Full podcast episode: ruclips.net/video/H9AAnV59ddE/видео.html Lex Fridman podcast channel: ruclips.net/user/lexfridman Guest bio: Todd Howard is a legendary video game designer at Bethesda Game Studios. He led the development of the Elder Scrolls series and the Fallout series, and an upcoming game Starfield.
Really cool to see Todd do a casual sit down conversation type interview rather than getting the usual generic answers for a game journal. Podcast format really is the best way to talk to and level to somebody.
a good example of the "we know if an npc anywhere want to do something" are the khajiit caravans, if you ever get a quest where you need to talk to them and just watch your questmarker, it will move on their route like normal, they don't just teleport to every city, they walk the whole way every time even if you're far away
That and the Dark Brother hood quest where you have to kill the imperial. You find a schedule that tells you where he is depending on the day and you can actually intercept him on roads between towns.
This is weirdly one of if not my favorite interview from Lex. It’s a very different interview from him having someone like Todd Howard, but I love Bethesda so much and that and Lexs amazing curiosity and inquisition makes this interview incredible
@@Cappuccino_Rabbit A lot of the bugs in Skyrim became so popular in the community that they never bothered to fix them. Like, some of the leveling exploits got fixed, but a lot of them never did, simply because people loved them so much.
Todd's a legit nice guy, but the legit second, he's at a desk; the company unintentionally declares war on the fanbase! Just kick him downstairs and let the janitor get his job!
Yea its still crazy how Skyrim and Bethesda games can remember every item location and NPC even little things like the map being a fully 3d render of the world the fact that you can even see dragons on the map is alot of work that ppl take for granted
I feel like the reason Todd gives great, in depth answers here is because of Lex’s great, thoughtful questions and insights. Very well done. Appreciated
@@casper191985 well I learned quite a bit about their old games and the ones set to come out, npc integration, comparative map sizes, why some companions are favored over others, how a game is conceived and the processes they take up to publishing, and a lot more. Very interesting stuff, to me anyway, and to many others by the look of it. That’s too bad if you didn’t get anything from it, there was a lot of info there. Best to ya.
I know Skyrim is highly meme friendly. Oblivion NPC is a thing for a reason, but at the same time it's genuinely insane how much thought and effort went into the NPCs in ES5. Particularly the guards. The fact they reacted to specific weapon choices blew my mind first time playing. There's one, I can't remember which weapon it is, a Daedric one, where the guard whistles in a response to it. I remember thinking woah, some players will never hear that little bit of dialogue. If you always play as a mage and never use weapons, the chance you'll find the scenario that triggers that line is almost %0. That's impressive!
To prove your point: I have 700 hs in Skyrim and never heard the whistle because I don't use daedric weapons! Also, only last year I played a mage for the first time and the second I cast a ward spell the guard goes: "WHOA WHOA WHOA! Easy on the magic." I actually LOL'd.
The questline make you decide that you want to spare or kill erandur so i think most of player going for the artefac and dont know that erandur have potential follower if you keep him alive
@@nataliaviva6150 so true, my first few playthroughs i offed him before i did a run not caring about the daedric stuff and wanting to make different choices. Glad i did relatively early on seeing how much playthroughs i have in skyrim😂
I must say as someone who conceptually thinks Daggerfall is the best rpg of all time got more then a little excited when he mentioned Starfield being more inspired by it 🤗
Probably in terms of procedural generation...but maybe they made the procedural elements work with more systems than before. I would hope it free's them up to go harder on the hand crafted artistry.
Although the thing I remember most about Daggerfall these days is the 49,152 times that guards will say “HALT!” When they are chasing you for a crime. 😄
One of my favorite moments in morrowwind was stumbling upon the mage that falls out of the sky... I just heard him screaming... then I found his body and found these powerful scrolls that shoot you across the landscape...
There is a nod to that scene in the Dragonborn DLC as a random encounter. No scrolls though. but the Paraglider mod for PC also pays homage to that scene, and with the spell you get you can fly. I also downloaded a mod that puts a cooldown on the spell as it was very OP.
@Rob R you know I played so much skyrim when it came out, that I never did make through the dragonborn dlc. It's about time I revisted... but my backlog is ridiculous. I'll get to it one of these days lol
Skyrim "I've got a bad feeling about this", your companion telling you your walking into a fight that's bigger than you are; that's your follower relating to you in a meaningful way. I've always liked looking at a place from afar and seeing them all going about their life regardless of if I'm there or not. The world is Alive, and I'm part of it.
Ps 3, ps 4, ps 5, xbox 360, xbox one, xbox x, microsoft store, nintendo switch. Legendary edition, vr, special edition, aniversary edition. You have a big arsenal to choose from.
I feel a lot of the personal connection aspect of these characters depends on the depth and nuance added during their inception. For example, even among the GTA V characters, even though everyone has a backstory and a different life, you see people appreciate Trevor more because behind his chaotic personality lies a person who is loyal to his friends and is really there for them in the time of need.
Trevor never tried to kill Franklin, he also treats Michael’s kids like family, the moment he landed in Los Santos, his first instinct was to help Michael protect his daughter. I don’t know what you’re talking about but that sounds like a friend to me. Remove all the anger, the betrayal he faces times and again, and all that is left is character who reciprocates loyalty.
