The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Official Discussion Topic)

[njiska]

NEW QUEST AVAILABLE FOR 150!!!

[nik]

expensive quest

[captain nintendo]

Yeah it happens. Funny though....I was over at my 360-owning nephew's house comparing Oblivion notes and he discovered (and demonstrated) that holding "A" during a load screen actually makes it go faster.

I've had less freezes since running a disc cleaner through the drive.

Thanks for the answer, and have a little meseta too ;)

[Trebuken]

It's the glitciest console game I think I have ever played. It froze on me all the time. I learned to save often (I think I am almost at 500 saves).

Holding 'A' clears the Hard-Drives cache, espeacially during startup.

Is the new quest a challenge for a high level character?

Later,
Trebuken

[jdc]

Aha.....so THAT'S why holding "A" works. Makes sense.

I'd say that Morrowind outglitches Oblivion though. THAT game was perilous. I used to save every 15 minutes without fail, just in case. @_@

Refound the info earlier in this thread regarding the skeleton key quest. I THOUGHT I saw it in one of these threads. That thing comes in SO handy!!

[PDorr3]

I havent played this game in months sadly, got 80 hours in and strangely just stopped playing (I believe I played battlefield 2 instead on 360) but I have been getting the urge to go back and play it, I still need to finish the main story, and the whole game still has many quests ahead for me (I finished every guild questline). Would you say the 360 downloadable content is worth buying if I still have a HUGE chunk of the game to explore/do quests?

[jdc]

Forget the download. If you want to go ahead and get 100% completion in Oblivion it's going to take you an EXTREMELY long time. The better part of a couple hundred hours at least. It gives me a migraine just thinking about it all. LOL There's far, far more than just the four guilds and the main story, as you already know......those are just the obvious parts for those that want to simply beat the game and nothing more. The game is incredibly deep and huge in scope.....if you're willing to dig into it all the way.

[meancode]

I finished 100% of the missions at around 150 hr. mark (all guilds and main questline). The DLC have kept me coming back for more, they are pretty good, the latest one though, the one for 250 pts., that has been the best one. I also enjoyed the pirate ship one.

But it sounds like you should finish the main game first!

Oh, and Pete -- you need to lay off the Final Fantasy XI man, it pains me to see you playing that every time I login to Live. :P

[THATinkjar]

I really didn't expect to be saying this... but I ordered my copy of Oblivion (for the PC) tonight.

I had pretty much ignored this game up until now, but having read a feature on it in this month's PC Zone... I just couldn't help myself.

Any advice would be most welcome.

[jdc]

Well......if you've played Morrowind....DON'T make a Morrowind character in Oblivion. It's the skillsets that you don't figure you'll bother with that are the handy ones this time around. The enemies level up with you, so be careful to use a nice balance of fast and slow growing skills as majors so that you don't level TOO fast. You get to control your levelling more this way. You'll most likely create a character and play for about 20 hours then scrap it for a new better character anyways.

Save often and remember to turn the game off and sleep sometimes. LOL

Oh yeah, don't go closing all of the Oblivion gates too quickly. Take your time with them so that there's always a few open across the land until the time comes where you feel like "beating the game".....then close them all.

[-hellvin-]

Here is my advice. Learn Illusion up to 50, get to where you can make enchanted items in the mage's guild, fill up some grand soul gems and make a 100+% chameleon suit. Have fun punching minotaurs in the face in non sneak mode while they search for the cause of their slow demise. Oh yeah, and it's nice not hearing that bastard from the arcane university call me "their newest member" all the time since he can't see you. I'm THE !@#$ING ARCH MAGE.

[boatofcar]

Up from the depths...

Do you think the GOTY version is worth getting? I've never played a game like this before (first person RPG). Do you think I'll want all the extra stuff?

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Not that I should be speaking here, because I don't own a 360 or ps3 (and have only played the game a little bit) but... I know the original morrowind on xbox had a game of the year with extra content, which was well worth it... It had extra areas and added a lot of gameplay. And Oblivion can either be played in a third or first person perspective, which is pretty cool.

[Trebuken]

You should buy the GOTY edition if you think you are going to enjoy the game. You can buy things separately so you could decide later but the level of addictiveness of Oblivion suggests GOTY.

Oblion without Shivering Isles can go well over 100 hours...I am not sure how much play time the additional content adds...

[heybtbm]

Do you think the GOTY version is worth getting? I've never played a game like this before (first person RPG). Do you think I'll want all the extra stuff?

