# Finally playing Oblivion (SPOILERS)



## Random (Feb 19, 2013)

It'll be a while before I can afford Skyrim and all the trimmings for my Xbox, so I've decided to finally dip into a game that I've been avoiding for a long time: Elder Scrolls 5, Oblivion.

And I'm now rather sorry that I've been such a snob about it. From reading reviews and discussions on it I've always thought it would be a real frustrating mess. But I'm having a great time because the Elder Scrolls is, no matter how bad ... still the Elder Scrolls. It's like pizza.

Maybe it's because I'm coming to the game with such low expectations that I'm relishing it?

Anyway - my plan is to mod the game to take away the main source of the pain: the levelling problem. And to simply avoid starting the other source of possible grief, the main quest.

Thanks to help from Epona I've already installed Realistic Levelling, although I'm not 100% sure how it works. I'm also considering installing a mod that stops the NPCs and mobs levelling.

So far I'm level 10, and am roleplaying a bitter escaped criminal, out to enrich himself at the expense of the Empire that mistreated him, although with a certain basic sense of fair play. I'm enjoying the Thieves' Guild quest, I've done the Arena to the rank of Gladiator and am thinking of pausing any long quest chains there in order to first fast travel to all the towns in order to pick up all the simple little quests that you get by asking about rumours, etc.

I've got a house - the lich's mansion - and also a chestnut horse. Very pleased with it all so far! One thing that has struck me surprisingly hard is how much Fallout 3 must have inherited from this game. 

And I've also slid into doing quite a lot of alchemy. I like the system more than the one in Morrowind.


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## tommers (Feb 19, 2013)

I much prefer Oblivion to Skyrim.  Not sure whether that's because I played it first or not but... there you go.  The Dark Brotherhood questline is great.


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## Random (Feb 19, 2013)

tommers said:


> I much prefer Oblivion to Skyrim.  Not sure whether that's because I played it first or not but... there you go.  The Dark Brotherhood questline is great.


I'm saving that one for my more evil playthrough. Perhaps some murderous magical elf, rather than my basically decent Redguard bloke.

I did dip into Skyrim, until my PC kept crashing, and it seems to me that both Morrowind and Skyrim are better and more well rounded "other worlds". Oblivion is back in the comfort zone of cod-western European chivalric high fantasy and it does feel a bit flat and unsatisfying. Like being in WoW's Elwynn Forest.

I thought the painting portal quest seemed to be an excellent piss take of just that visual style, though. Anyone else?


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## tommers (Feb 19, 2013)

Yeah the painting quest is good. 

Morrowind you have a point.  Skyrim is just "oooh, vikings."  You have identified the main problems with Oblivion though - the setting, the levelling and the main quest.  I think I just prefer the more "traditional" feel of it.. I can kind of see why bits of it don't work but I still enjoyed playing it.


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## Random (Feb 19, 2013)

tommers said:


> Yeah the painting quest is good.
> 
> Morrowind you have a point.  Skyrim is just "oooh, vikings."  You have identified the main problems with Oblivion though - the setting, the levelling and the main quest.  I think I just prefer the more "traditional" feel of it.. I can kind of see why bits of it don't work but I still enjoyed playing it.


I'm planning to have lots of fun with it, and keeping my expectations low. At times the relentless nature of the Morrowind landscape, and the harshness of the people, plus the alien culture, made the game tough going - but it created real moments of spookiness, unease and then contributed to feelings of real victory when I overcame challenges. Likewise Skyrim feels like it's harsh and a world you have to take on in a struggle, feels like I've been places, rather than went for a stroll in the park.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 19, 2013)

I tried Oblivion back on the xbox a few years ago and didn't get on with it at all. As well you know, I'm a complete Skyrim junky now though. I've often wondered about picking up Oblivion for PC and modding the bejesus out of it and having another go, but at the moment I reckon I've still got another couple of years worth of play in Skyrim left yet


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## Gromit (Feb 19, 2013)

After playing Skyrim i played Oblivion and realised that Skyrim was Oblivion minus any of the game mechanics that were annoying and better graphics.

Skyrim is the daddy. Shame I only have it on the xBox and not PC though. I'd love to play the modded up versions.