This is so interesting and such an immersive design that Bethesda follows; regarding the world being a continuous loop instead of focusing on one mission at a time. I like to remember those quests where you have to meet an NPC on the other side of the map and you can see their waypoint update. I can only imagine now that in Starfield how cool it will be to see an NPC lightyears away flying in space to come meet you and you're just awaiting their arrival in real time
“Having the factions do something and what their presence is in this world aside from ‘show up, do quests, get gold.” is a wild thing to say from the guy responsible for Preston Garvey.
I think the best mod that made the world seem like it moved even without you, was the holidays mod. You’d get courier notices when holiday events were happening and if you were there you got to see. Was really cool
I enjoyed how the Theives Guild NPCs would speak with such darkness, solitude and desolation. They made you feel bad, and lured you right in. Excellent lines and story. Alvor (sorry if I spelled it wrong) the first Blacksmith in Winterfell you speak with, has such welcoming lines and makes you feel right at home. Especially with the horns playing the skyrim theme, ever so subtlety in the background. The DLCs were captivating also, and the first time I got dragon armor. I grinded for like 36 hrs to Smith and make enough daggers just to get high enough skill stats.
One of my favorite moments in gaming was playing an evil characterl in Fallout 3. My karma was so low, when I rolled into Paradise Falls where all the slavers were, the first NPC I walked past stopped dead in his tracks and said "Holy shit, it's you!" Made me feel like a total bad ass.
i think todd howard nailed it, because you can know if you are sick, due to how npcs react to you. i can't count how many times i found out i was infected with sanguine vampireism because of it.
3:00 I remember once my older brother was playing Oblivion and he had saved up the 25k to buy a house in Skingrad. When he arrives at the castle, the steward is nowhere to be found. After some looking around, turns out he slipped off the narrow bridge between the town and the castle and died. Just had an accident one day on his walk to work. It was annoying at the time, but it made the world feel more alive knowing any NPC could die from a simple human mistake.
Lex has a great format for interviews and IS a great interviewer. Maybe the best I've ever seen. Genuine interest and thoughtful questions--no sensationalism or baiting guests into uncomfortable situations. Always classy and respectful.
To me he seems highly confused as an interviewer asking redundant questions that Todd has already answered multiple times previously. Not sure what people see in Lex. He lacks all charisma and personality, and he doesn’t even make up for it by being knowledgeable or well researched.
@@larsr6466 I guess the bar is set really low for interviews then because to me, I think he's pretty good, especially when it's the topic is software/technology being a software dev himself. I agree with you on lacking charisma and personality--he sounds stiff and sticks to the script a lot of times. But he gives guests room to express themselves. He's not always throwing gotcha questions to try and trap someone, but he does disagree and push back quite a bit. Look at the Kanye West interview--he gave him as much room as possible without completely lying down. That part where Kanye reframes the definition of Jew in order to call himself one in an attempt to get away with antisemitism. I would have stopped him right here, but with Lex, were able to see the thought process, bizarre and self-deluded as it is.
I really enjoy the threatening dialogue of a bandit trying to rob me only for me to interrupt their useless banter with 1 swing of my 4 million damage iron dagger and for that Todd we thank you
I think the idea is cool, every npc in the game is trying to level up through whatever their role or job in the world is. The lumberjack wants to cut trees to level up and get money to buy gear etc. Over time that npc is tougher and better equipped . But the bear in the forest might have randomly run into enough things to become strong enough to kill the lumberjack. Assassins need money too so they might take out other NPCs, Guards and soldiers who survived a long time become powerful veterans with top of the line gear. That damn troll you keep running from is somehow killing every one and escaping before the guards arrive and late game he is a battle scarred mini boss tier enemy. The more hours you put into the game the difficulty is scaling and evolving natural but also dynamically and unique in each playthrough. Make NPCs require food water etc and actually make them go do their jobs to buy it from the peoples who job is to sell it, which got it from the farmers who live outside town who hopefully don't get murdered by a giant alligator man. Hopefully we can actually have simulated game worlds and economies like this in my life time.
You’re essentially describing Kenshi. Every NPC has access to the same attributes, so if they’re running around using a katana then they’ll get stronger with that weapon and their dexterity will go up. If they use a crossbow then their crossbow skill and perception will go up. As long as NPCs aren’t killed and they keep fighting or engaging in whatever craft they do they’ll continue to get stronger. This has the effect that NPCs like gate guards who are engaged in combat pretty frequently will eventually become verrry strong after a decent chunk of in-game time.
@@TexasGreed no problem always happy to recommend kenshi, it’s easily one of my favorite games. Even the stuff you mentioned about NPCs needing food and how it affects the game world is all there, hungry bandits roaming around attacking groups/farms to steal their food, major factions being powerful because of their access to fertile land.
