The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Official Discussion Topic)

[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.

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.