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## Citizen66 (Feb 19, 2013)

Try to avoid being turned into a vampire.  Unless you want to be a vampire. It's a pain trying to get cured iirc.


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## Random (Feb 19, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> Try to avoid being turned into a vampire.  Unless you want to be a vampire. It's a pain trying to get cured iirc.


Yes, I've already done the quest that gets you into the vampire hunting brotherhood, and managed to avoid being bitten so far. Any good spells that help? Resist Disease?


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## Citizen66 (Feb 19, 2013)

Random said:


> Yes, I've already done the quest that gets you into the vampire hunting brotherhood, and managed to avoid being bitten so far. Any good spells that help? Resist Disease?



Cure disease and praying at a shrine (perhaps you need to be of good alignment for that?). 

You'll need to google exactly what the name is but basically you get infected with something and you have, iirc, before 3 days or going to sleep to rid yourself of it, whichever happens first. After that it's too late so you can either go to an earlier save point or do the quest which involves not going out in daylight if you don't want to die and acquiring really obscure stuff to make a potion to cure it. I actually stopped playing my first ever playthrough because of it; it's a proper chore.


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## Citizen66 (Feb 19, 2013)

A good way of making money is to join the mages' and fighters' guilds and then you're able to nick all their stuff and sell it back to them.  Although that becomes a bit laborious after a while. Making and selling potions is a more interesting way of getting some cash together.

Although I guess you know all that if you've already got a house.


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## Random (Feb 19, 2013)

I've decided my character is a bit of a hedge alchemist, but one who despises the stuck up mages. I've been boldly sneaking around their guilds stealing equipment in broad daylight and then fencing it.

Any tips for alchemy?


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## Citizen66 (Feb 19, 2013)

Random said:
			
		

> I've decided my character is a bit of a hedge alchemist, but one who despises the stuck up mages. I've been boldly sneaking around their guilds stealing equipment in broad daylight and then fencing it.
> 
> Any tips for alchemy?



Did you get Oblivion with all DLC? If so head to frostspire mountain where a building has been left to you in a will or somesuch that has got pretty much every herb found in the game in it and an alchemy table which will give you a boost. You'll only get one nirnroot mind but the rest of the stuff regenerates periodically.


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## Random (Feb 19, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> Did you get Oblivion with all DLC? If so head to frostspire mountain where a building has been left to you in a will or somesuch that has got pretty much every herb found in the game in it and an alchemy table which will give you a boost. You'll only get one nirnroot mind but the rest of the stuff regenerates periodically.


Cheers, that sounds good. I have SI and N9 but no one's prompted me to go there.


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## Dandred (Feb 19, 2013)

I think I enjoyed Oblivion more than Morrowind and Skyrim, just because so many of the quests were funny or very dark.

I will go back to Skyrim but I don't remember getting the feeling I'd really done something like I did after the quests in Oblivion.

You might want to try this TCM for Oblivion, I really enjoyed it http://www.moddb.com/mods/nehrim-at-fates-edge


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## Citizen66 (Feb 19, 2013)

Random said:


> Cheers, that sounds good. I have SI and N9 but no one's prompted me to go there.


 
Frostcrag spire, sorry. If you haven't been prompted then you probably haven't got it.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Frostcrag_Spire_(place)


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## Citizen66 (Feb 19, 2013)

Which is the best site to go for mods btw, any suggestions for good mods?


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 19, 2013)

http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/

Nexus is where it's at. Skyrim nexus is their busiest site, I think. You should be able to find everything you need there at the Oblivion version ^

Have a look at the Top Mods section, filtering for most endorsed, most downloaded, most commented and so on. That will give you an idea of what's available, and you can spend some time hopping around the categories sections (filtering in the same way). Modding can take up more time than playing the actual game, it becomes something of a pastime in itself, but I'm okay with that


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## Epona (Feb 19, 2013)

I've always enjoyed Oblivion. The gameplay/mechanics flaws can be modded out if you're on PC, which just leaves the setting as a bit of a let-down - bland and generic western-Europe style medieval, which is always going to be a disappointment and un-wondrous after the completely alien setting of Morrowind, (in which game, Cyrodil, the setting of Oblivion, is described as jungle!) - and the fact that they only had 1 person working on dungeon design, meaning that you get a bit of 'seen one, seen them all' reaction to dungeons after a while.