@@TexasGreed Yeah bro, can confirm that Kenshi is a great game. I have barely even done anything in it, but have still clocked 80 hours lol. It's a little bit tough. . . but hey, whatever mannnn
@@twiss9341 I too can confirm I've been playing the shit out of it since old boy recommended it to me. I have around 14 hours in it already but I restarted cause I was getting destroyed lol. It's a tough game but it's very fun. I hope it gets a sequel.
i like how lex said the npcs have a hilarious dialog like that was suppose to be how it would come across and how todd just goes along with it like elder scrolls isn't a complete chaotic yet awesome mess is truly amazing
I would love if you get to choose if you wish to become the head of a faction or not. For instance ,I as a swordsman/soldier , upon finishing the mages guild quest line , can choose to allow Gandalf to be the faction leader instead of my sword wielding self become the ''Head wizard'' of the Mages guild.
Characters are too much like robots with no feelings, no memory and endlessly repeating dialogue. And this processing of distant characters only deals with their location, it doesn't deal at all with two enemies being in the same location. Entire armies can just walk past each other without incident, or occupy the same location for days. It really does feel like nobody else is real and things only ever happen around the player.
Should've asked who's idea was to launch the player into the air when the giant hit you. Or did they anticipate player's determination to jump over mountains on foot.
One thing that would be great, that would have made Skyrim that much cooler, is if a few npcs set in a certain town or major city, ended up located in another city after an event and their reaction, like imagine some family and one of the characters are murdered by the higher ups of that city, so the family react, speak to you about it, have you do a quest, blah blah and after you leave, come back, they’re not there? Maybe the house they own is owned by someone new… blah blah, and then you go from there… let’s sayyyyy solitude? And you then go to whiterun or something and they’re not located there, you see them there for the first time and you’re like wtf? Why are they here, you talk to them, they just explain to you why they moved, how much they like it here, pros/cons, etc etc then go on with eachothers days, just adds that little bit extra
I just hate that every time I go to dawnstar I always get jumped by a frost dragon. I kill it and it keeps respawning. Like, yay free dragon souls, but it gets annoying after a while.
7:30 lol Todd's like don't talk about Daggerfall I wanted to destroy that way of making elder scrolls games. Which was for the better btw, hand-crafted world works much better than generated for these games
I was playing fallout new vegas. I went to the mines to eliminate the death claws, I ran up that big conveyor belt there thinking they wont get me here lol. Fired a couple of shots at the babies DCs. Then I heard I terrible growl I turned around and there was the big nasty Alpha. He climbed up the belt and proceeded to tear my ass apart but before he could deal the death blow i freaked out and fell to my death. I love game worlds man!.
yeah i had the same expierence in the quarry haha i do wanna mention that new vegas wasn't developed by tod howards teams it was actually obsidian i would reccomend you play outer worlds its also a great game!
Close your eyes and imagine that, instead of a virtual escape delivered via pixels on a monitor through a system - that instead, they're talking about designer drugs they've made or tried, and new ones that they can provide to addict, and people view it the same as watching TV.. The terminology is different, but the essence is not: Quality. Escapism. Morality. Nostalgia. Memories. A state if content, if only brief... I say this because it is Wednesday morning, and I have played Skyrim for the first time (since launch) most of this past month, so everything is brand new and feels endless... and I have now been awake for 4 days straight, wandering through the forests pf Tamriel and MIN/MAX theorycrafting to maximize dopamine reward; sifting through the desired ebbs and flows of what I perceive as fun, now, in this instant, but that will dramatically have shifted by this time next week, as if there was never a shift at all... and these 4 days hasn't even felt like 1. I'm a sober dude, now, but Skyrim feels WAY more like like a hard drug than a video game, just by listening to their words, alone. If I could somehow be completely ignorant to the existence of both of those, I'm not sure I could truly feel certain on which one is supposed to be the bad one, and which one is socially acceptable. ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz
Oblivion is his best game still… 20 years later and still being played, content still being made about it. Even though the graphics and leveling system aged badly, i think its still Bethesdas’s magnum opus
Oblivion had a better story than Skyrim imo I liked the levelling system more in Oblivion when they had Acrobats etc. Skyrim was a great game though graphics where great too.
@@gridone769 Morrowind > Oblivion > Skyrim. It's what any Elder Scrolls fan knows. I'll take a downgrade in graphics for higher complexity and gameplay any day.
For me its Skyrim, and there is so many thousends of people playing it every day. And the mods are unlimited too, I can understand liking a few mechanics more in Oblivion but that's about it, skyrims atmosphere, music and more just kills every other elder scrolls imo
@@Alexander_Grant swap oblivion with skyrim & i'd agree. Oblivion's just a weird middleground for me that the game's hilarity dont really even out. Everything rp wise it tried, morrowind does better, everything it changed to make more... action focused(?) i guess? Skyrim did better, mostly. Rip acrobatics ^^
@@Guzioo if youre considering mods youre automatically talking about a different game. Noone person is gonna have the same load order, not to mention you'd have to consider mods for all the other games too
Every now and then I get a little FOMO of never getting into a games in general but then I hear comments like “hundreds to thousands of hours” and I get nervous that I would not be able to stop if I started. 😅😅 Then I realize I’ll sit for hours listening/watching Lex and other podcasts wondering if I’m just doing the same thing but with more of a pretentious attitude 😂
3:30 I had about 200 hours in and I broke the game. I had a quest from jarl of whiterun and he sent me to talk to someone then wouldn't talk to me until I did. Then I had another main quest to talk to him and I had to go back about 15-30 hours to a random save of a little falmer I found in a ruin 🙃 I was upset but I didn't have to restart completely
The Bethesda formula: don't give them backstories, identities, or more than 5 repeating lines. If a supporting character is only defined in terms of how it relates to the player character, it's not even bad characterization, it's a lack of characterization. For most NPCs you will never get more information than absolutely required to do their quests. Disagree? Just ask yourself: who is Lydia. Tell me five things about her, without mentioning the dragonborn.
