Official TESA TESV Speculation and Info Thread

[nottlong]

If someone wants to play a MMO,then let them play and have all the other garbage that comes with it. It is there chose. I like single player games and do not need all that comes with a MMO. I do not really care how I stack up to the rest of the world in my stats and\or levels etc. And as far as steam stopping pirates just give them time.

[Jheuloh]

I like Steam, but mostly because it's basically a guaranteed "play without the disk" Deal. Otherwise, I find it to be unnoticeable.

[StarX]

Something to feed the rumors.

[InsanitySorrow]

Sequel to OB?, They really wanna make another crap story then?

[StarX]

Sequel to OB?, They really wanna make another crap story then?

Yeah, everyone that did the main quest twice without cheating raise their hand.

[Jheuloh]

Any word on who's developing TESV? We now have an idea of what it's about.

Edit: Main quest twice without cheating? *Lowers hand.*

Anyone here never done the main-quest before?

Edited November 23, 2010 by Jheuloh

[WhoGuru]

Yeah, everyone that did the main quest twice without cheating raise their hand.

*raises hand* However I must qualify this, I only did it the second time without cheating because I was writing a walk through for it. Otherwise it would have been cheat city..and was the third and fourth times...and will be the fifth here shortly.

On account of it being repetitive and boooooooooring.

Morrowind's MQ was SO much better.

[InsanitySorrow]

*Raises Hand*....I played it on teh console first, had no choice but to NOT cheat , Managed a second time on teh PC, only just

[StarX]

I did the main quest once. The only reason for me ever going through that again would be to play RST. If I ever feel the urge to play Oblivion at all, that is.

[WhoGuru]

and RST is why I'm subjecting myself to it one last time and THIS time I'm making a back up of the damn save somewhere so I NEVER had to do it again! Please, please, please or RPG fairies, please let the MQ in ESV not suck?

[InsanitySorrow]

Oh crap, forgot about RST, I gotta finish the MQ before I can test , Damn keep getting distracted

[Arthmoor]

No cheating here, and I honestly went through it several times. I must also be about the only person on the face of the Earth who doesn't think the MQ sucked. Sure, it obviously gets repetitive if you play it through over and over, but the same is true of every last RPG there is if you insist on playing it through from start to finish. I don't see much cause to complain in that case. Nobody forced you to play it through that often.

For me, each time I went through it I gained a much deeper appreciation for it. Perhaps that's because I've gone through enough hell with the CS and the dialogue system and quest construction in general that I came to realize it was very difficult to pull off what they did with as few problems as it resulted in. Without fail, every time I've gone through it, I've picked up on some new thing I didn't pay much attention to before.

I also get the distinct impression I'm the only person who has played it through entirely vanilla on the PC, other than using one of the very early versions of Open Cities. No leveling mods, no loot mods, no OOO, no creature overhauls, nothing. Yes, mods do make for a more interesting game, but the game's own content has plenty to offer, and all of my subsequent trips through the MQ had mods of some form or another involved.

Obviously there's plenty of places that could be improved. More NPCs, better AI systems, more variety in the voice acting, better QA (which seems to have decayed badly with FO3 and F:NV), more unique locations (UL, Nehrim, etc as examples) and my absolute biggest gripe of all - proper lighting.

If TES:V really is coming soon, I don't honestly hold out a lot of hope that most of this has been addressed because it would mean they're still using Gamebryo and that they may not have a lot of the AI improvements that did come with FO3. I don't think much of the direction NPCs took either. I'm probably one of the few who think Oblivion's NPCs look way better than anything you can find in Fallout. Perhaps it's just the general style, but I never took much of a liking to how they looked.

Anyway, that turned into more of a rant than I wanted it to be - the MQ isn't to blame if you insist on repeating it though

[WhoGuru]

If I wanna complain about the MQ...I'm going to. I played through most of the game on PC without a single mod. I was expecting so much more from Oblivion's main quest when I first played it and, though the last half of it was well done and the end choked me up the first time, there simply wasn't enough of it. It was too short. In my opinion. Which I'm allowed to express so...OB MQ = lacking. Had redeeming qualities but lacking.

I've played it through so many times for various reasons, First time voluntary, second to write the guide and the last two to rebuild a loved character...same reason I'll be doing one last time this week. I need my horse and I need to play RST and can't do either of those without a finished MQ.

[StarX]

Well, the main quest certainly isn't the reason why I kept playing the game, but I guess that will be the same with TES V. I still think they could have done much better than closing all those gates by going through the same motion over and over again. For me that was the biggest let down of the main quest. It just got boring, while many of the faction questlines were a lot more versatile. Sure, most quests are about fetching an item or killing a baddy. But still, I played the Fighters Guild, Mages Guild and Dark Brotherhood questline several times without getting as frustrated at times as with the main quest.

I also played the main quest completely unmodded, so it has been quite a few years since playing it without cheats.

Anyway, I'm off to bed! Close shut the eyes of Oblivion!

[jaggedbubbles]

My first play through of TES4 was totally vanilla, and I actually didn't mind anything about it. The story wasn't great to say the least, but I didn't find it a total deal breaker.

