The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion

[Xiahou]

Here's (http://www.answers.com/topic/the-elder-scrolls-iv-oblivion) an interesting tidbit about explorable land size comparisons between the games:Morrowind vs Oblivion vs Daggerfall size comparison
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You can help Wikipedia by introducing appropriate citations.This article has been tagged since November 2006.

The total above-ground area of Morrowind 's game world was roughly 10 square miles; however, the central landmass was only around 6 square miles and then surrounded by water and tiny islands; these figures do not include either of the expansions.[citation needed]

With Oblivion, the aboveground areas are approximately 7 square miles, but with considerably less water coverage than the realm of Morrowind. This does not include cities, any underground areas/dungeons, or extra-dimensional areas. [citation needed]

The realm of Oblivion is described in the game's lore as infinite; the player has the opportunity to explore a series of large, independent extra-dimensional terrain every time a portal is entered. The number of environments in Oblivion is very limited, given the immense number of portals present, as one of seven pre-made environments is randomly selected each time one of the 90 portals not related to the main quest is entered; portals related to the main quest all have Oblivion environments uniquely specific to each of them.

There have been no official size estimates for the playable sections of the realm of Oblivion. Unofficially, however, they are generally the largest areas of the game, rivaling the entire City Isle in size, though some are considerably smaller.

Neither Morrowind nor Oblivion come close to the massive world as it existed in Daggerfall, estimated as being roughly twice the size of Great Britain, with over 15,000 towns, cities, villages, and dungeons, and speculated to take over two weeks to travel from one end of the world to the other.[citation needed] Daggerfall's size is tremendous, especially considering that the game was made in the 1990s. However, in Daggerfall the towns were generally identical in appearance. Instead, Oblivion aims to bring more variety to the world, and not just massive size.Technically, it would seem the Oblivion is the larger of the two when it comes to land area. However, I do think Morrowind had a very unique atmosphere- despite all the stinking cliff racers.

A minor problem I had with Oblivion was that I really wasn't buying the whole capitol city thing. The surrounding areas and, to a lesser extent, the city itself really didn't feel like the capitol of a ginormous empire. But, that aside, I really do enjoy the beautiful environments of Oblivion.

[Incongruous]

Well I thought a new comp would really help me enjoy Obliv as I did Marrow (hehe, thats funny) (but also sad:shame: ), unfortunatley. No, it did not. The map just seemed too, way too small, like I could always see the imperial city (well almost always). It felt like one giant garden. The factions all seemed kin of, well inadequate.

But hey it still is very nice lookin.

[Navaros]

As I play more I'm noticing more problems with the game.

Like, when I came out of a cave my horse was dead even though before I entered it looked like the coast was clear and no enemies were near the horse.

So I decided to steal a horse.

Then I realized that the guard will literally chase you forever across the whole game, no matter what (unless you somehow make it to the thieves guild in a town whilst all the guards are after you) so there is little point in stealing a horse. I found that to be extremely annoying. Even worse, I read that if the guard's disposition is 100 then he will offer to pay the bounty for you if the bounty is under 1000 gold, but that didn't work for me. I had a bounty of 250 gold for stealing the horse, guard's disposition was 111 after I cast voice of the emperor on him. Yet he still didn't offer to pay my bounty. Then I found out that you can't get horse armor on a stolen horse, and even worse, the stolen horse wanders back home on it's own as soon as you dismount hence you can't keep it anyways.

Bewilders me why they want to put "steal a horse" in as a feature of the game if they are gonna make it a 100% useless and aggravating feature like it is.

I also notice that the map has way too many landmark markers on it. It seems after every 2 minutes of exploring I'm unlocking another landmark that can be fast-travelled to.This makes "the wilderness" not feel like wilderness at all.

Also wasn't happy with how a Will o' Wisp was kicking my butt and I had to let Martin and Jauffre kill it because I didn't realize that only certain weapons can damage it and as far as I can tell there is no in-game indication of this.

Also wasn't happen how that you manually have to drag the "How many would you like to sell?" slider all the way to the opposite end every single time you wanna sell anything in a quantity of 1, which is extremely annoying, especially if you are selling 30+ arrows.

Also wasn't happy with how fast enchanted items lose their charges and then it's super expensive to recharge them. And I still don't get why each item has two separate numerical values for number of charges; the manual does a very poor job of trying to explain this.

[English assassin]

Err, Nav, did you steal a horse where someone could see you? And then the guards chased you? :inquisitive:

just a suggestion, but my understanding is that the more successful thieves steal things when no one is looking?

I rather like the fact that guards don't let up and that they have some sort of magical APB thing. Means you have to be sneaky and not get caught. And, really, you are complaining because the cops don't pay your fines?


Also wasn't happy with how a Will o' Wisp was kicking my butt and I had to let Martin and Jauffre kill it because I didn't realize that only certain weapons can damage it and as far as I can tell there is no in-game indication of this

Other than the fact it was kicking your butt. Its fantasy Nav, its meant to be different from reality and require you to find stuff out. I think this is far better than a NWN style red halo for enemies, and right click bringing up all their weaknesses to exploit.

