f13.net

on Wednesday.

I doubt it gets to Tucson today.  We're somewhat of a geographical oddity; one day farther out than everyone else.

This game is going to bruise my new computer's ego.

Heh. I floated a test balloon about upgrading my PC. My wife didn't buy it. She just doesn't understand that 18 months is an eternity in hardware life.

Took me 6 months with a dead PC to get a new machine.  The money we spent on that computer is going to easily be equaled by the amount of bedding, shoes, clothes, and make-up she's been buying of late. 

Anyone know what the sys reqs are on the box? I am wondering how well this will play on my box.

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion System Requirements

Recommended:

    * 3 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
    * 1 GB System RAM
    * ATI X800 series, Nvidia GeForce 6800 series, or higher video card

Minimum System Requirements:

    * Windows XP
    * 512MB System RAM
    * 2 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
    * 128MB Direct3D compatible video card
    * and DirectX 9.0 compatible driver;
    * 8x DVD-ROM drive
    * 4.6 GB free hard disk space
    * DirectX 9.0c (included)
    * DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
    * Keyboard, Mouse

Supported Video Card Chipsets:

    * ATI X1900 series
    * ATI X1800 series
    * ATI X1600 series
    * ATI X1300 series
    * ATI X850 series
    * ATI x800 series
    * ATI x700 series
    * ATI x600 series
    * ATI Radeon 9800 series
    * ATI Radeon 9700 series
    * ATI Radeon 9600 series
    * ATI Radeon 9500 series
    * NVIDIA GeForce 7800 series
    * NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series
    * NVIDIA GeForce 6600 series
    * NVIDIA GeForce 6200 series
    * NVIDIA GeForce FX series

Thinking of getting this through Direct2Drive. Anyone have any experiences with it?

I started it up in my 360, turned on third person. Low and behold, everything works on high settings. Yes, I'm gloating. Enjoy the stuttering, bitches.

I started it up in my 360, turned on third person. Low and behold, everything works on high settings. Yes, I'm gloating. Enjoy the stuttering, bitches.

I started it up in my 360, turned on third person. Low and behold, everything works on high settings. Yes, I'm gloating. Enjoy the stuttering, bitches.

My sys reqs (from memory, I am at work)- AMD 3200+ (or something)- I think it is 2.2 Ghz. GeForce 6800 (128 MB RAM), 1 GB system RAM. I think that falls comfortably into mid-range, but I would like to hear some war stories about performance.


Goddamn it. I don't have the time to play this damned thing, but I am going to have to buy it.

It's better than Morrowind but worse than Fable. This game does make me feel more evil than Fable though.

I've also got a ATI X850 with 256 gigs of RAM

So Direct2Drive was a big misstake. Not only did it take forever to download ( I have a 100 mbit connection but Fileplanet never got over 400 kb/sec ), but when it finally was downloaded, it refused to install. So I'm 50 bucks poorer and currently mailing back and forth with IGN customer support. Hopefully I can get a refund or something, but it looks like I will have to wait until friday for when the game hits the shelves over here..

AMD64 3700+
6600GT OC BFG
1.5GB RAM

No stutter on all medium, bloom @ 1280x1024. Eat my ass with a spoon, Schild. Your glory hole mac-wannabe console ain't got nothin' on me! Here's to all those 360 fanboys that said my PC couldn't even begin to run Oblivion.

The game is beautiful and I just got out of the sewers. Just awesome. I did encounter 1 bug, but that had to do with me stupidly leaving BT running in the background while I played. I think they were fighting over RAM.

It's better than Morrowind but worse than Fable. This game does make me feel more evil than Fable though.

Morrowind was in no way, shape, or form better than Fable. Morrowind wasn't a game. It was a sandbox. At the very least Oblivion is a sandbox layered on top of a game.

I put in about 5 hours last night, the game is pretty much exactly what they advertised and considering that they advertised a whole hell of a lot that's saying something.

There are maybe too many options for faces, I ended up hitting random a bunch until I got something close to what I liked and then tweaked it by randomly moving sliders around until I decided I needed to stop before I ruined it. I can see that with some patience I think you could mimic pretty much anyone you wanted, stick your own face in there or maybe Jon Bigbootay...

Races still have all the same bonuses and modifiers from previous games, this is a good thing, it's a well thought out and balanced system that naturally lead your character down certain paths, orcs are just much more likely to fit their stereo type and be big bruising fighters for example.

I have played as a fighter/thief pretty my first time through the Elder Scrolls games ever since Arena and I was no different this time. By the time I hit the class selection section they guard is going, "You wanna be an assassin right?", pretty close. I think I ended up swapping something (acrobat?) for Heavy Armor. My play style is pretty much to sneak around the dungeon find critter get in a sneak attack and then charge in with sword and shield. I have found I can get in two sneak attack shots with my bow if I'm quick and firing from a really dark corner, it's pretty cool to nail something and stagger it and then pop it again and have it give the classic Hollywood back flip over a railing.

The physics are awesome, I spent a pretty good bit of time tossing skulls off walls and shooting things off tables with the bow. Depending on where the cursor is when you 'grab' (z key) something is where the leverage is applied so it's possible to stand things up and generally arrange them how you like it.

After getting out of the starter dungeon beneath the prison you see directly across the way a little island with some ruins on it. In there is a little group of bandits who have holed up in an abandoned mausoleum. Of course in killing them off you find that members have gone missing and there had been reports of noises in the night. Finding the 'secret' entrance to the rest of the crypt was pretty straight forward and from there the rest of the rest of the dungeon was really cool, skeletons, zombies, traps, hidden doors, lever activated stuff and even a necromancer. For a non-quest, 'random' dungeon it was pretty awesome, go check it out.

After that I went to the Imperial City for a bit of a look-see, very cool graphics, very nice architecture and layout. I was getting tired though so I just hung around long enough to realize I had no where near enough cash to buy anything better than the fur armor or weapons I was already using.

So, five hours and I haven't even scratched the surface of the game. My character is level 3 and I have done nothing on the main quest yet, joined no guilds, and only finished one of the many dungeons. I think my next step is to go ahead and try and knock out about a 3rd of the main quest line before wandering off into other things. The little red arrow on the compass is obviously going to come in very handy in this game.

I am playing the game on an AMD 3200+ 64 bit processor with 2 gigs of ram but only a Radeon 9800SE video card. The game is fine in 800x600 with most of the details on low and looks much better at those settings than you would think but I really want to see this game in all its glory so I will be dropping some cash on a new video card soon. Unfortunately I have an AGP bus motherboard but fortunately the X1600PRO with 512 meg RAM is only 135 at newegg. That wont get me max details and frame rate but it's not 600+ dollars for top of the line + MB and the hour or so to swap everything.

