3/22/06 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC, X360)

[tazelbain]

I remember fighting with the video in Morrowind.  I am not going through that again.  FUck them in their 50,000 polygon assholes.

[Signe]

Actually, this morning it started crashing again.  Sometimes I can't even load my saved game and if, by chance, I do, it crashes within 5 minutes.  I don't know why and, frankly, I'm too disgusted to bother to find out.

[Rasix]

Only crash I get is everytime it exits the game. It's a little annoying, but at least it's not while I'm playing.

Ohh, and closing the first Oblivion gate with a lvl 1 assassin character is a bit difficult.

[Ironwood]

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.

I remember your posts tho - You had Glass Armor Waaaay earlier than you ought to.

Though the expansion pack gave you the cool brotherhood armor waaaaay earlier too...

[Bunk]

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.

[Riggswolfe]

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.

Ok. In Morrowind I think it was how much gold he actually had on hand at the time. This works MUCH better. It also makes the 500 gold upgrade to merchants more useful.

[schild]

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.

Get up to the third rank in the thieves guild, sell it to your fence, he has 800 gold on him.

I actually just found better dark brotherhood armor on one of my nightly thief/vampiric runs.

[El Gallo]

Uh, is it possible to name your savegames?

[schild]

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

[Yegolev]

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.

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.

It was pretty dark but I think he was dunmer.  Anyway, he kept telling me how I would never, ever swim again.  The bastard.  If I could throw things, I'd have beaned him with my pitcher.  I think this was a fantastic touch, it really helps connect me to my character.

Performance outdoors was... underwater.  I thought at first that my argonian was just very, very unathletic, but arrows flying in slow-motion said otherwise.  However updating my Nvidia drivers from 81.98 to 84.21 (latest, March 23) completely eliminated that problem.

To drag up an old discussion, I think I'd have prefered someone with a less-distinctive voice than Stewart for the Emperor.  One line started off identical to a line in the ST:NG intro.  Score one for unknown voice actors.

Uh, is it possible to name your savegames?

OK, I do have one minor complaint: this.  Bothersome, to be sure.  On the other hand, the filenames are pretty descriptive.

[Yegolev]

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

[Shockeye]

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

Your TV. Your 360. Tell him tough.

[Murgos]

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

Yeah, it's silly.  There is something you have to set to true in the oblivion.ini file that will enable you to save screenshots by hitting the printscreen button.  You can venture into the official boards if you really want to know what it is, I've spent enough time there for today looking for hints on video card performance comparisons.

[Yoru]

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.

[Miasma]

Does anyone remember from Morrowind how to get the best multipliers for your attributes each level?  I seem to remember that if I spread them out and trained skills I rarely used I would get 5x multipliers instead of 2x or none at all.  That really adds up since in the worst case scenario you can only increase your stats by three but in the best case you can increase them by fifteen.

I also remember some people thinking it was best to pick the skills you thought you would use least as your primaries.  I guess it would slow down your leveling until the other stats were maxed so that when you do level you would naturally get the 5x multipliers.

Not that you really need to do any of this, it's only a filthy min/max type of thing.

[El Gallo]

Fix for the asinine "you can't take screenshots by default" thing is on page 25 of this thread http://www.fohguild.org/forums/other-games/17637-elder-scrolls-iv-oblivion-25.html

The mysteries of the clunky, munchkin-reinforcing, anal-retentive-excel-charter level-up system are revealed here: http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=269217&st=0 which is referenced on page 27 of that thread.

[Sky]

OMG Where is the UPS truck. Not that I can do anything with it until after 5pm...but I want to drool and stare at the package.

...as opposed to my normal drooling and staring off into space.

[Sky]

Holy shit that worked good. I hit Post and the phone rang to say the UPS guy was here.

OMG Where is my winning lottery ticket.

Hey, why not?

[Bunk]

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.

Nightsight spell is your friend - glad I trained Illusion. It's not perfect because everything is kind of monochrome, but you can see (and shoot things) from miles away in the dungeons. Anyone figure out how to turn off an activated spell? I really don't want the nightsight when I leave the dungeon.

The grass is funny - I have the draw range on grass turned way down. I can see herbs and flowers from 50 ' away clear as day, then when you get close the grass draws in and obscures them. I find herb hunting consists of a lot of jumping and scanning the horizon.

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?

[OcellotJenkins]

I can't remember when I've enjoyed a single player game as much as I am this one... it's been 5+ years at least.  She runs buttery smooth on my 3500+/1gig ram/7800 gs (agp) too.  We're looking at game of the year or possibly game of the decade.  Now, get crackin' on those mods!

 :-D :-D :-D

[Furiously]

I know you are all lying to me again, people said Morrowind was the bee's knees. But I know better this time. You suckered me last time. Not gonna happen again.

[Nija]

Uh, is it possible to name your savegames?

Fuck no you can't.

Thanks, xbox 360!

[Sauced]

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?

I've gotten Security increases in the middle of picking a lock, so I guess with enough lockpicks you could just work up off a single lock.

[schild]

You can't be doing the "auto" shit if you want to level up lockpicking fast. The best thing to do is to go to a rich part of town like the elven gardens or a hotel at night and try on those locks. Or break into a house and find a very hard lock, and go at it. I'm at the point where if I'm lazy, I can just hit "auto" on normal and some hard locks.

[Morfiend]

http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=284040

Wow, I had no idea the level up/skill system was so stupid. No wonder my character has been getting his ass handed to him. Seems if you concentrate all your time on your primary skills, your character actually gets weaker as you level.

[Miasma]

Yeah you have to be a little careful, that's why I asked if anyone remembered how to level.  You shouldn't really have a problem so long as you don't do anything too odd.  If you are already at level ten now because you have alchemy as a primary and have been grinding out potions you could have badly gimped yourself though.

So if you level up badly you might have to reroll, if you play normally you should progress at the same rate as the enemies, and if you min/max you can become a walking demi-god.

[schild]

All I do is put all my stuff into strength, agility, and speed. I ignore Every Other Stat. That seems to do the trick.

[Miasma]

But what multipliers are you getting?  If you can only get one or two points in each the endgame might be difficult.  And if you ignore endurance you will have very few hitpoints later on.  Each level you get HP based on your endurance and if you increase you endurance stat later you don't get HP retroactively.

But like I said everything should be fine, the game isn't terribly difficult.  Well, maybe some pure mage builds are.

[Morfiend]

Im using a pure melee character, but so far I have only got 2x modifiers, since I made sure that all the skills I used where primarys. I just kind of figured that hey, I should make sure the skills I use the most are my primary skills. Jesus, what an assanine system.

[Signe]

Uh, is it possible to name your savegames?

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

[Morfiend]

Is it possible to have a uber build in this game? Like Maxed Melee, maxed Stealth skills and maxed magic? Is there a level cap, or a skill cap?

That thread I posted before said there was one, but I dont think it said what it was. After reading that thread, I think im more confused than before. Also, is there alignment? I havent seen it anywhere.

[El Gallo]

You can max every skill, but it supposedly takes a long time to max some minor skills.  There is a level cap, but it is different depending on what your initial skills were like.  Basically, the higher your primary skills were when your character was created, the lower your level cap is.  This is vaguely explained in the second link I gave a few posts up.  Someone needs to mod the entire retarded level system.

[ahoythematey]

I'm having much more hope for Fallout 3 now.  My big worry about shitty combat like it's predecessor has been proven wrong.  GG Bethesda.

[schild]

I still think the combat is pretty shitty.

[Yoru]

I still think the combat is pretty shitty.

You don't like food any more.