Current Events > I'm playing Oblivion for the first time

(+) Yeah! (+)

Veggeta X posted...

Oblivion is really hard if you don't break the game.

i sucked at oblivion. skyrim i discovered how fun it was to take shit but realized you can't sell it back ><.
spent alot of time invested into that one, if i do start it again at lvl 20 i'm doing the DLC first.
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kingdrake2 posted...

you can't sell it back ><.

Going 'lone wolf' as a thief is punished in normal play. To get an independent Fence you have to power level Speech AND invest in stores.

But you can still steal items that get crafted into something else, from potion ingredients to Ores and Gems.
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I have 2 grand soul gems...need 3 more. tired of vampirism
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Get your endurance to 100 asap to get the most health each level up
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Got my first quest for the thieves guild. Downside is I need some lockpicks and since I'm new I don't know any guaranteed spawn points. Also I hate having to carry around repair hammers.

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It's been a while but doesn't the Thieves Guild contact guy sell them?
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DuneMan posted...

It's been a while but doesn't the Thieves Guild contact guy sell them?

Yeah he does.
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I had some fun with Oblivion after Skyrim.
I like the different climate. Skyrim is beautiful when it comes to the scenery but exploring the hilly forests of Cyrodiil was fun too.
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RescueBC posted...

I had some fun with Oblivion after Skyrim.
I like the different climate. Skyrim is beautiful when it comes to the scenery but exploring the hilly forests of Cyrodiil was fun too.

I like Oblivion and Morrowind way better than Skyrim!
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DuneMan posted...

It's been a while but doesn't the Thieves Guild contact guy sell them?

I thought the same thing but didn't have an option for it.

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DarthDemented posted...

DuneMan posted...

It's been a while but doesn't the Thieves Guild contact guy sell them?

I thought the same thing but didn't have an option for it.

Armand Christophe should sell them through dialogue. If not Shady Sam sells them outside the Imperial City.
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Rikiaz posted...

Armand Christophe should sell them through dialogue. If not Shady Sam sells them outside the Imperial City.

I found that he'll only sell them when he's at his mission giving spot. If he's walking around then he won't sell them. Kinda like how you have to let him get to his spot to make a mission count.

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DarthDemented posted...

Rikiaz posted...

Armand Christophe should sell them through dialogue. If not Shady Sam sells them outside the Imperial City.

I found that he'll only sell them when he's at his mission giving spot. If he's walking around then he won't sell them. Kinda like how you have to let him get to his spot to make a mission count.

Oh yeah I shouldve mentioned that part.
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Ah Oblivion.

The game where you make your character and play the game, only to find a few levels in that you made your character dead f***ing wrong and have to choose between running away every three seconds of combat to let your magicka slowly recharge over the next two minutes or so or lowering the difficulty to nothing, then eventually get fed up with how screwed up the whole thing is, start over, look up a character creation guide, find that it is textbook length, and just give up altogether.
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DevsBro posted...

Ah Oblivion.

The game where you make your character and play the game, only to find a few levels in that you made your character dead f***ing wrong and have to choose between running away every three seconds of combat to let your magicka slowly recharge over the next two minutes or so or lowering the difficulty to nothing, then eventually get fed up with how screwed up the whole thing is, start over, look up a character creation guide, find that it is textbook length, and just give up altogether.

I never had or understood this issue. The game only gets unplayable if you extremely powerlevel only non-combat stats.
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Polycosm posted...

Shotgunnova posted...

Enjoy playing through Shivering Isles.

Best expansion pack, imo.
Like, in all of video games, ever.

Hail Eris
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Rikiaz posted...

DevsBro posted...

Ah Oblivion.

The game where you make your character and play the game, only to find a few levels in that you made your character dead f***ing wrong and have to choose between running away every three seconds of combat to let your magicka slowly recharge over the next two minutes or so or lowering the difficulty to nothing, then eventually get fed up with how screwed up the whole thing is, start over, look up a character creation guide, find that it is textbook length, and just give up altogether.