The intro movie was unwatchable with frame skipping, stuttering and random missing areas. I don't know what tech BethSoft was using to play it but it needs some work stat. I very nearly freaked out and returned the game without even trying to play it when I saw that but fortunately I pushed on and found the frame rates otherwise to be very smooth and responsive. The intro with the assassins needs help too because it gives the impression that combat is going to be a dead crawl for lower end systems, a real deal breaker, but that also is an effect of the video player system. The assassins 'morph' when they die and that video sequence loading and running is what caused the stutter for me. Combat in 'normal' situations, even with multiple enemies was like buttah.

OK, that’s way more than I intended to say on the subject. I need to get to work.

Morrowind was in no way, shape, or form better than Fable. Morrowind wasn't a game. It was a sandbox. At the very least Oblivion is a sandbox layered on top of a game.

The interface is consol-ey garbage, it drives me nuts.  It's like playing a game from 1992.

Having to go Inventory->Alchemy->Mortar & Pestle ->Ingredients->combine is a little tedious though and if not for the console considerations could have been much friendlier.  Some right click context menu's would have been very welcome.

edit: also, like Riggs said, the persuasion minigame is great, best implementation of that sort of thing yet, and I am also really digging the lock-pick minigame too.

So far killing stuff with magic seems a lot easer than with melee. Specially with a 2h sword its hard as hell to hit the mobs, as they are constantly jumping out of the way and stuff. Every fight seems to leave me at half life or lower. I am really giving my heal spell a workout.

Well i broke down and bought the X360 version as the PC version was sold out everywhere i checked, too bad as my 4600 X2/6800GT rig is probably ok for running it with AA on. Still the 360 version looks very nice and i've had no performace issues. 720p widescreen luv.

Anyway, am enjoying it a fair bit. Watch out for some of the quests though - I got stuck in one and had to revert to a save, i couldn't kill the baddie and that was the only way to get out. Overall pretty cool game so far.

Hey, Murgos, why no huge review here ?  I had to track you down over there !

Screenshots dammit.

He did... over here in the other thread (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=6282.msg169327#msg169327).

Could anyone give me a rundown from previous TES games on how certen characters preform

1) Combat Character with lots of magic.

2) Combat character with lots of stealth.

Right now im playing a pure combat character, but I think im going to reroll to a more hybrid class, it just seems more fun to play some thing with lots of options.

The dark elf taunting me has entered the Hall of Classic Gaming Moments.  Race-specific taunts, while totally uncool in real life, added a lot to the initial moments.  I was actually getting a little tense.

The Painter Quest? I completed it at 5th level, but it took a few hours, several reloads, and thank fuck I was playing a character with high acrobatics, so I could find places to perch.

That being said, yes, keeping a running list of saves is a good idea.

Heh yup the Painter Quest. And i was only level 2...i got repeatedly squished.

I'm running an AMD 2GHz, 768RAM and (the bad thing, apparently) a 256MB Geforce FX 5500. I have low frame rates and by low I mean unfuckingplayable frame rates with everything turned down ALL the way. 640x480 resolution, grass turned off, no shadows, no nothing.

Scuttlebutt on the forums is that the FX series is the problem. Apparently it doesn't handle certain shaders so well. Word is that Nvidia will be releasing some new drivers in the next couple of days with Oblivion in mind and it may help the issue somewhat but not immensely.

Apparently Bethesda changed their system requirements after the fact (http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=274228) (scroll to bottom) without updating the packaging information so only the FX 5700 on up are "supported" from the FX series.

Yep, I saw that.

[...]

Going to upgrade to a 6600GT. I was sort of surprised it was benching as high as it was on some websites but I'm guessing memory clock isn't the be all, end all. Seems to be a decent stopgap until I do a complete system overhaul this time next year. I'll be more than due then. 100 bucks for playing at medium settings for a year doesn't seem like too bad a deal.

P4, 2.4 Ghz, 768mb of Ram, and GeForce FX 5200.

Should I even try to play this game?  Ram is easy to upgrade to 1gig.  I don't follow the video card craziness enough to know what the next moderate upgrade should be. 

I really want to pick this up today but the unsupported card is causing me concern.  I have no problem with Civ4 after the proper tuning even though the others were having difficulty with this same video card. 

I'm heavily considering rerolling; outdoor combat's not hard, during the day at least, but indoors I have so much trouble seeing anything that using the bow is pretty futile. I might have to crank the gamma or play one of the cat-dudes; I don't like staring at murky patches of inky blackness, trying to figure out if I'm attacking the evil thing that's pwning me, or if I'm merely engaged in carving my name into the wall while my face is being forcibly reconfigured.

If you hit New Game again, do they force you to go through the whole tutorial level again? It's a nice area, but it'd get old fast.

It happened as I was selling stuff to a merchant and that even though they only had 800 gold pieces I was able to sell far more than that in items to them, so I am thinking it was some bug in the barter system.  It hadn't cropped up before but I'll keep an eye out for if it happens again. 

I'm 9th level now - specced in sword,bow,stealth,speach,light armor,acrobatics,illusion
A charscter like that in Morrowind was unplayable.

Really? That's almost exactly the character I played. The key was getting good light armor early, there was some of that green gemmy type armor in some chests or barrels in some place I was exploring.

The armor you get in Oblivion for joining the Dark Brotherhood is pretty kickass as well.

As to the mention of cash limits on vendors a few posts back: it seems that a vendor will buy as many things as you want to sell him, but the most he will pay for a single item is listed in the bottom corner. I had a magic apron worth well over 700 gold to sell, but a cheap vendor would not offer me over his 400 gold limit.

The armor you get in Oblivion for joining the Dark Brotherhood is pretty kickass as well.

As to the mention of cash limits on vendors a few posts back: it seems that a vendor will buy as many things as you want to sell him, but the most he will pay for a single item is listed in the bottom corner. I had a magic apron worth well over 700 gold to sell, but a cheap vendor would not offer me over his 400 gold limit.

Are you talking about the guy in the opposite cell from you?  I don't know what race he was, but he wasn't a dark elf when I played.  Since I took an Imperial (I have a Rome fetish) he mocked me about "I guess you're not getting any special treatment just because you're an imperial, eh dirtbag?"  I thought that was a nice touch.

Uh, is it possible to name your savegames?

My roommate wants to play right now and I'm wigging out. I told him to save to the memory card we have.

Well, I have a real complaint.  Can't seem to create a screenshot.

Torches are your friend.  You need to not have something in your off hand for it to 'turn on'.  Since you are doing hand to hand I wouldn't think that would be a problem.  Also, there are spells/potions/scrolls you can get/make to allow you to see in the dark or to emit light.  Since I am playing a stealthy character I don't worry about it too much, I've been able to see well enough most of the time to make fighting not too difficult.  3x damage from a steel bow with steel arrows tends to drop most things in one shot (maybe I need to up the difficulty just a tad) anyway so melee is fairly rare for me.  I generally will clear out an area of the dungeon and then light up a torch to check around for missed goodies, rings and whatnot can be hard to see in the dark.