I feel like it wouldn't even be difficult to do!! With their budget?! No excuse lol. Still love the feeling Beth games give, I guess that's their selling point. If only they knew that good writing will save their franchises' longevity. Just look at what New Vegas did for Fallout
So true the one maid in falkreath always got my attention with her constant compliments like dang why I can’t I marry you since you’re flirting all the time😂
Full podcast episode: ruclips.net/video/H9AAnV59ddE/видео.html
Lex Fridman podcast channel: ruclips.net/user/lexfridman
Guest bio: Todd Howard is a legendary video game designer at Bethesda Game Studios. He led the development of the Elder Scrolls series and the Fallout series, and an upcoming game Starfield.
I have a mod that removes "I'm sworn to carry your burdens" that Todd thinks is so cool. Yeah, a mod was created to remove it.
Should've asked him why they haven't updated facial animations.
Really cool to see Todd do a casual sit down conversation type interview rather than getting the usual generic answers for a game journal. Podcast format really is the best way to talk to and level to somebody.
Yeah! I definitely prefer it
@@MuteObserver a branddd new giiitarrr
a good example of the "we know if an npc anywhere want to do something" are the khajiit caravans, if you ever get a quest where you need to talk to them and just watch your questmarker, it will move on their route like normal, they don't just teleport to every city, they walk the whole way every time even if you're far away
true open world
That and the Dark Brother hood quest where you have to kill the imperial. You find a schedule that tells you where he is depending on the day and you can actually intercept him on roads between towns.
Oblivion had that to the tenth degree, theres even a mechanic where goblins will travel and war with each other behind the scenes
@@chadwarden593 I didn't know that, that's pretty cool. Sad that they didn't improve on that idea for factions in Skyrim.
@@chadwarden593 that's next level cool
This is weirdly one of if not my favorite interview from Lex. It’s a very different interview from him having someone like Todd Howard, but I love Bethesda so much and that and Lexs amazing curiosity and inquisition makes this interview incredible
I like Todd he seems like a nice and chill person, very good podcast. Always loved oblivion and Skyrim, fallout 3.
He made Skyrim with the bugs we all grew and love and “never fixed them”. Could’ve but he loves his kids
@@TsukuyomiAmaterasu99 he never fixed because they're features
@@Cappuccino_Rabbit A lot of the bugs in Skyrim became so popular in the community that they never bothered to fix them. Like, some of the leveling exploits got fixed, but a lot of them never did, simply because people loved them so much.
Todd's a legit nice guy, but the legit second, he's at a desk; the company unintentionally declares war on the fanbase! Just kick him downstairs and let the janitor get his job!
@@TsukuyomiAmaterasu99 Elder Scrolls and Fallout games are still the beat RPGs ever made though
Yea its still crazy how Skyrim and Bethesda games can remember every item location and NPC even little things like the map being a fully 3d render of the world the fact that you can even see dragons on the map is alot of work that ppl take for granted
They took the hole game for granted….
they keep remaking skyrim for every console , no surprise they remember everything about it
That's why the games are so buggy.
skyrim fanboys are so delusional LOL
@@Cshepard ?
I feel like the reason Todd gives great, in depth answers here is because of Lex’s great, thoughtful questions and insights. Very well done. Appreciated
We didn’t really learn anything from this interview
@@casper191985 check all the other clips along with this one, def goes into great detail
@@fuzzy8593 great detail about what exactly? nothing important..
@@casper191985 well I learned quite a bit about their old games and the ones set to come out, npc integration, comparative map sizes, why some companions are favored over others, how a game is conceived and the processes they take up to publishing, and a lot more. Very interesting stuff, to me anyway, and to many others by the look of it. That’s too bad if you didn’t get anything from it, there was a lot of info there. Best to ya.
@@fuzzy8593 thanks for summarizing.. I was too lazy to watch it.. 👍👍
I know Skyrim is highly meme friendly. Oblivion NPC is a thing for a reason, but at the same time it's genuinely insane how much thought and effort went into the NPCs in ES5. Particularly the guards. The fact they reacted to specific weapon choices blew my mind first time playing. There's one, I can't remember which weapon it is, a Daedric one, where the guard whistles in a response to it. I remember thinking woah, some players will never hear that little bit of dialogue. If you always play as a mage and never use weapons, the chance you'll find the scenario that triggers that line is almost %0. That's impressive!
Yeah, Skyrim is overhated af
To prove your point: I have 700 hs in Skyrim and never heard the whistle because I don't use daedric weapons!
Also, only last year I played a mage for the first time and the second I cast a ward spell the guard goes: "WHOA WHOA WHOA! Easy on the magic."
I actually LOL'd.
I remeber I had Mehrunes Razor equipped and a guard said something like: "That blade... get it away from me" or something like that.
