get any more stuff from it until it refills after enough time has passed. There's no highlight text other than the type of plant -- it just tells you when you activate the plant whether you got anything from it or not. Then when the ingredient is in your inventory, depending on your alchemy skill you can see what effects the ingredient has when mixed into potions.

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On dialogue - voices

All dialogue is fully voiced. There are three main NPCs who have specific voices (Patrick Stewart's the Emperor, Sean Bean is his heir, and Terence Stamp is "the bad guy".) Everyone else is fully voiced by voice actors who performed entire races and genders (for example, Lynda Carter voiced all the female Nords, as she did for Morrowind.)

There are also recording and lipsynching tools built in to the editor, so mod makers can add their own voice assets.

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On dialogue #2

What you're missing is that the topic list can include responses to questions asked of the player, not just things the player can ask the NPC. Multiple responses, even. Ones that might alter the NPC's disposition towards the player, and affect what the NPC's reaction is to what the player "says." Our dialog system is MORE than capable of handling what you're asking for, for that reason and more.

There's also the Condition system, which (among other things) allows designers to establish the conditions whereby topics (and even responses) are available -- it can be based on a huge number of variables, from disposition towards the player, to faction membership and status, quest status, whether or not the player is wearing a particular item, the time of day in-game, and pretty much anything else we give the designers access to.

Oh, and dialogue isn't JUST voiced -- everything an NPC can say has an emotion tied to it, and as NPCs talk their facial expressions change according to that as well as according to their disposition towards the player.

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On this screenshot

The tabs shown on the magic page are all spells, target spells, touch spells, self spells, and magic currently affecting the player. And the mouse wheel works for very fast scrolling, and you can also assign spells (or anything else you can equip) to quick keys.

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On Radiant AI - the bookseller demo

As far as the bookseller sequence. No, the entire thing was not scripted -- not in the sense that it represents a designer typing in hundreds of lines of script code. In the sense that it's a sequence of events that happen in a particular order, you might consider it scripted, but the way you set up those events, and how the actors accomplish them, is not scripted.

For example, the target practice. All she's told to start practicing (basically) is "fire a certain number of arrows at this target from this location." That's it. There's a bow in the room, so she automatically goes to get it first. There's also a quiver in the room, so she goes to get that. She then equips the items, walks over to the firing point, and shoots a few arrows. The arrows miss the target not because she has been scripted to shoot at points away from the target, but because her marksman skill is low.

That's the difference. She's given a basic goal, and figures out how to accomplish it based on what she has available to her and her stats.

The sequence is a set of examples of the kinds of things you can do with RAI -- including grouping a sequence of AI packages together to produce a tight, deterministic sequence of events.

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Lockpicking - Skill?

The thing is, the lockpick minigame really DOES get easier to play when your security skill is higher. There are different difficulty levels of locks, basically you have more or fewer pins to set. But each pin is easier or harder to set correctly depending on your character's security skill. If you have a high security skill, even a hard lock is easier to pick because each pin is easier to set. It's hard to explain without a visual -- but the game is definitely much easier to play if your character's skill is high.

And you CAN get caught trying to pick a lock.

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Lockpicking - Skill? #2

Drakron wrote: "And if set to auto pick?
What it does? check the character skill vs the lock dificult?"

Each time you hit the auto-attempt button, it does a die roll of your skill against the lock difficulty. If you fail, the pick breaks. If you succeed, the lock opens.

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On character faces

kuato wrote: "how many characters are using that same fat head anyway?"

None, all of the character's faces are different. Every single one.

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On character faces #2

You DO know that you can make the faces look pretty much like anyone you want, right? In the video, they were pressing the "random" button and showed about 6 different combinations. They have slanted eyes, higher cheekbones, longer foreheads, and pointy ears, and they tend to a yellowish skin though that can vary by individual. Dark elves' foreheads tend to be shorter, and have skin ranging from gray to blueish. And wood elves are much shorter, tend to have rounder faces and more caucasian coloration. There's a tremendous amount of variety within each race, though. But the elven races do have slanted eyes.

I'm honestly not sure what there is to complain about. There's nearly an infinite variety of faces available.

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On controls - quick-keys

When you access quickkeys, if you just tap the key it'll equip whatever's assigned to it without the "rosette" appearing. If you hold a key (or a direction on the d-pad), the rosette will appear and you can pick a different one. It ends up working out really well, both on PC and Xbox.

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On controls - quick-keys #2

Sarvis wrote: "I seriously hope you don't have to use the right trigger for all attacks, it sound very bad for my carpal tunnel."

You can re-assign the controls on Xbox 360 as well as PC.

