The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion [Archive]

Big_John

07-06-2006, 03:30

good sweet jezebel! i hate oblivion! why couldn't it be diablo? :bigcry:

for realz though. it's fun enough. it's very pretty, even on my ghetto box. the bloom +2xAA, 2xAF does a good job of making me forget my vid card can't do HDR.

the main problem i have with oblivion is the same i had with morrowind: the lifeless NPCs. just like morrowind, the characters just kind of inhabit the space of cyrodil, they don't seem to actually live in it. it's a bit better than morrowind, i guess.. though in oblivion there are even less people in these cities, it seems. probably a necessity to keep the framerates respectable.

all the talk of the "radiant AI" got my hopes up too high. i hear they had to scale back the "radiant"-ness in development. still, that was the main improvement over morrowind that i was interested in. i hear some people call it "fraudulent AI". it's bad in some spots, but overall it's pretty similar to morrowind.

the game world is smaller than morrowind's, but it's much richer. the score is amazing. best i've heard in a game in... maybe ever. melee combat is well done, but the lack of mounted combat and throwing weapons really sucks.. especially for those of us who liked mount & blade.

there are a lot of little things that start to bug you if you play it enough.. like the persuassion and lockpicking minigames defeating the purpose of their respective skills. but if you play it that much, it's probably fun, right?

also, the devs definitely got a taste of the console $$$, and you can tell that the game is tailored to console players in some ways. this was expected, however.

i like it. it's not as great as i had hoped. the AI and still-lifeless NPC game world are the main disappointments. also, i installed the OOO mod and a couple of others before even bothering to play, because i knew i would like it more that way (from my experience with morrowind mods). if your computer can run it, it's almost worth the money to see the graphics. certainly a good buy if you liked morrowind (just don't expect anything revolutionary).

Lucjan

07-06-2006, 13:16

See, Big John, that kind of a reply I can respect. It's the blatant "this game sucks because I'm totally incapable of being pleased!" comments that erk me.

I think the game, overall, is a big improvement over morrowind in all but two aspects. The first being that the entire province of Cyrodiil is roughly about the same size in game as Vvardenfell (which constitutes only about 1/4 of Morrowinds actual territory). Even though Cyrodiil is supposed to be the gigantic central province of Tamriel. And the second being that it suffered the same shortcomings in ai that fable did. Both games ramped up their ai to make it sound like the npcs would be living little electronic lives...and instead they just followed the same scripts with small randomized conversations all day long. So I'd agree in the over-hyped ai improvement, but that didn't deter me from loving the game.

Oblivion is quite possibly the most (provided you have a computer that can run it graphically the way it was intended to be run) visually pleasing game I've ever seen. It provides plenty of new and plenty of old school rpg elements to make the gameplay both fresh and nostalgic at the same time. And the series continues to be the most open, free form rpg world out there that delivers an enjoyable game experience by proving once again that it can quickly addict both new and veteran players. And, at least for me, one of the few series that actually makes you feel like "Yeah...I wish real life was like this..I would so be in the (insert guild name here)."

lars573

07-06-2006, 14:11

I throughly enjoyed Oblivion, on my Xbox (FTW). Got all the achievement points for the game too. And my new Nord character is level 17. Now I'm getting the scary monsters like Land Dreughs, Spider Daedra, and Daedroths.

English assassin

07-06-2006, 15:11

To paraphrase the words of teh great Simon Bates "Its a game you either love or hate. I quite liked it".

Visually, fantastic. Gameplay good, though I never found combat that easy to master and would have liked some sort of auto-option. I turned the difficulty down a touch which at least meant I could get from city to city without being murdered by bandits much of the time. I guess it was here that the notorious leveling was catching me out, in that I still needed to turn the difficulty down to avoid being murdered by bandits at level 10. (yes I know, I suck)

Ultimately, the freeform possibilities of the world, which really drew me in at first, wound up boring me. Yeah, I could go and get another assasination job, or I could ask around in a pub and find out whose got a job to do, or, hey, I could even do the main quest, but I couldn't be bothered. I didn't care what happened to any of the NPCs, hell, I don't think I could even NAME an NPC (well, not more than a couple anyway). For me, although I think it was a really impressive effort to out that whole game world out there, something a bit more plotted would have worked better.

Also as an RPG I found the whole skills/classes thing again oddly a bit too freeform and a bit too generic at the same time? Too freeform, in that unless you are really self denying I bet everyone winds up with a fighter type (with a bit of magic, probably healing) a thief type (with a bit of magic as before) or a wizard type (with a bit of fighting). Too generic in that many of the skills are too broad, especially combat. Want to play a pirate type? Choose "blade", "marksman" and "light armour". A druid? Same choices. A thief, guess what, same choices. light infantry? Same again. Now try the same thing, but with cutlass and crossbow, scimitar and shortbow, dagger and crossbow, and shortsword and spear. Doesn't that sound more piratey, druidy, thiefy and light infantry-y?

I got my value for money from it though so no complaints. I'll probably fire it up again in a bit to finish the Dark Brotherhood quests anyway, and then put it away.

Oh, and was I the only person to find it annoying that random people who you walked near but were having nothing to do with would start shouting "STOP TALKING" or "JUST GO AWAY". Am I the only one to have murdered one or two of them and to hell with the guards?

Oh and some of the skills were incredibly tedious. Alchemy was probably the stand out there, really, could anyone be bothered? Thank god for auto attempt on lock picking too.

econ21

07-06-2006, 15:57

lars573

07-06-2006, 16:07

For me the main quest was the opposite. The first time through it really pulled me along. And was quite good.

Lucjan

07-06-2006, 23:09

Keba

07-07-2006, 10:23

The one thing about the elder scrolls that continues to boggle me, is that they give you a list of a couple dozen classes to choose from, even though they know everybody under the sun will do a custom class. lol.

For me it was Templar. Blade, Block, Light Armor, Heavy Armor, Restoration, Athletics and Security. I tried to make somewhat of a crusader-knight type character. Imperial race. Works quite nicely for my playstyle.

I usually choose a pre-made class. Sometimes I will make one, but for the most part I don't.

Oblivion's system of character creation is, however, better than Morrowind's.

I choose to answer questions. Evil answers all the way.

'You would be a Crusader.' Wha?:inquisitive:

Xiahou

07-08-2006, 00:53

The final straw for me was doing the mage guild quests when I encountered the necromancers for the first time. Great, I thought, a story arc that I can follow. But immediately you are told about the necromancers, the next guild quest sends you off somewhere else on some seemingly inconsequential visit to a count. Grrrr!Did you do that quest? It was actually quite interesting. Without giving too much away, you are sent as a pawn under false pretenses. Iirc, it does actually have to do with the necromancers as well as the count's dirty secret. :book:

Lucjan

07-08-2006, 12:32

'You would be a Crusader.' Wha?:inquisitive:

What I meant was that when I created my custom class, I tried to take into account what kinds of skills may have been important to a knight's templar of the crusades. And chose the skills I felt most closely matched.

Keba

07-08-2006, 12:43

What I meant was that when I created my custom class, I tried to take into account what kinds of skills may have been important to a knight's templar of the crusades. And chose the skills I felt most closely matched.

With the way Oblivion works, one need not bother with classes overmuch, given that you can, and pretty much do, end mastering all skills with ease.

I personally stick to magician types, whether of the thieving type or the warrior type, but never the pure magician, they tend to be pretty weak without a supporting party.

Slyspy

07-10-2006, 12:47

I agree with pretty much everything EA says. I did find the combat and the skills system much better this time. The combat was more solid (maybe even better than Mount and Blade - heresy, I know), less AI jumping around. And somehow I never found I was compelled to engage in the tedium of Morrowind's exploits to get 5x skill bonuses (eg letting a mudcrab beat you up for an hour to get your armour skill up; or leaping off rocks repetitively).

But I guess I prefer more story-driven RPGs. Oblivion was excellent up to Kvatch and getting Sean Bean to the monastery. It was intense, challenging, Oblivion itself was pretty gob-smacking first time in etc. But then you are cut loose from the main plot and free to go anywhere, do anything, returning to the main plot if you can be bothered. The final straw for me was doing the mage guild quests when I encountered the necromancers for the first time. Great, I thought, a story arc that I can follow. But immediately you are told about the necromancers, the next guild quest sends you off somewhere else on some seemingly inconsequential visit to a count. Grrrr!

Thinking back to the RPGs I'ved like most - the Fallouts, BGs etc - they have long main story arcs that hook you and then really meaty sidequests that get your interest. In Oblivion, the "optional mainquest" game design stops the main story hooking me. The sidequests are much better than those in Morrowind, but often they feel strangely bland and lifeless - perhaps because of the poor characterisation of the NPCs as EA says.

At least there was some relevance to the plot in that quest. It wasn't until the end of the Mages Guild quest that I finally gave up on Oblivion. It was just so poor. If you didn't finish the MG quests it may be worth doing just to experience the least thrilling climax ever. If only Bethseda had hired some decent writers and storytellers!

I agree with Big John, EA and Econ here. I probably got my moneys worth in terms of hours (though much of that was due to my mage having to sneak around slowly to survive in his early levels, and my tendency to ride everywhere), but I can't help but to be disappointed. This game is one that just gives you a feeling of so many missed opportunities and curious design choices. Interestingly I would probably have enjoyed it more if I was a console gamer. On the PC it could have been so much more.

Edit:
I'll keep an eye on the mods and expansions released for Oblivion and may well return in a couple of years when many of the wrinkles have been ironed out. It worked for Morrowind!

lars573

07-10-2006, 14:12

The problem with the mages guild is that Bethesda took out the unarmoured skill line. Without that robe covered mages don't stand a chance against anyone with any kind of skill with blunt or blade. I mean even you miss the smell will kill'em.

Unamroured really gave more pure theif and mage characters a chance versus warrior classes.

Kekvit Irae

07-13-2006, 06:44

I like Oblivion for its gameplay and staying true to it's Daggerfall/Arena roots. Though I do agree that I miss the unarmored skill. I used to play a High Elven catburgler-type of character in Daggerfall (where the High Elves didnt look like Discovery Daytime TV makeover mishap). But now with all the various mods out there, I am enjoying very beautifully-skinned armors (read: Dark Rose Armor and White Rose Armor (http://www.tescreens.be/oblivionmodwiki/index.php/Category:Mods)), and I especially love the black and purple look (http://www.kekvitirae.com/Kaellynn.jpg) of the Dark Brotherhood armors.

However, the main problem I have is that I have a sub-quality machine (Athlon XP 2500 running at 1.46ghz, 1gig system memory, and Radeon 9550, a motherboard that doesnt much of anything better than this). I usually have to put everything at medium or low to get much performance (AFTER tweaking the hell out of the ini files). And, considering I'll be going to college in the fall and I'm between jobs at the moment, I have no money to spare to upgrade.

All in all, I enjoy what little time I have in Oblivion, especially many of the quests. The Dark Brotherhood quests are absolutely my favorite. Brutal, ironic, gives bonuses for murdering a certain way, and very interesting concepts in the murders (I love the "Who Dunnit?" murder).

Keba

07-13-2006, 09:46

Slowdowns occur on almost every machine. Mine works like a charm, until I walk into a meadow ... then I am barely able to do anything.

That is when I discovered the TG command in the console, and I could finally get off the roads, for a change.

Lucjan

07-13-2006, 12:51

I purchased my system 5 years ago but I've kept it updated regularly..in fact the only things that are original parts of my machine are the sound card, motherboard, processor and speakers. Everything else I've updated drasticly since then, actually looking right now at buying a new motherboard and cpu to update from my 2.8 pent 4 to a 3.6 or a 3.0 dual core..

Maybe somebody can offer a suggestion on that.

I'm very, very skepticle on the dual core thing because I've heard it has some capatibility issues with certain programs, and the fact that I can't seem to find one that runs over 3.0g that won't break the bank.
I've always run on a single core processor and so far swear by them. Some unbiased input would be helpful.

lars573

07-13-2006, 15:08

However, the main problem I have is that I have a sub-quality machine (Athlon XP 2500 running at 1.46ghz, 1gig system memory, and Radeon 9550, a motherboard that doesnt much of anything better than this). I usually have to put everything at medium or low to get much performance (AFTER tweaking the hell out of the ini files). And, considering I'll be going to college in the fall and I'm between jobs at the moment, I have no money to spare to upgrade.
That right there is why I play the Xbox version. My PC is relatively new but it still not enough for Oblivion.

All in all, I enjoy what little time I have in Oblivion, especially many of the quests. The Dark Brotherhood quests are absolutely my favorite. Brutal, ironic, gives bonuses for murdering a certain way, and very interesting concepts in the murders (I love the "Who Dunnit?" murder).
Wait until you get ot the end and see what they do to Lucien Lachance. :skull:

I purchased my system 5 years ago but I've kept it updated regularly..in fact the only things that are original parts of my machine are the sound card, motherboard, processor and speakers. Everything else I've updated drasticly since then, actually looking right now at buying a new motherboard and cpu to update from my 2.8 pent 4 to a 3.6 or a 3.0 dual core..

Maybe somebody can offer a suggestion on that.

I'm very, very skepticle on the dual core thing because I've heard it has some capatibility issues with certain programs, and the fact that I can't seem to find one that runs over 3.0g that won't break the bank.
I've always run on a single core processor and so far swear by them. Some unbiased input would be helpful.
Get an Athlon 64 X2. They aren't a pricey as the FX. Unless ofcourse your married to Intel. In which case your stuck until Conroe comes along and the Pentium D's come down in price.

And compatability with dual cores is realted to older programs that aren't updated to support them. Most hardware you can get a BIOS update to use dual core CPU's.

Lucjan

07-13-2006, 21:42

I wouldn't say I'm married to Intel, I've considered amd chips..but I don't like the way they represent their processor speeds.

They say their chips are supposed to run the same or faster than their intel counterparts, but they look to me to run blatantly slower. All I'm saying is I don't see how 2.8 dual core athlon (after you mess with their stupid little formula) runs faster or equivilant than a 3.0 intel dc. Is it just because it has the name athlon in it?

Nobody has really properly informed me as to why athlon is supposedly so much more of a better buy quality wise. They always just refer to "it's cheaper and just as good".. If I can't be given a solid, backed up example of how it's clearly superior, I'll default to the intel's I've come to know and love as the brain of my computers.

Lucjan

07-13-2006, 21:48

My system specs are..

2.8ghz Intel Pentium 4 processor
2 gigs Ram
256mb Radeon x1300 graphics card

In order to replace my processor, I'm going to need to update my motherboard too, which also hasn't been touched since I bought the computer and would like to replace (for the sake of getting the pci express slots) so that I could grab a faster 512mb graphics card.