Apart from the Main Quest, which gets tedious after a while due largely due to re-use of a small number of Oblivion maps/towers and repetitiveness, the faction quests are far better than those in Skyrim by miles - the DB and TG questlines especially are great and I'll happily replay those quests over and over even though I know them now like the back of my hand!

If you want a good quest mod, try The Lost Spires, it's fully voice-acted (I know that's important to some folks) and adds a new faction and interesting dungeons.


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## Cid (Feb 22, 2013)

They patched out some of the really annoying bits anyway didn't they? e.g the ridiculous number of gates.


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## Stigmata (Feb 22, 2013)

Be sure to get Shivering Isles if you don't have a copy, it's the best thing about Oblivion


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## Random (Feb 22, 2013)

Stigmata said:


> Be sure to get Shivering Isles if you don't have a copy, it's the best thing about Oblivion


Yes, I'm looking forward to that. Can I take it all the way to the end without doing the other Main Quest?


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## Stigmata (Feb 22, 2013)

Random said:


> Yes, I'm looking forward to that. Can I take it all the way to the end without doing the other Main Quest?


 
Yeah it's a completely independent story


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 22, 2013)

*sigh* I think I'm going to have to get hold of a PC version of this. Y'all do too good a job of bigging it up.


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## Epona (Feb 22, 2013)

Vintage Paw said:


> *sigh* I think I'm going to have to get hold of a PC version of this. Y'all do too good a job of bigging it up.


 
I think it's worth it - in some ways I prefer Skyrim, mostly because the design and art style is better, you won't be seeing any breathtaking scenery or dungeon design that make you go 'wow!' and the characters are fugly (but mods can help with that!) - it's not just due to graphics technology at the time either, because Morrowind does a better job of it in terms of art style and that's now over 10 years old - use some graphical enhancements to bring it up to date and MW can provide those wow! moments, in visual/concept/imagination terms, in a way that I suspect OB will never manage.

BUT OB had some of the best faction quests/stories of any TES game so far, IMO.

If you're not sure about it, wait 'til the next Steam sale and get it cheap.

Also, if you fancy trying Morrowind and don't have a copy, I have a spare GOTY disk version that I would be more than happy to pop in the post to you.


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## ChrisFilter (Feb 27, 2013)

Vintage Paw said:


> http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/
> 
> Nexus is where it's at. Skyrim nexus is their busiest site, I think. You should be able to find everything you need there at the Oblivion version ^
> 
> Have a look at the Top Mods section, filtering for most endorsed, most downloaded, most commented and so on. That will give you an idea of what's available, and you can spend some time hopping around the categories sections (filtering in the same way). Modding can take up more time than playing the actual game, it becomes something of a pastime in itself, but I'm okay with that



You can get loads of mods off steam now. Including bundles of the better ones. I dl'd a 90-mod strong 'better graphics' pack last night. No mucking about with Nexus Mod Manager either.


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## Citizen66 (Feb 27, 2013)

ChrisFilter said:


> You can get loads of mods off steam now. Including bundles of the better ones. I dl'd a 90-mod strong 'better graphics' pack last night. No mucking about with Nexus Mod Manager either.



Heh; I did wonder why an advert for Day-Z mod came up on Steam yesterday.


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## Random (Feb 27, 2013)

I've installed a mod that caps the monsters leveling. Otherwise the game feels pointless: You're not really becoming more powerful as your skills go up, you're just transforming the world around you into a place where the bandits are elite snipers with legendary weapons... who sleep on blankets on the ground.

Plus I've installed Vilja, and it's quite fun so far. Always liked having companions in Fallout.


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## Citizen66 (Feb 27, 2013)

Random said:


> I've installed a mod that caps the monsters leveling. Otherwise the game feels pointless: You're not really becoming more powerful as your skills go up, you're just transforming the world around you into a place where the bandits are elite snipers with legendary weapons... who sleep on blankets on the ground.


 
Yes but IIRC they then stay at that level. So if they're super tough you can return in a bit after you level again or have a better sword and have another go. Levelling caps ends up a bit like taking on Pakistani kids with spy drones...


