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Belonging to what genre is Oblivion being marketed as?
micmu wrote:
Reality is, they are selling it as an action game on the primary xbox site: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/catalog.aspx?st=Oblivion
(Site has an RPG section.)
Quote:
Genre: Action
Yeah, I'd noticed that too. Dunno why. We're certainly developing Oblivion and marketing it as an RPG.
***
Dialog: whole sentences as answers only in main quest?
Balor wrote:
And, again, same was in MW.
"Other times, the list contains responses to something the NPC asked or told you about, or questions
you can ask the NPC. There can be one choice or multiple choices, and they can be WHOLE SENTENCES,
omgwtfbbq."
Yea, right. But how often it happends?
I suspect this priviledge is reserved to main plot quests, unkillable NPCs, and even then it
will be used sparingly... I'd be glad to be mistaken, though.
You are mistaken.
***
What world settings are controlled by gamesettings (GMST) variables?
galsiah wrote:
MrSmileyFaceDude wrote:
None of the formulas -- and I do mean none -- have hardcoded values. They ALL use
Gamesettings for the constants in the formulas.
Hang on - what exactly does "none" mean there?
I hardly think there's going to be access to graphics engine formulas through the CS. How about
physics formulas? Havok (is it a 'c' or a 'k'?) will have internal values, but are all the
constant values passed to it GMSTs? Are any? How about AI formulas - if RAI is based on fuzzy
logic or something similar, is it possible to influence the randomness through GMSTs?
Obviously formulas that are in 3rd party libraries like Havok are out of our control.
I thought that would have been self-evident.
***
Oblivion Dialog 101
When someone says something to you, as they're speaking, the text of what they're saying appears on the screen below their face.
After they're finished (or if you press the button that skips their dialog) you get a list of things you can "say" or "ask about".
Sometimes this list contains topics you can ask about, like "Rumors" or "Directions". If the NPC offers services such as
selling things, reparing armor, teaching you spells, training, etc., there are icons below the list that let you request
those services. You can also persuade them at these times.
Other times, the list contains responses to something the NPC asked or told you about, or questions you can ask the NPC. There
can be one choice or multiple choices, and they can be WHOLE SENTENCES, omgwtfbbq. And they can either affect how the NPC feels
about you, the progression of a quest, whether they'll help you with something or give you something; or not. It all depends on
the circumstances and how the designers intended the dialogue to progress, and how it is supposed to affect things.
***
Oblivion Dialog 102
Sometimes there are topics you can click on. Sometimes there are specific questions you can ask, or responses you can make when
asked questions. Their brevity or verbosity and number all vary depending upon whom you are talking to, when, their disposition
towards you, and under what circumstances and conditions the conversation is taking place.
***
On gamesettings (GMSTs)
None of the formulas -- and I do mean none -- have hardcoded values. They ALL use
Gamesettings for the constants in the formulas.
Gamesettings aren't included in the game save, that's why you can't permanently modify
them via scripts. They're just saved in .esm and .esp files. It's just not something we've found
a need to do.
***
On swimming
Vault Dweller wrote:
Ok, I'll bite. What stat/attribute governs it and how? What's the gameplay difference between a poor
swimmer and a great swimmer?
The speed at which you can swim is based on your character's speed attribute, atheltics, how much you're
carrying, whether or not your weapon's drawn or sheathed, etc. The amount of time your character can
hold its breath underwater is based on endurance (and there's a water breathing spell available).
***
Why doesn't magazine XY get an interview?
There are thousands of game-related websites out there, and most of them contact us anyway,
from the largest to the most obscure. Our time is limited; we aren't going to trawl the
Internet trying to find someone to ask us specific questions when they're already asking us.
That would be a waste of time & resources.
But that doesn't mean that you couldn't contact the Respected Individual of your choice and
suggest he contact us for an interview.
You're making an issue where there isn't one. Seriously.