The GOTY edition is worth it...if for only the convienence of having everything together in one package. Oblivion is the type of game that everyone needs to play at some point in their gaming life. I'm a bit biased seeing as I've put ~150 hours into it (including all the expansions).

At first I was overwhelmed with the sheer amount of things you could do the moment you leave the sewers (1/2 hour into the game). It quickly become one of those rare games where you completely loose yourself in the experience. It was fun just to roam around the wilderness and explore.

[Ed Oscuro]

I tried it for a few more hours recently. It's gotten kinda flat, but it was a long ride.

I think Morrowind lasted longer. I'd still be playing it if my save wasn't getting buggy - hate restarts and punching stuff into the console all the time. Actually, I'll probably play it again sometime, just because there's still loose ends to tie up.

[G-Boobie]

The game of the year edition is definitely worth it. I'm a bit biased, since I actually own the game on PC, 360, AND PS3... But yeah... Oblivion is the game I play most often, I think... Even beating out SotN and Morrowind.

The reason I own so many different copies of the game is because of how glitchy it is on 360; prepare yourself for crashing, freezing, and corrupted saves. My PC is barely able to run the game, so I went with a PS3 GotY edition.

If it's an option for you, the PS3 version doesn't crash or freeze nearly as often, though the DLC for the PC and Xbox Live isn't available for it... A small price to pay for a game that doesnt crash though :)

[TheDomesticInstitution]

I didn't realize that the game was so buggy.

[Leo_A]

Beyond a floating horse and slowdown once that was cleared by clearing the cache, I've encountered none of those bugs and I've never heard of glitched saves besides on the PC version.

[boatofcar]

The glitched save thing worries me....has anyone else had that happen to them on the 360 version?

[G-Boobie]

To be fair, the problems with Oblivion on my 360 could have been caused by the hardware; both 360s I played the game on have died via RROD, and the game has been patched since too.

I don't want to scare anyone away from this game. It's a masterpiece regardless of platform.

[heybtbm]

The glitched save thing worries me....has anyone else had that happen to them on the 360 version?

I have over 550+ saves (the game keeps track of the number for each save) on the 360 version with no problems.

[boatofcar]

Just wanted to say that I'm about 55 hours into the game and I'm still really liking it, although I didn't start the main quest until the 40 hour point. I'm hoping that doesn't come back to bite me later on with the concurrent levelling your enemies do...

[heybtbm]

I'm hoping that doesn't come back to bite me later on with the concurrent levelling your enemies do...

I wouldn't worry about it. There's always the sliding difficulty bar in the menu.

[carlcarlson]

I passed the 90 hour mark today and have yet to start the main quest. I've gone into the Oblivion gate at Kvatch a number of times throughout the 90 hours, but I've got my butt kicked every time. Kind of makes me nervous, but I'm having a great time anyway.

It's kind of funny, I really hated this game at first but stuck with it because I liked Morrowind so much. I started feeling decent about my character at about the 50 hour mark. That's a loooong time to play while feeling inferior. Goblins still whoop me pretty good, as do a number of the Daedra, but I can take on human opponents toe to toe now, which is something I couldn't do for a long time. I had to jump up to high spots and pull out the bow.

[digitalpress]

I passed the 90 hour mark today and have yet to start the main quest. I've gone into the Oblivion gate at Kvatch a number of times throughout the 90 hours, but I've got my butt kicked every time. Kind of makes me nervous, but I'm having a great time anyway.

It's kind of funny, I really hated this game at first but stuck with it because I liked Morrowind so much. I started feeling decent about my character at about the 50 hour mark. That's a loooong time to play while feeling inferior. Goblins still whoop me pretty good, as do a number of the Daedra, but I can take on human opponents toe to toe now, which is something I couldn't do for a long time. I had to jump up to high spots and pull out the bow.

Goes to show how deep this game is.

I've played through it twice, and both times at 50 hours I was either a bad-ass brute or nearly impossible to hit (or hit me and you're doing more damage to yourself, I love that), depending on which character we're talking about. On both sessions I completed all of the guild quests as well as the main quest. And I'd do it again - this game is THAT good.

[carlcarlson]

Goes to show how deep this game is.

I've played through it twice, and both times at 50 hours I was either a bad-ass brute or nearly impossible to hit (or hit me and you're doing more damage to yourself, I love that), depending on which character we're talking about. On both sessions I completed all of the guild quests as well as the main quest. And I'd do it again - this game is THAT good.

