ScottKnowsBest on 5/2/2008 at 01:08
Once again I have stumbled upon a strange anomaly in the Bethesda-made world: A very well done dungeon or area. In this case, Crayfish Cave. With Morrowind it was Dagon Fel and the whole Sheogorath region, clearly done by perhaps the single developer who cared enough to put his/her WHOLE ass into the project. With said region, everything was just a little more crisp, done with a little more precision and effort, and it showed. And such is the case with Crayfish Cave in Oblivion. Its a maze of tunnels and caverns, filled with treasure and monsters as is par for such a place, but you can see the difference in quality. I had trouble finding a single chest that was placed upright; they were all strewn about in amusing locations, some on their sides, with 'shrooms growing out of them, some stuffed in barrels, (as I imagine ogres have little care for orderly furnishings) ...and I could go on. The problem is, that it doesn't fit with the rest of the world. Anywhere else, where they didn't just cut-and-paste an entire cave or ruin, the chests and barrels aren't even touching the ground. Or their sticking out of other things, walls, crates, etc. This is, I think, because in their haste to complete things on time, they throw down several chests, crates, etc, all at once then go back and straighten them out later, oftentimes doing a REALLY half-assed job of it. The trick is to do EVERYTHING with care. If Bethesda would adhere to such 'radical' thinking, then we wouldn't have so many stupid errors in an otherwise breathtaking game world. But, I'm rambling....
Peanuckle on 5/2/2008 at 16:00
It would be a whole lot better if they did it that way, but imagine how long it would take to build every dungeon individually. For freaking ever, thats how long. If you think the dungeons are too mundane, you should download the darker dungeons mod, which removes all ambient lighting. Unless you have torches or night eye, dungeons are pitch black. Really creepy.
ScottKnowsBest on 5/2/2008 at 19:23
That sounds cool, although I think the dungeons are dark enough. They all seem to have lights, (torches, glowing rocks, etc.) and the ambient lighting seems about right.
But hey, does anyone else find the alarming frequency of child-sized skeletal corpses and coffins kinda... disturbing? I don't know about any of you, but I count do without the several dozens instances of implied child mutilation and murder. I always knew those toads at Bethesda were incompetent, and to say they're sub-par human beings, well, it goes without saying, (and it's kind of an understatement at that) but criminaly deranged? Who knew.
Digital Nightfall on 5/2/2008 at 19:34
Where is this cave? I'd like to see it for myself.
ScottKnowsBest on 5/2/2008 at 20:00
It is....... Fort Cuptor, nestled on lovely Lake Canulus in the Nibenay Valley. First level. Now lets see, what have we here... Looks like a table. Hmmm... tiny little coffin. Tiny little body in there. :eww: Scissors next to tiny arm. 'Child's annuad'. 'Child's overalls'. Calipers sitting in the fire. Very suggestive and equally disturbing. There are also many little child-sized torsos and the like on the empty coffin shelves of some rock caves.
And this is why games, like GTA for example, keep children out of the game, so sickos don't drive around killing children, practicing their homocidal tendencies for use in the real world. With Bethesda, they cut out the middleman and do it for you. Maybe I'm overreacting, but the whole thing I think is sic....
steo on 5/2/2008 at 21:30
Come off it, those little details you sometimes find are the only thing that stops the whole game being completely mundane.
piano-sam on 29/2/2008 at 22:09
I'm pleased to find a kindred opinion of bethesda, but as steo said, come off it. At the end of the day it's damn fiction that doesn't mean anything.