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 27, 2013)

I used Steam Workshop for mods for a while, but ultimately you have absolutely no control over them. If the mod author updates their mod, you get the update whether it's buggy, shit, not to your liking, whether you like it or not. I far prefer the control from doing things myself. That way I can also only install the parts of mods I want, basically mixing and matching. For example, there are 4 file layers that make up the face of your characters, the diffuse map, the normal map, the specular map, and the sk map. The files I'm using in my game all come from different mods (and in fact I've hand-edited the diffuse and normal in gimp myself so they are more to my taste). Can't do that with Steam Workshop mods. I install quite  few things manually because they are provided as fixes for things like the ENB I'm using (which has a whole bunch of meshes that have been fixed so that they don't glow or act weirdly when you have an ENB running). If I had mods from the Workshop that controlled those meshes, my manually installed ones would be overwritten every time that mod was updated.

The Workshop is great for things that are incidental, and if you don't really care about getting Skyrim 'just so' - but I'm a bit of a texture whore and I like it to look like I like it to look.


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## Random (Feb 27, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> Yes but IIRC they then stay at that level. So if they're super tough you can return in a bit after you level again or have a better sword and have another go. Levelling caps ends up a bit like taking on Pakistani kids with spy drones...


I thought that was Skyrim, where the dungeon's level is fixed at your level when you enter? IIRC Oblivion just keeps on levelling with you, especially the roaming NPCs and monsters, which really bug me.

As for nuking them with predator drones, that's what the whole point! I like it in games like Morrowind where I can train ni a Rocky-style montage, buy some kit and then stroll around the dungeon one-shotting zombies like they were mud crabs.


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## Citizen66 (Feb 27, 2013)

Random said:
			
		

> I thought that was Skyrim, where the dungeon's level is fixed at your level when you enter? IIRC Oblivion just keeps on levelling with you, especially the roaming NPCs and monsters, which really bug me.
> 
> As for nuking them with predator drones, that's what the whole point! I like it in games like Morrowind where I can train ni a Rocky-style montage, buy some kit and then stroll around the dungeon one-shotting zombies like they were mud crabs.



I'm talking about your mod, which turns it into that by the sounds of it. What is the point in weakening the mobs to the extent that you gain no xp from them? 

I guess this was always going to be an issue in a sandbox open world. In WoW they deal with it by assigning regions to levels. Trickier to deal with in complete open world. That's why I always thought the Oblivion system was fine.

Actually you may be right. Just never found it an issue with oblivion.


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## Random (Feb 28, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> I guess this was always going to be an issue in a sandbox open world. In WoW they deal with it by assigning regions to levels. Trickier to deal with in complete open world. That's why I always thought the Oblivion system was fine.


 Come off it! Games like Morrowind dealt with it fine. There are zones, dungeons, castles, all sorts of clues as to how deadly an area is. If you go toddling up Red Mountain when you're level 5 you should get badly mauled by vampires. 

As to not getting xp, that's not a problem in Elder Scrolls. I've been levelling up my armour and block skills by letting monsters take swings at me.Maybe I should also carry a dagger, or a spoon, so I can take a few swings at the monsters and level up blade, too. Or I can always pay for training.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 28, 2013)

I've never got to level 50 in Skyrim, not past 48 I think. I end up levelling to 100 everything that I use in combat, so perhaps archery and one-handed for example, maybe sneak too, then my armour of choice, then smithing and enchanting too... after that, the only way to continue to gain levels is to start levelling things I don't want to use with this character. I usually swap out and start wearing some of the opposite type of armour, maybe start trying to heal myself with restoration magic or start summoning atronachs in battle, but it's never that good. There are some quests that don't open up until you're higher levelled. I believe there's a quest in Dragonborn that you have to be level 81 to access. Never gonna happen.

