UESPWiki talk:Oblivion Creatures Project

Creatures that do not appear in the game

There are a few creatures in the list that do no appear in the game. I don't think they need to have a seperate page. One of the reasons why making those seperate creatures pages is a good idea, is because the unique creatures usually have some background information on them (e.g. Related Quests). Test creatures (those creatures that do not appear in the game) have very little in that area. --Timenn < talk > 13:15, 26 November 2007 (EST)

Yeah, the current list was just quickly drawn up by looking at the list in the CS. It's a little difficult just looking at that list to determine which ones do and do not appear in the game, so obviously this will need to be edited. (There's also a fair number that I'm sure I omitted, which need to be added.) It'd probably be better if someone with more in-game experience of Oblivion did this, however. I can only go with what I see in the CS at the moment, due to technical issues. --TheRealLurlock ^Talk 13:42, 26 November 2007 (EST)

I've omitted a few creatures that had a Use Count of zero. With the others I checked if they only appeared in Test Cells, but it seems like the rest can all be found in the game. Next I added a few creatures and added the creature type next to each creature (which makes finding them in CS easier). --Timenn < talk > 15:35, 26 November 2007 (EST)

Creatures with multiple entries in the CS

Apart from Bacon, all creatures with a single entry in the Construction Set now have their own page. Creating a page for a creature with more than one entry proves a little difficult with the Creature Summary template. The multiple varieties of the creatures may all have the same name, but can have different properties (e.g. Spells). I propose to move those creatures to the Leveled Creatures list.

Next is to discuss what to do with these Leveled Creatures. The only treatment I can think of is the same way the specialised creature pages (e.g. Oblivion:Undead) deal with them. --Timenn < talk > 11:25, 10 December 2007 (EST)

Benirus Manor Ghost now serves as example for a possible solution to support creatures with multiple entries. The page imitates the Creature Summary Template (which unfortunately causes alot of markup code to be present on the page itself). So, use this solution for the creatures with multiple entries?

I've also tried a solution with Hover text instead of a comment at the bottom of the table, but that didn't work very well with links. (Conflict with Template's Hover text and Link's Hover text) --Timenn < talk > 09:28, 9 January 2008 (EST)

Looks good, basically equivalent to what I did with Gaenor and others. The real difficulty will come with those that have multiple names (e.g. Frostfire Glade____), multiple species (e.g. Llathasa's Ghost), or both (e.g. Sanctified ____). I'd say for multiple names, one common name should be chosen, and all others should redirect to it, and we'll somehow have to put all names into the header, maybe one per line followed by ID for that name. Only trick is choosing which common name to use for the actual page. --TheRealLurlock ^Talk 11:12, 9 January 2008 (EST)

I agree with you on the way the names should be displayed in the Creature Summary. As for the page name; I think the header names you did will do well. Except for Sanctified Dead. I propose to rename that one to Sanctified Ethereal. Sanctified Dead is also the name for the first creature of the four, and Ethereal is a word that is used by Bethesda to name the Resistances Ability given to Ghosts and Wraiths. (So it is a bit "official") --Timenn < talk > 12:26, 9 January 2008 (EST)

I can't help but wonder whether it's really worth going to all of this trouble, especially for troublesome cases such as those mentioned by Lurlock. I don't see that Benirus Manor Ghost really provides much more information than was already available at Oblivion:Undead#Benirus Manor Ghost; the one or two tidbits of information could be added into the notes section on the undead page. Will a page on, for example, Llathasa's Ghost, be much more than a copy of the table that exists at Oblivion:Undead#Llathasa's Ghosts? Given that redirects for all of these creatures already exist, the pages don't seem necessary to help readers find the information. I suppose I'd just like to have some idea of what advantage is going to be gained by copying all of the information and coming up with new, one-of-a-kind infoboxes specifically for each of these cases. --Nephele^Talk 12:33, 9 January 2008 (EST)

I'm not sure what you mean with "all". Do you refer to the entire project, or just the creatures with multiple entries? In case you are referring to the project I feel obliged to point out a few benefits of having seperate articles. Mucianus Allias's article adds more information than that what could could fit in a table. The seperate articles are not for the few extra bits of statistics, but to give a better readable and understandable description. Most unique creatures are either involved in a quest, or are pets, so there is usually something to say about them. Their descriptions are a bit empty at the moment, but the project is not yet finished. Now I agree that some creatures don't have much to tell about them, but then, it's like that for numerous NPCs as well.

As for the creatures with multiple entries; there are a few (e.g. The Sunken One) who may have a different appearance and properties, from a background story point of view they are a single creature. As argumented in my first paragraph, the background story is what the article is mostly about.

Then there are a few creature groups that have been selected as well. I believe TheRealLurlock's idea behind that was their active involvement in a specefic quest, they are more than just ruin occupants.

Now the reason why I am stressing this point about background stories is because the Creature tables don't provide much space to describe their involvement in the game. They mostly just give some gameplay statistics, a reader might not notice the unique creatures among the various entries of a species. --Timenn < talk > 14:10, 9 January 2008 (EST)