"Skyblivion" --a portmanteau of "Skyrim" and "Oblivion"-- is a
fan-created mod that has been in development for nearly a decade now.
It aims to bring the entirety of the "Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion"
gameplay over to the engine of "Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim". It's been
one of those projects I've been quietly watching for years, but given
that it is being developed by a small group of volunteer modders, and
the sheer size of the endeavour, it's something I never expected to
really come to completion.

Well, unsurprisingly, it's _still_ not complete, but surprisingly,
there _is_ an expected release date (or at least, release period) when
it's hoped to be done. That being the year 2025. Which,
coincidentally, just happens to be the very year we are in now!

Most of the major work has been done already; most of what is required
is nav-meshing (adding hidden markers beneath the map to help the AI
navigate the world) and fine-tuning the quests. So it's actually quite
possible that 2025 really will be the year that "Skyblivion" comes
out. Which is something I never really expected to happen, if I'm
honest.

I remember having a lot of fun with "Oblivion". Sure, it suffered from
all the usual Bethesda open-world RPG pitfalls, but its map was just
gorgeous to roam across, and there was so much to do. I played the
shit outta that game back in the day, but eventually I tired of the
experience and I haven't had much inclination to return, especially
given how increasingly dated the visuals have become

[It's not that I don't play games with dated visuals, but if
I can get the same experience playing Skyrim or Fallout 4,
it's sort of hard to go back to Oblivion]

Still, I think its been long enough that a return is warranted,
especially if combined with the improved visual splendor that an
enhanced Skyrim engine can provide. I'm rather eagerly awaiting this
release.

There's a quite nice video here if you're interested in seeing what
"Skyblivion" promises to offer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwUibq6wBn4

Now we can only hope that Microsoft's lawyers don't become overzealous
in squash the mod out of sheer spite and boredom. Bethesda itself was
fairly benign with regards to remakes like this, but after the
acquisition, Microsoft's lawyers may want to flex.

On 1/3/2025 8:14 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>
> "Skyblivion" --a portmanteau of "Skyrim" and "Oblivion"-- is a
> fan-created mod that has been in development for nearly a decade now.
> It aims to bring the entirety of the "Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion"
> gameplay over to the engine of "Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim". It's been
> one of those projects I've been quietly watching for years, but given
> that it is being developed by a small group of volunteer modders, and
> the sheer size of the endeavour, it's something I never expected to
> really come to completion.
>

Sadly the only thing I remember liking about Oblivion was the "Rat
Problem" quest, a funny twist on that trope. So no interest here.

Even though I rather liked Skyrim, and I thought the whole Assassin's
Guild questline was the best take on that sort of thing from D&D, I
still haven't ever completed it.

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

I'd like to play Morrowind, but modded or put into a newer engine to fix
bugs & UI issues, and look better. Has that been done?

rms

"rms" <rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net> looked up from reading the entrails
of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:

>I'd like to play Morrowind, but modded or put into a newer engine to fix
>bugs & UI issues, and look better. Has that been done?

https://www.pcgamer.com/2023-gets-even-better-for-morrowind-fans-as-skyrim-port-project-gives-a-spooktacular-look-at-its-magical-leprosy-village/

You could have just googled, that's what I did.

Xocyll

On Sun, 5 Jan 2025 11:03:55 -0700, "rms" <rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net>
wrote:

>I'd like to play Morrowind, but modded or put into a newer engine to fix
>bugs & UI issues, and look better. Has that been done?

It's being worked on. It has an equally imaginative name of "SkyWind"
(Skyrim + Morrowind). It's a lot less closer to release though. I
believe you can download betas of the mod, but it's still incomplete
(at least, you used to. I don't see any download links on that page
anymore) https://tesrskywind.com/

There are a number of modernization mods on Nexus that greatly improve
the visuals, and work on the UI and other bits. It's still all layered
upon the creaky Morrowind engine, but when I tried it I found it made
the game a lot more playable. The grey munge of the original was quite
an eyesore. Morrowind Rebirth is probably the best known of these.
https://www.moddb.com/mods/morrowind-rebirth

There's also a project to recreate all of Tamriel (the whole continent
of the Elder Scrolls, encompassing all the areas of Daggerfall,
Morrowing, Oblivion, Skyrim, and Redguard, and several regions not
previously detailed) called Beyond Skyrim, but that's even further
from release (as I believe it depends heavily on Skywind and
Skyblivion for their specific territories).
https://beyondskyrim.org/

Still, for the most accessible interpretation of a 'Morrowind in a
modern engine' you're probably best looking at Elder Scrolls Online.
It's obviously not TES3 remade, but it does let you explore that
region again using an engine that isn't 20+ years old.
https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/home

On 03/01/2025 16:14, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> I remember having a lot of fun with "Oblivion". Sure, it suffered from
> all the usual Bethesda open-world RPG pitfalls, but its map was just
> gorgeous to roam across, and there was so much to do. I played the
> shit outta that game back in the day, but eventually I tired of the
> experience and I haven't had much inclination to return, especially
> given how increasingly dated the visuals have become

The two big problems I had with Oblivion were how much of the content
seemed procedurally generated (oh look another dungeon to clear out and
grab some loot) instead of hand written and the main quest was just
repetitive in the extreme. If I compare that to Skyrim, it's quite
different as I felt that like FO:3/NV there were lots of interesting
locations to find and explore.

