I realize this'll mostly be personal preference but after having played oblivion would you say the experience would be more rewarding if you just played regularly, or better if you took the time to understand the power-up system and make the most of your character. I'm don't really feel like I have a preference either way. On the one hand playing regular style can become boring in that you wish you were accomplishing more than just the quests. On the other hand playing it with the intention of using every possible method to get ahead can become tedious and you may perhaps tire of the game before you ever get anywhere. So my question is, to which style would you say Oblivion lends itself to more, and in the end is more enjoyable?
Welcome to the rabbit hole. You've just kissed away months and months of your life! Me personally, I like a balanced character. A ranged weapon (such as marksman or destructive magical skills), an in-close weapon (such as blade or blunt), and some nice supporting skills. I think these are what I generally have as my primary and secondary skills: Blade Destruction Marksman Restoration Block Light Armor Heavy Armor Armorer Sneak Acrobatics Probably 1 or 2 others I'm not thinking of. My absolute favorites are marksman, sneak, restoration, and acrobatics as with those you can succeed at almost any task. Hit 'em as a distance, avoid detection if they come looking, run/jump/climb to escape, and heal. But no matter what you pick you can succeed, the main thing about having skills that match your style of play is that you'll level up faster. And if you haven't already check this site. Best resource ever! Oblivion:Oblivion - UESPWiki
I use a levelling mod that does away with the power levelling. anytime you raise a skill, it adds to your attributes, rather than making sure you can get your +5 on lvl up, it lets you just play and have fun. I'm also using a mod to get rid of levelled creatures, and the oblivion overhaul mod. good times...
I guess I don't understand why you would want to get rid of leveled creatures. What gives? Researching the Oblivion overhaul mod right now though, that's intriguing.
Hmm thanks for the info. That looks like a excellent resource indeed. I think I'll take it's advice and just go as far as I can without extensive knowledge and then when it gets to the point where the game is just too hard, I'll start over and pay more attention to the efficiency side of things.
to me levelled creatures is lame. Whats the point of levelling if everything just gets stronger with you? it's also not very realistic that you reach level 20 then BAM! every adventurer/bandit in the land has daedric stuff. the levelled creature mod still has stronger creatures in some areas, random level creatures in others, and weaker creatures elsewhere (usually at the start of the game areas)
Interesting. So what's the deal with these overhaul mods? I read about a 4-in-1 overhaul mod, is that what you're using? I guess I just never found enough I didn't like about Ovlivion to mod it. And the only mod I ever use with Morrowind is the Propylene Index mod, because getting around can be a real bitch at first.
I'm using several mods that fix things I didn't like. First of all, I should say I am a casual gamer, so some of these could be considered "cheats" Autospell learning - a book that gives you basic spells as you level up in the different categories (apprentice in destruction gives you basic fire/ice/shock spells, jounreyman gets you next lvl spells etc) Low recharge cost - I always thought that recharge costs were insanely high Merchants buy stolen goods - Really, how are they going to know that I stole this stuff? does everyone etch their names onto what they own, or what? Encumberance 100 - Changes the encumberance multiplier to 100 instead of the default 15. Nothing is worse than being in a dungeon and throwing away loot because you are over encumbered, although I think a 100 multi is a little high. Recharge spell - creates a book in chorrol for around 10k gold that will give you a high level recharge spell for enchanted stuff. Because really, how come those other guys can recharge things, but I can't? I'm a master of alteration! (i'm not really, but you get the idea) Smarter mercantile levelling - The vanilla system goes by how many items you sell. But if you sell stacks, it only counts as one item. You would have to sell/buy something like 200,000 items to get to master (could be more) This mod changes it from items sold, to amt of gold bought/sold Francescos levelled createures/new items/overhaul pack - unlevels creatures, makes some areas harder but with better rewards. It also changes a few things such as the agrressiveness of creatures, length of day, and a few other thigns. Most of the mods are optional and can be adjusted how you see fit. I got all of my mods through the IGN website, but TESNexus also has most of them.
