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

[Miasma]

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?

I mainly did it because I don't like doing the same quests twice and wanted a character that could do it all.

[Sky]

My knight has been pretty uber on standard difficulty, once I got block up a little. His only weak point is healing, I haven't worked his Int much, so he's stuck using a weenie heal (which does fit the paladin idea I was going for). High Str and End, he cuts through a lot of mobs, only bosses challenge him (at level 9 still).

I plan on playing through again after a couple expansions come out and I have a new pc :) Intentionally avoiding mage and thief content.

[Xanthippe]

My mage is 12 now.  I'm quite unhappy with her abilities.

I had to slide the difficulty slider all the way to the left to do the Main Quest at Kvatch.  It was miserable, not fun at all.

Going to be starting over.  I like the idea of going through everything once, instead of multiple times.  The levelling system seems very weird, the scaling is off, at least for mages.  Mobs are a lot harder than they ought to be now.

Can a person be a member of all 3 guilds, and do the DB line of quests and all that?

I want to try a levelling mod.  I'll check out SmoothLevelling.

[Threash]

I haven't had much problems with the leveling system, even with a stealthy char.  As long as your main skills are things that help you actually kill better you really dont have to worry too much about it.  Getting endurance maxed early on helps a bit also,  I used the armorer trainer in the market district on the imperial city every single level to make sure i got a nice multiplier on endurance at the early levels and its paid off.  At level 17 or so i can one shot most humanoid types with one arrow from stealth, and monsters are hurt enough to fall to my sword after a few swings by the time they get to me.

[stark]

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.

[Threash]

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.

Yup and don't even start playing with chameleon and invicibility, all the damage reduction in the world is not going to be as good as never being seen by anyone and getting free sneak attacks on every hit.  This game is really really broken balance wise, which is why i stopped thinking "i wish this was an online game" quite a while ago.  It doesn't really take away much from my enjoyment of the game though, the fights are just a minor part of it that i dont mind making myself powerfull enough not to sweat too much on any fight, but not a god.

[Xanthippe]

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.

[Threash]

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.

Yeah my char is around 20 now and i havent had much problems with combat, the only min/maxy thing i did was train armorer every level to max endurance (being able to repair your own magic armor helps too).  Other than that i stuck with mostly combat skills as mains so even if im leveling fast i can still hold my own in a fight (blade/light armor/restoration/destruction/marksman/sneak/block) was my build i believe.  If you are getting beat up too much as a mage i would suggest to bite the bullet and put on some armor, your spells might not be as good but you'll be able to take a lot more punishment.

[stark]

I installed the balor mod and haven't thought about leveling.  I'm  a non-magic user so I took the birthsign that stops magic regen, but gives 50% spell absorption so the casty guys never troubled me.  This character is an amoral sneak-thief, who did the thieves guild and dark brotherhood lines.  I tend to sneak around and use daggers and shortswords with a shield.

There was a point were goblins and whatnot (~lvl 12) were very very hard and I thought I had gimped myself, but then I started finding fabulous enchanted items in dungeons (like damage reflect) which really turned the tide.

A friend of mine who was more mage-ish complained that he got too good after getting azura's star (a refillable grand soul gem that never gets consumed) and a staff that laid down area effect fireballs.

If you are into role play and don't want to wear armor, see if you can enchant your clothes with some shielding.

[Murgos]

I need some suckers beta testers...

I added a Katana to match the Cenobyte armor that Aleanne made that my character is wearing.

Before I stick it up for general use I would like someone else to try it out and make sure I didn't forget something.

Cenobyte Katana





edit:  Next up will be a shield and then arrows/quiver/bow

[Miasma]

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.

[Murgos]

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.

It should be on the floor around to the right as you leave the balcony door. I tried to have it leaning in the corner but it keeps falling down.

[Miasma]

This is what I see:

Maybe I installed it wrong and other people can see it.

[Murgos]

Maybe I can't put it outside?

I know stuff disappears after a while sometimes.  Let me move it somewhere else.


edit:
Ok, redownload it from the link above.  Just copy the esp file over and enable it.  The katana should now be on a bed in the Anvil Fighters guild on the first floor.

[Miasma]

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?
Edit2: I downloaded the toolkit, found the ID and used the console to add the item and it appeared in my inventory as Cenobyte Katana but when I equipped it I got this large exclamation mark polygon on me.

[Murgos]

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?

No, everything should be self contained.  I've tried it on my computer by deleting the files and only using the zip stuff and etc and it works for me.

I'll look into it again tomorrow.

[Murgos]

I think maybe the directory structure is screwed.  I think there is supposed to be a /weapons/ directory in there somewhere.

maybe
data/meshes/weapons/cenoglasskatana.nif

and

data/textures/weapons/*.dds

I'll check it again when I get home from work.