***
Why doesn't magazine XY get an interview II
Twinfalls, in general game developers don't ask websites to interview them -- the websites ask
the game developers for interviews.
***
Interview about Oblivion's graphics misguided?
Context, Naked_Lunch, context. It's an interview asking questions primarily about graphics technology
on a website devoted to graphics technology. I'm sure that Beyond3D's readers are VERY interested in
the interview. I suppose you'd rather Gavin either not give the interview, or insist that this
graphics-oriented website ask questions unrelated to graphics?
***
Some personal opinion on the game
Yeah, I'm biased, and I don't expect anyone to take my word for it -- but I think Oblivion is one of
the most amazing games I've ever played. I think that even the doubters are going to be surprised,
though they may not admit it out of stubbornness ;)
***
Do Bethsoft people post more on other forums than on their own?
I post in the Elder Scrolls forums quite often. I also post here, and in a number of other forums.
The Elder Scrolls forums are much, much more active than RPGCodex, and so I can see how it might
be harder for you to find topics in which we do post in the TES forums than it is to find them
here or in another less-active forum. There's really not much we can do about that.
***
Misinformation in GameSpy article?
The game is being demoed by Microsoft representatives at the Consumer Electronics Show. They're showing
the press a few of the significant Xbox 360 titles that are being released this year, since Xbox 360 is
Microsoft's primary consumer electronics device. Neither Bethesda nor 2K Games are exhibitors at the show.
***
Dungeons keep refilling with new, different items?
Twinfalls wrote:
Yes, but go to a dungeon early on in the game, and encounter some creatures.
Go there again later in the game, and there will be different creatures in there.
That is retarded.
That's not necessarily true, though, not in every case. When, eventually, creatures in a
dungeon respawn, they may just be tougher versions of the earlier creatures. And why not?
Are you planning to go repeatedly into the same dungeon over & over again for some cheap,
easy skill boosting?
***
On XBox 360 achievements
Achievements are not part of Oblivion's gameplay, they are an effect of it. When you gain
an achievement, a notification pops up (which is part of the Xbox 360 UI, not part of the
game's UI) and that's it. They are not part of the game itself. Think of it as a separate
application monitoring your progress and then ticking off checkboxes as it sees you complete them.
***
On leveled creatures
The leveled creature stuff doesn't have to be "At level 5, you get a level 5 creature." It can
be "At level 5, in this particular instance you get a 50% chance of a level 5 goblin, a 40% chance
of a level 2 rat, and a 10% chance of a level 10 troll." It can also use offsets from your current
level. There can and will be super-easy encounters as well as extremely difficult ones. Some dungeons
may start out easy and then get tougher and tougher the further you go -- and it's still all based
on your character's current level.
***
More on XBox 360 achievements
Every Xbox 360 game has to be Live-aware (you can voice chat with others in ANY game, even single
player, and send & receive text messages, among other things). They all have to use the built-in
software keyboard for text entry, they all have to represent controls in certain ways both visually
and textually. There are a lot of feature requirements that Xbox 360 games have to have, and
Achievements are one of them.
Achievements are an Xbox 360 Live feature, but they're not really a part of Oblivion's content,
which on PC has no Achievements.
***
A bit more on the GameSpy dual-wielding and no-written-dialog confusion
No dual wielding. I don't know where the guy got that idea, but since the demos at CES are being
given by Microsoft representatives, it's possible they just assumed you could do it.
As far as reading goes, every line of dialogue is also present as subtitles. If you read faster
than the NPCs say their lines, you can even skip the rest of the voice.
There's a huuuuuge amount of text in the game to be read.
***
Even more on XBox 360 achievements and why they'er in
Achievements are "awards" Xbox Live members get when they reach certain goals in a game.
Every Xbox Live member has a "Gamer Card", which lists their gamer score and what Achievements
they've reached for the games they've played (each Achievement awards a certain number of points
that get added to the player's gamer score). You can add other Xbox Live players to your friends
list, and compare Achievements for different games.