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On skill progression

The number of "skill uses" required to advance from skill level to skill level increases the higher your skill level is, and the amount of usage you get for performing any given action is constant, so it takes longer to advance your skills the higher they get.

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On skill progression #2

LlamaGod wrote: "It doesnt help that you dont gain special abilities from skills, too."

Actually, you do gain special abilities as your skills advance. There are 5 skill levels that you can attain as you progress through each skill from 0-100: Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert, and Master (Master of a skill has 100 points in the skill). At each skill level, there are perks you earn that are appropriate to the skill. For the melee combat skills, for example, they mostly involve new power attacks that give you additional damage, and later, the chance to disarm or even temporarily paralyze your opponent. There are perks for all 5 levels of each skill.

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On skill progression #3 - possible to alter/mod?

Pr()ZaC wrote: "MrSmileyFaceDude, is there a way, ANY WAY, to change the skill system via mods or is it totally hard coded?"

You can change the skill names, what their governing attributes are, and how much they advance with usage. You can also manipulate all of the game's formulas by modifying the constants used within them.

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On combat - dodging

match000 wrote: "Dodging won't be done right until its like in Unreal Tournament where you double tap a direction and then the guy does a matrix style flip..."

One of the high end Acrobatics skill perks allow you to do something similar to that (although the controls are block + direction + jump).

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On combat - dodging #2

You dodge by moving your character out of the way of strikes. How quickly you can do this depends on your character's speed. Again, the quick dagger user can move around faster and using the fast dagger for quick strikes and can get out of the way, while the slow heavily armored warrior can stand & take more punishment and use a heavier weapon with less danger to himself. There's also an Acrobatics skill perk that adds a fast dodge ability.

The player controls the actions -- attack, block, dodge, maneuver -- and stats work to determine success.

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On combat - damage

The damage rating is the base amount of damage the weapon can do PER STRIKE, not per second. This value is modified on each strike based on the weilder's skill, fatigue level, luck, and other factors, and further modified based on the defender's armor rating and other stats.

It is true that a speedy dagger used by a fast character might be able to do as much damage in the same amount of time (through multiple strikes) as a slower weapon used by a stronger but slower character, but that's not what I meant by "damage rating."

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On combat - clarification on "to hit" rolls

Saint_Proverbius wrote: "What about the shield blocking thing, then? If there's a roll to see how successful a shield blocks a hit, then wouldn't that be a "to hit" roll? Really, the same thing applies to armor. If the armor skill roll is low and the armor is wicked powerful, isn't that "to hit"?"

Not really -- there's no randomness involved in attack damage. It's a straight formula based on the skills of the attacker and defender, the condition of the weapon/armor/shield, the damage rating of the weapon, luck, fatigue, etc. And of course the opponent has to be in range of the weapon or there IS no hit.

The randomness in attacks & blocks is in the AI, deciding when NPCs move, block, attack, dodge, etc., and in the player's actions in doing the same.

Hence, no "to hit" roll.

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On combat - blocking and shields

Holding the shield up slows your character down significantly, and you cannot run in that state. You also have to be facing your opponent or you won't block the attack. Some damage from the attack will get through -- the amount absorbed by the shield depends on the shield's armor rating, and your block skill (plus luck and fatigue, which come into play with nearly every formula) and whatever the shield doesn't absorb comes through to you the blocker. Once you reach a certain skill level, the item you block with no longer takes damage.

You can also block arrows, if the amount of the arrow's damage that is blocked is high enough they'll bounce off your shield.

If you have a low Block skill, then you are fatigued whenever you block a blow.

If you have a high enough block skill, you gain a chance of doing a counter-attack maneuver with the shield when you block a melee strike. Basically a punch with the shield. If you hit your opponent with this punch, you have a chance of staggering them (which leaves them vulnerable) or even disarming them. You get these same perks if your hand-to-hand skill gets high enough and you block with your hands.

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On combat - blocking and shields #2

There's an arc of effectiveness for blocking -- as long as the attacker is within your blocking arc, you'll block them. For multiple opponents you'll need to turn to face to block each, just as you would with a real shield. If you have multiple opponents within the arc, then yes, you'll block hits from all of them (and the size of the arc is configurable based on a game setting.) The shield and other armor you're wearing still contribute to your overall armor rating, which will attenuate the damage on its own, but not as much as actually blocking a hit.

If you just stand there and block, how much damage "gets through" depends on your blocking skill. But don't forget that your shield may be taking damage (again dependent on your blocking skill) and it may eventually break. The amount of damage that gets through won't necessarily be steady, either -- how much gets through depends on values that are changing, including the attacker's fatigue level, the defender's fatigue level, and the condition of both the sword and the shield. It also depends on the type of attack being performed.

