Horse Armour mod?

Trithemius · Post by **Trithemius** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 5:27 am

Anyone got this yet? I'm curious to know if people think its worth it.

Endareth · Post by **Endareth** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 6:29 am

I would have to think that paying any money at all for an add-on to simply make your horse look a little better is not going to be good value. Especially given how little time you actually ride around on your horse (leaving aside fast travel of course).

Trithemius · Post by **Trithemius** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 6:37 am

I'm inclined to agree, but if it provides enough protection for my horse so that it is not killed by bears or wolves in a casual way it might be worth it.

It seems that most of the other forum-goers share your opinions since I don't think I have heard of anyone giving it a positive review. Perhaps all the people who got it and like it are too busy playing or something?

I'm much more interested in new plotlines and locations that are slated for the next two paid-for-mods myself.

weirdo_man · Post by **weirdo_man** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 2:26 pm

Yeah I think the house armour is completely ridiculous since the community could just as easily make it. My horse has never gotten killed, I still use Prior Maborel's since I'm too lazy to pay for one. It's sort of ridiculous since my horse has never even come close to dying.

But yeah, it'd be nice to know how extensive the additions of the mages guild thing and the spire are going to be.

Vook · Post by **Vook** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 8:55 am

I'm definitely going to get it. A free mod community version that is.

duncans_pumpkin · Post by **duncans_pumpkin** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 2:32 pm

*cough* thepiratesbay *cough* get it for free there.

Acheeze · Post by **Acheeze** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 11:09 pm

i bought it because i found 5 bucks on the floor like 3 hours before i bought it,
so its kinda like it was free

Pseudopath · Post by **Pseudopath** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 8:33 am

Acheeze wrote:i bought it because i found 5 bucks on the floor like 3 hours before i bought it,
so its kinda like it was free

Well I bought it cause I'm a fruit-cake!

Only problem is that they had a server error when I tried to download the file then my public key expired!

Now I'm waiting for the "support" to get their proverbial finger out and support ME!

So the joke isn't only that I paid $2 for a silly mod but that I aint even got it yet!

- Pseudopath.

Mishra · Post by **Mishra** » Fri May 19, 2006 3:38 pm

I bought it since I think it's fine to support the gaming company so they can create more games. I think if they were unreasonably priced, it would be one thing. It's sad that most communites think they are owed something for free by the developers - like they don't go to work everyday to make this stuff and have to support families etc. No one has to buy a mod Bethesda makes, and if someone makes a mod thats similar on their own time and give it away for free, more power to them. However, since to most people time is money, especially a software company - work can't be done for free.

Vook · Post by **Vook** » Fri May 19, 2006 4:43 pm

If the developers didn't keep the NIF exporter tools under key, the community would release the PC mod by themselves. If Microsoft wasn't so paranoid and greedy, 360 players could use all the mods PC players can.

It's all the money game and this is just the small last step.

Mishra · Post by **Mishra** » Fri May 19, 2006 5:55 pm

I understand their need for wanting to be able to sell sets as plugins vs. that of a large set of expansions which need much testing. As people have said, there are alot of bugs still in the game, however, that's status quo for all companies out there. No company has released a bug free game to date. Not one. Why is that? Market reality. If you wait, you potentially lose whatever advantage you would have by releasing the game that is on the cutting edge. Graphics wise I think Obvlivion is pretty tight. Most of their code glitches are just logic errors - and any coding bugs that sneak in is more a QA/project manager issue. They don't have solid regression testing - why? - probably because they are held to a different standard than those of fault tollerant systems. It takes people many, many years for people to produce those systems, where someone who is making a game only has maybe 1-2 years. Is the code going to be buggy? Hell yes, but to their management if 85% of the game works, it's going to market. Can they afford to wait till whatever advantage they had is gone and the graphics are just average of below average on the current market? My case in point there would be Shadowbane. They took...I don't know 5-6 years to make that game? I remember it was supposed to come out around the time of Ultima Online (which you can tell by looking at it), but it wasn't released till long after games like Acherons Call, Everquest, and Anarchy Online were out. The game lasted about 6 months, or a bit longer - it's stil around but has a marginal market share compared to other MMORPGS. Or to the other extreme, look at Ascherons Call 2, which went to production despite ever beta testers complaint the game was no where near ready. The game lasted 6 months - they shut down most their servers and it died, due to the poor quality of the game. Is Oblivion at that point? Not even close. There are a few things that are broken and could be fixed, but most the game is playable (keeping in mind you do need to save often!). Most players have no idea what goes on in the game/development community and have very unrealistic expectations on what is humanly possible or monetarly feasible.