Obviously if you don't like a game you don't like it but these aren't problems, they are features (as the software helpdesk might say) I mean, if you don't like fast travel, don't use it.

[Slyspy]

With regard to weapon charges, you could of course get a Soul Trap spell or enchantment and some Soul Gems, thus enabling you to recharge them yourself. Not sure what you mean by two numbers for the charge though. I can't quite remember, but surely one is the current and the other the maximum? Or perhaps one is the charge per-use and the other the maximum charge?

The labourious taks of selling multiple items is annoying. Just being able to type in the number would be better, but that is what you get for having a console interface. Interestingly it is better for your Mercantile skill to sell those arrows individually!

You are right in saying that Oblivion's landscapes don't feel like wilderness. You always seem to be walking through the expansive garden of a country house!

I preferred Morrowind's context to be honest. Weird, wonderful and unknown.

[ChaosLord]

A few things combined to make Morrowind seem much larger. First off is the fog, if you get rid of that and see as far as you can in Oblivion it puts things in perspective. Secondly theres the many steep impassable hills and various other obstacles that made getting around harder. And finally theres the compass map markers, these help to shrink the Oblivion world I think rather than help it.

I personally disable them with the btmod and can actually explore instead of being led around then. Also, while there might be alot of forts, a few ruins/cave along side the main roads thats only the tip of the iceberg. Oblivion has tons of little towns, camps, and other places out in the wilderness. Not to mention some of the great scenic views you can come across.

Navaros: The idea of stealing is to do it without being seen of course, just pretend his following your tracks and alerting other guards he passes on the roads.

Also, you do get a notification that you can't damage it with normal weapons. If you swing at it/shoot at it and can't do damage to it with your weapon text will display on screen saying as much.

On the selling thing, I thought it already defaulted to selling all of the items if you had more than two or three of them? But this may be something the btmod did.

[Navaros]

Vs. the Will o' Wisp it is correct I got the message in-game that my weapon was doing no damage, however the game gave no indication of why that was the case or where I would get a clue what to do about it, all whilst the Wisp is kicking my butt in real-time (and it's too fast to run away from) as I am wondering what the heck is going on. I don't see how it is "fun" having to go out of the game to scour the Internet in real life for answers in order to be able to play the game properly. That's work, not fun. And it defeats the purpose of having a manual if it's not going to explain all the important game mechanics like this.

I was trying to steal a white horse from the Horse Whisperer Stables near Anvil. There is a guard posted near there at Anvil Main Gate who as far as I can tell, never moves at all. As far as I can tell, without having chameleon or invisibility (which as a Warrior, I don't have), there is no way to for him to not see you.

Although that is irrelevant in any case, because even if I was successful at not being seen, stealing a horse is still a worthless gameplay mechanic that there is no point in ever using, since you can't keep the horse anyways. I don't see how that aspect can possibly be justified as good design.

I am complaining about the cops not paying my fines because the information I read said they always do under a certain condition, and that information was inaccurate. The manual mentions absolutely nothing about this mechanic, which is a failing that leads me having to be subject to being misled by false information posted on the Internet by end users.

Then there is the matter of how guards will magically come after you for things they didn't see or hear. I consider the "300FT CRIME DETECTION" mod (which I installed today, a few days after the horse debacle) absolutely essential to even bother participating in the crime aspect of the game. That mod improved the aggravating default "omniscient guard gameplay" by 100 fold easily. It shouldn't require a mod for the devs to have noticed that the default crime system with omniscient guards who bust you soley with their omniscience, was not fun.

After my horse died, I wasted a lot of time and energy trying to figure out how to break the pursuit of omniscient guards and keep a stolen horse, yet there is no way to do either. If I knew stealing a horse was pointless due to these reasons, I wouldn't have wasted time trying it or researching it. But I'm not omniscient like the Oblivion guards so I had no way to make that determination beforehand thus the wasted time and false hopes were inevitable.

This is a frustrating experience that would not exist if the manual or game itself explained the mechanics properly, as they are supposed to.

Since the guards never let up and it's a fixed outcome anyways, what's the point of bothering to run? For a free-form RPG, there's not much point to using freedom to commit crime.

My complaint about the many landmarks wasn't a slam against fast travel, rather it was a slam against that there is no sense of danger at being lost in the wilderness, stranded away from re-supplies, all alone in a dangerous place etc. Too many landmarks/NPCs in "the wilderness" break the immersion and emotional impact of the game that might have otherwise been present.

Having said all that, I still like Oblivion. It's just frustating that so many obvious major and easily-corrected shortcomings made it past the devs, and the professional reviewers who gave it 90% or better.

[The Spartan (Returns)]

to kill will o wisps you need an enchanted weapon or use magic on it.

[sapi]

Oblivion is one of the most user friendly RPGs around :yes:

[English assassin]

Nav I am still a bit baffled by your difficulty in pursuing a life of crime?

TBH I find horses a bit of a waste of time, but I have never had any great difficulty stealing one if I like. Sure, you use it to get where you are going, and then it wanders off, but that is OK because you can steal another. I like to think of it as borrowing. Property is theft, dude. Free your mind.