What exactly the achievements are depends on the game. The game I find myself playing most on
Xbox 360 so far is Hexic HD, and addictive puzzle game by the guy who made Tetris. Hexic's achievements
range from the trivially easy to the nearly impossible.
Every Xbox 360 game has achievements, and has to. Oblivion, being on the Xbox 360, of course will have
achievements too. Now that doesn't mean that the achievements are catered towards collectathons or
powergaming -- for example, you might get an achievement for becoming the head of a guild, or completing
the main quest -- things people will do anyway.
Yes, it's bragging rights. But since Xbox Live is an online community, that's no less appropriate than
parading around as a level 75 warrior in World of Warcraft.
Is Microsoft dictating content? Heck no. You have to have achievements, but they have no say as to what
those achievements have to be awarded for. And no, there are no achievements awarded for the PC
version -- achievements are an Xbox Live thing.
***
On how blocking and dodging should and/or does work
Dreagon wrote:
Revasser wrote:
I don't see why leaving in to-hit rolls had to impact on the kewl visserel kombatt!
Why not keep to-hit rolls, so that your character will actually miss if his skills suck with that weapon,
and when you miss, have the monster you're trying to bash initiate a dodge animation?
I would have been a lot happier with this approach myself. As it is, its just a little to "arcade" for my tastes.
Opponents know when you are attacking, and that increases their chances of blocking or dodging. Ends up
effectively working exactly as you describe.
***
Is the gameworld randomly generated and different for everyone?
TeamXBox Preview wrote:
For starters, the game encompasses roughly 16 square miles of terrain, some of which will be new each time
a player enters. The forests in Oblivion are randomly generated, using the power of the Xbox 360, so
settings will be different upon each quest.
That's not true -- the forests were randomly generated once, in the editor, and then are the same for
everyone and each time you play.
***
Spell traps - possible in Oblivion?
Balor wrote:
Place an activator 2000 units above the target.
Cast lighting from that activator at target?
You can have just about anything cast a spell at just about anything else. And imagine the possibilities of
combining script effects with the new trap system...
***
On magic as an element of strategic gameplay
Wow, you don't really know too much about the magic system in Oblivion, do you? ;)
Want defensive magic? Silence is a good. Paralysis. Demoralize (or Turn Undead depending on
what you're fighting). Calm is pretty powerful on enemies in combat. Heck you could cast
Dispel on an opponent and get rid of their buffs & shields. Frenzy might make enemies fight
each other instead of you. There's also Command. Need to get away in a hurry? Cast invisibility.
The AI will react realistically. In addition to summonings, there's also Reanimate -- raise your
own army of the dead to fight for you. You can also poison opponents. And of course there are
buffs -- elemental shields, resistances, fortifies, reflect & absorb magicka, etc.
Tactical stuff like Detect Life and Night Eye. I think the magic system allows for a tremendous
amount of strategy and variety. It's not all about inflicting damage.
Oh, and it's not "scripted effect", it's "Script Effect." A Script Effect is a magic effect that
runs a script on the target of a spell. Our designers have done some pretty far out things with it.
***
On Scripted Spells
Yeah, it's a magic effect, like Fire Damage or Paralysis. When you in the TESCS make a spell
containing one (or more) Script Effects, you decide the cost and school of magic, give the
effect a name, and even pick out the visual effects for each one.
***
On Scripted Spells II
You can't do it in game, but you can definitely do it in the editor. The PC never "learns"
script effects, so if you get a spell that has one, you can't use it in spellmaking or enchanting.
And if the script effect is on area, the script runs on each target.
***
On Scripted Spells III
Very simply -- Script Effect runs the specified script on the target. There are conditional blocks
you can check that are called on the first frame, last frame, and every frame of the spell, and the
target reference is already designated for you. Very simple, very easy to use, but very powerful.
Our designers have had a lot of fun with it
***
On Scripted Spells IV (sort of!)