On Tue, 7 Jan 2025 10:02:05 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

>On 03/01/2025 16:14, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>> I remember having a lot of fun with "Oblivion". Sure, it suffered from
>> all the usual Bethesda open-world RPG pitfalls, but its map was just
>> gorgeous to roam across, and there was so much to do. I played the
>> shit outta that game back in the day, but eventually I tired of the
>> experience and I haven't had much inclination to return, especially
>> given how increasingly dated the visuals have become
>
>The two big problems I had with Oblivion were how much of the content
>seemed procedurally generated (oh look another dungeon to clear out and
>grab some loot) instead of hand written and the main quest was just
>repetitive in the extreme. If I compare that to Skyrim, it's quite
>different as I felt that like FO:3/NV there were lots of interesting
>locations to find and explore.

Oblivions dungeons weren't procedurally generated, but they were all
made from a very small set of assets, which meant there wasn't much in
the way of variety. Give Bethesda this much: they learned from that
mistake and, when developing Skyrim, the dungeons got a lot more
unique features, which give them a much more hand-crafted feel.

Still, while in bulk the dungeons of Oblivion got boring, if you
didn't do too much delving they were still pretty good. I in
particular liked the Ayleids dungeons (those were the ones that seemed
to be made all of white marble). They were usually more trap-heavy and
had a spookier atmosphere. The actual Oblivion-gate 'dungeons', on the
other hand, got very tiresome very quickly.

But Oblivion (the game) was better for its overland journeys, and the
various quests you could come across while wandering. It had a pretty
nice variety in terrain too, which kept the adventure lively. I can
see returning to that part of Tamriel again. It might not keep me
engaged as long as it did back in 2006, but I can see myself wandering
its hills once again.

On Fri, 03 Jan 2025 11:14:08 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson
<spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>"Skyblivion" --a portmanteau of "Skyrim" and "Oblivion"-- is a
>fan-created mod that has been in development for nearly a decade now.
>It aims to bring the entirety of the "Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion"
>gameplay over to the engine of "Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim". It's been
>one of those projects I've been quietly watching for years, but given
>that it is being developed by a small group of volunteer modders, and
>the sheer size of the endeavour, it's something I never expected to
>really come to completion.
>

Apparently, Bethesda is working on an Oblivion remake too. I wonder
how long before Skyblivion gets a cease-n-desist. Because even though
the team is being very careful not to use any actual assets from the
original game, they ARE rebuilding the same map and quests, using the
same names, etc. They are incredibly vulnerable to claims of copyright
infringement (and likely trademark infringement).

And if it comes between 'being nice to modders' and 'doing everything
we can to make sure our remake sells', I'm betting the latter takes
precedence at Bethesda/Microsoft.

On 1/14/2025 9:25 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> On Fri, 03 Jan 2025 11:14:08 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson
> <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> "Skyblivion" --a portmanteau of "Skyrim" and "Oblivion"-- is a
>> fan-created mod that has been in development for nearly a decade now.
>> It aims to bring the entirety of the "Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion"
>> gameplay over to the engine of "Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim". It's been
>> one of those projects I've been quietly watching for years, but given
>> that it is being developed by a small group of volunteer modders, and
>> the sheer size of the endeavour, it's something I never expected to
>> really come to completion.
>>
>
> Apparently, Bethesda is working on an Oblivion remake too. I wonder
> how long before Skyblivion gets a cease-n-desist. Because even though
> the team is being very careful not to use any actual assets from the
> original game, they ARE rebuilding the same map and quests, using the
> same names, etc. They are incredibly vulnerable to claims of copyright
> infringement (and likely trademark infringement).

Oblivion remake showed up on the Soulslike reddit. I'm not entirely
sure why, other than they seem to be adding/improving parrying. They
seem to be making enough changes by the list I saw that it sounds like
it'll feel like a completely different game.

Not that I'm complaining, but really how many changes does a game take
before it's a different game? Cyberpunk 2077 didn't even do a remake,
but they changed the game so much it felt like a different game last
time I played it after the DLC.

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'