The release of Oblivion Remastered has brought the fourth game in The Elder Scrolls series back into focus. This has led to the same old talks about its features and mechanics just like the discussions we had on forums nineteen years ago.
Most players will come across this system in the side quest Goblin Trouble. Every goblin tribe (except Bitterfish) has a totem staff. If a tribe loses its totem they will try to get it back which can lead to conflicts with other tribes or characters. There is still debate about whether this system works as planned without mods with wikis showing different info about Goblin Wars.
Exploring Oblivion's Rarest Game System
Kurt Kuhlmann the designer of Goblin Wars recently talked to Eurogamer about the mysterious system. He worked at Bethesda from 1996 to 2023 and his last role was as a lead systems designer on Starfield.
Kuhlmann said he decided to use the system because he had already done a lot of the scripting work for Goblin Trouble. Since I had to set up a system for goblins to attack each other in different dungeons. I thought it wouldn't be much more work to make it work for any goblin tribe if the player stole their totem he explained. I'm not sure if it was really not much more work but it made the game more fun. It also gave players a glimpse into goblin culture and how their tribe worked.
Goblin tribes in Oblivion are interesting. If you kill their warchief the goblins will pick a new one. But if you kill their shaman the whole tribe becomes peaceful. Losing their shaman makes them too sad to raid or loot.
Kuhlmann said One big problem was getting the goblins in the dungeon to come out. I don't remember how I fixed it. but I must have It probably involved some tricky design. I also used some powerful AI tools like Find to make the goblins go to the totem no matter where it was.
Kuhlmann says that Goblin Wars pushed the limits of the game system which is why it does not always work as expected. One issue is that the wait mechanic does not move time properly for the goblin's actions so you have to wait for the goblin tribe to arrive without speeding up time.
Kuhlmann said There wasn't much like that in Oblivion. You could change the world and see it respond in a clear way. I would have liked to do more of that but we did not have enough time. Also the tools for doing it in Oblivion were very basic.
As players progress in Oblivion Remastered new scientists will probably start experimenting with Goblin Wars.
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