See now that makes me think I'm doing something wrong. I am neither bad-ass nor impossible to hit. I did level up all of my stealth stuff first, but still. I'm level 35, have 80 strength and 90 blade skill, and get owned by goblin warlords. It kind of sucks because for the most part being a stealth character is only good for the first hit, and after that you're toast. If I could one-hit stuff it would be a different story, but that only works for rats, mudcrabs, and the occasional wolf. Sometimes a cave will be dark enough that I can clear the whole thing of humans without ever being detected, but that's rare. Maybe I need better gear?

[boatofcar]

I hate those dinosaur things--they're the only enemies so far in the game that give me problems. I have to use enchanted weapons to beat them, and I'm still not a Jouneyman of repair (or whatever you call it) so I can't repair them myself.

[Berserker]

See now that makes me think I'm doing something wrong. I am neither bad-ass nor impossible to hit. I did level up all of my stealth stuff first, but still. I'm level 35, have 80 strength and 90 blade skill, and get owned by goblin warlords. It kind of sucks because for the most part being a stealth character is only good for the first hit, and after that you're toast. If I could one-hit stuff it would be a different story, but that only works for rats, mudcrabs, and the occasional wolf. Sometimes a cave will be dark enough that I can clear the whole thing of humans without ever being detected, but that's rare. Maybe I need better gear?

Since everything in Oblivion is leveled, the difficulty slider really comes in handy for tuning the game if you find it's more difficult than it should be.

Also, there are mods that expand on the experience for stealth characters. Check out the Thieves Arsenal (http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=9655).

[Volcanon]

I suppose in five years I'll have a computer capable of RUNNING Oblivion.

In any case, I used a giant fat ogre and smashed stuff 'cuz smashing is fun.

[carlcarlson]

I hate those dinosaur things--they're the only enemies so far in the game that give me problems. I have to use enchanted weapons to beat them, and I'm still not a Jouneyman of repair (or whatever you call it) so I can't repair them myself.

You can also use a Daedric weapon, which you'll be able to repair. I had the same problem for awhile, but finally stole a Daedric shortsword off the guy who owns the haunted house in Anvil.


Since everything in Oblivion is leveled, the difficulty slider really comes in handy for tuning the game if you find it's more difficult than it should be.

Also, there are mods that expand on the experience for stealth characters. Check out the Thieves Arsenal (http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=9655).

Yeah, I REALLY wish I was playing this on PC so I could get mods for free. I would really like to have the Knights of the Nine and the Shivering Isles going as well as the other little official mods. I need to upgrade to the GOTY before too long.

I have toned down the difficulty a bit and feel pretty good about it. When I first started I had it maxed since I figured I was a pro at Morrowind and didn't need no stinkin favors. After probably 30 hours of being frustrated I remembered the slider and put it at about 2/3. Now I can handle most things, but Goblins and anything that uses magic are still problems. Goblins just block so often and they're freaking fast, I think that's why I have so many problems with them. I think I need to look into getting some stuff enchanted, as I haven't done any of that yet (96 hours in).

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Anyone still playing this game? I picked it up after I finished playing the main quest in Fallout 3. I haven't checked to see how many hours I'm in, but I just finished closing the Great Gate- which is 2 or 3 missions before the final for the main quest. I know I'm a level 27, and I created a custom class called a Ninjadick. The game hasn't been real buggy for me- so that's a big plus.

Anyway I just found the easiest way to close an Oblivion gate, is to run all the way through it and avoid most of the creatures. They're tough and although you get some pretty good loot from them, it takes a lot less time.

Anyone just pick the game up? Just like Morrowind, there's a lot to do and I love it. And although the scaling of the enemies is a little annoying, I haven't found it to be a major problem- it still keeps the game challenging this far in.

[heybtbm]

Anyone just pick the game up? Just like Morrowind, there's a lot to do and I love it. And although the scaling of the enemies is a little annoying, I haven't found it to be a major problem- it still keeps the game challenging this far in.

Remember, there is an in-game difficulty slider. I didn't know of its existence until I was almost done with the main quest. Although, I'll admit to turning it way down after getting my ass handed to me by Umbra. I went exploring in a cave I really shouldn't have been exploring in.