Balor wrote:
The Script Effect is the shit, while possibility existed in MW, it would be so much easier and much more useable now.
And you guys thought we didn't care. ;)
***
On staffs and enchanted item usage
Section8 wrote:
Staffs don't require any skill to use, unless you're blocking with them. They're like scrolls in that
effect, though they of course can be used multiple times. Rate of fire is based on the duration of the
animation. They have a certain max amount of charge, and each time you use it the charge is drained by
the cost of the attached enchantment. Once you've exhausted the charge, the staff is useless until you
recharge it.
Does this happen over time, or does it require soul gems (or equivalent)? Can a mage specialise in some
way that enables more regular use?
You need soul gems to recharge. Soul Trap is alive and well. There's also another type of rare stone you can
find that will recharge your magic items for you without having to "populate" it with a soul.
Another one, does invokation of the enchantment applied to a staff lead to advancement in that particular school
of magic? ie Will a destruction enchanted staff advance my Destruction skill, or is use of a staff wasted
opportunity as far as skills are concerned?
Nope -- staffs (and other enchanted weapons) can be used by anyone. You get no skill usage for casting the enchantment,
and the enchantment's effectiveness is not altered by any skill you possess.
Staffs are useful for mages because you can do things like cast offensive spells with the staff and restorative or
defensive spells with your free hand very quickly. Other archetypes can use staffs, but a thief might be better
off in general with poisoned and/or enchanted bow shot, and a warrior might be better off with a melee weapon.
Since the staff takes up the weapon slot (and you use the attack key to cast it), a weapon user limits his or
her options when a staff is equipped. But they can come in handy, especially if you assign a staff to a quick key.
***
Need to protect against one's own spells?
Don't forget, spells you cast that aren't "cast on self" do not affect you. So you wouldn't need the fortify.
***
On spell reflection
Reflect Magic is a chance to reflect, so there is a die roll when you hit. It's definitely
not overused. That said, it's probably a wise idea to have a resistance to the kind of spell
you're casting, or to cast "softer" spells at the start of combat with a new enemy until you
find out whether or not they have reflect magic.
***
On enchanted staffs and how they compare to enchanted bows
Staffs don't require any skill to use, unless you're blocking with them. They're like scrolls
in that effect, though they of course can be used multiple times. Rate of fire is based on the
duration of the animation. They have a certain max amount of charge, and each time you use it
the charge is drained by the cost of the attached enchantment. Once you've exhausted the charge,
the staff is useless until you recharge it.
Of course each staff only has one spell, so you have to make sure it's not one an opponent is
resistant to. And if the target has Reflect Magic you could be in trouble.
Overall staffs are pretty rare -- and some are unique artifacts.
Archery has lots of advantages over staffs: arrows are relatively easy to obtain, you can enchant
bows (the enchantment gets applied to the arrows you fire), you can poison shots fired from bows,
you can do more damage and gain skill perks as your marksman skill increases, you can't get an
undetected sneak attack bonus with a staff, etc.
***
On Scripted Spells V
Script Effect is awesome. Our designers have come up with all sorts of surprising uses for it.
I'm sure the mod community will, too.
***
On Scripted Spells VI
The Script Effect is something I've been dying to talk about for months & months.
I'm very glad the "veil" has finally been lifted
***
On game formulas and game balance
I'm not going to post a dissertation on how every formula in the game works, for a variety
of reasons (not the least of which is that we are constantly tweaking the formulas). At
some point, you're just going to have to play the game and see how it feels. As I've mentioned
before, we have a lot of people playtesting the game and they have all been providing feedback
on how leveling and skill advancement feels, and we've been adjusting things accordingly. But I
know that you won't take my word for it -- so you'll just have to wait to play the game, or wait
for someone whose opinion you trust to play the game and let you know.