I never had or understood this issue. The game only gets unplayable if you extremely powerlevel only non-combat stats.

The main problem was that leveling was itself highly counter-intuitive. If you did what made intuitive sense (major skills to what you actually intend to do, ie. if you're a swrodsman, major skill to blade), you would level up quickly without actually getting much stronger, and since enemies scale with your level...
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I tried to make an unarmed guy for my first character.

Went to Kvatch, triumphantly charged an imp, punched it in the face, and promptly got eaten alive.

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DuranOfForcena posted...

DevsBro posted...

Ah Oblivion.

The game where you make your character and play the game, only to find a few levels in that you made your character dead f***ing wrong and have to choose between running away every three seconds of combat to let your magicka slowly recharge over the next two minutes or so or lowering the difficulty to nothing, then eventually get fed up with how screwed up the whole thing is, start over, look up a character creation guide, find that it is textbook length, and just give up altogether.

or if you don't give up you then have to make a character that doesn't actually use any of the major skills you choose for them, and that you have to keep a physical notebook for keeping a running tally of every single time you level up any major or minor skill, and every time you load up the game you have to decide if you need to min/max or if are at a point where you can actually play the game

The hell were they thinking lol
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Criminal scum, stop right there!

Wait...
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I once made a hand-to-hand Imperial with a skooma problem. His Intelligence stat would get down to zero and the citizens would start calling him a moron and everybody hated him. It was hilarious. Eventually I had him climbing the castles and jumping all over the place like a crackhead. He was so fast he could close Oblivion gates without attacking a single enemy. He could just run through, grab the stone, and be done with it.

I could also make him a 100 feather, 100 speed, 100 acrobatics spell for one second that I'd use while drinking four skoomas and he could jump one time and it'd have to load 3-4 screens before he ever touched the ground.

DevsBro posted...

Rikiaz posted...

DevsBro posted...

Ah Oblivion.

The game where you make your character and play the game, only to find a few levels in that you made your character dead f***ing wrong and have to choose between running away every three seconds of combat to let your magicka slowly recharge over the next two minutes or so or lowering the difficulty to nothing, then eventually get fed up with how screwed up the whole thing is, start over, look up a character creation guide, find that it is textbook length, and just give up altogether.

I never had or understood this issue. The game only gets unplayable if you extremely powerlevel only non-combat stats.

The main problem was that leveling was itself highly counter-intuitive. If you did what made intuitive sense (major skills to what you actually intend to do, ie. if you're a swrodsman, major skill to blade), you would level up quickly without actually getting much stronger, and since enemies scale with your level...

New enemies start spawning but the only enemies that actively level with you start appearing at around level 20, at which point your main combat skills are usually nearing if not at, 100. Never in my 10k hours on this game have I ever efficiently leveled and I have very rarely ran into problems. There are still problems sure, the game is far from perfect, but acting like the only way to play the game is by efficiently leveling is just wrong.
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I guess I'm trying to say that Skyrim didn't have anything close to as fun as those type of experiences built into it.

Phantom_Nook posted...

Criminal scum, stop right there!

Wait...

Thank you kind sir!

DevsBro posted...

DuranOfForcena posted...

DevsBro posted...

Ah Oblivion.

The game where you make your character and play the game, only to find a few levels in that you made your character dead f***ing wrong and have to choose between running away every three seconds of combat to let your magicka slowly recharge over the next two minutes or so or lowering the difficulty to nothing, then eventually get fed up with how screwed up the whole thing is, start over, look up a character creation guide, find that it is textbook length, and just give up altogether.

or if you don't give up you then have to make a character that doesn't actually use any of the major skills you choose for them, and that you have to keep a physical notebook for keeping a running tally of every single time you level up any major or minor skill, and every time you load up the game you have to decide if you need to min/max or if are at a point where you can actually play the game

The hell were they thinking lol

Now that I finally got around to playing Morrowind, I'm a little mystified by why it doesn't get equally shit on for having pretty much the same leveling structure. I guess the big difference is that there's no cap on training, and all the uber gear scattered around the world kind of minimizes the necessity of a controlled build and leveling.