[Lady Jaye]

I plan on picking this game in a not-too-distant future, once I get my Xbox 360 (I'm on a Mac G5, hence the 360 route). I'll definitely contribute my thoughts once I do play it. :)

[jdc]

Fantastic game, way different than Morrowind....I believe that I'm on my 7th run through now. Once you get to know the game, forgetting the difficulty sliders, you'll find that you can make the game insanely difficult or stupidly easy depending on the skillsets that you choose at character creation. For an easier game, what you want is a character that does NOT level up easily. Choose skillsets that are hardly used. Ignore most of the guild quests and side quests, and do the central storyline to completion ASAP once you hit level 19 or 20. If your character levels up too fast, you're going to be in a world of hurt before you know it, since the monster sets get swapped out for tougher ones every 10 of your levels. It CAN be fun to have the entire world of Oblivion custom made to be extremely dangerous. To do this, choose skills that you'll always be using with little effort, you want to be levelling up almost constantly.....and do all of the guild and side quests before going in to close the main gate. You can goof around with the sliders too.

[FrakAttack]

Slicker, prettier, but not as deep as Morrowind. The interiors feel extremely cookie-cutterish and the overall design is not as quirky as the last outing. The lazy dungeon design seems to have prompted them to remove teleportation/levitation abilities, but the fast travel option is nice.

Honestly didn't have as much fun as with Morrowind, but it's still a decent game.

[Berserker]

Anyone still playing this game?

I haven't in a while, but I did recently get back into Morrowind. It's amazing how many people are still actively involved in modding that game, and they've accomplished a lot over the years.

Between world/creature/armor/weapon retextures, head/body replacers, and more recently things like Morrowind Graphics Extender which enables goodies like HDR/Bloom and Distant Land, Morrowind is now able to look at least as good as vanilla Oblivion. On my machine it actually looks better, since even with all the retextures and added things I can still run it much more smoothly than Oblivion, so I'm able to crank the Anisotropic Filtering all the way up and see way more detail.

They've also been working on making the game more stable. For all the bugs/glitches that can't be fixed with plugins, there's now the Morrowind Code Patch project that keeps saves clean, prevents game-crashing bugs and other good stuff. There's also high quality realism mods, and mods which populate the outside world dynamically (as opposed to placing everything by hand statically) with air, land and sea critters, as well as a project to give every NPC in every town personalities and individual lives, and plenty of quests to work with the drama and interplay that go with that.

There's a lot of depth that can be added to the game world now, without having to wildly alter the original feel of it.

[Nebagram]

If it weren't for Fallout 3 I'd be happily adding to the 160+ hours I've lavished on my Level 37 Nord Tank... even after I've discovered just about everything and done every quest in Cyrodiil... haven't cleared out the Shivering Isles yet though... when's ES V coming out again? ;)

And on a side but not entirely unrelated note, whatever happened to the Oblivion game for the PSP?

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Remember, there is an in-game difficulty slider. I didn't know of its existence until I was almost done with the main quest. Although, I'll admit to turning it way down after getting my ass handed to me by Umbra. I went exploring in a cave I really shouldn't have been exploring in.

I'm really resisting the urge to move the slider. I moved it some in Morrowind, when it became increasingly difficult. I've made it a personal resolution lately to play at least everything on a Normal difficultly, because in the past I've always put everything on easy. That way it takes away some of the guilt, that I'm not that great at video games. But after hearing the below statement, I might be tempted to slide that fader in about 3 levels.


If your character levels up too fast, you're going to be in a world of hurt before you know it, since the monster sets get swapped out for tougher ones every 10 of your levels.




Slicker, prettier, but not as deep as Morrowind. The interiors feel extremely cookie-cutterish and the overall design is not as quirky as the last outing. The lazy dungeon design seems to have prompted them to remove teleportation/levitation abilities, but the fast travel option is nice.

One thing I'm happy about them adding to this game is the ability to fast travel. I hated having to trek around morrowind, for hours to travel to places I had already been to. Sure you could take the striders from place to place, but you had to remember which strider in which town went where.

It also maybe my fault for not really understanding spells and enchantments when I started the game. As I never really used the marker spells or teleportation abilities that game had to offer. I do miss some of the levitation abilities that game offered, as I'd imagine being able to easily float over some of the walls in the oblivion gates.

I've advanced so far in that game with 80-100 hours, I almost feel bad about restarting it now. But now that I'm starting to understand Bethesda RPG's better, maybe the game would have been more of a breeze? That and there's that main quest I've been neglecting.

