The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Preview

To make the questing and travels more fun, Bethesda is working on their dynamic compass that will show you how close you are to dungeons while wandering the forests or where you can find NPC's important for your quest. The game will also include a revised fast travel map that will allow you to reach certain key areas in an instant.

I wonder if I'll run into any wolves along the way...

If I fall off this horse, I'll NEVER be able to get up. Never!

While the designers are making sure that the game feels more focused, they are also going to great lengths to make Tamriel about as close to a real world as any game has gotten so far. In fact, this project is so ambitious that further delays or (I hope this doesn't happen) deletion of some of the proposed features that we're hearing about in this "early" stage seem likely. Not only will your actions be completely unrestricted, but the way that the game world operates is that it can exist autonomously without any input by the player. What's more, and this is the crucial part, it will also know how to adjust to your own actions and treat you accordingly.

Oblivion is populated with 1,000 NPC's. Unlike in some other single-player games, the life of the NPC's doesn't stop once the player has left the area. They continue to live their lives even with you out of the picture, with the help of Radiant AI. Each of them is given a basic schedule of events to follow throughout each virtual day. They will shop, go to church, engage in conversation, hunt and even steal. This will all depend on their character traits which are initially decided on by the developers as well as the course of events that takes place in the game. The whole thing is mind-boggling to even think about let alone make. Let's just say that NPCs will be governed by advanced AI routines that will allow them to have free-flowing, non-scripted discussions (all of the dialogue in the game will be voice acted), and at the same time do things that will be dictated by either the present circumstances or their character traits. Or, to put it another way, their actions will be the result of what you do in the game and how their traits tell them to feel. Following that same logic, it's clear to see how some characters might fear you and others to see you as a benevolent hero, it all depends on how you behave in the world. They will remember and process your actions, and adjust their mood along with their facial animation accordingly. Seriously, as far as video games go, this sounds like the closest thing to simulating life as you can get. It's absolutely freaky, and if we consider the next-gen system specs not completely out of reach.

Still, NPCs and NPC interaction is only a part of the whole picture when it comes to bringing the world of Tamriel to life. This process of "procedural" world building (of both the NPCs and the land itself) is handled by The Construction Set. The Construction Set allows the designers to set the physical and psychological characteristics of the NPC's on the fly, with a staggering number of variations. It is these variations that will determine the age or appearance of the NPC. In layman's terms the same NPC in your game may be decades older or look completely different, and it's all determined in a matter of seconds. Not only that, The Construction Set will build whole areas of the world, like forests for example, based on natural features that are determined by the AI. For example, certain types of trees and bushes flourish according to the landscape, factors like sunlight, soil erosion, and surrounding vegetation, will factor in to what the landscape looks like. Then comes the process of having the designer adjust all the objects manually and fine-tune the environment so that it looks and feels like a real goddamn world. The Construction Set will actually be included with the PC version of the game so that budding young mod developers can seriously go wild with it.

While The Construction Set handles the basic architecture of the world so to speak, its decoration will be handled by the robust set of 3D features that yields some of the most amazing real time rendered computer graphics ever witnessed in a game. Seeing how everything about Oblivion literally screams "next-gen," the graphics don't appear to lag far behind in those regards, quite the contrary really.

As you all know, each shape in the game world is modeled out of polygons. Well in Oblivion the real visual magic starts to happen once all the polygons are in place. With the HEAVY use of Pixel Shader 3.0 effects, artists are able to create some of the most lifelike environments and characters that I have seen in a video game. This is done through the use of several different mapping techniques, with each mapping technique being responsible for adding another layer of seeming realism to an object. Take your most common RPG environment, a simple dungeon. A diffuse map sets the color of the place, while the parallax map adds a grayscale textured surface that creates the illusion of depth (although it's actually flat). The most common example of this technique would be seen in the representation of the bricks in the dungeon. Even though they might seem like they've been all modeled individually, in actuality, an illusion of a great number of bricks with cracks and indents has been created through the use of the aforementioned mapping technique. Normal maps will be added to set the lighting info as that will dictate how the light reflects off of the dungeon walls This is done from every angle and specular highlighting will determine how shiny each surface looks. This technique will be responsible for creating the wet look of any of the objects in the game. And finally, to top it all off, the 3D engine also uses a rendering process called High Dynamic Range Shading, which simulates how the human eye adjusts to let certain amounts of light in. Essentially, this effect can be best described by having you recollect how it looks when you walk out of a pitch dark room into a brightly lit area. Your eyes will have trouble adjusting and that's exactly the kind of effect you'll be seeing in game. I must say, from a purely visual standpoint, High Dynamic Range Shading might do wonders for creating just the right kind of ambient in an RPG.

Finally, it's worth noting in the preview that the combat system has undergone severe modification over what we've seen in Morrowind. In a way, the whole system seems geared much more towards console play, while still managing to bring some unique solutions to the table. The biggest overall change could be summarized by saying that the combat is expected to be a lot more action-oriented and more intense. The developers plan to utilize the force feedback ability of the gamepads to create the feel of wielding heavy melee weapons, or using bows and arrows (crossbows have been omitted from the game.) As Tod tells us, "You feel the string draw, arrows arc properly, bounce realistically, and stick deep into the right materials." All blocking and attacks will be done manually, and stats (or "rolling the dice") won't play a direct role in the outcome of the battle. Rather they'll just be manifested through the ability of your character to block more effectively. Basically, you sustain less damage when you block a hit or inflict more when you swing a heavy weapon faster and with greater might. The driving motivation behind this particular combat system is the unfamiliarity of console gamers with the intricacies of traditional RPG game play. Some console gamers would be wondering why the sword missed the opponent even though the blow was dead on, and how the opponent was able to spot them when they were hiding so well. Go figure. The combat has been also made much gorier and more visceral in an effort to create more realistic scenes of fighting that are consistent with the rest of the game world. So when you hack a dude with a heavy steel sword, you should expect a certain amount of blood to spray across your face as you let out a savage cry and then finish him off by lodging your blade deep into his exposed throat! And then when you draw your axe to split wide the skull of your next victim, you yell with freakish glee!!!! HAHAHAHA!!! Okay, I may be getting a little carried away here. (Ed. - No, please do go on, you freakin' psycho!)