But yes, even though I loved both games, it could be borderline infuriating to build my major skills around my least-used skills and have to keep written tally of skill points gained. The concept of leveling based on skills used rather than flat EXP is great, but the execution was really shaky. Even though I miss attributes, this is one area where Skyrim's streamlining was a net positive.
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masterpug53 posted...

DevsBro posted...

DuranOfForcena posted...

DevsBro posted...

Ah Oblivion.

The game where you make your character and play the game, only to find a few levels in that you made your character dead f***ing wrong and have to choose between running away every three seconds of combat to let your magicka slowly recharge over the next two minutes or so or lowering the difficulty to nothing, then eventually get fed up with how screwed up the whole thing is, start over, look up a character creation guide, find that it is textbook length, and just give up altogether.

or if you don't give up you then have to make a character that doesn't actually use any of the major skills you choose for them, and that you have to keep a physical notebook for keeping a running tally of every single time you level up any major or minor skill, and every time you load up the game you have to decide if you need to min/max or if are at a point where you can actually play the game

The hell were they thinking lol

Now that I finally got around to playing Morrowind, I'm a little mystified by why it doesn't get equally shit on for having pretty much the same leveling structure. I guess the big difference is that there's no cap on training, and all the uber gear scattered around the world kind of minimizes the necessity of a controlled build and leveling.

But yes, even though I loved both games, it could be borderline infuriating to build my major skills around my least-used skills and have to keep written tally of skill points gained. The concept of leveling based on skills used rather than flat EXP is great, but the execution was really shaky. Even though I miss attributes, this is one area where Skyrim's streamlining was a net positive.

Final Fantasy II tried the same sort of thing, and while it didn't work particularly well for other reasons, at least it didn't have the dumb major/minor skill stuff. You just leveled your individual stats.
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The problem with the leveling system isn't that it makes the game impossible if you don't min/max, it's just that you don't feel like you're actually getting stronger unless you do. There's a huge disconnect between supposedly being this massive hero, the head of several guilds, and having the stuff you fight never get easier or even get a little harder as you go along. Even if you do min/max, the line between getting to feel strong while fighting and completely breaking the game is precipitous as hell. You can make yourself completely invisible or completely impervious to damage way too easily, but if you just want to lay down a minotaur in a few swings the sword instead of 20 you're out of luck.
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MasterGakke posted...

The problem with the leveling system isn't that it makes the game impossible if you don't min/max, it's just that you don't feel like you're actually getting stronger unless you do. There's a huge disconnect between supposedly being this massive hero, the head of several guilds, and having the stuff you fight never get easier or even get a little harder as you go along. Even if you do min/max, the line between getting to feel strong while fighting and completely breaking the game is precipitous as hell. You can make yourself completely invisible or completely impervious to damage way too easily, but if you just want to lay down a minotaur in a few swings the sword instead of 20 you're out of luck.

I finally got serious about playing Morrowind when it released for download on XB1. I haven't actually done an Oblivion playthrough since before Skyrim came out, so I was rusty on the old ES leveling system. I even went as far as following a build guide that suggested *shudder* the Atronach sign. I've played tons of Oblivion and Skyrim, I knew what the Atronach sign is, I should have known what I was getting into. I went with that build, just took the highest attribute bonuses available, and I quit that shit in disgust somewhere around Ald'ruhn.

A few months later when the bile subsided, I wised up and made my own build: one major per attribute, only two majors that I actually planned on using in regular gameplay, making damn sure to get Endurance to 100 asap (even taking whichever birth sign gave a +25 END boost so I could get a leg up). It was like night and day. I enjoyed the hell out it, even though it bore the tedium of keeping track of every single skill increase.

