The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion

[lars573]

Look at mine, the Asus A8V-E SE, here

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

[Kekvit Irae]

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 forum is more suited to the task at hand.

Let's get back to Oblivion chatter, please?

[Lucjan]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

[Lucjan]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[Master_Thief]

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]

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.

[Master_Thief]

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

[lars573]

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]

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

[Master_Thief]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[Lucjan]

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

[ShadesWolf]

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]

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.

[ShadesWolf]

I am a fighter

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]

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]

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]

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).

[Kraxis]

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).