***
On scripting with attributes and skills
galsiah wrote:
In Morrowind, a stat is stored as BASE + BONUS rather than BASE + FORTIFICATION - DAMAGE
This lack of differentiation between a character with strength 60 + 20 - 10, and one with a strength of 60 + 10,
is the largest source of skill / attribute related bugs, and makes mods like GCD a lot harder to make.
Yeah, that's pretty much how Oblivion works (total = base + fortification - damage), though there's a little more to it.
galsiah wrote:
Also, direct script access to the base part of a skill/attribute would be extremely useful.
Getting the base of a stat in Morrowind is really annoying.
Not any more! :)
***
On changes in leveling
HardCode wrote:
A very simple solution is to effect the level-up immediately when your 10th skill increases. More
realistically, as soon as you are out of combat mode. Resting to level up is kind of a stupid premise to begin with.
If you reach the level up point multiple times before you get a chance to rest and level up, when you
DO rest to level up you'll get the appropriate bonus multipliers for each level up. That's because the governing
attribute counts are stored in a queue and then reset to 0 each time you advance 10 major skills. No more holding
back on leveling up to get x5's in every attribute -- you can't do it for major skills because of the queue, and
it takes a very long time for minors.
***
Was Morrowind overrated?
Kuato wrote:
I beleive Morrowind sales and highly overated reviews were due to the lack of other games in the
same genre for the xbox at the time
That wouldn't explain the high review scores and sales numbers the PC version received. If the
game had been a poorly reviewed flop on PC, you might have a point -- but neither is the case.
***
Does Michael Kirkbride still work for Bethesda Softworks?
Kirkbride hasn't worked for Bethesda for about 5 years. I think he's on the West coast somewhere.
Editor's note: Michael Kirkbride, known as MK on the official forums, is one of the authors of the books found in Morrowind and Redguard.
Even though he no longer works as an employee of Bethsoft, he has authored a number of additional books for TES: Oblivion.
***
On skills, leveling and training
Regardless of whether a skill is major or minor, you get the same amount of "usage points" when
you use the skill. To advance a skill, the formula does indeed account for a skill being major or
minor, and in addition it accounts for a skill being within your class's specialization (combat,
stealth, or magic). So it will take more skill uses to advance a minor skill than it will a major skill.
In addition to these factors, your current skill level is used in an exponential formula to determine the
total number of skill uses required to advance. And so as any skill improves, it will take longer and
longer to advance to the next level.
Training is still in the game, but it has been altered so that it is not an exploit (there are limits to
the number of times a trainer will advance your skill, among other things).
***
On skill usage points
bryce777 wrote:
9.02 times? So if I use it 9 times and then think of using it twice I go up? *laughing*
Perhaps you only get 0.02 usage points every time you use the skill. Some of the "automatic"
skills like Athletics are that way, you get a very, very small usage amount for every second you run.
***
On skill usage points and "training spells"
Deacdo wrote:
Better that as an exploit than the having to go through the tedious process of tossing fireball after fireball
after fireball etc. to raise your magic skill and whatnot. Oh wait, that's just the way the crappy system works. Never mind.
Except that you don't get skill usage for casting destruction spells -- only when you actually hit something.
***
On Horse Rustling
If you own the horse, it'll stay where you leave it when you dismount. Otherwise, yeah -- the
horse'll run back home. Price you pay for being a horse thief. Of course you could always put
it in a corral when you're not using it, and then it won't be able to get away. There are
farms & settlements all over with fenced-in paddocks & such.
***
On Horse Rustling II
It'll run all the way home. If it gets unloaded because you're too far
away, it'll go into the low processing level list and move there over time.
And yes, there are stables outside of every major city where your horse stays while you're inside.
***
On Horse Rustling III
On the other hand, why BUY a horse? I mean if you can just steal one, escape, then go & get someone
to pay off your bounty (or just try to avoid capture altogether), there's absolutely no reason to
raise the funds to buy one.