Morrowind isn't perfectly comparable to Oblivion in this case, but it's close enough. On my first playthrough I did not enjoy scrambling around Kvatch trying to find ledges where I could slowly cheese all the Daedroth and Xivilai and everything else against which I was pathetically underpowered. Pair this with my moderate OCD towards these types of things and you'd never again catch me playing either game without a controlled build.
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I like the big city in Oblivion more than anything in Skyrim.
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Jeff AKA Snoopy posted...

I like the big city in Oblivion more than anything in Skyrim.

I appreciate the design diversity present in Skyrim's major cities, as well as the greater use of verticality (particularly in Markarth). That's not to suggest that Oblivion's cities didn't have architectural diversity, but apart from the Imperial City they were all fairly standard European-style with uninspired outer walls and castles.

However, the drop from 9 major cities to 5 and the size reduction per city was too high a cost. There's also a sore lack of specialized merchants in Skyrim compared to Oblivion. And I'm afraid this will only get worse in ES 6.
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Ok about to start my nightly playing. Let's see where I get tonight. Speaking of which where's a good place to cheese some melee skills? I've got my blunt above 25 but blade is still lacking. Just needing a back up for when archery isn't a viable option.

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DrizztLink posted...

I tried to make an unarmed guy for my first character.

Went to Kvatch, triumphantly charged an imp, punched it in the face, and promptly got eaten alive.

I actually rather liked hand to hand. The high speed and the drain on stamina made it great.
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I cured my vampirism! finally
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masterpug53 posted...

Now that I finally got around to playing Morrowind, I'm a little mystified

The other aspect of that is that enemies don't level up with you. So even if your training/leveling is slower, you're always getting better. In Oblivion every last Bandit and Marauder will eventually end up wearing Glass or Daedric, to the point where seeing them in a dungeon wearing anything weaker is a surprise.

That being said, in Morrowind it is entirely possible to have your character be weaker than a Seyda Neen mudcrab if you don't invest in the combat stats. You can end up with a 1% chance to hit the crab, dealing minimal damage when you do. If you stack combat stats though, the fights end quite quickly.
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How are you enjoying it so far?

For melee weapons, it's not that important actually to raise your skills but just whack away with the right weapon type. To really "cheese it" use the weakest weapon possible so a dagger/war axe for blade/blunt since it'll do less damage and skills raise per hit, instead of damage done.

If you have the Vile Lair DLC, there's a person who sleeps all the time there that doesn't die so you could just attack them over and over on the hardest difficulty since you'll do only 1/6th damage
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RdVEHfJqAvUPIbk posted...

How are you enjoying it so far?

For melee weapons, it's not that important actually to raise your skills but just whack away with the right weapon type. To really "cheese it" use the weakest weapon possible so a dagger/war axe for blade/blunt since it'll do less damage and skills raise per hit, instead of damage done.

If you have the Vile Lair DLC, there's a person who sleeps all the time there that doesn't die so you could just attack them over and over on the hardest difficulty since you'll do only 1/6th damage

I'm playing the GOTY edition so...should be there?

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My first save with Oblivion, I played blind, enjoyed exploring, didn't track stats... eventually I couldn't go anywhere because a fight with a common wolf on the road would take 20+ minutes because I literally couldn't deal damage any faster than that.

Leveling was straight up broken in that game. I installed OOO and never went back to vanilla.
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My Oblivion pros/cons compared to Skyrim

Pros
+ better world (may the next game have a central city, for the love of god)
+ better quests
+ Better guilds

Cons:
- All the things that come with an older game; awful graphics, more limited combat
- annoying amounts of things to level, like acrobatics, swimming, etc
- the scaling system is absolutely terrible
- there's like 4 voice actors in the entire game
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DarthDemented posted...

