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Oblivion Patch Causing Issues
The much anticipated patch for Oblivion is here, but it has come at a cost. 1up reports on complaints from users about lockups, lagging, and some curious technical problems. From the article: "Even though the patch cleans up a number of glitches quests, many are still upset because it doesn't solve their existing issues. If you've already run into and experienced a glitch quest, there's a good chance the patch will do nothing to fix it; the patch can't fix contaminated saves. Consequently, Bethesda employees have been recommending fans start new characters if they want to experience these quests."
I have experienced a glitch quest and it actually caused me to stop playing the game, since I had spent an hour on it, then realized the quest was broken because I had done somehting out of order (accidentally) and now I can no longer complete the quest. It distressed me to the point that the game just sort of stopped being fun . . . the same way that it can happen if you play for an hour wihtout saving on TESIII Morrowind and then die, only to have to REDO your hour of play . . . which then becomes more like work than play. It is unfortunate that this patch cannot fix these types of glitches.
Has anyone else tried to help the Fisherman in Weye by killing enough slaughterfish for him, but accidentally already killed one of the slaughterfish in the lake in the quest area before you took on the quest? That is what happened to me and now when I get to the slaughterfish I already killed in the quest order, a dead fish is there (because I killed it), but I can't move on to the next slaughterfish location! Anyone know how to fix this?
Yes, this makes complete and total sense. Spyware makers definitely want to know what quests you're completing in order to direct their marketing to you, and make their software search ut Oblivion save games and files in order to gain the best information about your buying habits. The direct-to-mage advertising market is one of the biggest around, ya know.
Did I forget the sarcasm tags again?
Be thankful that you've had no problems with the game. Unfortunately, a lot of people do have problems with it, and the patch meant to fix it. Don't dismiss problems simply because you're not experiencing them.
This is, unfortunately, the exact reason why I haven't gotten into Oblivion yet. I loved Morrowind, but only got it after they released the extremely-patched super edition with the two expansions built in. That's the version of the game I'm waiting for before I step foot into Oblivion, and this patch-snafu is exactly why. I could see it coming a mile away, and that's sad.
Think about what you're advocating. You want people to pay a company $50 for a game, and then when it fails to work properly, fix it themselves, and be grateful for the opportunity to fix someone else's screw ups?
Sorry. I've been fixing other people's screw ups for a long time, and I'm sick of it. It's not fun. It never will be fun. And I would not be happy to discover I paid $50 for the privilege of doing so.
Think of how difficult it would be to play test a game like Oblivion versus a typical FPS.
It can be avoided.
I'm serious.
The problem is that game companies are some of the most behind in state-of-the-art testing. I'm not talking about QA process, either. I'm talking about Model Checking. It's the kind of thing military contractors do with their code to make sure missiles never accidentally blow up in the wrong spot.
(It was the topic of an article on Slashdot a few weeks ago - which, I'm sorry to report, nobody here actually understood, thinking it was about automatic code generation. Talk about not RTFAing.)
Here's how it works: you model your quests and quest variables as finite state automata. (Remember discrete math?) You use a very expressive language for this, which makes it easy to read. A character, say, killing a certain fish would change a boolean quest variable. Then you define properties that your FSM should have, so that if a quest becomes unsolvable, one or more properties fails. Throw it at a model checking system and in a few minutes, it tells you whether a quest can be made unsolvable and how to get into that state.
It's extremely simple with quests, most of which are totally independent, leading to a relatively small global quest FSM.
Someone competent in Model Checking could add a new quest to the system and check it in less than two hours.
I got my Linux laptop at System76.
I'm afraid that my save has been screwed over. After triggering a quest, the "monsters nearby" bit was apparently set, so I can no longer sleep, wait, or fast travel. I figured it was because I was in the general area of the quest, so I went to the nearest town. Whoops, looks like there's some monsters in the inn, so no sleepy time for you, Mr. On-the-verge-of-leveling. Hopefully I can find a workaround.