General:Todd Howard's Posts

Todd Howard's Posts
Medium/Format	Online Forum
Interviewee(s)	Todd Howard
Hosted By	TES Forum Usenet

These are a few notable comments from Todd Howard on The Elder Scrolls setting. The comments on Redguard came from a Usenet group that Todd frequented,^{[verification needed]} while the Morrowind quotes came from the old Elder Scrolls IRC chat.^{[verification needed]}

1996

Redguard teaser (1996-11-27)

REDGUARD is coming....
keep your eyes open for this!

- Todd Bethesda

1997

Redguard teaser, again (1997-01-21)

Just thought I'd tip the hat to all the real gamers first... Bethesda will be announcing in the next few weeks a new game line titled: THE ELDER SCROLLS ADVENTURES

The first title in the series is REDGUARD. It is a 3D adventure/action game that features over 40 3D modeled and animated NPCs, non-linear gameplay..and best of all...sword fights.

The series is completely seperate from Arena and Daggerfall and features a much smaller and highly detailed world. You play the role of Cyrus, a redguard smuggler, who returns to Hammerfell after ten years to find his lost sister. It takes place 400 years before Daggerfall, when Tiber Septim is uniting the provinces, and has one of the best stories developed for a game yet.

I'll post more when I can.

Dialogue System Poll for Redguard (1997-04-14)

Hey all,

Figure I'd open this one up to the masses:

We're working on a new game at Bethesda, called REDGUARD. It is the first in a new line called THE ELDER SCROLLS ADVENTURES. It is sort of an action/adventure mix. Part RPG, but not that much. You sword fight, pickup objects, talk to people, etc. Takes place in a very detailed world, 3D characters, digitized speech, ..the works. It has a pirate/swashbuckling feel to the whole thing. I'll post more details later.

Anyway, I'm trying to keep the interface as simple as possible and there's been some discussion about how to handle dialogue in the game. A number of systems have been mentioned and I just figured I'd get on and take suggestions. My current favorite is a keyword system similiar to Ultima 7. It's fast and flexible, and is one of the few systems that makes it seem like a real conversation is going on.

Thoughts? Please respond!

Thanks,

Todd Howard
Project Leader REDGUARD
Bethesda Softworks

[...]

Sounds like I'm headed on the right track.... I don't think I want the player typing anything (u6)...I just think it would make the conversations seem like "work" after a while, even if it is simple typing.

Someone mentioned how they didn't like the U7/U8 just pick the topic and get response (name,job,bye), since it didn't seem like a ral conversation. My current plan is for Keyword (or phrase at times, since everything can't fit into one word) with digitized speach following it. Such as "my sister" and you hear the character say "What do you know about my sister?". All the dialogue, for both the character and the NPCs will be full digitized voice, and I think most people want to hear their guy without having to choose the exact sentence and then hearing him repeat it..that would get annoying.

- Todd Howard

2000

On the inability to play as Khajiits or Argonians during Morrowind's early development (2000-07-06)

Remember, this decision is two-fold, one dramatic and the other technical. The resources WILL come with the game to make it possible to play an Argonian or a Khajiit (and they do appear in the game).
Details on the character system will be coming in the near future. Once you hear more about it, some of the technical problems with these two races will be apparent. Even when they are turned on in the editor, at this stage they will not work as cleanly as the other character races because of their body styles.

On the functionality of the Construction Set (2000-07-17)

Initial response by Todd

Yes, you can do all of the above.

There is a front-end to the game that allows you to select which plugins you are running the game with, so if you want to unload some, it is easy.

It's very easy to "try-out" someone's plugin to make sure you like it, and that it is 100% compatible with any other plugins you decide to play with. You can load them together in both the game and the Construction Set.

By the way, the official file type of a plugin is .esp (Elder Scroll's plugin) so if you see me refer to an esp file, you know what I'm talking about.

Following up on the functionality of the Construction Set

You MUST exit the game to unload or load new plugins.

When the game loads it may spit out errors if certain things are not compatible between plugins (such as ID names for objects). If the objects are of the same type, it uses the newer one (it loads plugins by their date, so the oldest plugins get loaded first, and the newest ones last).

Redundant IDs are rare, but they can happen. It will give you the IDs and types of the bad objects. You then have two options 1) Unload one of them, or 2) Modify the plugin in the Con Set to rename the object.

As far as where objects go, you place them in the world, so yes, there is a risk that two people put a town in the same place (this causes some really crazy stuff visually, but will not break the game). Again, one of the plugins if you want to play with both, should be changed.

Save Games, basically if you've been using a plugin and have a game saved with it, and then stop using it, your save game will still be OK, but there is a chance if you have new objects in your inventory that were created through tha plugin, your character may not have them anymore (the game will warn you of this).

Another reply following up on the Construction Set from the previous post

You can add, replace, edit whatever you want.

Also, you can "Merge" files, but it gets a little complicated. For the end user, it's no big deal, but for the creator, keeping your stuff in one file makes life easier.

Right now, you have to play with the main Morrowind file, because the game needs several things in it (races, classes, other settings and data), and I don't imagine that changing.

If you want to create a whole new land-mass, you simply put it somewhere else in the world (the size is infinite).

On legal issues pertaining to Morrowind mods (2000-07-20)

I'm SURE it will be illegal for anyone but us to sell them.

Which brings up an interesting idea..."Bethesda sponsored add-ons". We pay you for your best stuff (or you write new stuff for us) and we release it and you get some of the $$.

hmmmmm....

Thoughts? The way I see it, it is cool, but may also put a cramp in the whole "free and underground" feel to cool mods.

We already have plans for a "Bethesda sponsored plugin of the week". These would be submitted by you, and we pick the best one and link it from our site. These would be all free of course, and we would verify that these mods worked well together (as in not sponsor a plugin that messed with a previously sponsored one).