***
On cell loading and caching
Not really being defensive, rather providing you with rationale as to why it works the way it does :)
We did consider pre-loading interiors as you approached them, but when you have a city where
you can enter every building, predicting when to do that can be problematic. You might be
walking straight towards the tavern but veer at the last minute towards the bookseller next
door, for example. Plus, as you move around in exterior spaces (like cities) the game pre-loads
cells in the distance as you move towards them, and that's a higher priority.
When we can, (as in if there's enough memory) we cache spaces you've been in, so if you go
into a shop, you can leave without the exterior having to be re-loaded, and if you then go back
in the shop is still loaded. It's all dynamic and configurable.
***
Detailed interiors vs. having interior and exterior cells in the same world space
How detailed were those interiors in Gothic and Dungeon Siege, anyway? How much stuff could you
interact with? How much clutter was in them? Would you have ever seen something like this in
Gothic or Dungeon siege? Libraries with shelves full of books, each individual objects that you
can pick up & read, carry away, move around? Tables with place settings and food?
It's not "pre-historic" tech. It's a deliberate decision to populate spaces with lots of stuff,
rather than having them be barren, minimalistic areas with few if any interactive elements.
It's part of making the game world seem more real.
Now, if you want to argue that none of that is essential to making it a roleplaying game, that's a
different story, and one that has nothing to do with a level of technology. We (obviously) feel that
having more realistic interiors with lots of interactive objects in them is more important than having
interiors that are part of the exterior world space.
***
On the game balancing process
micmu wrote:
MrSmileyFaceDude wrote:
It's balanced so that that does not happen. We're not sitting here in a vacuum, plugging in numbers and
hoping they work out -- we've had a lot of people playtesting the game for months, providing lots of
feedback. We've tweaked and balanced the system based on that feedback and are happy with the results. It works very well.
Ok I believe you.
*laughing*
You don't have to take my word for it, but balancing this sort of thing has been a major, major focus of
the last few months of development. We've spent a significant amount of time making sure systems like
this work well. We're happy with it -- and hopefully most of you will be, too.
***
Why different conditions for increasing skills at low and high levels?
At low levels you SUCK. If it took the same amount of time to advance from 5 to 6 as it
does to advance from 55 to 56, why even give the player minor skills at all? You'd never get any better at them.
***
On minor skills
GhanBuriGhan wrote:
It still seems to me that this curve means that skills I use little will quickly increase to mediocre
levels, while it is very hard to increase something beyond the mediocre level. So how is class more
important if its only defined by your starting skills, when the initial difference is quickly depleted
as the game progresses?
It's balanced so that that does not happen. We're not sitting here in a vacuum, plugging in numbers and
hoping they work out -- we've had a lot of people playtesting the game for months, providing lots of
feedback. We've tweaked and balanced the system based on that feedback and are happy with the results.
It works very well.
***
More on skills and balancing
For every skill advancement -- 5 to 6, 20 to 21, 60 to 61, etc., a formula dictates the number of uses
required to advance the skill. This formula is exponential, which is a change from Morrowind's linear
progression. When you reach higher skill levels, it begins to take longer and longer to advance the skills.
The curve starts out pretty flat. It's fairly similar to this image.
So while your miscs will advance slightly faster than your majors at the start, it's not such a huge difference
that you'll "catch up" to your majors unless you really, really work at it. And because you're significantly
better at your major skills to start with, doing so isn't really in your character's best interest.
Class is much, much more important than it was in Morrowind.
Like I said in another thread -- we have a lot of people playtesting the game. This has been tweaked and tested,
balanced and rebalanced, and we've received a lot of feedback about level progression. We're pretty happy with
it -- it's a much better system than Morrowind's.
***
On load times
ExMonk wrote:
Thanks. I don't suppose you can give some sense of the typical load time on
the pcs you are using?
Nothing specific ExMonk. But even running in the debugger I have no complaints. Of course,
it depends on what kind of HDD you have, too.
