Random News II

[mfnick]

1 hour ago, Sly Reflex said:

think the main culprit is how the game handles xp and leveling up and how the world levels up with you. It's completely counter intuitive to a point. Some people love it, but personally I think it's a crock o shite.

THIS! Any game that does this is immediately on m shit list. What’s point in levelling up if this happens? 

[shinymcshine]

I know what you mean, from a game perspective, but surely everything else learning and evolving over time too is actually a more organic real world approach (in a broad sense).

[one-armed dwarf]

I think Cyberpunk does it well, but Oblivion doesn't. The thing with level scaling is if you very quickly outlevel content then it robs satisfaction in the same way that aggressive level-scaling does. There's an art to it, I think, in that you want to hide it and still give a feeling of gaining more power and ability. Which Cyberpunk does well enough, up to level 45 where the power creep just goes out of control unfortunately but that's not a level scaling problem as such

 

Oblivion is designed in this way though cause they want every town to be equally available as a spot to begin an adventure. Morrowind is the opposite, where the territories occupied by the empire are 'safer' and the more inland is more treacherous cause you don't know the world yet. But that's a game with tons of friction, and Oblivion is meant to be accessible. It's more about smaller stories than a larger history so there's no need for the quests to feel connected in any big way. Both are not bad ways of doing things, Oblivion just does it poorly

[Sly Reflex]

It's just a shit idea overall because walking anywhere is a ballache because you're having to face off against really hard foes all the time, exacerbated by the fact that Oblivion gates are all over the place on top of normal mobs.

 

So in an open world game you either grind against the mobs and level up more making them even spongier, or you fast travel to negate that.

 

Tell me, in a world where you're meant to explore every nook and cranny and find all the cool shit on your travels, punishing the player by making them face rock hard mobs, how is the way TESIV deals with it a good way of going about it?

 

I'm not saying that everything should be a cake walk, but the flow of the game is severely altered by it. The hardest things in the game should be bosses, followed by end of dungeon mobs. Some random robber wearing full glass armour and being as hard as Mehrunes Dagon just pisses on the fact that he's (Mehrunes) not as powerful as people suggest he is, and that random imps are on the same power level as him.

 

Logically it makes no sense. Thematically it makes no sense. You are supposedly the man, you shouldn't be having issues with scrubs. That was something that was at least improved with Skyrim, in that they mixed low level stuff in with you as you journeyed about. They could have gone further, like as soon as they got close and noticed who you were they could have gone "You know what, I am not going to bother with this" or run away or ask about your adventures or whatever. Except it never is in Oblivion, it's always some motherfucker in endgame gear being a pain in the arse.

 

Oblivion is the only TES game I've not played outside my original play through.

 

Not that I think Daggerfall, Morrowind or Skyrim are perfect by any means, they all have their own idiosyncrasies you have to cope with, but the ones found in Oblivion really are the drizzling shits.

[one-armed dwarf]

Daggerfall I tried to get into but it felt more like an role-playing framework than a role playing game. It's worth installing just to see that incredible character creator, and to try and GTFO of one of its insane dungeons, but the world felt like it was paper mache or something with how proc-gen it was

[shinymcshine]

CEX now selling & delivering games via JustEat.

 

Not idea how widespread this is (whether limited to certain stores etc).

 

https://metro.co.uk/2025/03/14/ordering-video-games-cex-just-eat-now-a-thing-can-22730010/

[Maf]

It’s so weird that these delivery services do that. My Deliveroo advertises Screwfix. Who goes on the website looking for a burger and goes ‘actually I need a 600w drill and some rawl plugs as well’

[mfnick]

2 hours ago, Maf said:

Deliveroo advertises Screwfix.

I don’t know about CEX but I can answer this one. 

 

We use Screwfix quite a lot in trade. I’m quite often working in city centres and losing parking space to nip out and get materials can cause huge headaches.
 

It can also easily take 15-30 minutes unloading all tools and shit off the van at some places too & if there’s nowhere to store them securely you’re talking another ~hour just to pack everything away and they unload again just to go and pick something up. It’s a massive help and time saver on jobs which we’re already up against it on. Get it delivered and you can carry on working. 

Screwfix will use Deliveroo for shorter journeys or when their van is already out so may as well advertise direct. 

 

Electronics though, no idea. Then again people buy games digitally for £20 extra for convenience sake and buy KFC delivery at huge mark up to stay lazy so there’s obviously a market for this stuff. 

[Maf]

Yeah, I presumed there was a good reason for it and when you lay it out like that it makes sense. It’s just a weird visual of burger, pizza, burger, screws. In my area it’s literally the only shop on there which isn’t food 

[shinymcshine]

I can understand the logic for Screwfix, but aren't most of their stores in out of town industrial estates, so unlikely to attract many Deliveroo riders - but probably works okay in big cities where the boundaries between industrial / residential and development areas are more blurred.

[mfnick]

They’re all over the place. Honestly until you need them you don’t realise just how common thy are even in smaller towns and villages.
 

A surprising amount are in or just on the outskirts of city centres too. 
 

My local Sheffield for example. I know this is technically a big city but it’s genuinely like this even in small towns.

 

It’s way too far to walk but on a bike, no problem. Just did a couple of places I work at out of interest and showed 25 minutes walking but only 5 minutes on a bike. 

[Sly Reflex]

We have 3 Screwfix's in Leeds just right on the outskirts. In fact that part on my side has so much handy stuff in it all within a car ride. It must be heaven for tradesmen. Stourton is the most local one for me, but they also have a similar set up in Holbeck and Sheepscar. Same down Ings road in Wakey.

 

I can imagine them hitting up the maccies on a dinner time rush and swinging in to pick hardware up, especially if it's on the way.

 

I think as well you forget, if the tradesmen order it will probably deliver right to site if they are there or not, so having all the bits they ordered be present when they turn up will probably save them a ton of time, because they're not having to fuck about hitting the place up themselves and then drive back and forth to site.