After the game comes out we can investigate the options together!

Thoughts?

Todd giving special thanks to the message board members (2000-07-27)

Man do these forums rock. We have the BEST fans in computer gaming. People ask a lot, "do you guys read all this stuff?", the answer is "most of it".

You guys (and gals) are a constant source of inspiration to us, we'd like to say we're just making the game for ourselves, but we're really making it for the gaming community, which we are a part of.

So keep posting, and we'll keep reading.

I'll put up an illegal beta when the forum hits 10,000 users <g>.

I wish I could spill the beans about some new stuff that I assure you is a direct result of this forum and you'll know it. Give us a few weeks and we'll put something up (w/ pictures).

carry on....

On placing monsters with the Construction Set (2000-07-28)

Initial post by Todd

To answer a popular question....

Our construction set allows you to place creatures in the following manners:

1) Place any creature of your desire.
2) Place a "Levelled Creature"
3) You can flag any creature (or NPC) to "respawn" or not.

A Levelled Creature picks itself from a list you determine. So you can just drag-and-drop a mini list into the world wherever you want them to appear. When the player enters the area the game looks at the list and determines what creature should be displayed (and yes, you can make your own lists).

The sample list looks like:
"Cave Levelled Creature"
Scamp 1
Kwaama 1
Troll 5
Daedra Lord 12

Ok, so if the PC is level 1 or above, choose randomly between a scamp and a kwaama. If they are at or above level 5, it's a Troll, if PC is at or above 12, then it's the Daedra Lord.

You get to pick the PC levels for your list, so you can get any combination you want. Give the PC a Daedra Lord when he's at level 3 if you want (evil, but go ahead).

You can also set the levelled creature to respawn if you want.

Follow up response by Todd

You can use time of day and the other stuff through scripting, which is how you could get a higher level of control over what happens.

But no, time of day and radius is not a default property for a levelled creature.

Final follow up

No creature option for levelled creature looks like:

"Wait till later"
Kwaama Warrior 5
Corprus Stalker 10


You will get NO creature until you are at least level 5 with this one.

yes, you can edit existing creatures (change all their stats, or drag-n-drop new abilities into them).

You can create entirely new ones also. BUT if you want to create brand new art and animation, you'll need 3DStudioMax to do it in, the Construction Set does not create raw art, it just places it all around (there is some art you can create in it, but not creatures and animation).

2001

On-going development of Morrowind, and the usage of the Geforce 2/3 (2001-04-06)

<Todd[Bethesda]> We're trying to figure out what pixel shader and other effects to use...
<Todd[Bethesda]> because we have some AMAZING water demos, but may not work on anything under a Gef3...

In terms of something you've found personally interesting, enjoyable, rewarding or otherwise special, what stands out in your mind about working on Morrowind? (2001-11-08)

The most memorable thing is working with a great group of people to make an impossibly complex game a reality. The point at which you can play the game you've been looking at on paper or other prototypes for years. The first time you see it as a whole, one of those magic moments happens. I'll be going into the game to test a particular feature or quest someone has made, and two hours will pass. I'll forget what I was supposed to be doing and realize I spent the last few hours just playing the game. I seemed to get consumed with leveling up instead of actually finishing the quests! I spent an hour today walking around town talking to people trying to get everyone to like me.

Please tell our readers about something in Morrowind or in the process of creating it that has either surprised you or significantly exceeded your expectations. (2001-12-06)

I'm surprised at how much content we've been able to build. When we started, size was a concern, trying to find something that was doable, yet felt big enough to someone who loves the Elder Scrolls. Knowing that we wanted to do everything by hand, I had concerns about how much ground we could cover. This really was made possible by focusing very earlier on the TES Construction Set, which has allowed us to build a lot of stuff, in a reasonably short amount of time. I can't overstate how many places we've built, at last count we had hand placed 294,705 objects in the world. Not a joke, I just checked that number in the Construction Set.

2002

To what extent have you used the TES Construction Set, and what are one or two things about it that particularly stand out in your mind? (2002-01-03)

I've used in extensively, as has much of the staff here. It is by far the best game development tool I've ever used, and a lot of the credit goes to Mike Lipari, who took over the TES Consruction Set last year and has made it better than any of us imagined. The main thing that sticks out about it now, outside of the ease of editing and building, is the information management. You can click on a sword and it will tell you how many of it there are in the world, where they are, who has them, etc. You can search and replace on that sword, or visually step through every instance of it in the world. The data management it can handle is fantastic. Much of that has been added over the last six months as our needs changed from building the world to modifying or viewing what is in the world globally. It allows us to get a larger view of the game balance, which is a big issue for us with a game this size. But I also still love just dragging and dropping clothing and armor on people to see what they look like.

Please describe a location, item, monster or some other game element that is not on the critical path, but that you consider especially interesting, intriguing or enjoyable. (2002-01-17)

I enjoy the Daedric Shrines. High risk, but high reward. You find them out in the wilds, and they're some of the coolest areas in the game. A good place to find daedric weapons as well. They can be tough though, so avoid them if you aren't butch enough.

Morrowind is known to include three competing Great Houses - House Telvanni, House Hlaalu and House Redoran. Based on your personal preferences, which do you find the most interesting and why? (2002-02-14)

I think the Telvanni are the most interesting, probably because they are the strangest in comparison to wizards I've seen in other fantasy products. They actually grow their buildings. If you join them, and get high enough in rank, you too get to grow your own Wizard's tower. Again, I find them interesting, but the one I'd play is the Hlaalu. They're the smuggler-baron types. I just like the things they're up to. They're scoundrels with style, like Han Solo, but uhh...Dark Elven.