Vook · Post by **Vook** » Fri May 19, 2006 8:52 pm

Mishra wrote:I understand their need for wanting to be able to sell sets as plugins vs. that of a large set of expansions which need much testing. As people have said, there are alot of bugs still in the game, however, that's status quo for all companies out there. No company has released a bug free game to date. Not one.

That's the reality of writing software. It's my domain, I know what I talk of. Every non-trivial program has at least one unfixed bug. Windows has bugs. Drivers have bugs. ATMs have bugs. Intercontinental airplane firmware has bugs. NASA probes software has bugs that result in crashing multimillion equipment into Mars. The problem is how many bugs you leave in, and in this respect Bethesda has a horrible record. Thing is a bug that prohibits your further progress with a GAME is allowed to occur once every 20-30 gameplays (walk-throughs). That's how many times betatesters should finish the whole game without encountering a showstopper bug even once. If they do, the bug must be fixed. Oblivion keeps about 2 such bugs per single gameplay average. That means great most people WILL encounter at least one such bug while playing.
How many games ever stop you from finishing them through some bug almost always?

Oblivion simply wasn't ready for release.

Why is that? Market reality. If you wait, you potentially lose whatever advantage you would have by releasing the game that is on the cutting edge.

Most of managers of big game corporations think that way currently, releasing hundreds of sequels, boring games refreshing the same old idea a hundredth time and slapping on some modern technology to make it look fresh while cutting on plain gameplay features and debugging to reduce costs and add said technology. And that's what they want you to believe.

I believe this will change soon, and most of these managers will find themselves redundant.

10 out of 10 announced first-day release titles for XBox360 were sequels. Ookami is about the only PS3 title that promises something new, the rest of announcements are sequels. Nintendo doesn't stuff Wii with newest gfx processors. It keeps a small margin of sequels to their primary franchize, but innovate a lot (swordfight on horsebacks, morphing into a wolf in the new Zelda), and most of their new stuff IS NEW. Results?
http://slashdot.org/pollBooth.pl?qid=1341&aid=-1

PS3 15%
Wii 50%
360 10%
none/other/don't know 23%

Graphics wise I think Obvlivion is pretty tight. Most of their code glitches are just logic errors - and any coding bugs that sneak in is more a QA/project manager issue.

Yes. And that's a result of bad management decision to move most of funding and effort towards newest (glitchy) technologies - the hell of debugging Radiant, weeks on properly configuring Havok, making the card to utilize all the features of new gfx cards... leaving no people and no time to implement FUN features and to debug it properly.

Is the code going to be buggy? Hell yes, but to their management if 85% of the game works, it's going to market.

Yes. Fault-tollerant, critical systems need to be 99.98% bug free and take years to debug. A decent reasonably written game is 98% bug free. A somewhat buggy but still tollerable game has 95% bug-free gameplay. Oblivion has that margin FAR too low.

Can they afford to wait till whatever advantage they had is gone and the graphics are just average of below average on the current market? My case in point there would be Shadowbane. They took...I don't know 5-6 years to make that game?(...)The game lasted about 6 months, or a bit longer

MMORPGs are a different case. If you pay monthly, not all-up-front, you can resign any time if you decide the game sucks due to bugs. But being bug-free doesn't mean the game won't suck...

