General:Don Nalezyty's Posts

Don Nalezyty's Posts
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Interviewee(s)	Don Nalezyty
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These are a few notable comments from Don Nalezyty on The Elder Scrolls setting.

1996

On TES2's eminent release (1996-01-06)

Don (I may not be Lonewolf, but hopefully just as wise! :^) ) from Bethesda here!

Anyone remember this sucker's supposed to be out at the end of the month. No one is even talking about it anymore. Lonewolf, if you're still out there, drop us a hint on how things are going.

We've had many issues to resolve and rather than shove something out the door which nobody, including us, would be happy about, we've put forth the effort and time to make sure Daggerfall is everything we all want.

That said, here's your hint on how things are going. We've got the entire world up and running, inside and out. We're working on getting a full blown beta out to our testers in the coming week. 8^) Once in full beta testing we want to make sure, that we remove all the bugs before shipping.

What does that mean? What's the bottom line? Well I can't say for sure, because it depends on the beta period. What I can tell you is that it will not be out at the end of this month. As Lonewolf posted earlier, there will some intense meetings in the next few days and during the first weeks of full testing, to figure out just when we can get the best product possible to you.

On how Bethsoft releases games at the time and Future Shock (1996-01-14)

I'm sorry if my post upset anyone, I only want to keep you informed. It is true that some stores do not have trouble putting games on the shelves within a few days, or even on the same day that they recieve titles. That's why some stores had the game and others did not. There are few things which cause problems.

First problem is shelf space. All the stores are swamped with all of the titles rushed out to make the Christmas sales. This leaves little or no space for our titles. The good thing is that many of the games which where rushed out for Christmas will be removed from the shelves and possibly returned. This gives us the opportunity to get our games on shelves.

The another problem is that while some stores may get games on the shelves almost immediatly, they have their own schedules to mantain and contracts with various publishers/distributors to put certain games on the shelves on specific dates. This is especially true for the Holiday season, when the majority of game sales occur. I'll be quite frank in saying that this is a big one we missed the boat on. We couldn't commit to a shipping date far enough in advance (two to four months for most stores,) so we missed out on shelf space even though we managed to have the title in time for Christmas.

The last problem is a much larger one and basically what I mentioned in the previous post. The majority of stores do not get their games via FedEx but rather through their own distribution centers. Meaning we ship our games to one location, and they take the responsibility from that point and figure out what games go to what stores. Unfortunately, most need any where from two to three weeks to get the games to all the stores so they can hit the shelves on the same day through out the chain. Bearing this in mind, it was decided to hold back distribution on any chain which hadn't okayed immediate delivery until, Jan 9th when the game could hit the shelves every where at the same time.

All that said, I do sincerely apologize, if it seems I've mislead you, I gave the simple answer as opposed to the long drawn out one, which really explained things.

One last comment, if you still don't see the game in stores, this is really beyond our control. ; ^) Blame mother nature! The east coast got hit with a lot of snow. We had about four feet all told here at the office. (Which also happens to be where manufacturing is as well!) We're honestly doing our best to get the best games to you as soon as possible.

On TES2 getting delayed (1996-01-23)

Hi there, don from Bethesda here.

This could be a problem. Folks on this newsgroup seem to be real good-natured and understanding about these delays (now it's LATE April),

Actually as far I'm aware of, (unless I slept through the last meeting without realizing it,) DaggerFall is still slated for release on April 1st, 1996.

but I think this sents the wrong message. By the time this thing comes out the technology (which didn't look like a quantum leap over Arena to begin with) could seem quite antiquated.

I have to partially disagree with this. : - ( While the DaggerFall demo may not have seemed a "quantum leap over Arena," Xngine definitly is leaps and bounds beyond the Arena engine. Take a second at Arena and then take a good look at Terminator: Future Shock. (I mention T: FS, because it's a finished product as opposed to a limited demo.) I think you may re-evaulate your opinion. As for seeming antiquated, I will openly admit it's possible, but I highly doubt it. 8 ^)

Sure we can't do anything about it either way, but I think the assumption that delay is a good thing because it assures few bugs is a bit misguided.

I agree that this can often be very true. Of course, I can't give any examples ;-) but I'm sure you can think of a few! In this case though I believe that it's not a misguided assumption. For those who own Arena, especially those who bought it when it was first released, I think it's clear that it was more than just a few bugs. There were no less than seven fairly major upgrades to Arena after the intial release. This is certainly something we're not proud of and that's why we want to make sure we do Daggerfall better. I think it is a good thing, we've delayed.