By level 48 I don't ever really feel the need to level anyway, since I can do everything I need to, my armour rating is awesome and my enchantments do everything I need to keep me from harm and help me do damage. But without levelling and without being able to place a couple more perks where I want them, it starts to get a bit boring. I use the Deadly Dragons mod, which spawns dragons more or less around your level (although you can choose to de-level them, but I don't fancy a level 70 dragon when I'm fresh out of Helgen), but sometimes they will be a few levels higher, and yes, they are deadly. One thing that mod adds though is the ability to convert dragon souls into perk points. Since you'll be seeing dragons a hell of a lot more often with that mod you'll have more souls than you know what to do with. You can alter in the menu how many souls you want it to take to convert to 1 perk point, which is a nice level of control to have. Or you can never convert a single soul if you don't want, it's up to you. But, for those times when the levelling is going really slowly and you've just got to get that perk in lightfoot, it's quite handy.


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## Random (Feb 28, 2013)

Vintage Paw said:


> I believe there's a quest in Dragonborn that you have to be level 81 to access. Never gonna happen.


 Jesus! I used to spend a lot of money on trainers in Morrowind; steal all the soul gems in the mages guild then pay to get a quick start to my skills. Not trying this in Oblivion, partly because I'm not rich enough, partly because until I installed the level cap mod there seemed to be little point in levelling, especially since I could possibly make myself weaker.

Don't you get to a point in Skyrim where you're loaded and can pay to get your skills to 100?


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## Citizen66 (Feb 28, 2013)

Yeah, money is far easier to come by in Skyrim than Oblivion.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 28, 2013)

You can take the money from some trainers back again if they are also available as followers.... but of course that would be morally dubious.... >_>


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## Epona (Mar 1, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> I'm talking about your mod, which turns it into that by the sounds of it. What is the point in weakening the mobs to the extent that you gain no xp from them?


 
Because in TES games, you don't gain XP for killing an enemy (or amount of XP determined by the level of that enemy) which is the norm in many RPGs, you gain Skill Points from successfully using skills, and the skill points that you accrue feed in to your overall level. In Skyrim, if you hit an enemy with a 1-handed weapon, you will gain skill points in 1-handed regardless of whether that blow kills the enemy or you run away screaming right afterwards - you get points for the action, not the outcome. I can hit a skeever, or hit a draugr deathlord, and get skill points. The skill points feed into character level so that when I have achieved x number of skill increases, I will gain a level, regardless of the level of enemies I have been killing. It's the same in both Oblivion and Morrowind.

The main problem in Oblivion comes if you level any skill that isn't directly combat related - say you go on a shopping trip to sell loot, and end up gaining a level because you get loads of skill points in barter on that shopping trip - the levelled enemies will have increased in strength and gear while you have just increased your personality and barter skills, so next time you are out on the road the randomly generated bandit you meet will be wearing rare glass armour and take 100 slashes of your blade to kill, whilst dealing a large amount of damage to you in one hit - and a mudcrab will have higher health and take more effort to kill than a mudcrab that you meet at level 1. This is plainly wrong, a mudcrab should be a mudcrab, they should be a bit tricky early game, but come level 50 you should not be still trying to avoid them because they have got progressively nastier.

The levelling system in OB is so flawed that you would (IMO) be ill-advised to play without mods to a) remove attribute metagaming from level-ups, and b) to delevel mob spawns (and by that, I mean removing the levelled-list spawn/gear element from the game) - not so that they are all easy, but so that a mudcrab has the same number of health points regardless of whether you are level 1 or level 50, and is easier to kill at level 50 (not more difficult, which in some cases is possible), and so that bandits wear normal easy to come by armour rather than rare and highly expensive gear that costs more than the house you just bought.


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## Gromit (Mar 1, 2013)

But in theory you are more able to afford that rare glass sword that makes you more even with the bandit because merchants charge you less and you make more money from selling loot than the guy who advanced his 1hd.

In Skyrim i prefer making my own kick ass stuff through smithing and enchanting rather than barter and shops.


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## Epona (Mar 1, 2013)

Gromit said:


> But in theory you are more able to afford that rare glass sword that makes you more even with the bandit because merchants charge you less and you make more money from selling loot than the guy who advanced his 1hd.
> 
> In Skyrim i prefer making my own kick ass stuff through smithing and enchanting rather than barter and shops.


 
In Skyrim this is true, and I think the game used a fairly reasonable system for levelling of enemy encounters - perhaps I shouldn't have referred to Skyrim in my post (I only referred to it to talk about how skill points/levels were attained, since more people have played Skyrim than the earlier games).