If you hit 'new game' you do have to go through the whole intro again.  That was fairly tedious in morrowind as well.  My solution to that is just to live with the decisions I made at creation, gives the game some flavor having to work around deficiencies (thinking I should have taken healing over destruction).  Your major skills aren't that integral to what you can do, you can still do anything you want it's just that the skills wont advance as quickly (i.e. you level slower and the game plays a little harder.)

Mm. I use torches when I need to, but I can't use them while stealthing around a dungeon, since then every bugger in a five-mile radius can see my ass lit up in technicolor. Without torches, I find I can see an enemy maybe 50% of the time in the three too-dark dungeons I've gone into, and those times it's been as a slightly-darker silhouette; those times, I can usually drop something to 1/2 or 3/4 health with my steel bow/iron arrows (I need to go back to the Priory and swipe those steel arrows). However, the other 50%, I'm walking along, the eye goes solid and suddenly half my health is gone since some zombie just pushed a spork into the depths of my cranium.

We'll see though. I've got all day during work to ponder over it. ;)

Only CTD I had was an exception after closing the game. I'm going to pick up the new NVidia drivers tonight and see if that improves performance a bit.

Also, is the outdoor grass above head height for anyone else? Maybe it's just because I'm playing a shorty-McShorterson wood elf, but the grass stuff renders really tall for me. Tall enough to conceal onrushing humanoid bandits, deer, giant rats, and all manner of other creatures. I might have to turn the grass off if it can't be scaled down.

Uh, is it possible to name your savegames?

Schild - you've been playing with lockpicking - do you have to open the lock to gain skill, or do you get it for just setting tumblers?

Uh, is it possible to name your savegames?

I still think the combat is pretty shitty.

I'm playing on my PC and I name my saves through the console.  ~ for the console, and just type:  save <whatever>

You don't like food any more.

Ok, I have it.  And it runs nice and sweet at work on my laptop.  ON MY LAPTOP.

I cannot wait 9 hours to get this thing home to my Gigawatt gaming rig.

Does anyone know how to feign a heart attack or summat ?

Daggerfall had a big pile of religious groups that one could join

If you hit New Game again, do they force you to go through the whole tutorial level again? It's a nice area, but it'd get old fast.

He found this nifty character loader so that you only see save games for that specific character which makes it even easier, although I have yet to try it myself.

You do, but a friend recommends making a character and getting them to the end of the tutoral.  Make a save there and since you can redo everything use that as a load point for new characters.  He found this nifty character loader so that you only see save games for that specific character which makes it even easier, although I have yet to try it myself.

That sounds really useful.  Can you share where that came from?

This game is so full of bugs and crappy code, it's hardly worth the bother.  Bethesda is defintiely going for the Buggiest Game Award previously held by that other game they made.  They've got that market cornered and have broadened it to include the 360!  Go them! 

This game is so full of bugs and crappy code, it's hardly worth the bother.  Bethesda is defintiely going for the Buggiest Game Award previously held by that other game they made.  They've got that market cornered and have broadened it to include the 360!  Go them! 

Maybe God just hates you. Not a single crash or noticible bug here.

set bDoSpecularPass = 0 in "My Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Oblivion.ini" (turns off shiney hair and other stuff, hardly noticable, big increase in frame rates on older cards like my 9800SE).

Apparently this is bad advice.  If you do this there is a chance you will have reproducable CTD's in certain areas.  So, if you have flipped this flag and are experiencing a CTD that you can reproduce there is a chance fliping this setting back will fix it.  I ran into this earlier today.

It's still a dumbed down Morrowind and suffers accordingly.

I'm also really concerned about this whole 'loot levelling' thing that's hitting the boards.  I'm not far enough to notice, but I think that's going to suck mightily.

Azura's Star at level 2 ?  What the fuck ?  In Morrowind you had to duel Golden Saints for that shit.  Not that it matters, since you can't enchant until you're a magey God anyways.

Re schild's review and the note about Dark Brotherhood not being evil enough...

Someone didn't get to PURIFICATION.

(Plus, even before that. Come on. The orc freakin brags about choking six year old girls. I'm not sure I'd WANT more evil in my NPCs, thanks...)

I guess I just don't see the problem with the Blade GM losing the amulet. Maybe it's because I'm reading through GRR Martin and people are always moving their quests forward only to be set back again. Taking Martin to the Blade HQ was cool, felt almost like Batman Begins when they go to the Temple. I just get a really nice vibe from the main quest...though if there are any more sequences where I need to fight alongside NPCs, I REALLY need to grab a Heal Other spell...

Here we Go : 

Combat :  It may be more involved, but right now I don't feel the love.  It feels horribly consoley.  duck, block, dodge, hold forward fireball and whatnot.  Be aware that this is NOT a deal breaker because I am mostly a marksman and don't get in close much.  Combat may be more enjoyable.  The perks look cool for it, but I ain't there yet.  Fair enough.  Couldn't be worse than Morrowind really...

On that note,  Marksman:  Holy Hell, it's overpowered.  I'm sneakily one shotting everything.  And while that empowers me with a wealth of cool, it feels wrong.  Compared to Magic, I feel like putting my Ace of Spades on the goblins and announcing 'I AM GOD'.  Could do with toning down a tad I feel.

The Mini Games for Lockpicking and Speechcraft :  Are Wank.  Pure wank of the highest order.  It triviliases my characters skills and makes it dependant on my skill.  Fuck that.  It's meant to be an RPG.  What happened to the fucking Role ?  If it was easy to move the goddamn mouse without jerking on my lockpick like a priest at an altar boy convention, I would hit 'auto-resolve' every time.  Speechcraft is a FUCKING JOKE.  I have to say 'your hair is pretty, two men walk into a bar, I am a great lover and GIVE ME EAT' every time I want to talk to someone ?  Why the fuck ?  It makes no sense.  More console Wank.

The NPCs :  Sure, they aren't all standing around like mannequins, but see above :  just as someone is going to whisper the secret of the heavens into your ear another FUCKING DUMBASS GUARD WILL WALK UP TO YOU AND SCREAM 'GREETINGS DUNMER' RIGHT IN YOUR FUCKING LUGHOLE.  Not Clever.  Oh and what's with me breaking into a shop and walking up to the guys bedroom, waking him up and have him serve me pie ?  Where's the fucking outrage ?  On the Mountain Lion quest, I INTERRUPTED THE GUY FUCKING HIS WIFE IN BED AND HE SAID 'I'LL GET MY ARMOR; LET'S GO'.  If I'm fucking my wife and one of you come in and start blathering about Mountain lions, you're getting a board with a nail in it, I swear to God.

Stealing :  It may be trickier to steal stuff.  Until you realise you have a RUN key.

Mapping and Travel Keys :  Suck Ass.  Horses suck ass too.  Especially the first time you fast travel and park yours in the fucking lake.  Gimme a break.  Hard to steer and less controllable than my wife.  Sure, you can walk everywhere and, frankly, that's the preferrable option.  The immersion totally goes with fast travel and it's only use is to keep you away from the stupidly retarded Oblivion gates everywhere.