One thing I do not like about Morrowind, is the ability to kill a NPC that you may need later in the game. Ever since I had found that out I've been wary about exploring for fear of killing someone that advances a main plot point. Oblivion seems to addressed this by placing markers on essential characters, and by my understanding making them impossible to kill if they are integral.




I haven't in a while, but I did recently get back into Morrowind. It's amazing how many people are still actively involved in modding that game, and they've accomplished a lot over the years.

There's a lot of depth that can be added to the game world now, without having to wildly alter the original feel of it.

I hadn't realized that there were so many mods available for that game. It sounds like a lot of the things I had wish were improved in it, have now been fixed. I certainly wish I had a PC capable of running it, but I don't think my G4 mac mini is capable. Too bad they don't mod it for the XBOX. It sounds very appealing with the Oblivion-esque graphics.

With that in mind, I wonder what they'll do to Oblivion over the years?

[Gentlegamer]

re: Morrowind mods

My favorite is the Tamriel Rebuilt project that is adding the mainland of Morrowind to the game. Presently, the Telvanni areas are added.

[Berserker]

With that in mind, I wonder what they'll do to Oblivion over the years?

They've already done a fair bit. There's already plenty of graphic mods, texture mods, realism mods, and then you've got the huge megamods like Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul.

My own feeling however is that Morrowind will probably have more longevity in that regard, as for one it's slightly more modder-friendly. For example, if you wanted to make a new NPC in Morrowind that blended in seamlessly with the rest of the game, you just spawn a new character and type in some dialog responses for them. In Oblivion it's harder to blend things in that seamlessly, because every NPC has spoken dialog for every possible topic/response.

Also, it's kind of a unique world. It's not totally traditional medieval fantasy like Oblivion; It's got this slightly alien feel to it. The gameplay itself is just different, the combat isn't completely scaled and there are more obscure factions and groups you can join. I think Morrowind must have some sort of unique charm going on, because I know a lot of people who HATE Oblivion, but LOVE Morrowind. I like them both, but I can understand that charm.

So for a combination of those reasons I can see it more likely to have the kind of active modding longevity that something like Doom has, where people are still making stuff for it 10-15 years after it came out. Oblivion might go that way too, but I have a feeling that it'll probably peter off earlier.



re: Morrowind mods

My favorite is the Tamriel Rebuilt project that is adding the mainland of Morrowind to the game. Presently, the Telvanni areas are added.

I also find that whole project really interesting. It's an absolutely MAMMOTH undertaking, but a lot of the people involved in that project are the "old-school" guys from the Daggerfall days, and some who came later by way of Redguard and early Morrowind. Those are the guys whose main interest lies really with the lore that makes up that whole universe.

To my mind they're kind of like the equivalent to retrogaming enthusiasts of the ES community. They're in it for the long haul... I just hope that's long enough yet to finish something that daunting.

[BHvrd]

Honestly didn't have as much fun as with Morrowind, but it's still a decent game.

Agreed. Morrowind had a much more broad scope and felt more adventurous.

Oblivion is a bit linear in comparison.

[carlcarlson]

Agreed. Morrowind had a much more broad scope and felt more adventurous.

Oblivion is a bit linear in comparison.

I don't know if "linear" is the right word, but I agree that Oblivion lacks some of the spark that Morrowind had. Both are great games but if I had to choose one I would definitely go with Morrowind.

[Daltone]

I got the GOTY version for Christmas and picked it up a couple of weeks ago. I really really didn't like Morrowind, I thought it was lifeless and dull (Oddly, loved Daggerfall, so don't know if I had too high expectations.)

So far I'm enjoying Oblivion. It's early days yet, but I'm finding it more immersive than Morrowind was. I've just come off the back of The Witcher (great game, really really stupid camera though) so it may help that I'm in the mood for a bit of hacking and / or slashing.

[Lady Jaye]

I picked the GOTY edition for the 360 last week, and I really like it. I guess that by default, the game's difficulty is set at normal, although it's definitely not easy...

This game is not really melee fighter-friendly: without some long-ranging weapon or spell, some enemies can be on the challenging side. Mind you, I'm not very far in the game, and I've already died a few times.

I've never played any of the other Elder Scrolls games, so I can't compare with Morrowind or any other game in the series. However, I like the risk linked with stealing certain items -- I even accidentally stole an item and ended up in jail!

I prefer playing in third-person mode and switch to first-person to search corpses.