I am also really puzzled by the guards catching you all the time. The guards are NOT omniscient, so long as they don't have line of sight to your larcenous activities you don't get spotted. Working that out is easy if cheesy because you can just see if the sneaking cross hair is bright (don't steal) or dim (fill your pockets). I made it all the way through the theives guild quests without needing the mod you refer to, along with plenty of freelance kleptomania on the way, so this bit of the game is not broken IMHO. The guards do arrive a bit too fast on the scene if you are indulging in a spot of the old ultra-violence but that is about the limit of their superhuman powers.

Incidently you can break the pursuit of omniscient guards by getting a doyen of the theives guild to pay off your bounty, it costs 50% of the full rate IIRC.

Annnyway, maybe all this tells us is that the life of a thief is not for you?

Point taken about the wilderness, it DOES feel rather like a long walk in a park. Can't say it bothers me but its a fair comment.

[Navaros]

I must strongly disagree with the comment that the guards need a line of sight to catch you. My experience has been that they do not, not by a longshot. So many times before installing the mod, I was up 2 or 3 stories in a buliding that the guards never saw me enter, then a few minutes later they come bust me only based on omniscience. Even had my boots off the whole time since they supposedly make noise. In fact the guard's omniscience is often obvious right off the bat because if you try to fast travel after breaking into a building or simply stealing something no one saw you steal from an open building, it says "you can't fast travel while guards are coming" --- even if it will take the guards 3 minutes to get to you if you stand still right in that same spot (ie: they never legitimately saw/heard it because they were obviously really far away). That is what compelled me to find a mod, not the horse debacle.

In fact the notes of the mod shed some light on this, they say:


It reduces the guard extra-sensorial anti-crime detection radar from 10thousand feet (3km) to 300ft (100m). If there's no one that close to you, you won't get bounty


Meaning that by default as the game was shipped, if you do anything within 10 000 feet of the guards, they can see/hear that even though it is not in their line of sight. This is also why there are mods with names like "No Psychic Guards", but I chose the "300FT CRIME DETECTION" mod because the "No Psychic Guards" ones do not nerf the guards' omniscience enough to make it realistic.

[English assassin]

OK, you beat me. This doesn't happen on the version of the game I have installed but obviously it is happening to you. I can't think why, but anyway sounds like your mod has fixed it a bit.

Are you SURE you are talking about stealing and not killing? They do come running if you kill someone (unless you take them down in one or two hits) even if there were no guards anywhere in the area.

[Whacker]

Hi folks

The crime mechanic is actually fairly simple. You'll get a bounty if you either:

1. Perform a crime in front of a guard who sees you, pretty obvious no?
2. Perform a crime in front of someone who sees you and shouts a warning. IF the person shouting the warning is within a certain range of a guard, the guard will hear it and your bounty will increase. It should be noted that this audible range is irrespective of inside or outside locations, hence why you'll get mugged by a guard if you do something to someone inside their house and a guard is within range. The mod that Mr. Navaros mentioned drastically lowers the audible shout range so that guards aren't perceived as "psychic". :)

:bow:

[Mikeus Caesar]

Anyone got a link to this 300ft detection mod? Sounds good.

[Whacker]

As ordered: http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=129

PS I hate you for getting me hooked on Questionable Content currywurry :grin:

[Somebody Else]

I'll tell you what I wouldn't mind; a mod that allows you to pick things up and put them down again within a certain time limit without being hit with an instant fine. When was the last time, for instance, you went into a shop and didn't try the clothes on before you bought them?

Oh, and I have a tendency to spasm when playing and click the mouse at the wrong time, thereby accidentally stealing something/killing someone.
What can I say, I'm accident prone.

[Gawain of Orkeny]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

well you can always heal (cure magic). instead of using potions.

I learned its far better to get alot of restore majic potions and then use the heal spells to fix you. You dont gain anything but hit points by drinking heal potions while casting healing spells increases your restotation ablities.

Man I love the graphcs in this game.



Heres a little cheat


arm yourself with your bow and arrows

pull back the bow all the way and hit tab

double click on the arrows that your equpped with

Next click on something you would like to have more of. Say a healing potion

Select it and hold down shift like you were dropping it
:2thumbsup:
Now hit tab again

The arrow will fly out and produce as many potions as you have arrows

Go now and pick them up


This works on almost anything you pick up oyther than quest items.

[Whacker]

Supplemental duping video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiZS9gelhsk

[Xiahou]

Hi folks

The crime mechanic is actually fairly simple. You'll get a bounty if you either:

1. Perform a crime in front of a guard who sees you, pretty obvious no?
2. Perform a crime in front of someone who sees you and shouts a warning. IF the person shouting the warning is within a certain range of a guard, the guard will hear it and your bounty will increase. It should be noted that this audible range is irrespective of inside or outside locations, hence why you'll get mugged by a guard if you do something to someone inside their house and a guard is within range. The mod that Mr. Navaros mentioned drastically lowers the audible shout range so that guards aren't perceived as "psychic". :)

:bow:
Yup, that's how I understood the mechanics as well.


Supplemental duping video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiZS9gelhskHilarious. :laugh4:

[Mikeus Caesar]

As ordered: http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=129

PS I hate you for getting me hooked on Questionable Content currywurry :grin:

It's the 300ft detection thing, but it'll do. Thanks.