Weapons and Armor :  You cannot begin to comprehend how much I hate the new system.  3 weapon types.  2 armor types, no clothing of any type.  It's just again a total immersion breaker for no good reason whatsoever.  I LIKED the fact that I could co-ordinate everything in my character later on.  That shirt went with that breastplate, went with that axe.  Now, let's face it, the drive to Min/Max is much much worse.

Poisons :  Are Cool.

UI - OH MY GOD MY EYES AND HEAD.  One quick one ;  why can't I right click to remove alchemical ingredients ?  Why do I have to tap two seperate mouseclicks because I fucked up and put down horsefeathers instead of horse scrotum ?  Why ?  because it was designed for a fucking joypad.  Why oh why when I do a quest does it come up

THIS SIZE ON MY SCREEN

It's totally unneccesary.

Houses :  Not got there yet.  But the customisation of items is apparently fucked up because you can't really place things properly.  If you could see the screenshots of my pad in Morrowind, you'd know what I was talking about.  Sigh.


This is not a good game.  I hold out hope that the modders can make it a good game for me.  So much hope, so little survived.  Please feel free to polish your armor with my tears.

I am pricing new video cards atm. My 6800 is getting pwned- I had to drop down to 800x600 to get decent frame rates. I might try the new beta drivers to see if they help too.

Choppiness and stutters in the video.

By the way, what is the goddamn advantage to light armor beyond being.. well.. less heavy?

If you dont know the object number open the console and then left click the item it will automatically designate that the target (IE open console left click door then just enter in unlock and it will work) also it will give the item/object number at the top of the screen

kill <name> = kill person
player.setav (ability/skill) (#) = sets the chosen ability/skill to a certain number
lock (object #)
unlock (object #)
player.additem (item #) (# of items) = gives you a certain item
Items you might want...
0000000f gold
0000000a lockpicks
Player.SetCrimeGold (#) = set bounty
resurrect = brings an NPC back to life!
SaveGame <filename> = saves game
showracemenu = lets you edit race (and most importantly how you look)
timescale (#) = (0 to pause 30 to go to normal)
tcl = toggle clipping (lets you fly through anything) good if your stuck
tdt = show your frames per second (FPS)
tfc = Lets you move the camera around without moving body
tgm = god mode

84.21 right?

I'm playing 1280x1024 with bloom on a 6600 GT, but it's not smooth at all.  Wondering what that FPS command is too.

Is there a console command to make the characters not look like they are fetal alcohol syndrome babies?

I swear every character I make looks like Corky from Life Goes On.

What are you guys running the bells & whistles at to get such video problems? As I've said, it's running suprisingly great on my 2yr old pc with a 9800 pro @ 1280x720.

Other than the stupid as all hell leveling system, I love the game. I am considering starting over, again, not that I understand more about how the leveling system works.

How would you guys spec a Mage character? I heard some people saying that mage is the easiest character to gimp if you dont make him correctly.

Re schild's review and the note about Dark Brotherhood not being evil enough...

Someone didn't get to PURIFICATION.

(Plus, even before that. Come on. The orc freakin brags about choking six year old girls. I'm not sure I'd WANT more evil in my NPCs, thanks...)

First, that is plain stupid that they designed the levels/multiplayers like that. Gah.

Second, how do I check what my multiplyers are at?

 Note that for some odd reason axes are considered blunt.

Second, how do I check what my multiplyers are at?

Hah!  I just received a freebie copy in the mail.  Now I have 3 copies of a game that annoys me.  Nice.  I was hoping it was the incense I ordered but NOOOO... it's Oblivion knocking at my door.   :roll:

At least Righ was able to play for almost an hour an a half at a time with no crashing.  I can't be bothered until they patch the thing.

What vid card are you using Signe? If its a 6600/6800 you may want to try the beta driver I mention a few posts back. I was crashing every hour or two until I made that update.

I'm just playing, trying not to sweat the details.  I'm with Sky, my thief is thiefy: he steals shit, sneaks around and kills when necessary.  Sure, some fights have been difficult to say the least, but in the end, playing what I've built has worked. Ohh noes, my int won't hit 100.  :|

I'm sure I may get fucked in the end, but I'm still on the journey.

Edit: This isn't an edorsement of the leveling system, I have chosen to not really pay attention to it yet.

1 - My horse just tripped on a stone and died.  What.  the.  fuck.

I have a GF7800 GT.  I tried the 84.25 version that were alledgedly optimised for Oblivion but my crashing became even worse so I went back to the latest regular drivers.  The beta driver before the 84.25 made no difference.  I'm also using Coolbits 2.

1 - My horse just tripped on a stone and died.  What.  the.  fuck.
2 - I have become a vampire for no reason whatsoever.

I'm gimped with both my lvl 17 chars :(

When it says you can level can you just continue to use other skills to even things out before you actually level? I was thinking maybe you can get a level just doing alchemy, but ignore the message to go rest and work on other stuff. Perhaps you just have to keep watch on your skills to determine if you are actually ready to level or not. Especially now that we know that if you level too fast, certain quests are going to eat you alive if your skills are lacking.

I'm only lvl 3 on my highest character, so I'll probably start trying to work it this way. That is if I can ever find an hour to actually play again. Real life...such a bother.

In Morrowind yes, after you got your level up notice you could still work on your minor skills and they would help your multipliers, not in Oblivion though.  Once you get your level up you are locked in for multipliers.

Having two level 17 chars already probably means you were playing in an odd way, like you took alchemy and were cranking out potions or something so you only got increases to your INT.  Not that I'm trying to blame you, you should be able to play however you want without accidentally gimping yourself, it's the game's fault.  In that case I wouldn't re-roll, it's the game's bad mechanics so I would feel justified using a cheat code to inflate my attributes.

If I continue to gain skills after getting the "go to sleep" message but before I actually sleep and level up, do those skill-ups count for my next level-up modifiers or are they lost?

Naa, have block, armorer, heavy armor, athletics, acrobatics etc. All warrior skills. A lot of the skills increases naturaly without me using them. Weapon skills increases insanely fast as well for some reason, especialy with 1h. I don't quest much and mostly run around and kill stuff. With my mage I must admit I abused some, spamm summon of rank 1 skellie while I'm travelling, sometimes when I summoned him and killed him with rank 1 fireballs to lvl destruction. At this point I didn't know how the system really worked.

1) Speechcraft mini-game. Yes, ok, I see why you need a mini-game of some kind, but this one is a really bad implementation. It's annoying the FIRST time you do it, let alone the 10,000th time. Just a really bad idea that runs against the immersiveness of much of the rest of the design.

I've read this thread and others and I still don't really get (or maybe it's just that I don't enjoy) the lockpick minigame. I'll give it another go tonight.

