2. The World

General

World

Gameplay

TES Construction Set

Wishful Thinking

Special thanks to InLeatherArmor for reviewing the FAQ

2.1 World Particular

2.1.1 What size is the world of TES IV: Oblivion?: Cyrodil is 16 virtual square miles (that's about 140% of Morrowind landscape).; The Oblivion Planes are randomly generated and really huge in term of landscape. However the gates to the planes of Oblivion are closed at the end of the main quest.
2.1.2 Can you give me some statistics on Cyrodiil?
2.1.3 Is the world one continuous environment?: No. The interior are separate cells.; Also, contrary to Morrowind, Oblivion will have many autonomous regions, such as the planes of Oblivion, each equivalent to the Morrowind map in functionalities.
2.1.4 Does the world have borders?: Yes. Each autonomous regions has invisible frontiers around it. You eventually reach a point where it tells you you have reached the end of the world. Most borders will blend with natural frontiers such as mountains, river, etc.
2.1.5 How much variety of landscape will we see?: Cyrodiil alone has at least 8 different landscape types. You will see different types of forests, swamps, plains, hills and mountains. There is also a large lake around the Imperial City.; This is without counting the strange landscape of Oblivion. Some concept art of different types of flora found in the Oblivion realms has been revealed though.
2.1.6 How much variety of weather will we see?: There will not be any season, but each region will have certain weather effects depending on location. Snow and blizzards in the north, rain and thunderstorm, and many special weather for the Oblivion realms.; Exterior weather effects will not be visible in interior cells (lightning seen through a window).
2.1.7 Are there water effects?: There are different water types and effect where some change with the weather conditions (ie. waves, stormy weather, waterfall effects, etc.), but unfortunately, all of the effects are visual effects only. Non will effect character's abilities to swim around. Rivers will not be flowing either.; The waters surface will reflect surrounding terrain and cities if they are large enough, but will not reflect trees or grass.; Thanks to the new Havok physics, objects will now have weight, and due to this, some objects and poeple will sink or float in water depending on their weight or over-encumbrance.

2.2 The Cities

2.2.1 Can you give us a list of the 9 cities?: Please note that Kvatch does count as one of the nine, even though it's been destroyed.
2.2.2 Can you tell us about the houses the player can buy?: Each city will have at least one house the player can buy.; The cheapeast house is haunted and located in Cheydinhall. A quest will need to be done to get rid of the ghosts before you can gain ownership of it.; Each city will also feature a decoration store where you can purchase things to decorate your house (no more details known at the moment).

2.3 The Dungeons

2.3.1 How many dungeons are there in the game?: Cyrodiil alone has 200+ handcrafted Dungeons.
2.3.2 How large are those dungeons?: A dungeon takes a developer about a week to create. This time is only for the layout & AI setup. It doesn't count the time to create the tileset, creatures, etc. So they are of a rather large size.; Each dungeon has about 3-5 physic enabled traps.
2.3.3 What can you tell us about the creatures inhabiting the dungeons?: Dungeons can have present groups fighting each other, such as skeletons vs. goblins vs. bandits.; Creatures inhabiting the dungeons can go outside to satify their needs (such as killing cows for food in a nearby farmer's field); NPC's will not progress through a dungeon, unless you enter the dungeon to meet up with them. Sometimes if you don't hurry though, they can steal away all the good treasure themselves, though.