[Signe]

That Wizard's Tower thingy is ready.  $1.89.  It looks purdy but I am beginning to wonder how much this game will cost if you HAVE to buy everything, like Pokemon or sommat.  The price is tiny, but, generally, so is the content.  This one seems to have a bit more than the others.  I wonder why the silly horse armour cost $.10 more?

[Murgos]

Ok, my mistake.  The .nif file is supposed to be in data/meshes/Weapons/ but the *.dds files are in the right place(s).

You can either dl it again (I updated the zip) and try it from there or create a Weapons directory in the meshes folder and copy the .nif into there.

Sorry for the confusion.

edit:  Actually go ahead and DL it anew if you would.  I made some changes to the Glow Maps for the grip.

[Signe]

Found this advert at tessource :



oops.   

[Trippy]

Hack to allow pre-DirectX 9 video cards to run Oblivion:

http://www.oldblivion.com/

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Edit: fixed typo

[Signe]

We actually used a lot of what is in that Oldblivion thingy to get the game to run on an old computer with a GeForce 4400 Ti.  It wasn't too bad, either.  Very mediocre quality, mediocre performance, some crashing.

[Miasma]

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

[Murgos]

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

Cool, thanks.  You should get better armor :)

[Signe]

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

What a giggle!  

[Yoru]

Note to self. Drag ESRB spokesman into dark alley next week. Turn camera off first.

Developers held responsible for third-party bit modifications or additions. Ridiculous.

Sure, we could CRC every file against an encrypted, compiled-in table. Or use digital signatures. I'm guessing most people wouldn't want to pay the overhead of doing a checksum lookup every time something's loaded, though. If you thought load times were bad now...

(And you could still patch the binary with a simple JMP to get past the checksum.)

[Kail]

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

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.

[Samwise]

In fairness, it sounds like the "topless skin" was actually shipped as part of the game content, and the mod "unlocked" it rather than patching it in.  So the same logic presumably wouldn't apply to a "mod" to Madden that replaced all the player models with giant hairy cocks.

Changing a rating based on third-party hackery is still stupid though.  Whether or not the content happens to live on the game disc makes no difference whatsoever to the end user if they have to install third-party software to get to it either way.

[schild]

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

[Yegolev]

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?

[Yoru]

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?

Per Bethesda's press release (in this other thread), there's no textures that show nekkid b00bies in the stock version of Oblivion for PC. Someone added the textures as a mod.

I've looked at the shipping files with TESCS and I can't seem to magically produce Da Goods.

[Trippy]

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

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.

It's not just moddable games. The logical extension of this is all games that have unrestricted online chat should be rated M because of the potential language. Online games already have that disclaimer about how the ERSB rating experience can change during online gameplay but now that the ESRB is changing the box ratings based on what players can do outside of what the developers intended it's only natural to apply that to online gaming as well.

[Yoru]

The best part is that pretty much all games are technically moddable, it's just a question of how easy it is. Way Back In The Day(tm) people had unit and map editors for Command & Conquer, Wolfenstein 3D and other such games; they just reverse-engineered the file formats and wrote their own mod tools.

It's impossible to completely lock-out modification of files dropped on a user's computer; once anything is left up to the user's computer, it's tamperable. In order to truly ensure that only virgin copies of the data are displayed, you basically need to have the computer send in raw input (keystrokes, mouse moves) and have a company-owned server send back an A/V feed.

You can take basic steps, like encrypting the data files and running checksums or digital signature checks at load-time, which will slow 'unauthorized' modding down, but it also comes at a big performance price, and games are among the more performance-sensitive applications. Problem is, even if you use strong encryption, it's gonna get decrypted and sent to the video card somewhere, and a really hardcore modder could replace your load-and-decrypt routine with a new one that just loads from another file. (This is, in fact, the basis for entry-level No-CD cracks; they just overwrite the cd-checking code with NOOPs, JMP past them, or otherwise circumvent the actual CD checking instructions.)

Once the ESRB starts pinning the blame for third-party activities on game companies, pretty much every piece of software instantly becomes AO, because anyone could make a 'mod' that replaces a splash screen, texture, or, hell, a word that would cause the ESRB to rachet it up to the M or AO rating.

Seriously. If I changed the word 'score' in a PC Tetris game to 'Anal Rape Bukkake Points', does that make Tetris an AO game? It's moddable, and the text is probably just in a statically-compiled resource stringtable. Hang Alexei Pajitnov! He supports showing anal-rape bukkake to the Children!

[Dren]

You just know modders are going to target Disney and similar games.  The fun is just beginning.  This was really a stupid decision and an unintentionally throwing of the gauntlet.

Dora the Explorer - Nude Adventures.

The Horror.

[Sky]

This just in: Windows XP has been rated XXX.