DaggerFall has been in the works for nearly 2 full years now. Everybody on the project wants to see it finished and out the door, but no one is willing to sacrifice what we know is a stellar product, just so we can that. We want to release the best game possible and I firmly believe that we will do it as soon as possible.

On TES3 (1996-10-04)

Don at Bethesda here. I'm glad to here you're enjoying DaggerFall. Since I'm the project leader on TES III, I'll keep your ideas in mind. I'm hoping to re-work the dungeon creation system so the dungeon feel better and smaller.

[...]

Howdy, Don again. I have opened a can of worms haven't I?

1. Will it be SVGA?

The immeadiate answer is: it's one of my top priorities, chances are very high.

2. Will it use a different engine?

It will use a slightly updated version of the XnGine.

3. When's the release date? (multiple :} here)

Not determined yet, hopefully '97.

Is the box you're teleported to in that one Daggerfall dungeon a red herring? (1990-10-22)

This is something of a spoiler concerning the above so read on with caution!

I fess up, I did it. It's not really supposed to be a red herring, but I missed an important link that tied it to the rest of my wacky little scenario... Unfortunately, it's not something I can fix without causing little ripples throughout the entire game. Think of it as a time travel paradox... if I change this one link, every link after it could be affected and I could erase my own existance! No quite honestly, if I were to attempt to fix this with my tools it would alter 100+ Mbs of data and I'm quite certain that wouldn't go over well as a patch for something so minor. A programmer could hard code a fix perhaps...

While I'd love a programmer to hard code a fix for it, I'd prefer them to continue fixing substantial bugs. Maybe after all the bugs are fixed, I can twist someone's arm and make this work the way I intended it to.

I'm truly sorry it doesn't work... so blame me for this tiny mistake, it's rare that anyone will ever admit to one! ;-)

Sincerely and shamefully, :-(
Don

On TES2's and TES3's Dungeons (1996-10-23)

Don from Bethesda here and I thought perhaps I could address this one. One of my largest concerns for TESIII is to overcome the tedium of the dungeons. There are a few ways to address this.

1. In general, the dungeons are too big. Some big dungeons are nice, but a good range of sizes between the crypts and the average dungeon are in order.

2. Most of the dungeons seem to be endless winding corridors with no recognizble order, if there are going to be corridors, they should lead somewhere or to something.

3. IMHO, the whole concept of "the dungeon" is flawed. There are thousands of these odd underground structures that serve no discernable purpose throughout the landscape??? There should be an overall purpose or functionality behind the design of a dungeon, even if that purpose is thousands of years old and no longer valid.

4. There are actually a number of different dungeon types, (18 I believe,) but unfortunately I think the distinction between the various types has been lost... I have established 6 types thus far, which I hope will be very distinct.

These are just my current thoughts on the subject, I welcome any input or suggestions.

On Mark and Recall (1996-10-23)

I found that if I cast a teleport anchor at the entrance, save, go in, explore, save again, die, restore #2, when I cast teleport it says I have no anchor... any ideas?

Yes, I have an idea and then again I also have the way it really works. Essentially, when you cast teleport anchor, you leave a small bit of yourself at that point. When you cast teleport, you travel to that small fragment of your self and are reunited. When you walk away, you are whole... so if you try to cast teleport again you go nowhere because there's no little piece of you out there calling you to itself.

As for how it really works, much the same way as above, but in C.

On TES3's possible beta (1996-11-04)

I do read as many posts as I possibly can... I have to admit I can't even imagine when beta will start for TESIII. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say fourth quarter 97. We're still in the very early design and blueprint stages of TESIII, I would guess in a few months I'll have a better idea of exactly when we expect to start the beta period.

On the inability to repair magic items in TES2 (1996-12-05)

Actually, the removal of the repair objects repairing magic items was to conform it to the design decision made before releasing the game of taking out the ability to repair magic items. The designers found out there was no fair price they could charge that would make repairing magic items a challenge for the players. So they removed it. Getting replacement magic items is far more challenging than having to cheat your way through $$$ to get it. This was documented in the last minute notes and changes files which as instructed in the installation notes can be read with the installer. However, they forgot about the repair object item maker advantage when they removed it from the game. When the routine was fixed to prevent it from reducing the number of arrows, that loophole was closed.