Oblivion's Ken Rolston Speaks - Interview @ [H] Consumer

C

Chris_Morley

Former [H] Consumer Managing Ed.
Joined
Jul 5, 2000
Messages
3,609
Check out our interview with Ken Rolston here!

Ken Rolston was Lead Designer on the Bethesda Softworks fantasy RPG The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and its expansions Tribunal and Bloodmoon, as well as on the new sequel The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Ken also helped with the Bethesda titles Sea Dogs and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Click to expand...
 
Nice. :cool: I have to agree with him. As much as I love Oblivion, Morrowind (first Elder Scroll game I played) will always have a special place with me.

Navy
 
Fantastic interview - I didn't even know that this guy was involved in any of the TES games. Thanks for enlightening me :)
 
He gets it, that's for sure. I'd like to see Bethesda remain more open to new ideas than work from a formula so hopefully future releases will continue the trend...
 
It's always nice to see an egomaniac who's humble and humorous :) I wonder who the lead director for Fallout3 will be. There's a lot of farce and dark humor in that game.
I think games should be made to the developer's liking. Making it for the kiddies to enjoy will only cater to the loud mouths that feel they should be heard, often on forums voicing their opinions, and even then though don't know what's good for a game.
Average Joes might think the custard tastes better with some more salt, but once you add it, everybody knows it tastes like crap.
 
hl3395 said:
It's always nice to see an egomaniac who's humble and humorous :) I wonder who the lead director for Fallout3 will be. There's a lot of farce and dark humor in that game.
I think games should be made to the developer's liking. Making it for the kiddies to enjoy will only cater to the loud mouths that feel they should be heard, often on forums voicing their opinions, and even then though don't know what's good for a game.
Average Joes might think the custard tastes better with some more salt, but once you add it, everybody knows it tastes like crap.
Click to expand...
Since both Troika and BIS is gone, the only people that I would trust with Fallout 3 is Bethesda. If they can't make it great, there is little chance anyone could.
 
He was a little soft of the completely broken leveling system they have in place. I think that it's worse than the crappy monsters in Morrowind. He did admit that it had a "small" problem that can be fixed in the next game.

I'd call it a huge problem that needs te be addressed.
 
Wish you had asked him why his programmers cant make the add on modules compatible with windows xp 64..

be nice if i could install them.
 
Cabezone said:
He was a little soft of the completely broken leveling system they have in place. I think that it's worse than the crappy monsters in Morrowind. He did admit that it had a "small" problem that can be fixed in the next game.

I'd call it a huge problem that needs te be addressed.
Click to expand...


what are you talking about? what problem?
 
dajet24 said:
Wish you had asked him why his programmers cant make the add on modules compatible with windows xp 64..

be nice if i could install them.
Click to expand...
He's a designer, not a programmer.
 
J Macker said:
what are you talking about? what problem?
Click to expand...


The fact that at level 1, you can complete every quest in the game...every single one scales down to you. There's no way to challenge yourself anymore, everything is easy. I don't think I died more than once in 50+ hours of gaming.

I likescaling to a point. For instance, around the starting point have them scale from 1-10. The Arena champion should be 20-40. The head vampires should be 30-50.....ect...ect...ect.

They sort of did this, the monsters do have scales like that, but alls it currently means is that they won't appear untill you're at their minimum level. There's no chance of you EVER wandering into somehting you can't reasonably handle.

It makes the game much too easy, but with the success of Fable, it may be what the average Joe wants. If they do the same thing with Fallout and the next Elderscrolls game, you can count me out.
 
Did you try adjusting the 'difficulty' slider? If the problem was 'not running into a monster you can't reasonably handle', that addresses this PROMPTLY.
 
dderidex said:
Did you try adjusting the 'difficulty' slider? If the problem was 'not running into a monster you can't reasonably handle', that addresses this PROMPTLY.
Click to expand...


You're missing the point. You can still complete every single quest a 1st level guy. The slider doesn't do anything to change the way the system works, it just makes it harder.
 
Cabezone said:
You're missing the point. You can still complete every single quest a 1st level guy. The slider doesn't do anything to change the way the system works, it just makes it harder.
Click to expand...
The alternative is to randomise (or preassign) the "level" of every dungeon and quest in the game, say, to something between 1 and 50.

Consequence 1: On average, if a new player enters 50 dungeons, they will find one they're physically capable of "completing". On average, they'll have to talk to 25 (side)quest-giving NPCs before they find a mission that's actually possible.

Consequence 2: Once you make it to higher levels, the majority of quests and dungeons will be far too easy. And a fair proportion will still be too hard.