And you're the second person today to say i've got you hooked on that comic. From the amount of comments i've received over time, i've got quite a lot of orgahs hooked on QC. I'm quite happy to have done so. It's a good comic, eh?

[TevashSzat]

While we are on the subject of cheating, create a spell with any 2 bound weapons. After casting, enter inventory and you will notice that one of the bound weapons is being wielded and the other is not. You can drop the other bound weapon and then pick it up again at which it will never dissapear. Also, it is weightless and can be even enchanted. This will not work with axes since they are always first to be equipped unless you first damage the weapon and then repair it at which you will unwield it allowing for it to be dropped.

Note: Wait until the bound time dissapears before picking the weapon again

[Whacker]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO haven't tried that one yet!!!

Xdeathfire just earned his gold star for the afternoon! :balloon2:

[TevashSzat]

I must warn you that these daedric weapons are not as high of a quality as normal weighted ones, but are more like glass or ebony, but still it is nice to have weightless top tier weapons. This can work with armor too, but you have to either damage it or have 75+ armorer so you can repair it once allowing you to drop it.

[The Spartan (Returns)]

are the strongest weapons ebony?

[Artorius Maximus]

Are the strongest weapons Ebony?
Yes, that and Daedric are the best qualities of weapons in the game (except a well enchanted one of course! ;) ).

[The Spartan (Returns)]

daedric too?
i found a Dremora claymore weaker than Ebony.
or is Dremora different than daedric?

[Somebody Else]

Dremora weapons, despite weighing far too much, are equivalent in strength to steel, if I recall. Daedric weigh lots, but dish out lots of damage, and have the added bonus (along with silver) of being able to damage magical beings. There are books in-game that tell you about the various materials. But if I can remember correctly, in terms of base damage,
Iron < Steel, Dremora < Silver < Glass < Ebony < Daedric
Summoned Daedric weapons, I'm not sure about - I don't tend to bother with them - I know they are weaker than normal Daedric though, probably equivalent to either glass or ebony.
There are a few uniques out there (more if you download certain plugins) that deal out even more base damage. Of course, with a suitable set of enchantments, even a lowly iron dagger can cause a lot of pain. Of course, the same enchantment on a Daedric longsword, will dish out even more.

[sapi]

imo though ebony weapons are the best, as they're not that much weaker than daedric ones but they a) look better and b) don't weigh nearly as much

[TevashSzat]

Actually, what really matters most on a weapon is its enchantments. An iron sword with something like 25fire dmg , 100% weak fire 3 sec, and soultrap 1 sec per sec will easily be able to do more damage than any normal weapon found in the game due to the glitchy weakness stacking. Lets say you hit someone, they get 100% weakness to fire but if you hit them again before the weakness dissapears, the effects becomes cumulative and jumps to 200%. Your fire on strike would be 25dmg 1st time, 50dmg 2nd time, 75dmg 3rd time, 100dmg 4th time, ect... The more health your enemy is the more dmg you can do. Couple this with azura's soul gem, and the soultrap will guarantee you endless recharge.

[Rodion Romanovich]

Finally tried out this game, and it was quite cool! The downside is that there's way too much travelling between areas, and most of the quests involve going down into large cave systems below the ground. So far I'd say the Arena faction provided me with the most interesting gameplay and atmosphere, while the other guilds have mostly given me quests involving travelling, talking, going down into a cave (most caves look almost exactly the same), repeating this 5 times, then going back to the guy who gave me the quest... Despite this, the game is still quite interesting with its great world and with all details being worked through - highwaymen, bandits, imperial guards and laws, jail, fines and bounties, the many guilds and the economy system - you can steal, hunt etc. to get money. I wouldn't say it's the best RPG I could think of, but no doubt among the top 3 of those I've played.

[Incongruous]

Yes, I agree that the many dungeon areas are quite boring and far too similar.

[Navaros]

The other day I did the "Caught in the Hunt" quest.

Loved going all the way through the Dungeon and finding nothing, only to come out and find it was a trap and I had to go back in while this time being man-hunted. However, the man-hunt was extremely disappointing. Only killed 3 or 4 hunters in the whole dungeon and then it was done, and all isolated to one on one battles. This was in my view a horrible implementation of a really great quest idea.

Then I read that you can level "sneak" by walking up into a wall infinitely, so I went to sneak mode then in real life I left several coins depressing my "E" key (I hate WASD) while I was sleeping. After several hours I still was not maxed out. Had to do it for a couple of nights, as sometimes my progress was lost by being tabbed down via other things going in in my computer.

My point is, this made it obvious that levelling sneak the "normal" way with regular gameplay takes way too long when it's so much easier and less monotonous to do it whilst AFK, and as such is bad design in my view.

Is there any mod that fixes ALT TAB behaviour so that the game doesn't lockup when tabbing back into it? Or at least is the reason known why this happens? I notice it usually happens only about 1/5th of the time I tab down and back into the game, and the other 4/5ths of the time I do that it brings about no changes to how the game runs when the lockup doesn't occur.

I also don't get why the Mages Guild summon Dremora guys as "good guys" , and why Nocturnal talks to you and such even tho she is a Daedric. Aren't the Daedric/Dremora supposed to be bad guys? The game has been giving me a very mixed message about this.

