Destination: Morrowind

January 2005

	January 28, 2005
	Even More Screenshots Update by Striker 6:49 PM CST Three more screenshots have been added to the Official site - a dungeon, a different angle of the Cathedral and a Minotaur. I've added them to the Oblivion in-game images page.
	January 8, 2005
	New Screenshots Update by Striker 8:11 AM CST Bethesda have released three new screenshots and a new concept art picture over on the Official Site. You can find them in the Oblivion images and the Oblivion concept art sections.
	Dev Posts Update by Striker 12:54 AM CST A few more developer posts on various subjects. - MrSmileyFaceDude talks about fast travel: "OH NOES!!!1! They are giving us the option of not having to walk to places we've been before! How COULD they?!! Jeeze, Krunky, you make it sound like it's the end of the world. 1. You can only use the map-based fast travel to go to places you've already been. So you'll HAVE to walk to each possible location AT LEAST once. 2. Time will pass when you fast travel this way. That means that if you've got a long-duration poison effect on you for example, it may KILL YOU while you're traveling. 3. You won't be able to use it if you're in combat. Even if you're trying to run away from a creature. All NPC's and creatures will have to be out of combat with you in order for you to use fast travel. 4. You won't be able to use it from inside. You have to be outside to use the feature. 5. Use of map-based fast travel is optional. That means you don't have to use it. At all. Ever. If you want to walk back & forth between two locations over & over, feel free." - Raptormeat makes a comment on whips and flails: "I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of weapons like this. However I do want to note that I think you'd be suprised at how realistic physics can actually ADD to the workload rather than relieve it! It can be suprising how much effort can be required to make physics look and feel great. For example, it took me only a few hours to get basic arrows flying through the air, based off of some other code that was written. However, getting them to bounce in a way that we felt looked good? DAYS. And that's not even considering all the other physics-heavy behaviour they have." - noah clarifies a few things regarding screenshots: "The screenshot is very much from an earlier state of the game, and a work-in-progress, showing terrain that is far from complete. Just about every portion of the environment shown (excluding the character and the horse - which I say only because I'm not directly working on them) has had, or will have extensive work done, on that particular aspect of the game, at some point in the future For example, terrain now has a separate fog color from the sky, so it appears to have a blue-ish hue in the distance. The mountains shown in the screenshot are completely untextured and do not even have normal-mapping present. I don't think I can speak specifically about the trees yet, but all aspects of them shown in the screenshot will be tweaked at the very least. There are features in the game currently that have been added to them since this screenshot, which will help their appearance. Don't even get me started on how unbelievably temporary the sky art is...;-) Bottom line: Every screenshot/video/article etc. that you see of TESIV will be very much a work-in-progress, up until the moment when the game box is finally in your hands. Screenshots, in most cases, will have been taken weeks, possibly months before they are distributed to print/web publications etc.. Have faith. We will not rest until the game is as beautiful and fun as we can make it, to the best of our ability. Hopefully, showing you all what we have in the meantime, is better than having to wait completely in the dark until the game is in your hands."
	January 5, 2005
	Oblivion Site Link Update by Striker 6:49 AM CST I've added a new link to the Oblivion news site, Waiting4Oblivion.com, so head over and make them feel welcome! Oh, and Happy New Year!