2.4 The Player character and the NPC's

2.4.1 What are the races availlable?: The same 10 races availlable in Morrowind are returning in TES IV: Oblivion; The Khajit and Argonian have now a normal bipedal walk, with normal feet, similar to what they were in Arena / Daggerfall rather than the beast-style walk of Morrowind. This mean they can wear boots like everybody; The women have definitively a womanly look!
2.4.2 How much can the NPC's / Player characters be customised?: Each race is now very flexible
2.4.3 What do the bodies, clothing and armor look like?: The bodies are complely redone for a smoother nicer look while the clothing and armor fit and look better on the new bodies.; Unfortunately, there will be no cloth physics, and the dev's have stated that they doubt that modders can add them in either. We will just have to wait and see.
2.4.4 How many NPC's are there in TES IV: Oblivion?: There are over 1500 NPC's, not counting respawning guards and bandits in the dungeons and wilderness.
2.4.5 How essential NPC's be treated?
2.4.6 How will NPC's dialogues work this time?
2.4.7 How does the new Persuasion interface work?: The persuasion minigame is very different from what was shown at E3. It plays much more like a game now. Similar to the one we showed, the game still uses a circular interface divided into four quadrants for the different persuasion types. The art is completely different and fully animated now. Each of the four quadrants will fill with wedges of different sizes. The size of the wedge reflects the scale of the potential effect of your choosing an action. Choosing a large wedge has a great effect; choosing a small wedge has a small effect.; As you highlight in turn the Admire, Boast, Joke, and Coerce quadrants, the person 's face shows his reaction to each of the actions. For each of the four actions, he will Love one, Like one, Dislike one, and Hate one. Don't take too long, because the person 's disposition is steadily falling. The person 's disposition goes up when you select a Loved or Liked action and goes down when you select a Disliked or Hated action.; The potential gain or loss for each action is based on your Speechcraft and how full the wedge is. Try to select fuller wedges when they are aligned with actions the person likes. Try to select less full wedges when they are aligned with actions he doesn't like.; At this point, we don't have any more information on the Demand or Bride features.
2.4.8 What is Radiant AI?: NPC’s and creatures will all have 24/7 schedules, such as closing their shop at night, or locking their door when they go to bed. They also have full facial expressions and will react accordingly to what race they are talking to (High Elves would have a lower disposition to a Wood Elf, than say another High Elf).; They will also have the ability to go through load doors into other areas. This means if you’re in a fight with a NPC, and run away to a building, he can follow you inside and continue the fight. Unfortunately, there is no animation for opening a door into and interior, so NPC's will just stand in front of a door then fade out.; It has been said that NPC’s will have many more parameters that go into decisions that they choose. Just a couple of them are Confidence and Responsibility.; In fact the schedule they use is not fixed or scripted (in the general sense) but rather a list of goal to acheive. They will move around according to their schedules and needs, and use the tools at their disposal (skills, equipment) to acheive their goals. They can pick up weapons, potions or any sort of gear and use them. They can talk to people. They can steal, get arrested and break out of jail the same way you do.; In certain factions, you will meet what are termed "continuing characters." These are characters who you will come into contact with at several points throughour the questline. You can talk to them, watch the grow, influence them, and perhaps even go on quests with them and alter their paths through the game.; Some restrictions have been mentioned; A few examples

2.5 The Creatures

2.5.1 How many creatures types are present in TES IV: Oblivion?: There are 40-50 creatures types, with some types can have subtypes, such as standard goblins and goblins witches.
2.5.2 How will the Radiant AI work with creatures?: Preditors will hunt and attack other creatures and game in the wilderness for food and survival.; Some land creatures are capable of swimming in water to chase after prey (even if it's you).
2.5.3 Can you tell us the general categories of creatures?
2.5.4 Can you give us examples for each categories?

2.6 Treasures

2.6.1 Is there anything to buy, steal, collect, find, loot?
2.6.2 Can you tell us about the clothing?: Clothing has more variety than Morrowind and a distinct historical/classical medieval feel to it. Women can wear really pretty robes, some that have enticing cleavage sufficient to send Radiant AI amok; Hooded robes (monk types robes) are availlable as well as some hooded armor. Guard armor have surcoats with the blazon of their city embroided.
2.6.3 Can you tell us about the armors?: Over 700 armor pieces are availlable in the game, with over 100 of those armor pieces as custom armors.; In TES IV, one armor piece can cover more than one location. From the screenshots, it would seem that armor covering feet, knee and legs are now independent from right and left side (so you can mix them). This would represent about 70 full sets in Morrowind system; Morrowind Armor Set = 9 pieces (helm + pauldrons x2 + breastplate + gauntlets x2 + greaves + boots + shield); There are 2 Armor skills (Heavy and Light), but each cover 6 subtypes, for 18 subtypes total.; Most of the armor from Morrowind should make a comeback; Each city has a unique guard armor which usually consist of a padded gambesson/surcoat worn on top of either plate armor or chain armor. The gambesson has a color specific to the city, and sometime has the emblem of the city embroided on it. There also seem to be guard shields bearing the symbol of the city.; Many of the new armor seen are based on historicaly accurate medieval models.; Besides the Morrowind armors, some of the new armors include
2.6.4 Can you tell us about the weapons?: The new weapons have a weapon/sheath feature.; There are no thrown projectile weapons, crossbows or spears, and all staves are treated as magical ranged weapons, but can still block in melee.; Blood will show on sword during combat (but will fade after a few moments) and with the new lightning model, metal weapons can really shine in the light.