I'm currently working on my own House mod for Oblivion. Anyways, as for the mods that I use: Dark/DarN UI - It makes the UI much darker, gives more items on lists, makes all text smaller (22" widescreen has massive lettering). Francesco's Levelled Creatures/New Items/Overhaul - I couldn't play this game without this. Living Economy - Absolutely amazing at helping you earn a bit more money, and adjusting NPC's gold to match a combination of their Mercantile skill, and yours. It also allows you to adjust how fast merchants skill up their mercantile, how fast you skill up your mercantile, and makes Mercantile leveling almost painless. As Jackalope said, Vanilla oblivion (stock oblivion) levels your mercantile by # of transactions. Selling 500 arrows, 1 at a time, will level you 499 more times than selling all 500 at once. Living Economy fixes this by making your mercantile progression adjust to not only # of transactions, but the more each transaction costs, the more you level up. Natural Faces - Better looking faces on characters, much more detailed and alot less blotchy. Qarl's Texture Pack III - Holy shit did this make the game beautiful. I personally play with HDR off because it's way too overdone in oblivion, so this really helped get some extra beauty out of the game. 1.7 Gig download is not for the faint of heart, but taking oblivion's stock 1024*1024 textures, and replacing them with 4096*4096 high resolution textures. If you aren't experienced in using Mods then this one might not be for you. To get it to work you have to use OBMM (Oblivion Mod Manager by Slipstream) to modify/create an Invalidation.txt. It's not hard, but may be confusing. Atmospheric Weather System (w/ Darker Nights) - Adds a ton of different storm systems, sounds, and makes the nights Darker. Toggleable Khajiit Nighteye - Exactly like it says, makes the Khajiit Nighteye spell a toggle spell instead of a timed spell. Adds to realism as it's a racial ability so it shouldn't be timed. I'll post screenies of my mod in a new thread to keep from derailing this thread.
Looking over the mods I've seen the only one I'm even considering is the one that dynamically adjusts the graphics to keep a constant framerate. And at the moment I can't remember what it's called! Maybe once I beat the game and the expansion packs I'll play with more mods. EDIT: The mod is called Streamline: Streamline at The Elder Scrolls Nexus - Oblivion mods and community Oblivion:Must Have Mods - UESPWiki
dammit I keep playing! this is why I didn't want to get WoW..because I knew it would be just like this, except I would have to pay a subscription fee.
MSP, I personally don't like Streamline. It actually increased stuttering in my gameplay but probably because I modified so many things in my oblivion.ini.
Does anyone know a GOOD guide that is explains the leveling stuff. Like one for a total newb who's never played a video game. The UI in this game is complete crap as far as I'm concerned, and just exacerbates my state of confusion. Attributes, class, race, levels, skills, birthsigns.... wtf is all this stuff. I've yet to find one faq that can explain it effectively, and logically. They all make waaay to many assumptions about what you (the reader) knows. Stupid examples like: So if your are an Imperial warrior... umm, okay wtf is an imperial warrior and why does it matter? It's shit like THAT that I'm talking about. I need something for noobs. I'm about ready to give up on this game before I've even started. It makes me feel like I have ADD or something when I try and understand it.
Beyond the Wiki I don't know of any better resources. Don't stress out though, the game (along with Morrowind and Daggerfall before that) can be VERY intimidating. Answer / pick the best you can and just play. A few hours playing will answer some of your questions, and you can always start another character.
