(NEW) Todd Howard Interview about FO4 on glixel.com : an OP-ED

[Kendo 2]

The Bethesda front man Toddsplains a FO4 mea culpa, but not really...among other things.

Read the full article at glixel.com.

The Cliff's Notes version: 'Yeah, the way we presented FO4 fell flat so we'll admit that much.  Not that it changes anything.'

[Doublezero]

Quote

Interviewer: Are there Skyrim mods that you wish were part of the main game?

Todd Howard: There are really simple ones where you go, 'Duh, we should have done that.' There's one that adds fast travel markers when you own a house. That's like a 10-minute thing that we probably should have done. There's a really popular mod that makes the cities open, so you can just walk in. We didn't do that, originally, for technical reasons on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

There are also ones that we like that rebalance the game. On the surface, it seems like it makes it harder, but can make it a bit more interesting for people who have played it a lot.

So what's stopping you guys?

[Kendo 2]

The 'Mods will fix it' attitude in the community is what's stopping them.  Why would they spend Bethesda resources on something that a modder will do for free?

[ritualclarity]

To keep getting the GOTY awards that they gotten use to since morrowind

I just hope this last game gave them enough but hurt that they wake up and realize they need to stop fucking around with their winning formula. They don't need ME dialogue or COD guns or that Sims crap to make their games successful. Then need to follow their formula. Then and only then add on to it a few features like the Sims buiding or the other things they might want.

They historically had great dialogue and quest and was rich in content. Morrowwind I am told is chock full with this. Oblivion was slightly dum down and then Fallout 3 wasn't even made by them I believe. Then came Fallout New Vegas again dum own but not to a level that people were outraged. There are those that love it over Fallout 3. Can't blame them for continuing that it was still successful. The Skyrim had some hatred but still loyal fans loved it and it got the award. They kept on giving lighter and ligher and weaker games until now. The PS4 version of Fallout 4 is in the clearance bin of my local MicroCenter. In the CLEARANCE BIN. The game is only ONE YEAR OLD.  I remember only just getting a decent discount on Skyrim well over a year later and it still was somewhere around 39.99.

I say to Todd Howard if I ever had a chance and he'd actually listen to me. 

I'd tell him go go back to the drawing board and look at the Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout 3/NV and see what was there. What made it so successful and such a fan favorite then implement those into the next Fallout / TES game you produce. Make sure you follow that formula and when you cut back.. cut back on the content that is new and not proven yet. Build those rich worlds with interesting interactions and wonderful experiences.

If you change the engine.. I would strongly advise that you release a test game with the supply room and a small dungeon or Vault whatever that has the items needed to give the engine some testing. Let the community get this for 5 or so dollars to build and work with. Small single cell or perhaps a couple of small cells that can be tweaked etc. Something to let the mod content creators get more use to the new system.

Finally, you just have to have the CK released the day of the game release. Even if it is Beta. Something for people to start working on. Let them know it is a work in progress use at your own risk. Do the above and most of what people complain about would be gone.

That is what I would tell him.

Even if they used the same engine, crappy NPC bodies and had the glitches that occur from such a aged engine. If they invested in the story, quest, interactions and content and had it up to the level of Morrowwind/Oblivion/Fallout 3/NV etc and better with adding the new crafting that is in high demand and was received well in Fallout NV and Skyrim they wouldn't be having the bitch fest they get now. They'd likely win the GOTY award. At least for this time. However it will get even harder and harder going forward if they can't invest /develop a proper modern engine that can be modded to the level we currently can. Something that can give Witcher level graphics. There is no excuse. Gamer computers are generally 64bit with at least 8gigs of ram and growing yearly. The limits they had before are gone. New Direct x and Open GL capabilities are reaching dam near realistic levels not only with Physics but with textures namely skin and fur. How much time do they have.