[TevashSzat]

The Daedric gods like Azura are simply gods who can do whatever they want. They may be good like Azura, kinda neutral like Nocturnal, or just evil like Mehrunes Dagon. The Dremora if I remember correctly are residents of the shard of Oblivion that belongs the Mehrunes Dagon making them evil, but they can be summoned and coerced to follow their summoner's bidding much like the summoning of devils and stuff in D&D

[Xiahou]

My point is, this made it obvious that levelling sneak the "normal" way with regular gameplay takes way too long when it's so much easier and less monotonous to do it whilst AFK, and as such is bad design in my view.
Everything is easier to do in-game via cheating, is that such a surprise? Sneaking only gains you skill points if you're sneaking successfully, iirc, which would mean you have to be near someone, and they can't be able to see you. Which may explain why it took you so freaking long. I don't really see that as a valid criticism at all though.

It's easier to get good equipment by spawning it rather than actually earning/finding it too- does that make it bad game design?

[Navaros]

I'd say sneak is in a class all by itself in terms of the magnitude of what's easier to do, normal play or exploit.

You either manually hold down the "forward key" for dozens/hundreds/thousands of hours (varying because of the random nature of being able to find a place that can be "sneaked" during the normal course of gameplay and then maintain that sneak naturally for a decent amount of time, which is even harder), or manually hold the "forward key" up against the wall, or leave it held down whilst AFK. Given the sillyness of 2 of those choices, exploiting is the most compelling. There comes a point in every video game when tolerating incredible monotony just for the sake of monotony doesn't make sense.

The other ways to level up skills a lot occur naturally during normal gameplay. Sneak doesn't. At least not in the places I used it, which was quite a lot all over the place and most of the time the eye icon wouldn't go invisible because there wasn't a lot of "sneak spots" readily available, and when they were, only for a few seconds worth of "levelling time" in what literally requires several dozen hours of hard time (at least) to max out.

[English assassin]

Nav, sometimes I wonder if we are even playing the same game?

I found with sneak I gained sneak skill so fast I had to ration my sneakiness, or my character leveled up too quickly. (I had sneak as a major skill)

You do realise, don't you, that you have to help sneak along a bit, especially when your skill is low? If you run through a main street in the imperial city at midday in heavy armour, the little eye thing is unlikely to go dim. Clanking maniacs running down a shopping street in daylight do tend to get noticed. If you hide close to walls, move slowly in light armour, and wait until the guards look away, you can sneak well. And gain skill points all too fast.

[Gawain of Orkeny]

And make sure to wear soft shoes .

[Whacker]

Nav, sometimes I wonder if we are even playing the same game?

I found with sneak I gained sneak skill so fast I had to ration my sneakiness, or my character leveled up too quickly. (I had sneak as a major skill)

You do realise, don't you, that you have to help sneak along a bit, especially when your skill is low? If you run through a main street in the imperial city at midday in heavy armour, the little eye thing is unlikely to go dim. Clanking maniacs running down a shopping street in daylight do tend to get noticed. If you hide close to walls, move slowly in light armour, and wait until the guards look away, you can sneak well. And gain skill points all too fast.

I'd tend to agree about sneak, to a point. Sneak is incredibly easy to increase, you just have to do it in a sensible manner. I don't even take it as a main skill yet it's no trouble at all to get up to 100.

The point where I'd want to elaborate on English Assassin's post is that wearing clanky armor doesn't actually affect your stealthiness. :grin: The two main things are the lighting conditions and what type of boots you are wearing. Also, you have to be near someone and sneaking successfully to get any skill increases, sneaking out in the middle of an empty forest isn't going to do anything for you.

:bow:

[TevashSzat]

yep, sneak is hardly a hard skill to increase. If you want to talk about hard, look at athletics. It takes over 90 hours of continuous running to get from 5-100 without major/specialization. Not many people have had one game over 100 hours along and even less run for a significantly long periods of time due to the new horses and fast travel compared to the travel that you needed to do in Morrowind.

[Whacker]

yep, sneak is hardly a hard skill to increase. If you want to talk about hard, look at athletics. It takes over 90 hours of continuous running to get from 5-100 without major/specialization. Not many people have had one game over 100 hours along and even less run for a significantly long periods of time due to the new horses and fast travel compared to the travel that you needed to do in Morrowind.

There's two ways to deal with this in my view.

1. Turn on auto-run, and jump in the water near the ships in the capital city, and plant your face in a corner. If you do it right, you'll see yourself auto-swimming in 3rd person view, and you should never go below water (you can always have a water breathing item on to deal with this, or just be an argonian). Leave the game on overnight. It'll take a couple of nights (!!) to do this, but you can eventually get your skill up to 100.

2. Mod your game so you can train more than 5 friggin times a level. :furious3: This is one thing I think was incredibly dumb, and implemented just because of people whining about how easy it was to level up your character in Morrowind. Whatever, it's all about choice, if you want to play the game without doing it fine, but don't penalize those of us who do. I don't have the exact var handy, but if you edit your globals using the Construction Set, you can find the int that covers how many times you can train per level, I just set it at 1000 as a nice big number. Of course you'll need to come up with the cash to do all the training you want, but money isn't too hard to come by.