***
On quick access keys
HardCode wrote:
WTF Pete? What about a comment about the game on PC? Can I bind these actions to the keyboard?
Who dares say that the game isn't MicroBox360 oriented?
Pete wrote:
It's also where we came up with the idea of Quick Keys, where you can bind just about anything to a
direction on your D-pad and use that during combat to switch weapons, active spells, use items or potions, etc.
Quick keys bind to the number keys on the PC.
***
On NPC appearances
You've only seen a few NPCs so far. Check the screenshots at elderscrolls.com, too. Now, there ARE
baselines for each race -- so individuals start at the baseline and then have variances from that.
Those variances include changes to the shape, proportions and positions of the parts of each face,
age differences (smooth skin to wrinkled), complexion and color tint. There are over 1500 unique
NPCs in the game, all with different faces.
***
On the graphics engine
Well, we didn't rebuild the graphics engine -- we used NetImmerse 4.1 for Morrowind, and we're
using Gamebryo for Oblivion. Gamebryo is what NDL re-named NetImmerse a while back. It's heavily
modified, though, and we're also using several other third-party API's (SpeedTree, FaceGen, Havok,
etc.) There are elements that carried over in one form or another from Morrowind, but lots of the
major game systems were re-written, and almost everything that WAS carried over from Morrowind has
been modified heavily.
***
On quality assurance / bug testing
Chefe wrote:
You still have to implement the thing and playtest it to iron out the bugs and make sure it works and is balanced.
Yep. We've had 50 or so people playtesting the game nearly continuously for the past several months.
And QA has been testing the game pretty much since there was anything to test. Lots of feedback, lots
of balancing, gameplay tweaks, performance enhancements, and of course, finding & fixing bugs.
***
Disabling the quest compass
There's a gamesetting that indicates the distance at which the compass icons becomes visible.
Set it to 0 in a mod, and no compass icons. But even then, they're really not that obtrusive.
I rarely find myself looking at the compass, and when I do, I'm glad for it.
There are gamesettings for pretty much everything in the game.
***
Getting lost still possible in Oblivion?
Vault Dweller wrote:
That's impossible in Oblivion.
Wrong. You WILL get lost. You WILL wander around aimlessly trying to find things. It's not like the compass
points you to every last thing of interest in the game -- and often the markers aren't EXACLTLY on the thing
you're looking for anyway. It is not as obtrusive or oppressive as you make it out to be. It's helpful, but
it's not the hand-holding dumbing-down all-encompassing device you think it is.
***
Dialog, NPC appearances
Well, 2 of the NPCs that came within visual range were both Redguards, so there'll be somewhat of a
racial similarity anyway, but in general every NPC's face is different.
And GhanBuriGhan, yes, there are definitely "I don't like you enough to tell you more" types of dialogue.
Oh another thing that's not shown in that video, is that topics you've already discussed will be gray.
If they have more or new info about a specific topic, it'll appear in gold, just as if it were a new
topic. In addition, you'll see questions you can ask and responses you can choose from in the topics
list, too, so it's not always just one word.
***
More on dialog and what will be said when
Once again I have to spell it out. The point is, the number of things an NPC has to say to you
depends on a large number of factors -- her disposition towards you, faction membership, quest
status, etc. Factors that can and will change as you play the game.
***
Lack of NPCs and thin conversation in one of the demo videos?
Actually the number of NPCs walking around in town varies tremendously. Sometimes it'll be
pretty busy -- sometimes it'll be quiet like it was when Pete was walking around in Skingrad.
It depends on the NPC schedules. There are also certain events where there'll be more people around.
As to the woman and her rumors topic. Maybe if she liked your character more, she'd have more to say.
Maybe if you were in a certain guild, or had a certain level of fame or infamy, she'd have a quest for you.
Maybe if you'd completed a certain quest, or talked to someone else first, she'd have additional things to
talk about. Or maybe someone else will give you a quest that leads you back to her, and then she'll have
things you can ask her about or confront her with.
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