Big_John

07-13-2006, 22:03

lars573

07-13-2006, 23:27

I wouldn't say I'm married to Intel, I've considered amd chips..but I don't like the way they represent their processor speeds.
The number after an AMD CPU name, like mine an Athlon 64 3200+, is how it performs to an Intel chip of that speed. 3200 MHz, 3.2 Ghz. Essentially a 2Ghz Athlon has the same performance as a 3.2Ghz Pentium.

They say their chips are supposed to run the same or faster than their intel counterparts, but they look to me to run blatantly slower. All I'm saying is I don't see how 2.8 dual core athlon (after you mess with their stupid little formula) runs faster or equivilant than a 3.0 intel dc. Is it just because it has the name athlon in it?
They do run slower. My 3200+ is like 2Ghz. Despite what Intel would have you believe faster clocks is not a better processor.

Nobody has really properly informed me as to why athlon is supposedly so much more of a better buy quality wise. They always just refer to "it's cheaper and just as good".. If I can't be given a solid, backed up example of how it's clearly superior, I'll default to the intel's I've come to know and love as the brain of my computers.
It's the way the chips work. It's hard to explain. AMD is better for gaming because their CPU's are designed to run optimally under a heavy processing load. Like when your running a game. They can do more per cycle than an Intel chip of the same clock speed.

I'm off to google for some bench marks.

lars573

07-14-2006, 00:11

This is old but it gives a direct comparison between Athlon X2's and Pentium D's (800 series). For genral computing gaming and burning.

Here (http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-10442_7-6389077-1.html)

Lucjan

07-14-2006, 03:12

hm..well I guess I'll be hopping on board with amd then. Newegg's 9 month payoff deal would be sweet with an amd 64 x2 4800+ and a suitable motherboard, any suggestions on a good mobo?

lars573

07-14-2006, 04:20

Look at mine, the Asus A8V-E SE, here (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1964574&Sku=MBM-A8VE-32009&SRCCODE=WEBNEXCA&CMP=EMC-NEXTAG)

Also before you commit to the X2 consider this. AMD has a line of CPU's targeted to PC enthusests (code for gamers) that delivers max performance, called FX line. The latest is the FX-60. It is dual core. But if the game doesn't support multiple threads (as in a hyperthreaded single core CPU or a dual core CPU) performance will suffer a bit. The FX-60 (http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2006/01/10/amd_athlon_64_fx-60/1.html)

Kekvit Irae

07-14-2006, 11:35

It's unavoidable in any forum. On mention of Oblivion and people start a whole AMD/Intel war or performance/comparison specs.

Seriously, folks, this is for the discussion of The Elder Scrolls, not your computer. This (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=132) forum is more suited to the task at hand.

Let's get back to Oblivion chatter, please?

Lucjan

07-14-2006, 13:47

Excuse me...I started this thread. And I helped throw it off topic. It started on oblivion but developed more into a conversation on system specs because I started asking questions to people with informed answers. So, in light of that... rather than getting all fussy about the thread...do the simple thing, ignore it or make a post saying "Back to the topic for a second...(then whatever you have to say)."

And back to what I was saying, that looks like a pretty nice mobo but I think I'll take a look at newegg.com and see if I can find it on there, I don't need the bundle and I'd like to get the best cpu I can, taking advantage of neweggs 9months payoff deal.

Shahed

07-14-2006, 19:44

Anybody else find themselves immersed in this gorgeous world?

Brilliant game. I loved playing this. Did an Elf Archer, once I was levelled up, the archery was absolutely delightful. Great game. I tried a warrior but found that too Doom Nuke em style. Anyway I finished the main quest and ample others before I laid the game to rest back where I found it, in the second hand store (no pun intended).

Was a LOT of FUN, thieving all the merchants as well LOL! Started the Dark Brotherhood just for the horse, but enjoyed the rather morbid atmosphere, surprisingly.

Lots to do in that game, but it wears off quick after you finish the main quest. On the other hand, once you finish the mian quest you are finally free to roam the MAGnificient world around you.

Lucjan

07-15-2006, 13:14

I have a tendency to put the main quest off for as long as humanly possible, there's just way too much other stuff to explore and do before I go running off to save the world.

Master_Thief

07-16-2006, 12:04

Sorry to butt in here but you all seem to know what your talking about when it comes to oblivion and I need some help. I've completed the intro sequence, however when I try starting the game an error message appears stating that Oblivion needs to close, sorry for the inconvenience etc. I've looked on various forums and they all seem to point to a new graphics card. My graphics card is a radeon 9600 which is supported by the game. I originally borrowed a friends copy of the game and ran it with the ATI catalyst 3.something driver and it worked fine. Now I have a 5.8 driver. I don't know whether this is the problem. I'm considering the 6.6 driver but I don't want to go messing around with my system anymore until I know what the problem is. Any help would be hugely appreciated. Once again I'm sorry for butting in like this I just wasn't sure if anyone would respond to a new thread and this one seems pretty active.

Master_Thief

07-16-2006, 13:09

I just installed the 6.6 driver and it made no difference. Ah well.

Lucjan

07-16-2006, 13:37

Mm..little more info might be helpful. What are your system specs?
If it ctd's even with a supported graphics card and you have the latest drivers, the problem is probably not graphics card related.

I can think of a couple things off the top of my head, but I'd like to know a couple things. What are your system specs, have you tried to uninstall then re-install the game (the computer could have possibly screwed something up during the first install process accidentally), do you have windows xp service pack 2, and are you trying to run it with mods already installed or is it a clean version?

Master_Thief

07-16-2006, 14:20

My spec is as follows: -

Intel Pentium 4 HT 2.6 ghz
1 GB Ram
ATI Radeon 9600 256mb
120GB hard drive

I have windows service pack 1. I would get service pack 2 but the computer isn't linked to the internet (I'm using the family one to write this).

I also have the latest microsoft .NET which apparently is required for catalyst 6.6.

Basically I installed the game last night and immediately installed the patch. The game ran fine. I played for about an hour, had a break, then played for another hour. I completed the intro sequence and then decided to call it quits for the night. When I exited the game the second time the computer rebooted and brought up a message saying that it had recovered from a serious error. When I went to play on it today the annoying message appeared. I tried re-installing it and it made no difference. I then went through a couple of hours of moving save game files and re-installing the game with and without the patch. I must have re-installed it about 4 times! I've heard this can cause problems but I don't think that it is the root problem. A breakthrough came when I tried re-installing the directx drivers. The game worked but when I tried to load up my save game it crashed to the desktop and continued to bring up the annoying message. One possible reason is that I recently installed two new 256mb memory modules. This is unlikely though as all of my other games work fine, as does the computer in general.

Lucjan

07-16-2006, 16:15

Ok, here's what I'm thinking.
1 - Check those ram sticks you just installed, I had a problem when I first started fiddling with computer internals a couple years ago. If the ram sticks you just installed are not made by the same manufacturer as the ram that was already in your computer to begin with, you're going to have problems with not just Oblivion, but any game. You'll see it much more prevalantly in ram heavy games though. Ram is funny that way, it doesn't play well with others. So if your ram sticks are say, a 512 corsair, a 256 corsair, and a 256 kingston, then the corsairs are going to have issues with the kingston.

2 - If that isn't the issue, then read up more on your windows service pack. People with windows service packs, specifically service pack 2, consistently complain about having lots of ctd (crash to desktop) issues with all kinds of games.

If you still have problems after you check out those two possibilites, take a screenshot of the error message and post it here.

Master_Thief

07-16-2006, 16:19

Not sure if I like the sound of that. I've got two crucial 256mb modules and two nanya 256mb modules. Oh well, thanks for the help. I'll see what I can do. Cheers.:2thumbsup:

Master_Thief

07-16-2006, 17:04

It works!!! I loaded the game up again soon after the previous post just to see if it would magically work, and it did! This time round I loaded up an old save file from when I was borrowing the game from a friend. It worked fine. I suspect that somehow or other the new save file had become corrupt. Either way it works (for the moment) which is good. Thanks for your help. ~;)

Lucjan

07-16-2006, 17:45

Well, so long as it works for now, good luck with it, but be careful with those ram sticks. >.< They can hurt your pocket if you can't get around their compatability problems.

I've found a temporary fix, if your computer starts re-starting with a critical error message and giving you problems booting up, is to download Memtest 86, put it on a floppy, insert it into the floppy drive and restart the computer, windows won't load, so wait to see the scrolling numbers then take the floppy out and ctrl+alt+delete to restart the comp again.

Afterwards make sure you disable any hibernation/sleep mode on the computer. The ram will play nice together if you only use the restart and shut down features on the comp. For some reason hibernation and sleep give incompatible ram some major issues.

However...if you don't start seeing the problem to begin with, don't waste your time doing this. >.<

Hope I helped. :2thumbsup:

Master_Thief

07-16-2006, 20:25

Thanks for that. Its certainly something I'll consider if anything goes wrong. For the moment everything seems fine,all of my games are working great (even Thief 1 which has mysteriously started working since I installed catalyst 6.6) so I wont worry too much. I looked in my motherboard manual and it said that when installing new RAM I only needed to worry about matching the type and density rather than the manufacturer but in future I think I'll just go for the same everything. Oh well back to the Oblivion discussion...Man its a good game!

Cheers ~:cheers:

lars573

07-16-2006, 23:57

Ok, here's what I'm thinking.
1 - Check those ram sticks you just installed, I had a problem when I first started fiddling with computer internals a couple years ago. If the ram sticks you just installed are not made by the same manufacturer as the ram that was already in your computer to begin with, you're going to have problems with not just Oblivion, but any game. You'll see it much more prevalantly in ram heavy games though. Ram is funny that way, it doesn't play well with others. So if your ram sticks are say, a 512 corsair, a 256 corsair, and a 256 kingston, then the corsairs are going to have issues with the kingston.
That's only going to be true if your Kingston and Corsair sticks are on the same channel. If you have channel A with 2 512 kingston sticks and channel B with 2 256 corsair sticks you'll probably be ok.

Lucjan

07-17-2006, 17:15

Yeah, :wall: ,sorry, thought I mentioned the channel thing.

Master_Thief

07-17-2006, 17:36

Few thats OK then. I've got two crucial 256mb modules in one channel, and two Nanya 256mb modules in the other. The problem has returned by the way but I'm beginning to think its just the game being awkward. It worked fine on Saturday evening, didn't work on Sunday morning, worked again sunday evening, and didn't work this morning. Hopefully it'll work fine this evening. Its evidently not a great fan of early mornings, which I s'pose is fair enough.

Lucjan

07-17-2006, 19:11

Look into errors people have had with their windows service packs, that may very well be your problem. Go to google or yahoo search and check out windows service pack problems.

Master_Thief

07-19-2006, 11:26

I'm not sure if its the service pack that causes the problem, but I'm going to try and get service pack 2 as soon as possible. The game seems to work randomly as it managed to work this morning which is a first, since it usually only works in the evening. I seem to be getting a restart crash bug at the moment, but I think that is due to the soundcard acceleration being too high. It has to be said that Oblivion is possibly the buggiest game i've ever come across, but its so damn good I can't stay away.

Somebody Else

07-19-2006, 12:35

Anyone run across a problem with activating the plugins? I can't seem to manage it - and I'm loath to phone in.

Strange thing is, I managed to install the first two... A while back admittedly. Maybe it's my internet connection here...

Lucjan

07-19-2006, 12:48

I run oblivion with no buggy problems at all. If you really want to find out whats wrong with your game, do yourself a favor and look into the service pack possibly causing problems, and definately don't upgrade to service pack 2 until you know.

Master_Thief

07-20-2006, 12:53

The game seems to be stable now. I reinstalled my ancient graphics card driver and it works fine, though the graphics quality is significantly reduced. I think the newer drivers were just a bit too new for my graphics card even though they supposedly supported it. Thanks for your help.:2thumbsup:

Lucjan

07-20-2006, 12:58

No problem, glad it's working now, let's just hope it stays that way.

ShadesWolf

08-02-2006, 11:54

I got the game yesterday morning, and installed it at 12 noon.

When I looked at my watch it was midnight..... and the house was quiet.
I have turned all the setting to max and distance to as far as possible and the graphics are great. (wanted to test my new graphics card to its max)

So beautiful, I just sat and watched the grass move from side to side -awesome.

So today its down to some real gaming and the game plot.
I must deliver the amulet.....

I will have a good read of this thread tomorrow

Lucjan

08-02-2006, 12:55

Not much of any extreme importance in about half of this thread. lol. Sadly, maybe you can help revive it?

What kind of character are you running? Have you taken a good walk and explored anywhere yet? Right now I'm trying to work my way up in the arena. :2thumbsup:

ShadesWolf

08-03-2006, 11:01

I am a fighter :2thumbsup:

I have joined the fighter guild in Cheydinhal and spent a few days around that place, completed a few missions and advanced a few levels.

I havent managed to find an open bank yet to place my money, so im spending as much as I can so not to lose it.

I have now popped down to Chorrel and handed over the amulet and been sent to Kvatch. After talking to the people leaving I decided before I enter the Oblivion gate I should get a few things, so I popped down to Anvil on my horse.

Some stuff I have:
Horse
and an apron that seem bettter than armour (completed a mission in cheydinhal) had to go inside a painting and kill some painted monsters in order to set the painter free.

I have other stuff but need to sell so more stuff, like spare armour etc....
and buy some food , potions and hammers.

Lucjan

08-03-2006, 12:23

Ah, the Apron of Adroitness, it's a good set of armor early in the game, but it becomes pretty worthless later on. Nice thing just to have for the sake of collection though. When you buy a house and get the "I have the sudden urge to display my trophies EVERYWHERE" feeling. While you're in Chorrol don't miss out on the Reynald Jemaine quest, it's an interesting bit that leads to a number of progressively more difficult but progressively more rewarding quests later on.

ShadesWolf

08-04-2006, 10:03

I have almost finished my work in anvil, some interesting things went on.

- Killed some lions in a basement, that were killing some womens rates
- Killed some thieves that were robbing a shop on the harbour front.
- Rescued a crystal ball off a ship, those ghosts were really nasty, but I got a nice sword as a reward.
- finally killed some female thieves in a farm who were getting men to the farm and then robbing them.

I have one more task to complete, I ran into some nasty ones by an old ruined temple and need to clear them out before I head back to Chorrol, to do some more fighters guild stuff.