Erandur is the coolest companion in Skyrim has so many voice lines and feels more like a person than most of the companions in skyrim
fully agree. pity for the players that want all the daedric weapons lol
The questline make you decide that you want to spare or kill erandur so i think most of player going for the artefac and dont know that erandur have potential follower if you keep him alive
@@nataliaviva6150 so true, my first few playthroughs i offed him before i did a run not caring about the daedric stuff and wanting to make different choices. Glad i did relatively early on seeing how much playthroughs i have in skyrim😂
I must say as someone who conceptually thinks Daggerfall is the best rpg of all time got more then a little excited when he mentioned Starfield being more inspired by it 🤗
Probably in terms of procedural generation...but maybe they made the procedural elements work with more systems than before. I would hope it free's them up to go harder on the hand crafted artistry.
Dude for its time Daggerfall was legendary. I’ll NEVER forget opening that map and just going “holy shit, I’ll never see all of this”.
Although the thing I remember most about Daggerfall these days is the 49,152 times that guards will say “HALT!” When they are chasing you for a crime. 😄
This interview was really high quality, 16x the details!
😝
I heard his next interview is going to be procedurally generated
This Todd guy seems really chill. He should start a gaming company
One of my favorite moments in morrowwind was stumbling upon the mage that falls out of the sky... I just heard him screaming... then I found his body and found these powerful scrolls that shoot you across the landscape...
There is a nod to that scene in the Dragonborn DLC as a random encounter. No scrolls though. but the Paraglider mod for PC also pays homage to that scene, and with the spell you get you can fly. I also downloaded a mod that puts a cooldown on the spell as it was very OP.
@Rob R you know I played so much skyrim when it came out, that I never did make through the dragonborn dlc. It's about time I revisted... but my backlog is ridiculous. I'll get to it one of these days lol
Skyrim "I've got a bad feeling about this", your companion telling you your walking into a fight that's bigger than you are; that's your follower relating to you in a meaningful way. I've always liked looking at a place from afar and seeing them all going about their life regardless of if I'm there or not. The world is Alive, and I'm part of it.
IF THIS MAN TRIES TO SELL ME ANOTHER SKYRIM....IM GONNA BUY IT LMAO
Ikr? I'm such a simp
Todd with his Speech 100
Ps 3, ps 4, ps 5, xbox 360, xbox one, xbox x, microsoft store, nintendo switch. Legendary edition, vr, special edition, aniversary edition. You have a big arsenal to choose from.
I want a proper remaster with a new engine, I'd pay a months worth of earnings and sell a kidney to get that
@@deivisnxwhat about alexa?
I feel a lot of the personal connection aspect of these characters depends on the depth and nuance added during their inception. For example, even among the GTA V characters, even though everyone has a backstory and a different life, you see people appreciate Trevor more because behind his chaotic personality lies a person who is loyal to his friends and is really there for them in the time of need.
tervor legit wants to kill his own friends ? what the fk are u talking about LOL
Trevor never tried to kill Franklin, he also treats Michael’s kids like family, the moment he landed in Los Santos, his first instinct was to help Michael protect his daughter. I don’t know what you’re talking about but that sounds like a friend to me. Remove all the anger, the betrayal he faces times and again, and all that is left is character who reciprocates loyalty.
I miss the NPC to NPC random conversation of Oblivion, is so damn funny and broken
Hello how are you?
-stop talking!!!!
😂
@@basementdweller235
- Good day, how are you?
- Hello, not fine. How Are you?
- Fine, how are you?
- Fine.
- Bye
- Bye
@@undeadcommunist
Hello
-hello, have you heard of the “Grey Fox”?
No. I wanted to ask, have you heard of the “Grey Fox”?
-No. Good day
one of the reasons why it's one of my favorite games...I wouldn't have it any other way 😅
This is so interesting and such an immersive design that Bethesda follows; regarding the world being a continuous loop instead of focusing on one mission at a time. I like to remember those quests where you have to meet an NPC on the other side of the map and you can see their waypoint update. I can only imagine now that in Starfield how cool it will be to see an NPC lightyears away flying in space to come meet you and you're just awaiting their arrival in real time
Todd Howard is such a wonderful speaker . He’s very precise and careful not to mislead anyone. I truly enjoy every games he’s been apart of
“It just works”
“16 times the detail”
Of course. He’s never been misleading.
“Having the factions do something and what their presence is in this world aside from ‘show up, do quests, get gold.”
is a wild thing to say from the guy responsible for Preston Garvey.
For the minute men, the other faction thing would prob the settlement system i think, although that is also tied into the quests for the minutemen
Well, maybe they decided to try it out for Fallout 4 and then realized people didn't enjoy it so they learned from it
Emil pagliarulo was the lead on f4, todd had less of a role in it vs morrowind-skyrim
@@Dinckle >they learned from it
>76 is basically the same game
🗿
@@mfspectacular Well 76 is basically what New Vegas is to 3, a game that pretty much looks and functions the same. But just set in a different place
They gotta get their shit together and blend Skyrim type NPCs with morrowind writing
No fucking for real.
And which game's combat mechanics? I haven't played earlier TES games, but I'm pretty sure Skyrim's combat is lame.
