Elder Scrolls: Oblivion

[innokenti]

Quick! Get some mods!

It may well solve those gripes, I've been playing with Obscuro's Oblivion Overhaul and I think it'll probably get you happy with points 1 and 3. Nothing to be done about 2 though I'm afraid.

[Linky]

Nothing to be done about 2 though I'm afraid.

You know what I'm talking about don't you? It's funny as hell... if you have any gaming skills whatsoever (ie. having experience with 8-bit console games, back when games were actually challenging), you will have a 100% succes rate picking even very hard locks. All you need is a bit of observation to see how the locks work in the game, quick reflexes and able to detect very short sound clips from one another.


Anyways, I might try the game out with some mods, maybe sometime next fall. I'll wait until there definitely is a penultimate mod that tweaks the game to new greatness.

[innokenti]

Nothing to be done about 2 though I'm afraid.

You know what I'm talking about don't you? It's funny as hell... if you have any gaming skills whatsoever (ie. having experience with 8-bit console games, back when games were actually challenging), you will have a 100% succes rate picking even very hard locks. All you need is a bit of observation to see how the locks work in the game, quick reflexes and able to detect very short sound clips from one another.


Anyways, I might try the game out with some mods, maybe sometime next fall. I'll wait until there definitely is a penultimate mod that tweaks the game to new greatness.

Yeah, but admittedly I'm not that great at all the lock-picking. Improving, but needs little patience and time and practice.

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

It didn't have a particularly great story, but the setting was up there with Torment, Fallout 2 and Arcanum.

Ah.. Fallout.. now *there* is a game worth mentioning.

I loved Fallout1 and 2. Bethesda has the rights to the series and hopefully will be hard at work on Fallout 3 now that Oblivion is out.

For me it really comes down to these three things:
- you get the best items instantly as you level up off of enemies

If you don't like the leveled loot there are several mods that address that, though I have not tried them. With the tougher enemies that are thrown at me as I level I'm glad for the loot that comes my way.

- you can pick any lock in the game with lockpicking skill of 1 (if you are actually good at it); hence no place in the game is unreachable for you, and the locals don't really mind if you clean their houses

If you can pick the very hard locks with a lockpicking skill of one my hat's off to you. I think I must suck at lockpicking because my level 9 Khajiit thief still breaks lots of lockpicks with a security of 57, luck of 68 and agility of 95. Maybe my hand eye coordination is leaving me in my old age. By the way, I won't be using that super lockpicking artifact, "The Skeleton Key."

- if you wander around the landscape doing random quests/cleaning dungeons, the main storyline gets annoying with all the super enemies you go against in the very first gates .. this is really the biggest gripe I have - I *REALLY* don't like the difficulty level to be forced upon me

That very first gate is probably the hardest combat quest in the whole game. My first character, a pure mage, did it at level 30 or so, I think. My thief did it around level 7.

I like the fact that it was a tough battle. I think in general the combat is better than it was in Morrowwind.

GOW

[magritte2]

I'm not overly optimistic about Fallout 3. While I've enjoyed Morrowind and Oblivion, the great strength of the Fallout games was the high level of NPC-interaction and how the choices you made affected the game world. Bethesda's approach to RPG's is more akin to New World Computing than Black Isle.

[Caradoc]

Could someone tell me about 3rd person combat in Oblivion?

What is the perspective? and do you still have to swipe your mouse to swing your sword? finally, do you still find yourself backing up to dodge blows a lot?

[Akul]

I'm not overly optimistic about Fallout 3. While I've enjoyed Morrowind and Oblivion, the great strength of the Fallout games was the high level of NPC-interaction and how the choices you made affected the game world. Bethesda's approach to RPG's is more akin to New World Computing than Black Isle.

We'll see how Fallout 3 will end like. But I am optimistic as they probably know that Fallout should not change. In their opinion, TES must never be like other RPG's and every sequel must be MUCH, much different. If you say to theme that MW and OB are similiar, they would start crying.

To Caradoc: I fight mosly with casting magics with my staff so I dodge usually. Warriors, I think, don't dodge. They have good block skill so that when they block they get minium damage. Thieves and assasins probably dodge but just after they make a critical hit.