Is there a way to heal a horse? Restoration spell? I have the freebie horse from the priory and for some reason wolves always go for him and not me. My five-year old daughter's character also has this problem and she's really obsessing about the horse--frankly i think the character could die and if she got to play the horse instead she'd be cool with that.

What do you do with the crystals you can rip off out of high elf ruins? I've got a sack full of them but I'm scared to sell them. I'm trying not to read general threads in various forums where there might be other information that spoils the game, as this is one of the few where I really want to see if I can learn by doing and exploring. But I'm not above trying to cut to the chase when something isn't intuitive, as in this case.

1 - My horse just tripped on a stone and died.  What.  the.  fuck.
2 - I have become a vampire for no reason whatsoever.

My coworkers want to know if you can bite the horse and make it a vampire too.

Laugh it up.  But that horse meant the world to me.  Me and GENERIC_HORSE_NO02 were the bestest of buds.

I have a GF7800 GT.  I tried the 84.25 version that were alledgedly optimised for Oblivion but my crashing became even worse so I went back to the latest regular drivers.  The beta driver before the 84.25 made no difference.  I'm also using Coolbits 2.

Seriously, you guys have no idea how much trouble I'm in if my five-year old's horse croaks. Between that and keeping her away from quests where you might run into a cougar guy having sex with his wife, this is turning out to be a complicated and delicate game to play with one's child watching and telling me what to do.  But this game is easily fascinating her more than any other she's ever seen, and I largely share the fascination. (Which is also a pain, because she's making me play her character more than mine...)  The game can definitely be forgiven more of its sins than some, since it is otherwise so ambitious.

My X1600 Pro is on the van headed for delivery, I'll report on the trials and tribulations of installation and graphical changes this evening.

As a Knight, I do have to say the speechcraft system sucks. Nice idea, shoddy implementation. Seems I'm always getting shafted with enough bad responses that I can only raise things a tiny bit...and what's with the countdown timer. I often end up with a lot lower reputation with characters than I started with, because the minigame shafted me. Small quibble, but as it's one of my Knight skills, it bugs me from an rp perspective.

I still think it's one of the best games I've ever played. All gripes are exceedingly small and quickly forgotten.

And people complaining on forums? Lolinternet, you know better :)

Also, they are all voiced over.

Is it true your skills are capped by your attributes?

This is why I wasn't too worried about the leveling system or any weird UI problems, because the modding community for Morrowind is huge and they're raring to get at Oblivion.

Smoove Leveling:
http://www.tescreens.be/oblivionmodwiki/index.php/Dz%27s_Smooth_Leveling_Mod

Time Mod:
http://www.tescreens.be/oblivionmodwiki/index.php/OblivionTime

No more teleporting/psychic guards:
http://www.tescreens.be/oblivionmodwiki/index.php/No_Psychic_Guards

Lighter Alchemy Ingredients:
http://www.tescreens.be/oblivionmodwiki/index.php/Lighter_Alchemy_Ingredients

Improved UI and No Quest Markers (if you don't want them):
http://www.tescreens.be/oblivionmodwiki/index.php/Improved_UI_%26_No_Quest_Markers

Sneak Icon moved next to Compass (thank you!):
http://www.tescreens.be/oblivionmodwiki/index.php/Sneak_Icon_Mover

Stolen Horses don't wander off:
http://www.tescreens.be/oblivionmodwiki/index.php/Horses_Stay_Put_%28No_Wandering%29

OMG IRONWOOD, DID THEY PATCH IN MULTIPLAYER?

Oh.

No, they didn't.

I almost NEVER download mods for anything. If I can't play the game as originally intended I generally curse the developer and throw it aside. I've downloaded less than 20 mods in my life, 15 of them being for UT2k4.

YES.  That's exactly what I'm talking about.  Here, Schild, is where the PC is far superior to the XBox version.  That Improved UI alone is to die for.  Thank the maker and whatnot.

OMG IRONWOOD, DID THEY PATCH IN MULTIPLAYER?

Oh.

No, they didn't.

I almost NEVER download mods for anything. If I can't play the game as originally intended I generally curse the developer and throw it aside. I've downloaded less than 20 mods in my life, 15 of them being for UT2k4.

I'm really not.

First, I am enjoying the hell out of Oblivion, the only thing that really is getting to me is the leveling system. I think its horrible and counter intuitive. So if there is a quick fix that doesnt change the game very much, but lets me just play and have my character develope and not have to constantly worry about multiplyers or leveling to soon and gimping myself, im all for it.

As for your NWN reference, I though the singleplayer game was pretty crappy, but I had a ton of fun playing in online arena matches and custome mod worlds. Enough fun that I would say for me the game was a good game. If I had based it only on the singleplayer story, it would have been a crap game.

Improved UI and No Quest Markers (if you don't want them):
http://www.tescreens.be/oblivionmodwiki/index.php/Improved_UI_%26_No_Quest_Markers

If you just disliked little things about Morrowind, but enjoyed it overall, you'll like Oblivion. If you hated Morrowind, you'll hate this.

As a Knight, I do have to say the speechcraft system sucks. Nice idea, shoddy implementation. Seems I'm always getting shafted with enough bad responses that I can only raise things a tiny bit...and what's with the countdown timer. I often end up with a lot lower reputation with characters than I started with, because the minigame shafted me. Small quibble, but as it's one of my Knight skills, it bugs me from an rp perspective.

I still think it's one of the best games I've ever played. All gripes are exceedingly small and quickly forgotten.

And people complaining on forums? Lolinternet, you know better :)

I don't like Oblivion because there aren't other people.

I don't like MMORPGs anymore because they aren't as fleshed out as Oblivion.

I need a low level mysticism spell so I can raise  mysticism to 25 for the soul sucking spell to recharge my soul gems, all these daedra I am fighting should be good for at least charging all those grand should gems I have in my inventory.

I might actually download the "lighter ingredient" mod simply because no one will sell me a house and I have to carry all of my alchemical equipment and reagents in my pockets.  I really need a workshop, or a place to put things where I won't worry about some crack-addict stealing my stuff, but seems like I have to get on the good side of the town leadership or something.

Vampirism < lycanthropy; not looking forward to dealing with that, but that has been true of all the games.

I can't say I agree with this.  I couldn't play Morrowind.  There was just nothing engaging about it all but Oblivion is the first game I've really enjoyed in ages.

I just bought the unabomber style shack in the imperial city.  You buy it in the marketplace from the official sounding place "Imperial commerce department" or something like that.

I think that so long as you don't sleep in a bed the lycanthropy won't go to full blown vampirism so just make sure to visit a church to clear the disease before you sleep.  Either that or you have three days to cure it.  I just make sure to visit a church as soon as I finish fighting vampires.

"Number of times diseased"

So when I got home last night I went and downloaded a few of the mods.

The UI mod. OH LORD AND SAVIOR HOW I LOVE THEE! This mod is great, it really improves the UI. Puts more items on a page, and makes the map WAY bigger. Great mod. Unlike the guy above, no problems for me yet.