Lucjan

08-04-2006, 12:32

Kraxis

08-04-2006, 13:16

If you're heading straight to Chorrol from Anvil, be careful you don't run into "name of town escapes me right now"...but it's an unmarked town until you find it, got about 12 buildings, half of them burned down, full of crazed religious fanatics who worship the Deep Ones (the Dwemer...dwarves).
Yes... Their bulging eyes made me wonder what they were... They were actually pretty scary. First time I got gaught in their cavern, the next time I fought them in a basement, but then I was prepared. But it was still a tough battle.

I just can't seem to finish the quest with the lizardgirl. I got her home and all that but the quest isn't finished, eventhough I have talked to her mother. So now I just ignore it.

I'm btw a Redguard Battlerogue. Yup, custom class. Blade, Marksmanship, Speechcraft, Heavy Armour, Security and Athletics, I think. He is a powerhouse in a fight, and with all the damaging postions I make he has a lot of hurt his opponents with. Helped me a great deal in fights with Paint Trolls (figure out where they are yourself) and in the Arena.

The only enemies I really can't get to grips with are Wisp-o-wills and the various ghosts. I simply haven't got any magic weapons (I'm up to Ebony now), and I can' really afford them either. My own magic is far too weak to hurt them enough, especially the Wisps seems to be indestructable and I have to run from them.
I have had many weapons which were magical, but I can't seem to get their power back up again when all their charges are used. And that goes really fast! I used the sword I got from the crystall ball on the ship, up in one and a half fight (besides it was rather weak compared to my Glass Longsword at the time).

Lucjan

08-04-2006, 14:39

Purchase a silver weapon somewhere. Silver does a nice job of killing ghosts, undead and some other evil things. I haven't tried it on will-o-the-wisps yet.

My class is custom too, Imperial Acolyte - Blunt, Block, Heavy Armor, Light Armor, Security, Restoration, Athletics.

Basically a paladin-ish character. I have a tendency to take heavy shields, greaves, gauntlets and helms with light cuirasses and boots. It's a decent balance without sacrificing too much inventory space for those enormously bulky heavy cuirasses. And I stick to single handed blunt weapons, the doublehandeds are just way too heavy for my taste.

Somebody Else

08-05-2006, 07:23

In terms of dealing damage, learn a few basic spells, and then enchant weapons (being able to soul trap is handy - as well as having a decent stock of soul gems). Anything enchanted, even if it's out of charge, will be able to damage ghosties. As will anything silver and daedric.

Me, I go with a sword that cumulatively increases weakness to magic attacks, as well as stealing health. Generally, most things are dead within a few hits (and I'm up to full health) as the amount of health stolen increases exponentially. If I don't feel like using too much of my weapon charge up, I can always hit them with a spell - which will be that much more effective because of the cumulative weakness to magic on my weapon.

Exact stats:
Weakness to magicka 100% 5 seconds, Absorb health 10 2 second, Absorb fatigue 20 2 seconds, Soul trap 2 seconds. Means I can regain my health, fatigue and get a new soul to recharge the sword, all in one tidy package.

Another handy thing to get is Azura's star. I won't tell you how to get it or exactly what it does (you can find out easily enough if you want to).

As for my characters? I don't have any particular tastes with armour - the best I can find will suffice. Though, I do stick to light for boots - sneaking and all that. I prefer swords to blunts, I like to be able to hit fast (the enchantments I have encourage that sort of behaviour. A bow is handy as well, (with similar enchantments to my sword).

In terms of elemental damage, fire is pretty much the most useful I reckon - great against vampires and frost atronachs, only the dunmer and fire atronachs are resistant (but not with sufficient breaching spells). The others can be handy in certain situations, but nothing beats seeing a skeleton explode when hit by a fireball.

ShadesWolf

08-05-2006, 09:51

QUESTION GUYS ?

I am at Chorrel and have cleared out an old mine.

While in the mine I can see anothor room behind some rock, is there anyway to destroy the rock, or do I have to find another way into the room, ie via the city towers.

Also some of he caverns look like they have a brick wall build, I cant make my mind up if this is a wall or the city foundations. Am I being to clever thinking its foundations.

Lucjan

08-05-2006, 12:47

It is the castle wall foundations and that room is in one of the basements somewhere, though I haven't personally spent much time investigating it. I saw it and kind of passed it off as something to return to later.

Kraxis

08-07-2006, 11:11

Yeah I figures silver weapons would do damage, but I have progressed so far now that they don't do enough damage. And because I'm lugging around a full set of ebony armour I haven't got much room in my inventory for another heavy weapon (mace).

But at least I found a Bow of Silence, and have met a person that can recharge magic weapons. Now I suppose I can take those damn wisps on. I just hope it can damage them enough, as they are killing me literally when they get near.

I haven't figured out those soul stones so after having carried some twenty around I sold the bunch. Are they used just like Welkyr Stones?

Since I'm a Redguard and have long since ignored the magic line I can't just turn to become even a weak caster. I can just barely use my healingspells (and aren't they nice).

Somebody Else

08-07-2006, 11:15

Kraxis

08-07-2006, 11:27

Soul stone.

Cast soul trap on some beastie. Kill it whilst it's got the purple clouds on it. Presto, filled soul gem. Now use the filled soul gem to recharge a magic item, or create one.

Obviously, different sized souls require different sized gems.
Ahhh... Thought it was like that. Have noticed those 'Trap Soul' spells back in the cities, but I'm far too weak to be able to train those spells.

Somebody Else

08-07-2006, 15:48

Ahhh... Thought it was like that. Have noticed those 'Trap Soul' spells back in the cities, but I'm far too weak to be able to train those spells.

Just run around continually casting the lowest level detect life spell. You'll be up to 25 mysticism in no time. Or pay a trainer.

Lucjan

08-07-2006, 18:12

I may be wrong, because I haven't joined the mage's guild yet, but it was my understanding that a mage in every city guild can recharge your enchanted stuff. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

You may want to do something like..enchant a really low weight item like an iron dagger with silence for about 10 seconds, then as soon as you whack the wisp with that switch out to your better weapon and take the bugger to town.

EDIT - I started a new game and I'm undoubtedly going to run into those things on the way to Lleyawin for a fighter's guild quest. I'll try a few things on my way and let you know what works.

ShadesWolf

08-13-2006, 11:14

Another question ? BANKS

how do you get them to work ?

Lucjan

08-13-2006, 18:05

Banks? Not sure I even know what you're talking about. I haven't seen any banks in Oblivion yet..

tibilicus

08-13-2006, 20:25

Got thsi game recently so far I love the grpahics (on high of course) and the story aswell as the game play. A few questions though. Before goign any further on the main quest I went a exploring and ended up in Anvil (obviously didn't go to far :P ) Anyway after doing a few quests there im going to take a visit back to Kvatch and go through the Oblivion gates. What should I expect inside and any tips? Also I have an enchanted cutlas called readweave or something. How do i make it enchanted again if it runs out? Can I join more than one guild at once? And fianlly any easy way to make money? I only have around 400 gold at the moment.

Thanks

Tib

Lucjan

08-13-2006, 21:49

There's a big difference in what you should expect when you go through those gates depending on the difficulty you have the game at and your current level.

To re-enchant items you can have them re-charged for a price at any mages guild, just find their re-enchanter, or you can do it yourself with soul gems.

You can join as many or as few guilds as you want. :2thumbsup:

Easy money...hmm. I can think of a few ways but I don't know what your skills are. I took alchemy and that helps me make alot of money really quick. I run around town buying all the dirt cheap food items that have "restore fatigue" as an ability, and mix them all together until I have about 40 restore fatigue potions. (My alchemy skill is 40 and all 4 alchemy tools so they're decent potions..) Then haggle with a merchant who has mediocre mercantile skills with a decent amount of gold to take them from me for 50% value, like the merchant in The Main Ingrediant in the capital. He's only a journeyman in mercantile and can purchase up to 800 gold worth of crap at once, and I get around a 600 gold return on what I sell him, and probably only spent 160 gold at the most.

There's other ways too, just need to know what your skills are.

econ21

08-13-2006, 22:42

Even at level 2, Kvatch was really hard for my character (and she is not a wuss, by any means) and people say it gets harder as you level up. The Oblivion gate itself was not the problem, although it is an awe-inspiring and wonderful experience if you have never been through one before. The problem is the town afterwards.

My advice is to pace yourself, save often and fight tactically. Given the levelling, I found most of Oblivion's combats "just right" for my level (unlike Morrowind, where if you take the wrong turning, you can die in a second or two) - Kvatch is the only exception so far; it's hard. But it is a very rewarding experience - the high point of my game so far.

Lucjan

08-13-2006, 22:53

What kind of difficulty do you have your game set at econ?

I don't like the difficulty the game starts you out with, it's not reasonable. What with at level 7 it takes about 25 hits with a fine steel long sword to kill an imp...an imp, those things are so small I should be able to hack them in two with one swing. And don't even get me started on goblin skirmishers. They hit like black bears and don't go down.

So..personally, I tone the difficulty down to a level I deem realistic. Imps die in 2-3 hits for me and goblin skirmishers usually take about 5-6. Bandits and such around 5-6 if they have light armor, more with heavy.

econ21

08-13-2006, 23:07

I'm playing on the default difficulty level and as I said, find it very well balanced, except Kvatch. For some weird reason, the computer created countless replays of me being slaughtered by the last monster in Kvatch. My son thought it very funny viewing them. Dad opens door and dies. Dad opens door... and dies. Opens door,... dies. Opens door, sneaks, shoots...dies. Opens door, shoots, runs, is chased, dies. etc etc.

Lucjan

08-13-2006, 23:22

I would find it a bit more balanced if I didn't constantly run into situations like this.

*Opens door, two goblin skirmishers with steel shields and steel maces instantly charge, one clobbers me making me stumble, while I'm unbalanced the other bludgeons me to death.* :skull:

So I tone it down just a tiny bit. If I run into a situation like that now I usually at least have a fighting chance, sometimes I win, sometimes I have to run away fast and heal, then go back and finish the job. Sometimes, but rarely, I'm not quite fast enough and the buggers catch me and I die.

econ21

08-13-2006, 23:32

I confess I've "powergamed" my character a little - I try for +5 endurance and strength during each level up.

tibilicus

08-14-2006, 00:47

Well i got passed Kvatch as mentioned very rewarding. I personylt hough found the oblivion gate harder than Kvatch. With Kvatch you have quite a few guys around you to protect you and act as meat sheilds. In the Obliviong eat the guy with me did a great job of getting stuck:furious3: Anyway I think I will now take a break from the main quest maby explore a little as im still yet to go to the imperial city among many other places. Also on the whole leveld enemys thign I do think it's a bit silly how even the lower level creatures become stronger. As they say though aint nout wrong with a good challenge :2thumbsup:

Also any good ideas for a mount? I as thinking of stealling a unicor but it isn't very masculine is it?:inquisitive:

Lucjan

08-14-2006, 01:18

I tried to hop on a unicorn once and the bugger turned around and corned me to death. I guess it was a wild one. :oops:

Anyway, I have a preferance to bay horses from Anvil.

Question for you guys regarding treasure. When you come across unique items in dungeons, do you sell them right away or do you have a tendency to horde them like I do? I like the idea of being a "private collector" and therefore horde every enchanted item I find into my house. (Or, in my situation right now because I haven't purchased a house yet, my backpack, I'm running around with only 100lbs of free space until I get the 5,000 I need to get the anvil house and do a little 'housecleaning'...if anybody knows what I mean in regards to the anvil house.)

ShadesWolf

08-14-2006, 06:17

BANKS !!!!!

I found one in Cheydinhal, but its always closed.
where do I put cash, so not to loose it.

As for easy money, go to Skingrad, this guy thinks hes being watched, do a few things for him, and he pays well. First nights money = 150 for just watching somebody.

Lucjan

08-14-2006, 06:59

Calm down, you can't lose your money. I've been walking around with over 4,000 gold for almost a week game time now, you can't lose your money unless you spend it. I think this bank you're talking about, which I've never noticed before, is probably for items you can no longer fit in your inventory or house. Maybe somebody else knows more.

Lucjan

08-14-2006, 07:01

Oh, and that guy, you don't even need to actually watch those people, just make sure you're back in town behind the chapel by midnight to give him your report. So long as you tell him something he forks over the cash. :2thumbsup:

tibilicus

08-14-2006, 12:29

I used to find a good way to make money was to rob the mages guild in Anvil. With alll there little magicy stuff you can collect about 200 gold. not really a steady money flow mind.

English assassin

08-14-2006, 12:53

Join the theives guild and steal stuff. Honestly have you people no dignity? Theiving is the way to go.

I'm giving the game a second chance and like Lucjan I find the toughness of low level monsters a bit annoying. I ocassionally like to kill people for fun (err, only in the game, and I AM playing an assassin, its just he gets bored if he hasn't killed anyone for a few days) and its a bit un-immersive when you sneak up on, say, a servant, get in a sneak attack with a decent longsword, and find that your hardened assassin is apparently incapable of getting a quick kill on a dishwasher (who then runs off and calls the cops, and you get the "stop right there, criminal scum" speach in that prissy voice, and I SWEAR if I hear that much more I am going to set the difficulty to minimum and kill every [Samuel L Jackson swearword] guard in the city.).

You can tone the difficulty down a bit but its not ideal. Reluctantly I have now resorted to powergaming a bit, like SA, but I resent having to do it. Putting on heavy armour that you otherwise never use and standing still to be knocked about in order to boost your endurance when you level up is dumb. And I tried to build a magic using character but the whiole leveling up issue seemed almost insoluble (ie if you select mainly magic skills as your major skills, which would be sensible, you will surely level up so fast your stats will not keep up, but selecting mostly non magic skills and then, say, sitting down for a potion brewing and sneaking about session when you want to level up is gamey in the extreme. And you still have the issue of having to get the repair hammers or heavy armour out if you want your endurance to increase, which isn't very Harry Potter is it?).

Lucjan

08-14-2006, 16:17

Then go with light armor, or no armor at all and spam the reflect spell. ~;)
EDIT - Thieving? Bah, I make twice if not three times the money as I would thieving with none of the hassle making my potions and dropping them in alchemist laps at 55% of their worth. Most of the junk people have for you to steal is just that, junk, none of it is worth anything. But to each his own. ~:cool:

English assassin

08-14-2006, 16:28

Alchemy is cooking. No self respecting thief/assassin wastes his time with it. You just need to find the right people to steal from.

Whats this about reflect spells? What are they and how do they get your endurance up?