Honestly, Steve Carell should play him if they ever make a movie about this guy
He’d nail the voice
@@johnrodgers5471 they sound nearly the same
Haha yeah he's Carell with a jewfro 😂
That’s a great joke
Todd describing the Bethesda games as amusement parks is totally a perfect analogy for their games
So crazy because when I thought of the good NPCs in Skyrim, the guards right in the entrance of Whiterun were the first I thought of.
Thr guard with an impossible to pass "speech check?" Lol
Are we forgetting Cicero and Sheo? they've transcended skyrim and elderscrolls.
This lex guy had his books knocked out from under his arm like all the American movies as a kid 100% such a goon
what’s the matter, someone stole your sweet roll?
Nyarl...
I think the best mod that made the world seem like it moved even without you, was the holidays mod. You’d get courier notices when holiday events were happening and if you were there you got to see. Was really cool
Agreed I wish there were a little bit more to it but it is an amazing mod nonetheless
I enjoyed how the Theives Guild NPCs would speak with such darkness, solitude and desolation. They made you feel bad, and lured you right in. Excellent lines and story. Alvor (sorry if I spelled it wrong) the first Blacksmith in Winterfell you speak with, has such welcoming lines and makes you feel right at home. Especially with the horns playing the skyrim theme, ever so subtlety in the background. The DLCs were captivating also, and the first time I got dragon armor. I grinded for like 36 hrs to Smith and make enough daggers just to get high enough skill stats.
Yeah, but even with all the dragon armor in the world I could still punch you up into the air like a kite. One punch, boom, now you're a kite.
11:18 the way todd describes this is hilarious
One of my favorite moments in gaming was playing an evil characterl in Fallout 3. My karma was so low, when I rolled into Paradise Falls where all the slavers were, the first NPC I walked past stopped dead in his tracks and said "Holy shit, it's you!" Made me feel like a total bad ass.
Say what you want about him, but Todd Howard has the best programmed dialogue of any NPC
Need something?
lydias line to me sounds purely innocent and romantic, shows how she views her duty but also the admiration to you(the character)
i think todd howard nailed it, because you can know if you are sick, due to how npcs react to you. i can't count how many times i found out i was infected with sanguine vampireism because of it.
3:00 I remember once my older brother was playing Oblivion and he had saved up the 25k to buy a house in Skingrad. When he arrives at the castle, the steward is nowhere to be found. After some looking around, turns out he slipped off the narrow bridge between the town and the castle and died. Just had an accident one day on his walk to work. It was annoying at the time, but it made the world feel more alive knowing any NPC could die from a simple human mistake.
From what Todd said I think the Fighters Guild is returning in ES6
I wonder if Todd knows about the Inigo mod or the Serana extra Dialogue mod.
Thems were some good NPC companiona
He actually referred to inigo in this podcast.
@@IwinMahWay oh did he? Sheeit i gotta listen to the whole thing
Fighter guild confirm for elder scrolls 6
Would love for you to possibly get someone from Rockstar. I’d love to hear input on the development of their AI as it is incredibly well crafted.
Bro come on Rockstar is way to cloak and dagger for that.
The Night Crawlers of video games.
@@joshuasmith1157 so true lol idek the face or ceo of rockstar 😂
Lex has a great format for interviews and IS a great interviewer. Maybe the best I've ever seen. Genuine interest and thoughtful questions--no sensationalism or baiting guests into uncomfortable situations. Always classy and respectful.
To me he seems highly confused as an interviewer asking redundant questions that Todd has already answered multiple times previously. Not sure what people see in Lex. He lacks all charisma and personality, and he doesn’t even make up for it by being knowledgeable or well researched.
@@larsr6466 I guess the bar is set really low for interviews then because to me, I think he's pretty good, especially when it's the topic is software/technology being a software dev himself. I agree with you on lacking charisma and personality--he sounds stiff and sticks to the script a lot of times. But he gives guests room to express themselves. He's not always throwing gotcha questions to try and trap someone, but he does disagree and push back quite a bit. Look at the Kanye West interview--he gave him as much room as possible without completely lying down. That part where Kanye reframes the definition of Jew in order to call himself one in an attempt to get away with antisemitism. I would have stopped him right here, but with Lex, were able to see the thought process, bizarre and self-deluded as it is.
I Sacrificed Lydia at Boethiah's request.
I really enjoy the threatening dialogue of a bandit trying to rob me only for me to interrupt their useless banter with 1 swing of my 4 million damage iron dagger and for that Todd we thank you
I think the idea is cool, every npc in the game is trying to level up through whatever their role or job in the world is. The lumberjack wants to cut trees to level up and get money to buy gear etc. Over time that npc is tougher and better equipped . But the bear in the forest might have randomly run into enough things to become strong enough to kill the lumberjack. Assassins need money too so they might take out other NPCs, Guards and soldiers who survived a long time become powerful veterans with top of the line gear. That damn troll you keep running from is somehow killing every one and escaping before the guards arrive and late game he is a battle scarred mini boss tier enemy.
The more hours you put into the game the difficulty is scaling and evolving natural but also dynamically and unique in each playthrough. Make NPCs require food water etc and actually make them go do their jobs to buy it from the peoples who job is to sell it, which got it from the farmers who live outside town who hopefully don't get murdered by a giant alligator man. Hopefully we can actually have simulated game worlds and economies like this in my life time.
