The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion

[The Spartan (Returns)]

here is a mod for improving Oblivion graphics:
Gamespot- Oblivion Make it Pretty

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

[TevashSzat]

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]

@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]

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.

[frogbeastegg]

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]

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]

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.


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.

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]

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.
A more accurate comparison would be Oblivion to Gothic III, or Guild Wars to WoW.

[econ21]

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?

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]

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.co...s.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.co....Detail&id=268

Forum thread describing the mods many features: http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/i...owtopic=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]

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

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

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.

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]

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]

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]

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

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]

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.

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.

[English assassin]

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.

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]

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

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)]

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]

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. 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]

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]

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

[econ21]

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." )

(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]

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

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

[econ21]

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.

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

Another superb CRPG.

[sapi]

...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

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

[Slyspy]

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.

[frogbeastegg]

Remembered I had a gamespy account from the days when I used to play MTW online; it's also valid for their download service. Yay!

I intend to play one character with the interface mod and a few others which don't alter the gameplay itself. I'll get Knights of Nine at some point and install it. Once I am done with that character I shall mod the game more heavily, altering things like the levelling system and banishing levelled item drops, and start a new character, probably the one I plan on making to do the Dark Brotherhood quests only. I hear that questline is the best in the game ... but I'm not keen on playing evil characters, so I'll keep it seperated out. Then I'll try the big overhaul mods, the ones which alter the game tremendously.

Best thing about Oblivion is that it is one of those rare games which allows me to play as an armour clad, sword wielding good fighter who can cast healing spells and level a barn with magic if I'm in a tight pinch.

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.

My local Game has it for £19.99. Amazon were selling it for £11.99 for a few weeks too.

[The Spartan (Returns)]

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

[Slyspy]

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

True, but potions don't use up mana or whatever you call it. Nor do they use up time in a fight (I guess the bad guys stop hitting you while you take a drink!).

Plus potions can do alot more than just heal. ALOT more.

Edit:

Don't forget poisons either.

[TevashSzat]

Mana isn't as big as a problem as in Morrowind where you have a fixed Magicka and it doesn't restore automatically. And for all of those people that is complaining about the map in Oblivion, in Morrowind when you get a quest, no quest marker shows up about where you are supposed to go but instead they give you awful directions that takes me 2 hours along with cheats for levitation to find. In that quest where you were supposed to cure yourself from the corpus disease, I literally searched almost the entire eastern coast of Vvanderfell before I found that place called Tel something