So essentially, only 2% of the quests and locations would be suited to your level, and you'd have to complete quests and explore dungeons in a semi-specific order to keep the game balanced. If linearity is what you want, then Oblivion (or TES in general) is not for you...

There's a reason Bethesda made the levelling system the way it is. To remove these stupid arbitrary limitations. Hardcore RPG fans might find it entertaining running in and out of the same room to kill the same four rats again and again and again until some statistic reaches some arbitrary value so that they can go and undertake the next task.

But most people would rather just be able to go and do what they want. And this is what Oblivion's all about. If you feel it's wrong that you can finish the main quest without being forced to spend x hours crawling through dungeons killing things, then just don't play it like that. You're free to do so.

Because after all, freedom is what TES is all about. It gives people the freedom to burn through the main quest as fast as they can, it gives me the freedom to put it off until level 72 like I did in Morrowind, and it gives you the freedom to do it at your own pace.
 
LuminaryJanitor said:
The alternative is to randomise (or preassign) the "level" of every dungeon and quest in the game, say, to something between 1 and 50.

Consequence 1: On average, if a new player enters 50 dungeons, they will find one they're physically capable of "completing". On average, they'll have to talk to 25 (side)quest-giving NPCs before they find a mission that's actually possible.

Consequence 2: Once you make it to higher levels, the majority of quests and dungeons will be far too easy. And a fair proportion will still be too hard.

So essentially, only 2% of the quests and locations would be suited to your level, and you'd have to complete quests and explore dungeons in a semi-specific order to keep the game balanced. If linearity is what you want, then Oblivion (or TES in general) is not for you...

There's a reason Bethesda made the levelling system the way it is. To remove these stupid arbitrary limitations. Hardcore RPG fans might find it entertaining running in and out of the same room to kill the same four rats again and again and again until some statistic reaches some arbitrary value so that they can go and undertake the next task.

But most people would rather just be able to go and do what they want. And this is what Oblivion's all about. If you feel it's wrong that you can finish the main quest without being forced to spend x hours crawling through dungeons killing things, then just don't play it like that. You're free to do so.

Because after all, freedom is what TES is all about. It gives people the freedom to burn through the main quest as fast as they can, it gives me the freedom to put it off until level 72 like I did in Morrowind, and it gives you the freedom to do it at your own pace.
Click to expand...

Have you even played the previous elder scrolls games? You speak as if this is the system they've always used and it is not. It is a complete change from their previus systems.

Morrowind had plenty to do at the lower level, and there was plenty of stuff around that could kick your ass. If you went over to a daedric ashrine at the beggining, you got killed, as it should be. The problem was that the game did not scale up past 15th level very well. If they simply made each dungeon on a sliding scal with both a bottom and a top it would fix the problem.
 
My only two gripes are the disturbance of the fantasy in every bandit running around in glass/daedric after a point, and that of the bears being just stupid strong.

Now don't get me wrong, the game becomes silly easy after level 25 and some nice pieces of equipment, but there are some very nonlinear spikes of extreme difficulty with the slider left on default.
 
Cabezone said:
Have you even played the previous elder scrolls games? You speak as if this is the system they've always used and it is not. It is a complete change from their previus systems.

Morrowind had plenty to do at the lower level, and there was plenty of stuff around that could kick your ass. If you went over to a daedric ashrine at the beggining, you got killed, as it should be. The problem was that the game did not scale up past 15th level very well. If they simply made each dungeon on a sliding scal with both a bottom and a top it would fix the problem.
Click to expand...
I think you're saying that there should be areas that you should not be able to handle with a fresh 5min startup character, right? Well see that then goes against how the development of the game works. They wanted to make the game so that you can do any quest at any level, and not be a god or a weak little ant. If they wanted to make it with a progression path that you must follow then it would actually be more like Fable.

If that's not what you're talking about, then I have no idea what you're talking about and you can flame me with moron or idiot tags o.o
 
In Morrowind, the Daedric shrines in particular were sources of great pain for me. Because of that, it was so much more satisfying to be able to walk into one and finally come out alive after clearing it out. I haven't started Oblivion yet, but i know the level scaling is something i'll have to watch out for while i'm leveling up. I don't wanna level up by increasing my lockpicking skills, only to get my butt kicked because i didn't work on my blade skills.
 
I find it funny how he mentions the team for morrowind was much smaller. Yet they handcrafted everything in the game and it had more content. Now with oblivion you have more talent on board with less content and virtually everything is built off of one another.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top