[TevashSzat]

Whaker I know there is an autorun, but let me tell you it will take about 4 nights to train it up since the messages that pop up stop training and unless you notice the message, the training will be stopped for the night. Also, who wants to leave there comp on for a couple of nights for something as trivial as athletics.

Also, think of this in a game perspective where you don't try some cheap tactic to get athletics to 100, who just normally playing without any cheap tricks will actually reach 100 or even 90 athletics unless they actually give it major and specialization?

[Rodion Romanovich]

Has anyone been able to successfully take screenshots from Oblivion?

[TevashSzat]

Although I have never taken screenshots before, I think that fraps must work with it

[sapi]

go to the config file (in my docs/games/oblivion iirc) and change 'enablescreenshot' to 1

[TevashSzat]

Also if I remember correctly, you can press the 'h' key defaultly to turn off the ui to allow for better screenshots

[Rilder]

Oblivion will be my first game when I get my new computer, it looks really cool from what I've seen... probably could run it on this computer at low settings though if I really wanted to since I meet all recomended except processor for the most part.

[Whacker]

Whaker I know there is an autorun, but let me tell you it will take about 4 nights to train it up since the messages that pop up stop training and unless you notice the message, the training will be stopped for the night. Also, who wants to leave there comp on for a couple of nights for something as trivial as athletics.

Also, think of this in a game perspective where you don't try some cheap tactic to get athletics to 100, who just normally playing without any cheap tricks will actually reach 100 or even 90 athletics unless they actually give it major and specialization?

It actually takes longer than 4 nights, I've done it. :grin: The skill messages (and level-up ones, if you took it as a major skill) do hamper the effort and contribute to the time requirement, but it honestly just does take forever.

Also, I always leave my computers on. A computer is just like a car, most of the wear and tear occurs when you start it up. It's not like you're shredding it by always turning it off and on, but it does lower it's lifespan.

For the record, I am one of those types who likes to level up. The on major Oblivion game I played, I teched all of my skills up as far as I could get them before setting out, all of my attributes (minus luck) and about 3/4 of my skills were at 100 before I even went to Kwatch. :grin: I even have this insane spreadsheet I use to "plan" out my characters, and ensure that I always can get the +5 bonus to attributes when I lvl up.

:balloon2:

[Gawain of Orkeny]

I even have this insane spreadsheet I use to "plan" out my characters, and ensure that I always can get the +5 bonus to attributes when I lvl up.

Is that 5 besides the 7 I always get when leveling up?


Oblivion will be my first game when I get my new computer, it looks really cool from what I've seen

Its way beyond cool its almost real. And that was on my E6400 with a 7950GT. I cant wait until next week when my E6600 with 8800GTS320 arrives. I wonder how much better can it get?

[Whacker]

Is that 5 besides the 7 I always get when leveling up?

Errmmm... You're going to have to help me out here, not sure what you mean? When you level, you get to pick 3 attributes to increase, right? You'll get various bonus options depending if you've increased skills for each attribute. The maximum possible bonus you can get (without mods) is 5. So say my speed was at 30, and I level up and increase enough of my skills that are based on speed to warrant a +5 bonus, the max I can increase my speed to is 35. The exception to this rule is luck, which will always be increasable by 1 only since there are no skills that are based on it. Is that what you meant? Or did you mean something else entirely that I missed?

[Somebody Else]

One of the mods out there, that I quite like, alters the levelling system, awarding fractional increases in stats dependent, in varying fashions, on all the skills. I forget what it was called though.

[tibilicus]

Gah I started playing this again but have a dilema.


I killed Umbra and robbed all her stuff. Nice ebony loot and of course the umbra sword. This neeeds to be given back for a quest but I want to keeep it!


Is there any way to make a partially enchnated wepon permenent? As this buety dishes out the damage with a nice soul trap bonus.


Tib

[tibilicus]

Gah I started playing this again but have a dilema.


I killed Umbra and robbed all her stuff. Nice ebony loot and of course the umbra sword. This neeeds to be given back for a quest but I want to keeep it!


Is there any way to make a partially enchnated wepon permenent? As this buety dishes out the damage with a nice soul trap bonus.


Tib

[lars573]

You don't have to give it back. You can do what viles hound says and not finish, or you can tell Clasivius to get buggered and your keeping the sword.

[Rodion Romanovich]

Or you can just refuse to complete the quest for a very long time and run around with the equipment! I ran around with Agronak's raiment of valor, weighing zero, for half the game before completing the last Arena quest ~:)

[TevashSzat]

What is really bothersome is that sometimes quest items, especially books or keys, do not become normal items once you finish the quest so they are undroppoble. I still have everything left from the Ultimate Heist for the last thieves guild quest because I can't drop it. It isn't that unbearable. but it makes my inventory seem so messy whenever I try to go through it looking for something

[Whacker]

What is really bothersome is that sometimes quest items, especially books or keys, do not become normal items once you finish the quest so they are undroppoble. I still have everything left from the Ultimate Heist for the last thieves guild quest because I can't drop it. It isn't that unbearable. but it makes my inventory seem so messy whenever I try to go through it looking for something

There's a mod that can takes care of that on PES. Basically it makes just about every single quest item non-quest, so that you can drop/sell/whatever it. It's great because I also ended up with those damn boots in my inventory, and that stupid knife because I killed Agronak.