You’re essentially describing Kenshi. Every NPC has access to the same attributes, so if they’re running around using a katana then they’ll get stronger with that weapon and their dexterity will go up. If they use a crossbow then their crossbow skill and perception will go up. As long as NPCs aren’t killed and they keep fighting or engaging in whatever craft they do they’ll continue to get stronger. This has the effect that NPCs like gate guards who are engaged in combat pretty frequently will eventually become verrry strong after a decent chunk of in-game time.
@@ding0577 oh no way. I'm gonna have to check it out thanks for the heads up.
@@TexasGreed no problem always happy to recommend kenshi, it’s easily one of my favorite games. Even the stuff you mentioned about NPCs needing food and how it affects the game world is all there, hungry bandits roaming around attacking groups/farms to steal their food, major factions being powerful because of their access to fertile land.
@@TexasGreed Yeah bro, can confirm that Kenshi is a great game. I have barely even done anything in it, but have still clocked 80 hours lol. It's a little bit tough. . . but hey, whatever mannnn
@@twiss9341 I too can confirm I've been playing the shit out of it since old boy recommended it to me. I have around 14 hours in it already but I restarted cause I was getting destroyed lol. It's a tough game but it's very fun. I hope it gets a sequel.
Todd still has a vibe I invested all creativity points in Skyrim and no there will never be Elder Scrolls 6.
Man I would love to have a talk with Todd he seems so down to earth
look at 8:50 you can see the disappointment in his mannerism... he knew what they produced was not his full vision of the game...
When the ES 6 comes out...man its gonna be wild
You can tell that Lex' playing the game really helped him with the quality of his questions here
No body likes Lydia. She's the most sacrificed npc. Thank Boethia for doing what we couldn't.
i like how lex said the npcs have a hilarious dialog like that was suppose to be how it would come across and how todd just goes along with it like elder scrolls isn't a complete chaotic yet awesome mess is truly amazing
ok, cool 👍👍
Nice 👍👍👍
Very cool 👍👍
Dope 👌👏
I would love if you get to choose if you wish to become the head of a faction or not. For instance ,I as a swordsman/soldier , upon finishing the mages guild quest line , can choose to allow Gandalf to be the faction leader instead of my sword wielding self become the ''Head wizard'' of the Mages guild.
"Only use 5 voice actors for hundreds of NPCs"
Damn it Lydia!
This has been one of my favorite interviews on your channel
Is he 60 or 30? You decide.
50
Lydia says "I'm sworn to carry your burdens" in a way that says "f*ck off"
9:06 Lex slipped up. "Depressing i mean awesome." 😳
Ask him why Bethesda used the same engine for 92826281 years haha
Imagine Skyrim with a modern engine
Characters are too much like robots with no feelings, no memory and endlessly repeating dialogue. And this processing of distant characters only deals with their location, it doesn't deal at all with two enemies being in the same location. Entire armies can just walk past each other without incident, or occupy the same location for days. It really does feel like nobody else is real and things only ever happen around the player.
Should've asked who's idea was to launch the player into the air when the giant hit you.
Or did they anticipate player's determination to jump over mountains on foot.
One thing that would be great, that would have made Skyrim that much cooler, is if a few npcs set in a certain town or major city, ended up located in another city after an event and their reaction, like imagine some family and one of the characters are murdered by the higher ups of that city, so the family react, speak to you about it, have you do a quest, blah blah and after you leave, come back, they’re not there? Maybe the house they own is owned by someone new… blah blah, and then you go from there… let’s sayyyyy solitude? And you then go to whiterun or something and they’re not located there, you see them there for the first time and you’re like wtf? Why are they here, you talk to them, they just explain to you why they moved, how much they like it here, pros/cons, etc etc then go on with eachothers days, just adds that little bit extra
I really like Skyrim's npc's . They grew on me over the years. They make me smile.
Ya know… I’ve given Todd a lot of grief in comments section for the likes, but I gotta say, he’s a pretty chill dude
I just hate that every time I go to dawnstar I always get jumped by a frost dragon. I kill it and it keeps respawning. Like, yay free dragon souls, but it gets annoying after a while.
But has Todd exploited the fortify restoration loop?
there is a word for that feeling that Lex described: Sonder
Keep killin it Lex. You're a beast
7:30 lol Todd's like don't talk about Daggerfall I wanted to destroy that way of making elder scrolls games. Which was for the better btw, hand-crafted world works much better than generated for these games
Please have Indigo as a standard NPC in ES VI.
They key to Bethesda npcs is to mod the absolute shit out of them lol.
Can't mod something that didn't exist in the first place.
Very interesting to hear about, excited for starfield. I wonder when a game will match skyrim! What an achievement
The collab I didn’t know I needed 😂
That was a perfect description. Bethesda’s games are like an amusement park.
Asking Todd Howard about writing character dialogue is like asking a fish how to walk.
Thank god somebody said it. My mind was breaking reading this many people pretend to like Todd Howard.
Surprised he talked about mages/fighters guilds…maybe he’s more hands-on with ESO than I’d imagined 🤔
Oblivion my favorite game ever
this
Been thinking about starting it up again this winter and check out some of the new(ish) mods.