I'm playing the GOTY edition so...should be there?

Yes it's down on the south eastern area on the map, underwater, a place called Deepscorn Hollow. You'll go in and another quest begins (or just look around the place) to buy upgrades, you want to buy the "Cattle Cell" upgrade from the merchant the quest tells you about.

TBH, talking about that DLC is making me tempted to play the game again and try to actually do as much as possible

By the way, do all the mage quests to get access to the arcane university so you can enchant things and make spells. Willpower does nothing for your magicka regen, btw, despite the loading screen telling you differnet.

Polycosm posted...

My first save with Oblivion, I played blind, enjoyed exploring, didn't track stats... eventually I couldn't go anywhere because a fight with a common wolf on the road would take 20+ minutes because I literally couldn't deal damage any faster than that.

Leveling was straight up broken in that game. I installed OOO and never went back to vanilla.

I got a guide with it for 4.99, the Prima one. The woman at gamestop was like "no seriously, take it, it's kinda beat up since it was a display copy but you'll really need it". It was 19.99. So I had somewhat of an idea of "hit things to do more damage".
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BTW, TC, would it bother you if I made a playthrough topic for my own one later today? I'll hold off on it if you think it'll detract from your own topic
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pinky0926 posted...

My Oblivion pros/cons compared to Skyrim

Pros
+ better world (may the next game have a central city, for the love of god)
+ better quests
+ Better guilds

Cons:
- All the things that come with an older game; awful graphics, more limited combat
- annoying amounts of things to level, like acrobatics, swimming, etc
- the scaling system is absolutely terrible
- there's like 4 voice actors in the entire game

How do you figure the combat is more limited? There are more magic skills and a better magic system, and the only thing Skyrim does differently than Oblivion is introducing little kill animations and shit but that doesn't really impact the combat itself.

I would agree that the combat in Morrowind might feel dated just because you don't always feel your weapon connecting with the enemy and it looks weird.
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RdVEHfJqAvUPIbk posted...
Holy f dude, why did you encrypt your username?
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DevsBro posted...

RdVEHfJqAvUPIbk posted...
Holy f dude, why did you encrypt your username?

Data Protection
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DuneMan posted...

masterpug53 posted...

Now that I finally got around to playing Morrowind, I'm a little mystified

The other aspect of that is that enemies don't level up with you. So even if your training/leveling is slower, you're always getting better. In Oblivion every last Bandit and Marauder will eventually end up wearing Glass or Daedric, to the point where seeing them in a dungeon wearing anything weaker is a surprise.

I noticed in my time playing Morrowind that this is more of a half-truth. Bandits and stock overworld enemies like Guar and Cliff Racers stay at fixed levels, but your level will still determine what kind of Daedra and Undead spawn in ruins and tombs. Until I started finding uber gear like the Chyrsamere and Eleidon's Ward, I was having a hell of a time keeping pace with such enemies and almost had to start avoiding tombs altogether.
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Rikiaz posted...

The game only gets unplayable if you extremely powerlevel only non-combat stats.

On easy mode maybe.
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- there's like 4 voice actors in the entire game

lmfao, yes. Everyone sounds like Jauffre XD
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Innkeep (talking to Gromm): 'So what do you think Gromm will do now that old Baenlin is dead?'

Gromm: 'Indeed!'

Bonus points for them having the exact same voice.
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NPC dialog is the best thing about Oblivion, lol.

"I'm through talking to you" is funny enough already, then then the guy turns around, walks one step, turns back around, walks one step and cheerfully greets the same NPC.
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DevsBro posted...

NPC dialog is the best thing about Oblivion, lol.

"I'm through talking to you" is funny enough already, then then the guy turns around, walks one step, turns back around, walks one step and cheerfully greets the same NPC.

"Hello!"
"What is it, Breton trash?"
"I had a mudcrab in my attic the other day, nasty little beasts"
"Goodbye!"
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