Lucjan

08-14-2006, 16:32

:laugh4: Honor among thieves I see. :2thumbsup:

Reflect spells are, if I'm not mistaken, a mysticism spell that reflect x% of physical damage back at the opponent. Similar to spell absorption soaking up spells without you getting hurt. They bring up your mysticism, not your endurance, but it's a thought in one way of getting around having to powergame your endurance. Or, really, when you think about it, you don't need to take any armor at all to raise your endurance. Just make sure you save a spot in your major skills for Block, and block constantly. Blocking raises endurance.

English assassin

08-14-2006, 17:21

Oh. I haven't paid that much attention to the spells, I really should try running a mainly magic using character.

I must admit I've been doing the block thing but I feel guilty. I've found the woman with the scamp curse thing in that city in the south, and I've been slapping a few of the scamps and then holding block when they slap back. After a bit I kill them, repair my shield for armourer points and added endurance, heal any damage, and slap the scamps that have appeared and replaced the dead ones. Rinse and repeat. Wearing heavy armour speeds it up because that's linked to endurance too.

I've been upping my hand to hand in the same way, after all, an assassin needs good hand to hand, right? Not sure what for mind you but it just seems a good idea. maybe I'll forget my sword one day or something.

This is extremely lame though. I'm only doing it for a couple of level ups I promise

tibilicus

08-14-2006, 17:42

Is it jsut me or are those monks or what ever there called you find in some dungeons very annoying. They run away casting the little spells and summonign all sorts. If only I got money for every time one of those thigns owend me..:laugh4:

Lucjan

08-14-2006, 18:55

I'm not very fond of the conjurers either. Run the buggers into a corner, but be careful to keep them away from unexplored hallways, they'll lead you right into an archer or a fighter and then you're screwed. Nothing like trying to deal with a scamp, sorceror and another bandit at the same time, too much damage and not enough ways to stop it all.

Kraxis

08-15-2006, 00:39

Level 25 now... Sadly you don't get any unique text for leveling past level 20.

I finally got around to Soul Trap, only to find that at this level most enemies are too big to store in my GRAND soulstones. Crap!

I only ended the Kvatch mission (the castle itself) when I crossed the level 20 mark. Until then I and my buddies had been wiped out down under the chapel.

I use potions a lot, have a major stash of them with me. Everything you can imagine a fighter would need. All the different hurting potions (health, frost, fire and shock), paralyze resistance (for when you meet Spider Dreamoras), Restore Fatigue and Health (sometimes combined for a very useful potion), health potions and various shields... But with my armour and shield (that Chorrol thingy... superb equipment), I hardly ever get hurt anymore.

It took me ages to discover that Sneak only advances if you sneak around unseen by people who are actually near you. I tried running around at night in the streets for nothing. Now I find it to be a very effective weapon for striking first. I mean 2x damage at first level, 3x at the next and so on... Damn! And it is fun pickpocketing things from sleeping people, especially keys.

Slyspy

08-15-2006, 15:49

If you try a magic user once you get to a high level and have access to the University you can make some seriously powerful spells which make wearing armour or swinging a sword utterly redundant. The only thing you cannot do using magic better than you can otherwise will be fixing things if you need too (for some reason there is no "Repair Item" type spell). Trouble is before that you suffer from the problems described by EA.

Keba

08-15-2006, 17:30

I see nobody mentioned the Arena for a quick infusion of cash. An average fight as Grand Champion brings in over 2000 a week.

My personal favourite solution to conjurers is a ring granting 30% chameleon, another ring with nigh-vision, a dwarven bow, some steel arrows and a sneak attack, preferrably in the head (it drops them immediately ... I think). If you can, get some poison as well, paralisys works like a charm.

I'm playing an assassin, level 30-ish.

I would also suggest the Thieves' Guild quests, not for the money, but for the cowl you get at the end. When you put it on, anything you do gets ascribed to the Grey Fox, and not you. No more guard problems for me.

tibilicus

08-15-2006, 20:08

Any one got some nice "recipies" for soem useful potions?

Wan't soem basic healling potons as I have a tendency to walk around dugneons starting a fight with every thing i see ;)

Tib

Kraxis

08-15-2006, 20:14

The Arena is certainly a great way to earn money early to midgame. But once a week (as Grand Champion) is too seldom for me. I just sell my loot. But sadly there are none that can pay the actual cost of them, which I find to be stupid. I have to pay the full price, plus whatever percentage the merchant demands. BAH! I hate to sell those lovely enchanted weapons for less than half of what they are worth. The best merchant I have encounted is actually the top Thieves Guild fence in Imperial City, and he only go to 1500...

I thoguht about being a magician of sorts, but in the early game I found that and marksmanship to be horribly underpowered.
Now I use my Markmanship for sniping the first shot for the sneak-bonus.

tibilicus

08-15-2006, 22:42

Well I had to start the whole thing again thanks to spending a frustrating hour or so trying to get amrtin to waynon priory. One time he got stuck and didnt know were were at cloud temple or whatever it is then the other times Jaufree wouldn't lead the way. Does any one know a way f there is one to skip past the introduction I cant face those sewers again..

econ21

08-15-2006, 22:45

It may be too late, but I think you can make a save as you are about to leave the sewers. When you leave, the game gives you a chance to rethink your character creation. So if you save at that point, you never have to replay the sewers again. (Although I quite liked them - only did them once though.)

Lucjan

08-15-2006, 22:59

I saved directly prior to leaving the sewers, thats the way to go.

As far as nice potion recipes, give me a little while and I'll go dig out my book. :laugh4:

tibilicus

08-15-2006, 23:34

Finally got to cloud ruler temple. Now I can go and enjoy the game :)

Slyspy

08-16-2006, 00:57

Any one got some nice "recipies" for soem useful potions?

Wan't soem basic healling potons as I have a tendency to walk around dugneons starting a fight with every thing i see ;)

Tib

You can get decent healing potions easily. Home made potions are always better and lighter than stock potions. My mage had a really good one which gave him a shield effect and restored his magica quickly which was extremely useful when his back was against the wall. Made from Flax and Asco Bog Beacon Cap IIRC.

tibilicus

08-16-2006, 13:05

Gah why did no one mention that now infront of every major city theres a nice big fat Oblivion gate. Ah well I need some combat practise.:laugh4:

tibilicus

08-16-2006, 13:06

Also has any one tired the MP mod yet out of interest?

ShadesWolf

08-16-2006, 18:59

Also has any one tired the MP mod yet out of interest?

I read about it, and thought it looked interesting, but havent tried it yet.

Lucjan

08-16-2006, 19:05

There's a multiplayer mod?

tibilicus

08-16-2006, 20:00

Yup will dig up a link. More a co op mode midn but still fun :)

tibilicus

08-17-2006, 00:25

Any one have any Idea what a varlar stone or something along those lines does? I got it in a very good raid of a dungeon apparently it's worth 1000 gold so im persuming it has some use.

Tib

Slyspy

08-17-2006, 00:32

Varla stones recharge all your magic weapons at once (it is in the manual IIRC). Nothing that you can't do with a couple of home grown soul gems though. You can flog it for the money though, which I recommend. The first time you sell one is a trigger for an associated quest (which I never got around to doing).

Kraxis

08-17-2006, 03:43

No, that it an artifact you only find in a few places... I find the varlas to be useful... I run out of soul stones all the time, or else I can fill them properly (Grand with petty is quite lousy) or otherwise I don't have a proper sized stone. Too erratic for me. Bt since I run around with two longswords, a bow, two staffs and a dagger I have plenty use for a varla. That's some 12000 points of recharge right there.

Lucjan

08-17-2006, 20:49

:dizzy2: :dizzy2: I feel somehow dwarfed...I have a strange, maybe masochistic tendency to not use enchanted weapons, only armor.

Kraxis

08-17-2006, 23:15

:dizzy2: :dizzy2: I feel somehow dwarfed...I have a strange, maybe masochistic tendency to not use enchanted weapons, only armor.
Well... I'm well advanced. I can carry almost 500 points of stuff. I can afford to lug these things around. Couldn't initially of course.

But the Sigil Stones are pretty nice in giving you enchantments. My Daedric Longsword, Daemon Burner, is one such upgraded weapon.

tibilicus

08-18-2006, 14:14

Can some one suply me with some info? I am half way towards my first house which will be that ugly shack in the imperial city. Not such a ncie house but hey it's got a good location and I liek the water front.:2thumbsup: . Anyway the main purpose is to store my items as I like to carry two sets of armour. One for genrel figthing and one for when I run into something big. Used toc arry 3 but droped one as it just made me to heavy and dungeons were a night mare as I could hardly carry all my loot. Anyway I am currently using the blade armour and steel armour but was jsut wondering the best place to get the next level of armour.

Thanks

Tib

econ21

08-18-2006, 14:26

I think armour drops and availability - like most other things in the game - are scaled to your level. You'll get the better stuff as you progress.

I can't imagine carrying two sets of armour - I am maximising my strength but still really struggle with inventory (almost always a real pain in CRPGs). I'd just wear the best armour you have, but a house to stash stuff in is still good.

tibilicus

08-18-2006, 17:42

Only 1000 more gold to go. Also you are right but I can carry quite alot of stuff. Normaly to sets of plate armour and about 5 wepons.

Lucjan

08-18-2006, 21:02

How do you have room for any loot?

I don't carry any extra armor, and rarely, if ever, will I carry more than two weapons that I actually expect to use.

English assassin

08-21-2006, 10:45

How much is a house? Are they cheaper in one place than another, or is there anywhere else safe you can stash stuff and not lose it?

I'm carrying a few alternate weapons, and because each does different and potentially useful things I don't really want to sell them, but the weight really racks up. I've made a few nudist trips to carry loot out of forts but its getting tedious. Somewhere to leave some kit would be handy.

Kraxis

08-21-2006, 16:31

Houses go from cheap (2000 in Imperial City I think) to hugely expensive (25000 in Skingrad).
Until you get furniture in the houses there is only a bed. The more expensive the house, more furniture you can buy and the more it costs individually.

Bravil has a nice cheap house, but the Imperial City house might be one of the best along with the one in Anvil (a manor for 5000 + quest).

English assassin

08-21-2006, 17:11

Keba

08-21-2006, 19:33

Cheers. I'll pop along to the estate agents in the Imperial city then, cheap and sleazy will do me just fine. Might contemplate taking Vincente up on his offer to become a vampire once I've got somewhere to rest my head during the day too... (has anyone done this? I sort of feel I should, but then its going to make using merchants a real pain).

I'd advise you to decide well, because the offer won't be around too long.

And the house in the Imperial city for storage would be about 3100 gold, if you buy the storage area in the Three Brother's. Of course, you can always just drop items on the floor, or get a mannequin mod.

As for the other housing, the Fighter's Guild, when you finish it gives a deal of storage, so does the Mages' Guild, and the Thieves Guild gets you a house, but is fiendishly difficult, even if you're a thief, but well worth it.

There are also a variety of mods that allow housing and storage, including a bag of holding mod (http://www.tessource.net/files/cache/4065.html), if that suits your tastes.

English assassin

08-22-2006, 10:01

Yeah, I know I'm going to have to kill him, I'm waiting until I make my mind up on the vampire thing.

Thanks for the bag of holding mod that looks ideal for avoiding nudist house removal trips to clear dungeons of loot. I got the house in the imperial city for 2000, its an overrpiced hovel, and every inch of the floor is covered with gear I will probably never use again but can't bring myself to throw away, so in that respect its very much like my first flat in real life...

Lucjan

08-23-2006, 02:51

Somebody Else

08-23-2006, 18:23

I hate running into random caves and suddenly discovering that they're full of vampires. I avoid contracting porphyrric hemophelia like the plague. :sweatdrop:

I know what you mean regarding the gear you'll never use again. :laugh4: I can't bring myself to sell it because I feel like I'm selling a relic. I kind of like the idea of having a personal museum. :2thumbsup:

The porphyric haemophilia isn't too much of a problem - just don't sleep until you've bought/made/found a cure disease potion and drunk it. Personally I love running into vampire dens - I'll usually keep going back in after I've allowed them to respawn - lots of decent loot, and some decently tough humanoid enemies to fight (monsters are a bit boring). Going in with a flaming weapon is tantamount to cheating, but I do it anyway.

Personally, I like to keep unique stuff. Random stuff, I'll sell (and, indeed - except very early on) any non-enchanted weapons that aren't daedric (exception, when I'm trying to raise my armourer skill beyond 50 - so I can repair magical items). I like to use high-end kit at all times. Certain quest rewards are levelled, but the appropiate mod will cause those items to increase in power as you level up - so that at level 20 say, you'll have the level 20 version of the sword you acquired at level 4.

Lucjan

08-23-2006, 21:14

Kraxis

08-23-2006, 22:16

I really love the Thief Guild and Dark Brotherhood missions... Cloak and Dagger (respectively actually). I especially love the Darkies missions. Quite complicated, yet rather simple and fun to go through.

Kraxis

08-23-2006, 22:20

I'm still looking around for the hidden uniques like you could find in Morrowind. You know what I mean, the "Sword of White Woe" from morrowind for example.

It's amazing how useful some of the uniques in Oblivion remain even after you've progressed a great deal through the game. The Weatherlight Circlet (possibly incorrect name, haven't looked it up just now) for example. Takes 10% off of some specific magic types. I mean, 10% is 10%. Way better than taking the full brunt of the magic.
I have an amulet that reflects 15% of all magic... Pretty hefty, and my Chorrol shield reflects physical damage (and I have a ring that adds to that too), so standing around with some shield potion active while blocking will eventually kill any melee enemy.

AntiochusIII

08-25-2006, 06:47

Okay, don't wanna bring up the old question (actually, I do :inquisitive: ) -- but how does Oblivion compare to Morrowind?

I've got this *gut* feeling that I wouldn't like this sequel at all compare to Morrowind's grand immersion and downright exotic atmosphere. So many rumors are floating around about a thousand annoyances and, quite frankly, much fewer factions -- and fewer towns, a smaller land -- to play around compare to Morrowind. Oh, and the generic fantasy setting compare to the strange Morrowind architecture and people. I mean, I don't wanna go into the game and find out that the legendary Imperial City is smaller than Vivec/supposedly gigantic Cyrodiil smaller than that little island of Vvardenfell/the mighty Daedra can be killed at level 1 or something like that. I just want to feel the sheer scale and massiveness of it all like I used to when I started Morrowind.

How wrong am I?

Keba

08-25-2006, 10:38

Hm, Cyrodiil is smaller that what it was described as, but I believe it is larger than Morrowind.

The cities are not very large, most of them, however are about the size of the larger cities in Morrowind with the Imperial city being about the size of Vivec. The cities are, of course, not the only thing, but the quick-travel tends to prevent people from exploring ... there are quite a few little villages (most of them the size of Seyda Neen), which include some rather interesting quests (like the village full of invisible people).