I also downloaded Balors Leveling - Vehem Edition. This thing is INSANE. It makes the leveling what it should have been to begin with. I really feel like I can just play the game now, and not worry about "Am I about to level? Did I work my sub skills enough?" Its really really great. Honestly this mod just made the game go from like an 80/100 rating to a 90+/100 rating for me. It has really improved the one aspect of the game that constantly bugged me. I made a backup of my saved games and installed it. Worked great with a new or existing character. Props to Balor and Vehem. I love it.

on a somewhat random note, has anyone had much luck finding Doomstones? They're the stone-monolith type structures with the red runes written on them. I've found two so far, by random exploration. I saw it mentioned in an in-game book that there were something like 18 of them, one for each Birthsign and then some others related to ancient cults. The doomstone for "The Tower" birthsign grants you two greater powers (the kind you can use 1x per day) - +20 armorer for 120 secs, or open one lock of hard difficulty or less. I also found "The Apprentice" which gives you +20 Illusion and +20 alchemy for 120 secs.

The Tower is the easiest one to describe, it's more or less directly south from the Waterfront waypoint in Imperial City. Go south across the lake, and a tiny bit to the west. If you check your world map, you'll see there's a small island (the main road runs across it) that's south and a bit west from the Waterfront - the Doomstone is on the Northern tip of that island.

Man, they did a great job on integrating the quests into the living game world.

Tell me which mods need to be hosted and I'll put them up on my website.

on a somewhat random note, has anyone had much luck finding Doomstones? They're the stone-monolith type structures with the red runes written on them. I've found two so far, by random exploration. I saw it mentioned in an in-game book that there were something like 18 of them, one for each Birthsign and then some others related to ancient cults. The doomstone for "The Tower" birthsign grants you two greater powers (the kind you can use 1x per day) - +20 armorer for 120 secs, or open one lock of hard difficulty or less. I also found "The Apprentice" which gives you +20 Illusion and +20 alchemy for 120 secs.

The Tower is the easiest one to describe, it's more or less directly south from the Waterfront waypoint in Imperial City. Go south across the lake, and a tiny bit to the west. If you check your world map, you'll see there's a small island (the main road runs across it) that's south and a bit west from the Waterfront - the Doomstone is on the Northern tip of that island.

The ability to change the sky/weather like that though.. I might have to go into TESCS and see if I can hack in weather control spells for fun.

Uploaded and tagged with "FOR_SIGNE." Enjoy!

If you can't do all the guilds on the same character, I see rolling up a new one to play all the content. Any have experience here?

Let's talk replayability. Ostensibly, some of the guilds are mutually exclusive, right? Joining the Fighter's Guild doesn't work with joining the Dark Brotherhood and so forth. Or, if I want to do the mage guild thing and make my own spells and enchantments, I won't be able to do the Dark Brotherhood / Thieve's guild.

If you can't do all the guilds on the same character, I see rolling up a new one to play all the content. Any have experience here?

Let's talk replayability. Ostensibly, some of the guilds are mutually exclusive, right? Joining the Fighter's Guild doesn't work with joining the Dark Brotherhood and so forth. Or, if I want to do the mage guild thing and make my own spells and enchantments, I won't be able to do the Dark Brotherhood / Thieve's guild.

If you can't do all the guilds on the same character, I see rolling up a new one to play all the content. Any have experience here?

Warning:  Balor/Vehem leveling 1.1 is very buggy.  You'll want to get 1.1a, which I believe fixes the brokenness.  It's here:  http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=1956  Whomever is hosting might want to update this one.

Anyone been into Crowhaven yet?  It's an old fort outside of Anvil, the thing is that there is a locked door in it that requires a key that I can't find.  Is the key somewhere else - part of another quest maybe?  Or did I miss a secret door or something?

there is a quest for it. I think it has to do with the arena but I'm not 100% sure.

Warning:  Balor/Vehem leveling 1.1 is very buggy.  You'll want to get 1.1a, which I believe fixes the brokenness.  It's here:  http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=1956  Whomever is hosting might want to update this one.

Be careful.  Because the SK puts your security up, some are finding that skill increases are now really, really slow for security.

About 8 hours in and I'm having an identity crisis.  I want to reroll, but I love my stealthy character, but I'd love to try a shadow knight or paladin or something.

If a mod wants to split this into a spoiler thread, fine with me.  As if you need my permission.

I think once a thread hits page 10 about a game you're assured that it may contain some minor spoilers.  Nothing in here so far that I've seen has been that bad. 

You know, you can always make another thread if you specifically want to talk about major plot points. 

Someone could even make a thread in the Game Related Downloads subforum for listing good Morrowind mods and where to obtain them.  Or you could make it somewhere else and I could sticky it.  Or whatever.

 

I wanted to turn in Glathir for being a wonky paranoid, but he never did anything I could report before I he attacked me and died on the end of my katana. Sorry, Glathir.

You're drunk already, aren't you? 

...maybe if I find where the bloke is locked up....got distracted :)

The first time he attacked me, I just threw up my shield, too. I thought maybe he would stop or something, finally I just punched him and he died. I reloaded the game to try and report him to the guard captain, but no dice. Nice quest, but I think there should have been more there (for do-gooders, sounds like there is meat for the nastier folks).

I did the bloated float last night... I loved being able to say, "I'm just a cook."

All of the dead bandits are now naked, and the new group are wearing the dwarven armor.

I have to basically turn myself ugly (or 'make myself less attractive' than I already am at 30 personality).. I was going to go hit up mages until I found a drain-personality spell and then use the mages' guild spellmaker to make an uglify-self spell. Is there an easier way to do that?

Also, I've realized that NPCs actually have breath timers.

I've been trying to do the daedric shrine quests (did Malaclath and Nocturnal yesterday), but I'm stumped on one, sort of. I forget the exact name; it's nearby Bruma, to the southeast. I have to basically turn myself ugly (or 'make myself less attractive' than I already am at 30 personality).. I was going to go hit up mages until I found a drain-personality spell and then use the mages' guild spellmaker to make an uglify-self spell. Is there an easier way to do that?

Drink cheap wine. It drains I think 10 personality each time you drink one. You only have to get under 20 for it to work.

I'd rather not mod like that (on the first run; this game is much more solid than TESIII), I'll just do my time in jail.

I fixed my 360 crashes/freeze-ups by reset the HD cache.

Do you have a horse in ‘Oblivion‘? (The answer is yes if you completed the first main quest) If so, you can now download a horse armor pack and get your ride looking sharp. This will cost you 200 points, and is only available in US, Canada, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand.

Pimp your (Oblivion) ride (http://www.majornelson.com/2006/04/03/pimp-your-oblivion-ride/)

I don't see anywhere to actually get that or any 'official' mention on Bethesda's web site.  Is it an X-Box only thing?  I know that BethSoft promised horse armor sometime shortly after launch but is this actually that or is it the demented blogging of some crazed fanbois?

