I don't know about you guys, but I've played a lot of Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fallout:NV, Skyrim, and most importantly Morrowind (da best). Just last week I got back into Morrowind modding, and I've made a giant Dunmer stronghold with a massive series of interiors (5 whole floors, 3 guardhouses, 2 mines, and a player room at the top) and felt that great rush of accomplishment that only 16+ hours of sitting in front of a computer making your insane vision a reality can give. What are your guys' experiences modding bethesda RPGs like? Also Bethesda RPG discussion general.
Hmm, the only one I tried to mod was oblivion, but after having to move my installs around the game started crashing sporadically. I didn't really have it in me to fix/reinstall it. It was nehrim, which really is a good one from what I played. Oblivion and fallout new vegas were my favorites though, oblivion probably more so. It felt like a game that rewarded exploration and loot wasn't pointless 90% of the time, which was the problem I had with skyrim. Morrowind was ok, that missing when you see your weapon go through them was something I could never really get behind, even though it wasn't hard to level up a bit so you didn't miss it was still a dumb thing. Had a problem with challenge too, at some point everything was easy to deal with and again there wasn't much point in going to small caves or tombs because the reward was much of anything at that point. There's some mod for fallout that makes it more like stalker, I've been meaning to give that a whirl.
Morrowind is good for its story and atmosphere, far beyond the other games, although the game becomes very easy if you know where to get good equipment early on (and leveling beyond 30 makes you immune to standard non-expansion enemies). Still, it has a stable game engine and tons of content (Tamriel Rebuilt is a must) something the other games lack. The base game is not a challenge if you know how to play it but the game has so much else to offer. The issue with the gamebryo engine Bethesda games (Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fallout: NV) is that they have stability issues, especially when modded. Loading will freeze, the game will stutter, all kinds of shit. New Vegas in particular has a nasty habit of deciding not to work. Oblivion sucks from an immersion standpoint imo - the world is so empty and the cities so dumb (where are the villages??) and there are like 50 bandits for every city/town dweller in the game, not to mention the hordes of bandits with daedric raise serious economic questions about Cyrodill (how many caravans survive? How do goods even travel?). Fallout 3 has many of the same downfalls but the combat is more varied and entertaining, and there's no better-immersion prequel to compare to, so it's redeemed in that perspective. I've never been much of a quest runner, so New Vegas was disappointing: there are so few places to explore. Skyrim has shallow mechanics, but can be fun just to play for a few weeks once a year. Also the "Creation Kit" is inferior to the G.E.C.K. or the Construction Set, and chaining you to steam is another minus. Lord DZ> Yes, I have worldedit too, and I know how to use it. that's just not the topic at hand
I picked New Vegas, because this is still my favourite Fallout after the second one. I do play TES, but those games have always been more meh for me compared to Fallout. I like New Vegas the most, because it was made by the guys that made Fallout 1 & 2. And you really see that, if you've played those two. In terms of modding...Well I was part of a team that tried to make a full conversion mod for Fallout 3 and Gamebryo is really bad when it comes to usability. It took one mapper multiple hours to clutter just one rooms and we constantly had problems with importing models (which was the biggest problem for me, since I made those.). Soon after the team switched to Unity3D, which is a lot better to handle.
I would say morrowind because of how much more open it is but fuck that combat system. Oblivion was great but we traded depth for functioning combat. And somehow skyrim made the functioning combat even less functioning. The fallout games are fine, but its not a depthful I would say as 2 was. The engine was built for a first person shooter, we didn't have the clunky issue of melee everywhere.
No. It uses Skyrim's combat/RPG system (which cannot be changed because too much of that game is hardcoded and cannot be changed in the pathetic editor they released). Default suckage. I've never tried Morroblivion, but it might be good - only issue is the fact that gamebryo crashes like a little bitch when running overhaul mods (been there with FO3). Firewarrior> I've played plenty of FO2 myself, and while it has the same sense of humor as NV I have different expectations for an isometic late 90s RPG than an open world FPS/RPG in terms of gameplay experience. Too many quests compared to areas to explore.
I honestly have to say I still have deep respect for Obsidian. They had to work with a pretty restrictive engine, yet they managed to make the most of it with the time they had. What I found really interesting is this read: http://jul.rustedlogic.net/thread.php?id=15410 It's an article written by somebody digging through the GECK of New Vegas, looking for cut out stuff. It is really fascinating, but also REALLY long. And to be honest, for me quests are part of the exploring. And I also think that they did a good job, especially with tons of unmarked quests. I have to admit, when I play through those games the second time, I always do tmm 1 0 on console, so I don't miss any location they have put in.