Thing is, the levelling system allows you to kill important stuff early on, but, the only things you'll encounter are the slightly weaker monsters (thus, you won't be encountering fully armoured Dremora, but Scamps, etc). In theory, you could finish the game as level one ... which is why you get a mod, usually the Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul which solves that particular problem.

The generic fantasy setting thing, well, it's kinda true. While each town has it's own architecture, they are, for the most part, less interesting than Morrowind's. Although I somewhat prefer the vista of the Imperial city compared to the funghus of the Telvanni.

Factions, there are only four factions with importance. Plus, there's the Arena, and the Blades (but the Blades are campaign related, and thus not a faction really). After those (main ones) there are countless others, from the Knights of the Thorn, a society or two, etc. Most of those minors are usually connected to a single quest, but most of those quests are interesting (except for the Knights of the Thorn one, find the Knights in the Oblivion gate, get them out again), but then, I never investigated further, so they might have a continuation.

I would however suggest that you try it out at a friends' first ... it is a style some people like, some don't, and see for yourself.

econ21

08-25-2006, 11:16

I've got this *gut* feeling that I wouldn't like this sequel at all compare to Morrowind's grand immersion and downright exotic atmosphere.

I think you've picked up the correct vibes and if it bothers you, don't buy it or try a friends. Morrowind had great atmosphere - it was like some wierd almost sci-fi setting. It also felt really big. Oblivion feels like the Forgotten Realms and personally feels pretty small; the province almost feels like a lakeside. It sounds like you'll be really disappointed.

Personally, I find Oblivion the better game but Morrowind is the more impressive virtual world.

Lucjan

08-25-2006, 12:48

Morrowind was more impressive atmospherically because it was fresh, a new perspective on an rpg realm, but Oblivion takes the old and the new of generic and moderately original and makes it into the fanciest looking (provided your comp can handle the stress of it's graphics on high) rpg to date, and darn fun to play too. But, like you said, if you're looking for the innovative and the undone, don't expect something incredible. Cyrodiil is your typical metropolitan rpg realm.

AntiochusIII

08-25-2006, 22:05

Thank you for all the responses. :bow: Oblivion is, after all, a sequel to one of my favorite games -- the idea of playing it at my friend's first is really cool; I'll have to try that sometime then. Perhaps the genericness won't bother me too much, especially if I let it by long enough for all the interesting mods to pop up as they did in Morrowind. New semester's opening so that shouldn't be too hard.

Lucjan

08-26-2006, 12:30

*whimpers at the thought of new semesters and losing valuable gaming time*

tibilicus

09-03-2006, 19:28

Well I got 2k togehter for the imperial city waterfornt shack. Does any one know were I can find the guy to but it of?

Thanks

Tib

Lucjan

09-03-2006, 20:15

Go to the market district in the imperial city, amongst the clutter of shops in there there's a building called "Imperial Trade Commission" or something similar, go inside and there will be a women behind the counter in front of you. One of her conversation options deals with the house. :2thumbsup:

tibilicus

09-04-2006, 19:27

well after 15 hours of Oblivion it ends for me. It made my pc go funny and my desktop icons disapaear so i tried a systemr estore which made it worse. Ended up formating (twice) as the first time sp2 messed it all up again). Would be tempted to start again but ym saves are gone.

Have fun oblivion players and play on for Tib..

Lucjan

09-04-2006, 20:11

I doubt it was Oblivion itself, much more likely some stupid microsoft product you have because microsoft said you needed it when you didn't. Windows Service Pack 2 for example.

tibilicus

09-04-2006, 21:07

Aye sweet, blisfull, oblivion can not be blamed. But XP itself for being so awful.

Lucjan

09-04-2006, 21:10

lol, see. Damned microsoft and their faulty operating systems!

Kraxis

09-05-2006, 23:06

Ah yes... the exploration of Cyrodiil.

There are indeed a lot of small villages with interesting quests attached. That one with the invisible people is pretty funny, while the odd cult village is downright hard and pretty scary.

And a lot of small inns scattered around the world have quests too. And the entire east side of the river is without cities, so there is little reason to go there, but if you do you will finds forts, caves, mines, shrines and ruins in masses. Even villages and lonely houses. Pretty nice to be sure. But the world could certainly have needed a High Elf or Wood Elf city in the large forested area to the southeast of Imperial City. There is simply not enough reason to go there otherwise. And the High Elves certainyl lack their own city. So too do the Bretons (where do they hang out?).

Lucjan

09-06-2006, 00:06

All the races have their own little home provinces outside Cyrodiil, and the Bretons are in High Rock. Unless my history is hazy. lol

Kraxis

09-06-2006, 01:33

Yes yes, but notice that each race more or less have their own city in Cyrodiil.
Could it actually be Anvil that is Breton? Or is that Redguard given their lands (Hammerfell) are just to the north?

In any case one or two more cities would help a great deal. The place just seems terribly underpopulated comapred to the many legends about it's power and how it conquered all around it.

Sir Moody

09-06-2006, 09:31

...Wood Elf city in the large forested area to the southeast of Imperial City.

ask and ye shall recieve

Solace (http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=4581)

this mod was released a few months ago and i havent played it yet (i have around 80 mods installed it takes time to get through them all :laugh4: ) but its basically a Wood elf city to the south of the imperial city

Kraxis

09-06-2006, 13:55

Cool!

It looks great.

professorspatula

09-06-2006, 17:01

After the snore-fest of Morrowind, I wasn't interested in this game. However, after seeing this great review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMIoAAnZt_4
and learning you can throw shoes on top of other people's houses, well that's sold it for me. As soon as I get myself a decent graphics card or just sort out the mess of my current machine, I'll get it.

Xiahou

09-08-2006, 05:06

Anyone look into the total overhaul mods that are out now? They address scaling issues along with spawns and loot complaints that many have.

The two big one's Ive heard of are:

Adventurer's Oblivion (http://www.bncomputing.com/ob/adventurers.html)
and
Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul (http://jorgeoscuro.googlepages.com/home)

I havent tried either- but after reading the two homepages, Im leaning towards Oscuro's. Anyone tried either?

[DnC]

09-08-2006, 07:11

Xiahou,

You could always look into Francesco's leveled creatures/item mod (http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=268). I find this to be a very good and balanced one.
Note: There are two downloads. One is the item/level mod and the other a third party - although compilated (?) by himself and balanced to fit in with the main mod - weapons and armours mod (optional). If you have any of these weapons or armours as standalone or atleast seperate from this mod, get rid of them and use his weapons and armours mod only. First install the main mod, then weapons and armours. When installing the main mod you can also select to install a folder with screenshots of all the weapons and armours that are in the third party weapons and armours mod. This way you can view the weapons and armours and decide if you do or do not like to install this additional mod.

His mod allows for many choices on what you want to use and what not.

Francesco's latest thread thread (http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=554786) on the official TES forum (http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/) (lots of info).

He regularly updates his mod, so keep an eye on it for newer versions. FYI he creates a new thread for every new version.

Xiahou

09-08-2006, 07:57

Thanks for the info. :bow:

Another question for anyone who knows... I recently tried to install some custom races for my wife. Trouble is, they seem to break race-based dialog- meaning the little twerp in prison doesnt talk to you so the emperor never shows, ect. leaving you stuck in prison when using a custom race.

I found a supposed 'custom race fix' mod- but it doesnt seem to work. Is the mod broken or is it a load order problem?

Lucjan

09-08-2006, 12:33

Just curious, because you mentioned it, is it possible to sneak back into the prison later and kill that little bugger?

Keba

09-08-2006, 12:45

Yes, in the Dark Brotherhood. You have to sneak back in the way you went out, then take him out, preferably without being seen by the guards around the place.

And the best thing is, you do it the day before he gets out ... and his reaction is very, very entertaining when you talk to him before you kill him.

Lucjan

09-08-2006, 13:39

awesome :2thumbsup:

But I'm not in the db, so I think I'll just do it anyway.

English assassin

09-08-2006, 17:57

And the best thing is, you do it the day before he gets out ... and his reaction is very, very entertaining when you talk to him before you kill him.

Nuts, I just offed the little rat, one arrow from the shadows through the bars, and he never even saw me. It never occured to me to talk to my victims. I'll have to rename my character Tuco ("When its time to shoot, shoot - don't talk")...

Lucjan the DB quests are fun, though obviously you do need to be running an ever so slightly amoral character...

Lucjan

09-08-2006, 18:39

I tried the first one once just to see what it was like with a character I didn't really intend on keeping. I couldn't bring myself to kill that poor sleeping old guy.

Kraxis

09-08-2006, 20:21

If you talk to him you will learn that he has done something pretty bad. How bad you don't know, but he isn't innocent.

I have only just reached a mission where people are definately innocent. An that is pretty far along.
There is one a bit earlier where people might be innocent, but they are said to have offended the contractor pretty badly.

The DB missions are the best by far... I love them! They are deep and rich, complex and pretty open.

Xiahou

09-08-2006, 21:17

So far, there was only one DB mission that I really didnt feel good about carrying out... I dont wanna ruin it for anyone, so I wont say what it was- but I actually had to stop and think about whether I wanted to do it or not.

Keba

09-09-2006, 10:08

Lucjan

09-09-2006, 12:45

My money mantra goes like this.

"I'm off to loot the ayleids, to the ayleid temples I go!"

Kraxis

09-10-2006, 21:41

The only DB mission I had problems with was the one outside Bruma, after you begin working for the Speaker directly ... the one on the small farm.

Not that I had much trouble ... you just chant the money mantra until the feeling goes away.
That's the one... If you talk to Target 1 it gets even worse. I haven't done it yet, preferring to look out the other targets first, but just haven' gotten around to do it.

Monarch

09-12-2006, 19:04

Just got this today for my birthday, I *think* I've just finished the tutorial, I've jsut beat up some goblins and rats and met up again with the Emporer guy, then I quickly saved and had to go to dinner. So not sure if that is the end of the tut...

Well anyway I've gone for a good ol' brute force Redguard and I chose that he was "born under the sign of the warrior" w/e that does lol, but anyway I'm going for a nice big honking tank of a guy :2thumbsup:

What sort of things should I be picking up? Because I've got [blip!] loads of rat meat and pick locks atm lol. As well as a leather shield, the katanga sword from the deas guard, bow n arrows etc. Just need some tips of what to drop what to take :)

Only problem with game so far is when I first ran it I had xfire running, it first of all showed me the list of contacts online, jsut flickered up in game, did the a couple more times then minimised, then minimised a min or two later, then just CTDd, then I ran without xfire and it played fine. :idea2: Thoughts?

Oh and final thing, I'm currently running automatic settings "medium" apparently, but I'd really like to anti alias, how many FPSs will I lose if I do this? I'm already runninfg FSAutoStart which closes like 10 processes, sets Blivvy to high priority, defrags my memory etc in an attempt for more fps, in the tunnels there was no lag.

I AA in Rome but blatantly this is more of a hog than rome lol.:sweatdrop:

Lucjan

09-12-2006, 19:39

Not sure what to tell you for the system specs. Just that from my experience anti-aliasing doesn't look as good as just leaving it on the hdr/bloom lighting.

As far as loot goes. Pick up anything and everything with low weight, and pick and choose high weight items based on their value or your preference to whether or not you want to use them....hmm..arrows are your best friend early on, even for non archer characters. :2thumbsup: You score 40 arrows through a dungeon run and you've got 40 gold..unlike trying to sell probably 4 or 5 leather cuirasses for the same amount, and at an enormously higher cost to your weight limit.

What major skills did you pick? Or did you not pick them yet?

Monarch

09-12-2006, 21:42

I've had Mr. Tibilicus giving me some tips lol.

I first of all switched to a Nord, only took 2 secs as a I had a saved game, Tib said theyre more rounded. I'm currently in anvil and in mage/fighters guilds. Tried to kill some stranger in an abandoned house to get in DB, but failed and got sent to jail lol. Where can I get some decent armour? Currently got the stuff Joffre (sp) gives you form his chest.

Lucjan

09-13-2006, 13:16

You need to level up a bit before you actually get a hold of anything decent. Level 10-12 will usually have you start seeing mithril in shops or dead bandits, if you use light. Dwemer armor if you use heavy. Before that, it's all leather and steel.

Monarch

09-13-2006, 15:50

Ok thanks for help. I was going to just have a wander around today, not bother with quests too much. Mayabe even head to imperial city for my first taste of the arena :)

GiantMonkeyMan

09-13-2006, 17:01

hey could anyone recommend a longish and fun quest that isn't part of the main guilds (since i've done them) and also what do people put together to get the 'best' potions for use? i'm a khajiit with dreadlocks just because i thought it looked so cool :laugh4: and i haven't done any of the main quest apart from up to finding baurus in that pub... i can't be bothered and since the side quests seem more fun i have been going for them instead

Keba

09-13-2006, 18:26

I suppose the search for the Akaviri stronghold would work ... it is the only fairly long non-guild quest I can think of now. It fires when you buy the house in Bruma (I think) ... anyway, the duchess wants you to find an Akaviri artefact. It's more of a convoluted test of finding your way around the mountains using terrain features (as a rule of thumb, I don't use the directional thingy), but the end of it is entertaining.

econ21

09-13-2006, 19:54

The sidequest that stood out the most for me was Shadow over Hackdirt. Talk to Dar-Mar in Chorrol or just explore around the town until you find a distinctly unfriendly village (Hackdirt).

Monarch

09-14-2006, 11:54

I just got into the thieves guild, and while I was at it I ended up killing someone which got me into the DB :)

I want to do the DB quest, first one is to kill a guy north of Bravil or Bruma, can't remember which atm. But tib was talking about poisons and stuff to kill him, but when I try to use my poisons before it says "poison fine steel longsword" which is my current weapon. So how do you actually poison somebody?

Lucjan

09-14-2006, 12:30

To my knowledge you can only apply poisons to weapons and then hit people with them, the poison transfers instantly, or a spell that poisons the target. If I'm wrong, someone let me know.

Monarch

09-14-2006, 13:30

Ah ok thanks mate, sorry for all the questions, but theres just so much to this :D

Lucjan

09-14-2006, 13:41

No problem, it's a big game, and there's a lot to learn and discover. :2thumbsup:

Sir Moody

09-14-2006, 13:48

Once you are in the DB you can buy deadly poisoned apples - if you didnt notice the NPC's are scripted to eat once in a while and they will sit down at a table and eat the food in the bowls - place one of these apples in the bowl and the eater will die when consuming the apple - enjoy :skull:

tibilicus

09-14-2006, 16:17

Poision apples? Im sure some one aid take aay all the food froma characters house and jsut leave an apple. Eventually there meant to eat it and die. :P

Lucjan

09-14-2006, 20:52

English assassin

09-14-2006, 22:20

Interesting, I didn't know about that.

