Oblivions goblinkrige pressede spillets systemer til det yderste

Hvis du spiller Oblivion for første gang takket være Virtuos' The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, så har du en godbid i vente, når det kommer til spillets quests. Især én quest er dog blevet legendarisk for sin kaotiske brug af spillets mekanikker.

Den pågældende mission hedder Goblin Trouble, og den får dig til at løse striden mellem to goblin-stammer. Ved at skabe denne mission introducerede designeren Kurt Kuhlmann også et system, der betød, at hvis en goblin-stammes hellige totem blev stjålet, ville helvede bryde løs, hvilket gjorde det muligt for gobliner at blive ført i krig mod andre stammer og i teorien alle NPC'er.

I en samtale med Eurogamer forklarede Kuhlmann, hvordan systemet fungerede.

"Since I was having to set up a scripted system to get the goblins from one dungeon to periodically attack goblins in another, I figured it wouldn't be a lot more work to make this systemic, so that it would work with any goblin tribe if the player stole their totem. I'm not sure if the part about 'not a lot more work' was actually true, but it certainly allowed for fun emergent gameplay. I also liked that it gave you a little bit of insight into the goblin culture and how their tribe was organised."

Tilsyneladende lagde dette en del pres på spillets systemer:

"I don't remember the specifics, but the goblin war was stretching the limits of our game systems, especially the AI and scripting," said Kuhlmann. "My guess is that because of the scripted nature of the goblin wars system, when you use Wait the scripts aren't getting updated properly."

Kuhlmann er stadig glad for systemer, der tillader ting at ske naturligt og kaos at overtage spillet, selvom Bethesda har tøjlet nogle af disse systemer lidt over tid på grund af de fejl, de kan forårsage.