[Nihternnes]

Crystal Tower will actually look neat

and flying

[vometia]

No cheating here, and I honestly went through it several times. I must also be about the only person on the face of the Earth who doesn't think the MQ sucked. Sure, it obviously gets repetitive if you play it through over and over, but the same is true of every last RPG there is if you insist on playing it through from start to finish. I don't see much cause to complain in that case. Nobody forced you to play it through that often.

I actually thought the MQ was okay. I don't really feel all that strongly either way, though I've never really understood why some people hate it so much. Well, except for the time I tried to close every available Oblivion gate, which got a bit repetitive. I also played it right through first time without any (major) mods, and again didn't quite "get" some of the complaints about the vanilla game, even though I admit I now prefer it with the likes of FCOM and every kitchen-sink add-on I can add on.

The thing about faces is another thing. In some regards the Fallout 3-esque faces look better, but there's less variance and they tend not to be very expressive. Sure, the Imperial male in Oblivion looks a bit jowly and the Nords look as if they were cross-bred with horses at some point in their past, but overall I prefer the way the Oblivion characters look. Maybe it's an acquired taste.

[jaggedbubbles]

The thing about faces is another thing. In some regards the Fallout 3-esque faces look better, but there's less variance and they tend not to be very expressive. Sure, the Imperial male in Oblivion looks a bit jowly and the Nords look as if they were cross-bred with horses at some point in their past, but overall I prefer the way the Oblivion characters look. Maybe it's an acquired taste.

I actually don't like either set of faces (FO3 or Oblivion) since they tend to be a little on the weird side. I do agree about the expressiveness though - Oblivion's faces were much better at that. If the guards did not like you, you knew it by the kitten-killing scowl they'd get.

Hopefully they'll meet at the middle with TES5.

[HeyYou]

I really didn't like vanilla oblivion. They cut back on skills, majors/minors, altered the combat system, and... level scaling was just WAY over the top. (In my opinion) Bear in mind, my first TES game was Daggerfall, followed by Morrowind..... Oblivion was just too 'different' for me to really enjoy it. I played vanilla Oblivion for about 45 minutes, decided it was really pointless to level your character, and stopped playing. I followed the mods forum though, and discovered FCOM.... which solved the biggest issue I had with the game. If it weren't for FCOM, I would not be playing Oblivion.

Beth did a somewhat better job with FO3. Level scaling was a LOT less "in your face". New Vegas is even better. There are places that you have zero chance of survival at low levels......

Hopefully, beth will get the hint, and continue that trend. I would like to see the game go more back to a morrowind style combat system, with animations to fit what is going on. (most folks major malfunction with MW was that you could watch your sword pass thru the enemy, but, the game would count it as a "miss". That could easily be animated now.)

I would also like to see the world changing due to the players, and others... actions. Cyrodiil was the same, before, and after the mainquest. Only difference was a lack of oblivion gates afterwords. no one seemed really concerned about the oblivion crisis, life went on as usual, regardless of what was going on in the world.

[the-manta]

I can't really comment on the Oblivion Main Quest, given that I've never actually completed it.... seriously. I've never been really motivated to do so as I knew what happened at the end (I had watched most of my brother's xbox playthrough before I even took up OB). I'm finally making an effort to finish it now. I can see what people are getting at when they say it's repetitive- there's rather a lot of Oblivion Gate raiding and item-fetching, but it certainly hasnt put me off of Oblivion. Maybe it's just me, but I don't feel that the main questline is what makes a game like Oblivion, and for that reason I'm not that bothered by TESV's main questline, if Bethesda can create a world like Oblivion's, or FO3's, I will be satisfied

[vometia]

I can't really comment on the Oblivion Main Quest, given that I've never actually completed it.... seriously. I've never been really motivated to do so as I knew what happened at the end (I had watched most of my brother's xbox playthrough before I even took up OB). I'm finally making an effort to finish it now. I can see what people are getting at when they say it's repetitive- there's rather a lot of Oblivion Gate raiding and item-fetching, but it certainly hasnt put me off of Oblivion. Maybe it's just me, but I don't feel that the main questline is what makes a game like Oblivion, and for that reason I'm not that bothered by TESV's main questline, if Bethesda can create a world like Oblivion's, or FO3's, I will be satisfied

I viewed the MQ as more of a hindrance to my enjoyment than anything, and really preferred the guild quests and other side-quests. And I think anybody who didn't enjoy odd bits of silliness like The Potato Snatcher is taking it much too seriously!

I think I did lose quite a few brain cells the time I decided to close as many Oblivion gates as possible, however. I don't recommend trying to do all 60.

[Johnn123]

Just a heads up, Spikes Video Game Awards are tonight, with, IIRC, 10 games to be announced tonight. TES:V is a small possibility. or so the spec thread at BGSF believes

[Zabre]

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I'm sooo excited!!!

[WhoGuru]

SQUEEEEEEEEEE

and Trailer: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/vga-10-tba-game-2/708369

[grond]

Added linkie to OP too.