[cornellian]

Dodging is a skill feat in Oblivion... If your acrobatics is high enough you gain the ability to dodge and evade the attack and the damage altogether. Besides critters usually lose their balance when you dodge them; so you can dodge, land a few quick strikes and ease your work..

...Or you can get a heavy warhammer and live your days as an amateur plastic surgeon.

[Caradoc]

Well, I finally ordered the game. I found it for $28.65. What tipped me was hearing about Oldblivion, so I'm pretty much guaranteed that I'll be able to run it. (I also liked the Bruce vs. Tom in CGW).

[Orfinn]

Have played Oblivion on 360 now, its only my first impression but Im stunned, its one of the greatest RPG's I have played, of course there are some minor faults like items and beasts leveling along with you etc. No matter, its a deep and exciting game. Im a nord now under the warrior birth sign and I go for block, blunt, blade, athletichs, heavy armor, armorer and marksmanship. Im level 2 now, but that will change soon enough...

[Ethric]

Nah, stay at level 2, why level when the mobs level with you, no point in becoming stronger then

[Orfinn]

Whooopsie Im now level 5 and the wacky thing is that since creatures level up with you some creatures get replaced by others. Not big deal anyway, right now Im slaughtering goblings with my great silver sword of hellfire
Another thing, I where on my way to...chorral I think, riding my horse along with a patroling imperial guard also on horse. I encountered two caves along the road. Both by the road, I wiped out most of the first cave since it was full of crazy rats. I got out and upon my horse, galloping after my patroling imp guard, I did meet him again, he have clearly killed a couple of wolves judging by the dead bodies after them, since I went inside the cave. We travelled at night, we where on our way to the town can remember the name (the town that got attacked by the daedra, the first oblivion gate.) Then I just had to go inside this other cave. I did, took me abit longer to loot that beauty, plenty silver nuggets inside...and goblins of course. Once I reached topside again, I mounted my horse and galloped ahead to reach my imperial companion.

The first thing I saw was my friends horse standing alone on the road, the imperial nowhere to see I searched in a small area not far from his horse but no signs of him. I thought "Oh, well" and galloped on my own towards the town. But after riding abit further, I noticed a couple of dead bodies on the road, first i saw one imp, then another, I walked upwards the road, hearing some weak sounds, then I saw a warthog over the dead bodies of a wolf, bandit and the imperial guard! After slaying that pesky little swine of a warthog, I started investigating what have happened, I bet that the guard was so tired after killing those imps and the wolf, barely killing the bandit but finally rushed down by that wandering bacon.
Nice I thought and started looting the corpses....satisfied with the event

Its random things like this i love about games, especially RPGes and in Oblivion it was an exciting moment, one of the best ever, funny too

[RedViking]

In Oblivion enemies, loot and merchant inventory are adjusted based on your level. That means that you should be able to complete any quest also at low levels (there are exceptions with quests that need special equipment or other quests to be completed first).

If you want to level your character but dont want to have to much problems with the leveled up enemies you should try to increases your attributes with +5 every time you level up.

A way to do this is using your minor skills more than your major skills. Minor skill contribute to attribute modifiers when leveling up ! So use minor skills that cover the attributes you want to increase and use your major skills when you want to level up.

Important to keep in mind is that for two ranks gained in a skill, you will receive one point to add to that skill's governing attribute.

That way you will have very good Stats in order to counter your enemy's high levels.

Have fun with this great game !

[cornellian]

Enemies that level up along with me is fine in my opinion, this game is easy as it is, at least harder enemies provide some challenge.. However, Bethesda should have realized the real problem in that, the ease of getting great loot as you go along. You never ever have any difficulty in employing the best equipment in your character, possibly save for constant enchantment artifacts, but you rarely need them anyway. Later in the game 1 out of 2 enemy slain drops loot worth of thousands of gold, which seriously cripples the game's chances of being hard...

I've beaten Oblivion a while ago, with Wood Elven archer(custom class) character, and I must say he was pretty strong. Marksmanship have great bonuses as you level up, unlike melee skills that just have different attacks. You can knockdown or even paralyze your opponent, and for an archer there can be no better bonus...

My second character, a mage is a little weaker, and is more boring as the spell animations are generally very generic.. You have firebolt, which is an orange blob, and then you have fireball, which is a larger orange blob ...

I may try a warrior type, a Nordman with a huge axe, are they any fun?

