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Q: Can you give us a cast of the people working on Morrowind and their duties
in the development?
A:
Me (Todd Howard):
Project Leader
Craig Walton: Lead Programmer
Ken Rolston: Lead Designer
Gary Noonan: Dungeon Builder
Christiane Meister: Character Artist
Juan Sanchez: Creature Animation
Matt Carofano: World Art
Hope Adams: World Art
Mark Jones: Character/Weapon Art
Hal Bouma: Programming
Erik Parker: Programming
Andrew Nunn: Tools Programming
Q: What 3D API's are you planning on supporting? (Direct 3D, Open GL, Glide)
A: Direct3D
Q: In the past, all Elder Scrolls games have been DOS based, even the most
recent addition Redguard. Obviously you are moving to Win32, but are you going to support any other platforms like Mac or Linux? Will Windows 2000
be supported? (What if I beg?)
A: Win95/98/2000
Q: What system requirements is Bethesda shooting for? To run on current
hardware, last year's hardware, or next year's hardware?
A: Next Year's hardware
Q: In Daggerfall, Bethesda struggled with bugs, but with Redguard, despite the
normal issues common to DOS games, you didn't even need to release patch one. This is surprising, as you never even had a public BETA! What did you
learn from Daggerfall and what magic are you working that allows you to perform all of your debugging in house?
A: We use a lot of out-of-house testers. With Redguard we started the
process earlier, and had a much better system for tracking, fixing, and maintaining the state of the game. We're going even further with Morrowind.
Zero bugs is our number one goal.
Q: Are you considering a public Beta for Morrowind? (What if I beg?)
A: We use many outside beta-testers. It won't be hugely open, but we'll
probably take about 100 to 200 people from the outside.
Q: In each of the previous Elder Scrolls chapters, multiplayer was not an
option, however, practically everyone I know played the games with a friend
by their side. In the age of EQ, UO, AC, and Diablo, what action is Bethesda, probably THE RPG Heavy Weight Champion, toward hitting this
booming segment of the industry?
A: We're going to make the ultimate single person game first. Then we'll
consider a multi-player game. We aren't going to do it just because everybody else is.
(GOOD
ANSWER -fro)
Q: Will we ever see a multi-player 1st-person RPG set in the realm of
Tamriel?
A: I'm sure one day we'll do one.
Q: Every chapter, the settings of the Elder Scrolls games are getting smaller
and smaller. Back on the Redguard forum and before the release, people joked that chapter 5 would be "a fight breaks out in the backyard of the
average 2.5 kitten Kajit household." Do you see the trend continuing, reversing, or will we "find out then?"
A: Not exactly true. Daggerfall is actually much much larger than Arena in
area. Redguard is much larger than Battlespire. Morrowind is about 50 times
the size of Redguard.
Q: On that note, how large is Morrowind in square miles?
A: A lot by a lot.
Q: The AI of Daggerfall was pretty weak, but in Redguard, I had a single pirate
chase me from one end of the island to another (though the surrounding guards did nothing to stop him and everything to stop me.) Will AI be an
important factor in Morrowind?
A: Absolutely. Better than
Redguard's.
Q: The X-ngine has been evolving over the years, and I suspect that some of the
extended wait between Daggerfall and Morrowind is because of the migration
from DOS to Win32. Will the gap between Morrowind and the next chapter be
shorter because you will, by then, have a working Win32 X-ngine?
A: The gaps aren't really engine related. There are a great number of things
that effect the time between our big games. Morrowind uses a completely new
engine. I hope to use it for a long time. It's amazing.
Q: Never has Bethesda made an expansion pack for an Elder Scrolls game. Do you
foresee any for Marrowind?
A: Depends. We're not ruling it out.
Q: How about a Redguard 2 or continuation of the action chapters? (Like the
adventures of Drem)
A: We have a design for the sequel but it's not in development (it's called
"Eye of Argonia"). There's been some talk of doing it for the PSX2 or another console where those kind of games sell much better.
Q: In Daggerfall, there was a chance of becoming a werewolf or a vampire if
such a creature attacked you. What can we look forward to becoming in Morrowind?
Archlichs?
A: There's similar stuff, but I won't ruin it now.
Q: What kind of animation system are you using? Skeletal?
A: Skeletal, yes. It is a hybrid system that allows for full character
creation, clothing, etc.
Q: Will we be able to include our own models? Modifications?
A: Shhh.
Q: Daggerfall and Redguard had a few subtle "Adult" themes. Will we see the
same in Morrowind, or are you not renegotiating the contracts of the naked
nymphs who attacked from their pubic areas? (What if I beg?)
A: We've cut back the nudity, maybe on a Nymph we'd keep it. But nudity is
really more trouble than it's worth for gameplay. The story has very adult
themes. Same level as Redguard.
Q: Daggerfall had a child-guard feature that could be turned on and off with a
password. Will you utilize features like this in Morrowind so that you could
target an adult audience and make the game playable by a younger audience as
well?
A: It will be pretty violent, but we have no plans for a child-guard
feature. Nothing a teenager couldn't handle. If you're under 14 you shouldn't be playing this game.
Q: Can we be Orcs yet? (What if I beg?)
A: Hmmmm.
Q: Finally, if you can't tell us some of the features that will make their way
into the game, can you tell us some of the features that have hit the cutting room floor already?
A: More on that in the future. If it worked well in Daggerfall, it's in. If
it didn't, it's either changed or removed completely. |
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