Ok, I completely ran into the wall of disparity between levels and skills and stats last night with my pure mage.  I'm getting two-shotted by the vampires now with all their uber equipment.  I'm starting over with a more planned out template to keep my stats/skills more balanced throughout leveling.

Normally this would make me not want to play the game.  This one is so good, I'm actually looking forward to it.

I'm so screwed.

Ok, I completely ran into the wall of disparity between levels and skills and stats last night with my pure mage.  I'm getting two-shotted by the vampires now with all their uber equipment.  I'm starting over with a more planned out template to keep my stats/skills more balanced throughout leveling.

Normally this would make me not want to play the game.  This one is so good, I'm actually looking forward to it.

I'm so screwed.

Speaking of damage reflection, anyone know where to find cheap damage/spell reflection spells for purchase? I can only find the uber ones that require Expert/Master to cast.

Heh, was that in the quest to get the Daedric artifact?  For some reason the two orc vampires with 2 handed weapons were goddamn near impossible to beat even getting in 6x sneak shots and breaking their weapons.  Not enough room in the cave to kite them either.  Three to four shots to take me down.  Yeesh.

I had to turn down the difficulty for that one.  I've been gradually turning it back up as the only things that give me trouble are brutish melee chars.

Things should go a bit smoother as I've finally found out what those stupid sigil stones are for.  Hooray for free enchants.

Anyone figure out how to repent your sins?  Being the thieves guild's master makes the altars not like me and I can't seem to find the herbs to make a restore willpower potion.

I haven't found the orc vampire yet, but I find some of the summon scrolls come in handy now and again with tough fights.

Me thinks they should police their forums better. (http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=341992)

Heh, that link is getting pounded right now.

Heh, this bitch two shotted a summoned daedroth. She was just mean.  Fortunately, that's the only time where I've been completely overwhelmed in combat.

Heh, was that in the quest to get the Daedric artifact?  For some reason the two orc vampires with 2 handed weapons were goddamn near impossible to beat even getting in 6x sneak shots and breaking their weapons.  Not enough room in the cave to kite them either.  Three to four shots to take me down.  Yeesh.

I had to turn down the difficulty for that one.  I've been gradually turning it back up as the only things that give me trouble are brutish melee chars.

Things should go a bit smoother as I've finally found out what those stupid sigil stones are for.  Hooray for free enchants.

Anyone figure out how to repent your sins?  Being the thieves guild's master makes the altars not like me and I can't seem to find the herbs to make a restore willpower potion.

Speaking of damage reflection, anyone know where to find cheap damage/spell reflection spells for purchase? I can only find the uber ones that require Expert/Master to cast.

The problem is, you can only use effects in Spellmaking and Enchant that you can cast. So if your only reflection spell requires 75 skill to cast, you can't make a reflection spell unless you have 75 skill.

You should apologize to Oblivion!

I should kick your ass, that's what I should do! Lucky for you, I'm nice!

Your new avatar is horrible.

You are all mean to me.  I'll get you back.

SIGNE! SIGGGGNNNEEEEEEEEE! SSSSSSSIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Nice.  So me and what appears to be thousands of people can't run this game because God hates us?  Sorry... didn't mean to ruffle your fanboi feathers, but this game appears to be very dicey for a lot of people.

Full:
Bethesda's Pete Hines recently shared the company's plans for updating The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

"We are working on a patch/update for both the PC and Xbox 360," Hines said, saying that the company is working to finish it "as fast as we can."

Aside from some localization isues, Hines shared no details on what issues the patches would fix, or whether or not the framerate inconsistencies or lengthy load times would be on the list.

Hines also announced that the next two downloads for Oblivion -- two new buildings called "The Wizards Tower" and "The Orrery" -- will cost just 150 points on Xbox 360 ($1.50) and $1.89 on the PC. The company came under some criticism for charging $2.00 for a new set of horse armor last week.

Finally, ATi has released an unofficial patch for Oblivion. The patch allows both anti-aliasing and High Dynamic Range (HDR) lighting effects to be enabled at the same time, a feature that is currently only available on the Xbox 360 version.

why do i feel bad.

I finished the dark brotherhood storyline and now im bummed...  why do i feel bad.  This must be a really good game.  God damnit.

Because it's only downhill from there?

I think I am giving up and going to learn me some real magic.  I hate those fucking painted trolls.  And ghosts.  And wisps.

Sadly you are probably right, but i got my moneys worth just from that so thats fine.  It does make the other guild storylines feel very "meh" though, maybe i should work on the main quest for a while.

I saw a bumper sticker today that read:

Get a taste of religion
Lick a witch

Dude, didn't you watch The Wizard? Nintendo Hint Line gets all the chicks.

BTW, love the Balor leveling mod.  Makes me forget there's even levels in the game.

Get a taste of religion,
Lick a Wiccan

Get a taste of religion
Lick a witch
Tastes like Wiccan

Marksman is kinda hard to level, considering I feel naked with less than 150 arrows.  Using shitty iron arrows, that's 15... uh... weight units.  I really appreciated shedding that chainmail for the Brotherhood armor.  Running backwards can get you into trouble, too.  However I have maybe screwed myself since I can't hit with a sword and can't take a punch now that I'm level 11.  I am really dedicated to the Marksman-poison track.

I've let marksman lag, I've got to start working it up again. I'm at 23 and Marksman is down in the 50's.  Fortunately I just started the Dark Brotherhood stuff so maybe I'll take that as an opportunity to brush up my skills, the sword I have been using was a little over-powered anyways (Goldenrod?  Gold something anyway).

Does anyone know if the Brotherhood Armor levels with you?  I know that it's stats are dependent on what level you get it at (for instance my version starts at 12AC and +8 to the enchantments) but if I break thirty will the armor upgrade to it's next tier? (If you look in TESCS there are 5 tiers for the armor) or would I have to manually do it through the TESCS?

You need to start linking to these things otherwise I'm going to have to believe you just reply with "There's a mod for X."

I think there is a mod for Hot Coffee somewhere.  I just can't find it!

I'm confused.  I just read/skimmed all of the pages of this thread.

Can I make a anything that can learn anything and just play that one thing that can do anything, or do I have to specialize?

How do I avoid gimping my mage? 

Can I change my playstyle and start sneaking around, even though sneak isn't one of my majors?

I'm only level 3 but admit I have been making a lot of potions - is this bad?

Are there a set number of spells I will end up with, so do I have to be choosy, or can I just get whatever I please?

This game is beautiful.  I wish it was an MMO.

So, if I'm understanding this right, I should choose as majors skills that help me kill stuff rather than alchemy or lockpicking, because I don't want to be a really high level potion maker with crap attack skills?