[RedViking]

Yeah, it's fun to play as a muscle man. You can play it up close and personal . And it's quite nice how you can block blows with your shield/weapon and see the opponent thrown back (and at Master you have even the chance to disarm !)
But if you are looking for something harder to play, this is also not the way. Actually imho Oblivion is not a hardcore action RPG, here you should enjoy more the "living" world that was created in the game and do some RolePlay

[Orfinn]

About muscle men...

Chuck Norris Oblivion style!!

http://www.youtube.com/results?search=C ... rch_videos

Glad that guy made 2 more episodes after his famous intro. A nr.3 is on its way

And the voices for chuck and co, created by the dictionary program I remember I got with windows 95, blows!

[RedViking]

Nice movies ! There are a lot of Oblivion movies but the ones with "Chuck Norris" kick ass )
Quite funny..
It's interesting what people can do with a "mere" game like Oblivion


And as a curiosity:
At which level and as what kind of Character (Class) did you people finished Oblivion ?
I am still playing it... what can I say I like to enjoy a good game a long time and
.... to be onest i dont get enough time to play everything that i want to play
But dont we all have the same problem ?

[Orfinn]

Finished? Well Right now Im going through the main campaign with a level 26 Nord with a house in Anvil, a nice orcish cuirass on me, going to enchant it with the sigil stones I have found....sooon. And theres these nice weapons I wont throw away even if hey are better. Chillrend have been with me ince I was a lvl 6 lad, and I have this nice elven claymore with lightning dmg and I have Azuras star for refilling those weapons. And I love to collect helmets from different types of armor and place them by my window in my house in Anvil.
Theres one thing that Im not sure to continue on, and that is to get all the recommendations from the mage guild, huh Im a barbarian after all why should I dwindle in magic stuff, trying to be a pure melee fighter is not easy. So I may decide to get to the university and enchant a nice little weapon with all the cash I have...like 17K

Also Im gonna finish the Fighter guild quests and find those rare Shadowbanish vines said to be found at forts...yeah right have only found 2 of the wines *sigh*. Have loads of other things to do, but when I retire Im gonna ride home to Anvil on my White horse in the sunseth....

[cornellian]

I finished Oblivion as an archer as I've written above, he was lvl 26 when it was done, and he was strong, very strong. Yes, I had to backtrack while shooting arrows but my wood elf character wasn't going to take on Earth Elementals in close combat, that was the whole point..

Marksmanship is a great skill that gives better bonuses than most as you get better in it and it increases in a respectable spped if used as the main attack. The skill already gives a great head start as apprentice marksmen don't lose fatigue when shooting so you can run and fight at the same time, and things get much better at 50 skill as you can zoom in with your bow.. Sneaking + Zooming = very good damage potential, and you'll feel like a sniper.. At 75 skill you can knockdown your opponents which almost always ensures they aren't going to rise up ever again, and if you can get to 100, you can paralyze with arrows, though you will rarely need it, as after you get the knockdown bonus you'll play the game as if you have a AK 47 in your hands .

One bit of advice: After level 15, go out and clear those Oblivion gates, their sigil stones will be giving constant enchantment possibilities. Oh, and wait for lvl15 for the mage staff quest as well if you're not a mage.. You will be very pleased with what you'll get...

[RedViking]

I see that we are using very different aproaches

I am a Battlemage (home made class - not the default one), i'm quite good at cutting an slashing with the sword, and at some magic schools also (Restoration, Ilusion). It offers me quite a few posibilities.
My favorite atack it's to snipe from a distance with the bow or some spells and then go in full force with my sword and my shield ! The fun part is that while i am in combat i keep offering the opponent some presents in form of touch attack spells (from the most usefull school of Destruction )

I concoted myself some pretty nice touch spells that have 2 effects: one "gives" the opponent 100% vulnerability to an element (fire, ice..) and the second does some amount of damage from the same type of element and then you should see them burnning

Cornellian : Pretty cool your Archer Perks, i can only relly on my cripple Spell to stop them from swarming on me. But the spell keeps them down only for a few seconds

Orfinn : I also keep my beloved old wepons and armour pieces. I keep them in my house in Anvil (the Mansion) . I found also this house as the best that i can get at this moment. I am really pleased with having a big Mansion "on" the see shore