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

[Toast]

Side quest spoiler:
So, I discovered a weird area in the wilderness last night. It was a ramshackle, half-ruined town full of cranky villagers.

These citizens of Hackdirt hate outsiders. Poking around town, I find a 'hard' locked trap door. It lead into an odd subterranean area with ladders up into the basements of every building in town.

I was immediately attacked by a gang of scruffy "Brethren of Hackdirt". So, these mean, traumatized villagers have secret doors to a massive cave underneath their town (which is inhabited by psychopathic hermits). Very strange.

It was a cool random experience, even if it doesn't seem tied to any major plotline or quest..

[Sauced]

About Hackdirt, if you want to know what's up with that place, talk to the Argonian who runs the Outfitter in Chorral... I don't want to spoil it, tho.

[Gong]

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.

[Toast]

Thanks for the tip. Now I have to go home from work early.

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

[squirrel]

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.

I found the thief - +20 Agility and +20 sneak for 120 seconds - i'll have to check where it is when i get home though. Wasn't far from Imperial City though.

[murdoc]

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

One of the very first quests I did was after hitting the small dungeon with the necro across from the sewer exit, I need to level up. So, I check my map and happen to click on the Imperial City Wharf link and there happens to be a floating Inn, so I check in, hit the hay and sleep my way into level 2.

I wake up the next day to find that the Inn has set sail and has been taken over by bandits. To randomly hit this Inn and have a totally unexpected quest to start up while I slept was a very cool moment and THAT'S when I knew I was hooked.

[Yoru]

I've found four, but only two have activated for me. One's up north of Cheydinhal, heading towards the daedric shrine up there; it's near an unmapped lake. One's northwest of Skingrad, no good nearby landmarks unfortunately. I found it on my way to doing the mages' guild quest, so it shouldn't be farther than that.

Of the two I've actually gotten to work, one was near Vaermina's daedric shrine and gave me a bound dagger and bound boots for 120 seconds; pretty neat, but I had to put the dagger away to use my bow. The other is 'The Steed', and is near an Ayleid ruin that's visible from the road if you're walking from the Imperial City to Cheydinhal. It gave me the power 'Hellsteed', which is Athletics+20 and Speed+20 once a day.

I like how there's rewards for hardcore exploration - Doomstones and the pokemon game of finding the Nine's wayshrines (gotta bless 'em all!) and also easier exploration rewards via the POI markers. Although all the oblivion POIs are getting annoying, since getting anywhere remotely near one triggers a slow change to the Oblivion sky texture/weather which slowly fades back only after fading all the way in, even if you've long left the area.

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.

[NiX]

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

[squirrel]

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

I'll also host any mods that people want as a backup to NiX's.

[Sairon]

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.

These stones seems only usable by night. Anyway, I found on of The Warrior. It's where you do the last step of the mages guild quest to become arch mage. It's + to a whole lot of things and togheter with my orc racial the dmg just becomes absurd :P

[Ironwood]

Um, I think I found one of them - can't remember what it was called, but it was a bright red rock that gave me 'Mara's Milk' and 'Mara's summat else' when I clicked on it.  The milk one is a +100 healing power once a day which really saved my under 25 restoration ass a couple of times.

:)

Somebody stick up the levelling mod please.

[Murgos]

"The Lady" is outside of Anvil, came across it last night, it's another +20 to two stats for two mintues ability thing.  Also Mara's wayshrine is a near there too.  Oh an also one of those Daedric shrines, this one gives you a summoned helm and bow.

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?

[Yegolev]

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.

I think there was a Morrowind mod for that... assuming I am right, should be doable in the new TESCS.

Maybe you people want to make a separate Oblivion Spoiler thread.  For the children, such as myself.

[NiX]

Oblivion Mods hosted for your pleasure. I know you all demand SATISFACTION!

[Signe]

What about the naked mod? 

[NiX]

Uploaded and tagged with "FOR_SIGNE." Enjoy!

[trias_e]

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.

[Signe]

Uploaded and tagged with "FOR_SIGNE." Enjoy!

You are such a sweet boy.  Now I can laugh at all the naked people inbetween catastrophic crashes.

[Rasix]

Had my first in game crashes the other day in Bravil.  It was most disturbing.  All of the sudden I'd start to hear a lot of hard drive activity and DOWN GOES FRAZIER.

I hope it's not a Bravil thing. I just bought a crappy, little shack near the docs there.

[Toast]

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?

[WayAbvPar]

I am considering a few new character ideas, so I may have to play through more than once.

Ran a really cool quest last night in Brema (sp?)- man/woman thief team- guy in jail for murder, each claims the other did it. The loot is hidden somewhere, and only he knows where. Really well written with a cool twist at the end. Not even a major quest- just something else to make the world seem alive. Well done.

[Sauced]

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?

Well, I started with the intention of joining the Thieves' Guild eventually, but I started with the Mage's Guild.  I also had a stated goal of not joining the Dark Brotherhood intentionally, but if it came in the normal flow of the game then so be it.  While doing a TG quest in Leyawiin Castle, some page spotted me snooping around, and instead of calling for the guards he opted to assault me with his puny fists.  That was a short fight - and for some reason the Brotherhood happened to notice it.