Oblivion's system is pretty broken, and is the worst out of the entire series. Seriously you can kill a mudcrab with 2 hits at level 1, and at level 10 it takes 3 or 4 hits, because the mudcrabs you meet at a higher character level have more health points, so are harder to kill. That is plainly ridiculous. It's also fairly ridiculous having bandit mobs start out in low level armour and get more geared up as your level increases - spawning in the same places just with higher health and better gear, it's so noticeable, and it's a cheap and lazy way of providing challenge to a higher level player - and isn't at all fun, it actually gets less fun as the game progresses.  I'm not talking about dungeon mobs, this is just the stuff you meet walking along the roads.


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## Random (Mar 1, 2013)

Epona - I'm using this mod to stop the mobs levelling: http://www.oblivionmodwiki.com/index.php/NPC_Static_Level

Is it a good one? I'm worried that it says bandits cap at level 18-25, that still sounds ridiculous.


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## Citizen66 (Mar 1, 2013)

Epona said:


> The main problem in Oblivion comes if you level any skill that isn't directly combat related - say you go on a shopping trip to sell loot, and end up gaining a level because you get loads of skill points in barter on that shopping trip - the levelled enemies will have increased in strength and gear while you have just increased your personality and barter skills, so next time you are out on the road the randomly generated bandit you meet will be wearing rare glass armour and take 100 slashes of your blade to kill, whilst dealing a large amount of damage to you in one hit - and a mudcrab will have higher health and take more effort to kill than a mudcrab that you meet at level 1. This is plainly wrong, a mudcrab should be a mudcrab, they should be a bit tricky early game, but come level 50 you should not be still trying to avoid them because they have got progressively nastier.


 
Sorry, yes you're right, I forgot all of that. I think it's very character specific, or perhaps quest specific. It was something that really hamstrung me when I was playing as a mage but not so much as a thief (with sneak and invisibility) and also not so bad if you start off doing warrior quests and do a lot of fighting and gain armour upgrades etc but I do remember it being problematic for some characters now you mention it. IIRC.


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## Random (Mar 4, 2013)

ARSE!

I've avoided the main quest on purpose, not done a single stage. But then I fast travel into Kvatch, on the way to researching the Grey Prince's family tree and there's an Oblivion Gate opened up. And when I'm saving civilians, one of them seems to be the Septim heir... Have I accidentally short-cut my way into the MQ? Like when I was randomly exploring vaults in Fallout 3 and accidentally found my Dad in a virtual reality machine.


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## Gromit (Mar 4, 2013)

Random said:


> Have I accidentally short-cut my way into the MQ?



Well you now only have 1 MQ mission to go if thats what you mean.






Psych!

Winding you up sorry, I forget what part of the quest that is but remember there is plenty left to go.

p.s. I thought the heir was a priest you had to rescue. Was he in a gate? If so is it that one in the town way up north?


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## Random (Mar 4, 2013)

Gromit said:


> p.s. I thought the heir was a priest you had to rescue. Was he in a gate? If so is it that one in the town way up north?


 Yes, he's one of a bunch of people sheltering in a church. Anyway, he can bugger off. I'm not talking to him. Just hope this doesn't mean more Oblivion Gates suddenly opening up all over the place.


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## Gromit (Mar 4, 2013)

Random said:


> Yes, he's one of a bunch of people sheltering in a church. Anyway, he can bugger off. I'm not talking to him. Just hope this doesn't mean more Oblivion Gates suddenly opening up all over the place.



There are millions of them that will open up all over the shop.  The only MQ ones you need worry about are the ones right outside major cities. The rest are just for levelling and loot.


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## Random (Mar 4, 2013)

Gromit said:


> There are millions of them that will open up all over the shop.  The only MQ ones you need worry about are the ones right outside major cities. The rest are just for levelling and loot.


Oh pants. Well I'm going to ignore them as much as possible


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## Citizen66 (Mar 4, 2013)

I never did the main quest in oblivion. I don't like the idea that I'm completing the game; I just play until I get bored or distracted by something else.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Mar 4, 2013)

They get bloody repetative


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## Gromit (Mar 4, 2013)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> They get bloody repetative



The gates? Yeah I did a couple of them. Hated them and then was worried that I might have to close all of them to complete the MQ. Thankfully you don't. You can pretty much ignore 85% of them.