2.7 General

2.7.1 What is the Compass?: The compass is a subtle indicator that will highlight features in a specified range (the range can be changed in the menu). For example if a ruin is visible behind a tree, the compass will show an icon to make you aware of it, helping you to slow down and pay attention to the surroundings.; It can also help you find transient NPC's relevant to a quest, but it's not a magical locater. For the compass to activate any symbol you must already be near the NPC or location as well as know about it in the first place.
2.7.2 What Guilds/Factions are available?: There are 9 factions in the game. 5 of them are joinable, while 4 of them you can do quests for, but not join in the ranks.; Joinable:; Non-Joinable:; The 5 Counts are fighting for power in the turmoil caused by the death of the Emperor, who can give you local quests, but will be unable to join and help out a particular one.; Players can buy equipment and receive training at a special, discounted price from his guild members. The Thieves Guild maintains a network of fences that allow the player to sell stolen goods.; Upon reaching the top of a Guild, certain unlockable, reoccuring benefits become available, such as monthly stipends of gold or equipment, or the use of plot-centric equipment.
2.7.3 What is fast travel?: Fast travel is a way to travel to any point of interest on the map automatically. It is not teleportation and time will pass (so it will not helped if you are poisoned).; When using fast travel, a map is brought up, and you can select any destination available, be it a city, village, camp, farm or any other permited travel destination.; The main use of fast travel is saving real-life time by avoiding repetitive action (such as when carrying loot back to town); Only locations you already visited will be shown. You must still explore new area of the the land the hard way first.
2.7.4 What are horses used for?: Horses help you travel faster. When using fast travel and horses together, the fast travel will cost less in term of game time. So if you're trying to reach a battle before it end, or if you are working on a time critical quest, it is an excellent idea to use the two in combination.; Horses quick facts:
2.7.5 Is magic travel available?: Some of the old spells have been removed due to exploits problem, such as Mark and Recall and Levitation.; Little details are available on the magic system at the moment, but it was confirmed that some form of magic travel is available. Especially to help you when you must escape foes, or heal poison.; It is not known if there will be anything similar to Mark and Recall, teleport or town portal
2.7.6 Can I have pets?: Pets quick facts:
2.7.7 Was the User Interface improved?: The User Interface have been completly revamped with a parchment look and colorful icons.; On the Xbox 360 the interface was tailored Xbox style with large text and buttons and configurable controller buttons
2.7.8 Are there Vampires or Lycanthrope in the world?: Lycantropy is not included in the initial game. It is not known if it will make a comeback in a future expansion.; If you should become a Vampire you'll still be able to continue the main quest, possibly everything, except that you'll be required to get your daily helping of blood (now with a new neck biting animation). With that, you should be able to withstand the suns rays for the most part, and will be less recognizable as a Vampire to most people. Vampires will also be much stronger than their counterparts were in Morrowind (with new skills such as a natural invisibility ability). It will be curable, so there will not be any epidemics across the country.; Sleeping NPC's are exceptional targets for blood suckers on the prowl.
2.7.9 How is sleep handled this time around?: Radiant AI NPC's and creatures eat and sleep according to their individual schedules.; For the PC, sleep is not mandatory, but if you want to sleep you must find a bed, either in a house, a camp or some bandit lair. You can no longer sleep in the ground in the wilderness.
2.7.10 Can you give some details on quests?
: There are several quests where you are offered a moral choice, for instance, whether to trust a guard's version of a story versus a citizen calling the guard corrupt.; Past actions from quests or independant actions may even come back to haunt you (like a murder, for example); There's a point in the main quest where you're tasked with marshalling armies from each of the 5 COunts around Cyrodiil to help in a large scaled battle. If you've made them angry through other quests or actions earlier in the game, they may not be willing to help you and refuse to provide aid.

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