RarRar on 30/3/2006 at 22:04

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My biggest complaint with Morrowind was that they seemed to have shot their wad on the outdoor environments (which were beautiful) at the expense of dungeons (tiny, pathetic, repetitious things). And my biggest hope for Oblivion was that they'd do the dungeons right this time. And that they did. Oblivion: Greatest game EVAR.

Martek on 31/3/2006 at 02:01

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I just can't seem to "get" the lockpicking mini-game either; even though I have read soo many tips and tricks for it. So I play save&pick&load with the auto-pick until I feel I got a "fair" deal.

The stealth in Oblivion isn't any way as nicely done as in Thief or even Splinter Cell. But with my Sneak now around 87 or so, for many mobs I can go right up to the front of them and even bump them and they still won't see me. So it is functional and doable. And a fun way to play - even if not *as* satisfying as stealthing in Thief.

But boy do I wish for water arrows and rope arrows (or similar mechanisms or gadgets)!

So far Oblivion is a great game. It has its flaws, but it is also plenty fun and immersive.

Cheers,
Martek

NeoPendragon on 31/3/2006 at 02:36

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I don't even have to think to play the persuasion one. If you have trouble with it, just get the smallest wedge into the bad areas first, then do the positive reactions. I do feel the lockpicking one takes more effort than it's worth though. After the first dungeon, I just used the auto-lockpick. I don't really have the energy to pick a very hard lock for 44 gold or a sack shirt.

RarRar on 31/3/2006 at 20:33

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I really do think one could make a pretty decent Thief-style campaign using the Construction Set. I don't think rope arrows are possible as climbing doesn't seem to be possible. In this game you click on the ladder and you load a different cell. There are no climbing animations. You might be able to do a rope arrow just for looks--the physics is pretty darn good--but I don't think it's possible to make it functional. About the best you could would be to combine it with some kind of levitation and that would be pretty hokey.

Water arrows are probably possible. Torches about the cities and towns do light and douse themselves with daylight and nightime so I can't imagine it would be impossible to trigger that with an arrow shot, like you can make those mine things explode with an arrow shot. Seems like the mechanics are there.

And of course people modded in a functional blackjack in Morrowind so no doubt it could be done in Oblivion too.

I wonder how shadows interact with character visibility and whether that can be tweaked with?

I simply couldn't imagine any kind of thiefy game being fun in Morrowind as the stealth just sucked, but I could definitely get into one in Oblivion. The Thief 3 editor is way too hard to use and character movement in Thief 3 is hopelessly and unfixably broken anyway, the game is just unfun and any mods made with that sucktastic engine can't be anything more than mediocre to crappy. And do we talk about swimming? In Oblibion at least you can swim, and I'm not talking about some weird invisible underwater elevator shenanigans some people are trying to dream up. The Dark Mod is probably about 26 years away still. I love Thief on the Dark engine--the dated graphics don't bother me none--but I think people could do some really great things with Oblivion. Wide-open spaces! Long lines of sight! What else?

The only bad thing about it is you either have to use the built in assets or get really comfortable with a 3d editing program since there are no brushes.

RarRar on 31/3/2006 at 21:07

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Tempting, isn't it? Also the CS is just so easy to use. I got the hang of Dromed but could just never manage to get my head around any modern game editors. I worked like a dog trying to learn UnrealEd but just gave it up as hopeless. DoomEd is a little better but still too hard for me. Using the Morrowind CS I managed to make nice things after only a day, even did some fancy scripting. If I can do it, *anyone* can do it and that's what's needed for the Thief FM community to survive and flourish.