[The Spartan (Returns)]

i just completed the main story line and it was fantastic. i really want more missions.. anyone going to buy Oblivion's latest expansion Shivering Isles? its released today.

[Kekvit Irae]

Just bought it, havent installed it yet

[TevashSzat]

Don't know if I'm gonna get Shivering Isles but the previews looked pretty sweet

[Whacker]

My $0.02, wait for a price drop. $30 is way too much for an expansion, $20 is more like it or less.

[Rodion Romanovich]

One question: I have completed the main quest line now, but I still haven't found out the answer to one riddle - why was the hero in the Imperial prison at the beginning of the game?

[Warmaster Horus]

Actually, that's one question never solved in the game itself. Akin to Morrowind's beginning (you came to Morrowind on a prison ship), you find yourself imprisonned. The reason is yours to find. Perhaps you once were a most evil person, commiting a great amount of heinous crimes? Or, rather, were you not unjustly imprisoned for murder? It's literally up to you to decide.
I believe Bethesda chose to do that because it was simple for the plot. Also, I merely conjecture here, but when criminals exit prison, don't they want to start a new life? And, even if you don't, in this game at least, you can chose to return to crime (Dark Brotherhood, anyone?).

[CountArach]

Also it is a bit of a tradition. I believe that all 4 of the games started with you in prison.

[sapi]

Yep - every TES game has started with you in prison

[Warmaster Horus]

Indeed. Arena (the first Elder Scroll, from 1994) began with you finding a key in your cell to the cell door. Then you got in the sewers.

[Kekvit Irae]

If you are talking about actual gameplay, TES2: Daggerfall, TESA: Redguard, and TESL: Battlespire did not start you off in a prison.

[Master_Thief]

Patch 1.2 is available for download at www.elderscrolls.com.

[Whacker]

There's also a gamekilling bug right now, that affects people who have Shivering Isles. Information on it is on their wiki. Sorry don't have a link handy. Be careful, happens 50-120 hours or so in, and it affects people with higher framerates faster than those with slower.

[Kekvit Irae]

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Shivering:Reference_Bug

[TB666]

I have played Shivering Isles a bit so far it is very good.
The world is quite mad.
Most of the time they seem to make very little sense.
And the Lord himself is alot of fun to talk to.
And the quests so far has been fun.
There is one quest you have to become addicted to a certain poison and another where you have to go around town and torture people.

[Rilder]

Just got oblivion today, patched it, getting a fair few CTDs with a "6026" Assertian or runtime error.. happens every once in awhile otherwise pretty fun... Gonna try one more time and if it happens again Reinstalling and re-downloading patch. After backing up my save of course.

[sapi]

At least you don't get the screen randomly turning black, like I do :grin2:

[TevashSzat]

At least you could exit the game without resorting to ctrl-alt-delete

[sapi]

That's a bit hard when you can't see anything ~;)

[TevashSzat]

Perhaps check to see if the power is on?? lol

[hrvojej]

I asked this question in the Fallout thread, but I thought I should also post it here:

Is there an Oblivion mod that removes the monster and environment scaling, i.e. the fact that the entire game is tied to your own level? If so, would you be so kind to tell me which one ti is?

Thanks in advance.

[TevashSzat]

Yes there is, do a quick google search and you should be able to find it

[sapi]

I asked this question in the Fallout thread, but I thought I should also post it here:

Is there an Oblivion mod that removes the monster and environment scaling, i.e. the fact that the entire game is tied to your own level? If so, would you be so kind to tell me which one ti is?

Thanks in advance.
OOO is the mod you're looking for

[hrvojej]

Thanks to both of you! I actually managed to find two mods that claim to have the scaling feature removed. I just might give Oblivion another try now.

Cheers,

[TinCow]

I highly recommend Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul (OOO). It makes the world far more interesting and returns the thrill of exploration that there was in Morrowind. Delving into random dungeons in the wilderness finally becomes truly rewarding and exciting.

[hrvojej]

Well, I was kind of more inclined to install the other mod, "Francesco's leveled creatures", but now after you've both recommended OOO, I'm not sure. :book: Did anybody try both of them? I downloaded them both and I am willing to try either, but I'd really like to start on the right foot with Oblivion this time around...

[TevashSzat]

I believe that OOO though changes parts of the game and adds some new stuff like frost minotours so you aren't getting the exact Oblivion experience, but all of the changes are well done.

[Rilder]

Well finally got my ctds under at least most control...

Anyways, check out these Oblivion videos posted on the official forums:

http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=686932

[TinCow]

Well, I was kind of more inclined to install the other mod, "Francesco's leveled creatures", but now after you've both recommended OOO, I'm not sure. :book: Did anybody try both of them? I downloaded them both and I am willing to try either, but I'd really like to start on the right foot with Oblivion this time around...