I'm not a fan of the knight's quests though. The lleyawin knights order I mean. I was given the oppertunity to join, but it just seems like it's really cheesy, especially the intro quest just to get introduced to the order with the orc who thinks she's a knight.

Yeah, I did that one by mistake. Slightly reduced my evilness points a bit, I thought, and I decided I wasn't going to be no count's lame assed knight.

What was really funny though was the next quest I did was the Deadra quest where you have to cast the spell to make the countess of leyawins dinner party nudist. Which, as you may know, turns all the guards in the castle hostile as soon as you cast it. As I legged it out through the hall what should I see but my orc Knight "buddy", who I had already decided was not going on any more quests with me and who was just hanging around in the castle, getting hammered by a load of castle guards as a result. Just as I made the door she went down.

Sithis would be proud of me...

Xiahou

09-15-2006, 02:04

hey could anyone recommend a longish and fun quest that isn't part of the main guilds What about the "Hunter's Run"?

Xiahou

09-18-2006, 01:16

Here (http://psychodogstudios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5140) is a pretty comprehensive list of some great mods for Oblivion.

Im running about 10 mods in total right now and the end result is, imo, a much fuller game experience. I'd definitely recommend "natural faces" and "natural environments" as they both make the game look much better. Natural faces quadruples the size of human race face textures (from 128x128 to 512x512) with not real performance hit that Ive noticed. "Generic faces" also works well with this one imo- since it lets you reset the face sliders all to 0 before making any changes. Natural environments looks very nice as well, but I do think you lose a few frames in performance due to everything it adds.

I'm also giving Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul a whirl. You can download a trailer for the mod here (http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Videos.Detail&id=94) if you want to get an idea of what it's likebefore you try it. I havent played enough of it to form my own opinion yet- but it looks interesting.

Kraxis

09-20-2006, 10:47

What was really funny though was the next quest I did was the Deadra quest where you have to cast the spell to make the countess of leyawins dinner party nudist. Which, as you may know, turns all the guards in the castle hostile as soon as you cast it. As I legged it out through the hall what should I see but my orc Knight "buddy", who I had already decided was not going on any more quests with me and who was just hanging around in the castle, getting hammered by a load of castle guards as a result. Just as I made the door she went down.

Sithis would be proud of me...
That was a fun mission...

When I did it, I failed ther first cast and only managed to hit the countess. But since I was hidden in the shadows, she believed it was her servant (tall woman standing behind her), so she got up and began to beat her up. I mean she really gave her a hiding. The others got up at that an began to beat the countess, and duringthe confusion I cast the speel again and got the result I needed.

As I fled I saw guards chasing the countess around the castle, clearly intent on killing her. Oh yeah... I was evil and had great fun.

Lucjan

09-20-2006, 12:36

:2thumbsup: Hahaha, awesome way to frame the nobility.

Kraxis

09-20-2006, 19:47

Yeah... I could hardly believe my luck. It was so fun to hear the countess yell curses at the poor servant (she is that female advisor or something, one you would believe was trusted), and that woman's screams for help and eventual surrender (she had been beaten so badly that she yeilded).

CountArach

09-21-2006, 06:20

lol, that is such an awesome story.

Lucjan

09-21-2006, 12:59

:dizzy2: Thats a bit of a surprise too, I can't say I've ever seen the computer yield, they usually just run away.

cannon_fodder

09-24-2006, 00:01

I didn't like it too much when I played it. The side quests were poor, some of the gameplay was redundant and stupid (persuasion minigame, anyone?), there's some graphical weirdness and laziness (the poor and disjointed display of distant terrain, door entrance/exit), only bows for ranged conventional weapons (the arrow physics weren't quite as amazing as Bethesda indicated, or sufficiently so to justify the lack of other such weapons).

However, it beats most games out there. I probably will buy it once I get a better PC. I found aimlessly wandering around to be by far the greatest gameplay experience available in the game.

Lucjan

09-24-2006, 01:55

Isn't that really self contradictory? If you didn't like it, and you're going to whine about all these silly, tiny minute details nobody else seems to have a problem with...why buy it?

Xiahou

09-24-2006, 04:34

some of the gameplay was redundant and stupid (persuasion minigame, anyone?)I thought the persuasion mini-game was pretty stupid too. So I replaced it with this excellent mod (http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=5403). :2thumbsup:

From the mod summary:

Instead, this mod implements persuasion through regular dialogue. You are free to pick any option you want, and either try the same one over and over or alternate between many. Each time you pick an option, you have a base chance of success based on your speechcraft skill. Then, your chances are modified based on the current disposition of the NPC. The higher their disposition, the harder it is to raise it further. Finally, each option has an individual modifier based on a number of factors (see the Modifiers section below), making it easier or harder to use that option with a particular NPC. For instance, you will have a much easier time coercing a farmer than you will the Arena Grand Champion, and the burly Nord in the local tavern will be more impressed by your boasting than will the Countess of Chorrol, etc. In this way, there is some amount of player skill and role playing required for successful persuasion rather than randomly clicking options.The persuasion mini-game seemed so gimmicky- and it was total cake to boot. I like this much better as it adds to immersion rather than detracting from it.

cannon_fodder

09-25-2006, 01:01

Isn't that really self contradictory? If you didn't like it, and you're going to whine about all these silly, tiny minute details nobody else seems to have a problem with...why buy it?
No, it isn't. I did say "it's better than most games out there". It's worth playing, but not a masterpiece. And I'm definitely not the first to complain about those issues (which I hardly consider "minute" anyway).

That mod sounds excellent Xiahou, I'll probably use it when I buy the game. Thanks for the heads-up.

Big King Sanctaphrax

10-14-2006, 19:02

Lucjan

10-14-2006, 19:12

Try vanilla out for a little while first before you add anything. Get to know what you think you want to see added before you add it. ~;)

Keba

10-14-2006, 19:34

You can always add mods later ... while opening your save, you'll get a warning which you can safely ingone, and the mods contents will be in.

Big King Sanctaphrax

10-14-2006, 20:43

Oh, alright then. I was just wondering if there were any mods which indisputably improved the game, and I should install straight away.

Slyspy

10-16-2006, 02:35

You can always add mods later ... while opening your save, you'll get a warning which you can safely ingone, and the mods contents will be in.

Thats not entirely true. The more cosmetic mods and those which add content can usually just be added as you go along (use Oblivion Mod Manager so that they load in the correct order, to identify any major conflicts and to ensure that all the data is being loaded correctly). Larger scale mods that change fundamental game mechanics (especially if they play around with quest NPCs/locations) tend to be screwy if you just crowbar them into an existing game and require some work with third party programs like Wyre Bash to get them working properly.

I run a load of mods that have altered all sorts of facets of the game. Vanilla was bland, boring and pointless. Now I have the game which I wanted.

Xiahou

10-16-2006, 03:42

Hi guys, I finally got around to buying this now that my PC can handle it, and I was wondering-should I install mods before I start the game, and if so, which ones? Or should I try playing vanilla for a bit first?
I posted a list of mods that someone compiled a few pages back- it was pretty comprehensive. Some mod you might know you want right off the bat, just based on their description. Others, you may have to you may have to play the game first to appreciate (or not) the need for a mod.

The beauty of Oblivion on the PC is how virtually anyone can customize it to their tastes with mods. :2thumbsup:

econ21

10-16-2006, 08:59

I run a load of mods that have altered all sorts of facets of the game. Vanilla was bland, boring and pointless. Now I have the game which I wanted.

Just out of interest: Which ones do you run and why? (I've never tried any.)

AntiochusIII

10-17-2006, 07:08

Oh, alright then. I was just wondering if there were any mods which indisputably improved the game, and I should install straight away.While I am an advocate of "try vanilla first" approach when it comes to Elder Scrolls game (it was intensely satisfying when I finally was able to pick up empty paper without reading it--a satisfaction that won't be there without the sacrifices and irritations of picking up scrap papers like they're books), I'd say that the only mods you should try to put in on the first round are the small ones that remove annoyances. When there are a lot (and it has to be a lot) of people commenting like "Thank God for this mod!" and "The [insert expletive irritation here] is gone! I'll have your baby!" for an extremely simple, one-feature mod you can usually deduct that the issue is probably irritating in the original game.

Having not owned Oblivion myself, I don't know which would be like that. An example I mentioned of Morrowind would be very simple things like Alternate Starts, Removing "E..e...excuse me Nerevarine" greetings, and make empty papers like ordinary objects. Sanity-savers, these are called.

I won't suggest going on a full "change the fundamentals of leveling" kind of mod right off the bat.

lars573

10-17-2006, 15:28

The things people complain about most are the persusion and lock picking mini games. Neither of which are major things, you can avoid persuasion via bribes and lock picking is easy to figure out. And the whole level scalling thing. In Oblivion if you get to a high enough level Bandits will be wearing Glass armour. Oh yeah and PC players whine about the interface to no end.

Lucjan

10-17-2006, 16:04

I'm a pc player, and see no problem with the interface.

How could someone complain about the interface?

x-dANGEr

10-17-2006, 16:32

I guess by saying "omg the ui sucs!1 omg lam omg omg"

Lucjan

10-17-2006, 21:35

Well, not quite what I meant.

lars573

10-17-2006, 23:19

I'm a pc player, and see no problem with the interface.

How could someone complain about the interface?
For PC users it's the second most popular complaint. After level scaling.

Lucjan

10-18-2006, 13:56

I just fail to see any problems with the user interface. I've been playing TES since Arena through Daggerfall and Morrowind into Oblivion. It's always been the same interface, so I don't understand the complaints.

lars573

10-18-2006, 16:41

PC (some) users see the interface in Oblivion as being taylored for use with a controller, rather than a mouse. Or at least that what I've gleaned. The only version of any Elder Scroll game I'll play is the console one.

Lucjan

10-18-2006, 16:51

Some pc users are too brainwashed by fps's...

BDC

10-18-2006, 22:33

Some pc users are too brainwashed by fps's...
Or by having fonts and an interface which work properly at higher resolutions and with a mouse?

Lucjan

10-18-2006, 22:49

I don't know what you're talking about, I've never had any problems with the interface and the mouse, or with the resolutions.

Xiahou

10-19-2006, 01:29

Or by having fonts and an interface which work properly at higher resolutions and with a mouse?
There's a UI mod that shows much more map territory on the screen and also makes the text and icons smaller on the menus.

I've gotten so used to it that I had forgot I installed the mod until I read these comments again.

BDC

10-19-2006, 13:35

I don't know what you're talking about, I've never had any problems with the interface and the mouse, or with the resolutions.
Try some of the interface mods lying about. You'll be shocked how much better it looks, how much more accessible it is, and how much easier it is to use.

Lucjan

10-19-2006, 19:52

But..I like the interface, it holds true to the previous three games.

Placid Tramp

10-20-2006, 11:33

But..I like the interface, it holds true to the previous three games.

I'm sorry but Oblivion's interface is nothing like Morrowind's. In Oblivion you have to navigate through dozens of different menus, where you can only see 1 thing at a time, which are obviously design for a gamepad. In Morrowind a right click & everything is there in resizable windows - you can interact with the world barely noticing the interface.

I have found that the Btmod does improve this however.

GiantMonkeyMan

10-20-2006, 15:10

the mod i mainly play is oscuro's oblivion overhaul.... it is very different to vanilla tes:o and adds loads of new things... my only problem with it is that it is hard when starting up and towards the end it is quite easy; the bandits etc have unchanging levels and stats i think... another thing is you have to start a new game to play it (since so much new stuff has been added)

ChaosLord

10-21-2006, 16:24

Hi guys, I finally got around to buying this now that my PC can handle it, and I was wondering-should I install mods before I start the game, and if so, which ones? Or should I try playing vanilla for a bit first?

Theres three mods I would recommend to start off with.

First is Francesco's Leveled Items-Creature Mod. Which tweaks the leveled item/creature system to make more sense and adds some other optional features like hardcore combat/loot. Also has an option addon with alot of new weapons, armor, items, and creatures added. Heres the link to the mod:
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=268

Next is BTMod by Tikigod and Beider. Its a mod that improves the interface to make it easier for PC users. It isn't huge tweaks, but rather alot of small ones to get the desired effect. You can also simply take what features you want and leave out those you don't if not all of the tweaks appeal to you. Heres the link to the mod: http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=25

Finally there is the Satellite Cyrodill mod by Jason Krushar. This doesn't affect many things, just the map in your journal. The guy took screenshots of the continent from high up in the CS and stitched them together. The result is an aerial-overview map of sorts in place of the dull map that used to be there. Perhaps from a strictly-roleplaying sense its too much information, but it is still great to look at it. Heres the link to the mod:
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=1071

Those are the main ones i'd recommend, the others are really just small tweaks or addons like the SpellIcon Replacement or the Marie Elena mod.

lars573

10-21-2006, 16:48

All this interface stuff means squat to me. I play the 360 version. But I'm looking forward to the Knights of the nine pack that on the way. Adds a whole new quest line (as well as all other official Oblivion content). The kinghts of the nine. They are the polar opposite to the dark brotherhood. In fact if you gain any infamy you get booted out of the order and have to start over.

Slyspy

10-22-2006, 02:05

Just out of interest: Which ones do you run and why? (I've never tried any.)