Ask your questions here if you have any! We can probably answer your questions. Basic breakdown of Race, Birthsign, and Class. Your race helps determine what kind of character you're going to play. If you want to play a stealth based character, an all-out in your face brawler, a magic caster, a long range archer, or a mix of any of those. Basically your Race determines your starting attributes. The higher your attributes in specific areas the better you are at some things. A high strength means you can carry more and can hit harder with melee weapons. Higher Endurance means you can swing heavier weapons and block more often. Agility affects the damage done with Bows, Intelligence gives you more Magicka to cast more spells/more powerful spells. To see what all the races specialize in, check out the wiki. It gives you a rundown of all of their pro's and con's. Gender doesn't matter too much, the attribute points get adjusted slightly but at the end of the game it won't matter. Now on to Classes. Don't worry if you don't understand skills for the moment, I'll get to that shortly. The class selection gives you 7 specific 'Major Skills'. Every class is different. For example, the class 'The Mage' makes all of your 'Major Skills' magic based, or alchemy. 'Warrior' makes all of your skills with melee weapons and heavy armor. Your class determines what your character should specialize in. Choose what you think would be a fun type of character. If you want to sneak around, break into people's houses, assassinate people, and steal their belongings, then choose your race accordingly. Now an explanation of skills. After choosing your class, you now have 7 'Major Skills' and the rest of your skills are 'Minor Skills'. Skills determine how well you do in a specific area. A 'Master' (level 99+) in Blade will do a lot more damage than somebody with 20. The higher your level in a specific skill the better you are at it. An explanation of the two: -Major skills level up faster than minor skills. Major skills start out at level 25 (Apprentice). For every 10 major skill levels you progress, your character advances one level. -Minor skills are slower to level up than major skills. Minor skills start at level 5. You cannot level up your character by leveling up your minor skills. However, they can affect level progression Attribute bonuses (I'll get to this in a minute). Birthsigns give your character additional bonuses. They can give you Attribute bonuses (like giving you +10 to strength or +50 to Magicka), or they may give you a spell or two to use. The spells obtained from your birthsign can only be used once every 24 hours (in-game time I believe). Again, choose your birthsign to help you do what you want to do. Now finally back to your Attribute Bonuses I was talking about. Every time you level up a skill twice, it gives you +1 to a specific attribute when you rest and level up. When you level up, you get to choose 3 attributes to give bonuses to. They max out at +5 for each level your character grows. For example, if I train Acrobatics 10 levels, when I level up my character I'll have +5 to Agility. To see what skills affect specific attributes, hover your mouse over them in the Stats screen. And I'm spent. Congratulations, this is my first ever tutorial! Let me know if I didn't explain something well enough.
Your right msp, definitely intimidating. Thx for the breakdown phantom. That combined with the 700meg pdf Strategy guide I just downloaded should get me off on the right foot. Much appeciated.
Not a problem there Smirnoff. I was on the phone with my ex wife when I was writing that, so some of it didn't come out as clear as I'd intended.
If you get turned into a vampire, don't cure yourself. I did the first time, and I was kicking myself for it. The added vampire skills FAR outweigh the disadvantages. You might as well get the potion, but don't drink it. On EDIT: Thanks jerks, it's 5am and I should be sleeping, but instead I am going to turn on my Xbox and play. <cartman voice>I hate you guys</cartman voice>
I found being a vampire more of a neucanse (sp?) than fun. Can't go in daylight or you die. Can't wait outside if it's going to be sun-up because you'll die. Sure, you can drink a bit of blood and get yourself back to 25% vampirism which allows you to go out into the streets during the day, but then you lose all the badass skills you get when at 100% vampirism. Screw that.
Sounds like the issue my xbox had when playing GOW. How hot is it at the time of freezing? Mine would start to run really really hot, I assumed it was an overheating issue... Cause you turn it of for a while and come back and the disc would load up fine...
I found vampirism to be pretty irritating too. You burn in the sunlight, and your physical appearance reduces your personality. Plus the vendors (unlike Morrowind) are closed at night. So I cured myself right away. Yeah, the extra strength and what-not was helpful, but you can just enchant some items to accomplish the same things without the drawbacks. Speaking of Morrowind, I just beat the main quest. My character was such a bad ass by the time I got to Dagoth Ur that he wasn't even a challenge. Kinda disappointing actually, beat him on the first try.
It's still cold. I noticed scratches on the back of the disc but this happened last yr and i hadn't ever taken it out of the console (or moved it while running). Guess it's a cheap disc or design issue. I just picked it back up after buying it last year. It got past where I was stuck before but now it won't go past a part inside the portal outside Bruma.
Man I love Oblivion. I jump everywhere, so my acro levels quickly, or more quickly than normal. I enjoy hand to hand. There's something fun about punching rats. I dabble in a bit of everything and have a nice sword if there's ever anything I need to kill.
