Things that Arena did better then Daggerfall

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Werewolf
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Things that Arena did better then Daggerfall

Post by Werewolf »

Daggerfall is no doubt better then Arena but hopefully when OpenTESArena releases people will be able to more clearly see the things that Arena did better. Daggerfall is amazing but Arena actually feels complete. Daggerfall feels incomplete while Arena feels like a finished game.

Some things I feel Arena did better then Daggerfall:

-MUCH better countryside. When you’d leave a town in Arena it actually felt like you were leaving the town as you’d encounter some farmland and such outside. It wasn’t realistic but it was more realistic then how in Daggerfall walled cities are surrounded by nothing but wilderness with not even roads/paths leading to them. The way how Daggerfall’s cities are completely surrounded by pure wilderness with no other human structures is unrealistic. Heck, Arena had roads/paths leading out from towns, a feature that became a popular mod for Daggerfall.

How should Daggerfall’s countryside be fixed? Like Arena there should be paths and small villages outside of cities as well as the occasional human enemy which Arena btw had in the countryside. As you walk away from the town it becomes more desolate until it’s wilderness with just a path and random events and animal enemies. I just remembered that Arena had regular wolves as enemies. Someone could maybe import the wolf sprites from Arena and make it where in the countryside in Daggerfall you can encounter packs of wolves.

I’ll go as far as Arena’s countryside was in many ways the super early version of modern open worlds where you always encounter something. The countryside in Arena is never boring because you’ll always encounter something. Contrast that with Daggerfall’s countryside where there aren’t even animal enemies unless you rest. Obviously with a realistic scale you shouldn’t encounter a dungeon after a minute of walking but random events, enemies such as wild animals lurking about, etc. can make Daggerfall’s countryside better. Daggerfall clearly was meant to have a better countryside but yeah the game was rushed.

-Better dungeons: Arena’s dungeons are way better. Daggerfall’s dungeons all look the same generally whereas Arena had multiple texture sets for it’s dungeons. This made different dungeons feel distinctly different. Daggerfall’s dungeon textures are so bland that you don’t even feel like you’re in a dungeon at all. In Arena you’d actually feel like you’re in a castle or a dungeon or a cave. Also Arena’s dungeons felt far more coherent then Daggerfall’s which often made little sense.

-Text messages: In Arena traveling to a town and receiving a message of something that recently occurred in the town made the world more immersive

-Better art style: I prefer Arena’s art style to Daggerfall’s. I liked the colors better and it just felt more like an epic fantasy adventure with the color choices.

-Arena felt complete. Arena felt like a complete game. Daggerfall feels unfinished with things like language skills being underdeveloped and the samey dungeons. Vanilla Daggerfall is amazing but often feels like a template for what mods can make a more polished and finished experience. Arena however feels complete.

Of course Daggerfall is certainly better but Arena had it’s share of positives too. What do you think Arena did better?

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Oblivionaddicted
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Re: Things that Arena did better then Daggerfall

Post by Oblivionaddicted »

Nice observations.

The world map of Arena is much better, having icons instead of colors to distinguish the cities from the dungeons for example is way more intuitive.

11th_defender
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Re: Things that Arena did better then Daggerfall

Post by 11th_defender »

The wolves thing is actually being worked on by kamer. He's adding a bunch of enemies to daggerfall.

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Werewolf
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Re: Things that Arena did better then Daggerfall

Post by Werewolf »

11th_defender wrote: Tue Jun 21, 2022 11:10 pm The wolves thing is actually being worked on by kamer. He's adding a bunch of enemies to daggerfall.

About time Daggerfall gets more enemies! Is there a preview available for the new enemies? :D

11th_defender
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Re: Things that Arena did better then Daggerfall

Post by 11th_defender »

Werewolf wrote: Wed Jun 22, 2022 12:19 am
11th_defender wrote: Tue Jun 21, 2022 11:10 pm The wolves thing is actually being worked on by kamer. He's adding a bunch of enemies to daggerfall.

About time Daggerfall gets more enemies! Is there a preview available for the new enemies? :D
I don't think so.

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Werewolf
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Re: Things that Arena did better then Daggerfall

Post by Werewolf »

11th_defender wrote: Wed Jun 22, 2022 12:50 am
Werewolf wrote: Wed Jun 22, 2022 12:19 am
11th_defender wrote: Tue Jun 21, 2022 11:10 pm The wolves thing is actually being worked on by kamer. He's adding a bunch of enemies to daggerfall.

About time Daggerfall gets more enemies! Is there a preview available for the new enemies? :D
I don't think so.
Got a link where he discusses the enemy mod? Sounds great

11th_defender
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Re: Things that Arena did better then Daggerfall

Post by 11th_defender »

Werewolf wrote: Wed Jun 22, 2022 1:30 am
11th_defender wrote: Wed Jun 22, 2022 12:50 am
Werewolf wrote: Wed Jun 22, 2022 12:19 am
About time Daggerfall gets more enemies! Is there a preview available for the new enemies? :D
I don't think so.
Got a link where he discusses the enemy mod? Sounds great
I just saw him showing it in the once lost games discord server. For context, once lost games is a studio who are making a spiritual successor to daggerfall with the og devs.

Regnier
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Re: Things that Arena did better then Daggerfall

Post by Regnier »

check out world of daggerfall, and add to it.

also theres shots of new enemies on the discord, are you a member?

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Werewolf
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Re: Things that Arena did better then Daggerfall

Post by Werewolf »

Regnier wrote: Wed Jun 22, 2022 2:28 am check out world of daggerfall, and add to it.

also theres shots of new enemies on the discord, are you a member?
I don’t use Discord, does anyone have the shots of the enemies they could post here?

Regnier
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Re: Things that Arena did better then Daggerfall

Post by Regnier »

Kamer would be the one to contact. I would repost but i dont wanna step on him. They look good so far though.

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