As far as the animation goes, you just hold up your shield as long as you hold down on the block button. When you block a hit, there are a number of animations that might play (you might be staggered or even knocked down if it's a powerful blow, it might be a "normal" recoil of the shield, or you might play a block counter attack animation if your character's skilled enough.)

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On combat - blocking and shields #3

Chefe wrote: "Problem: To-Hit Combat has your sword go through the opponent with no damage when you miss. People apparently have become enraged by this.

Solution: Don't turn it into a twitch-based game similar to an FPS, simply add dodge animations for the enemy to use when you miss your attack."

"Simply," huh? Don't forget, this is a real time game, not a turn based one. The enemy may be in the middle of doing something -- playing an attack, casting a spell, raising or lowering his shield, turning to flee, etc. You'd only be able to fit the "dodge" animation in when the opponent was idle. That means that if the attacker missed the to hit roll and the opponent was in the middle of another animation, there'd be no visible feedback that you'd missed, which was the whole point of adding in a dodge animation in the first place.

Even then, the animation would have to be pretty fast and significant enough to make it look like the defender has evaded the strike. And you'd probably want different dodges for different types of weapons and attacks -- duck under a swing from a claymore, step aside from an overhead blow, jump back from a stab with a dagger, etc. And this all is predicated on having enough time to play the animation as well as being ABLE to play the animation (i.e. not being in the middle of doing something else.)

If you did it "simply," you'd end up having it look like Han Solo dodging Greedo's shot in the latest version of Star Wars.

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On combat AI - equipping new weapons

Tintin wrote: "Would an enemy thief NPC pick up a dagger instead of a claymore in a fight?"

If the thief had no weapons, and there was a claymore and a dagger lying there, and the thief's blade skill was higher than his hand to hand skill, and the thief's AI settings indicated that it would be better for him to fight than to flee, then it would come down to the bladed weapon's damage rating, not its type. So in that scenario, the thief NPC would be more likely to pick up the claymore if, as is likely, it had a higher damage rating than the dagger.

It's unlikely the thief would be unarmed, of course. He'd probably even have poisons in his inventory to apply to his weapons, and he'd also most likely have a bow and arrows in addition to a dagger or other bladed weapon, and he'd switch between them depending on his range to his target.

Oh and perks are skill specific, not weapon specific. So if you raised your Blade skill from Novice to Apprentice, you'd get the Apprentice skill perks, which would apply to all bladed weapon types. But the other attributes I mentioned in the linked post still apply.

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On combat AI - equipping new weapons #2

If the NPC already HAS a functional weapon, he won't try to get another one. They only try to acquire weapons if they are unarmed.

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On the assassin role

Valas wrote: "Will assassinating someone have you be patient, learn his/her routines, and/or mess with his/her friends?

And will you have to be creative when you assassinate? Just plain killing someone outright in Morrowind was a little... "un assassinish""

It's definitely a lot of both, with a lot of player choice available.

Because an assassin's job is to, well, assassinate someone, it's kind of hard to fail a particular mission. As long as the target is dead, you've succeeded. So, in a lot of instances, you could very well walk up to him, bash him in the face with your warhammer, and complete the job.

But, in Oblivion's Dark Brotherhood questline, for a lot of the contracts the player will gain bonuses (in the form of gold or stealth-based magic items) if they complete it in a particular way. So a player can Conan his way through the questline and still win. But a stealthy, patient player will definitely reap better benefits. Oh yeah, and if you want to tail a target, follow his schedule, see when he's vulnerable? You can totally do that, and it's pretty awesome.

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On detection mechanics and poisoning

Let me address the questions about the dog, arrow hitting the wall, etc. Basically, the detection formula only accounts for the player. So no, they wouldn't be alerted to the sound of an arrow hitting a wall, or a dog's barking. Sound is part of the overall detection formula which also considers things like your Sneak skill, light levels, and opponents' Sneak skills.

Question about poisoning. Can't go into any detail. But if you're asking -- "Can the player use poisoned food to kill an NPC in an emergent, non-scripted way" the answer is most definitely... yes.

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On ESRB rating

Yeah, I obviously can't comment on the rating we're getting, or any other ESRB matter.

But I will say this. When we started designing Oblivion, we sat down and decided on the scenarios we wanted. The ones we thought would be appropriate for a next gen, realistic fantasy title. We're obviously not GTA, so there are things our game simply wasn't going to have from the get-go. You know, propositioning a hooker and taking her behind the woodshed to get hit points back isn't exactly our core gameplay.