Francesco's is a much more modest mod. It's a more basic change to the game and essentially fixes the leveled creatures and a few other things. OOO is way better in my opinion because it goes far, far beyond that. Almost every dungeon is made into a unique experience. High-level treasure has been hand placed in dungeons to match their difficulty. If you want a full set of daedric armor, you have to earn it. IMO, Francesco's fixes a few problems with the game but largely keeps it the way it is. OOO makes Oblivion the game it should have been on release.

[hrvojej]

Thanks to everybody for the replies.


Francesco's is a much more modest mod. It's a more basic change to the game and essentially fixes the leveled creatures and a few other things.
Are you refering to just the leveled creatures part of Francesco's mod, or the optional part as well? I downloaded both parts, and the optional part with added goodies is over 400MB in size, and I was under the impression that it adds quite a bit to the game. I'm not saying that it's better than OOO, it just had prettier screenshots that got me interested, I admit. :saint: Though the things you've mentioned about OOO is exactly what I would want to see and experience in the game. Just to be sure: the mod makes it possible, for example, to kill a goblin with a single blow when I'm level 20, and to find a single piece of high level loot if I'm extremely lucky even if my character is at a low level, right?

Once again, many thanks for all this info. I'd really like to get myself into that game and the whole TES series again after the initial disappointment with Oblivion, and hopefully these mods are the answer to that.

[TinCow]

Are you refering to just the leveled creatures part of Francesco's mod, or the optional part as well? I downloaded both parts, and the optional part with added goodies is over 400MB in size, and I was under the impression that it adds quite a bit to the game. I'm not saying that it's better than OOO, it just had prettier screenshots that got me interested, I admit. :saint: Though the things you've mentioned about OOO is exactly what I would want to see and experience in the game.

I haven't played Francesco's for a long time. When I played it there was only about 150mbs of download (IIRC), so there's obviously more to it now than there used to be. In contrast, the last time I played OOO was last fall and it had an over 600mb download. So, I guess take my answer with a grain of salt, since it appears that Francesco's has advanced a lot since the last time I saw it.


Just to be sure: the mod makes it possible, for example, to kill a goblin with a single blow when I'm level 20, and to find a single piece of high level loot if I'm extremely lucky even if my character is at a low level, right?

Yep. Generally, the further you get away from civilization, the more dangerous the environment. Going way into the wilderness can be near impossible at low levels. There are also some really creative dungeons with unique bosses that can be very hard to kill. Some of the biggest bosses in the game are hidden in out-of-the-way dungeons and you can find them by following rumors and clues left in lower level dungeons. The toughest bosses will give you a run for your money even at level 40+.

[TevashSzat]

Bah! No monsters are too tough in Oblivion if you get 100% charmeleon through enchanting after which you have perma invisibility and can just run around in sneak mode attacking people and getting the sneak attack bonus every time. Better yet, no one notices where you are so they don't try to reltaliate and merely runs away

[sapi]

Although I agree with TinCow that OOO is a great mod, I'd disagree in saying that it makes things extremely difficult.

I'm in a situation now where I've got, iirc, 90% resist magic, 10% absorb magic, 10% reflect magic and 65% shield without casting any spells.

I may be going to the wrong places, but nothing is giving me a challenge.

I'm level 5.

[Rodion Romanovich]

Is OOO increasing or decreasing the difficulty? I think the original game started getting a bit too easy after I got to level 10 or so, with exception only for the wraiths, which were difficult to deal with a little longer. But I've got 100 sneak, so I can almost do the same as 100% chameleon. Most enemies die or lose at least 60% of their health if I sneak up on them at make a ebony longsword power attack in their back, then the rest of the battle is over in no time.

[HughTower]

TinCow - Does the OOO 1.31 (latest I think) work ok with the 1.2 Official patch?

[TinCow]

I have no idea. When I played it last, 1.2 wasn't out. Maybe the OOO webpage can tell you:
http://jorgeoscuro.googlepages.com/

[sapi]

Is OOO increasing or decreasing the difficulty? I think the original game started getting a bit too easy after I got to level 10 or so, with exception only for the wraiths, which were difficult to deal with a little longer. But I've got 100 sneak, so I can almost do the same as 100% chameleon. Most enemies die or lose at least 60% of their health if I sneak up on them at make a ebony longsword power attack in their back, then the rest of the battle is over in no time.
It increases the starting difficulty by a mile, and seems to scale well from there.

[King of Kings]

I think this is the best rpg game ive played and btw has any1 got the expansion for it yet(i havent read other posts so forgive me if other people are talking abot it)

[HughTower]

It increases the starting difficulty by a mile, and seems to scale well from there.

I only got the game this year, played with it for 20 hours or so on vanilla & just got really bored, but couldn't put my finger on why? I read about OOO, & thought I'd give it a whirl with a new character - a mage - & my word, it's different. I've played 6 hours or so, still lvl 1, I have to run if I see more than one human enemy & I actually have to think my way through the fights. Before I was just thwacking my way through anything & everything regardless; now I feel like a pathetic specimen who can be clubbed down by a couple of strokes of a claymore, which is, to be honest, how it should be.

Highly recommended.

[edyzmedieval]

My friend will lend me his copy of Oblivion next week. I cant wait to try this RPG, who had a mega-article exactly last year in a Romanian PC magazine.