A late reply, but here you are:

Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul - Complete gameplay change, many new features
Attack and hide - Sneaking how I want it
Natural Weather - Better weather effects
Darker Nights - Obvious
Darker Dungeons - Obvious
Trainer Book - For saving time
Natural Vegetation - Prettier forests
Natural Habitat - Insects etc
Deadlier Traps - Traps that kill
NoMoreAnnoyingMessages - No more loading area messages
Dyseso's Light Ingredients - carry more potatoes!
Brighter Torches - See further in the darker dungeons
Unlimited Rings - Wear more than two rings if you like
Better Imperfect Water - Prettier water
Fathis Fix - Bug fix (not in the patch)
Muffin Display Rooms - A display room linked to from all owned houses
No Psychic Guards - Stealing things like it should be
MarkAndRecall - Saves having to backtrack through cleared dungeons
Improved Lava - More realistic lava
Callsteed - Stops you losing your horse
More Shields - Obvious, more stylish shields
Remove Spell Potions - Remove obsolete spells
MapMarkers - Leave markers at visited locations (eg vampires here etc)
Better Gardens - Prettier garden
SeveriansKatanas - Many katanas
Bankmod - A bank!
Slof's Horses Essential - Prettier horses that don't get killed
Burning Kvatch - Kvatch eventually stops burning
Rain - Hear rain when indoors
Mages Guild Quest Fixes - Bug fixes (not in patch)
MD's Saddlebags - Load your horse with junk
Town Ceremonial Armour - Armour for guards
House Map Markers - Fast travel to your front door
VA Better Gold - Shiney!
Realistic Force Medium - Better combat physics
Orcish Kabuto - Better Orcish helm
Intial Glow - Stops magic weapons from glowing
DEJ Harvest - Harvested plants disappear and later regrow
Keychain - tidies up the hundreds of keys you gather
Quest Award Leveling - Levelled goodies level with you
Tamriel VWD - See forts and ruins from afar (less pop-up)
Cliff Better Letters - More interesting random letters
Myths and Legends - Some serious quest/hardware for higher levels
Vibliribland's Epic Dungeons - Tough dungeons for higher levels
Illumination Within - Towns and buildings light up at night
Living Economy - Changes to pricing, merchant gold etc
Alternate Dwarven Helm - Look less like a bronze duck
No Merchant BArter Chatter - Annoying repetative chatter removed
Visually Enchanted - More abracadabra to you magic weapons
Dark Green Glass - a less cartoony glass armour
Short Grass - Find dropped items, see wolves, improve fps
Alternate Night Eye Shaders - More intersting effects (eg predator, infra etc)
Low Poly Grass - Improves fps dramatically
BTMOd - A higher res interface, menu screens etc
Elven Cartographers - A snazzier world map

Plus a whole load of other texture replacers, landscape mods etc etc. Alot of the graphical mods (especially the Tamriel VWD one) hit fps, but if you can run it are so worth it. Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul (OOO) turned the gameplay into the game I wanted, and has alot of features and options. Some of the mods (like OOO and Harvest) run additional scripts which may tax a weaker CPU.

I use Mod Manager to ensure that conflicts are at a minimum and not gamebreaking, and also to ensure that the mods load in the correct order (ie the correct ones override the others).

frogbeastegg

02-23-2007, 13:17

The Spartan (Returns)

02-24-2007, 00:11

here is a mod for improving Oblivion graphics:
Gamespot- Oblivion Make it Pretty (http://www.gamespot.com/features/6148788/index.html)

it a worth to look at.
other mods I dunno, i'm searching for good mods too.

TevashSzat

02-24-2007, 13:59

The knights of the nine mod just adds a new quest line for the knights of the nine as well as the small little addons that was being sold like horse armor and the wizard laboratory or something like that. The expansion was announced a bit back though. Forgot the ame, but I remember it took place in the mind of that one god who was a bit crazy and had you to the quest where dogs fell from the sky at the end

sapi

02-24-2007, 14:14

@froggy - there's a huge amount of mods that you might want to run.

I highly reccomend OOO, but only after you've played through on default settings.

LandscapeLOD fixer and other graphical mods are a must too.

Just have a look around the official forums and you'll find something to your liking.

Navaros

02-28-2007, 14:44

I just started playing this on the PC the other day. For first 10 hours I was disappointed about why the graphics looked so bad, and then eventually I discovered it was because I had Bloom on instead of HDR, HDR which looks a million times better.

I closed the first Oblivion gate then did the Siege on Kvatch quest.

Now I'm beating up Martin repeatedly to boost my levels then sleep for free. I just can't resist the golden opportunity it seems to be.

Have some questions:

I got to Journeyman of Blade and then disarmed Martin. I put is his dagger in my inventory and noticed it was broken. When I dropped it again, now I notice Martin will never pick up his dagger. He used to pick it up some times before it was in my inventory, but now that it's been there he never will.

1. Is there any way to force Martin to pick up his dagger?

2. How are you supposed to make NPC allies repair their weapons, especially if you can't disarm them and then repair it for them and give it back to them?

3. If I wanna sell the Count's ring from the Kvatch quest, will that keep the Kvatch quest on my quest log forever? That would really suck. The quest reward from the soldier sucks though, so I'd rather sell the ring instead of completing the quest.

4. As a Warrior, how do I heal ally NPCs? I've been leving up Restoration enough to use some target other heal spells, but that seems like it will be really slow healing even if I get it high enough. Surely there is a better way to heal ally NPCs than this?

5. Why does it usually say "you have no room to drop this item" when I try to drop something, and how come sometimes it shows the item floating in front of a hand icon, but all I can seem to do with that is rotate the item in the air or take it back into my inventory? This is extremely annoying. :no:

frogbeastegg

02-28-2007, 21:10

Anyone know where I can download the interface mod without having to register? Or indeed, where I can download any of mods without having to subscribe?

The Foolish Horseman

02-28-2007, 22:18

Old, old question I know, but what mods do people recommend for the frog who got Oblivion to test out her new desktop? It's been four months since the question was last asked, so I'd expect there to be new mods to look at, and evolutions of older ones.

Also, is the 'Knights of Nine' expansion worth getting? Any comments on it at all? There was a specific thread for it, but it was tiny and didn't last long.

Yeh frog, get knights of nine on dvd from your local retailer

It has all the other official pay for quests and they really add even more replay value to the already infinite replay value of oblivion

Navaros

02-28-2007, 23:56

I wanted to comment on some of the previous posts in this thread.

I can agree with the criticisms of the Speechcraft mini game. What they should have done was give you an actual conversation to have and you choose the best response. But I gather that would get really repetitive very quickly because they wouldn’t be able to fit in enough conversation options to make them not repeat often. Plus they wouldn’t be able to fit that much voice-acting in, as half the disc is already voice-acting according to what I’ve read. So I ask, what realistic thing would you have had them do instead of the Speechcraft minigame? By the way, this mini game is extremely easy to win at once you get the “Free Rotate per round” option which I got very very fast after I learned how the game works. So if in some cases it’s players complaining about it because they can’t win at it – that’s not really valid in my view.

Coming straight from being a hardcore Guild Wars player, the interface problems in Oblivion were immediately very noticeable to me. Oblivion’s interface suffers from a serious case of console-itis.

Here are some examples of things wrong with the Oblivion interface, compared to the silky smooth Guild Wars interface since it’s the other modern RPG I am most familiar with:

1. Oblivion has no mini-map like in Diablo II or Guild Wars. In Oblivion you have to literally stop playing every time you want to check where you are. In terms of design, this is a major step backwards of about 10 years or so.

2. The world map is stuck in the in a small portion of the center of the screen, which makes navigating it a major pain. Compare this to Guild Wars in which the world map takes up the whole screen and is easily scrollable in any direction so you can see a very large portion of at any one time. Or in Guild wars you can zoom way out and see a huge portion of the map that way. With Oblivion, you have to scroll around small portions of the map in an extremely aggravating way and “pixel hunt” for where you want to go. Once you’ve experienced the vastly better design of Guild Wars’ world map, the failings of Oblivion’s map system is instantly extremely annoying, at least for me. Probably wouldn't bug me so much if I wasn't so familiar with Guild Wars having implemented the same concept only way better.

3. Not enough hotkeys for menu items. There needs to be hotkeys for every single menu in the game. And each of them should be mappable by the player. Most modern games have this, why can’t Oblivion? I realize Oblivion has four menu hotkeys that are stuck on the F1 -F4, but four is not nearly enough and there is no reason they should be bound to "F keys." Definitely console-itis is the only reason for this failing.

4. Can’t sort inventory items based on what you currently have equipped, making repairing or selling gear a major pain. Can’t sort inventory items by important vs. useless items, ie: my armorer hammers are buried in-between a ton of useless junk. No excuse for this really, all it would take is another button or two at the top of the menu.

I must say, I find the bounty system to be highly ridiculous. I’ve been beating up Martin repeatedly to level up, with absolutely no witnesses around, and he definitely hasn’t gone anywhere to tell anyone. Now I have over 1500 gold worth of bounty on my head, because supposedly the guards in this game are omniscient. Also don’t like how the guard who died on the Count’s bed came alive again after I got from level 2 to level 8 by beating up Martin in the nearby hall. Not sure if that means it’s impossible to truly kill anyone in this game, or just impossible to kill guards. Either way, that’s really lame. And a dead guard who’s corpse I looted shouldn’t have magically came alive again, nor with all the gear on him that I looted from him. Even worse, when I killed that very same guard who already was killed by skamps, I got a murder bounty on my head that contributed a lot to raising my bounty by a couple of thousand. Killing a reanimated corpse should not be murder or cause a bounty, especially when there are no witnesses.:thumbsdown:

Having said all that, based on having closed the first Oblivion gate, done the first Thieves Guild quest and done the Siege on Kvatch and Battle for Kvatch Castle quests, I’m very impressed with Oblivion. Coming from me, that’s really saying something because I’m extremely critical and hard to impress. I’m usually the first guy to harshly criticize vastly popular games and say they are not very good if I think they don’t live up to the hype, but Oblivion does live up to the hype. Except for with the AI, which is very bad instead of “groundbreaking” like it was advertised. Ie: NPCs never heal themselves. NPCs never repair their weapons. NPCs often won’t pick up their own weapons off the ground. I had the soldier NPC in the first Oblivion plane get stuck literally running into the bottom of a cliff wall forever because he was trying to reach a skamp enemy that was higher up, but couldn’t figure out how to stop running straight ahead into the cliff wall for all eternity.

But in Oblivion the story presentation, graphics, voice-acting, gameplay and immersion factor is all phenomenal.

Raiding a castle with other Knights during a fierce thunderstorm – is definitely the most immersive thing I’ve experience in an RPG. Period. If there is another RPG that can match this level of presentation or immersion then I’d like to know what that game is because I’ve never heard of it.

The Arena in Oblivion is awesome. Best Gladiator Arena simulation I’ve seen in a game, better than KOTOR's I think. Too bad after you win enough it stops letting you have matches vs. other humanoids – that’s the only thing wrong with it. :no:

Compared to Guild Wars, Oblivion is infinitely better. If they were movies, Oblivion would be The Godfather and Guild Wars would be 8 Heads In A Duffel Bag. I’m guessing that comparison would hold true with Oblivion vs. any other game out there, but if not please do enlighten me with specific titles that have better presentation and immersion than Oblivion does. If Oblivion is not a masterpiece, then what game is?

Of course, I am keeping in mind that perhaps my love of Oblivion is presently over-inflated because as of yet I haven’t gotten to the “meat and potatoes” of the game, ie: exploring and killing stuff in the wilderness, or doing a lot of the quests. I’m hoping that when I do that the experience will hold up better for me than it has for some of the posters in this thread.

Kekvit Irae

03-01-2007, 00:46

Actually, comparing Oblivion to Guild Wars is like comparing a sports car to a pair of sneakers. Both get you to where you are going, but they are completely different things, and one of them smells like you stepped in dog poo. :tongueg:
A more accurate comparison would be Oblivion to Gothic III, or Guild Wars to WoW.

econ21

03-01-2007, 02:08

I’ve been beating up Martin repeatedly to level up, with absolutely no witnesses around, and he definitely hasn’t gone anywhere to tell anyone.

Isn't "Martin" the Sean Bean character - the rightful king you are supposed to restore to the throne? And you are secretly beating him up? And praising the story and immersion? :dizzy2:

Sorry, I'm just teasing you - what you do with your computer is none of my affair.

But in Oblivion the story presentation, graphics, voice-acting, gameplay and immersion factor is all phenomenal.

....

I’m guessing that comparison would hold true with Oblivion vs. any other game out there, but if not please do enlighten me with specific titles that have better presentation and immersion than Oblivion does. If Oblivion is not a masterpiece, then what game is?

Oblivion is very good in terms of graphics and presentation, that's undeniable. For example, it beats NWN2 hands-down on those things. The other criteria, I am not so sure about.

The story was unimpressive - not a patch on the Kotors, for example. The voice-acting I disliked - Sean Bean and Patrick Stewart are top notch of course, but otherwise too few recycled bland American voices. They did not sound like fantasy characters - in fact, I am not sure what they sounded like; hammy North American actors is the best I can come up with. Again, the kotors are the natural reference point - the actors voicing Bastilla, Jolee, etc are right up there with Hollywood's finest, IMO. It never occurred to me that they were anything other than the characters they portrayed.

Gameplay - well, the melee combat is superb for a First Person game, I agree. I actually like it better than that in the much lauded Mount & Blade (which I love as well). It has less frantic clicking and gives less power to quantity as opposed to quality. Some of the quests are nice - I really liked the creepy abandoned village you find with an underground community. But overall it's too free-form an experience for me. And the quests still feel too small and self-contained. It can't compare to the wonderful main story arcs and fascinating sidequests of BG2 and FO2.

Immersion is pretty good, except when you talk to the annoying minor characters. Wandering around - or rather stumbling through - Oblivion and Kvatch was excellent. But again, the free-form nature of the game just meant it did not grab me. Someone said Morrowind was a world simulator, not a game, and I think there's still an element of truth of that about Oblivion.

You asked what was better. Perhaps the best "modern" ropleplaying game I would say does immersion better than Oblivion is Vampires - the Masquerade: Bloodlines. I hated the premise of that game (being a vampire - I always like to play lawful good, paladin types) but people here said it was great so I gave it a go. I started off lurking in the sewers, full of self-loathing, feeding off rats. But gradually the game sucks you in and you start to really identify with your character, so that when someone from your former life recognises you, I reacted out of character just as my vampire was supposed to do in character - I recoiled from her out fear that she might "out" me and drag me out of my new life. I ended the game leaping on foes with abandon and joyfully draining them of blood in combat. The voice acting and side quests were fantastic - the guy who takes you through in the tutorial section of Vampires is a more vivid character than anyone in Oblivion. Presentation was perhaps patchy - a few bugs - but nothing a bit of patience cannot overcome and graphically it was gorgeous (Half-Life 2 engine).

Raiding a castle with other Knights during a fierce thunderstorm – is definitely the most immersive thing I’ve experience in an RPG.

Sounds like fun - what quest was it? Kvatch? That was a corker. I agree very high up there with other RPGs. If only the game had sustained that strong central story arc throughout, instead of dissipating it with the free-form go anyway, world simulator thing. But I guess that's like criticising a lion for eating meat - it's what Elder Scrolls games do.

EDIT: BTW, I loathed Guild Wars. I can't play it for more than half an hour before wanting to rip my brain out at the sheer inanity of it. But then I've just done the bland PvE stuff, not the PvP stuff that people get excited about.

ChaosLord

03-01-2007, 04:08

frogbeastegg: The best site around for mods is PlanetElderscrolls.com, and sometimes TESsource.com if a mod isn't posted on PES. Yes you have to make a gamespy account but its free and these days you don't usually have to wait to dl anything from them.