Ok, so I picked this up last friday, mainly to test my new rig that I assembled on Saturday. I've never played an elder scrolls game, so I'm basically a noob. I played some 10 hours on Saturday and sunday, and didn't know what the hell was going on (game system wise). Today I read through some of that thread (up to page 10) and was like "Houston we have a problem". At least now I know why I was having a hard time killing stuff. Ok, time to read the manual. I read through some of the manual and that left me confused. I was a bit more enlightened, but still confused. So I decided to ask a  colleague that has the prima guide for it to skim through, I read everything they had to say about the character creation and development (plus some other stuff I was interested in). Damn. Still confused. I got home and phoned a buddy that's an elder scrolls geek. We spoke for 40 minutes. I think I'm getting the hang of it. I'm rerolling tonight (I'll play around with the char creation again. Maybe I can get something decently looking...) hopefully I won't gimp myself again.

Oh, my point. The system in this game is retarded and very badly explained in all the official stuff. That is all.

It looks like glass with transparent alpha textures (the pauldrons and chain bits) and the green changed to the bluish-silver.

Can someone explain to me how the official mods work? The horse armor and this oresomthing or the other? What's stoping someone from releasing them and me from just dwonloading them as a regular mod and activating them the way I do with a normal mod?

It's a transparent mod of glass armor with the chainmail and leather bits cut out.

It's called Cenobyte armor and it's by a french girl named Aleanne and you can find it on TESSource (along with four or five other colors and a chainmail bikini mod all by the same person).

The belly button tattoo is my own work but has some issues that I have to resolve before I give it out.

What's with all the cloth?

Is stealing from guilds I'm a member of not stealing?

If I clean out everything from a guild and sell it, will it ever come back?  All that alchemy stuff, for example.

Does anyone play using levelling mods, and if so, which/why, if not, why not?

Question number 2, what good is an uber do-everything character and why would a person want one over having 3 or 4 different good but not uber characters?

My problem is that I keep accidentally finding ways to become invincible.

First, I managed to get 72% in damage reflection gear, which meant mobs would kill themselves in just a few hits. To fix it, I took off all my damage resist items.

Next I got enough shield items that I reached 100 armor.  Its kinda funny, but that armor number is literally the percent physical damage resistance you have, so 100 armor = complete immunity to physical attacks.  Ok, I take off all my shield items.

Then I hit master of light armor and expert armorer, so I can enhance my armor +25% and I get a +50% bonus if I'm in all light...100 armor again, fine I'll wear the dark brotherhood outfit instead of elven/glass.

Wow.  Mages just aren't built anything like invincible.  Things just seem to get harder and harder, and my mage skills don't seem to help me kill stuff faster than they can kill me.  The difficulty slider helps but I don't really want to use it.

Did you guys do standard builds, like taking non-combat skills in majors, or did you carefully min/max your build?

I'm assuming the stealthy guy is a thief type, and the armorer guy is a warrior type.

Maybe I don't know where to look or installed it wrong but I can't seem to find it, I don't see anything on the balcony.  You mean outside on the balcony after going to the second floor of the manor right?

Here are the files as I installed them:
D:\ESIV\Data\CenoKatana.esp
D:\ESIV\Data\meshes\cenoglasskatana.nif
D:\ESIV\Data\textures\cenoglasskatana.dds
D:\ESIV\Data\textures\cenoglasskatana_g.dds
D:\ESIV\Data\textures\cenoglasskatana_n.dds
D:\ESIV\Data\textures\menus\icons\cenoglasskatana.dds

I also made sure the mod was checked before starting the game.

Sorry, I still can't see it.  Maybe someone else could confirm/deny seeing it.

Edit: Wait, do I need the other mods you mentioned like cenobyte armor and the other guys glass?

Ok I can see it now and it seems to work fine for me.  Looks nice but it doesn't match my armour :)

Breaking: ESRB Changes Oblivion's Rating to "M"

Perhaps learning from the debacle that was the "Hot Coffee" scandal, the ESRB today changed the rating on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion from Teen to Mature. Depictions of blood and gore and a third-party nude "skin" mod were cited as the major reasons.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has just sent word that the rating assigned to Bethesda's and 2K Games' The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has been changed from T (Teen 13+) to M (Mature 17+). "The content causing the ESRB to change the rating involves more detailed depictions of blood and gore than were considered in the original rating, as well as the presence of a locked-out art file or 'skin' that, if accessed through a third party modification to the PC version of the game, allows the user to play with topless versions of female characters," said the ESRB in a release.

"In line with its mission to inform consumers about the age-suitability and content of computer and video games, this ESRB Parent Advisory has been issued to ensure that parents who have purchased this game are immediately notified of the rating change," the release continued. "Parents should also know that a patch for the PC version of the game that disables access to the file with the topless skin will be made available shortly. It will be posted in the near future at http://www.elderscrolls.com/. If parents have questions or concerns about the change in rating, they should contact their retailer."

"Parents across the country depend on ESRB ratings every day to make sensible choices about the games they bring home for their families," said ESRB president Patricia Vance. "Rating changes are extraordinarily rare, but if ever one does occur, ESRB recognizes that parents must be made aware of the change as quickly as possible so they are certain to have the most current and accurate information."

The locked out content is not accessible in the Xbox 360 version; however, the PC version will carry an additional content descriptor for Nudity until it can be re-mastered and released with the topless skin removed. It was, of course, a third-party modification that eventually led to the whole "Hot Coffee" scandal in GTA: San Andreas because it unlocked a mini sex game. Unlike this "skin" mod, though, the "Hot Coffee" mod didn't alter the game; it merely unlocked hidden content.

The ESRB further warned, "It is increasingly important for parents to realize that PC games can be altered through the use of downloadable programs created by other players called 'mods' (short for modification), which are broadly available on the Internet and can change the content of a game. Since players create them, it is impossible for ESRB or any rating service to consider them in assigning a rating. However, some mods can alter a game in ways that may not be appropriate for younger players and may be inconsistent with the ESRB rating, so parents should be aware of their existence and, as always, do their best to monitor their child's gameplay."


by James Brightman

Comments or questions? Send them to editor@gamedaily.com

The ESRB further warned, "... Since players create them, it is impossible for ESRB or any rating service to consider them in assigning a rating."

I would lift my EA boycott to buy Madden: Hairy Cock edition.

A true classic, that would be.  But as for Oblivion, I gues they weren't reading the papers last year.  Why ship a texture that looked like boobs?  Why didn't Obvliion get a M out of the gate?

It's nice to know that mere impossibility didn't slow the ESRB down for long.

So now all modifiable games are going to be rated M once someone makes some inappropriate content for it?  Someone's going to be racking up some overtime this week.

But why do guards keep saying I'm a thief and putting me in jail?  What are the rules?  If I'm 'sneaking' does that mean I'm considered a thief?  If I have my weapon out will people then attack me? I mean, I get that if I go into a lord's manor and start grabbing shit then I deserve it.  But if I'm just walking down the road and a guard freaks out then what's up?

But if I'm just walking down the road and a guard freaks out then what's up?

Yeah but youc an't really mod shit on steam without fucking with registry editing and shit can you?