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## poului (Mar 23, 2013)

Little tip. The gates are a breeze if you master an invisibility spell.


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## Rosemary Jest (Jun 7, 2018)

I'm thinking of starting this again for the xbox one, so no mods or owt.

Fancy playing as a nord warrior type character as i like swords and things. 

Any recommedations/hints before I start?


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## 8ball (Jun 7, 2018)

Rosemary Jest said:


> I'm thinking of starting this again for the xbox one, so no mods or owt.
> 
> Fancy playing as a nord warrior type character as i like swords and things.
> 
> Any recommedations/hints before I start?



i) Create a custom class
ii) Google "efficient levelling" even if you only use it partially
iii) Bretons kick ass
iv) Sacks of grain can be used as safe non-respawning storage (until you can afford a house)
v) I was looking for a skill levelling sheet off tinternet - it seems to have been taken down, but I can send you a copy if you can't find one you like


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## Rosemary Jest (Jun 27, 2018)

Cheers for the pointers, I've avouded the main quest so far as I hate the oblivion gates, but i'm up to level 6 and am nearly finished the Arena quest. 

I forgot how great the music and atmosphere is, even better than Skyrim, and I love Skyrim.

The world also seems deeper, with more to do. The quests also seem a bit more varied and interesting compared to Skyrim.

It really is a great game, isn't it?

I haven't even missed the better graphics as Skyrim doesn't look that much better, and I tthink I like the stylised graphics a bit more.


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## 8ball (Jun 27, 2018)

Yeah, once I got into it the graphics weren’t an issue for me.

And I highly recommend being a slacker re: the main quest.

My custom class name is “Procrastinatr”.

In my mind she never believed what Joffrey said.


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## 8ball (Jun 27, 2018)

Though at the moment I’ve been distracted by Crysis 2 on the 3D telly.

That really is a graphics bonanza.


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## Dandred (Jul 1, 2018)

Wait until you try farcry 5


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## Rosemary Jest (Jul 1, 2018)

8ball said:


> Yeah, once I got into it the graphics weren’t an issue for me.
> 
> And I highly recommend being a slacker re: the main quest.



I've just been to Bruma and am going to find some daedric artifact for the jarl.

Still a great game, atmos still drawing me in


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## 8ball (Jul 1, 2018)

Rosemary Jest said:


> I've just been to Bruma and am going to find some daedric artifact for the jarl.
> 
> Still a great game, atmos still drawing me in



Take decent arrows and silver weapons if you ain't got anything enchanted.


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## Epona (Jul 3, 2018)

Rosemary Jest said:


> Cheers for the pointers, I've avouded the main quest so far as I hate the oblivion gates, but i'm up to level 6 and am nearly finished the Arena quest.
> 
> I forgot how great the music and atmosphere is, even better than Skyrim, and I love Skyrim.
> 
> ...



I do think, despite any complaints I may have made on this thread or elsewhere, that it is a fantastic game and a lot of fun.  My complaints are that it's not completely perfect.  But it is fucking good, and I love it


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## Shippou-Sensei (Jul 3, 2018)

I never fell in love with it.

It doesn't have the rich alien world of Morrowind or the fine polish of Skyrim.

Still found it decent though.


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## Epona (Jul 3, 2018)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> I never fell in love with it.
> 
> It doesn't have the rich alien world of Morrowind or the fine polish of Skyrim.
> 
> Still found it decent though.



Morrowind is still one of the best game settings of all time - completely different than the usual.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Jul 3, 2018)

It didn't click at first. Shitty town reached by a shitty boat. 

but once you get exploring....  

The setting made up for the somewhat gankey gameplay.


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## Magnus McGinty (Jul 3, 2018)

I tried Morrowind once and it was too dated for me to get into.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Jul 3, 2018)

That is one of  the reasons I haven't replayed it recently.

You can get some mods to update the graphics  but  the  underlying gameplay is still rough as hell coming off the back of skyrim.


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