I was playing fallout new vegas. I went to the mines to eliminate the death claws, I ran up that big conveyor belt there thinking they wont get me here lol. Fired a couple of shots at the babies DCs. Then I heard I terrible growl I turned around and there was the big nasty Alpha. He climbed up the belt and proceeded to tear my ass apart but before he could deal the death blow i freaked out and fell to my death. I love game worlds man!.
yeah i had the same expierence in the quarry haha i do wanna mention that new vegas wasn't developed by tod howards teams it was actually obsidian i would reccomend you play outer worlds its also a great game!
Mmmmmmmm...pretty sure Lydia is the most hated NPC in Skyrim.
Does Todd not realize that everyone just yeets Lydia off of High Hrothgar?
Close your eyes and imagine that, instead of a virtual escape delivered via pixels on a monitor through a system - that instead, they're talking about designer drugs they've made or tried, and new ones that they can provide to addict, and people view it the same as watching TV.. The terminology is different, but the essence is not: Quality. Escapism. Morality. Nostalgia. Memories. A state if content, if only brief... I say this because it is Wednesday morning, and I have played Skyrim for the first time (since launch) most of this past month, so everything is brand new and feels endless... and I have now been awake for 4 days straight, wandering through the forests pf Tamriel and MIN/MAX theorycrafting to maximize dopamine reward; sifting through the desired ebbs and flows of what I perceive as fun, now, in this instant, but that will dramatically have shifted by this time next week, as if there was never a shift at all... and these 4 days hasn't even felt like 1. I'm a sober dude, now, but Skyrim feels WAY more like like a hard drug than a video game, just by listening to their words, alone. If I could somehow be completely ignorant to the existence of both of those, I'm not sure I could truly feel certain on which one is supposed to be the bad one, and which one is socially acceptable. ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz
Lydia is not allowed to be around when I’m a stealth archer. She’s not sneaky
Love this interview!
Very fascinating interview.
I love Tom Howard
The best NPC's were in FO3
New Vegas*
@@Freddy-wv3wd
Fallout 4*
76* *Oh wait*
Oblivion is his best game still… 20 years later and still being played, content still being made about it. Even though the graphics and leveling system aged badly, i think its still Bethesdas’s magnum opus
Oblivion had a better story than Skyrim imo I liked the levelling system more in Oblivion when they had Acrobats etc. Skyrim was a great game though graphics where great too.
@@gridone769 Morrowind > Oblivion > Skyrim. It's what any Elder Scrolls fan knows. I'll take a downgrade in graphics for higher complexity and gameplay any day.
For me its Skyrim, and there is so many thousends of people playing it every day. And the mods are unlimited too, I can understand liking a few mechanics more in Oblivion but that's about it, skyrims atmosphere, music and more just kills every other elder scrolls imo
@@Alexander_Grant swap oblivion with skyrim & i'd agree. Oblivion's just a weird middleground for me that the game's hilarity dont really even out. Everything rp wise it tried, morrowind does better, everything it changed to make more... action focused(?) i guess? Skyrim did better, mostly. Rip acrobatics ^^
@@Guzioo if youre considering mods youre automatically talking about a different game. Noone person is gonna have the same load order, not to mention you'd have to consider mods for all the other games too
I told my 7 year old that he can get elder scrolls 6 for his 21st birthday if its out by then
I never got to fully play Skyrim in my belief, so much more to it. Expert difficulty is way more fun too
do you get to the cloud district very often?
Every now and then I get a little FOMO of never getting into a games in general but then I hear comments like “hundreds to thousands of hours” and I get nervous that I would not be able to stop if I started. 😅😅 Then I realize I’ll sit for hours listening/watching Lex and other podcasts wondering if I’m just doing the same thing but with more of a pretentious attitude 😂
Play Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Lydia is popular because she is the first housecarl that people usually get.
3:30 I had about 200 hours in and I broke the game. I had a quest from jarl of whiterun and he sent me to talk to someone then wouldn't talk to me until I did. Then I had another main quest to talk to him and I had to go back about 15-30 hours to a random save of a little falmer I found in a ruin 🙃 I was upset but I didn't have to restart completely
"How do you make good npc dialogue?"
Don't involve Todd Howard
The Bethesda formula: don't give them backstories, identities, or more than 5 repeating lines.
If a supporting character is only defined in terms of how it relates to the player character, it's not even bad characterization, it's a lack of characterization. For most NPCs you will never get more information than absolutely required to do their quests.
Disagree? Just ask yourself: who is Lydia. Tell me five things about her, without mentioning the dragonborn.
I feel like it wouldn't even be difficult to do!! With their budget?! No excuse lol. Still love the feeling Beth games give, I guess that's their selling point. If only they knew that good writing will save their franchises' longevity. Just look at what New Vegas did for Fallout
That’s what the Witcher 3 got right
The secret to NPCs in Skyrim is MODS
Ai would be the next step in NPC's.
Rarest one is the ghost
So true the one maid in falkreath always got my attention with her constant compliments like dang why I can’t I marry you since you’re flirting all the time😂
Somebody had to of stolen his sweetroll
Do you visit the cloud district very often 😂😂😂