For interface mod I recommend: http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=25

It has new arrangements you can use, or a way to easily customize the interface.

And for general gameplay and additions I recommend: http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=268

Forum thread describing the mods many features: http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=646321

I really can't recommend Francescos mod enough, its a great mod that just keeps getting better and much of it is optional. Allowing you to install features how you want them. Plus the addition of lots of fan made creatures and itemsthat have been balanced.

sapi

03-01-2007, 08:19

Here are some examples of things wrong with the Oblivion interface, compared to the silky smooth Guild Wars interface since it’s the other modern RPG I am most familiar with:

1. Oblivion has no mini-map like in Diablo II or Guild Wars. In Oblivion you have to literally stop playing every time you want to check where you are. In terms of design, this is a major step backwards of about 10 years or so.
Use the compass :idea2:

2. The world map is stuck in the in a small portion of the center of the screen, which makes navigating it a major pain. Compare this to Guild Wars in which the world map takes up the whole screen and is easily scrollable in any direction so you can see a very large portion of at any one time. Or in Guild wars you can zoom way out and see a huge portion of the map that way. With Oblivion, you have to scroll around small portions of the map in an extremely aggravating way and “pixel hunt” for where you want to go. Once you’ve experienced the vastly better design of Guild Wars’ world map, the failings of Oblivion’s map system is instantly extremely annoying, at least for me. Probably wouldn't bug me so much if I wasn't so familiar with Guild Wars having implemented the same concept only way better.BTmod
It was released a day after the game, and you have no excuse for not using it.

3. Not enough hotkeys for menu items. There needs to be hotkeys for every single menu in the game. And each of them should be mappable by the player. Most modern games have this, why can’t Oblivion? I realize Oblivion has four menu hotkeys that are stuck on the F1 -F4, but four is not nearly enough and there is no reason they should be bound to "F keys." Definitely console-itis is the only reason for this failing.1-8 are ingame hotkeys too; and if you really feel that you need more, you're mad :laugh4:

4. Can’t sort inventory items based on what you currently have equipped, making repairing or selling gear a major pain. Can’t sort inventory items by important vs. useless items, ie: my armorer hammers are buried in-between a ton of useless junk. No excuse for this really, all it would take is another button or two at the top of the menu.Sort by name?

Most stuff you have once you're in to the game is enchanted anyway, just name them consistently and you'll have no problem

I must say, I find the bounty system to be highly ridiculous. I’ve been beating up Martin repeatedly to level up, with absolutely no witnesses around, and he definitely hasn’t gone anywhere to tell anyone. Now I have over 1500 gold worth of bounty on my head, because supposedly the guards in this game are omniscient. Also don’t like how the guard who died on the Count’s bed came alive again after I got from level 2 to level 8 by beating up Martin in the nearby hall. Not sure if that means it’s impossible to truly kill anyone in this game, or just impossible to kill guards. Either way, that’s really lame. And a dead guard who’s corpse I looted shouldn’t have magically came alive again, nor with all the gear on him that I looted from him. Even worse, when I killed that very same guard who already was killed by skamps, I got a murder bounty on my head that contributed a lot to raising my bounty by a couple of thousand. Killing a reanimated corpse should not be murder or cause a bounty, especially when there are no witnesses.:thumbsdown:
Mods fix this

Of course, I am keeping in mind that perhaps my love of Oblivion is presently over-inflated because as of yet I haven’t gotten to the “meat and potatoes” of the game, ie: exploring and killing stuff in the wilderness, or doing a lot of the quests. I’m hoping that when I do that the experience will hold up better for me than it has for some of the posters in this thread.
once you get to that stage, restart with OOO - it really is a different game

English assassin

03-01-2007, 13:42

Isn't "Martin" the Sean Bean character - the rightful king you are supposed to restore to the throne? And you are secretly beating him up?

LoL, for some reason I just find this a really funny image. "Psst, over here your highness, behind this pillar, I (smack) just (thump) need (bash) to (wallop) level (biff) up (whack), ah, thank you very much, much better. No hard feelings, now, back to the quest."

Not, I must admit, that I haven't done the same a bit, but I used the woman who had the everscamp staff and kept duffing up her endless supply of scamps. Until the cheese got too much.

econ21

03-01-2007, 14:13

My image of the sustained Martin abuse is some dodgy sado-masochistic relationship. But out of respect to Navaros's beliefs, I am not going to go there.

That's one thing I dislike about Morrowind/Oblivion - it gives you incentives to do daft things to raise your skills. I know you can refrain, but I am weak. I seemed to spend most of Morrowind standing by a river, getting humped by mudcrabs. It did not endear me to the game.

Oblivion is a bit better - I don't feel obliged to do that kind of thing, but I do still have to keep a record of my stat increments between levels to make sure I get the 5x bonuses to stats.

In some ways I prefer those NWN modules like the Witch's Wake (or indeed my beloved Bloodlines) that only give you experience for completing quests, not killing stuff. Makes for more authentic role-playing than messing around with Martin or the mudcrabs.

English assassin

03-01-2007, 17:03

My image of the sustained Martin abuse is some dodgy sado-masochistic relationship

Now that's what I call free form roleplaying. Work your way through the dark brotherhood quests and you get your own dungeon too :beam:

There are quite a few abuses/odditys about Oblivion. None are killers, or anything like, but its just not quite right. The one that annoys me is the way that, if you actually pick core skills for your character that are relevant to your image of him or her, you level up too fast. Picking sneak and security for a thief type character can be a real burden in that sense, which is odd. I still do it, because its just too cheesy to pick garbage like alchemy or speechcraft and then play a character as a thief.

But is this the games fault or have I not left power-gaming as far behind me as I would like to think?

Navaros

03-01-2007, 17:09

I started beating up Martin because I was poor and couldn't afford Inns, and the beds with the Count's corpse and Guard's corpse were free to sleep on and right there.

Then I read that quest rewards are "crapped-down" to your crappy low level, thus you are fubaring yourself by doing quests before level 30. :furious3:

This motivated me to continue the Martin abuse even more.

I have since found a quest reward leveller mod which un-fubars quest rewards that the game fubars by default, and took a detour to the Arena. I was killing everyone in the Arena very easily, and then I looked it up to see the final reward is some fancy armor of which I am unsure if it gets crapped-down to your level or not. I checked the reward leveller mod's manual and noticed that the final Arena reward does not get levelled in any of such mods. Not sure if that is because it's at max level regardless of your level, unlike everying else in the game, or if the mod makes just forgot to add it in.

So in the interest of not potentially fubaring that or the quest reward of the half-Orc, Martin may be in for more abuse up to til I'm level 30.

I blame the game design for this abuse, that's what goaded me into it. :whip:

English assassin

03-01-2007, 17:39

I started beating up Martin because I was poor and couldn't afford Inns, and the beds with the Count's corpse and Guard's corpse were free to sleep on and right there.

This just gets funnier and funnier. Boy oh boy are you in for a surprise when the "Social Services" quest kicks in. :laugh4:

In the interests of saving the poor, abused, Emperor to be, can I ask why you want to be level 30? Given that everything more or less levels with you?

Incidently I don't think the daedritic quest items level and some of them are quite tasty.

Navaros

03-01-2007, 17:55

Now that's what I call free form roleplaying. Work your way through the dark brotherhood quests and you get your own dungeon too :beam:

That reminds me, that's another thing that makes no sense.

When the guard who was killed by a skamp and who I then looted, ended up resurrecting after a certain number of weeks of abusing Martin past, I was forced to re-kill that guard because there was no command to make him "Wait here" away from the Martin abuse. The guard would always interfere in the abuse thus forcing his re-death from me.

Re-killing the guard made the Dark Brotherhood appear to me for murdering him. But I can't have murdered him because: 1. The skamp already murdered him weeks earlier <and> 2. He will be resurrected good as new (actually better than new if I were to loot him again!) in a couple more weeks.

In the interests of saving the poor, abused, Emperor to be, can I ask why you want to be level 30? Given that everything more or less levels with you?

This is incorrect. Nothing in terms of weapons or armor or items level with you. Hence by default if you get good weapons or items or armor at a low level, those items are permanently fubared unless you correct it with a third party mod with which the mod maker has manually added in every item you need unfubared (hence this is prone to exclusions that may leave your items fubared), or possibly via the cheat console (not sure if that works for everything).

The Spartan (Returns)

03-01-2007, 23:44

you could juice up the gameplay difficulty.

at level 11/13 you will start seeing elven/dwarven armor/weapons
at level 14+ you will start seeing ebony armor/weapons

English assassin

03-02-2007, 10:26

When the guard who was killed by a skamp and who I then looted, ended up resurrecting after a certain number of weeks of abusing Martin past, I was forced to re-kill that guard because there was no command to make him "Wait here" away from the Martin abuse. The guard would always interfere in the abuse thus forcing his re-death from me.

Well, be fair, the guard probably thought he was doing his job, you know, guarding the king. :laugh4: He probably didn't know you and Martin have this abuse thing going on.

Nothing in terms of weapons or armor or items level with you. Hence by default if you get good weapons or items or armor at a low level, those items are permanently fubared

Yes, sorry, I meant the loot you get levels when you get it. Once you have it it stays the same I agree. So you need to replace the not very good magic sword you got at level 5 with a better one you might have looted at level 15. It doesn't seem a terribly big deal to me but your experience may differ, as they say. One approach is to level slowly (I finished the DB and thieves guild quests, which is all I wanted to do with that character, by about level 15 IIRC.) That way stuff stays more or less current for the whole game (I never did find armour better than the DB armour, for example)

Mind you I am going to give OOO a go, and if that is a lot better I will take it all back. But I have to say vanilla has grown on me. Still lacks much of a story, but its fun to potter about.

The Foolish Horseman

03-02-2007, 22:03

how cheap did everyone get this game? two weeks after it came out, i was browsing on my local games stall at the market, and their it was, staring at me...oblivion for.....£25. But a little sneakiness...changing prices around... got me it for a tenner

result

sapi

03-03-2007, 01:39

In some ways I prefer those NWN modules like the Witch's Wake (or indeed my beloved Bloodlines) that only give you experience for completing quests, not killing stuff. Makes for more authentic role-playing than messing around with Martin or the mudcrabs.
Funnily enough, that system is one of the things I most disliked about bloodlines - I felt that there was too much pressure on you to complete the side quests before the main (and indeed i have now given up on the game, as i'm stuck at the Society of Leopard with no way through).

Still, i can understand your point :bow:

econ21

03-03-2007, 02:06

I felt that there was too much pressure on you to complete the side quests before the main...

That's strange - I never noticed that tension. In fact, on reflection, I really like the way Bloodlines handles the mix of the main quest and the side quests. Generally, you clear a location of all side quests, before the main quest takes you off to the next location. By contrast, I found juggling the main quest and side quest one of the biggest game flaws of Morrowind/Oblivion and even BG2 - according to the story, you should be saving the world; but then you'd miss out on all the cool sidequests. In Bloodlines, the main story is more of a slow burner, so you don't feel the same pressure (it's not like BG2 "rescue your sister from torture!" or Oblivion "close the gates of hell!" and you are, like, "Yeah, man, sure - just left me do this fedex job first ... and beat up this Martin dude for a while." :laugh4: )

(and indeed i have now given up on the game, as i'm stuck at the Society of Leopard with no way through).

Is that the place full of vampire hunters? What's the problem? Maybe we can help? To be honest, the game gets worse with every new location you move to - too much repetitive combat, too little of the creative non-combat experiences - but it is falling from a great height. It would be a shame not to finish it, if only to be around to see Jack come out of his box.

sapi

03-03-2007, 06:27

:laugh4:

I guess by 'pressure to complete the side quests' i'm referring to the need to be able to fight successfully against the growning hordes of enemies.

Yes, the society of leopard is the place full of vampire hunters, and the issue is that I simply keep dieing.

Over and over again :embarassed:

Once i finish replaying kotor2 i might have another shot at it, but until then....

econ21

03-03-2007, 11:42

Yes, the society of leopard is the place full of vampire hunters, and the issue is that I simply keep dieing.

Over and over again

Which part of the society? There was a house and then some caves underneath. Both were challenging, but perhaps especially the caves. It's been a while, but I think your vampire regenerates. So taking it slow, and luring them out a few at a time, running away to recover, should work. I remember hiding behind crates a lot - I often liked to go for the silent kills where I could.

But you are right, the game strangely switches track half way through. From being combat-light and inventive, it suddenly starts throwing mobs at you to fight. :thumbsdown:

Once i finish replaying kotor2 i might have another shot at it, ...

Another superb CRPG. :2thumbsup:

sapi

03-03-2007, 12:23

...except for the bugs.

Honestly - every time through i end up with the 'cheat node' enabled on the telos irrigation tunnels and have to try 50 times to get through :inquisitive:

It really is frustrating - add that to having to hack the exe for widescreen .... :(

Slyspy

03-03-2007, 14:37

That reminds me, that's another thing that makes no sense.

When the guard who was killed by a skamp and who I then looted, ended up resurrecting after a certain number of weeks of abusing Martin past, I was forced to re-kill that guard because there was no command to make him "Wait here" away from the Martin abuse. The guard would always interfere in the abuse thus forcing his re-death from me.

Re-killing the guard made the Dark Brotherhood appear to me for murdering him. But I can't have murdered him because: 1. The skamp already murdered him weeks earlier <and> 2. He will be resurrected good as new (actually better than new if I were to loot him again!) in a couple more weeks.

This is incorrect. Nothing in terms of weapons or armor or items level with you. Hence by default if you get good weapons or items or armor at a low level, those items are permanently fubared unless you correct it with a third party mod with which the mod maker has manually added in every item you need unfubared (hence this is prone to exclusions that may leave your items fubared), or possibly via the cheat console (not sure if that works for everything).

Nothing in your possession levels with you true, but most of the loot is scaled to your character. So at level 20 you will indeed get "good loot" but, relative to the word around you (which also scales) it will be no more effective than the early equipment was in the hands of your low-level character.

This does cause a problem with some unique items. You get them at level 5 and they'll stay at that level, becoming less powerful than mundane items you'll find at high levels. If this bugs you then you can get a mod that levels these items as you level. Check my mod list earlier in the thread.

To be honest Nav all of your criticisms can be overcome (or maybe just patched over) by mods. If you run Oblivion on a PC you are doing yourself a disservice by not using mods.

Oh, and the thing with the dagger? He won't pick it up because you have, in a minor way, broken the game by doing something you are not supposed to do.

Edit:

Whoever said Alchemy was a junk skill has never tried it - potions can enable you to win any fight.