So what is the core gameplay of Oblivion? Well, combat. Lots of combat. With bows, with swords, with spells. That in itself could be considered "objectionable." But there are plenty of other rather "non innocent" gameplay elements. Stealing. Assassination of innocent people. Gambling. Drinking mead in a run-down tavern. So it's not like there was a whole lot of artistic compromise. We knew what game we wanted to make, and we made it. The questlines have a lot of story and character variety, so you never know what you might encounter.

I really don't think you guys have anything to worry about. I mean, hell, you can join the Dark Brotherhood and be the essence of evil. Ain't no way to soften that up.

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On detection and lockpicking

Valas wrote: Stealth related question: When you shoot an enemy with an arrow, and you are completely hidden in the dark, does the enemy know exactly where you are? Basically, if someone is chasing you, can you hide from them, without them knowing EXACTLY where you are? Will changing clothes aid in this at all?

One last question, and this one I'm sure you are allowed to answer. When you go into the lock picking minigame, does time stop?

Alright, I thought of another last question. Do you guys(stealth team) pick real life locks to get a feel for difficulty, or, just for the hell of it? If you do pick locks, what is the most complex lock you've picked?(make and model number)

If you're successfully hidden and shoot a guard, no you're not auto-detected. And yeah, if you can manage to get away from someone who's chasing you, yeah, you can hide. Clothing does not play a role in the stealth dynamic as far as disguise goes.

Rather not answer any questions about the nature of game mechanics like the lockpick minigame, sorry.

I was one of two people who designed the Thief 3 lockpicking minigame, and designed the Oblivion lockpicking mingame, and no, I've never picked a lock in real life. Since in the two instances with the mingames we were going for "fun and believable" and not "hyper realistic" it didn't seem that relevant. I have played just about every lockpicking mingame in every game that had one, if that's any consolation. If not, where do you live? I could try to break in. :-)

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On making games professionally

Okay, here's the reality. Or at least, my reality. Being a professional game developer can be very demanding, yes. The pace of work is brisk, and you've got to be willing to put in a lot of hours in order to make your stuff good. So yeah, I guess it does bug me when somebody in "real life" learns what I do and makes a crack like, "Ha! You get to play videogames all die." Bite me.

Now, that being said... I have the best job in the world. It is, as Kaleem said, a "jobby." I would not trade game design for any other profession on the planet. It's like, I ended up exactly where I'm supposed to be. THIS is what I'm supposed to be doing with my life. So, as long as the hours may get, as tired as I may get, at the end of the day I still get to decide how many heads the monter has. Can there be anything better?

I remember once at Ion Storm Austin I overheard someone griping, "Oh, man, I've working really hard on that warehouse. Trying to get it right. It really sucks." And the only thing I could think is, "Dude, you could be working IN a warehouse! Get some perspective!"

As for the "play games as a teen and you'll be a game designer thing" -- there may be more truth to that than you know. I mean, to work in development you obviously need other skills -- technical, art, writing. But if you're not a hardcore gaming, if you can't draw upon those experiences playing games, you're not cut from the right cloth. So playing games in high school alone won't get you a job -- but if you don't play games in high school, if you're not a gamer, you'll have a much harder time getting a job in this industry.

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On variety and richness of quests

So you guys are generally wondering about variety in quests, and secret passages.

Well, as for variety -- imagine every questline -- not just Dark Brotherhood -- as a unique story, with its own plot twists and turns. So there will certainly be surprises -- whether that means unique architecture, quests that change direction in mid-stream, secret passages. It really all depends on the quest.

For the Dark Brotherhood, I really tried to utilize the existing game systems and the strength of the Radiant AI. For example, in one of the quests you have to kill all the members of a family, and they're spread across Cyrodiil. So you can really approach that any way you want, using any tools or techniques you want -- follow their schedules and ambush them, talk to them and try to get a certain response, jump them while they sleep, whatever.

So I would say the questlines as a whole are a LOT richer than they were in Morrowind.

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On the setting, and stealth/guild/crime topics

Hellwalker wrote: "Cyrodiil is so medieval like, And can we expect to see "Strange" and unique this like in Morrowind. For exm. Silt Strider, Kagouti, Blight storm."

It's true that in Oblivion the world is much more of a classic fantasy setting. But, that being said, the world is being invaded by Daedric forces, and the Daedric stuff, as you've already seen in several screenshots and movies, is anything but normal. So yeah, you'll get to see plenty of strange stuff.

Someone asked if you could use Speechcraft as an assassin. In some cases more than others, but yes, definitely. Certain quests utilize this element more than others.

If you get kicked out of a guild, are you kicked out forever? -- no specifics, but getting kicked out of a guild is handled differently by each one.

On jail sentences -- kind of what Valas said. Wouldn't be much fun to spend six years of game time in jail, and it would be hard to justify the world standing still while that happened.