Or to the other extreme, look at Ascherons Call 2, which went to production despite ever beta testers complaint the game was no where near ready. The game lasted 6 months - they shut down most their servers and it died, due to the poor quality of the game.

In this case the reasons were clear. Nothing short of a GOOD patch can save a buggy game.

My point being Half-Life 2. It took 5 years and well over a year over schedule but they released a polished, loved, mostly bug-free and fun game. Complaints? Short, restricting. Signs of coming times. Still the game was a great success and much more than returned the investments.

Is Oblivion at that point? Not even close. There are a few things that are broken and could be fixed, but most the game is playable (keeping in mind you do need to save often!).

...and keep saves from weeks ago. And are ready to replay days of gameplay due to the bugs... and use the console often to fix broken quests yourself.

Most players have no idea what goes on in the game/development community and have very unrealistic expectations on what is humanly possible or monetarly feasible.

Others earn their living by writing software and see the shape of the market pretty well. The future of the games doesn't lie in even better graphics at even higher cost of playablity, less betatesting and more bugs. Games are primarily entertainment and entertainment is supposed to be fun and relaxing, not boring and frustrating. Nerf your way up to level 30 through 20-th identical ayleid ruin in false hope to beat the daedra at Kvatch easier, then replay the same mages guild quest 5th time, taking a slightly different approach each time, because it keeps failing on you. That's not how fun gameplay works. This must and will change.

Edit: One more slashdot link for you. Recent. EA confirms what I just said

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?si ... 19/1554213

Pseudopath · Post by **Pseudopath** » Sat May 20, 2006 7:31 am

Vook wrote: Most of managers of big game corporations think that way currently, releasing hundreds of sequels, boring games refreshing the same old idea a hundredth time and slapping on some modern technology to make it look fresh while cutting on plain gameplay features and debugging to reduce costs and add said technology. And that's what they want you to believe.

My friend had a word or two to say about an upcoming RPG release :-

http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~nucleus/main.shtml

Seems as though everything is going the way of Civ...

- Pseudopath.

willow · Post by **willow** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 9:44 am

I have played the game for about 200 hours, and it has been very stable. I am amazed by the vision, attention to detail and brilliance of execution. I started out playing RPGs 20 years ago (I am 35) on paper with Dungeons and Dragons...now we have this sort of thing. Sure, there are some bugs, but it's at a pretty much acceptable level. The answers to the quest problems I've found on the net. And if you work with PCs, you'll know that saving often is RULE NUMBER 1 for ALL work that you do...even word processing!!! Why be surprised that a massively complex game like this needs frequent saves???

Mt PC is a dual core 3.4 and has a 7900GTX that is n't supported by the program, but it still works beautifully, esp with the new nVidia drivers.

I paid $75 Australian and for all the hours of fun, that's a good deal! There is no way that you can say that it wasn't ready for release.

Vook · Post by **Vook** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 1:14 pm

willow wrote:And if you work with windows, you'll know that saving often is RULE NUMBER 1 for ALL work that you do..

Corrected.

Ronan · Post by **Ronan** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 12:29 pm

The whole idea of paying out $2 a time for tiny improvements just seems wrong to me.

Especially as I'm sure that they will release a pack of all the add-ons in a few months with all the previous add-ons for a bargin bin price.

After all - there's plenty to see and do in Oblivion already....

PTemplar · Post by **PTemplar** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 1:12 pm

Hey, will they make them eventually free?

Vook · Post by **Vook** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 3:10 pm

yep, at piratebay

AnimaMortis · Post by **AnimaMortis** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 3:33 pm

exactly, just download illegally, using programs like bittorrent, emule, kazaa etc etc

Ronan · Post by **Ronan** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 3:46 pm

Well , I wouldn't steal the official mods - too much respect to the makers of oblivion for that....

but...

$2 is 1/15th of the price of oblivion.
I wouldn't think that horse armour is the same as 1/15th of what you get with the original game....