So I'm currently doing quests for all three.  In theory, TG members aren't supposed to kill anyone, and as I haven't been reported for murder yet, I can't say if they actually do anything about it.  I'm about 6 out of 7 on Associate MG quests, so I'll find out soon enough whether or not they have a problem with my career choices.

I'm currently planning on my 2nd character being my usual - a brute to join the FG, do the Arena thing.  Anyone found anything Imperial Cult-ish to join yet?  I heard some mention of the Nine being church-ish, and I do love to make a crazy evangelical tank-type-guy.

So far my 12th level Nightblade-ish class is going very well, with no min/maxing.  Bow, Light Armor, and Sneak are all Journeyman, with Security and Blade close behind.  For Minor skills, Restoration, Armorer, Speechcraft, Block, and Athletics are all Apprentice level, and I haven't spent a dime on Training.  I should run into the supposed limit on skill vs. attribute tonight - Blade is currently greater than my strength by virtue of the DB armor set.  With 14 Gates still to take down, this is going to take forever.  Yay!

I'm also having a bit of a hard time accumulating wealth, although it sounds like that's about to turn around.  After each crawl/gate finished, I have to restock on arrows, repair magic armor ( will definately be taking Armorer as a Major next time), recharging my Bow of Burning... I'm pretty down to where I was before selling all my loot to a vendor who likes me, after Haggling as much as I can get away with.

[Yoru]

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?

Not sure about that; I'm up at Cat Burglar with the Thieves and Conjuror with the mages. I've had the factions slap each other around a bit via me, but each time I made damn sure I didn't get seen by anyone who remained alive.

[squirrel]

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?

I'm a member of the Fighters Guild, the Dark Brotherhood, the Thieves Guild and the Arena. I'll join the mages guild soon heh. So far I haven't been booted from any of them or had them notice i was a member of all, but i take care not to get seen doing anything that would incriminate me.

[Morfiend]

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.

Im using 1.0 right now, and it worked wonderfully for the new character I made, but on my existing character, I havent level up. I have got a bunch of skill upgrades, and a bunch of stat upgrades, but no level. I hope 1.1a fixes this, as I love this mod to death.

[El Gallo]

My plan is to max every skill and standing in every guild on my way to saving the world.  Then, turn into a vampire and slaughter every single NPC in the game with one of those "make everyone killable" mods.

I doub't I'll actually do all that though.

[Bunk]

While it seems that you can join almost all of the guilds at once, I don't think you typically will. I'm rank one in the thieve's (sp?) guild and have no intention of doing quests for that pansy group, I'm just far enough in the mage's to get in to the university, and I'm advancing my way nicely through the Dark Brotherhood. The fighter's guild really makes no sence for this character, so I'm not bothering.

There are more than enough quests in the Mage's and Brotherhood to keep me going for ages, especially considering I've barely done any of the main quest line yet.

My secondary Paladiny character will be looking at doing things for the Fighter's, the Blades if you can, and maybe looking to help the Temple (I don't know if there is a faction for them or not, most of the preist types refuse to talk to my assassin).

[Sky]

You can join the Blades, it's the only guild my Knight is in so far. I wanted to hook up with them first, then I'll join the Fighter's Guild and probably hit the Arena. I'm too arrpee to join the other guilds with this character. As I've probably mentioned, I fully intend to play through three times, though maybe not until some expansions come out. Hopefully two expansions, for my two planned characters, and by the second expansion I should have a new pc and play through with bells plus whistles fully enabled. That's the plan, anyway.

Bethesda makes me tingly in my naughty bits.

[Riggswolfe]

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.

[Yoru]

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.

Go down to the basement of the Arena and talk to everyone down there. You'll come up with a quest for Crowhaven. It's the oldest one in my questlog currently; I'll probably clear it out tonight.

[Yegolev]

I should have looked in oblivion.ini sooner.
bAllowScreenShot=1

[NiX]

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.

Uploaded 1.1b. If anyone has a mod they want hosted just in case or for a friend, let me know. More than happy to host for you fun group of angry people.

[Ironwood]

Thanks.  YOU BASTARD.

Love you.

[Riggswolfe]

Well I'm currently completing the Daedra artifact quests and have halted all other questing. Some of the rewards are awesome, others less so. However, I also discovered my now level 20 character is gimped in one way.

He has low agility. Like starting stat low. Like 30. I thought it was used only for stealth and marksmanship. Turns out it is also what keeps you from getting staggered by being hit in combat. Which explains why I sometimes essentially get stunlocked in the game. *sighs* I'll have to go around and use my skeleton key to pick every lock I can find to get some +5s and hope I can ungimp myself soon.

On another note, can you have more than one enchantment on a piece of armor? If so I think I'll use enchantments to ungimp myself some. (my armor is all enchanted for strength, I now have a 126 strength and can beat the tar out of almost anything.)

[Ironwood]

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